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Jeff Curwen With Washington State Chiropractic Association

by

Jeff Curwen
Association Leadership Radio
Jeff Curwen With Washington State Chiropractic Association
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WSCAJeff CurwenJeff Curwen, Executive Director of Washington State Chiropractic Association.

He’s a career nonprofit manager with a passion for professional education and program management. He brings a wealth of strategic planning, and individual and organizational development experience to the WSCA having worked with professional trade associations and charitable nonprofits all over the United States.

Jeff holds the prestigious Certified Association Executive designation and a Master in Applied Ethics from Arizona State University, focusing on public policy and nonprofit management. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Justice Studies and Political Science from the University of Idaho and studied law at Whittier Law School.

In addition to his professional pursuits, Jeff works with several organizations around Puget Sound. He is a volunteer and former board member and vice president of Pasado’s Safe Haven and the risk management advisor to a student group at the University of Puget Sound. Jeff lives in Tacoma with his wife, Beth, their two cats, and their dog.

Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Membership acquisition & retention
  • Healthcare & healthcare policy
  • Association role during the pandemic
  • Affinity programs
  • Continuing education & professional development

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Association Leadership Radio. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:19] Lee Kantor here another episode of Association Leadership Radio and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Jeff Curwen and he is with the Washington State Chiropractic Association. Welcome, Jeff.

Jeff Curwen: [00:00:33] Hi, Lee. Thanks for having.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:33] Me. I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about the Washington State Chiropractic Association. How are you serving, folks?

Jeff Curwen: [00:00:41] Yeah, well, the Washington State Chiropractic Association represents all chiropractors in the state of Washington, whether there are dues paying members or not, because our work benefits them either way. What we do is we advocate for the profession, both in Olympia with the legislators and on the national level policy wise. Additionally, we provide all kinds of continuing education opportunities for them, as well as business networking opportunities.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:08] Now, how did you get into this line of work? Were you always involved in association work?

Jeff Curwen: [00:01:14] No, I think just like anybody else in the association world, I kind of fell into it. I, I went to law school with the intention of becoming a lawyer and realized that that was just definitely not the life that I wanted to have. And so I left. And then I found a job working initially in education for an association, just doing continuing professional education. And after a few years, I kind of showed that I had a knack for it and moved into different areas of association management, finance, executive management, marketing, all of those things, and just worked my way through a number of different associations. And finally, I’m here.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:55] Now having kind of been involved in other organizations. Is it do they have similar challenges? Like do you have the same kind of member engagement or member service challenges that you have with this group that you had with previous groups?

Jeff Curwen: [00:02:10] Yeah, actually, the one thing I would say is the same, no matter what association you’re talking about is you’re going to have your small core group of members that are totally 1,000% engaged and they are they’re living the association just as much as the staff do. But then that’s maybe 2% of your of your association. The rest are people who definitely see the value in the association. But they’ve got other things going on. They’ve they want you to demonstrate how constantly how the association is doing something for them. And that’s good because that’s what we’re here for. But yeah, it’s there’s varying levels, but mostly it’s, it’s all people who are going to rely on the staff and those that small core group to to run the day to day.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:02] Now when you have kind of that small super fan group, how do you make sure that they’re getting served to the level they need to be served, but also not just kind of succumb to that squeaky wheel gets the grease thing and miss out on other areas where you can be serving a larger amount of the members or potential members.

Jeff Curwen: [00:03:23] Well, that’s a good question. I would say that my answer to that is you provide the same service that you do to them, that you do to everybody. You just provide excellent service. And you know what? What they come to expect is rank and file members is what they get as that core hyper involved group of members. And maybe you just speak with them on a personal level a little bit more often. But other than that, you just got to give them the same great membership experience and make them feel like being a part of the association is just a part of their professional practice.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:00] And then how do you kind of push that value curve in terms of, you know, you’re doing a lot of advocacy with policy and things like that that might be kind of in some ways invisible to the typical member. And they have pressing needs of I need another customer, you know, I need to figure out more ways to create different revenue streams. You know, they have more maybe practical challenges. How do you kind of have that balance of the advocacy as well as that kind of best practices on how to run a successful chiropractic practice?

Jeff Curwen: [00:04:35] Yeah, I would say that this is this is an area where the pandemic really gave us an opportunity to shine, whether we wanted it or not. It was that when when the lockdowns hit and when everything was was shutting down and it was, you know, two weeks to flatten the curve, initially everybody was like, well, yeah, okay, we’ll just get through this two weeks. This is going to be low business. But then, of course, that that didn’t turn out and businesses just started shutting down left and right. And because chiropractic is in health care, we we are. A service that cannot be shut down. But as we see from some of the other health care professions during that time, at least in my state, for instance, dentistry, they got shut down completely. You could not see your dentist ever, period during the lockdown. Chiropractic, a lot of people think, well, that’s kind of a luxury service. It’s not something that I really need. No, chiropractic is an essential service because one thing that we saw was at the height of the pandemic, a lot of other providers were turning away non-covid patients just saying, sorry, we’re up to our up to our limit with COVID. I’m sorry you got the common cold, whatever, or you got back pain or whatever, you got to go elsewhere. And that’s one one area where chiropractors really shined, at least in Washington, was being able to provide that alternate source for diagnosis and referral, because if another doctor wasn’t going to take you in just because you weren’t complaining of COVID symptoms, how are they ever going to find out if there was something else wrong with you? Somebody who is trained to diagnose had to actually examine you.

Jeff Curwen: [00:06:23] And that’s one area where chiropractic is really able to shine. Now, what we provided for them throughout that time was constant monitoring of the almost daily changes in guidance and mandates from the state, determining who could be open, who could be open when, how many people could be in your office, what what compliance issues the state was going to require for you in order to remain open. And really, it presented an administrative burden that no business owner really had the time to to sift through and to analyze every single day to make sure that they were still in compliance. And that’s really where the association stepped in and pick things up for a period there. I was working seven days a week, probably 20 hours a day, and most of most of what I was doing in that time was reviewing orders from the governor’s office or from the secretary of state and analyzing them and determining what exactly you had to do to stay open and then communicating to the membership what they needed to do, how they needed to do it in order to stay in compliance, but still be able to serve their patients.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:40] Now, having done something that monumental during that chaotic time, was that something that the members were like finally kind of, Oh, I get it now, this is why I pay my dues. This is why this is important. I mean, because that becomes a life or death of the survival of that business. If they didn’t know this information in the in the real time manner that you were delivering it in.

Jeff Curwen: [00:08:06] Yeah, definitely. I think they really saw the benefit of that. And I think that kind of bore out in our our membership numbers because for a period there and I would say the second half of 2021, we maintained our membership numbers throughout the pandemic, but really right around mid 2021 we saw like a 25% jump in membership. And I think it was really just the message got out. People understood that, hey, the reason you’re open right now is because you’ve got you’ve got the WCA staff on your side and we’re running interference for the state. We’re giving you the tools that you need to stay open. And I think I think enough of those really hyper involved members saw that and started having those conversations with their colleagues saying, hey, you know, you need to you need to contribute, you need to get involved because this organization is here and your livelihood depends on them being open.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:10] So now, now that we move past the pandemic, is your efforts helping in regard to more chiropractic friendly health care policy from maybe the state and nationally?

Jeff Curwen: [00:09:27] I would say definitely, yes. We we were able to forge some new relationships with other provider types throughout the pandemic. And we’ve really seen referrals greatly increase in the last year, year and a half. And really just those conversations about collaborating on various policy objectives, those conversations that maybe didn’t happen in the past just because either other providers didn’t really understand chiropractic or they didn’t they didn’t know how we could work well together. They saw the messaging that we were putting out to our membership and they saw that, hey, every single chiropractic office I walk past, they’re not they’re not closed down, so they must be doing something right. And so that kind of opened them up to having new conversations with the association and new opportunities for us to collaborate on policy objectives and legislation and hoping that that just kind of stays alive and and continues after the pandemic is completely over. But I guess time will tell.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:37] And can you talk about your affinity programs? How how is that working?

Jeff Curwen: [00:10:45] Yeah, we we have worked closely with a number of our corporate members to just kind of determine what products are our members need that their patients are are going to buy and and large numbers and we we work out ways of doing revenue shares that help support the association so that we can kind of defer payment from from members who are maybe struggling or or starting out in practice and can’t necessarily afford to be active dues paying members, but want to have that that connection. And they want to they want to support the association in any way they can, where they can do so through our our preferred vendors who have affinity programs with us.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:34] Now, is that something that’s just part of your partnership agreements, that there has to be some form of an affinity program, or is that just the level of partnership that includes affinity programs?

Jeff Curwen: [00:11:45] No, it’s entirely on the corporate members and whether or not they are they’re willing to do something. And if that’s if that’s something that they find value in. And we’ve been lucky enough to to have a lot of corporate members who have who have wanted to step up and say, hey, I need to find a new way that I can support the association because I’m seeing my business soar because of what your your members are doing. And if they’re not if they’re not paying it back to the association, I want to make sure that that we can do that on their behalf. And we’ve had some some really great corporate partners that that have done that.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:23] And that’s a pretty creative solution to create that win win for everybody.

Jeff Curwen: [00:12:29] Yeah. And actually we the one that we we had are probably our our most active affinity program where there’s a company called my Triad Air. And that’s actually their tagline is it’s a win win win. It’s a win for you, it’s a win for your patients and it’s a win for the association as well. So we’re in the middle of our conference season right now and our our corporate partners all getting an opportunity to to go up and address the audience at various points. And that’s the tagline which my triad areas, they get up there in front of the audience and say, Hey, it’s win, win, win, why aren’t you doing it right?

Lee Kantor: [00:13:06] And that’s a pretty compelling argument, I think. How has how do you feel your association is doing when it comes to continuing education and professional development? I know that’s an area that a lot of associations want to kind of do a really good job. And then it’s an important kind of pillar of the reason that they’re there.

Jeff Curwen: [00:13:29] Yeah, it’s it’s always been a foundation of what the association does. Chiropractic is a little bit unique in that much of our continuing ed has to be hands on just because of the, the nature of chiropractic. It’s, it’s a hands on profession. And so these last couple of years we’ve had to transition primarily to to virtual learning just like everybody else has. And thankfully, we’re we’re on the way back to going back to how we were pre-pandemic. But we’ve had to find new ways of delivering education to our members. And that virtual format and new ways of being able to do that, that hands on type of thing. And I mean, it works out to being, hey, if you’re going to watch this program, you need to have you need to have your your practice patient. To you so that you can you can do your hands on step by step as we’re we’re doing this in the program. But yeah, it’s just been a learning learning experience. And we have we have found new ways of reaching out to members who don’t necessarily make it out to our conferences and making sure that they’re getting the same type of education that we offer to all of those other members as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:56] So do you have any advice for other leaders of associations to engage their members and maybe, you know, maybe something you’ve learned when it comes to getting a member to join and to stick around?

Jeff Curwen: [00:15:13] Yeah. Experiment. Don’t be afraid to experiment. There’s we all have these crazy ideas floating around in our heads of what’s going to be the next biggest thing, what’s what’s going to work best. And you’re never going to know unless you actually try it and understand that more than half the time, you’re going to fail. Just be be willing to fail, you know, try out the new things. And because you never know which one is going to be the next revolutionary one.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:43] Yeah, I was just. It was funny you bringing that up because I was just talking to my team about that is we’re trying to reframe, failing to learning and using experimenting as a kind of bridge to that where you’re not, you know, trying and failing this early, you’re just experimenting. And that experiment told you not to do that. And it’s just you have you have to build in knowing that not every experiment is going to be a winner. But you have to experiment because there are going to be winners somewhere along the line.

Jeff Curwen: [00:16:14] Exactly. Exactly.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:16] But that’s a mindset shift. I mean, a lot of people are so afraid of failing that they don’t try anything new. They just keep doing whatever was done before.

Jeff Curwen: [00:16:25] Exactly. I mean, I think we have a in the association world, we’re we’re so very calendar driven and we know what we do this time of year. Last year, what we did this time two years ago and it’s conference season so this is what we’re supposed to be doing right now is conferences and we can kind of set these other things to the side because historically that’s what we’ve always done. Well, you know, you just need to you need to kind of get out of that pattern and accept that change happens. It’s always happening. You need to embrace that and do things differently. You can’t do things the same way you did them 20 years ago. That just doesn’t work anymore. So try out the new things because you never know what one is going to stick.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:11] Now what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Jeff Curwen: [00:17:15] Well, like anybody in the association world, I need more members that we always need more members. I won’t rest until I have 100% of of eligible member prospects on my rolls. But really just getting the word out about the importance of all the different health care disciplines, particularly during times of emergency like we’ve had for these last two years, and understand that there are there are resources out there to help you and it’s not always going to be your your primary care physician, but there’s always somebody out there who can help you think outside of the box and take control of your health.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:58] So if somebody wants to learn more about the association, what’s the website best way to connect with you or somebody on your team?

Jeff Curwen: [00:18:05] They can contact us by going to our website Chiro Health dot org and they can contact us directly by email WCA at Chiro Health dot org.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:17] Well, Jeff, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Jeff Curwen: [00:18:21] Thank you, Lee. I really appreciate the opportunity.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:24] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Association Leadership Radio.

 

Hank McLarty With Gratus Capital

by

Hank McLarty
Atlanta Business Radio
Hank McLarty With Gratus Capital
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Gratus CapitalHank McLartyHank McLarty, Founder and CEO of Gratus Capital.

His obsession with truly knowing his clients and their unique needs led him to start Gratus in 2005 and remain the firm’s driving value.

A thought leader in the industry, sought-after speaker, and recipient of numerous awards and accolades throughout his wealth management career, Hank has been recognized by Forbes on its annual Top Wealth Advisors list from 2016-21 and as a Forbes Best-In-State Wealth Advisor for Georgia in 2019-2021.

Connect with Hank on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Gratus’ commitment to community service
  • Hank’s involvement in Make-A-Wish Georgia
  • Team growth at Gratus over the years and during the pandemic
  • Atlanta as a great hub location and what has led to Gratus’ success in Atlanta
  • Gratus as one of the older RIA firms
  • Gratus’ multi-year standing on the Forbes

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. Built in Atlanta on pay is the top rated payroll and HR software anywhere. Get one month free at on pay. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:31] We can’t 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 Hank McLarty with Gratus Capital. Welcome, Hank.

Hank McLarty: [00:00:50] Thank you, Lee. Good to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:52] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about Gratus Capital. How are you serving, folks?

Hank McLarty: [00:00:58] Well, we’re a full service wealth management firm that I started the firm 17 years ago after a 15 year career with a couple of the big banks that I started at right out of college. So I started grad capital in 2005. And primarily we focus on business owners because I built a firm. The whole goal of starting the firm was to create a team of experts in the areas that affect business owners as they’re building their company and getting ready for some kind of transaction, either a partial sale or a complete sale of the company. And so there’s all kinds of aspects, not just investing, but financial planning, tax strategy, transaction planning, trust and estate. These are issues that in my career I have found to be kind of the hot buttons of what business owners deal with. So I, I set out by building the firm to create a team that could address all of these issues in-house for the client. And that has led to quite a bit of success over the last 17 years.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:01] Now, at the beginning, what was kind of the thinking behind focusing in on that niche? There’s a lot of obviously for wealth management, there’s a lot of places you could have focused on why was helping business owners kind of have successful exits in successfully managing their money? Why was that important to you?

Hank McLarty: [00:02:22] Yeah, good question. So Will, really it emanated from the fact that I found myself after five or six years of being in the wealth management business, I kind of looked around at my clients and the majority of my clients were business owners, so it kind of created its own focus, if you will. One of the things I love about working with business owners is they appreciate hard work because most of them, most business owners have been through good and bad times with their company. They’ve had to roll up their sleeves and really put a lot of effort into getting the company to a successful stage of some kind of partial sale or an entire sale. And as a result for that, I have found that they have a very high appreciation for someone that works really hard and takes really good care of them, maybe more so than someone that is inherited money that they didn’t work for or things of that nature. So I like I like working with the wealth creator because they tend to have a much greater appreciation for the attention to detail and the aspects that we bring to the table.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:26] Now, when you are working with people who own businesses and a lot of times their wealth is kind of tied to their business, is that kind of an area? You have to manage their expectations because in their head they might think their business is worth, you know, ten X and then a buyer might think it’s worth five X and it takes maybe some adjustment on the owner’s part to really understand why that is.

Hank McLarty: [00:03:51] Yeah, I think that’s part of it. I mean, I have actually found that a lot of business owners throughout the life cycle of their business, they’ve had some valuation work done. So they understand typically a pretty good feel for what the value of their business is. I think actually along those lines, though, probably the hardest thing being a business owner and transitioning into a liquidation or partial liquidation is an entrepreneur or business owner is used to being in control of all aspects. You know, if they they need to make more money, they just work a little harder in the business if they need to have higher cash flow. If the business is successful, they can take more money out of the company. So basically they’re kind of in the control panel able to turn the dials and do what they need to do when they go through a transaction like what we’ve been talking about. You know, they end up working with someone that they’re no longer in control, meaning that if they work with our firm, we’re selecting the investments and obviously discussing all of that with them, but we’re making recommendations on how to set up their wills and their trusts and how to do some pre transaction planning to save taxes using some different techniques when they sell their business. And then ultimately we’re kind of in charge of their cash flow. So it’s our job to manage the money and select the investments that provide a good, solid, safe return. A line I like to use is typically entrepreneurs have built their wealth by being very concentrated in one company or one stock, so they’ve had a lot of risk but a lot of reward there. Once they built that wealth, then the way to maintain the wealth is through diversification and working with a team that they can trust because they’re no longer in control of every aspect of it. So that’s a huge transition for them to go from running the show from top to bottom every day to having to trust a team that’s handling a lot of things for them.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:38] Now, What types of conversations are you having nowadays with folks, with the people who have maybe pulled the trigger and have recently retired and now they see all that work and like you said, their lack of control in a chaotic financial situation that’s occurring right now.

Hank McLarty: [00:05:56] That is an active part of discussions right now. Yeah, I think I’ve been in this business for 30 years, so I’ve been through lots of bear markets and lots of down cycles with with the economy and recessions and so forth. And so I have 110% confidence that we’re going to get through this in the next six to 9 to 12 months, maybe sooner. But transitioning that confidence to clients through our team who have recently had a liquidating event and they’re no longer in control, that takes a lot of mentoring and coaching and communication and and a lot of empathy, trying to understand the client’s position and where they’re coming from. And even though I know 100%, everything’s going to be fine, that the client needs some some reassurance of that when you go through times like this. So that can be everything from just vocabulary and counseling through discussion that can be showing really strong historical charts and data that can tell the story as well to clients to ease their mind that the market’s going to be just fine. And then a lot of that has to do with really understanding that client’s risk tolerance and where they should be invested and selecting the investments that are going to be most suitable for them. Because oftentimes when the market’s going up, everybody thinks they’re aggressive until the market goes down and they realize they’re really risk tolerance. Is very low. So getting that out of clients and creating the right portfolio to generate the cash flows and the and the growth that they need, while also combining what they’re able to handle on the downside of the market.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:34] And that’s why it’s so important to have a trusted advisor like you and your team kind of having these conversations because the psychology of this is real. You know, when you’re investing, when you’re in that stage of your life, when you’re investing, you know, a down market is you’re buying things on sale. But when you’re kind of spending all of your nest egg, then you start freaking out a little bit. And if you don’t have somebody with a kind of a steady hand, it can be very stressful and you could make impulsive, really bad moves.

Hank McLarty: [00:08:09] Yeah, 100%. And I think no matter how sophisticated an investor someone is when you’re talking about for most people, their family is the absolute number one most important thing. But in my business, you know, the wealth management that we manage, the wealth and the assets that we manage for clients are a close second. And that’s not because the clients are greedy or only focused on money, it’s because they’ve spent their whole life building this this principle or the wealth that they’ve created. And that principle is going to either make them successful or unsuccessful in the goals that they’ve set for their family, for themselves, for for the next generation and other generations that they may be planning on leaving assets to and their family. And so if this isn’t done right, then something that’s almost as important as their family can end up being a very negative situation. So I think being successful in this business means being able to treat the assets and the planning and the strategies that we implement as if they’re your own. And then you can really kind of take on the role of the client, put yourself in their shoes, have the empathy that’s necessary to work with them and get them through times like this.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:23] Now, you mentioned that you’ve been in business for a hot minute and you’ve been serving the Atlanta community for a while. Can you give some advice for other business owners when it comes to kind of putting together a team? Immersing yourself in the community and then kind of having your team and culture really believe in that big why? And that the the importance of the mission and then how altogether you’re much stronger than any one of you are individually.

Hank McLarty: [00:09:54] Yeah, I love that question. Sure. So one of my roles as the CEO of Gravitas Capital is to drive the culture, and I take that role very seriously. So we have a vision for our firm that includes ten exiting our company over the next ten years. But there’s two other components to the to the vision. I want us to ten x our company over ten years, which is not typical but not unheard of. But if we can ten x the company over the next ten years, while at the same time our client experience even gets better and our client experience is, is we use Net Promoter score data to rank our client experience. And so our client experience is at the very, very high end of our industry. And so we’re measuring that. And usually when a company is growing rapidly, the client experience and the team member, the people on our team, their experience suffers because you get so focused on earnings and growth and things of that nature that you take your eye off the ball with culture and clients. And so I want to grow the firm ten X, but I want our client experience to even get better, which is going to be difficult because it’s very high as it is now, according to our clients. And I want our team to be raving fans of where they work. And so in order for us to achieve all three of these kind of prongs of my vision, it’s going to take every bit of leadership skill that I have.

Hank McLarty: [00:11:24] And that’s why I set this vision for our team to kind of have a North Star that we’re working towards and to keep them motivated and focused. And you would be shocked at the number of people that we interview because we’re hiring regularly to accommodate our growth, the number of people that we interview that when we tell them about our vision and how we live out our values and how important our values are to our culture. And these are things that I talk about with our team daily. You would be shocked at the number of people we interview that say, I haven’t talked to any companies that have a stated vision or I haven’t talked to any company that really talks a lot about their culture and their values. And it’s the number one thing we lead with when we’re talking to potential new team members at our company. So I think keeping people motivated and focused on us being able to accomplish this vision as a team, but we will never accomplish it as a group of individuals is a message they hear from me regularly. But we live that out and we give out awards for our culture. We give out awards for our value, and it’s something our values and it’s something that we’ve translated into community service projects and other things that we do as a company to give back to Atlanta, which has been so good to us over the years.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:33] Can you share a little bit about how you are immersing yourself in the community and maybe talk about your work with Make-A-Wish, Georgia, and how that was chosen as an area of focus?

Hank McLarty: [00:12:47] Sure. I’ll start with Make-A-Wish only because I got involved with Make-A-Wish long before I even started Gravis Capital. So my my oldest son is 26. He’ll be 26 next month. So when he was born, I actually got involved with Make-A-Wish and I was really just looking for an organization that. I really like to see the impact of the time, effort and money that I put into a nonprofit and would make a wish I could meet the kids. I can meet the families, and I could I could see a difference that I was making by by paying for wishes or granting wishes and being kind of the financial engine behind that particular wish that I paid for. So I actually got to meet the people that I was impacting, which is a really big deal to me, rather than just an organization doing good. But I can’t really see the impact I was personally making. So Make-A-Wish has been my focus since 1996, so for quite a while and it’s very near and dear to me. I was the chairman of Make-A-Wish, Vice Chairman. I’ve chaired many of their events and so forth, but at this point I’m no longer allowed to be on the board because I’ve served on the board for too long. So now I just help them raise money. But I love working with the kids and the families. It’s a it’s a big deal to me. And so as you transition that to gratis, you know, why the community service work that we do, I think it’s just mainly there’s several things I want our team to realize how fortunate we are and going out and stocking diapers for mothers that don’t have the money to pay for diapers or doing gardening work in Piedmont Park, or I could probably name 50 different entities that we volunteered and worked for, but we do it every three months.

Hank McLarty: [00:14:29] We close the office every three months, and our team picks which the which community service project we’re going to do. And we go out, everybody in the office and we work all day long and we take lots of pictures and videos and then we share with our clients each year the different portfolio of pictures of the different community service projects that we did throughout the year. So it’s become kind of ingrained in our culture as a fun day for us to go do some work and then go have a margarita and some Mexican food afterwards or something like that as a team and get a bite and something to drink and kind of hang out. So it’s something we all look forward to, but it’s really a way for us to give back because everybody in our firm is fortunate in some way or another, much more so than many of the people that we serve when we do these projects. And it kind of makes the things that are important come to light on those days where sometimes we get bogged down in the day to day work.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:27] Now you, as you work with so many business owners here in the metro Atlanta area, do you have kind of a feel for the Atlanta business ecosystem? Is there is how do you see it comparing to maybe other areas in the country?

Hank McLarty: [00:15:46] Yeah. So, well, we do have the majority of our clients are in Atlanta, but we have a very large client base in Palm Beach, Florida, also in North Carolina. We have clients all over the country, but the predominant highest percentage of clients in one area would be in Atlanta. So so I think that does give me exposure to other markets with other clients where it is easy for me to answer your question with a little bit of a comparison, I think Atlanta is just full of energy. It’s a very transient city, a lot of headquarters here from companies from all over the country, which means a lot of people in Atlanta from all over the country. Believe it or not, I was actually born here in Atlanta. So I’m one of the few in the Atlanta area that’s actually from here and a native of Atlanta. So, you know, Atlanta just kind of got a new fresh feel to it. There’s a lot of new businesses in Atlanta, a lot of new ideas, lots of technology, incubators coming out of different schools and different areas of the city. So it’s just kind of an up and coming area. Lots of movie production here. So there’s just a lot of energy and kind of fresh ideas. It’s a great place to work from because it’s so easy to get from our our airport all over the country, pretty easy with direct flights. So there’s a lot of things that contribute to that. To this being an environment is a great place to kind of start a company, attract talent, build your talent and things of that nature. So I do think that Atlanta, if you were going to start a company with a fresh idea, Atlanta’s a great geographical location to do it.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:22] Yeah, I think that the diversity of the economy really gives us a leg up where a lot of communities have maybe one or two main industries are Economy is so diverse, like you said, from film to music to, you know, technology with Georgia Tech here and the incubators that are coming out from the tech area, it just really diverse so that if one area is struggling, there’s going to be another area invariably that’s going to be doing well. So I think that helps us kind of stay strong no matter what’s really happening in the economy.

Hank McLarty: [00:17:57] Yeah, agreed. Agreed.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:01] Now, so you you mentioned earlier that you’re looking to ten X growth moving forward. What can we do to help? What do you need more of.

Hank McLarty: [00:18:12] Business owners now? I think we’ve developed in addition to being a a well rounded, well balanced wealth management firm, one of our areas of expertise that I don’t see in a lot of other firms is we’re we really have a high expertise and concentrated risk, meaning someone that has most of their net worth tied up in a stock with really low basis that we can hedge or use some creative and sophisticated ways to to diversify that asset that takes some expertise and knowledge of options. And when I when I say options, I mean like stock options and trading options. So there’s there are some areas that that while I say we’re very well rounded and the trust and estate and tax and asset management all that there are some areas that are driving lots of clients to us right now and one of those primary areas is concentrated wealth or being able to help people diversify out of positions that are otherwise very difficult to do due to taxes or other issues with the market that we don’t have time to get into now. But that’s one of our areas of expertise. And so we are getting lots of interest from clients all over the country coming to us by word of mouth because of that specific area.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:35] And is there a story you can share? Don’t name the name of the person, but maybe they came to you with some challenges and explain how you were able to help them overcome them.

Hank McLarty: [00:19:44] Oh, gosh. Oh, there’s so many stories there. Yeah. You know, I think one of our clients is the chairman of a very, very successful publicly traded company. And I think that that particular relationship is one that illustrates kind of everything we do. So we that that particular client has children and has grandchildren. And so we have had to help him navigate getting liquidity in the stock that he is the chairman of the company for. We have had to completely reorganize and rework all of the trust and estate documents to make sure as much of his family’s assets as possible or transitioning to different generations in a tax friendly way. And, you know, with that comes obviously as someone at his level, he’s got lots of investments that we’re monitoring and tracking for him, some of which we have that he made on his own. But our job is to look at everything the client has, whether we recommended it to them or not, and kind of be able to put our finger on the big picture of what he’s doing and make recommendations around that. So it’s an all encompassing, almost a family office type situation of what we’re doing for he and his family.

Hank McLarty: [00:21:06] And I think we have saved them millions and millions of dollars in estate, potential estate taxes. We’ve saved them millions of dollars in tax strategy. And, you know, according to the client who has worked with lots of wealth management firms and and lots of different investment options over the life of his career and so forth, you know, what we’ve been able to do for him, according to him, is is some of the best work that he’s ever dealt with. And so we’re proud of that. And obviously, we want to make sure our clients are happy and that their experience is great. And he regularly confirms with us what his how his experience has been with our firm. So we have 700 different households that we work with, give or take a few, so around 700 households that we work with and each one of them is important to us. So I could I could easily have 700 different stories for you, but that’s the first one. When you asked me the question that came to mind.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:04] Now, is that the kind of the sweet spot of an ideal client is somebody that’s working on or with a public company? Or do you have business owners of all sizes?

Hank McLarty: [00:22:16] Now? I would actually say the majority of our clients are actually private business owners that have built a company themselves. You know, they started it with an idea, built it up, and these companies range in size from small to a hundreds of millions of dollars in value. And typically the majority of our clients are more private based companies where they’re being pursued by a private equity firm or another company that thinks it would be a good strategic fit for them to acquire the company or a part of it. And we help them with the planning of that, how to make sure they minimize taxes and make that transaction as efficient and productive as possible for them. And then we take them beyond that. And to the now, we’re the cash flow generating engine for that particular client. We’re making sure that all their the things that they want to achieve and they’re in their lifestyle month to month, year to year and so forth, that we’re able to provide the resources for them to do that with and give them the planning and the confidence that they’re able to get all of this done without having to worry about it too much. Our goal is for our clients to have peace of mind and be able to make good, well informed decisions about their assets and their wealth. And so, yeah, but again, most of our clients are actually working with private, private companies.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:37] And if somebody wants to learn more, what is the website? What’s the best way to get a hold of you or somebody on the team.

Hank McLarty: [00:23:43] Yeah W WW dot greatest capital dot com great US capital.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:49] Good stuff Hank thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you now.

Hank McLarty: [00:23:55] Thank you Lee I enjoyed it and I appreciate the time on your show.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:58] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

Intro: [00:24:05] Today’s episode of Atlanta Business Radio is brought to you by On pay. Built in Atlanta on pay is the top rated payroll in HR software anywhere. Get one month free at onpay.com.

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Amanda Montanez With Savills

by

Savills
South Florida Business Radio
Amanda Montanez With Savills
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DTLLogo-Blue-Bannerv2Amanda MontanezAmanda Montenez is an Assistant Director at Savills. She focuses on industrial and office tenant representation and can help with other commercial real estate requirements–dispositions, acquisitions, portfolio management, etc. She looks at real estate transactions from a financial and operational perspective. Her team has other services, including business incentives and site selection to provide a full spectrum experience for her clients.

In her free time, you can find Amanda surfing, doing acro yoga, hiking, and playing volleyball, golf, tennis, and football. Her friends say she has a CANNON for an arm! It’s safe to say, Amanda is an Energizer Bunny who’s always ready to go play in the sun.

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • About Amanda and Savills
  • The South Florida economy
  • Industrial and office real estate sectors transforming in the next few years
  • Changing business models upon changing labor markets and inflation

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:01] 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: [00:00:14] 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 Amanda Montenez with Savills. Welcome Amanda

Amanda Montenez: [00:00:32] Hi, Lee! Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:35] I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. But before we get too far into things, tell us about Savills. How you serving folks?

Amanda Montenez: [00:00:41] Savills is a global real estate firm headquartered in the US and New York and globally in London and then here in the States, we are focused on the tenant representation business. And what that means to us business owners is that I’m representing you in your real estate transactions, not the landlord. You bring a lot of value in our lease transactions, mostly as well as acquisitions and dispositions of real estate.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:11] So you’re an advocate for a person that’s looking to lease commercial real estate?

Amanda Montenez: [00:01:16] Yes, exactly. Or acquire or maybe they have too much and they want to get rid of it so we can help them out there.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:24] And what’s your back story? How did you get involved in this line of work?

Amanda Montenez: [00:01:28] Good question. So I actually had studied dietetics in school, which is clinical nutrition, and found myself not wanting to be in a hospital all day long, instead wanting to do some kind of consultancy work where I could be out in the world meeting people and really helping and where my schedule was different. So I got recruited by Savills to join the industrial real estate team, and I focus a lot of my time on food manufacturing, food distribution, but not exclusive. That’s just what I like. For example, we’re working with a lot of logistics companies, some health care manufacturers and even some aerospace companies.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:09] So when it comes to commercial real estate, there’s kind of niches within that niche, right? So like you mentioned industrial, you mentioned office. Are there other types of kind of specialties within the the niche of commercial real estate?

Amanda Montenez: [00:02:22] Yes, you’re right on. So we have Office Industrial, which you mentioned, there’s retail, which Wal Mart think of and Arby’s that you’re walking into McDonald’s. There’s hotels that would be considered commercial multifamily. So if you were a student once and you lived in a dorm room, that’s a multifamily commercial property.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:46] So in just as you’ve been working in this space for a while, you’ve kind of gravitated to this for a certain reason or you just got good at this. How did you land where you landed?

Amanda Montenez: [00:02:57] Yeah, so I I’m a very curious person and I just gravitated toward the industrial real estate because when you think about it, everything you touch your pen, your phone, your brush you used to brush your teeth has gone through a warehouse at some point in its lifetime of being a product. So I’m always curious. When I’m driving down I-95, I’m looking at trucks and I’m wondering, Oh, where is that going? Like, I wonder what’s in there. So that’s really how I’ve stayed in the industrial industry, if you will.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:31] So how is that industry doing in the South Florida economy? How are you bullish? Are you kind of nervous? You know, there’s a lot of stuff that you’re reading about and hearing about regarding the economy, but how is the South Florida kind of commercial real estate doing?

Amanda Montenez: [00:03:48] South Florida commercial real estate is very strong. If you’re a landlord, you’re having a great year. Vacancy rates are historically low, like below 2%. If you’re a tenant, it’s a little scarier. And that’s who I service is the tenants. It’s a little scary, right? You’re going to have to start planning way ahead of time a year at minimum before your lease expires to plan. What am I going to do in the next year? Rates are going up. Astronomically. We’re talking 20% in a quarter, 50% in two quarters. And I’ve seen even rates being proposed at more than double than what they’re currently paying. So landlords having great year tenants, not so much.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:41] Now, at what point in time, if I am right now I have a lease, everything seems fine, but I know maybe it expires in three or four years. Is this something where I should start having conversations with you or somebody like you today, even though it’s a way off, but just so that I can start kind of getting my ducks in the row and planning for a future that, you know, who knows what it’s going to be like in several years. But do you want to have more conversations with folks, even though maybe there are leases and ending tomorrow, but it’s ending soon at some point.

Amanda Montenez: [00:05:15] Right? Yes. We always say leases. You have to do something. You got to close your business. You move out or you renew for the most part. So, yes, three, four years, that means you might have just started a lease. Typically, they’re about five years to seven years, maybe ten. Right now we’re seeing a lot of seven year proposals. But I would say why not be prepared? Why not start exploring your options? Maybe you have a sudden need to double your warehouse space or you acquire a company and you haven’t even thought about the real estate. But where are you going to put all these people that need an office space? Right? So always good to have an advisor on hand. Always good to be planning because I’m thinking about real estate every day. But business owners typically aren’t thinking about real estate every day. So I think get an advisor as soon as you can.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:10] And in the case of you or somebody like you, a tenant advisor is somebody that I’m not actually paying for you. Right. This has just taken off. Your commission is handled during the transaction.

Amanda Montenez: [00:06:23] Yeah, that’s right. So typically for a lease transaction, as we’re talking about, we split the fee with the listing broker and the landlord is paying that if you decide to not use a tenant representative instead of sharing that same fee, we will just go direct to the listing broker. So really, you’re not saving any money by not using a tenant rep. You’re just maybe missing out on some terms or some language might have been written better without using a tenant representative.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:00] Now, can you share some advice or maybe some things that have come up with you as a tenant advisor? How you’ve actually helped save your client’s money or helped actually make them have a better deal? Because you like you said, you you know, this stuff like the back of your hand, you’re in this business 24 seven where I’m doing this every, like you said, seven years. So I’m not an expert by any stretch and you know where all the kind of landmines are. Can you share maybe one or two examples of, Hey, do this instead of that or this You you can negotiate here or you can’t here.

Amanda Montenez: [00:07:35] Right? So a lot of my work is really deep financial analysis and based on the language of the contract, are modeling changes quite significantly. And I’ll tell you a quick summary of a project I’m working on now is with a company who is in about, let’s say, 50,000 square feet and they need more space, but the current building they’re in can’t take them into the adjacent space. So we’re in a situation where do we stay where we are and expand into a different space, or do we just take an entirely bigger space altogether somewhere else? And when we do all of these models things, for example, one park might be at. $19 a square foot and another park might be at 12 or $14 a square foot. And over five years, with that much square footage, that comes out to a difference of well over $4 million. And so when you’re able to analyze the bigger picture, analyze all your options in a macro sense versus just micro. Okay. $14, $19, that’s a $5 difference. No, it’s really a difference of term of total occupancy costs. We’re looking at how much does it cost you to move and that’s included in the cost savings. So it could be staying. Might not cost you too much today, but over five years it’ll cost you a lot more than leaving and taking up the upfront moving expenses to get into a separate facility.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:20] Now, what about, like, I’ve heard of these things called opportunity zones or certain parts of the community that are maybe tax advantaged or there’s a benefit for moving into one part of town than another. Do you help in that area as well, Like identify that or explain how that might be beneficial?

Amanda Montenez: [00:09:39] Yeah. So our business incentives groups, they can help us with. On a zip code by zip code level, determining how much incentive money might be available in those zones, as well as depending on the number of jobs that you’re providing or the level of revenue that you’re contributing to the area that kind of determines how much incentive money there is in those zones.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:10] And working with a firm like yours, you have like your team is large, you have a lot of resources that you may be an individual tenant rep wouldn’t have at their disposal that you do.

Amanda Montenez: [00:10:21] Right? Yeah, We’re a global, global firm and we have experts. For example, I work with my close friend and colleague Wayne Keys out in our L.A. office and we are able to collaborate on deals where I’m in South Florida and I might say, Hey, Prologis is doing kind of this tactic. What are you seeing in California and kind of share strategies that we might not know otherwise if we’re not able to collaborate on such a national level?

Lee Kantor: [00:10:55] So for you, what’s the most rewarding part of the job?

Amanda Montenez: [00:11:00] My favorite part is really being able to influence these business owners decisions, right? If I’m able to save them $5 million over ten years, a $5 million increase on the lease is effectively, if you want a 10% margin, $50 million of revenue, that they don’t have to figure out, how am I going to make 50 million more dollars over the next ten years? And I just get a lot of satisfaction from being able to start with an idea and start with a complex issue and then turn it into a solution that’s tangible and, you know, keep them coming.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:44] So you mentioned your in the industrial and office space. Is there kind of an ideal client for you? Like, what is your ideal prospect look like?

Amanda Montenez: [00:11:55] Yeah, So my ideal prospect looks like anybody and everybody who’s occupying a warehouse. So it could be a food distributor, it could be an electronics distributor, it could be a third party logistics company, maintenance repair organization, a manufacturer. Now, manufacturing is actually a tricky situation. Those are really hard to move. So if you want to move, you really have to start planning. And that kind of goes back to that question of three or four years in advance. If you’re in manufacturing and you’re seeing growth, you’re seeing that maybe my operation here is quite efficient. I might need another building. Three or four years goes by in a blink. It is not that much time. So those are kind of my ideal clients. And then I guess a little flashback to a question that you asked earlier.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:48] And so are are your clients people that are in South Florida that are moving from one location to another, or are your clients people that are just moving into the South Florida market for the first time?

Amanda Montenez: [00:12:59] Both. So since we’re a national company, we can help clients expand into other states or we can help clients within South Florida specifically who might have that lease expiration, might want an additional office and additional warehouse, or might be wanting to get rid of excess real estate that they don’t need.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:20] Is there a certain industries that you find is a good where South Florida is a good sweet spot where you might be able to help them?

Amanda Montenez: [00:13:27] South Florida. It tends to be heavy on aerospace, really. If you go up north, you see the space coast is quite busy out there. And then if you keep going farther north and to Georgia, you have some aviation manufacturers out there. And then if you go farther north, like into Charlotte, you have Honeywell out there headquartered there. So I think the East Coast is pretty heavy on aerospace and then a lot of logistics companies. We have three huge ports, right? The airport of Miami, the Port Everglades, and then the Port of Miami itself. Not to mention we have Port Tampa and then Port of Jacksonville. So those industries, aerospace, trade, logistics, huge for me and for South Florida in general.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:16] And when they have that many ports, they have lots of stuff that have to get on and off of boats. So they need places to put it right.

Amanda Montenez: [00:14:24] Yes, that’s right. So just a little tidbit. The Port of Miami. Ah, the airport sorry, the airport is actually planning a five story vertically integrated cargo center to be delivered in 2027. The port right now has some goals to increase the number of imports. And like you’re saying, it has to go somewhere. And we don’t have land in South Florida. So where is it going to go? It’s going to go up. So those are some some plans that are happening. I’ve been talking to developers and listing brokers about, okay, we have some land, we can’t go too far west. The Everglades are there. We can’t hurt the wildlife. When are we going to start going up? Developers are a little reluctant right now to start going vertical. It’s expensive. Not to mention who’s going to be able to afford to occupy those spaces. So we’re seeing development is being very cognizant of what’s going on in our environment, what’s going on economically and being a little slower than in the past two years. We’ve heard like warehousing this, warehousing that like, oh, it’s just hot, hot, hot. I think it’s going a little less red hot, but still very strong.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:44] Right? I mean, the demand is there, the need is there. I mean, something’s got to give.

Amanda Montenez: [00:15:50] Yes, something’s got to give. But you can’t be careless about it.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:54] And that’s why they need experts like you advising them. If somebody wants to learn more about you and your work and what’s the best way to get a hold of you or somebody on your team?

Amanda Montenez: [00:16:06] So I’m available via cell phone and everybody who’s listening here, write it down. 9167405485 and my email as well as LinkedIn. And I’m actually trying to start a South Florida Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals roundtable, and that is a national supply chain network of professionals in the industry. We don’t have one down in South Florida anymore. So if they want to get in contact with me about either real estate or supply chain in general, happy to be a resource.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:44] And your company’s website.

Amanda Montenez: [00:16:47] My company’s website is Savills s a v i LLC dot com. That’s our national or international website. Us website savvy lols dot us.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:02] And then from there they can find the Miami office.

Amanda Montenez: [00:17:05] Yes, that’s right.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:06] Good stuff. Well, Amanda, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Amanda Montenez: [00:17:13] All right. Thank you so much for the compliment, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:16] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see y’all next time on South Florida Business Radio.

Joe Dupriest With NextUp Ventures

by

Joe-Dupriest
Startup Showdown Podcast
Joe Dupriest With NextUp Ventures
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Joe Dupriest, Managing Partner at NextUp Ventures.

Senior sports executive with 15+ years of progressive leadership experience driving market penetration and business growth.

With an engineering degree from Georgia Tech coupled with an MBA from Duke University, he served as CMO for Monumental Sports & Entertainment during a period of explosive growth and change.

Joe launched Monumental Sports Network, the first OTT platform for regional sports, and has won 5 NCCB Emmy Awards.

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Sports tech
  • Current trends
  • Early stage sports tech fund

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, health care, tech, fintech and more. Now sit tight as we interview this week’s guest and their journey through entrepreneurship.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:40] 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 Joe Dupree’s out with Next Up Ventures. Welcome, Joe.

Joe Dupriest: [00:01:00] Thanks, Lee. Great to be here. Appreciate it.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:02] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about next step ventures. How are you serving folks?

Joe Dupriest: [00:01:07] So we started Next Up Ventures regularly right before the pandemic. So I’ve got a sports marketing background. I was CMO at Monumental Sports and involved with that organization for almost a decade. And so we launched Next Step Ventures initially to make Angel Investments. I’ve got two co-founders that I’ve known for the better part of 15 years, other sports executives throughout the years. You know, the initial thought behind it was sort of facilitating fundraisers. We run demo days. We’ve since launched a fund. We’ve got a $5 Million Early Stage Fund, and then we also have a complementary company. Next up, Partners, which is a 1099 network of sports executives, people handling social media, PR, creative, all of that that we then use to support not just startups, but especially startups with a model that can get them the resources that they need to grow and thrive.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:54] So I would imagine that the sports tech, is it an industry now? I would imagine it’s now kind of its own industry, right? It’s a niche unto itself.

Joe Dupriest: [00:02:05] Yeah, I think so. When we say sports tech, it’s a pretty broad term. A lot of times it’s really cool tech that has a sports application but can also be applied to many other industries. But it’s interesting from the standpoint of sports teams and leagues, which traditionally have trailed the play a bit when it came to whether it was social media engagements or AR, VR, any of those type things as they would come along, you know, the bigger brands would be first. But as ownership has changed, as the executive teams running these have changed, it’s really come to the forefront of how to differentiate themselves, whether it be fan experience or digitally, you know, how they engage their fan bases. It’s really become more to the forefront.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:46] Right. And then I would layer on top of that all of these devices now where you can, you know, like the whoop device where you can kind of track yourself. It seems like the highest level athletes are using devices like that to just maximize their performance.

Joe Dupriest: [00:03:00] Exactly. I mean, it started with one of my co founders actually wants Nike plus back in the day, you know, one of the first ones of that. But then, you know, the iterations on that with Connected Fitness. And then it’s really been interesting to see the various different avenues that companies have taken. And then you get all these various products and how do you then combine them, which is in creating a whole new area of how you take all this data and use it. So more data companies come in complimentary. And so it’s really been a quickly evolving area across all sports.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:29] Yeah, it must be exciting for the athletes and for the owners to be kind of now at the forefront of this world. There are other trends you’re seeing in this because, you know, we’ve talked about a couple of things, but I would you know, you can talk about kind of Web three where there’s opportunities for a brand to insert themselves there. And with nfts and and with the licensing of athletes, it seems like, you know, those are other areas that are ripe for sports tech influence.

Joe Dupriest: [00:03:59] Yeah. And I think COVID certainly spurred a lot of it as there was no live sports. How do you engage? So virtual events really became big as the sports collectible market began to grow again. The pivot into Nfts, which obviously is only one application with like sports tech being applied to sports, but a lot of other areas that was just one that kind of came to the forefront. And then athletes being able to monetize themselves. You certainly seen a lot from the PGA Tour and and the athletes there and some of the issues and players, you know, the nil that is now come about players ability in college to monetize their own brand. But then what tools do you have to do that? What platforms and marketplaces do you have? So you’ve really seen a lot of ways for people other than just the teams and leagues and the brands to make the money. Those opportunities abound for for everybody.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:50] Are you seeing the athlete becoming more sophisticated when it comes to their investing and what they’re doing with their money?

Joe Dupriest: [00:04:57] Absolutely. I mean, you’re seeing a lot of athlete either founded companies, you know, when it’s not just pro athletes, even college athletes, you know, surrounding themselves with more business people, you know, really kind of looking at what’s what’s in the future for them, you know, planning their own money, their own. What’s next? We invested in a company called Star Stock. Kevin Durant was an investor in that. There’s a number of other companies that have popped up that have athletes being involved and really have an interest in entrepreneurship. And you’ve really seen that especially in the last couple of years, athletes saying, hey, there’s a lot more than just what the on the field is. How do I capitalize on that?

Lee Kantor: [00:05:38] So now what are kind of the investors in this space looking for in terms of their pitches that they’re seeing?

Joe Dupriest: [00:05:45] I mean, it is I see a lot of really early stage stuff, which really comes down to kind of who the founder is. And I think the authenticity of it is, is there a founder market fit is really important, which is where the athlete comes in. A lot of times if you are a fitness company and you don’t have high profile athletes that believe in what you’re doing, that that really makes it a lot more difficult. So you see a lot of advisory boards, if not founders with the athletes, then combining with the tech teams. But really, really that fit in that vision is important. And then kind of an understanding of knowing what they. Don’t know what you see. A lot of times in sports, tech or sports startups in general is sports fans or people that don’t have other sports backgrounds. They may not understand the nuances of sports. Being able to surround themselves with the right team and prove that they are the ones to solve these issues is really important to investors to see see that team and vision that’s been built while understanding that they don’t know everything.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:44] Now, we talked a little bit about this, but the athletes, now, they’re making so much money, are they kind of looking to get involved as angel investors and getting involved in the investment side of these things to diversify their portfolios? And just because they see, hey, I can leverage my brand to really kind of jump start the right with the right fit.

Joe Dupriest: [00:07:05] Yeah, I think, yeah, I think it really is. And I think it’s athletes wanting to get involved in more than just the game. And you see whether it’s launching their own brands and products, it’s not just putting their name on stuff, it’s what they believe in and things that they can really get involved in day to day and drive value. So now you have that authenticity of. I need the athlete with the company that you may not have always had before this diversification piece. You know, whether it’s Steph Curry and others you’ve seen really get involved in a lot of these spaces and behind companies that they believe in and especially, you know, founders they believe in know it’s that that’s become a big driver of it as well, especially whether it’s the social conscious, just start up solving real problems and really going after, you know, unique opportunities that the athlete sees the value in. It’s an investment piece or they want to make a lot of money off of it. And a lot of them have their own funds or investor groups, actually. You know, Baron Davis has his own group, actually, one of the companies that next ventures invested in. We met through them, through basketball, but they really want to get involved more than just writing a check. It’s not just about the money, but obviously you want to you want to make money, but they have the financial means to really find what’s important to them and drive that value.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:16] So what’s the part that excites you the most of these kind of early stage companies and founders of early stage companies? What kind of gets you fired up?

Joe Dupriest: [00:08:26] I think it’s seeing the creativity behind finding the solutions, seeing the process that that’s really exciting for me. You know, and this is a new area for me, if you like I said, I was CMO. I actually had an engineering background prior to getting involved in sports. But, you know, startup entrepreneurship is something I always had an interest in but never was hands on. So it’s a great learning experience for me as well to see what founders have succeeded, to kind of see them along their journey. They just meeting the founders, and it’s from that standpoint because that’s really what differentiates one from the next or whether they’re going to invest in early stage. You know, as great as the hockey stick grass they all put in their decks are, you know, it’s really meeting the founder and getting to know them and their vision. And sometimes, hey, maybe this this company isn’t going to be right for them. They’re going to figure something out. And I’ve seen that just in the last couple of years, you know, a number of startups that have pivoted in various ways to great success. But the founder piece of it is huge, but it’s just the creativity and the especially now paired with the openness of teams and leagues and brands to try a lot of this stuff. You know, create pilot programs and get stuff out of the market that the opportunity wasn’t necessarily there before. It was definitely a lot harder to find it now. There’s an opportunity now and people are capitalizing on it now.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:42] I would imagine because of your work, you do meet a lot of, you know, kind of professional athletes that would have an interest in this. Are there when they’re doing a venture, is there maybe some do’s and don’ts you would recommend for an athlete that’s thinking about investing? What are some of the things that are kind of must have skills and maybe some of the things that are red flag or, you know, maybe not even a red flag, but just kind of you’ve got to educate them on like managing their expectations.

Joe Dupriest: [00:10:15] Yeah. I mean, I think there’s a couple of things. One is certainly pairing themselves with somebody that’s experienced in this area that’s sort of been there and done that and can kind of guide them along the way. So I’ve seen some interesting, you know, VC or angel partnerships with athletes and going in together. I think that that really helps the athlete. You know, one similar to the founder, knowing what they don’t know, the athlete knowing what they don’t know about the space and being open to learning that. So pairing with the right mentor in the investing space is important. And I think it’s also just making sure that if they’re looking at startups or founders, making sure that it’s authentic to what they do, their own personal brand, that there’s really a there’s a fit there because it’s if it’s an obvious not fit that’s going to become obvious to investor, it’s going to be become obvious to potential customers. So just really making sure that it fits in with their greater vision of what they want for themselves both now and down the road.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:09] Now, in your career, when you started out, were you always in sports?

Joe Dupriest: [00:11:15] My vision for myself. Well, I guess my assumption for myself, I should say, was going to be an engineer. So growing up, I was always, you know, really good at math and science. So I’ll go to Georgia Tech, I’ll be an engineer, went in there as a mechanical engineer, decided about a year later, I don’t really want to be a mechanical engineer, but engineering makes sense. Marty Here, go down the industrial engineering path. I did that, worked at FedEx for a few years and even then it’s like, I don’t know, this is really what I want to do now that I’m into it. It’s what you’re what kind of rises to the top of your school grades and isn’t necessarily where you would be happiest. And so that’s where I sort of made it sort of making a pivot, which actually started when I was at Georgia Tech. We had a project. You talk to somebody in the industry we were interested in and I blindly reached out the assistant general manager of the Atlanta Braves, Dean Taylor, back in the early, mid late nineties, you know, had a conversation there. Even when I got the FedEx was talking to Memphis, Redbirds and other companies and then I went back to business school. My whole concept there was I want to get into sports marketing and look at anything else besides sports marketing. I didn’t get sucked into the big brands or other other companies that were recruiting on campus, really just focused on that side. And that was. I graduated there in oh four, landed a job with the Philadelphia Eagles right out of school. And then it’s just been kind of bouncing between teams and, you know, kind of up and down I-95 until I eventually launched this company a few years ago. But that was I kind of had an idea early, but it wasn’t until I really got to business school and really, really got to force the issue and focus on it.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:52] So like when you were in high school, in college, you were interested in sports, but you never kind of connected the dots at the time that, Hey, maybe I should be pursuing this. You’re like, Hey, I’m good at math, so I’m going to do this engineering thing and play that out.

Joe Dupriest: [00:13:06] Exactly. And then it was much different. If you look at sports in the late nineties or early, even into up to like 2010, you know, you didn’t really see research data analytics departments within sports and. I wasn’t really at the time, you know, early on it was like you do sports or you do this. It wasn’t really, hey, you do both. And sports wasn’t run the same. It is if you look at the executive line on a lot of these teams, you know, it’s it’s a lot of people that come from other industries or it’s it’s not built as much around sports fans as is more like a business than it was 25 years ago. And so I think that opened the doors a lot, which is also great for me because I was able to leverage when I was at Duke, I did a summer internship with the Durham Bulls triple-A team, and my project was Market Research. I built some case studies around their sponsorships. It’s a lot of analytics that nobody had done. I ran a regression analysis for a couple of NHL teams or on their ticket sales. It was all brand new at the time, so it was easy for me to carve that niche and it was really, Hey, it’s not one or the other. Hey, I can leverage the stuff I’m really good at to get into this. And now, you know, marketing and sales and everything else within sports is very data analytic driven. But back then it wasn’t. But I did. I kind of hit it at the right time that I was able to leverage the prior life with what is the current.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:28] Right now it looks like you’re the strategic genius that played this exactly right.

Joe Dupriest: [00:14:34] Yeah, that’s what I try to say. A little luck in the timing and, you know, meeting the right people here and there. And even when I talk about my time at Duke, I landed the Eagles job kind of right out. It was kind of right place, right time. But it was also part of my 200 phone call of, you know, marketing here. You know, getting everybody I could talk to across sports, you know, talking to and and the 201. Ended up being the one. Okay, here’s a perfect job of the perfect fit with looking for my exact skill set. Not good enough as it eventually lands.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:07] Now, can you talk a little bit about start up Showdown, your mentor with them? How did that get on your radar and what was that experience like for you?

Joe Dupriest: [00:15:16] Yeah. So one of the VP’s there, Dustin. So I’m based in Atlanta, as is he. We met through a mutual friend. I was looking for mentorship on my own end around the venture side and raising a fund. And we we run our own demo day events as well through through next up. It’s a smaller scale and no investment necessarily from us, but it’s just more of a traditional demo day event. So he and I were talking and I want to get more and more involved. I want to meet more startups. I’m really enjoying this process, my Techstars mentor as well. So I’ve gotten exposed to that. And then kind of through our conversations, he introduced me to some people on his team. Describe what it was like. Hey, this is perfect. This is exactly what I want to get more involved in. And it was interesting too, because obviously, you know, panoramic does a pretty good bit in sports, but it’s much broader. So it was exposure to other early stages that aren’t necessarily directly in what I do day to day of next up. And so that that was really appealing to me as well. But yeah, it’s been a nice process and I really enjoyed it.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:22] And if you were advising that first time founder, the person that maybe you were mentoring during Startup Showdown, what what’s kind of a piece of advice that you would say to them in order for them to get the most out of their experience?

Joe Dupriest: [00:16:34] Yeah. I mean, it’s listen and be open to feedback, ask questions, but don’t take it as just a pure pitch to your mentor. Take it as a true mentor opportunity. Because there’s there’s a number of things that I’ve seen, you know, kind of taking it back a little bit to sports tech. It seems like there’s a few problems that a lot of the startups that we talk to and work with. One is it takes too long to find a product market fit or realize it’s not there. You can spend too money too quickly or is not understanding the nuances and making sure you got the right team behind you for whatever, whatever industry you’re involved in. And so making sure you’re able to answer all of that, have a really good story, really tighten it up, bounce it off the mentor, listen as much as you can and dial it in and just be open of, Hey, I know my business inside out, but I know there’s a lot that I don’t know and I’m here to learn and absorb everything. And the good thing about it as well, you get to interact with a lot of different mentors. So you’re not just taking the advice of one. You know, you get a number of different perspectives that can then be hone your story and hone your pitch and really answer a lot of the tough questions that you know you’re going to hit when you really go out on the investment trail and try to start raising that money.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:43] Yeah, to me, that’s the kind of the art form of being a startup founders is threading the needle between, you know, having the confidence to do something this hard and also having the vulnerability and humility to listen to other people.

Joe Dupriest: [00:17:59] Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, you see a lot of different early on. I mean, you see some startups that they basically think that they’re doing me a favor by pitching me and engaging with me, whereas a lot of the others like they really want. The mentorship they really want to absorb and learn. And those are the ones that are ultimately going to be successful because your exact business model now is probably not the one that’s going to be successful. It’s probably some derivative of that, some things that you’re going to learn throughout this process. So as much as you can start learning and avoid getting quicker to market, not burning through money because it’s really easy to do if you’re going down the wrong path to run out of money before you fix it. So as much as you’re able to do that and I would take that same philosophy with you, take money from it, people that write checks are great, but people that were really invested in your business are going to want to help you and mentor you along the way there because you don’t want mentorship. Shouldn’t be just a one time conversation. You need to. These mentors that are really going to guide you along the way and be engaged with you.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:03] Amen to that. Well, Joe, if somebody wants to learn more about next step, either ventures or partners, what are the coordinates?

Joe Dupriest: [00:19:11] Yeah, Joe at next up ventures dot net. And you can reach out to me there. If there’s any interest across the venture side and our demo day events or our advisory and consulting or just want to have a conversation, you know, I was looking at open to talk of the startups up and talking to other investors, talking to people interested in the sports tech space as well. So. Joe. Next up, ventures dot net.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:33] At the Web site.

Joe Dupriest: [00:19:35] Next up partners dot com.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:37] All right, Joe. Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Joe Dupriest: [00:19:42] I appreciate it. Thanks for the time.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:44] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Startup Showdown.

Intro: [00:19:49] 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.

Antonio Clinkscales With Life Way Services

by

AntonioClinkscales
Richmond Business Radio
Antonio Clinkscales With Life Way Services
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Coach-Karena-ambassadorLWSAntonioClinkscalesAntonio Clinkscales is a pastor, educator, business owner, author, speaker, conference host, and community advocate who is passionate about healing the mind, body, and spirit. As Founder/CEO of Life Way Services, a mental health counseling company, he uses his training in trauma and spiritual calling to fuse both the science and spirituality of healing into a transformative message of hope for the hurting and lost.

His national conference of “Tackling Trauma Together: The Way To Wholeness” is changing lives by placing people on a mental trajectory towards ones divine purpose. Professionals in the medical and mental health industries recognize his strategies as revolutionary and partner to assist in helping people overcome their past pain in order to live in their present prosperity.

Follow Life Way Services on LinkedIn and Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • His reason of entering this business
  • His community involvement
  • His motivation

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:06] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Richmond, Virginia. It’s time for Richmond Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:19] Lee Kantor here another episode of Richmond Business Radio and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor War Cry Consulting Solutions, supporting women to lean into their purpose, craft their vision and crush their goals. Today on Richmond Business Radio, we have Antonio Kling Scales with Lifeway Services. Welcome, Antonio.

Antonio Clinkscales: [00:00:45] Welcome. Glad to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:47] Well, I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about Lifeway Services, how you serve in folks.

Antonio Clinkscales: [00:00:53] Absolutely. Thank you for having me. We are an outpatient mental health counseling company that services individuals, youth, as well as adults in the Richmond area and beyond. We also provide in-person counseling as well as virtual. So we’re able to service a wide range of individuals with a variety of needs in different locations.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:20] So what’s your back story? How did you get involved in this line of work?

Antonio Clinkscales: [00:01:24] Absolutely. It’s really a tremendous story. It was birth out of the pandemic, believe it or not, because the need was so great in this county already, the pandemic only. Increase the need and the demand for services in our county and the surrounding counties. And therefore we rose to the challenge and to meet that need head on and to make sure that individuals were able to receive the help that they need. And so because of a pandemic, which is a bad or negative thing, depending on how you look at it, but it also birthed something that was so tremendous and such a blessing to so many people in our community.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:15] Now, when you started offering the services that you offer, when did you realize, hey, this is something that’s really getting a lot of traction, A lot of folks are this is resonating with a lot of folks. We should be doing more of this.

Antonio Clinkscales: [00:02:32] Well, again, the need was already there. And many people where we are in Caroline County, our headquarters in Caroline County, which is just north of Richmond, right above the King’s Dominion area, is very rural. So we either have to travel to Richmond or Fredericksburg for services and many people have transportation concerns and aren’t able to receive the services. And therefore, again, out of the pandemic, it only magnified the problem that already existed. And therefore we had to do something to not only try to bring relief to individuals through a lot of community service projects that we also formed through our company, through Lifeway services, but to give people mental relief as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:29] Now, was it something that you just started offering these services and people were coming to you or were they coming to you saying, Hey, we need some help? What can you do to help us? Like what came first, the offering of services or just the demand from the public?

Antonio Clinkscales: [00:03:44] The demand was there. But when we opened our doors and we said that we’re here and we’re able we wanted to help and give people some mental relief and to put some youth and students on the right path. People immediately gravitated towards us and accepted us into the community and welcomed the help and the resources that we were providing. And again, we are out in the community. We are the community I live in. The community have been here for almost 30 years. Our staff live in the community and some of them have grew up in Caroline County and are willing to give back to their community. And so we wanted to do something that was unique and special again, birth out of the pandemic, but wanted to make sure that we were taking care of our own.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:45] Can you share with the listeners some examples of how you work with somebody? Maybe somebody gets onto your radar, you see a person in need. What are some of the services you provide? What are some of the ways that you interact with them and maybe help them kind of redirect their life maybe to a better place?

Antonio Clinkscales: [00:05:06] Absolutely. People can call our office or the best way is to go onto our website which is w WW dot lightweight services dot org. And from there you can find out all the resources that and services that we provide. You can see our clinicians and our counselors that also that are listed there. And most importantly, individuals can schedule their own free consultation right through our website at a time and date that is convenient for them and we will make sure that we contact them during that particular time. We’re able to work with them during their initial consultation, get them scheduled with a clinician, get them into our office as quickly as possible because that’s one of the benefits that we wanted to provide, is to make sure that not only we be in the community, but we want to make sure that we were available for the community. Therefore, we had to make sure that we had sufficient staff, we had to make sure that we were available to meet those needs. So when they call that, we didn’t have to place them on a waiting list, like many other services and providers in the surrounding area, if you call them, you might get a 2 to 3 month waiting list before you’re able to have that initial consultation. But we want to make sure that we met the needs and those demands of the community by being available.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:45] Are you finding that young people are open to this kind of help, that maybe for older folks there was some stigma or some feeling that they didn’t need help? I could do this myself, or I should be able to solve these challenges on my own, whereas maybe younger people today are more open to asking for help and receiving help.

Antonio Clinkscales: [00:07:04] Absolutely. I am just ecstatic of the number of young people that come to us who are open, who are honest, who are receiving the strategies that we’re providing and the information that we provide. They are soaking it up. They observe it, absorbing it. And it’s a beautiful sight to see. And I encourage more young people to reach out not just to Lifeway services, but to any provider just to be able to talk things through. They want a listening ear. They want to be heard in so many times in the community and the society that we live in today, they’re not giving that voice and then not given an opportunity. And therefore, a lot of the behaviors, a lot of stressors, a lot of things that they’re going through, the anxiety, the depression, trying to find out who they are in their place in this world is because of the lack of voice and opportunities that they have to speak and to be heard. And therefore, we want to make sure that we are providing them that space, that safe space, so that they can be heard and we can begin to work through some of their issues and concerns.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:23] Is there any kind of clues maybe a parent could be on the lookout for that? Maybe something is amiss with their child. A lot of times you want to give your child space, but you also don’t want to miss things that maybe in hindsight would have been obvious. Are there some clues that maybe your child needs some help and there maybe you can identify and then introduce them to you and your team?

Antonio Clinkscales: [00:08:46] Absolutely. One of the biggest strategies that we encourage parents is to get involved with their children. And I know that may sounds real crazy, but the reality is with technology, a lot of parents just say, go to your room, you know, go watch TV, be on your phone, be on the computer, be on your tablet, be on a gaming system, and therefore they don’t want to be bothered and therefore they allow their electronic device or system to be their teacher, their guide in that safe space that they can go to. And so we encourage parents to get involved just to have those conversations with their child. It’s okay to ask them how their day was. It’s okay if they say fine and then just kind of want to be by themselves, but really engage their child and know who their friends are, know who they hang out with at school and get involved with their school system. Because a lot of times that explains a lot of what’s going on because they find trust in individuals and adults in the school system and they may confide in those counselors or teachers. And so when parents are involved, they can become connected and find out a lot more information from those sources than they would at home. But definitely parents have to be more involved in engaging with their with their child to find out what’s going on in their lives so that they can stay connected and build that trust so that their child can share those intimate things with them, those concerns and those thoughts that they may be having and be able to share them with their parent and their parent really should be there for them.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:42] Now, how do you help the parent where, you know, they’re trying to do these things, They’re asking the questions, but the kid’s like, hey, you know, I’m good, everything’s fine. And they just kind of brush them off and don’t really engage back. Is this a situation where the parent just kind of has to be relentless and and just kind of keep showing up day after day to let them know I’m going to be here no matter what?

Antonio Clinkscales: [00:11:08] And absolutely as parents, we’re supposed to be doing that anyway. We’re supposed to be that relentless voice saying that we are going to be there and providing that security, providing that safe space and a place, and that their child can be comfortable and trusting enough to share again that their intimate thoughts and things that might be going on on the inside of them and with their body changing during certain times in their development. We should be there anyway and we should be that relentless force. Absolutely. But not pressing, but just reminding their child that they are there for them, not only to provide that shelter and food, the basic needs that they need, but also to be that listening ear. So. The parents really need to look out for patterns and they need to look out for certain behaviors in their child. If they see something that is different, that they’re doing something different. If they’re normally outgoing and now they’re quiet, that’s a sign. If they’re really quiet and to themselves and isolation. But now they’re wanting to go out and they’re dressed in a certain way and looking a certain way. I mean, these signs are signals. They can be red flags. And parents need to be aware of those changes in their child’s behavior and not to be pressing. But they also parents have the responsibility to care for their child. Therefore, if they’re seeing some reckless behaviors, if they’re seeing things that are the some of their decision making is not aligning with some of their core values and beliefs and the way that they want to raise their child, then certainly they should seek help in those situations so that it’s they’re not waiting until it’s too late.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:08] Can you share a story? Maybe that. Is a success story that maybe you got a hold of a kid, maybe that was in a in a in rough water and you were able to help them get to the other side. And now they’re leading a more healthy, productive life. You don’t have to obviously don’t name the kid’s name, but just maybe tell the story.

Antonio Clinkscales: [00:13:30] No, absolutely. And we we have a bunch and I’m excited about that. And that’s why I’m so passionate about what I do. And to be in this mental health field is because of the successes. And one particular student who a male student in middle school was really having a hard time fitting in. He was new to the area. He was being picked on and bullied because he was new in a little different dress. Different because it was from a different part of the country. And therefore he kind of stood out a little bit. And in his outgoing personality, he just wanted to make friends. But it didn’t it wasn’t received well and it was received differently by his peers. And so he really struggled the first year of school here, being in Caroline County. But his mom got involved. His mom called us and said, I need some help. I don’t know what to do. We began working with that student and mentoring that student as well. And really within three, 3 to 4 months, that student was a totally different kid. I mean, he really embraced the process and the strategies that we were trying to implement. And we work with mom as well to for mom to implement some things at home and to put some different boundaries and structure at home so that he could operate, she began she became more involved with him at school, and that gave him a lot of confidence and gave him really some security that he was looking for because he didn’t feel safe at school.

Antonio Clinkscales: [00:15:19] And therefore, to have those extra bodies and eyes there to reassure him that he was in a safe place and that he could really fit in. And then he began to gravitate towards some different friends who really wanted to become his friend, and they really bonded. And that student is excelling. He was when he came to us in our county, he was an average student, a C student, and now he’s on the AB honor roll every semester and we’re just super excited with his progress. But it was really the the the quickness in how quickly he gravitated from who he was to who he became in such a short period of time that we’re super excited to really spotlight him and showcase that our strategies and our efforts really do work when we are a village trying to take care of our kids.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:19] Yeah, and that is an amazing story to be able to turn a kid’s life around so quickly. And you know, if you weren’t there to intervene, you know, it could have really had a different outcome. And now the path seems like it’s going in the right direction. And not only do you impact that child, you impact their that family, you impact the community. I mean, the impact is real.

Antonio Clinkscales: [00:16:42] Absolutely. And it does trickle down. And we’re starting to see that in our community now as we become more involved and we’re working with more students and families, that we are really changing individual, dynamic family dynamics as well as we’re trying to change our community and with our staff being here in the community, that just feels a heart that makes us so proud.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:13] So what do you need more of? How can we help?

Antonio Clinkscales: [00:17:16] Absolutely. More clients. We’re we’re still a relatively new company. We’re only a few years old, but we’re growing. And therefore, as the demand grows, we want to we will grow proportionately with the demand and we’ll make sure that we have the staff and the capability to meet those needs. But we’re out in the community. And also during the pandemic, we provided meals to 35, almost 40 families every week, and we collected those foods and we delivered the foods to their houses because a lot of people were, again, during the pandemic, during the shutdown, would not come out. And therefore, we delivered food boxes. And we continue to be in the community providing food boxes to those who are in need. We’re showing up at different events, and what we need is just more individuals who know about who we are and what we do and if they are willing to partner with us in this process of wholeness, then we are there for them.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:31] And if somebody wants to learn more, what’s the website? What’s the best way to get a hold of you or somebody on the team?

Antonio Clinkscales: [00:18:37] Absolutely. Through our website again is W WW lifeway services dot org and all of our information is there and most importantly, individuals can choose their free consultation and book it right through our website. It will come to us and we will make sure that we contact those individuals at their designated time.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:01] Well, Antonio, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Antonio Clinkscales: [00:19:06] Know, I appreciate the opportunity and thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:09] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Richmond Business Radio.

 

Jake Gocke With Deloitte & Touche LLP

by

Jake Gocke
Atlanta Business Radio
Jake Gocke With Deloitte & Touche LLP
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DeloitteJake GockeJake Gocke is Deloitte & Touche LLP’s National Audit & Assurance Payments leader and a partner in the Fintech practice. He has extensive experience in the payments industry and is passionate about its growth, expansion, and evolution. He serves clients across the payments ecosystem, including merchant acquirer and issuer payment processors, gateways, independent sales organizations, integrated payment solution providers, and payment facilitators. Jake has provided leadership and guidance to his clients through IPOs, debt and equity offerings, new service offerings, management transitions, internal controls implementations and rationalizations, and fiscal year-end changes.

He is a subject matter expert on industry-specific technical accounting topics, including revenue recognition. Jake has served a variety of Deloitte’s clients — from emerging growth companies to our largest and most complex multinational clients. Jake serves on the Technology Association of Georgia FinTech Society Board of Directors. He also serves on the Atlanta Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth Georgia Fast 40 selection committee. He is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in Georgia.

Connect with Jake on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • About the consumer payments industry
  • The consumer payments section of Deloitte’s 2023 Banking and Capital Markets Outlook touches on unlocking deeper financial relationships beyond transaction flows
  • Factors that influence the consumer payments industry
  • The business and consumer sides of digital payments

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:10] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by on pay. Built in Atlanta on pay is the top rated payroll and HR software anywhere. Get one month free at unpaid. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:38] Lee Kantor here another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Jake Gocke with Deloitte. He is the partner National Audit and Assurance Payment Leader. Welcome, Jake.

Jake Gocke: [00:00:52] Thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:53] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. First, tell us a little bit about your position. How are you serving folks?

Jake Gocke: [00:01:00] Yeah. Happy to. As you said, I’m a partner with Deloitte and I work specifically with clients in the payment processing space. Served clients in the industry for about ten years based in Atlanta. And it’s just. It’s really been an exciting time. So happy to talk to you today.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:15] So before we get too far into things, can you tell the listener, maybe educate them a little bit about what exactly is consumer payments industry? What does that entail? Is it is it banking? Is that what it is or is it that’s just now a subset of what it is today?

Jake Gocke: [00:01:31] Yeah, it’s a great question and I get it quite a bit. And really, payment processing is an industry designed to ensure that people like me and you can use credit and debit cards to pay for transactions. And so a lot of people might go to the grocery store at the checkout swipe, tap or insert their credit card pay for the transaction is approved within 2 seconds and walk out and not really think about how that all happened. And what people don’t realize is behind the scenes there are a lot of different parties involved to ensure that you and I can do exactly that, which is walk in, use a credit debit card transaction, and walk out seamlessly. And so this industry is really expanded quite a bit, a lot of parties involved. And it’s really just an exciting, exciting industry to be in, just given how dynamic and innovative it’s become.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:23] And to that to that end, Deloitte has put together a report that kind of touches on this, and it kind of explains maybe the financial relationships that are involved in all these transactions. And maybe you can talk about that a little bit about how, you know, maybe just give us kind of the State of the Union.

Jake Gocke: [00:02:44] Sure. Happy to. So, yeah, our report does a nice job of just laying out the payment processing ecosystem and really highlighting what’s changed and what’s expected to change over the next five, ten years. But really what we’re seeing in the industry is it’s dynamic, it’s innovative, it’s competitive, and a lot of companies in the space are figuring out ways to drive innovation, disrupt the the old norms of how payment transactions work and deliver more value added services to consumers and to merchants.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:22] Now, you mentioned how complex that this ecosystem is. And for the people who don’t understand, like when you make a payment, whether it’s a credit card payment or debit or, you know, now you can swipe your hand over a machine and that makes a payment. Any of those things. Not only is the merchant obviously touching the money and the bank touches the money, but there’s a multitude of players in between that help kind of move that transaction along. And because of that, I would imagine that’s good for the consumer, the speed of which that happens. But it’s also opens up some possibilities for bad actors to insert themselves and maybe, you know, get access to that same information. Can you talk about how security is is involved in this?

Jake Gocke: [00:04:13] Yeah, and it’s a great point because really what the industry is trying to balance is speed of payments without losing security. And so consumers, merchants, obviously value quick, fast, simple payments. But we also value as consumers and merchants, security and controls to ensure that transactions remain safe. Ultimately, if a transaction is safe, he or she may be less likely to use a credit debit card or make a digital payment. And so the industry, of course, has always been and will continue to be focused on security around transactions, understanding the environment, the ecosystem and potential exposure areas, and really using innovation and sort of historical practices to ensure that transactions remain safe. So certainly there’s a balance here between speed and secure transactions, and the industry continues to be focused on ensuring they are achieving both of those things.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:12] Now, how does kind of Atlanta fit into this fintech ecosystem? Are we a hub of it or are we a big player? Like, where do you see us in kind of the entire, at least the United States ecosystem when it comes to fintech?

Jake Gocke: [00:05:27] I mean, Atlanta is is the hub for payment processing. And a lot of people, even those who reside in Atlanta, don’t realize that six of the ten largest payment processing firms are headquartered in Georgia. 70% of all global financial transactions pass through. Companies headquartered in Atlanta. And Atlanta really has become just the scene as it relates to payment processing. So it’s an exciting place to be and exciting time to be in the payments industry. And as far as the future outlook for Atlanta, it continues to be very bright in the payment processing space.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:01] Now, what kind of trends are you seeing? You said that it’s obviously it changes rapidly and for you to even be able to forecast ten years. Good, good on you on that, because I mean, if you went back ten years, could you have predicted today, ten years ago? I would imagine that would be outside the scope of most people’s predictions. But what are some of the things you see moving forward when it comes to payment processing? Like how much faster can it be? Like, like I said earlier, you can now buy things just by swiping your hand on on a device. And now that’s you can purchase items that way. How else is it going to change?

Jake Gocke: [00:06:37] Yeah, well, I think where we’re going to see changes is really the way a consumer experiences payment transactions. So what you’re seeing more is the development of mobile apps, for example, where payment transactions can occur, but there’s more consumer engagement, more insights for both consumers and merchant in terms of spending behavior, patterns of spending, behavior and the like, and really just more innovation around a payment transaction so that it’s more it feels more of a value added service to both the merchant and the consumer. But you’re absolutely right. You know, ten years ago, I don’t think anyone could have really predicted where we are today. And that’s why what I think is so exciting about this space is in ten years, where will we be then and what innovations are really going to take off as we now in that point in time?

Lee Kantor: [00:07:22] Now, you talk a lot about, obviously consumers and merchants. What about when it comes to peer to peer kind of sharing of funds? Are you seeing that also an area of interest for these fintech firms?

Jake Gocke: [00:07:38] Absolutely. I mean, digital payments is a great example of that, where if I play golf with a friend on the weekend and he happens to pay the fee for that round, I could pay him back my share of it through a number of different apps. I think entities in a space realize that there is a strong appetite for a peer to peer payments and have developed the technology to ensure that can happen and will continue happening going forward. But that’s certainly an area of high growth where I think a lot of us in the industry have the opportunity to continue to innovate and drive consumer engagement.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:13] Now, are you seeing with this switch obviously to a more cashless world, how is that impacting kind of the people who are unbanked? Where does how do they fit into this?

Jake Gocke: [00:08:26] Yeah. I mean, the unbanked and the underbanked certainly have access to card payments through different avenues. I think cash remains very prevalent form of currency in different subsectors. But to think that the unbanked or underbanked don’t have access I think is probably a misconception. It’s just different mechanisms through which these consumers are able to access payment transactions.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:53] And when it comes to kind of the the growth of the businesses that are serving fintech here in Atlanta, are you seeing more companies getting into that, more startups entering that space? Do you see some types of consolidation maybe Where are we at right now when it comes to the fintech industry, maybe from an employment standpoint from in Atlanta?

Jake Gocke: [00:09:19] Yeah, great question. I mean, Atlanta really has, has it all? We’ve got emerging growth companies and start ups. We’ve got private companies that are continuing to thrive and we’ve got very large public companies. So we sort of across the different size or lifecycle of of a of a business, we sort of got all different points, which is fantastic. And I think a big reason for that is we’ve got great colleges in the Georgia area, a lot of talent, a lot of interest in payment processing, just given the history here in Atlanta and really an appetite for innovation. So what we’re seeing is the continued development of fintech startups that are looking to innovate the space. And we’re seeing the continued success and consolidation and growth of existing incumbent companies in the data processing space.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:06] Now, are you seeing the universities and maybe even high schools helping out when it comes to talent and changing curriculum, maybe opening up curriculum that serves this niche to help create more qualified people coming out of university with the type of education and training they need in order to be successful in fintech.

Jake Gocke: [00:10:29] Absolutely. What we’re seeing is across the board, colleges are offering fintech curriculum, payment processing curriculum because there’s a recognition that it is an emerging space, it’s continuing to grow and get traction, and there’s really a great future there. So absolutely, you know, at colleges across the state, we’re seeing curriculum designed specifically around fintech and payments, which is only going to further the cause of growth in the payment space here in Atlanta.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:56] So what do you think the ecosystem needs more of?

Jake Gocke: [00:11:01] Innovation, always, always innovation. And certainly the future outlook is always going to be uncertain. We don’t we don’t know what we don’t know and we don’t know what the next five or ten years will hold. But what we do know is companies need to continue to be agile to deal with the uncertainty and innovate, to continue to drive positive consumer and merchant experiences.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:24] Now from from a Deloitte kind of standpoint, what does Deloitte need more of? Are you looking to hire right now? Are you looking for more talent? You’re looking to partner with more fintech organizations. What do you need more of?

Jake Gocke: [00:11:38] All the above. We’re always looking for, for great talent to grow our practice. We love partnering with other companies in this space, and we’re really just looking for all the different ways we can grow our practice and support the fintech industry here in Atlanta.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:51] So what is the pain that that fintech organization is having where Deloitte is a good partner?

Jake Gocke: [00:11:58] Could you repeat that question?

Lee Kantor: [00:11:59] What is the pain that fintech organization is having where Deloitte is a good partner and can help them solve whatever that issue is?

Jake Gocke: [00:12:07] Yeah, I wouldn’t I wouldn’t really say there are necessarily pains so much as opportunities for companies to continue to grow and find success. And really we can do that across the board. But really what we look to do is, is leverage the expertise we have in the space to help and assist companies continue to develop their products, their services, and grow their own companies.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:30] Can you share an example? Don’t name the name, but an example of maybe a problem or an opportunity that a company had. And Deloitte was able to inject themselves and help them get to a new level.

Jake Gocke: [00:12:41] Sure. I mean, companies all the time are looking to get into the payment space. They might need a roadmap or a playbook in terms of how they can do that. Deloitte has offerings where we can help companies understand the payments ecosystem, how they can develop offerings and really help them build those out.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:58] Now, if somebody wants to get their hands on that 2023 Banking and Capital Markets Outlook report, is that on the website? Where can they find that?

Jake Gocke: [00:13:07] Yeah, it’s online. So if you go to the website and search for the report you just mentioned, it should be easy to find. Click on and read through it.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:15] And then the person that would benefit the most from reading through that report is who.

Jake Gocke: [00:13:23] That’s a great question. I think I would say businesses that are involved in the space or looking to get in the space would find a lot of value in reading a report.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:34] And while, Jake, thank you so much for sharing your story today one more time, the website for Deloitte. If somebody wants to connect with you or somebody on your team or get a hold of this report.

Jake Gocke: [00:13:45] Pardon me.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:45] The website. For Deloitte.

Jake Gocke: [00:13:49] The Deloitte AECOM.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:51] All right. That’s Deloitte’s AECOM to get your hands on that report, find Jake or somebody on his team and learn more about the offerings over there. Well, thank you so much, Jake, for sharing your story. You do an important work and we appreciate you.

Jake Gocke: [00:14:07] Thanks, Ali. Appreciate it.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:08] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on the Atlanta Business Radio.

Intro: [00:14:16] Today’s episode of Atlanta Business Radio is brought to you by On pay. Built in Atlanta on pay is the top rated payroll in HR software anywhere. Get one month free at on Paycom.

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Amy Thomasson With Cure SMA

by

Amy Thomasson
Association Leadership Radio
Amy Thomasson With Cure SMA
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Cure SMAAmy ThomassonAmy Thomasson currently serves as Vice President, Marketing and Communication for Cure SMA. She is a strategist, content creator, and storyteller with extensive experience in marketing and communications, membership development, and volunteer management. She has worked in a variety of business environments ranging from the Fortune 500 to professional associations.

She is a highly-rated speaker and article author, who has partnered with ASAE, Association Forum, AssociationSuccess.org, and standalone associations and nonprofits to deliver engaging content. Amy is a recipient of Association Forum’s Forty Under 40® Award and the Daily Herald Business Ledger’s Influential Women in Business Award. She is a Certified Association Executive, has a BA in Communication from the University of Missouri-Columbia, an Executive Leadership certificate from Cornell University, and a Professional Fundraising certificate from Boston University.

Connect with Amy on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Building a career in the association and nonprofit industry
  • Growing a network in the association/nonprofit industry
  • Benefits of volunteering
  • Building brand awareness for a rare disease organization
  • The importance of storytelling for organizations and brands

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Association Leadership Radio. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:19] Lee Kanter here another episode of Association Leadership Radio. And this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Amy Thompson with Cure SMA. For those who don’t know, stands for Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Welcome, Amy.

Amy Thomasson: [00:00:36] Thank you, Lee. It’s my pleasure to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:38] Well, I’m so excited to learn about your work. Before we get too far into things, tell us about Cure SMA. Can you talk about kind of mission purpose and how you’re serving folks through that?

Amy Thomasson: [00:00:48] I’d be happy to. So Purisima is a 500 1c3 nonprofit, and we work with folks who have, as you mentioned, spinal muscular atrophy. SMA is a rare disease, but it’s one of the least rare or rare diseases, if that makes sense. One in 50 people carries the gene mutation that can produce SMA. So if you have two individuals who have that gene mutation, they have a chance of having a child with spinal muscular atrophy. And there’s four types of spinal muscular atrophy, type one through type four. And within the last few years, we’ve really made a lot of progress on the disease. We now have three approved treatments, but there is still no cure. So Cure SMA is focused on research and support programs for individuals with spinal muscular atrophy and trying to find that cure.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:40] Now, has your work always been in the association field, or is this something new in this time in your career?

Amy Thomasson: [00:01:48] I spent the first ten years of my career in for profit organizations, in manufacturing and distribution. I worked for a Fortune 500, and in 2015 I made the pivot to the association and nonprofit space. So I’d say I’ve spent about half of my career in for profit and now about half of it and non profit.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:11] So what drew you to the association and nonprofit work?

Amy Thomasson: [00:02:15] I did not know much about associations before I came into the association world, and I don’t think that’s unique to me. I think that’s one point where I wish we could spend more time educating youth about the association space because it’s such a great career path. But I was working for a distribution company that was pivoting our offices potentially over to the East Coast, and I really was ready for a change. I wanted to work for a smaller organization where I could have a more meaningful impact, and I had coffee with a friend of a friend who introduced me to the association space, and it just skyrocketed from there.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:56] Now, when you were in your kind of for profit world, were you involved in the kind of the trade associations and the business associations there?

Amy Thomasson: [00:03:04] Yes. I had been involved in an organization called the Industrial Supply Association, so I was certainly involved in a limited capacity volunteering here and there in the association space. So I was definitely aware of trade associations, but I had no awareness of membership based associations.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:23] And then once you started getting involved in the association world, what were some of the skills and talents that you had that kind of transferred and what were some of the areas you needed to shore up?

Amy Thomasson: [00:03:34] So it’s interesting you bring that up because I think in the career journey to because I didn’t come straight from the association, a nonprofit world, it’s created some pluses and minuses, but I think more positives is really given me a solid understanding of strategic planning, building business plans, sales, managing a profit and loss statement, all of those core competencies I brought over from my corporate life. And I really view it as helpful because within the association space, more competitors are coming from the for profit world. So having that knowledge of the for profit world has really helped to differentiate me and create a niche for me in my career journey.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:17] Now, when you’re working for a cause that has no cure yet, how do you kind of keep folks motivated and and pushing forward? How do you like we have a saying here, like I have a for profit business, but you want to ring the bell, right? You want to have successes and wins to celebrate. How do you kind of encourage morale and encourage, you know, the feeling that you are making progress?

Amy Thomasson: [00:04:46] Sure. So within the spinal muscular atrophy space and not just with SMA, but with our pharmaceutical partners, researchers, health care providers, there’s been a lot of progress. Even 20 years ago, if your child got a diagnosis of spinal muscular atrophy, you were told, go home and love your child because they’ll likely pass before their second birthday. So now we have people living to adulthood with the disease. So that’s hugely. Motivated. But the next steps are how do we help our community in lieu of a cure? Gain more independence, gain more physical functionality over their muscles, and be able to do the things they want to do. But also, getting on an airplane is a major undertaking. A lot of our folks can’t travel. So finding those other key areas where we can help make daily life better for people with spinal muscular atrophy. And also one thing I was just really blown away by with SMA is the personal touch points. So, for instance, if your child is diagnosed with SMA at one of our partnering medical institutions who are part of our care center network, within several days you’ll receive a package of developmentally appropriate toys, a medical binder helping you navigate things with your insurance and your providers. So really trying to create positive experiences. And a lot of our community says those care packages that they receive from us are the first positive touchpoints they have in their SMA journey.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:24] And it must be so difficult for the families because, like you said, it’s rare, but the not not the rarest. So how do you build that community and foster that kind of We’re all in this together feeling sure.

Amy Thomasson: [00:06:39] So we are thrilled that some of our in-person events are back, outdoor events that we do, fundraising events throughout the US. We have nearly 50 walk in rolls across the country throughout the year. So those are fundraising events. But even more than that, they’re about community engagement and bringing local folks together. And you might not have someone else with spinal muscular atrophy in your neighborhood, but you probably have people closer than you think. So trying to bring those folks together and foster connection. Our conference as well. We have about 3000 people and the logistics of putting on a conference for 3000 people where nearly 1000 of them are in wheelchairs is just astounding to me. I’ve been endlessly impressed by the well-oiled machine that is our community support team at Cure.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:32] Sma Now, in your work in corporate world, volunteering probably wasn’t as prevalent as it is in your work today. I mean, there were probably people that were volun told to do certain things and it was encouraged, but it wasn’t really true. Volunteering. How have you seen volunteering? How how, how big of a part is volunteering part of your work today? And how do you kind of find and motivate those volunteers?

Amy Thomasson: [00:08:01] Volunteering personally has been massively helpful for me, and if there was one tip I could provide to young professionals who are just entering the association space or considering it, it would be to volunteer. Find an organization. You can find a national organization like RSA. I’m in the Chicagoland area, so the Association Forum has been a home base for me. Or you can find more industry specific or profession specific type of volunteer opportunities, like I work in marketing, so some opportunities to flex my skill set. But for me, I was really lucky to be walked into and introduced to volunteering by a mentor of mine who’s been heavily involved in volunteering, and from there I just fell in love. I think volunteering solidified my commitment to the association space even more than where I was working at the time. So I’ve had the opportunity to serve on committees, and then when the pandemic happened, I still try to stay connected by doing virtual speaking opportunities, writing articles, and it’s really been helpful. For instance, when I was interviewing for jobs about a year ago. I didn’t have to reinvent the wheel with writing samples because I had volunteered, had written magazine articles or blog posts for different volunteer groups.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:25] Yeah, I think this is one of those kind of secret hacks for young, aspiring kind of people who want to go up that corporate ladder faster is to volunteer, take leadership positions, demonstrate your skills. You know, you start meeting the people that can hire you in your next job by showing how good you are at this volunteering aspect. People appreciate it. I think a lot of young people would benefit from kind of leaning into their associations no matter the size really, because even the small ones were are going to give you an opportunity to really lead major initiatives for that group and people notice.

Amy Thomasson: [00:10:09] Exactly. It’s how I got comfortable with public speaking. I didn’t have a lot of opportunities to do that at that point in my career. And so I started volunteering for speaking engagements. And I remember being on the train going into Chicago for my first speaking engagement and being incredibly nervous, and I kind of developed a mantra for myself. I said, This discomfort is what growth feels like, and now I try to put myself in situations that stretch me a little bit, and I remind myself that that’s in fact, what growth feels like for me.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:44] Yeah, I think I mean, I can’t encourage that’s one of my first things I ask a young person when I’m mentoring them is like, What groups are you part of? You know, how are you participating? It’s not enough to just pay a membership fee and just show up at networking events. You got to really lean into them.

Amy Thomasson: [00:11:02] Right? It is what you put in. You’ll get out what you put in.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:07] Now, you mentioned your background in marketing. Is has marketing different when you’re in a nonprofit as there is kind of are the fundamentals the same? But maybe the execution is different when it comes to marketing in the work that you’re doing today. Like I would imagine the the power of the stories from these individual people are that much more important and they become what kind of is the voice of of the organization? They become kind of helping you define what is needed and what can be done?

Amy Thomasson: [00:11:42] Oh, absolutely. I think one of the difference is and it’s it’s different across roles, comparing associations to nonprofits is associations and nonprofits. We’re mission based organizations, so we tie most things back to our mission. I like to tell people a mission statement is a statement, not a story. So you need more than a statement to attract hearts and minds. So as you mentioned, it’s really about storytelling, highlighting the members of our community because we serve at the pleasure of the members of our community. We exist to elevate them, to help them. So storytelling has been a major initiative I’ve been working on at Charisma. In fact, we even have a stories at Christmas dot org email address and we just invite people passively to send in stories at any time too. And it serves as a great repository for all the different stories of members of our community. But we’re also doing video storytelling, social media, all sorts of things.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:49] Now, is there a story that stands out to you that’s most memorable in the work that you’re doing today?

Amy Thomasson: [00:12:55] We have so many wonderful stories, but there was a woman I interviewed a few months ago. I had met her in person at an event and her tidbits of her story and followed up with her afterwards. She is a mom of several boys, but her son Zachary, has type one SMA, and she was really trying to find inclusive toys for him to play with. He’s in a wheelchair. And so she got a Fisher-Price school bus and there was a character in a wheelchair. But unlike all the other characters and the school bus, the figurine in the wheelchair didn’t walk into place. So when you move the school bus about, he would kind of dash back and forth between the walls of the school bus. And so she went on TikTok and Facebook and said, Fisher-Price, thank you so much for developing these toys, but I really think you could do that much more, and I’d be happy to work with you on that. And product development at Fisher-Price reached out to her and Fisher-Price revamped their airplane and their school bus toys to make them more inclusive, to make the wheelchair figurine fit. And just like all of the other figurines and set her all of those new toys. So she was able to really make an impact at a national level.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:18] And that’s one of those things where, you know, probably at Fisher-Price Price, there wasn’t that representation for someone to say, hey, this isn’t, you know, that’s nice, we’re doing a wheelchair, but it’s not accurate. And this isn’t really their experience. And there wasn’t someone to say that until this woman kind of spoke up and they got their attention to explain how much better it could be. They’ve done 90% of the work. All they need to do is just this little bit more to make it more realistic.

Amy Thomasson: [00:14:48] Exactly.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:51] Now, what is kind of day in the life in your work? Are you spending time, you know, kind of advocating for just more brand awareness for the disease? Are you, you know, partnering with pharmaceutical companies and researchers? Are you trying to serve the families of these folks that are suffering?

Amy Thomasson: [00:15:12] So a little bit of all those things at our leadership level at SMA, we have I have counterparts who are overseeing our conference and our support programs or advocacy programs or fundraising programs and the like. But marketing is interesting, I think, in a lot of organizations, because we touch every single department and work with every single area of the organization every day. So my team and I were joking about this yesterday, but every day looks very different. Right now I’m working on an initiative with Microsoft in partnership with our fundraising team. They October is give month where they match employee donations and encourage volunteerism. So we’re working on highlighting SMA. We’re starting up on an advocacy video series, How to Advocate in Washington DC. We’re working on a website revamp. So there are so many different things we’re doing and every day looks different. But one of my favorite things to do is to sit down and interview members of our community and to learn about their stories and being able to help them share their story. I feel like it’s one of the greatest gifts of my role at SMA.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:30] Because that’s where it comes to life, right? Like a lot of the work that you’re doing is helpful and stuff, but when you hear a person’s story and say what you did improved my child’s life by this, by doing this and that, I mean that’s where the tears start flowing, right?

Amy Thomasson: [00:16:49] Yes, it can be emotionally taxing highs and lows, but it is just such a beautiful gift to be able to see through these individuals that the work we’re doing at this organization is truly making an impact. And I feel like for me, for the first time in my career, I felt like I got a lot of meaning and have gotten a lot of meaning through my volunteer work. But working now directly with the impacted individuals has really made me feel like on fire for my career. It’s truly a career and not a job for me, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:17:26] It becomes a calling where you’re seeing the impact and you’re seeing the the the real effects that it’s just difficult for people who are in that kind of corporate treadmill to really understand. It doesn’t have to be that way. And there are so many organizations that need your skills and that you can really impact people’s lives in meaningful ways, that you’ll actually kind of see the results firsthand. You’ll hear the stories, you’ll you’ll feel the hugs. I mean, it’s really meaningful work. And I wish more people would consider it as a career path.

Amy Thomasson: [00:18:00] Right? Especially with Gen Z, who is more motivated by doing good than a paycheck. Not to say that a paycheck doesn’t matter, but in having impact and meaning in their careers. I can think of no better space to serve than the association and nonprofit space. And what I love about it is I feel like it’s a place where diverse individuals can thrive, where you can explore different career options. I’ve worked in marketing, I’ve worked in membership, I’ve been an executive director and worked in the governance space and all of those things. You can move more flexibly through all those different areas of a business. I feel like in the association space.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:46] And and those organizations, a lot of them are hungry for talent. I mean, this is a chance to really accelerate your career if you want to.

Amy Thomasson: [00:18:55] Very much so. I really hope that more young people coming out of colleges and universities will consider this space and we’ll look to find mentors in this space. That’s really what’s helped me advance my career and grow my skill set. A friend of mine calls it her or her kitchen cabinet and build a group of advisors. I have an association Women’s Network, where six of us get together virtually and candidly talk about career opportunities and career challenges. I have several mentors that I can call up or email that will be responsive and helpful. And so I think that’s another tip I have is just find a few individuals who can help you grow, who can advise you, who are outside of the organization where you currently work.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:49] Right? And if there isn’t an official group, just, you know, be the change you run the world and start your own group.

Amy Thomasson: [00:19:56] Exactly. The women’s network I’m a part of is not an official group. It’s a few of us who had a hunger for deeper conversation and got together and and made this informal women’s circle.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:09] So what do you need more of? How can we help you for cure? Asthma?

Amy Thomasson: [00:20:14] Well, I would love for. We are going into our year end campaign and shortly and, you know, cure asthma. Asthma is a rare disease. So we don’t have the visibility sometimes of a larger organization. Like, for instance, it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and all causes are worthy. But if you want to make a true impact for a really wonderful community, these people are the coolest people I’ve ever met. They just they are so much fun. They have such great stories. If you want to make an impact, you can go to cure SMA dot org. We have a donate button and any amount is helpful. We even have a fundraising program called $5 Fridays where we ask you to forego your Starbucks for the day and donate $5 to cure asthma because every dollar has an impact.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:08] Well, Amy, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Amy Thomasson: [00:21:14] Thank you so much, Ali. It was my pleasure.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:16] And that’s cure Smaug, if somebody wants to connect or learn more.

Amy Thomasson: [00:21:21] Yes.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:22] Well, thank you again for sharing your story. Thank you. All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Association Leadership Radio.

Alon Bender With CLEER Security

by

Alon Bender
Atlanta Business Radio
Alon Bender With CLEER Security
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CLEER SecurityAlon BenderAlon Bender is the CEO and founder of CLEER Security, a Miami-based cybersecurity startup. Backed by industry leaders, CLEER Security offers a SAAS Cybersecurity solution to help SOC teams respond quickly to the alerts that need their immediate attention.

Prior to his current role, Mr. Bender spent 20 years as an enterprise cybersecurity engineer working at the leading cybersecurity vendors including Trend Micro, Symantec, McAfee, and Proofpoint.

He is an NSU Cybersecurity Advisory Committee member, MDC Cybersecurity Center of the Americas Advisory Committee member, South Florida HIMSS member, and South Florida ISSA member.

Connect with Alon on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Inspiration to found CLEER Security
  • People who benefit the most from the CLEER Security solution
  • Example of major event that went undetected and had impact to people lives
  • Making cybersecurity more easily handled for their customers
  • Best way to learn more or get in touch with CLEER Security

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. Built in Atlanta on pay is the top rated payroll and HR software anywhere. Get one month free at onpay. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:31] 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 Alon Bender with CLEER Security. Welcome, Alon.

Alon Bender: [00:00:49] Thank you so much, Lee. A pleasure to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:52] Before we get too far into things, tell us a little bit about clear security. How are you serving folks?

Alon Bender: [00:00:57] Yeah, CLEER Security is a cybersecurity startup based in Florida, and the way we serve folks is by offering a solution to help organizations better defend themselves against cyber attacks. So we developed a unique and innovative platform. It’s SAS security, a service. It’s all cloud based that allows businesses. We typically target the large organizations, allows businesses and other organizations to deal with the overwhelming number of threats that triggers alerts and be able to sort through the noise and figure out how to respond to those alerts, security alerts, cybersecurity alerts, and in a timely manner.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:48] What’s your background? Why are you the right person to take on this challenge?

Alon Bender: [00:01:53] Yeah, so my background in cybersecurity through and through, I’ve been in the cybersecurity field for my entire career. So in the last ten years, I’ve been working for some of the leading companies in the space like Trend Micro, Symantec, McAfee, Proofpoint, well-known brands. And I witnessed the problem firsthand as a security engineer. I’ve been working with different organizations on the East Coast, on the West Coast, and I learned about the problem of getting overwhelmed with security alerts, cybersecurity alerts first hand by working with a key decision maker. So just coming from that hands on field experience really gave me the right tools and background to put together this company clear security in order to come up with a solution. One of my experiences of being that working for some of those other vendors, when when you meet with the potential customers, each vendor wants to say, Hey, I have my new shiny tool that if you deploy that and that tool will block nearly 100% of threats. While the reality is really there is no tool out there that can get anywhere close to being able to fulfill that promise of stopping 100% of of threats that just doesn’t exist. And that turns into an operational nightmare, operational challenge for many organizations that it’s not if they will get rich, but it’s really when and how do you prepare for that and how do you not overstretch your limited resources as you go through that process of protecting the digital assets of your company?

Lee Kantor: [00:03:47] Now, what part of your technology allows them to kind of see the signal instead of the noise? How do you kind of discern what are the threats that they should be paying attention to and what are the ones that they could ignore?

Alon Bender: [00:04:04] Yeah, that’s a great question. So one of the other things that we notice and that definitely since COVID 19 is that the threat landscape shifted to being people focused, meaning that most of the breaches. So if you look at the latest analyst reports, they talk about 82% in the last year of breaches happened when a person was basically compromised. Someone may have gotten a PCR results and say, Hey, click here, your PCR results are arriving, it’s urgent and other types of a little bit more sophisticated type of attacks like social engineering. You may get the message from someone that you think is your manager. It’s actually not your manager asking you to do something urgent and to share with them a sensitive information like account, bank account details, etc. And those unfortunately are very effective from the bad actors perspective and are able to bypass all of the existing defenses. So what we have done with security, we basically developed and came up with a unique, innovative technology that allows us to identify how people are being targeted. And by doing so, we are now able to go and identify that signal, what we call a signal, and correlate. To look at all of the other signals that you may already have in your network in order to unveil how that bridge or how that threat is propagating or targeting your organization. By doing so, be able to respond to that very quickly.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:47] Now, you mentioned that this is a SaaS product. Is this something that’s geared primarily to kind of the Fortune 1000 companies, or is this something that’s going to be deployed to businesses of all sizes?

Alon Bender: [00:05:59] Yeah, that’s a great question. So we see different use cases. I would say the vast majority of the use cases are the large organization like 2500 employees and above. However, we do work with some MSPs. Those are managed security service providers that are typically much smaller in size and they provide they have the ability to wrap their services around our SAS offering and provide that service to their customers. So they those MSPs are typically much, much smaller. They may have dozens of employees, probably not more than that. And for them to be able to scale up without having to hire lots of resources and it’s very hard to justify that when you are a small organization while still keeping up with the growth in threats that their customers are experiencing and meeting their service level agreements or sla’s with their customers while keeping that within their profit margin. This is where clear security helps these type of service providers to be able to basically provide a force multiplier. So automate what otherwise would have been handled manually.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:17] And then so they become the user of clear on behalf of their clients.

Alon Bender: [00:07:23] Correct. So that becoming the manager of manager. So they basically manage the environment on behalf of their clients and they basically are a client of clear security, but they use clear security as a platform to really manage their customers environment using clear security.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:43] Now, at this stage you mentioned you’re a startup. At this stage. Do you have examples that you can share where this has been deployed and has kind of done what you promise?

Alon Bender: [00:07:55] Yeah. So we are actually this is exactly the process that we are going through right now. We are just releasing our first product, first release to the market. We are actually right now planning for several pilots with potential customers and we definitely would welcome the opportunity to invite anyone else to join our pilot program and just to test the system, there’s no risk. It’s out of band. There’s no risk to any business flow. It’s very safe. The setup of this type of system because it’s SAS cloud base takes minutes. So very easy to set it up and let it just run in audit mode and prove itself.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:44] And so you’re looking for partners to pilot this, whether they’re the end user or the MSPs.

Alon Bender: [00:08:50] Yes, Correct. So we are looking to add more pilots to the program. So if there are any organizations out there that are experiencing challenges when it comes to their security operations, being able to keep up with alerts, with the amount of threats, this is where we can come in and offer a pilot, basically a proof of concept to demonstrate how we are able to help them in their unique and specific environment.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:21] Now, you mentioned before that humans tend to be the weak link or can be a weak link in organizations. Is there an example you can share of something that maybe has gone undetected and that had a big impact?

Alon Bender: [00:09:35] Yeah, absolutely. So I would think about something that actually there are a number of examples that are more recent, like Uber. The Uber one is fairly recent, very recent. But I like to give another example because I was involved in that hands on, and that’s back in 2018, there was a major ransomware attack on the city of Atlanta. So if you remember, that was all over the news. And that all started basically with a simple email that contained the ransomware. And the the impact of that single attack was immense. The MARTA services were impacted a pain. All of the payment services throughout the city of Atlanta went down for a period of time. It took several good months to recover from that cyber attack. And during that time there was disruption to all city services. Anything that involved payments from parking to transportation to airport. That was a very severe event and I like to use that as an example because people not always realize that those type of cyber attacks have very real implications and they can impact our lives in a very, very real way. And the Atlanta Bridge would be probably a good example of that.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:01] And then sometimes it’s like you said, that it’s just an email that people aren’t, you know, paying super close attention to that just slip through the cracks. Somebody clicks on something and then all of a sudden now a hundred dominoes have now fallen and you’re in trouble.

Alon Bender: [00:11:18] Exactly. So what happened with the city of Atlanta is that the bad actors? It was an Iranian group that actually operated out of Germany, and they basically targeted specific people within the city. So that was a highly targeted, very sophisticated type of attack. It’s not a widespread virus that everybody sees, and it’s easier to to identify the footprint, but it was highly targeted. Those are very hard to detect, even though the method itself was very simple. So during my involvement with the city of Atlanta at the time, I helped the city to identify some of those risks and I was able to show to the heads of cybersecurity in City of Atlanta that the police department, including the police radio, were targeted by bad actors trying to bring down anything that is related to the police form the police radio, meaning just try to insert a ransomware and lock down all of the systems and all of the files that are related to the police radio to targeting. At the time, the chief of police and deputy deputy chief of police. So that was a very sophisticated orchestrated attack. And unfortunately, those happen every single day.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:43] Now, if somebody wants to learn more about clear security, maybe participate in the pilot or just learn more about the offering, what is the best way to get a hold of you or check out the website or something along those lines?

Alon Bender: [00:12:58] Yeah, I think the best way is to check out our website. Our website is clear c l e r s e c dot com. And if anyone wants to get a hold of me, they can find my details on LinkedIn. That’s alone a one vendor and we are more than happy to share more details around our programs as well as to further discuss the opportunity to offer pilots. And what are some of the benefits of running those pilots risk free. It’s we don’t charge for the pilots, so there’s really no risk, no cost, and it will give you a good visibility to into the threats that you may be missing today and more importantly, how you can automate what you may be doing today manually.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:49] Now, as you mentioned before, your startup, are you looking for funding at this point? Are you looking for talent? Is there anything else we could be doing to help you?

Alon Bender: [00:14:00] Yes. So we are in the process of actually opening our next round of funding. So we definitely are open to discussions with any VCs or investors. We do have several high profile angel investors that are behind clear security and we definitely look forward to the opportunity to to extend that that opportunity to additional investors as we are planning for our hypergrowth and and executing executing on our go to market strategy.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:39] Well, Alan, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Alon Bender: [00:14:44] Thank you. Lee, Thank you so much.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:46] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

Intro: [00:14:54] Today’s episode of Atlanta Business Radio is brought to you by On pay. Built in Atlanta on pay is the top rated payroll in HR software anywhere get one month free at on paycom.

 

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Amber Cleveland With Peace of mind Popsicles

by

Amber Cleveland
Atlanta Business Radio
Amber Cleveland With Peace of mind Popsicles
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Amber ClevelandAmber Cleveland, CEO at Peace of mind Popsicles.

She is a serial entrepreneur, a mom, a mental health therapist, and a GSU alumni. She has been in private practice for 12 years in Decatur, GA treating adults with anxiety, depression and stress management. She’s the mother of a child with learning differences and food sensitivities. And she is passionate about making life easier for all parents as they raise unique and amazing children.

Connect with Amber on LinkedIn and follow Peace of mind Popsicles on Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • The inspiration of the idea for POM pops
  • What makes their brand different
  • How and why the gut brain connection is so important
  • Who POM pops are for
  • Where to buy POM pops

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. Built in Atlanta on pay is the top rated payroll and HR software anywhere. Get one month free at on pay. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:31] Lee Kantor here another episode of GSU ENI radio. And I am so excited to be talking to my guest today. Amber Cleveland with Peace of mind Popsicles or POM pops. Welcome, Amber.

Amber Cleveland: [00:00:45] Hi.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:47] I’m so excited about learning more about your operation. Tell us about pom pops. How are you serving folks?

Amber Cleveland: [00:00:53] So we are an allergen dye and GMO free brand of popsicles. We offer freedom of choice for kids. They can have anything in our brand if they have food sensitivities or allergies, and we offer no stress for parents. They don’t have to ask about ingredients. They don’t have to worry about reactions to foods. It’s just inclusion and fun and freedom for the whole family.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:17] So what was the kind of genesis of this idea? How did it come about?

Amber Cleveland: [00:01:22] Sure. So I am the mother of a child with food sensitivities and learning differences. So one day after tutoring, I decided to take her to Jenny’s ice cream for a treat, and we walked up to the counter and I asked the cashier, Do you have any options that are both gluten and dairy free? And she said, Yeah, I have this one right here, and pointed to the one in front of her. And my daughter was livid. She said, I don’t want that one. I want one of those, and pointed to the other 30 flavors behind the counter. And what should have been fun just turned into something really stressful. And I realized that I’m not the only parent going through this. She’s not the only kid going through this. There’s just a lack of options for these kids and these families, and they’re just underserved in public places.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:14] So then, had you ever made popsicles before?

Amber Cleveland: [00:02:19] I had, actually. So my daughter was on a really specialized diet when she was little called the Gap diet. And I’m I’m actually a mental health therapist. And so I had a lot of experience on healing her body through nutrition. And so I have a background in making foods by hand for years, actually.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:41] So was this the first time that you tried to create your own kind of brand of Popsicle?

Amber Cleveland: [00:02:49] So it is my my first time creating a food brand. My family owned a restaurant in College Park for 20 years, so I have some experience in the food service industry and in that domain. And I actually have a business partner who makes the popsicles now, but I have made popsicles in the past that I’m not technically the popsicle maker at this point.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:09] Now, when you were coming up with the concept and you were trying to make it, you know, I guess specifically for your child, but children like your child and maybe adults as well, how did you kind of come up with the flavors like the widget? How do you even launch something like this? Did you start with one flavor and then expand? How did that go?

Amber Cleveland: [00:03:32] That’s a great question. So it was a little bit of trial and error. We tried a few different recipes to see which ones were the best. And then I did a little bit of research on what are the most popular flavors of popsicles and ice cream. So that was kind of the starting point. And in regard to kind of getting them out there, we started selling in local farmer’s markets and really just started getting feedback from people and kind of tracking sales and seeing like, what did we sell the most of the least of and trying to figure out what was the most popular.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:05] And then what are the types of ingredients that are in one of your popsicles in order to satisfy all of those demands for folks who have allergies and all the different issues that they’re dealing with.

Amber Cleveland: [00:04:18] So the base of our popsicles is a combination of organic, non-GMO, coconut milk, organic, non-GMO cane sugar, and then a grass fed beef gelatin. And from there we add in different ingredients that we source locally, like different fruits and herbs and spices.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:39] And then when did you start going? Hmm, We might be on to something here.

Amber Cleveland: [00:04:45] Hmm. That’s a great question. I think once we started getting feedback from people at the farmer’s market and they were asking, you know, are you going to distribute? Where can I get these? It was just it was reinforcement that there was a need and that the product, you know, met their expectations and was actually both healthy and delicious.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:07] Now, none of the like kind of the big players in the popsicle market, they’re not going after this market at all. And you guys are the kind of for creating your own path in this space.

Amber Cleveland: [00:05:22] To some degree, yes. There are. So like King of Pop’s is out there and they do have some allergen free options. But what differentiates us is that our entire brand is free of these things. So we offer something that they can’t in terms of the exclusivity of the brand being entirely inclusive. We subtract the mental work for the parents and that’s not something they can offer unless they get rid of all of their regular popsicles, which is highly unlikely given that that’s where the majority of their sales is going to be.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:54] And then so you’ve been rolling this out primarily through festivals and farmer’s markets.

Amber Cleveland: [00:06:00] We have that’s that’s been phase one of our sales and that’s where we have been. And we’re we’re currently moving into phase two and where we haven’t solidified anything yet, but we’re we’re in discussions with two local health food stores to retail them by early winter.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:18] And then how did you get involved with the Main Street fund? How did that get on your radar?

Amber Cleveland: [00:06:26] I actually was in the first cohort about two and a half years ago, two years ago, three years ago. It’s been a while and for a lot of personal reasons, wasn’t able to complete that that project that I you know, I had a great relationship with M.K., the director, and he said, you know, I understand what you’re going through personally, and if you have another idea, you can always come back. And I had another idea and I came back and it just happened to work out this time and everything lined up. And so that’s kind of how I got into this cohort.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:59] Now how have they helped you kind of get to a new level? What what has their experience been for you to go through the program again?

Amber Cleveland: [00:07:08] It’s been great. So the funding has been tremendous. Just to have money to work with to start for start up costs, doing food we have for permitting and everything. We have a lease with a commercial kitchen. So it’s been great to have the funding for that to help us get off the ground. And then also the mentorship, it’s just been incredible. There’s just so much that you don’t know about, what you don’t know. And being able to rely on the expertise of the mentors in the program has been incredibly helpful.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:42] Now, can you explain to the listener why it’s important to have a choice like this out there for folks like why that maybe explain the the connection between the food and the body and brain of a young person, especially why it’s important to have a brand like yours out there serving not just folks with food sensitivities, but probably other people as well would benefit from this choice rather than one that doesn’t do it the way you do it.

Amber Cleveland: [00:08:15] Now, that is really my passion. When you ask me what the recipe was, the all of the primary ingredients serve your health holistically right, children and adults, but especially in growing bodies and brains. The coconut milk is a healthy fat and your brain is 70% fat. So automatically you’re feeding your child’s brain when they’re when they’re eating coconut milk. The beef gelatin that I mentioned that heals and seals your gut. So that’s going to improve your GI function. And 90% of your serotonin and a lot of your other trans neurotransmitters are made in the gut. And then last but not least, the fruit and the herbs and the spices. They all contain phytochemicals and micronutrients which boost your immune system. So not only are you not doing anything bad by avoiding the bad stuff, you’re doing something really, really good. Every time your kid has one of these popsicles, it’s actually building the foundation of health.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:22] Now, a lot of foods that are good for you don’t taste that great. How do you make these things taste great?

Amber Cleveland: [00:09:31] So sorry. It. So the cane sugar helps, right? A little. A little bit of sweetness. Certainly appeals to most people. And also Taylor, who actually makes our popsicles, is I mean, she’s an amazing chef. She’s an amazing cook. Her background is in food and early childhood education. So she’s very passionate about this. But she has a knack for bringing all these ingredients together in a way that just is really delicious.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:02] And then so if people want to kind of get one and try them. Is there a website like how how do people find out where you’re at or where you’ll be in a given week or weekend?

Amber Cleveland: [00:10:17] So you can follow us on Instagram at At Peace of Mind Pops and all of our information is right there. We are working toward building a website and we intend to eventually have direct to consumer sales that we can ship them directly. But prior to that, we’ll be in some stores in the Atlanta area and our our lineup of where we’re going to be at different farmer’s markets is also posted on our Instagram page.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:44] It’s really an amazing story. Do you have any advice for other maybe moms out there that have figured out something for their kid that they might be sitting on a real business opportunity if they kind of maybe looked at it a little differently? Any advice for moms out there to take something that they’ve been doing at home and maybe at least make it available for others to see if it could be a business?

Amber Cleveland: [00:11:08] Yeah, I think it’s it’s just talking to the other moms that, you know, and seeing if there’s really a need for that. And then, you know, it’s there’s something just really powerful and people wanting to help other people. And that’s a huge motivation for us as well as I know a lot of other kind of wellness businesses in the Atlanta area. If you’re passionate about helping people, if you really have something that makes people’s lives easier and makes their quality of life better, it will sell itself. It’s just a matter of bringing it to life and and the resources are out there. You’ve just got to pursue them.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:47] Well, congratulations on all the success and the momentum you’ve got. It must be pretty exciting for you to see this thing keep blossoming.

Amber Cleveland: [00:11:55] It really is. It is. It is thrilling to to see this unfold and to be a part of it. It is it is a passion that I have. And watching the progress that my child has made over time, I can only hope that other families experience the same thing. And if peace of mind pops can be a part of that. It’s just it’s really great.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:16] And then Instagram is the best place to find peace of mind pops right now, and then they can find out where you’re at at any given weekend.

Amber Cleveland: [00:12:25] Exactly. And we will have a website coming soon that’s just on our ongoing list of things to develop. We’re not there yet, but anything you need to know for now, you can find on Instagram.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:35] Well, Amber, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Amber Cleveland: [00:12:41] Okay, great. Thank you. I appreciate you having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:43] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on GSU. Any radio?

Intro: [00:12:52] Today’s episode of Atlanta Business Radio is brought to you by On pay. Built in Atlanta on pay is the top rated payroll in HR software anywhere. Get one month free at on Paycom.

 

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