Business RadioX ®

Patricia Taylor Kennedy With Kennedy Effect

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PatriciaTaylorKennedy
Atlanta Business Radio
Patricia Taylor Kennedy With Kennedy Effect
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PatriciaTaylorKennedyPatricia Taylor Kennedy, CEO at Kennedy Effect

Patricia simplifies the complexities of self-help. Knowing what the Game of Life template could be (your destination goals and the steps to get there), she bridges the gaps to show you what might be missing. That way, you can connect the dots and create the strategy you need for success in the Game of Life! Her passion is empowering others to learn their mission, and what they aspire to be in their lives, and then make plans accordingly.

Patricia want to help people find their life’s purpose and help them create goals to ensure they reach their vision As an Experienced Women in Leadership coach for Fortune 150 companies, she has used her expertise to empower clients to fulfill their life and career goals. Her mentorship programs deliver results. Many of the participants of her program earn promotions within one year of completion—a high achievement.

Patricia has been humbled to learn that her coaching for sales teams resulted in record-breaking performance outcomes. “When I’m not working, you can find me kicking my kids’ butts at board games, hiking, or taking long walks with my family.” Pat loves painting, listening to murder mystery podcasts while getting in her steps, curling up in a blanket with a good book, and solving an escape room puzzle with friends.

Connect with Patricia on LinkedIn and follow Kennedy Effect on Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Women are less likely to apply for roles than men
  • Women get on the first “rung” on the career ladder
  • Concept of Tasks vs. opportunities
  • The top three habits that best serve women in the workplace
  • The Game of Life! A Woman’s Game Plan for Success

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by on pay. Atlanta’s new standard in payroll. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:25] Lee Kantor here another episode of Atlanta Business Radio, and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor on pay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Pat Kennedy with the Kennedy Effect. Welcome.

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:00:44] Thank you so much, Lee. I’m so excited to be here today.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:47] Well, I am excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about the Kennedy effect. How you serving folks?

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:00:52] Yeah. So basically, I help women with their careers, and a lot of times women get stuck and we all do, right? Everybody does. And but I specialize in helping women who are stuck in their careers, maybe stuck in life to help them move forward so that they get the jobs that they want, the salary they deserve and things like that. And I also wrote a book, The Game of Life A Woman’s Game Plan for Success.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:23] So what’s your Back story? How did you get involved in this line of work so well.

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:01:29] I have been in the corporate world most of my career, and my two daughters are grown up now and not much has changed. Women still get $0.82 on the same dollar that men earn. And so I want to start to change that. But how it came about over time, I’ve been doing mentorship programs, coaching programs for women. I coach women in leadership and things like that. So it’s all culminated into my private practice and in this book that I’ve written.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:03] So who is your ideal client? Is it the person in the corporate world that wants to move up the ladder? Is a person that’s starting an entrepreneurial adventure? Who who do you serve the most?

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:02:15] Well, I can serve both. And I think the ideal client is somebody who is stuck in their career. And so it can go either way. It could be where they’re stuck in a career and maybe they have tried to look for something at the same job that, you know, the same company that they’re in, but they don’t know exactly what to do. Nothing they’ve tried has worked. I help them to move forward and to think about how to make that next move. And if it’s somebody who’s looking already for another job, I help them get clear on what they want to do. I help with salary negotiation and all the things you would think about in terms of what a person needs to have in their arsenal in order to get the best offer that they can get. And then there’s times when I do work with women who during the process realize that, wait a minute, I want to start a company, Here’s what I really want to do. So I help them to think about all of the different ramifications of what that entails and help them navigate that as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:25] So let’s take this one at a time. Let’s look at the woman that is in a corporate role or has joined a corporation, a large company, and is maybe frustrated at the speed in which her career is progressing. What are some mistakes you see women making that maybe be there might be holding them back?

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:03:48] That is such a great question. Thank you for asking that. And I hope I hope there’s a lot of women listening to your show that this can help. What happens is women are were socialized differently than men. Men are socialized differently than women. And all of that sometimes prevents us from communicating effectively. And so maybe we don’t speak up or maybe we take on things that really don’t help further our career. So let me give you an example. A lot of times women take on tasks instead of opportunities that could drive them forward. So an example of that might be, Oh, we want to do this kind of training. Can you set that up for us? They’ve done studies on this. There’s research to back me up. Men. If it doesn’t serve their careers, they won’t raise their hand. But women always raise their hand, and there are several studies that support that statement. So I’m helping to teach women to think about looking at what they’re being asked to do. Are they focused on more task oriented things, or are these truly opportunities that can lead to the promotions, to the salary increase, to furthering their career more quickly? So that’s one one sort of example, I think. And then the confidence as well is important. Women, a lot of women don’t have the same, you know, the necessary confidence and communication. Skills in some cases. And so there’s help that I provide in that arena as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:30] Now, over the years, I’ve gotten to interview a lot of women leaders and mentors of women. And one of the things that I learned from doing having these conversations that I wasn’t aware of, that it was just I mean, maybe it’s just a male bias of me not seeing what was in front of me. But I was told that when an opportunity arises, a man is more likely to apply for it. Even though they may not have all of the credentials, they will think, Oh, I could do that. So then they’ll apply where the woman is looking for exact matches. So if they they’ll self select out of an opportunity. If they are not a perfect fit and they know they could do every element of the job. Are you seeing that as well?

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:06:17] Yes, there’s a lot of research on it. You know, we all I don’t know if you’re familiar with LinkedIn, right. Everybody should be. Linkedin is our business kind of social media. And a lot of times, well, what they’ve done, LinkedIn actually did a survey as well because they they have all the data because there was a survey that was done where they found this to be true, that men will apply if they only meet 60% of the job criteria, whereas women have to have 100% of the criteria, they’ve got to have the exact experience. So this is what they think themselves. This is not necessarily what the employer is thinking and they women won’t apply. And so LinkedIn did their own survey and they found the same thing is still happening. And so what I try to do is to help build confidence in women that were lacking. I’m tired of waiting for the world to change, and we’re not going to catch up unless we ask for it ourselves. So my goal is to help change this paradigm in women and help us to get to equality. I mean, I want to just that’s all we’re looking for, right? But yeah, so that is unfortunate. And so I hope that a lot of women are listening today, are hearing this and stop to reflect and realize that they don’t need to have but 60% of the job criteria before they apply.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:44] Right. Because the person that’s putting out the application, that’s just their wish list. It’s not mandatory. This is what they would like. So it’s silly to self select out before you even have a chance to have conversation with the person making the decision.

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:08:02] Exactly. And I think that when you say it’s silly from your perspective, it’s silly. But what women go through in a lot of our life experiences shape how we look at the world and we look at the world through a different lens, and it happens through our social conditioning and all the things, right? So when when women are looking at these jobs, they’re they’re thinking, Oh, they’re not going to hire me. I have to have all of this criteria because maybe they’ve been told that in the past for whatever reason. But this is we’re in 2022. This doesn’t count anymore. Just go and apply. It’s really important. So there’s mindset work that needs to shift. And that’s why having a coach is so important to help make those leaps and think of things that they hadn’t thought about before and to build point them out and help build confidence in women.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:01] So you think that it’s confidence that is at the heart of this or lack of confidence that is holding women back?

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:09:09] Mistaken beliefs and lack of confidence. We believe that we have to have 100% of everything before we even get considered. So that is a mistaken belief. And how did we get there? Well, we you know, from the ages of zero and to seven, we’re told, don’t get dirty, you know, go out and play, but keep your dress clean and don’t mess up your hair and whatever. And boys and I’m just generalizing here. I realize that a lot of families are different, but this pervasiveness of how women have to behave is shaped when we’re between the ages of zero and seven and it shows up in things like this example of when we tried to go and apply for jobs and we self select ourselves out, we don’t even try because we feel like it’s stacked against us. So remove the mistake and beliefs so that you feel more confident and you go for those jobs. It’s not as easy as it sounds, but it is very simple concept.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:10] Now, something else I learned when it comes to negotiating for a salary or for a job opportunity, this woman recruiter was telling us that if she offers a guy a job, he will almost always push back and ask for something additional 10%, some more time off, some just there will be an ask of some sort where a lot of times when the woman is presented with the job opportunity, if she’s interested, she says, Yes, thank you. And then that goes from there. Are you finding that as well, that women are less likely to negotiate?

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:10:55] Yes, there’s a lot of statistics on that, unfortunately, as well, and that’s part of the confidence boosting. So it’s really important to understand and know what your value is and know that you have the right to negotiate, that you have the right to ask for more, you know, and not not being really wild with your offer or what you’re countering with, but being realistic, but always asking for something more. Don’t take the first offer. So again, we’re we’re sort of conditioned to to really just, oh, be grateful and thank you and all of those kind of polite things. But in the real world, it’s important to stand up for yourself and ask for more. And here’s another thing that happens to women. So let’s say you didn’t negotiate for an extra, let’s say 10,000, because it’s easier for me to do the math on when you when you lose out and leave money on the table. In a situation like that, $10,000 when you’re early in your career, at the end of your career, if you save that same 10,000, you would have 500,000 in your 401 K. And I know I can do a lot with that 500,000. So women do not leave money on the table. Men too, don’t do that. But it does happen to women more often than men. And it is conditioning and it’s training and it’s also boosting self confidence to believe you’re worth asking for that extra those extra funds.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:31] Now, do you think that some of this is also that guys tend to talk with each other and kind of learn best practices and tips from other guys that have been there and done that where women just because there’s less numbers of them and these positions, they don’t have that network to learn these little tricks of the trade. And that’s where a coach is so important and helpful to accelerate their career.

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:12:58] Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, that is such a great point. There is a lot of research about that companies are trying to change now. So let me talk about the way it is. There are there are a lot it’s a lot easier for men to have those conversations. A father has the conversation with his son. Here’s what you need to know. And for daughters, for some reason, they don’t always get that kind of information. And then you’re right. When we go into the corporate environment, men do talk about that and they learn from their mentors and their buddies and women. If they’re not if there aren’t mentors that are women or even men, they’re hesitant to go to those men to get mentorship. And, you know, there we talk about the olden days when when there weren’t as many women. There’s a lot more women now, but they still don’t have these skills. So how do we help them to ramp up? Having a coach is really important, a career coach. And then that’s why I started all the mentorship programs that I started in all the places. Is where I’ve done it and do coaching for women in leadership to help them remember how, you know, these are the things you need to know. But companies are starting to pay attention. There’s a lot of press about it. We’re talking about it on the radio today, which I’m so grateful for. And there are, you know, a lot of changes that companies are taking to make sure that there is equal access mentorship. So that’s a great point.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:38] Now, are you finding that the the business of today sees coaching as kind of part of the benefits package, whereas maybe five, ten, 20 years ago that was something only for either the highest leadership team to bring the most value out for them, or it was kind of to help that person that’s having problems kind of get over a hurdle where now it’s more democratized, where more and more people may be lower on the totem pole or able to benefit from coaching.

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:15:15] Oh, absolutely. Companies have been investing in coaching in their senior leadership teams for for a while now. And if you want to rise to a higher level just in your personal life, just for your mental wellbeing, even, it’s always it’s always going to bring you great rewards To have someone in your corner and a coach is a great way to go and the coaches help people to see what they haven’t maybe seen before, but also hold their clients accountable. Hey, you know, we’re going to we’re going to work on this that you said you wanted to work on this particular thing and, you know, X, Y, Z, and it’s just like a trainer. Like if you have a sports coach, right? Everyone knows and it’s logical. You wouldn’t expect an elite athlete to not have a coach. The same could be said for your job. When you have someone in your corner who helps you, who knows the ropes and understands how to move you forward because they understand human psychology, then you’re going to excel and do it much quicker than you would do it on your own. If you ever even found that information on your own.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:30] If you were going to give advice to a woman in the corporate workplace, are there any things you would recommend? Are there any habits you would recommend them kind of leaning into in order to accelerate up that ladder?

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:16:46] There is so much that I would like to say to do that. But I think the main point that I you know, the main thing today that I’d like to say is to remember all of the amazing things that you’ve done. So what happens for men and women, for all of us humans, we focus on the negative and women do this really well, unfortunately. So. Right. I call it a swank bank, right? Your book of awesome. But every day start to journal about all the things that you did and that you did well and it helps you to have more confidence. It seems like a simple thing and it’s, you know, but when you’re feeling a little self doubt or whatever, you can go back to your book of awesome to your swank bank and really remember what you have accomplished because our brains are wired to remember the negative things. And so we have to really overcome that and remember the very positive things. And that’s one way to do that, to boost confidence. Also identify if you’re taking on an opportunity or you’re taking on a task and try to negotiate with your boss, hey, I’ll take on this task. If you say that I get that next amazing project or something like that, because and learn how to say no. So I guess I came up with three things I could go on all day about that.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:07] Yeah, I’ll tell you, that Swank Bank is a great idea, that that makes it kind of simple to accumulate those nuggets of gold that you helped in and that you’ve helped others. And then you put it in one place. And then when it’s time for your annual review, you just pull that folder out and you have dozens of examples rather than you going through your calendar trying to remember back what that was, you know, eight months ago that you thought you worked on to help somebody achieve something. Exactly. If you could do it every time that somebody, you know, wrote a note thanking you or you accomplish something and you have stats to back it up and you just drop it into a folder and you just kind of just leave it in there and forget about it. When it’s time to do those reviews, they’re all be there and you’ll overwhelm them with success stories that’ll help you get that raise.

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:19:04] Absolutely. That’s a great point. And that can be used to further beef up your résumé. And when you’re going for interviews and all kinds of things, as well as confidence. So that’s a great point.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:17] Lee Now, let’s talk about your book a little bit. For those who are interested in the book, what would they glean from getting him?

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:19:28] Yeah, so it talks about it’s it’s called The Game of Life A Woman’s Game Plan for Success. And it’s really to help women understand where we are, you know, so not just talk about $0.82 on the dollar. Oh, my gosh, isn’t that horrible? But wait, here’s what’s really happening. This is the landscape you’re in and here’s why we got here. So I talk a little bit about the social conditioning and all the different examples, and then I talk about finding your purpose. And when you find your purpose, it helps to make everything clear and then go make up your own rules of the game, right? And then go find mentors and coaches and people to help support you and go out and and have great success.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:13] So it’s very not only is it there’s a high concept behind it, but it’s very tactical and practical and gives them actionable items to do.

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:20:21] Absolutely. And there’s a lot of things on my website too, so that when they click, they get the book, there’s links that they can go to to download worksheets and that sort of thing. So it really is tactical as well as, like you said, very. It just helps to know the landscape you’re in because a lot of women are like, Oh, I’m not discriminated against. Well, not overtly. Always, you know, and maybe not, maybe you haven’t. I find that hard to believe. But there are small nuances, right? And learning to to recognize them. And here’s what you do. And it’s not to point fingers or blame. It’s just if we can work on ourselves, we can make the world more equitable.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:04] So if somebody wants to learn more, get a hold of the book, get a hold of you. What’s the website?

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:21:09] It’s Kennedy effect dot com.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:12] And that’s Kennedy y f e FT.com.

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:21:17] That’s it. And they can also buy the book on Amazon or any of the booksellers out there.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:23] Good stuff. Well, Pat, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:21:29] Thank you, Lee. I appreciate this opportunity.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:31] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

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Anthony Gantt With At Ease Rentals

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Anthony-Gantt
Startup Showdown Podcast
Anthony Gantt With At Ease Rentals
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at ease rentalAnthony GanttAnthony Gantt, a 22+ year Marine Major, founder & CEO at At Ease Rentals, Distinguished Combat Veteran w/ Bronze Star Medal with Valor from Fallujah Iraqi.

Degreed Electrical Engineer with experience in leading diverse teams in accomplishing assigned tasks and missions. Since 2004 he has led the nation’s best. Today, he is fixing a huge problem to help does still serving.

Federal and DoD travel regulations prohibit vacation rental sites( Airbnb, VRBO, etc.) for federal travel; at ease qualifies short-term rental inventory to enable per diem travelers to stay in accommodation types beyond hotels.

Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn and follow At Ease Rentals on Facebook and Twitter.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Welcome back to the Startup Showdown podcast, where we discuss pitching, funding and scaling startups. Join us as we interview winners, mentors and judges of the monthly $120,000 pitch competition powered by Panoramic Ventures. We also discuss the latest updates in software Web three, health care, tech, fintech and more. Now sit tight as we interview this week’s guest and their journey through entrepreneurship.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:39] Lee Kantor. Here are another episode of Startup Showdown, and this is going to be a good one. But before we get into it, it’s important to recognize our sponsor Panoramic Ventures. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Startup Showdown, we have Anthony Gantt with At Ease. Welcome, Anthony.

Anthony Gantt: [00:00:58] Hey, thank you, Lee, for having me on your show.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:01] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about At Ease. How are you serving folks?

Anthony Gantt: [00:01:05] Well, that’s a great question. The way we’re serving folks are bringing them transparency, safety and compliance in the vacation rental space. What I mean by that is you have government travelers who are looking for the typical B and B style property whenever they’re traveling for work and have it, whatever situations it may be. The regulations don’t allow them to use the sites that offer B and BS. So we are providing that solution to them.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:31] So what was the genesis of the idea? How did you kind of figure out this was a problem that was important enough to be solved?

Anthony Gantt: [00:01:39] I lost 1200 dollars myself. How that happened? I served in the Marine Corps for 22 years, recently retired this past March, and back in 2018, I used one of those sites to get a home off of for temporary use and wasn’t reimbursed. And it kind of took me down a rabbit hole to find, why can’t I do this? How do I get my money back and build the solution?

Lee Kantor: [00:02:02] Now, is it a situation where they don’t want to reimburse, you know, Airbnbs and those kind of things? Or is it something that it’s just there’s a lot of paperwork and regulations to figure out how to exactly do it in a way that’s easy.

Anthony Gantt: [00:02:15] It’s a combination of all of that the regulations, the paperwork and the reimbursement, because they don’t go through the paperwork process to get their properties certified. So we are here to make it extremely easy for those individuals that have those properties and want to list them and kind of open it to an untapped of travelers so that they can capture this opportunity. And then the military folks and the government travelers can stay wherever they want, regardless of the situation.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:43] And this is a situation that happens quite a bit, right? Like military people change bases. They’re always kind of on the move. So this is something that happens a lot. And to open it up to other resources, then I guess the traditional places they stayed, it helps both sides of the equation here, right?

Anthony Gantt: [00:03:01] Absolutely. And it’s not just your military. It’s those government contractors who are traveling under a specific contract. So think your big guys, Boeing, Lockheed, Northrop Grumman, and then think about the other departments, State, Treasury and so on and so on. And then if you come down to the state level and the local municipalities, they have similar travel restrictions. So we’re trying to open open this up to all government public servants.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:25] So now having a military background and was this your first startup or were you involved in startups before?

Anthony Gantt: [00:03:33] So it depends on what we call the startup, because I’ve done a couple of little things here that generated side revenue, I guess they call them a side hustle. But in terms of forming an actual company to go into actual business, this is the first of many.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:50] So what has the experience been like for you?

Anthony Gantt: [00:03:53] It’s been exciting, really. A lot of ups and downs, uncertainty, the unknown of the unknown. And for me, a combat veteran, the uncertainty of entrepreneurship is the closest I’ve been able to experience since being deployed overseas and in some really tough situations. So having that familiarity with like keeping calm has been cool. But just to see how things aren’t that different regardless of what you’re doing or where you are in the world.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:25] And what about the kind of starting something from nothing? You know, you don’t have a manual playbook. You’re kind of going with your gut. You’re going with maybe some advisors. Has that been a challenge?

Anthony Gantt: [00:04:38] Yes, it has. Like you said, you’re starting from nothing. So you don’t know if the stuff you mix together is going to come out and be this spectacular cake or it’s going to be something that everybody throws away. So far, we’ve been lucky when people dip their hand in the batter that we’re making their beer and saying, Oh, this stays good, keep on going. But it is a very interesting experience.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:58] Now, when did you start getting clues and you know that the batter was going to taste good, that you were on to something? Did you have some early wins or did you like what kind of feedback did you get that was saying that you were on the right track?

Anthony Gantt: [00:05:11] 2020 we launched and then everybody was kind of like, Hey, you can’t stay here. Hotels were closed down because of the situation of 2020, and for us we were fortunate. I was fortunate to still be active duty and was telling a couple of my buddies about at ease and they were telling their buddies and folks were moving from the East Coast to the West Coast and said, Hey, Anthony, do you. Have any properties in California near base X, Y and Z. I say, actually we do. They used it, they stayed in it, they got reimbursed. And I was like, Oh man, this is a business.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:47] So those were the kind of the the beta testers for you.

Anthony Gantt: [00:05:50] Yeah, they would have beta testing, but at the same token they thought we were in a long established. So that was funny. Like why haven’t I heard of at I’m like because it just started.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:01] Yeah, but it looked the part. I mean, you pulled it off. Congratulations. That’s hard to do.

Anthony Gantt: [00:06:06] Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:07] Now, this is a two sided marketplace, though, right? You have to get people to rent, but you also need places to rent.

Anthony Gantt: [00:06:15] That’s correct. That is correct. So we do that?

Lee Kantor: [00:06:19] Yeah. How do you do that?

Anthony Gantt: [00:06:20] We focused on the inventory. It’s almost like the Yellow Pages. It’s a good thing that I’m over my forties, so I remember what that is. It’s no purpose of using the yellow pages out of white pages if there aren’t companies in them for you to dial up and call. So I took that thought process and it’s like, Hey, let’s build the inventory. So when people come to it, they can have a place to choose from. We did it through conferences. We did it through both virtually and in person, and then just going on different podcasts that center around the vacation rental, corporate housing and alternative accommodation spaces.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:57] So you were going there to kind of build up your inventory inventory, right?

Anthony Gantt: [00:07:02] That’s correct. And once we got the inventory to a happy place, I started nudging my fellow service members that were still in uniform and some of the veterans who recently got out or retired. And it was like, Hey, I need you guys to start spreading the word and like your networks via Facebook, Instagram and other channels that we use as veterans until I got to like a happy place. And we’re still doing that today.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:25] Now, the folks that have the homes that these people are renting, is it are they putting it on a variety of sites, you know, like kind of the bigger players? Or is this something that they just kind of lock in with you because of the mission and what they’re trying? You know, like there’s a bigger Y associated a lot of times with the people that are renting from, you know, through at ease.

Anthony Gantt: [00:07:47] The ones we have are putting their their properties on multiple sites. We decided to focus on the professional manager who may have 1050, a couple of hundred properties that they manage for others. And that allowed us to kind of do some really cool stuff where we were able to integrate with their property management systems, which are the brains of their operations, which kind of makes it easier for us to kind of bring an inventory, bring in the photos and kind of sync up the calendars to prevent double bookings. But to your point, Lee, we’ve had some people say, I just want to market to the military. And I was like, all right, but I don’t want you to blame me when your area is not, like as productive as you thought it would be. So we’re still learning a lot and having a lot of fun as we go on and do this.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:35] Now, what is can you explain kind of the benefits for a person with a property to throw it into the ads mix like is there you’re getting, I guess, a higher quality person that’s renting that’s more reliable?

Anthony Gantt: [00:08:51] Of course. Of course. Absolutely better person, higher quality of renter there. They’re not going to kind of go back and say, hey, I need you to refund me. That happens a lot on other channels. In addition to that, if we look at it from a business standpoint, the B and B solutions right now cater to your traveler who is coming for leisure purpose. Well, if you are worried about the recession or another outbreak like what we’re talking about today, monkeypox, that kind of concerns you as an operator in the space. What we’re saying is, hey, during the pandemic, we saw an increase of military activity. We saw an increase of federal employees looking for places to travel and stay during all of that time frame. And we just need more inventory. So it kind of allows you to start saying, okay, I don’t have to be dependent on leisure travel. Now, I can get this government travel or corporate travel, whatever you want to call it, and kind of hold me over between that period or through my off periods where I can continue to generate revenue all year long versus just during the summer. If I’m a beach house or during the winter when I’m up in the middle of nowhere because we have a lot of bases in the.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:01] Middle of nowhere now, is there do I have to discount this or is this something that I’m going to be getting market rates for?

Anthony Gantt: [00:10:09] We ask them to discount it. You know, we say freedom isn’t free, but it is. So we say if you are compelled to give a discount, please do. So. It makes it easier for us to market that property to the traveler. If they don’t and they put it at market rate, we say, okay, cool, because we know that there are different pay grades within the government rank structures. So folks may look at this as an offset opportunity. What I. That is, if your property’s 105 at night, the government’s only give you 100. Some folks are not concerned about coming out of pocket. It’s $25 a night to kind of stay downtown somewhere that makes sense for them. So they do both right now.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:50] And then when you get on the site, do you kind of educate them saying, hey, these are the the if you hit this number, you’re you know, that what you just said is the ramification of that. But if you stay under this number or you’re at that number, that’s going to be easier for them to get reimbursed. So then it’ll be an easier decision.

Anthony Gantt: [00:11:08] We absolutely do. Everything that we’ve been doing for the last few years has been around educating the space to tell them how they can maximize the opportunity to get more government travelers in their properties.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:19] So now that, you know, as you’re solving the inventory problem, just what about the evangelizing the offering problem to the folks that have been typically, I guess they use hotels? Is that their normal play when they.

Anthony Gantt: [00:11:33] That is correct they use hotels. So the evangelistic like getting those started and kind of getting ambassadors and champions has been relatively easier for us to into properties because we’re talking to people who have gone through the same issues that I have. So it resonates with them. So if you look at what USAA did in the insurance space where it’s like, hey, we understand the problems that you’re having when you move from base to base with insurance. And then now today that are huge, they’re this huge business that not only offers insurance for US members, but also banking services. So we look at that model and say if we speak the language that we know to the people we know, it’ll generate more activity. And it has it’s just we’ve been telling people to hold on, wait a minute, let us get more inventory in the spaces you’re asking for so that we can ramp things up. So the users has been a lot easier than the providers now.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:27] When you were building the team, are you a technologist or did you have to find the technologist? Because this seems like, you know, this is a little bit of a tricky technology problem.

Anthony Gantt: [00:12:37] I’m fortunate to have an electrical engineering degree from the Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida, where I studied a few classes in computer engineering. And initially I took my own experience and limited knowledge to build the first application. And then once it got beyond my comfort zone, I started outsourcing it. And until we got to a position where I can start hiring people internally to kind of take it to the next level now.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:07] So how are you doing from that standpoint? I’m building the team.

Anthony Gantt: [00:13:11] We’re doing great. There are channels that exist and that kind of give me the opportunity to talk to veterans who are developers, military spouses, folks who are military dependent. So kids that grew up in the military that have a strong background in software engineering as well as marketing and sales and all of these different things. So we’ve been fortunate to go into those spaces, say, Hey, this is what we’re doing, we’re hiring, who’s interested in coming to join our team and we’ve been getting a lot of engagement from that.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:43] Now how did you hear about Startup Showdown and Panoramic?

Anthony Gantt: [00:13:49] There was an article that came out early 2021 that talked about the companies in Atlanta that raised millions, hundreds of millions of dollars, and panoramic was one of them. So I looked at the the folks on the panoramic team and one of the guys that is on my team that I hired, he went to Morehouse, which is a school in Atlanta. And I was like, Hey, do you know this guy that went to Morehouse? He’s like, Yeah, that’s my classmate. I definitely know him. And I was like, All right, I want to get in touch with college. So we tried to figure that out, so. Using my military abilities to kind of find people. I found his address and wrote a letter to his house. It was like, Hey, Paul, I want to talk to you. He still hasn’t answered my letter, but that’s how I found out about that.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:38] He’s kind of a busy guy.

Anthony Gantt: [00:14:41] He’s a little bit busy, but I was like, Hey, answering my mail.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:46] So. So you went through the start up showdown. What? What are some of the things you got out of it? Did you enjoy the process?

Anthony Gantt: [00:14:53] I enjoyed the process. I got to talk with Paul and ask the questions that I was asking inside of my letter, which was really beneficial and really helpful. And then during the actual event, so many people came from that opportunity that were like, Hey, we saw you doing this pitch competition. We want to learn more about the company. We want to talk to you. From an investor standpoint, also to potential customers and users and partnerships.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:23] Good stuff. That’s you can’t ask for more.

Anthony Gantt: [00:15:26] Exactly. So it was a win regardless of the situation. As long as I was participating, it was almost like Shark Tank.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:34] Now. Now, any advice for maybe other people coming out of the military if they want to pursue a start up? You know, it’s not for everybody, but it is for somebody. Any advice you could share that would help ease their road?

Anthony Gantt: [00:15:50] Yeah. Don’t stray away from the veteran community. I know a lot of vets, they get out and they kind of try to go find themselves. But what’s been beneficial to me is I leaned in heavily on other vets, especially with what I’m doing. And there are a lot of lot of experience and well-educated service members and spouses who are now like just doing the civilian world and can help people who have gone to some of the top schools in the country that I’ve been able to lean on and kind of share a war story with them to where they are coming in and giving me some pro bono support. So I say do it. And then if we just look at it from World War Two to today, when folks came out of the military in World War Two, they were more inclined to start businesses. Almost around 50% of all service members. But today that’s under 5%. So we got to get back to those service members starting businesses in their local community, because what they bring to the table is honor, courage and integrity, commitment and then ferocity to continue to work and persevere through the hardships of starting a business. And that’s what I don’t think most veterans realize is like, you got the grit and I’ll go do it.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:58] Yeah, that that’s shocking to me that it was 50% and now it’s 5%.

Anthony Gantt: [00:17:04] Yeah.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:05] It’s crazy that I mean, what do you make of that? Are they are they just getting regular jobs? I mean, that that’s.

Anthony Gantt: [00:17:13] When you look at it, you got the big players in the space that get government contracts that want to keep those government contracts. So when service members are getting out, they’re like, I got a person who already has a security clearance or a top secret clearance or some kind of clearance that I can just hire into my program to continue to work on the same airplane, the same tank, or whatever it may be that they use as an actual member. And I’ll just offer them a little bit more or a lot more than what they made in the military. So it’s a real easy transition. I was even tempted myself, was like, Do I go and work for one of the big, you know, companies that have these billion dollar government contracts and just live the easy life? Or do I actually get out here and start something new?

Lee Kantor: [00:17:52] Well, you chose grinding, so congratulations on that. That is definitely the harder, harder path. And best of luck.

Anthony Gantt: [00:18:01] Thank you, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:02] Now, if somebody wants to learn more, whether they have the inventory or they, they need a place to stay. As the website active in live.

Anthony Gantt: [00:18:10] Is active in live. The URL is picks at easy pieces, stands for Permanent Change, a station which is specific to government travelers. But Papa Charlie Sierra at ease. Alpha Tango. Echo. Alpha, Sierra. Echo. That’s the military.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:27] Well, Anthony, congratulations on the momentum and the success thus far. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Anthony Gantt: [00:18:34] Thank you. I appreciate this time. And thanks for letting me talk to your audience.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:38] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Startup Showdown.

Intro: [00:18:44] As always, thanks for joining us. And don’t forget to follow and subscribe to the Startup Showdown podcast. So you get the latest episode as it drops wherever you listen to podcasts to learn more and apply to our next startup Showdown Pitch Competition Visit Showdown VC. That’s Showdown Dot VC. All right. That’s all for this week. Goodbye for now.

Melanie Spring With Confidancia

by

Melanie Spring
South Florida Business Radio
Melanie Spring With Confidancia
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DTLLogo-Blue-Bannerv2Melanie SpringMelanie Spring, Chief Visionary of Confidancia

She has over 20 years of experience helping others build their personal and professional brands, giving them the tools to show up and show off. Melanie is a dynamic international keynote speaker, leadership development expert, and speaker trainer who works with entrepreneurs, business leaders, and CEOs of household brand names and Fortune 500 companies.

Connect with Melanie on LinkedIn and follow her on Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Ways to create a team of storytellers
  • Cultivate happiness in life while living in a culture of business hustle
  • Craft a speech
  • Learning to speak in authentic voice, no matter what the situation is
  • Funniest thing that’s ever happened to her while giving a public speech

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the business radio studios in South Florida. It’s time for South Florida Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here another episode of South Florida Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor. Diaz Trade Law, Your customs expert today on South Florida Business Radio, we have Melanie Spring with Confidancia here. Welcome, Melanie.

Melanie Spring: Hi. Thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about Confidencia. How are you serving, folks?

Melanie Spring: Well, we work with brilliant rebels to help them start their rebellion.

Lee Kantor: So you’re talking like political. Are you talking about in just life in general, what type of rebels are you looking for?

Melanie Spring: Yeah. So we’re working with people who are kind of sick of the status quo. They’ve been working their whole lives towards something and they’re not really sure what that is. So we work with people who want to focus on their purpose and the reason they’re really here, not just to get through their 9 to 5 or get to retirement.

Lee Kantor: Are you finding that post-pandemic? There’s kind of a lot more soul searching and a lot more people coming to that realization that life is more than just this cubicle that I’m working in?

Melanie Spring: Absolutely. I mean, we all had to work from home, so it became that. And then they started realizing, Wait a second, what am I really doing with my life? Sitting in a car, commuting to work every day or sitting in an office for the sake of sitting in an office, or even now sitting on zoom in their extra bedroom or in the back corner of their own bedroom, wondering what are they really doing this for?

Lee Kantor: So when they have that kind of itch, what are some of the symptoms in their life that are kind of encouraging them to maybe explore a different path than the one they currently are in?

Melanie Spring: Well, typically it’s that they find that they’re lacking a an excitement about the day or even as they’re moving through their workday, they’re wondering, what am I really doing this for? Is there is there an actual purpose behind this or might just checking boxes in order to make someone else money? And so a lot of people are finding more and more that the money isn’t as important to them. Sure, they want to pay their bills. They want to make sure their mortgage is covered and that their kids go to school and there’s food on the table. But that’s kind of an ancillary effect. It’s not necessarily the main reason why they do what they do anymore. So they’re on the search for what will actually make me feel like I’m making a difference or creating an impact.

Lee Kantor: So say a person feels that way. They feel that rebellion brewing. How do they kind of define what it is that they should be doing instead? Like, how do they find that path they should be maybe pursuing?

Melanie Spring: Well, a lot of times we tend to look to other people for that. We ask other people like, What do you think I should do? Or What do you think I’m good at? And most of the time the answers are in inside of us. I actually said this to one of my recent brilliant rebels. She was laughing because she’s like, I was really hoping that coming to your retreat and working with you, that you would finally stop saying that the answers are inside of me. And now I just know the answers are actually inside of me. So thanks a lot.

Lee Kantor: But is it as simple as, you know, you’ve heard things like follow your bliss, You know, what are the things you like to do when you were a kid? Things like that, to help at least open your mind to what it could be. But like, what do you tell the person that’s like, my favorite thing to do or the thing that I wish I could be doing all the time is playing video games or watching Netflix?

Melanie Spring: Well, I would look at what what are they feeling at that point? So, yes, 100%. Sometimes we can look at what would what would it what did we do as kids that we really loved or what brought us joy when we were younger or what are we just innately good at? But I find that purpose, I can’t remember the name of it. I think it’s a good guy, but it’s the Japanese name for the four areas of your life. If you look at the things you love to do, the things you’re just good at doing, the things the world needs from you, and then the things that you can make money doing at the center of all of that is your purpose. But it sounds like, Oh, well, I just fill in these four categories and there it is. And that’s not necessarily true. Sometimes we have to look at the deeper reasoning behind the joy that we’re finding in certain things. Some people are really good at sitting and watching Netflix, so maybe their job in life is to be an auditor for them to see what is showing up and what can they be doing to help Netflix be a better company or if they’re better at video games. There are people who make a lot of money playing video games on YouTube and having other people watch them. So those are totally legitimate things to do, but not for everybody.

Lee Kantor: So when people kind of find their purposes that when they come to you or they coming to you to help find the purpose, like where do you fit into all this?

Melanie Spring: Sometimes some people come to me and they’re really happy in their job. They’re CEOs of companies and they’re like, You know, I really like my job. It’s it’s fine. But I feel like there’s something a little bit deeper. So can we get a little clearer on my purpose and other people come with I have the business, I know what it is that I need to be doing, but I feel like I’m missing something. And the missing of something is the what’s the what’s the real reason for doing this underneath? Or is it the how? Sometimes it’s I have the what and the why. I know I’m a great copywriter and I know that this feels really good for me, that this this why behind it is to support other people in having great copy in their company. But the how is the but now I’m just trading dollars for hours. So how do I do it in a way that doesn’t feel like I’m exhausted all the time? Maybe look at retreats or workshops or scalable programs, but they’re not just doing dollars for hours anymore. So sometimes it’s more about the how instead of just the the what or the why.

Lee Kantor: So wherever they are on their journey, by working with you can help them get to a new level.

Melanie Spring: I mean, if they’re the right person, I can’t help everybody with that. Not everyone’s ready for that. Next, next up, leveling. But yes, if someone comes to me, they typically if they’re not offended by me asking really deep questions, then they’re usually going to want to go deeper.

Lee Kantor: And then so what does that engagement look like? Can you share a story of maybe somebody you work with? You don’t have to name their name, but maybe how they came to you and how they left you?

Melanie Spring: Oh, absolutely. So I had a woman who she had been a drug addict when she was younger. She was in I mean, she was a fighter like a ring. She was in like the the metal street fighting kind of stuff. When she was 16, she had lived a really, really hard life. And later in life, she came to me because she had gone through all of this training to be a better person, but it had all been people who were yelling at her. And so she had thought that growth came from pain. And she had perfectly good reason to believe that, because her whole life had shown her that growth comes from pain. And so she came to me and we spent some time together. I did a thing I called an immersive experience for her, and she came to Florida and we sat at a house together for three days and we were working on a talk that she really wanted to give an inspirational talk. And I kept hearing her saying things like that. Other people had said the church had said or that other coaches had said to her. She kept just saying them as if they were almost hers. But you could tell that they weren’t, that it was kind of fumbling in her mouth, that she wanted to say something herself, but she felt like she had to say what other people were saying.

Melanie Spring: And by the first night, the end of the first night, she looked at me and she said, I keep waiting for you to start screaming in my face. And it just like, brought me to tears, thinking that that’s how she had always been taught that growth had to happen that way. And so by the end of the very first night of us spending time together, I mean, the whole weekend was incredible. But that one one shift for her to allow herself to have grace for herself just allowed her to open up in a new way. And so by the time she got on a real stage in front of people, she was blooming in ways I’ve never seen a person bloom. She showed up in a short dress and showing her body in a way that she would never do it. And she’s a bodybuilder. It’s not like she doesn’t have the body to do this, but she had been hiding for so long because she was always afraid that growth was hard.

Lee Kantor: So what’s your back story? How did you get into this line of work?

Melanie Spring: That’s a roller coaster story. I’m a what I used to call a recovering brand strategist. So I worked in brand strategy for 20 years and burned myself out on it. I had my own business for eight, and by the end of it, I. I basically ended up going to Bali to find myself, which feels like a very American thing to do. But I burned myself out working 90 hours a week for eight years and just was exhausted and broke up with my boyfriend, burned my business down basically, and said, I just want to do something different. So I became a full time keynote speaker, which I didn’t even know it was a job at the time. And then over time, I started helping other people with getting on stages and building their businesses and doing the things that I had done previously, but helping them in a way that didn’t help them burn it down at the same time. So by the time I built the Brilliant Rebels retreat and the rebel mastermind, it was because of the fact that I had been helping other people not have to burn down their whole lives and burn themselves out or hustle so hard to find the thing that really lit them up, basically saving people from what I did myself.

Lee Kantor: So you incorporate some of that branding background when you’re helping people position themselves and get ready to take this leap.

Melanie Spring: Yeah, that’s. I finally stopped calling myself a recovering brand strategist and just owned that. I’m actually just that. And I helped people build their celebrity and their industry or their community or their space, even just their industry in general, even if it’s in a small way. Being able to find who they really are, get out there in front of people and show up in a way that they they’ve always wanted to, but they’ve never been able to before.

Lee Kantor: Now, what is the sweet spot of the people you work with? Are they do they fit into a category? Or it could be anybody.

Melanie Spring: Typically they’re entrepreneurs or CEOs. So I like to say that they’re climbing their second mountain. I don’t know if you know the concept of Second Mountain.

Lee Kantor: The like your second act in life, basically.

Melanie Spring: Yeah. So you you used all of your tools learning how to climb up your first mountain. You you got through your career and, you know, like, okay, I did it. I got to the top. Finally, even though I was just pushing and pushing and pushing and it was probably blood, sweat and tears to get there. And now you’re walking down the mountain going, okay, but now what’s next? So a lot of entrepreneurs end up selling their companies, or they leave or they retire, they exit and they’re like, okay, but now what? I have all these tools, but I don’t know what to do now because I already climbed the mountain, so I’m the one to help them use the tools that they have to climb their second mountain and get there in a way that doesn’t feel so hard the next time.

Lee Kantor: So sometimes they’re coming to you with kind of a blank slate, right? They have their history, but they don’t have kind of that roadmap to the second mountain.

Melanie Spring: Exactly. So they have their expertise. They know who they are. They know their stuff. I don’t work with people who aren’t experts in what they do. Typically, they come to me with a whole bunch of stuff and we sit down and dump it all out, put it on the table and see what’s really there, and then pick it all apart, letting go of the things that don’t serve them anymore and then move forward with the things that really like them up.

Lee Kantor: Has there ever been an instance when you laid out all of the stuff on the table or a whiteboard and you’re writing down all the things and then the thing you ended up with kind of surprised your client?

Melanie Spring: Oh, that happens a lot, actually. Yeah. Yeah. When I work with people, I typically like to talk before I even let them sign up to work with me. I want to know that I can see the path forward for them, but I also want to know that they can see the path for themselves as well. But typically, almost every time, once we finally put together the final plan for what’s next, they’re like, Wow, I never thought that this was possible, or This is actually way fun, way more fun than I expected.

Lee Kantor: Now, is that because people kind of put themselves in a box and it takes kind of that outside eyes to see what could be.

Melanie Spring: Yeah, that’s that’s usually the problem. A lot of us are trained that we follow a certain path. Like you go to school, you get married, you buy a house, you have children, you work a job, you retire, and then you die. That’s kind of like you follow this path or you have to do things dollars for hours. In certain industries, like psychotherapy, you get paid for every hour you work. And so if you take a vacation, you don’t have any money coming in. So looking at things a little differently, what if you were to host a group retreat or group calls to be able to have something where you could talk to people every month, but you’re getting paid even if you’re on vacation, you’re not having to get paid dollars for hours. So sometimes we have to break apart. What’s the thing I thought I had to do in order to get to the heart of like, what could I do and what would feel really good for me and not having to do things the way I thought I had to do them. That’s where I come in.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, it’s funny. A lot of people just their answer of why they do something is just because that’s how it was done before. Like they don’t even have the ability to open their mind to other ways. It’s just fascinating to me just seeing so many people that kind of put themselves in a box and keep themselves there when you know there’s a big world out there with lots of ways to do lots of things.

Melanie Spring: Yeah, well, and I think it’s taking the time to really sit down and think what could happen, what could be possible. And I stopped doing private client work as often because of the fact that I’m only one person and putting people in a group of other people who are like minded but in totally different industries, that gives us the ability to have what Napoleon Hill calls the mastermind like. More than two people are able to create even more than if just two people got together and talked about something. So being able to create this space and create this safety for people to think bigger and to think outside the box and to stop thinking about the fact that it has to be done a certain way. That’s why I call it the Brilliant rebellion.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, it’s funny when you bring people together how much serendipity there is, and then you realize that if I just bring lots of people together, I can create serendipity. Like it’s it’s almost serendipity on demand.

Melanie Spring: Right? But I think it’s also the person who’s hosting it, because I’m sure you’ve probably been to a conference or an event or something where the person hosting is really there for themselves and not for the people who are in the group. They’re there to get not to give necessarily or they’re giving too much and they’re not there at all to give. So it can go both ways and that doesn’t feel very healthy. So making sure that as a leader I’m healthy enough to be able to lead the people that I’m there for, that I’m in that to get. And to give not just to be the one like, Oh, I’m amazing and I’m going to give you all of this amazing knowledge. Or to be like, Oh, you’re just giving me money. That’s what I really want is I’m just there to get the money for this. Being able to make sure that I’m grounded and healed and healthy and willing to keep growing. That’s the other part continual growth to be able to make sure that I can keep up leveling so that my clients can keep doing the same thing. Because if I’m not growing, they’re not growing.

Lee Kantor: Right. And that’s but part of what you’re doing as the leader of this group is you’re curating the group. I mean, that’s part of your role. So you’re choosing people with the right mindset. I would imagine that it’s going to to be facilitated in the way that is most beneficial to everybody.

Melanie Spring: Exactly. I, I see some people who are not necessarily as open as I would like, but I can see the potential, not necessarily in the way that like your mom sees potential in you, that kind of thing. But the idea that that person has the potential to be open and I can see that there are cracks in there. They’re already opening, but they’re not slowly letting down all the armor yet. But I know that what we’re creating for them allows them to do that. And I watched someone this last weekend unzip all of the armor she’s had on for 40 years and go, I’m done. I’m done carrying this, deflecting nature around with me or trying to make a joke about something to not have to feel it anymore. And she just walked out and just unzipped the whole armor and let us see who she really was. And it was spectacular. And it wasn’t because she was ready before she got there, I could see that she was ready to move to the next step.

Lee Kantor: So how do you how people, once they have that kind of aha moment to stay on track and and, you know, humans have a tendency to, you know, two steps forward, one step back. How do you keep them, you know, kind of how do you keep watching their back to make sure they don’t slip back to maybe the old way of thinking?

Melanie Spring: Well. So we have our brilliant Rebels retreat, which is a ten week program. So it’s like six weeks of calls, a retreat itself offline, totally tech free, and then three weeks after. And then I also have a thing called the Rebel Mastermind, which is a five month program after that to take them from where they were at the retreat into full implementation. So they have the group and they have other other people who’ve had a similar experience to them going through this alongside them. So it’s almost like a board of directors. And we have these things called Sprint goals, which are every two weeks we get together for 90 minutes and go through where are you at, what do you need, What questions do you have? Let’s do some brainstorming, which is hilarious because my last rebel mastermind thought I was saying sprinkles the whole time. So now I just call it sprinkles. We’re just going to have sprinkles every two weeks.

Lee Kantor: That sounds better.

Melanie Spring: Yeah, I know. That’s what I think, too.

Lee Kantor: So. So there’s something, you know, wherever they are on their path, there’s a way to plug in and get them and get something out of this. And then do they ever graduate or they become part of the alumni? And it’s it’s they’re always part of the family.

Melanie Spring: Yeah. So I, I actually have a book coming out in January 2024, and with that we’re going to have a conference. So what’s hilarious about the brilliant rebels is each of them speak in some way and I have a feeling there are one going to be some of them will be potentially trainers or coaches on our team or people that I can share with, like, Oh, this person is really good at copywriting or marketing or branding. I can share the other rebels with them if they’re an alumni or they’ll be able to see them speak at the conference as we do that or even be able to just have a connection with them through the group that we’ve been building. So they’re kind of like, Oh, you have the t shirt too. I’m totally in. I can totally help you. So they’ll always have ongoing support.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more about the retreats, about the coaching, about the whole shebang, where do they go?

Melanie Spring: Well, for the brilliant rebels retreat, it’s brilliant. Rebels retreat. We keep it easy. And then confidant SI.com is where you can find out about me and the.

Lee Kantor: Team and that confidence. Cia.

Melanie Spring: Yeah, like confidence and abundance. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: Abundance and confidence.

Melanie Spring: Exactly.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff, Melanie. Well, congratulations on all the success. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Melanie Spring: Thank you so much.

Lee Kantor: Lee All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see y’all next time on South Florida Business Radio. He.

Al McRae With Bank of America

by

Al McRae
Atlanta Business Radio
Al McRae With Bank of America
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BofAAl McRaeAs President of Bank of America, Atlanta, Al McRae serves as Bank of America’s leader in the local market, responsible for delivering responsible growth for shareholders, clients and communities. That includes driving business integration and local market share growth by connecting our capabilities across our eight lines of business to people and companies. It also includes deploying Bank of America’s resources to build strong communities. And it includes making our company a great place to work by connecting employees to the broader enterprise, championing our culture of diversity and inclusion, and fostering opportunities for our employees to develop and grow.

In addition, Al currently serves as Managing Director and Diverse Segments Business Development executive for Bank of America’s Private Bank. He has held various positions with Bank of America focusing on the wealth management needs of high-net-worth families in the areas of investment management, estate planning, banking, and credit.

He is responsible for identifying and implementing strategies for the Private Bank to drive responsible growth within the diverse high-net-worth client segment. Key areas of focus include data analysis to cultivate marketplace opportunities, creating business development strategies, developing marketing plans tailored to diverse communities, and establishing partnerships with key internal and external stakeholders.

He’s an active leader in his community, serving on the boards of the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs, Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, Georgia Bankers Association and Georgia State University Foundation. He’s also an active member with the Rotary Club of Atlanta, 100 Black Men of Atlanta and is class of 2023 participant with Leadership Atlanta. Al earned his undergraduate degree in finance from Georgia State University. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA® ) designation and is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®).

Connect with Al on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • History of Neighborhood Builders
  • His background and role at Bank of America
  • Other ways that Bank of America serve Atlanta communities

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by On pay. Atlanta’s new standard in payroll. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor on pay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Al McRae with Bank of America. Welcome out.

Al McRae: Thankfully. Happy to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, we’re here to talk about Bank of America’s kind of initiatives in and around serving the Atlanta communities. How important is it for Bank of America when you are in a locale like Atlanta to really immerse yourself in serving the local communities in a variety of ways?

Al McRae: Well, this is one of those situations where as an organization, our company that has such a significant footprint in a city like Atlanta, we have there’s a business imperative and a moral imperative to say that for our existence, we want to understand that communities that do well in our very it’s in our best interest to make sure that communities do well and we support and address help address some of the challenges that that may exist. Because once again, this is a situation where a rising tide lifts all boats. And for us, we want to be a great corporate citizen and partner in a city like Atlanta that does have some challenges. It’s incumbent upon us to be a participant in the solution.

Lee Kantor: Now, as the leader of the Atlanta market, how do you go about kind of choosing which are the appropriate partners and which is going to give you kind of I don’t want to say the most bang for your buck in terms of anything other than doing the most good for the community? Like because I would imagine there’s a lot of folks out there, a lot of organizations that are doing good, and it must be difficult task for you to choose the right ones to partner with.

Al McRae: Yeah, completely. So to your point, there’s a there are a number of challenges that our communities face, and some of those are not so unique to just Atlanta. It’s across the country. And the way that we go about it is we, as we say, where can we have the most impact? And for us, it’s really trying to bridge that gap that we see. I mean, we recently have some articles that were published in some local periodicals talking about the the income equality gap, the gap between the the most achieving and least achieving in our in our city and also the affordability of housing issue. And so those are some those are just two examples of when we think about our investments, and I use that word very intentionally because this isn’t for us, this isn’t charity, this isn’t a giveaway, this isn’t donation, this is real investment with the expectation that our return is not necessarily a financial one, but one of societal return. We want to put it towards one of those those most pressing issues. And so the understanding that having a community, yes, that’s healthier, but also from an economic perspective can thrive is where we, we we direct those. And I know we’re going to talk a little bit about neighborhood builders. And when we make those selections, it’s definitely in the vein of saying the laser focus around making sure that from an economic or resource and a wealth building perspective, we’re doing our part and helping drive those results for our communities.

Lee Kantor: So let’s start talking about neighborhood builders. For those who aren’t familiar, can you tell us a little bit about, you know, mission of neighborhood builders?

Al McRae: Yes. So this is actually an effort across Bank of America, across all of our our markets, where we are looking to be a participant in helping lift both from a philanthropic I’m sorry, from a financial resource perspective and from technical expertise, those organizations that are doing the great work in our communities. And so Neighborhood Builders is a program that’s been around since 2004 with Bank of America. And so since the inception of this, we have contributed over $300 million across 92 markets, our money to communities, to the to the goals of advancing and addressing some of the most pressing challenges. So for the winners of these particular awards in Atlanta, we have to each of the organizations receives a 200,000 unrestricted grant that they or maybe they use for flexible funding for their organization. And in addition to that, to that financial support, they also receive leadership training. And that’s for two of their usually the executive director and an emerging leader within the organization, because we have a vested interest in ensuring that these partners and the winners of these awards are sustainable. So we not only invest in them, right, with the understanding that they’re going to contribute to solving some of the biggest challenges in our community, but we also want them to be sustainable and want them to grow. We want them to grow in their impact. And the way that we do that is not only, yes, providing them with financial resources that they can leverage, but also that technical expertise and training, which is key. A key component of this and one of the largest philanthropic efforts that any corporation or organization have in our country now.

Lee Kantor: So it sounds like not only are you trying to address the situation today, but you’re also trying to create some continuity for tomorrow as well. So you’re trying to grow maybe the future leaders as well as the current leaders.

Al McRae: That’s and that’s that’s a great that’s a great comment, Leigh, because it’s about sustainability. When we think about sustainability. We understand that there’s going to be an evolution of over time and we want these organizations that we select as these neighborhood builders and neighborhood champions to have an existence, an impact that grows. And that is going to be a key part of the community. So effectively, when we think about the prior awardees, we create this community and this family within that subset to say, Hey, how can we leverage with even within this group, how can they leverage each other so they can continue to grow and expand? So some of the past winners, we’ve been proud to see their influence grow within the community, and it’s because of the support that Bank of America and quite frankly, other Atlanta based corporations provide. And we see them continuously having a larger and larger influence to do the work to provide that positive societal return that I talked about earlier.

Lee Kantor: Now, when did you first have a clue of the impact that your contribution and your efforts were making? Did something kind of speak to you in terms of, Wow, you know, that story is really compelling or Wow, I didn’t realize the impact we were making. Did something Can you share a story maybe where this came alive to you personally? Were you able to see how important this is?

Al McRae: Yeah, I think and it’s probably not just one example, but I can tell you I’ve been in the market president role for just over a year now and having the opportunity to have the proximity to these organizations and seeing how transformational it is for them to receive both a grant of that amount, which is which is spread over two years. But the the size of the grant for these organizations, which a lot of them are relatively smaller, you see the size of that. And then also to the lift that they receive from the training. You know, it’s just in the in the conversations of talking to the folks in leadership. And for some of these nonprofits, you get the sense of the impact and the change that it makes, because to be a winner of one of these awards is not just, you know, and within like Bank of America providing that. But then the word gets out and I’m sure the periodicals and all the all the write ups and it gets the attention of our corporate partners in the market to say, okay, that organization must be doing something well. And then once again, it kind of leads to kind of a snowball effect for them. So when we talk to those folks one on one and we invite them in for their training and we and we make sure we keep in contact with them, they are able to give us testimonials around the impact that they were able to to achieve. Some of the things that they were able to do knew as a result of the funding and the text and technical expertise and all of that for me is something as an individual, I guess, both personal satisfaction and satisfaction for the organization.

Lee Kantor: So how are the organizations selected?

Al McRae: So we have to go through a process where it’s an invitation only process where we invite a select number of nonprofits to apply. And it’s a very rigorous process, as you might imagine. But we receive these applications and the way that we review those, we have both an internal team, but then we also invite previous winners in our external community and our partners to come in and give us their views and who they believe might be worthy of receiving our award. And once again, it’s a rigorous process. We have great, robust conversations when we think about this. And and for us, it’s looking at it and saying, what organizations do we want to place our next investment? Who do we want to invest in next that has a level of scale that can be impactful in our community, but then also that has a level of sustainability that as we look at some of the challenges that we focused on in this particular arena, who who are the people that’s going to move the needle and move the Dow and really make a difference and change. And so I’m proud to say that we have great excitement with the external partners that join us in this process, and they’re always happy to do it. And it’s a very rewarding process at the end when we make those announcements and those selections.

Lee Kantor: So who are the latest organizations that were selected?

Al McRae: But we have to. So we have the Automotive Training Center and East Lake Foundation. And so these are two organizations. Once again, all of our applications were impressive and we saw a great need and work. But these two stood out for us for 2022, an award was awarded. We’re awarded our neighborhood builders. The Automotive Training Center is a program that provides technical training for entry level entry level employment and the automotive repair industry. And so you think about them providing students with opportunities and around technical and entrepreneur skills. I don’t know. Lee A lot of your listeners probably have gotten a car repaired in the last 12 to 24 months, and you know how hard it is for us to find capacity and and also the expense of it just because of where we are right now with things like inflation and our supply chains. And so if you think about jobs and places where people can earn a really good living, automotive repair is a great is a great area for for our young people to go into. An automotive training center is an innovative program that not only teaches that but also provides a great learning environment. So they’re going to leverage their funds to build a new facility and also purchase new equipment to train their students. So getting back to that, you know that trying to soften some of the income disparities we see in our city, we can do that by having partners that promote skills, that allow people to go into jobs, that pay above minimum wage.

Al McRae: Eastlake Foundation, I’m sure a lot of your listeners are very familiar with East Lake, the Foundation. We have been a founding partner since the existence of this foundation and also was one of the first corporate members for the East Lake Golf Club. And, you know, the work that East Lake provides is kind of wraparound services. They do a lot for their community and a residence there. But this particular effort that they apply for with around their initiative to provide mixed use, mixed income housing and affordable housing in the East Lake area. So housing continues to be a challenge. Housing affordability continues to be a challenge for a lot of residents of the city of Atlanta. And organizations like East Lake are looking to solve for some of that. And they’re working in partnership with the Atlanta Land Trust to provide 40 units of townhomes for sale. These are not rental units. These will be for sale so that their residents can participate in the appreciation and the wealth building activity that you and I know home ownership affords a lot of folks that are able to own their own home. And so it’s been a great partner of ours for a number of years, and we were very proud and happy to see them as a winner this year for our Neighborhood Builders Award, which will grant them that $200,000 over a two year period and also the leadership training.

Lee Kantor: Now in order, like you mentioned, that this isn’t something you apply for, that you’re selected for, how do organizations get on your radar to even be considered?

Al McRae: So, you know, the good thing is that we have a vast list of partners in the market that we already have relationships with. So we take a look at those folks. And then also we take introductions from individuals that are looking to tell their story, particularly as it pertains to their work around economic mobility and economic opportunity in the market. And so usually when we look at our list of partners and we and we take a select few from there and maybe either we’ve been introduced to some throughout the year that we also want to include in that process.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff. So if somebody wants to learn more about this program, what’s the website? What are the ways to connect with you? Somebody on your team?

Al McRae: So it’s very easy to to to look into the process or looking through the website Bank of America, just Google Neighborhood Builders, Bank of America, and it’ll take you to the site where it explains the program. And like I said, this is a national program, so you’ll get all of that explanation on the existence of the program, the the the operations of it. And then it provides contact information which can be leveraged there for for understanding how those organizations actually get more information when it comes to this.

Lee Kantor: Well, our congratulations on all the success. And you’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Al McRae: Well, thank you so much for the platform, Lee. And once again, we are happy to be participants and solving for some of Atlanta’s largest challenges and we will continue to do so. I thank you for the time today.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see y’all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

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Kirk Brown With HANDY, Inc.

by

South Florida Business Radio
South Florida Business Radio
Kirk Brown With HANDY, Inc.
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DTLLogo-Blue-Bannerv2Kirk BrownKirk Brown is the CEO of HANDY, Inc., an organization dedicated to the education and betterment of marginalized and at-risk youth in South Florida. Brown has been with HANDY, Inc. since 2018 and is responsible for leading the $4M non-profit organization.

Brown is a transformational leader that navigates diverse business challenges to power revenue gains and strengthens operational performance through inspired solutions, empowering teams and enhancing performance. With over 20 years of experience, he is an accomplished management professional who has worked with a broad range of organizations and individuals, from privately held middle-market companies to government, and nonprofit organizations to community-based committees focused on impacting change.

He has proven ability of working with executives and community leaders to analyze complex statewide issues, to develop sound business strategies and successfully implement large change initiatives.

Connect with Kirk on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Good social leadership
  • Strategic way of leading social superheroes
  • Motivate a diverse team with lived experience in a social work setting

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in South Florida. It’s time for South Florida Business Radio now. Here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here another episode of South Florida Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, Diaz Trade Law, your customs expert today on South Florida Business Radio, we have Kirk Brown with Handy. Welcome, Kirk.

Kirk Brown: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: I am so excited to learn what you’re up to Tell us about Handy. How are you serving, folks?

Kirk Brown: I’m Handy is a nonprofit that was established in 1985 to serve foster care, relative care and homeless youth in our community. We are basically here to fill the gaps of services for normalcy for young people. We provide workforce development, youth development, mental health services and educational transitional services to young people who are victims of abuse, neglect and abandonment. We serve 1200 young people for year. And basically, we, you know, 9 to 5% of our young people graduate high school, 78% finish a post-secondary experience. But we’re very proud to say 100% of our young people are happy to partner with us in communities of need.

Lee Kantor: So what’s your back story? How did you get involved in this line of work?

Kirk Brown: Well, social work chose me. I was finished college on my way to law school and basically saw homeless youth and decided, you know, in a wonderful lived experience that I may have a solution within me to impart into the world because I grew up in those situations as a youth and, you know, God blesses you with knowledge and wisdom and opportunity and abilities. And I just decided that maybe I have an answer within me that could solve that problem.

Lee Kantor: So is this version of the answer what it was when you first started.

Kirk Brown: This version of the answer? No. It’s morphed. It’s morphed because our clients have more team. The people we serve, the communities that we’re in poverty has always had a dynamic of leaving scars on communities that are long lived and therefore will take a longer period to solve.

Lee Kantor: Are you finding right now is a good climate for some escape velocity to get beyond that kind of spiral that happens, like you mentioned?

Kirk Brown: Yeah, there is. There’s a lot of self-awareness at a macro level within communities to say we cannot continue to do the status quo of the haves and the have nots. We have to reach into our communities, look at our social services sector, and empower social services sector to build stronger, more, you know, enthusiastic and self actualized communities.

Lee Kantor: Now, are you finding that corporations are more open to participating in a way that maybe historically they haven’t been in, that there’s almost a trend towards some sort of I know one organization is called Conscious Capitalism, where it’s trying to elevate capitalism and be more empathetic to not just their shareholders as their constituents or their employees as their constituents, but also the community. As a constituent.

Kirk Brown: I think we all have a shared equity in the conduit called trauma at this time. I think the corporate community and before now individuals were able to drive around a concept of trauma. Right. But the entire world went through what I would say, two and a half years of constant repeated trauma as a result of COVID. And so we saw a social shift before COVID as it relates to corporations becoming more socially involved in the mechanisms of social work to say, yes, we can do a greater job, we can have greater input, we could add our brain trust to improve the lives of people in fractured communities. But I think everyone gets it now. Before, you would have to take maybe 25 minutes to explain and the aftereffects of trauma. I think everyone gets the after effects of trauma now because we’ve all lived a macro level of trauma existing through COVID.

Lee Kantor: Now, what are you have any advice for business owners at all kind of stages of their their kind of life cycle regarding how to exhibit good social leadership? What are some kind of baby steps organizations can be doing to really help alleviate some of that trauma you speak of?

Kirk Brown: I think it starts with three basic, you know, premise and approaches. I think the first is establishing a human connection with the people that work for you and with you, You know, designating collaborations within the workforce. There’s no soloist and getting a task done and really having open. Transparent, empathetic communication patterns with your team. It’s real simple, you know? How are you doing today? Just as a passer by conversation are or how are you doing today and really looking in the person’s face when you say it, Look at their affect. Look at their response. Challenge your management and your executive teams to use their intuition to kind of like really become self aware about the people that they’re leading just from the income point of who you’re lead in. So in social work currently, I would say I know what my staff makes financially because we are the payee. And so taking a macro look at what does that life does or can afford in economic climate of the community that you’re in is very important for you to be able to have the human connection and the human communication strategies with the individual right. What are their challenges based on what they make? What are their challenges based on who they are in the community that they’re in? I’ll give you a basic example. I have 34% Haitian staff at this moment. I know their their homeland is in turmoil at this moment. So to pretend like they’re not coming in to the work environment with those wounds makes makes me a very distant leader. You know, having those conversations, how were you doing today? How is your family as your extended family in Haiti? How are you guys coping? You know, that that, to me shows that you care. And that’s what social leadership is about.

Lee Kantor: So the first community and organization could work in is their own and work within their own people, their own people’s families and the and the people that are most important to them. So that’s the starting point you find.

Kirk Brown: Yeah, that is a starting point. Make your make your employee your first customer.

Lee Kantor: So when you do that, you’re improving the culture of your organization. You’re showing your people you care. You probably you probably have some stats and research that supports that. This level of empathy and care for your own employees leads to more productivity and a better outcome.

Kirk Brown: Yes. The I think the professional workforce term for that is principle based management. And on the principle based management, you find a lot of transformation happens when humility and knowledge is imparted onto the individual. With empathy, it leads to self-actualization. And self-actualization is our highest data point of really someone being productive in a work environment.

Lee Kantor: So what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Kirk Brown: Support. Of course, we’re a nonprofit and we serve young people ages 10 to 25, all along the spectrum of transition from middle to high to postsecondary to placement into employment. And so as a nonprofit and a nonprofit CEO, the first thing I have to ask is please financially support your nonprofits and your community that’s doing the ground level work to correct trauma in your community. And secondly, partnership. We we have found unique ways to partner with our corporate partners, whether it’s a sponsorship or provide employment for our young people or volunteerism for our young people. We’re very big on meeting the corporate partner or the corporate world where they are in their ability to give.

Lee Kantor: Can you share an example of how you work with maybe a large corporate partner?

Kirk Brown: Okay. So for example, Brand Smart approached us and said, how can we help with Christmas and how can we help with our holidays? And we literally tomorrow we are hosting they are having 100 of our young people shop at Bryant Smart at $150. But we have also turned it into a volunteer activity and a money management activity with the brand smart employees that will be shopping with our young people. And because we also have a relationship with the FBI and Broward Sheriff’s Office, we’re including FBI personnel and the sheriff’s office in the shopping experience to build communities. So now we have four different industries in one store serving a life of one youth, breaking down a lot of community barriers.

Lee Kantor: And this is a situation that these companies that you partner with, they don’t have to have an answer of how to do it. You’ll help them or you’ll work together and brainstorm together on how to connect all these different parties together to create a real robust, meaningful sponsorship and something that’ll create a win win win all the way around.

Kirk Brown: Yes, that is our job. We already social interpreters of hope, and so you don’t have to come to us with an answer. You just have to come to us with a desire.

Lee Kantor: And then the size companies, I mean, brand smarts, a large organization. Do you work with small like startups as well, or is it primarily kind of the bigger brands?

Kirk Brown: So we have some no, we have small and medium sized companies that partner with us daily. We have individuals who have their employees here tutoring our young people in the afternoon and Algebra two, we have small, medium, medium sized employers who host a cookout here once every other month to expose our young people to industry. And we expose our young people to eight different industries per year, eight high demand industries. And basically we have everything from roofers to electricians to construction to manufacture and hospitality industries, no matter the size coming in to impart their knowledge of their industry to young people who do not know their industries exist in their backyards.

Lee Kantor: So you’ll work with companies of all sizes. There’s always something to do and some need to be met.

Kirk Brown: Yes, we fit the need to help. Basically, if they come with a desire to help young people see a future, move towards the future and to live their future, then we’re we’re the nonprofit for you. We will figure it out together.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you have a story you can share regarding maybe a child that went through the program or one of your programs that was able to escape?

Kirk Brown: So we have a lot of those stories.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, you don’t have to name their name specifically, but maybe tell their story of how how they got to you and then where they when they left you, where where they went.

Kirk Brown: So we do have a young man that comes to mind, literally came to our program as junior year of high school family. All of his family was incarcerated for the murder of a family member. And he had, you know, the the streets were trying to direct him in the path of his predecessors. Right. Of his family structure. And basically, this young man, we surrounded him with our 67 services, our life coach, and a plan navigated him to Broward College. And what is individual, what is independent plan and his education plan. You started with Broward College, by the way. Broward College makes it significantly affordable for a young person to achieve a college education in Broward County. So he attended Broward College and transitioned to another four year institution, received his degree, and one of our mentors that comes alongside our young people in our community gave him his job offer on his graduation day. And so that young man is currently a junior executive at this firm, which is a large firm that serves the Southeast United States at this time. And he comes back here on a weekly basis to talk to our young people about it’s possible, you know, it’s really possible to achieve the goals that we would consolidate our thoughts and our efforts on.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, it’s amazing when you have that laser focus on really helping and serving what what can happen. It’s just it’s probably every day you’re probably just so proud. And to see the impact you’re making from that initial thought, you know, to where it is today, it must be very rewarding for you.

Kirk Brown: It is rewarding because I work with lived experience individuals. 80% of our staff has been the kid or has resided in a family that experience a trauma that we’re seeking to seek and to answer as an agency. And so I talk about lived experience a lot because lived experience separates the vigor and the desire to answer the phone at 1 a.m. in the morning for a homeless kid, if you’ve been a homeless kid or you were in a family with a homeless kid, that phone call, you know what that phone calls I want at 1 a.m. in the morning means. And so 80% of our team here, including myself or our products, have lived experience in the communities that we’re seeking to serve. And so we take it quite seriously.

Lee Kantor: How do you, as a leader, keep the morale and the energy up and not feel overwhelmed by the task at hand?

Kirk Brown: Admire the greatness of why we’re here. Always focus people back on the why and the why. Is is this beautiful? You know, I have a team that, you know, gets upset when we only hit 90% on a success ratio, because to them, that 10% means, you know, there is someone who is suffering. And so it’s easy to match the why and the desire and motivate the team from a place of humility. I think humility is important. And, you know, social leadership, you have to have a level of humility and approachability where your team can come into your office and say, okay, we’re trying this and it’s not working. I think we should do it this way. And you should not be tied to the genius. You know, you should be able to say we’re all the genius because we all have lived experience. And those diamonds that we could impart into a mechanism that at the end of the day can shift the trajectory of a life.

Lee Kantor: Right. But I can see when they’re so immersed in the task at hand, when you you know, that 10% when you said 90% they’re frustrated with because that that 10% that they didn’t achieve is a human being that they know personally. And so it stings that much more.

Kirk Brown: And that is that is that is resilience, right? That is that that resilience of. Okay. But we can get it. We can we have another day to do it again. And so the lived experience people always focus on, we can get over whatever the challenge is. And I also equate social work to other industries when I talk to my team, right? Car companies come out with a new model every year. And so we have to come out with a brand new model every year or we’re not really we’re not really thinking. And so our goal is to think of this as an industry, treated like an industry so that the finished product has a level of transformation and innovation to it that our clients will get excited about it.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, right. You have to be adapting and changing as fast as the people around you are.

Kirk Brown: Yeah. And you have to have the courage to fail.

Lee Kantor: Right? Fail fast and move forward. Just keep. I don’t even look at it as failing. It’s learning.

Kirk Brown: Yep. Who said that? Who said we’re going to fail first? What’s that? Jobs.

Lee Kantor: Fail forward fast, I think is in the startup community. That’s what they’re always trying to do.

Kirk Brown: Fail forward fast. Yes. And so it takes a lot of courage to do it. But that’s why you hire courageous people.

Lee Kantor: Right? But you need to be led by somebody who really can motivate them and inspire them, which it seems like you’re doing a great job at.

Kirk Brown: So thank you.

Lee Kantor: Now, for the folks out there that want to connect with Handy, and I know you’re in search of those local social superheroes, whether they’re volunteers, whether they’re companies, whether they’re enterprise level companies. What’s the website? What’s the coordinates to connect with you to either volunteer, financially support or do anything to help you achieve your goals?

Kirk Brown: Ww dot handy inc dot org. H a, n d. Y and c dot org.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff, van. Is there a social like? Are you in social media as well? I know that’s the website.

Kirk Brown: Where we are on all social media. We’re on Facebook or on LinkedIn. We’re on Instagram. We’re on all the social media platforms. And once you get to our website, it should lead you to all our social media handles.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff. Well, Kirk, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Kirk Brown: Thank you. And Lee, if I could impart to your listening audience, it is not for you to figure out exactly what you want to do to help another human being. That’s why we exist. We can figure it out together, right?

Lee Kantor: You just have to have the desire to help. And then Kirk and his team will. We’ll take it from there. Good stuff. Well, thank you again, Kirk. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on South Florida Business Radio.

Peter Angood With American Association for Physician Leadership

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Dr. Peter Angood
Association Leadership Radio
Peter Angood With American Association for Physician Leadership
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AAPLDr. Peter AngoodDr. Angood, MD, FRCS (C), FACS, MCCM, FAAPL(Hon), has provided senior executive leadership for all sizes and types of healthcare organizations. Since 2011, he has been a chief executive officer and president of the American Association for Physician Leadership; the only professional organization solely focused on leadership education and management training for the physician workforce. The organization has members in more than 45 countries.

Previously, he was the first chief patient safety officer and a vice president for The Joint Commission where he oversaw the National Patient Safety Goals and other enterprise-wide, international patient safety initiatives. He also completed a two-year engagement with the National Quality Forum and National Priorities Partnership as Senior Advisor for Patient Safety before assuming the role of Chief Medical Officer with the Patient Safety Organization of GE Healthcare.

During these engagements, he continued intermittent work with the World Health Organization (WHO) Patient Safety initiative after helping lead the early development of the WHO Collaborating Center for Patient Safety Solutions.

Earlier in his career, after initially practicing with hospitals of the McGill University system, he was subsequently recruited to surgery faculty and hospital administrative positions at the University of Pennsylvania, Yale University, and Washington University in St. Louis. He completed his formal academic career as a Full Professor of Surgery, Anesthesia, and Emergency Medicine. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (Canada), the American College of Surgeons and the American College of Critical Care Medicine, which also recognized him as a Master of Critical Care Medicine.

He has a history of active involvement with numerous professional organizations and served as president of the Society of Critical Care Medicine. His research interests have addressed leading-edge problems; he has authored nearly 200 publications and is a well-recognized international speaker on the host of issues related to physician leadership. He is also a Fellow of the Explorers Club in New York City.

He received his medical degree from the University of Manitoba in Canada and completed his general surgery training at McGill University in Montreal and fellowship training in trauma surgery and critical care medicine at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital in Florida.

Follow American Association for Physician Leadership on LinkedIn.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Association Leadership Radio. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here another episode of Association Leadership Radio and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Peter Angood with the American Association for Physician Leadership. Welcome, Peter.

Dr. Peter Angood: Welcome as well. Thank you so much for the opportunity to be with you.

Lee Kantor: I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about the appeal. How are you serving folks?

Dr. Peter Angood: Sure. Well, we’re in health care, obviously. American Association for Physician Leadership is almost 50 years old. And what we predominantly focus upon is basically professional development, leadership, education management, training for the physician workforce and for a large number of the places where physicians work, whether it’s in private practice settings or inside of hospitals and health delivery systems.

Lee Kantor: Now, what was the genesis of the idea? What started the association?

Dr. Peter Angood: Yeah. Many, many years ago, there was a recognition that physicians really don’t have any skill set in a formal development way as it relates to management or leadership. And so the originating CEO of the organization really focused in on mid-career physicians who wanted to do administrative roles inside of hospitals. And so they had a focus on physician executives for the first good number of years with the association’s development.

Lee Kantor: So now it’s something that was lacking, like in medical school or in their own kind of as they were kind of growing their career. This was information and skills that weren’t kind of talked about, or they just were assumed that the physician had them.

Dr. Peter Angood: It’s interesting, You know, to this day, there still is a paucity in the medical schools and the specialty training environments for leadership, education management, skill set development, all those sorts of things. So it’s a it’s a vacuum for physicians. Now to your question as well, though, the medical profession is viewed very positively by general society. Physicians are often viewed as leaders just by the nature of being a physician and in the medical profession. So historically, there’s been this presumption that physicians just know how to lead and how to manage things, and that’s an erroneous presumption.

Lee Kantor: Right? So they’re placed in a position of authority and respect, and then people just assume that they know what they’re doing. And so without an organization like yours to kind of give them the skills, I mean, that could be kind of dangerous in some ways.

Dr. Peter Angood: Well, not dangerous in the clinical care sense, right?

Lee Kantor: Not in that case. But just to assume that a person has those skills just because they have the credential is not optimal for anybody, I don’t think.

Dr. Peter Angood: Yeah. You know, it’s like pick any professional sport as an analogy. Just because you’re a good professional athlete doesn’t mean you know how to coach the team or run the professional team’s business enterprise. Right? You can be a great player, but not necessarily a good leader or a good businessperson. Same in medicine.

Lee Kantor: So when you were getting involved with the organization, was that something that you were hungry for more information and you you recognize that gap as well?

Dr. Peter Angood: You know, it’s interesting. I, I am a physician. I trained as a surgeon, practice for many, many years. And then I found myself thinking more about systems development and creating larger scale change. Before this job, I was very fortunate to be able to participate in a couple of high profile national and international organizations. But what I recognized in that was there is a gap between those influential organizations that sort of determine the trends in health care and a gap to the front line of care. So I was interested in working in that gap zone, if you will, and this particular organization does exactly that. We are an influence group and a thought leader inside of organized health care, and we stayed very much tuned in to what’s going on in the industry. And we create some influence, but we also directly influence physicians and the organizations where they work on the front line. So it’s a very gratifying type of role for me, and it’s a very pivotal and important organization for the industry because we really serve as that bridge for physicians to acquire those management and leadership skills.

Lee Kantor: Now is the learning that’s taking place. Is this part of their like continuing education learning, or is this kind of voluntary for that physician to say, you know what, I’m going to raise my hand and I want to get better at this?

Dr. Peter Angood: It’s a little bit of both. It’s a little bit of both. You know, physicians, like most professions, have continuing education requirements to maintain licensure. And there’s a certain number of hours per year that are required. And so oftentimes the physicians who are interested in leadership and management skills will look for our organization’s programs and products to get some of that continuing education at the same time as developing a new skill set. The other side of it is that some organizations, whether it’s a private practice or it’s a hospital or a delivery system, will sponsor their physicians into our programs as part of the needs of the organization to better develop physician leadership and management skills overall.

Lee Kantor: Now, was the pandemic that level of disruption, was that something that brought this need for leadership that much more obvious and it was more urgent to solve?

Dr. Peter Angood: Know, that’s a great question. And I think there was an increasing recognition inside the industry before the pandemic that physician leadership really creates positive change in the industry. And it’s a debatable survey. But if you look at, for example, US News and World Reports annual rankings of medical systems, they always have an honor roll the top 18 or 20 systems in the country. The vast majority of those places are led by physicians. Similarly, when physicians are in CEO roles, oftentimes those those systems will perform 25 to 30% better on a variety of quality metrics. So there was recognition that physician leadership and key role is important for organizational performance. What the pandemic helped everyone to better appreciate was that as the pandemic came into play, as the public health, as the clinical delivery systems and as a governmental agencies all looked, holy smokes, how are we going to manage this pandemic? What did they do? They looked towards physician leadership at the highest level of government, all the way down into a whole variety of medical practice settings hospitals, hospital delivery systems. Overall, a lot of the emergency response teams inside those delivery systems were led by physicians. Obviously, coupled up with a variety of other clinical disciplines and non clinical administrators as well. But more often than not, the physicians were the leads.

Lee Kantor: Now, when it comes to your education, did any of that change because of the pandemic?

Dr. Peter Angood: I think what we did as an association, we’ve got a wide array of information resources, a wide array of educational topics, all of its competency based. What we recognize is that we needed to expand the range of topics in order to help different individuals and different organizations get through the pandemic. And these are translatable skills and knowledge into other development areas of the industry. But the other thing that occurred for us, the pandemic was good for us in a sense, is it really helped us refine better how to deliver all of our offerings in an online virtual setting and to get really good at it. And the satisfaction scores that we get on our feedback tools is very high. For all that remote online learning strategies and the consumption of our information resources.

Lee Kantor: Now part of your association is kind of connecting physicians, I guess, together so they can learn from each other and mentoring the next generation of leaders. How has that changed in this virtual world? Has that expanded? Because now you can make connections everywhere rather than kind of face to face.

Dr. Peter Angood: Yeah, No, that’s a great question. And part of what we’ve done as an association has been to take on the challenge of building out our own technical infrastructure to help support this learning and networking. Yes, we could have gone to a variety of learning management systems and account management systems and a variety of other off the shelf things. But we chose to go with a custom built system and with the specific intent that our participants would not only be able to more simply and easily consume the education, consume the information, but they would able to be able to network amongst their peers, both within their organizations, but also outside of their organizations and all around the country. And, you know, we’re an international organization. We’ve got members in 45 to 50 different countries at any one time. So that online networking and learning has really been facilitated as we leverage that online delivery platform.

Lee Kantor: Can you share a story because you were talking so much about the individual physician. Is there a story that comes to mind where you’ve seen somebody take kind of the next step in their maybe not necessarily the career, but just maybe in their worldview of how to be a better physician leader?

Dr. Peter Angood: Yeah. Let me let me do it this way. You know, because physicians don’t have that leadership and management skill training through their early stages of not only their medical education, but even their careers, oftentimes in hospitals or health systems. What occurs is you’re a wonderful doc staff like you, patients like you, your outcomes are good. Hey, congratulations. You’re a chief medical officer for us, and we want you to go take these courses with APL. Well, that freshly appointed CMO is kind of got that deer in the headlights look like. Holy smokes. Now what am I going to do in this job? So they quickly scramble to take on a variety of our courses and information. We do have this curriculum strategy where we’ll take them all the way through to a credential called the Certified Physician Executive. That’s about 170 hours of coursework. But the pivotal piece in there is a three and one half day capstone weekend, which really drives home how do they refine and own their own leadership style. It’s a it’s a capstone where they have to do a project. But to a person, as they finish out that capstone, it’s a transformative three and a half days for them. They feel confident, they feel enlightened, They feel like they can really take on any challenges. And many of those participants then go on, let’s say it’s the CMO role. They will go on to become chief operating officers, they will become CEOs, or they may even shift into other sectors of the industry and develop up leadership roles excuse me, inside of the financial services sector or inside of a device company. So so the benefits of this type of an approach is, as I say, really transformative for these individuals. And ultimately the organizations where they work benefit as well. And that’s a repeatable story. It just happens all the time.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, it must be so rewarding to see that kind of transformation.

Dr. Peter Angood: Oh, absolutely. You know, and I’ve been with this organization ten years, and every time I go and hang out at our capstone events and watch these 65, 70 different people get transformed over the weekend, it’s just so enriching. And it really gives us pride as an organization, gives me personal pride, and our staff love it, you know, and we get lifelong learners and lifelong alumni because of that experience.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there any advice you can give other association leaders when it comes to working in an industry that is just evolving so rapidly and has changed dramatically, I’m sure, in your lifetime, how do you kind of stay ahead or at least up with kind of what’s happening? Because your industry is just and it seems like almost constantly in a chaotic place?

Dr. Peter Angood: You know, it’s been said by many who are not even in health care, but many of us inside of health care as an industry, health care is arguably the most complex industry that there is up there. It’s complex because of the rapidly changing information related to clinical delivery, but it’s also exceedingly complex in terms of how that clinical decision making is delivered. And then the financial structures, the insurance structures, the organizational structures that help to support all of that and support the processes of delivery. And if any of your listeners think of their own personal experiences, they’ll reflect that not all the time. Is it a perfect experience when they go to see their doctor or go to their local hospital? And so we are continually trying to make those changes. So for us as an association, yeah, we have to be paying attention to what’s going on at the policy world, need to know what’s going on in the financial side of it and the payment side of it. We need to pay attention to what’s going on in terms of leadership and management practices and how are those are evolving. And we need to keep an eye on the clinical delivery side of things as well. We’re not obviously in this day and age, we’re paying attention to workforce wellness, we’re paying attention to work life balance. And really, how is it that people are individually evolving in their professions, but how are they collectively as individual professions? I meant to say disciplines inside the profession. Are they evolving? So there’s a lot of moving parts in there. There’s a lot of moving parts. And so the onus on us as an association, on me, as an individual is to really stay up to that as well. Then overlay that on a rapidly evolving association industry world, right? We’re all busily trying to figure out digital delivery. We’re all trying to figure out membership satisfaction, We’re all trying to figure out how do we grow our community and engage our community and how do we collaborate and partner. So it’s just fascinating, but very enjoyable.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I mean, if you like that three dimensional chess, you’ll you’ll you’re in the right spot because there is a lot of moving parts and to layer even more complexity in your situation. You’re dealing with a global membership. So every country has different kind of needs and ways of doing business, so it makes it even that much more complex.

Dr. Peter Angood: Yes, absolutely. So as a leader or a manager in the association, you’re got to be recognized. So you’ve got to be comfortable with a certain degree of ambiguity at times. So you’re kind of reading the tea leaves or is everything going. A lot of uncertainty at times. But then you really got to be able to figure out how best to set the priorities of the association and then how to implement on those priorities so that you’re satisfying what your constituency wants. And the trick I’m sure many of your other participants and listeners recognize in the association world, it’s that balance, right, of listening to your members and doing what they want, but also taking your members to where they need to be as an association. And that’s that’s the trickier part. How do you participate in predicting the future and then being on the leading edge of doing all of that?

Lee Kantor: Right. And I find that the associations that are thriving are kind of the role models for the the people that are most important to them. They have to have a true north that everybody kind of believes in the why behind things.

Dr. Peter Angood: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And for us, there’s two true north, actually. And one is at the end of the day, altruistically, we’re really trying to help create positive change in health care. And we’re privileged that we have the platform of physician leadership. The second, though, is because society looks at the medical professional profession and trusts it with high levels of respect. As you say, we consider at some level all physicians are leaders. And so how do we help those physicians embrace their responsibility of leadership?

Lee Kantor: Right. Well, it’s a big, big challenge. And congratulations on all the success. If somebody wants to connect with you, learn more about your association or maybe just kind of pick your brain. When it comes to leading an association, what is the website? What is the coordinates to get a hold of you or somebody on your team?

Dr. Peter Angood: Sure. Happy to have any further interaction with your listeners. And our website is physician leaders. All one word dot org so w w w physician leaders dot org. And then my email address I’m happy to speak with people is first initial last name. So pang0d. Physician leaders dot org.

Lee Kantor: Well, Peter, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Dr. Peter Angood: Thank you. It’s a pleasure talking with you. And it’s a great broadcast that you got going here. I look forward to listening further on as I now know more about you guys. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Association Leadership Radio.

Leslie Ellis With Meaningful Change Consulting, LLC

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Leslie Ellis
GWBC Radio
Leslie Ellis With Meaningful Change Consulting, LLC
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MCCLeslie EllisLeslie Ellis, Certified Change Management Professional, Founder and CEO of Meaningful Change Consulting, helps visionary leaders navigate the complexities of transformational change using human-centered approaches to achieve sustainable results while minimizing the cost of unnecessary work.

For over 13 years, Leslie has led and managed change with various government agencies and Fortune 500 organizations worldwide, such as Bank of America, Ingersoll Rand, Rentokil, NESTE and the State of North Carolina. She now uses her expertise to equip leaders with the confidence and tools to solve complex transformation in their organizations and communities.

She is a frequent speaker on Change Leadership and how to minimize rework while in transformation.

Connect with Leslie on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn On This Episode

  • Why more than 60 % of business transformation doesn’t succeed
  • Common pains that happen when transformation isn’t set up for success
  • Cost of not setting up transformational changes for success
  • Ways businesses can avoid those costs and minimize unnecessary rework in large complex changes
  • The evolution of change management

Anastassia Laskey With Ground Control Research

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Startup Showdown Podcast
Startup Showdown Podcast
Anastassia Laskey With Ground Control Research
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GroundControlResearchAnastassia LaskeyAnastassia Laskey has spent her career helping startups and entrepreneurial teams make better and faster decisions by effectively applying customer insights to the way they operate. She has a unique perspective on all things entrepreneurial. She has held leadership roles at multiple startups, founded multiple companies, worked with venture capital and private equity on due diligence, and advised numerous high-growth startups.

In her current role as President & Founder of Ground Control Research, Ana spends her time helping companies gather and apply right-sized insights to their business decision-making, resulting in greater in-market traction, faster scale, and improved organizational efficiency.

She lives in the Atlanta area with her husband, dog, and cat. When she is not working, you can find her gardening in her backyard.

Connect with Anastassia on LinkedIn and follow her on Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Finding product-market fit and the #1 thing that holds many entrepreneurs back
  • Defining and explaining your target audience and the problem you solve (for funding purposes, and for in-market growth purposes)
  • Using right-sized customer insights as a speed accelerator and confidence booster, as opposed to a confusing bottleneck
  • Growing beyond the effectiveness of “growth hacking”
  • Making high-risk business decisions with certainty
  • How and when to pivot
  • Staying on top of what your customers want as you scale

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Welcome back to the Startup Showdown podcast, where we discuss pitching, funding and scaling startups. Join us as we interview winners, mentors and judges of the monthly $120,000 pitch competition powered by Panoramic Ventures. We also discuss the latest updates in software Web3, Healthcare, Tech, FinTech, and more. Now sit tight as we interview this week’s guest and their journey through entrepreneurship.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:39] Lee Kantor here. Another episode of Startup Showdown podcast, and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor Panoramic Ventures. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Startup Showdown, we have Ana Laskey with Ground Control Research. Welcome.

Anastassia Laskey: [00:00:59] Hey, Lee, thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:01] I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about ground control research. How are you serving folks?

Anastassia Laskey: [00:01:06] Absolutely. So my firm Ground Control Research basically operates as a, we call it a growth accelerator for startups and entrepreneurial teams. So and we do that all through the lens of customer insight and using the needs, wants, desires, goals of your customer to actually inform how you’re going to accomplish your growth goals as a startup. So it’s a pretty fun world and we learn a lot of interesting facts about what people want and what they like.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:38] So and then having research in the name of the firm would suggest to me that research is an important component about how you go about doing what you do.

Anastassia Laskey: [00:01:49] Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, what I found in working in startup environments for many years now is a lot of times folks have some ideas about what their customer wants or they have a sense of it. But what we’re able to really do is, is put hard data behind it and actually go out and speak to customers or target markets or whomever and actually put some rigor around it so that companies can make better and faster decisions with that, with that insight.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:20] Now, what’s your back story? How did you get involved in this kind of work?

Anastassia Laskey: [00:02:24] Yeah, it all happened in sort of an interesting, organic way. I started my career actually at Nielsen, which is a big insights innovation firm, and I was working with large multinationals on new product innovation and new product introduction, and it was a really, really great experience for me. But I was doing that based in San Francisco. That’s just where they assigned me. You know, when I when I joined right out of college and as I got more in the San Francisco sort of community, I started to get really interested in startups. And I wanted to work at a startup and I wanted to be a part of that, that innovation and that sort of big rapid change. And so I moved over into that world, and that’s where I’ve been ever since. And about six years ago, I was kind of at this career decision point, and I could stay inside working in startups, or I could maybe start my own practice, my own consulting firm, and try to actually reach more companies and help more companies with the same types of things I was doing in-house at startups. And so that was how I got my start, and that’s how ground control research was born.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:37] Now, are you finding that in the startup community, I mean, they they talk always about, you know, product market fit, customer discovery. Those are elements of research.

Anastassia Laskey: [00:03:49] Yeah, absolutely. That’s, you know, 80 90% of of what we help companies with is really establishing the product market fit. Or, you know, companies might say, well, I see the signs, I see the indicators that, you know, either things are stagnant or we’re getting some engagement. We don’t really know what are we going to do on it. And I kind of break it down for them in a very stepwise process of, okay, these are the pieces of information that you don’t actually know about your customer, and this is what’s holding you back from product market fit. So let’s close those gaps. Let’s get you that insight. Let’s help you actually blow it up in a good way. Let’s help you. Let’s help you really dial in what you’re doing and the way you’re able to communicate with your customer as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:36] Now, when you talk to an early stage leader or founder, they, I would assume, have some assumptions about who the ideal customer is. And, you know, and the plan to at least reach them kind of based on their gut and based on kind of their understanding of the market in their mind. How often is that accurate?

Anastassia Laskey: [00:05:03] Yeah, it’s interesting because I would say it’s it’s accurate, but it may not be precise. And here I’m going to go a little nerdy. Right. So accuracy means that you’re like you’re hitting the dartboard. Precision is I’m hitting the exact same spot on the dartboard over and over and over again. And what I find with startup founders that I work with is they have a great sense generally of the problem that they’re solving and who the customer is. But when it comes to actually going to market and being successful in market. It’s not just about knowing that in an abstract way. It’s about actually knowing the language that that customer uses to describe their their problem. Right. And it’s about actually knowing of these 27 features that you could offer, which are the three that are that are actually going to move the needle, that are actually compelling. And how do you simplify what you’re saying while increasing the precision of what you’re saying? So I think I answered a question, but they’re mostly like 80% there. But that last 20% is what what we see drive a huge difference in market.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:11] So that by being by being more precise helps them grow faster with the limited resources they typically have.

Anastassia Laskey: [00:06:20] Absolutely. And that’s that’s the big thing that I work with startups on is you could figure this out the hard way by trial and error. And a lot of them come to us after doing that for many months. And, you know, it’s not like I’m trying to say I told you so, but my whole philosophy is like, why wouldn’t we just spend two weeks, three weeks now getting those answers, getting that level of precision, getting you the actual language and the messaging that you need that’s going to resonate with your target audience. And then you can just start using that. So we’re not we’re not bumping into it on accident, which is what happens a lot of the time in that very fast paced startup kind of scale up environment.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:04] So this isn’t something that takes months or years to get enough data to make these kind of precision kind of results that you’re looking for. This is something that is just a matter of weeks or a month.

Anastassia Laskey: [00:07:19] Yeah, absolutely. And that is really, again, why I founded my firm, because there’s this huge misconception that research takes a long time and it’s multiple quarters and it’s like this huge thing and it’s super expensive. And you can do all that for sure. And we do have clients that are a later stage startup or they’re more of a corporate client, and they do that large scale research. But I think what what I’ve sort of been teaching and preaching philosophically is there is a way to balance getting what you need to increase your level of precision in market while not drawing yourself away from everything else that has to happen and doing it in a short order. So a lot of what I’m doing in very practical terms is like, okay, now you’re going to go talk to five of your customers and I just have you ask these questions, right? So they’re very focused, very precise, and the answers to those kinds of questions are going to give us the answer. So it’s I like to make it into baby steps and and bite sizes so that a startup that’s an early stage startup can actually do it. Right. Because if it’s a huge thing, it’s, it’s it’s distracting versus helpful.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:28] So now let’s maybe share some tactics or advice for folks listening now that are in this stage that maybe aren’t ready to hire you and your firm. Is there any work they can be doing today that will help them kind of identify that target audience?

Anastassia Laskey: [00:08:47] Absolutely. Is.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:47] There are some some things that, you know, are that maybe aren’t you know, doesn’t require your expertise, but is something they can do to get a little more precise for sure.

Anastassia Laskey: [00:08:58] Yeah, absolutely. So I have a few main areas of advice. One is always be talking to your customer. And I think this is everyone in the startup world is like, yeah, talk to your customer, talk to your customer, but have a structured way of talking to your customers. Don’t just talk to them about, Oh, hey, we’re considering launching this new feature. What do you think? Which is a lot of what I see having happened in a company have a structured way of talking to your customer that’s really about you maintaining a pulse on what problems they’re trying to solve, what it is that your product is or isn’t doing to help them with that. Some of these broader conversations with with customers and have in doing that, let’s say you’re a startup founder, you block off 3 hours each month to just have four or five conversations with customers like that. You’ll stay way more in touch with the market and what the market needs by doing that versus just focusing on like product or how are we going to how are we going to build the thing? How are we going to scale the thing? So yeah, that’s that’s one piece of advice.

Anastassia Laskey: [00:10:04] And then the other piece of advice that I would offer is don’t just talk to your current customers and don’t even just talk to prospects. Try to get outside of of your bubble and try to talk to members of this broader target audience that have nothing to do with you currently. That’s a great way to make sure that we’re not just sort of targeting a bubble within a within an audience. And we’re actually making sure that what we’re offering is reflective of that bigger group of people as well. And there’s some really great tools that founders and. Early stage teams can use, such as Deep Bench. It’s a tool where you can essentially go to them and say, Hey, I need to talk to 27 SAS founders over the next three months and they will help you pull together a list. Yeah, you do pay for it, but the cost versus the benefit there is is disproportionate. So I recommend doing that versus asking for intros and having all this kind of swirl around it. Just go talk to people, pay a few hundred dollars and get their insight.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:13] Now, when you’re working with a founder and they feel like, okay, we’re kind of honing in on this, how do you maybe protect them from some of these? They make it seem so easy, these kind of growth hacking. Here’s the secret to really growing quickly and almost magically. How do you kind of help them work through that in a way that is going to get them the outcome they desire?

Anastassia Laskey: [00:11:41] Yeah, absolutely. This is something I encounter all the time, and I’m glad you brought it up. One of the things that we often see is that clients will have hired some growth hacker people, whether they’re in-house or whether this is like a firm they’ve brought on and they’re not actually getting results. And that’s actually the triggering event that they come to us and say, hey, like, something’s going on. We don’t know what it is. And what I’ve learned after dealing with that experience many, many times is, you know, there are some amazing sort of operational principles of growing a company that are very important, that startups understand that they use. How are you going to scale up your advertising? How are you going to scale up production of all these materials? Like, how are you going to all those questions? And what we really focus our clients on and where we speak with them is about the why questions. So why are you even targeting that group? Like, why is this message going to land? And so that’s the big difference that I try to push into. And our work it it really is a playbook or a companion or a guide for them to use with all of the growth hacking, quote unquote, activities that they want to do. Right. You’re going to be much more effective at implementing some of these strategies if you can customize them to what your business needs, to what your customer needs to, what you can actually do as a business. And that’s where we really feel the client, our clients get such a benefit in pairing those two types of activities.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:24] Now, most startup founders or anybody in this business for any length of time knows that pivoting, if not is pivoting, is something that invariably is going to happen. How do you help your clients know when it’s time to pivot? Or maybe they’re on the right track and they just have to kind of grind a little longer?

Anastassia Laskey: [00:13:47] Yeah, absolutely. That’s something we work with clients on all the time, and it really comes down to the sense for the customer. And then also like, how are we measuring this pivot? And I think I think typically or historically a lot of the focus is on measuring, let’s say, very particular external KPIs, such as what was the click through rate on this ad that’s like launching a different thing or let’s do like a dummy door test or let’s do all these different things. And one of the things that we work with clients on is what are some of the customer criteria, not just like what clicks and all that, but like what are some of the metrics that you can be measuring on appetite, appeal, interest, intention, consideration, etc. around this, this idea you’re considering, this pivot you’re considering, and how can you do that as part of doing these experiments, these in-market experience experiments? Because we’re all I’m all about like test and market. It’s most efficient way a lot of the time, but we have to find a way to measure that beyond just the numbers that would appear in your Google Analytics.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:02] Now, what for you is the most rewarding part of working with folks at this stage of their business lifecycle, you know, the startup and the early stage?

Anastassia Laskey: [00:15:14] Yeah. So for me it’s really about seeing them succeed. I just as a person, I tend to be more of that. I consider myself to be an entrepreneur and founder. I founded other businesses prior to prior to this business and I just I get so excited to see any business succeed, but especially some of these early stage startups where what they’re doing. It’s really disruptive. What they’re doing is really solving a huge pain point. And I just love the fresh thinking that comes with that environment. So for me, the reward is really just seeing them move to the next stage, whatever that might mean for them, whether it’s three X revenue, whether it’s ten X in revenue, whether it’s preparing and successfully getting the next round of funding, whatever their milestone is, whatever their goal is, I just love seeing them succeed.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:06] Now, how did you get involved in mentoring with Startup Showdown and Panoramic?

Anastassia Laskey: [00:16:11] Yeah, so that’s a great question. They reached out to me, so I have no idea if someone referred me to them or how it all went behind the scenes. But they reached out and I got the email and I was like, Oh, this sounds really, really cool. So it was a no brainer for me to sign up. And mentorship is something I’m really passionate about in general. So yeah, it’s been a great experience so far. Being a mentor with Startup Showdown.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:39] Now, is there any advice for folks that are involved with Startup Shutdown or any of these type of events to get the most out of their experience? Is there anything that you would recommend they do, maybe pre homework before they get there in order to really wring out the most value from this experience?

Anastassia Laskey: [00:16:56] Yeah, one thing that I would say is if you are accepted into the program and you are going to be participating in Mentor Day, take some time to look up the mentors that are going to be mentoring you or kind of figure out or ask at the beginning of the mentor session like, Hey, where is your area of focus in business? Because what I’ve learned over time is that, you know, there’s all these different mentors that I’ve met and they all have a very unique experience. They have a very different way of seeing the world, and they can provide a really valuable perspective that’s based upon that lens that they see it. But sometimes when companies come to the 30 minute mentor session and they’re in my case, they’re like asking me about the financial terms of the deal. I’m like, Yeah, I understand that as a business person, right? But like, my focus is actually helping you better communicate who your audience is or make sure you’re latched into the right audience or that you’re really articulating the pain that you solve, the problem that you solve. Right? So I guess my long winded advice is, is really kind of know your audience as a startup when you go into this process, I think it will make it a much more valuable experience.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:14] Now for you moving forward, is there anything that you need that we can help you with? What do you need to get your firm to a new level?

Anastassia Laskey: [00:18:23] Yeah, absolutely. So we just launched. We’re in a soft launch kind of phase with it right now, a new way of working with companies. And I think this is potentially really appealing to the smaller or growing startups where we’re actually offering a problem solving series, a workshop series with these with these startups. And we say, hey, come with a problem that you have, whether it’s a it needs to be growth related, right? Like, hey, we don’t know how we’re going to we’re going to ten X our growth. Hey, we don’t know how we’re going to increase our repeat or our retention. Hey, we want to launch or pivot into a new area. What are we going to how are we going to do that? And we’re working with startups to go through this four workshop series to actually as a team, get them aligned around this and teach them through that process how they can gather those insights together. So it’s a facilitated problem solving that gets them the answer. And we do that over a period of about 4 to 6 weeks. So it’s also very fast. So I guess my message is, if anyone’s interested in that, please reach out to us. Go to ground control research dot com to learn more.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:34] Now can you share a story where you helped the startup get to a new level? Maybe share what was the problem that they were kind of struggling with and how you were able to come in and help take them to a new level?

Anastassia Laskey: [00:19:46] Yeah, absolutely. So try to go through and think of a concise example for you. We. One of the one of the startups we worked with a couple of years ago, maybe a year ago. They’re an education technology company, and they have had a consumer business and an enterprise business for a number of years. But their goal was, how are we going to problem? They came with us, came to us with was how are we going to grow our enterprise business? Here’s what we’re saying now and here’s what we think we might need to say and here’s what we see as working. And do we need to pivot? Do we need to launch something new? Right. So you can see it’s a very complex problem. It involves marketing, it involves sales, it involves product, it involves like the whole organization. And we worked with them to essentially gather insight from all of the possible target audiences. So in their case, they had three or four different possible target audiences evaluate that and help them start to reflect changes in their business. And this range from hey, on your on your website. This is the messaging that lands like these are the key messages to use all the way into hey, in your sales process, you can actually optimize that down into instead of six meetings. Like you can get that down to three meetings and here’s the content that you need to cover at each step of the way. So the result of us doing that was, one, simplifying their business operations in a lot of ways, right? Instead of us guessing and having a bunch of meetings, we’re just getting the answers, applying them and let’s go. Right. And then to in terms of like a business effect, they were able to significantly multiply their net new net new customers and net new logo and they really, really strongly increase. I think it’s like three X or four X increase to their average client value. So their average transaction value, so good on them for implementing all of these insights and to how they worked.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:55] And then the amount of time that took was how long about.

Anastassia Laskey: [00:21:58] Yeah, with that client, I would say we started getting initial insights to them within three or four weeks. We worked with them for a considerable period of time that we work with them for over a year to do all the breath that we did with that client.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:16] But the impact was real and it was pretty quick.

Anastassia Laskey: [00:22:19] Yeah, yeah. And that’s the cool thing about working with me or with us is like, I can’t stand to hold back, like I can’t keep it to myself. So we always end up, you know, my team and I, we end up sharing stuff as soon as we can and we want to really we understand how fast start ups move. So that’s why our business is designed around not waiting until some long period of time has passed. Right. Let’s break it up. Do it. Small, iterative. Let’s go.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:44] Good stuff. Well, congratulations on all the success. And thank you so much for sharing your story today.

Anastassia Laskey: [00:22:51] Yeah, thanks, Lee. Appreciate it.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:52] Now, one more time before we wrap, what is the website coordinates and the best way to get ahold of you?

Anastassia Laskey: [00:22:58] Absolutely. So our website is ground control research dot com. And then folks can find me on LinkedIn. I’m pretty active and present there, so feel free to reach out anytime.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:10] All right. Well, thank you again for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Anastassia Laskey: [00:23:14] Thanks, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:15] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Startup Showdown.

Intro: [00:23:21] As always, thanks for joining us. And don’t forget to follow and subscribe to the Startup Showdown podcast. So you get the latest episode as it drops wherever you listen to podcasts to learn more and apply to our next startup Showdown Pitch Competition Visit Showdown VC. That’s Showdown Dot VC. All right, that’s all for this week. Goodbye for now.

 

Anna Yudina With The Toy Association

by

Anna Yudina
Association Leadership Radio
Anna Yudina With The Toy Association
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The Toy AssociationAnna YudinaAnna Yudina joined The Toy Association in February 2015 as the Director of Marketing Communications. Ms. Yudina is spearheading the Association’s Genius of Play™ initiative to raise awareness of play as a crucial part of child development and encourage families to make time for play in their daily lives. Since its launch in June 2015, The Genius of Play has reached millions of parents, caregivers and educators, providing research-based facts, expert advice, and a host of play activities through its website, social media channels, live events and various media.

Ms. Yudina has also been leading The Toy Association’s strategic STEAM initiative, which culminated in the development of the comprehensive “STEAM Toy Assessment Framework” and the launch of industry’s first official STEAM Toy Accreditation program.

Connect with Anna on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • About The Toy Association and the work they do to support learning through play
  • Holiday 2022 STEAM Toy Guide
  • STEAM Accreditation helping parents and anyone who shops for toys
  • The Toy Association’s Genius of Play initiative

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: We’re broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Association Leadership Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Association Leadership Radio. And this is going to be a fun one. Today on the show, we have Anna Yudina with the Toy Association. Welcome, Anna.

Anna Yudina: Hi Lee, thanks for having.

Lee Kantor: Me. I am so excited to learn about what you got going on. Tell us about the toy association, how you serve in folks.

Anna Yudina: Absolutely. The toy association is a not for profit trade association and we represent hundreds of companies all in the toy play and youth entertainment industry. So it is a fun industry, as you can imagine. Our members include toy manufacturers, retailers, licensors, inventors, designers. So pretty much anybody who is involved in creating and marketing toys and games for kids of all ages. That’s what we do.

Lee Kantor: Now, are your members. I would imagine there are some kind of enterprise level members, but are there also kind of that lone inventor or creator of a game or a toy?

Anna Yudina: So our members are companies. If a lone inventor or designer, they have their own company and a lot of them chew, they can absolutely become a member of the toy association. We have different levels of membership, so probably the best way to find out is just visit our website Toy association dot org and talk to our member services. I know that a lot of companies are members, but also a lot of solo entrepreneurs. It’s such an entrepreneurial industry. So while everybody knows Lego and Mattel and Hasbro and all of those big companies, the majority of our members are actually much, much smaller. And a lot of them, they they started their own company and then did their own game or came up with a really good idea.

Lee Kantor: Now, in your work, as I understand it, part of the mission is to support learning through play. Can you talk about how important play is to learning?

Anna Yudina: Absolutely. That is a huge part of our mission at the toy association, and we do that in many ways. But the major way in which we do that is our genius of play initiative. And the Toy Association started the genius of play in 2015. And so we have been doing that for for several years. It is consumer facing. So our audience is parents, caregivers and it’s also educators. And really the goal of the initiative is to support learning through play and all benefits of play and developmental benefits of play. So in the beginning, we started by working with a lot of experts in child development and education and disseminating important research that talks about the benefits of play, making sure parents are aware of all the wonderful things kids are learning to play. So that was in the beginning. And then over the years, we really saw the demand from families as well as educators for play based resources. So a lot of parents understand the benefits of play and definitely the educators too. But it’s what to do with the kids. How do I promote this learning through play? How do I foster social skills in my child’s play? So we provide tons of play of play ideas, ready to use activities. You can find it all on our website. The Genius of play dot org. And for educators, there are also a lot of needs for play based lessons, play based learning activities that they can show in the classroom or in the after school and the camp. Whatever is the educational setting, it can be formal or informal. So we have a special section for teachers as well on the website and we provide a lot of those resources. So those are the ways in which we help families making it easier for families to bring more play to to kids, to their lifestyle and also in schools making it easier for educators to teach kids through play.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you were doing this kind of research and seeing kind of the demand from parents and kids enjoying this kind of thing, was that something that the manufacturers were like, Wow, this is really something we should be leaning into? Did you see kind of an increase in the amount of creativity and maybe attention to including learning as part of the play that these toy manufacturers were doing?

Anna Yudina: Yeah, I definitely have seen that over the years. I worked in the toy industry before for a toy company, and then I came back, joined the toy association in 2015. So really have been watching that for a while. And I have to tell that, yes, the educational component connecting play to what kids are learning. That has been a growing trend over all of these years. And Steam toys, that is a good example of that. They stand for science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. The toys are educational in nature. They are supposed to teach kids exactly those subjects. They’re supposed to teach them about chemistry and other sciences and building and technology and things like that. But even apart from and that has been a growing trend, really, really taking taking a lot of a lot of space in product manufacturing, in toy manufacturers line, but also even separate and apart from steam toys, just connecting toys to emotional benefits, for instance, doll play and nurturing empathy, connecting play to physical and cognitive benefits to creativity. Definitely that has been happening.

Lee Kantor: As well as representation. You’ve seen a lot more of that as well.

Anna Yudina: Absolutely, yes. Diversity and inclusion and making sure that the toys that kids play with, they reflect the diversity of the world that we live in. And that, again, goes back to also what parents are looking for. A lot more parents are aware of the social issues and they want to teach kids about those social issues early on, diversity being one of them, diversity and inclusion. But there is also environment and sustainability is so toys that address that and teach kids should be respectful of nature, of animals, of the world that we live in. That has definitely been a growing trend as well.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned steam. I know that your association releases a holiday toy guide for Steam related toys. Can you talk about that?

Anna Yudina: Yeah. So we actually did that for the first time this holiday season. We issued our holiday 2022 Steam Toy Guide and all of the toys that are featured in the Guide. They have been independently reviewed and accredited. So the toy association now has the STEAM accreditation program and we do it in partnership. Our accreditation partner is the good play guide. They have decades of experience in the toy evaluation space, so they are the ones who review and test and evaluate all the toys. So only toys that pass the accreditation were eligible for inclusion in our holiday guide. And beyond the accreditation, of course, we looked at toys that address a variety of ages. So there is a toy in the guide that’s good for kids as young as 18 months old or young. But there are also toys that are good for kids that are much older tweens, teens and pretty much any age group. So that was an important consideration. And also we look for toys that really cover the whole spectrum of steam. So it’s science, technology, it’s a lot of other disciplines. So we have a chemistry set, for example, but we also have a robot that kids can use to learn how to code. We have a lot of construction sets, but we even have a butterfly garden kind of toys. So really the variety of toys that address all the different areas of steam. That was an important consideration for putting together this holiday guide. And we also have a partnership with Amazon now. So in addition to the holiday guide which people can find at toy Association dot org, there is also a theme accredited toy store front right on Amazon and people can access it from Amazon’s toys and games page and that includes all of the products that have been accredited so far that are sold on Amazon. So if you’re looking for even larger selection of toys, steam toys specifically, that’s a good place to check out.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And for those who aren’t aware, the importance of kids embracing steam when it comes to education is critical. I mean, that’s the future of education, of kids jobs later on. So if you can start building interest and desire and love of those kind of things early through toys, you can be putting your kid on the right path when it comes to a really important career. And in areas where they’re hungry for talent, I mean, the unemployment rate for steam jobs is probably zero right now because they’re so hungry for for people that have that kind. Degree in education.

Anna Yudina: Yeah, you’re absolutely right. And again, parents understand that. We did a survey with parents and we asked them what is the ideal age for a child to start exploring their future career? And you know what they told us? Five and one half. Five and a half. That was the average age. So that is a really young child. So what is the best way for kids of that age to explore a career or to explore anything? It is absolutely toys and play because that’s the language that these kids understand. That’s something that they can relate to. So toys and play absolutely are critical to sort of spark that early interest and help a child become interested and start forming that healthy relationship with science and math. So instead of like, oh, it’s complicated, oh, I’m afraid of math, or I have this fear or it’s abstract. I don’t really get it. I don’t know what it’s used for. Toys help kids relate those disciplines to the world around them and make them real for lack of a better world.

Lee Kantor: Right? And they can actually participate in it. It isn’t like theoretical or hypothetical where they have to imagine things. This is them actually touching things and and using things. So it comes alive. And some people learn better by doing things like that rather than just watching someone right on the on the on a whiteboard.

Anna Yudina: Right, Exactly. You learn by doing and being hands on and active involvement. Those are actually some of the criteria that are used in our toy assessment framework. So when we accredit toys or rather when the good play guide evaluates toys for accreditation, this is something that they evaluate. Does the toy promote that active hands on involvement in seeing?

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned earlier this genius of play initiative. I know that you were kind of a champion of that. Why was that so important to you?

Anna Yudina: To me personally, I as I mentioned, I worked in the toy industry before. So I come from this industry. I have this love for play and products and for our little customers. So it was great to come back to the industry in a different kind of role. But also I saw I saw a lot of potential and I saw a great need for an initiative like that. And back in 2015, things were a little bit different. That was pre-pandemic. So people were very, very busy as they are today. But I think pandemic just changed the lot and help those look a little bit differently at work life balance. But back in 2015, kids were just as busy as adults and they were going from one activity to the next. And families were placing a lot of emphasis on formal education, on tests, on studying for testing and studying for college, and mastering those skills that are taught in the classroom. And that’s all great, but it needs to be balanced with play. And play usually is less structured. It’s fun. It’s it’s learning. You’re learning things, but you’re learning them almost inadvertently. A lot of times you’re not even a child doesn’t know that they’re learning to play and they just look like they’re having so much fun. So there was a need to kind of like market play a little bit better and really connect those dots between play and learning and help parents understand that, that even though it may not look like they’re learning a whole lot, they actually are practicing important skills. So that initially attracted me to the genius of play and the toy association. And then, like I said, over the years, the initiative has evolved so much it has become more of a resource of free play ideas and downloadable activities and all the fun stuff that you can do with the kids or in the classroom as a teacher. So I would say that I have grown, continue to grow with the initiative and evolve, and that has always been interested in this.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, it’s funny. I think it’s just reminding people of their youth when there was much less structured play and people were went out to play and they were on their own and it was chaotic and they were learning on their own by doing and we went, the pendulum swung to the other side where everything was structured. You had a coach or a teacher and everything was very in in a box. And I think encouraging people to have this kind of unstructured play is critical and it reminds people of possibilities you can’t kind of plan out. So and there’s so much there for kids, and I think kids are hungry for that.

Anna Yudina: Absolutely. Yeah, kids. And I think a lot of adults are hungry for that, too. One of the trends that we see in the toy industry is a lot more adults are interested in toys, buying toys for themselves and pursuing all kinds of hobbies and activities that are playing basically.

Lee Kantor: Well, if somebody wants to learn more, what is the website? What are the coordinates to get the guide to? To learn more about the toy association, if you can remind us one more time.

Anna Yudina: Yeah, absolutely. So if you’re a parent, caregiver or educator, I would suggest you head over to the genius of play dot org. This is our consumer facing website. That’s where you can find all the resources that I mentioned. You can subscribe to our email list on the website. You can also, if you’re active on social media, you can find us on Instagram, on Facebook. It’s at Genius of Play. We also have a steam section on the genius of play dot org and you can see all the products that have been steam accredited so far in that section. But if you are looking to learn about the toy association as an organization and everything that we do, because obviously we do a lot more than just the genius of play and Steam accreditation, you can go to toy association dot org and that’s where you can also find out what our members are and how you can become a member if that’s something that’s of interest to you. So basically learn about everything Toy association does. Toy association dot org.

Lee Kantor: Well, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Anna Yudina: Thank you, Lee. It’s been a pleasure.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Association Leadership Radio.

 

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