Business RadioX ®

Zoe Newman With Capital on Tap

by

Zoe Newman
Atlanta Business Radio
Zoe Newman With Capital on Tap
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CapitalonTapZoe NewmanZoe Newman joined Capital on Tap in 2012, its founding year, fresh out of school. She has worked her way around the business from operations, product, partnerships, and, most recently, launching the product and team in new geographies.

Having recently moved from London to Atlanta in the US,  she is now the US Managing Director and building out the US business and team – along with enjoying all the new local Southern experiences and culture…and the fried chicken!

Connect with Zoe on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Zoe’s personal journey
  • The story of their US expansion
  • Capital on Tap
  • The evolution of their product
  • Atlanta as their US headquarters

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:03] 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 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 the Atlanta Business Radio. We have Zoe Newman with Capital on Tap. Welcome, Zoe.

Zoe Newman: [00:00:49] Hi, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:50] Hello there. I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about Capital on Tap. How are you serving folks?

Zoe Newman: [00:00:57] Sure. So thanks so much for inviting me to join today. And just to give you a bit of background about us, so as you can probably tell from my accent, I’m not originally from Atlanta. I have recently moved to the city from London. Earlier this year I’ve been working with Capital on tap since we first got started in 2012. And really our goal is to support small businesses, to access a really streamlined, easy to use business rewards credit card and basically all the all the good features and good stuff that they would expect from a small business card. But just trying to make that better, using better technology, better customer experience and really supporting their small business to give them the time to focus back on running their business and not having to worry about their finances.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:46] Can you talk about the genesis of the idea since you were such an early employee there? Was it always kind of geared to that small to midsize business owner to give them the capital they needed?

Zoe Newman: [00:01:58] Yeah, yeah, for sure. So as I said, it started in 2012 and originally we were trying to figure out what the best product was to support small businesses and their kind of working capital and payment needs. So we’d always been small business focused. It wasn’t kind of a broader market that we were looking at and then we drilled in on small businesses. So we’ve we’ve always kind of our founders and our roots have always been embedded in supporting small businesses in the best possible way. And when we first started out, we were more kind of a traditional loan facility and giving customers access to funds through a kind of working capital loan solution. And it was probably kind of four or five years in that we started to test out our credit card products, and that’s really where things took off. We saw amazing engagement from our customer base and customers were really kind of pleased they could use a line of credit with a really great rewards card and option earning, earning rewards for all of their business expenses in the U.K. It’s just not such a common thing to be to be earning rewards on all your credit card spend. And so we saw this huge opportunity in the small business market in the U.K. And then early 2021, we launched the business over in the US and have started to support small business and customers with the rewards card over here.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:22] So you got the short straw. That’s why they sent you over here. Or how did that how did you get chosen for this adventure?

Zoe Newman: [00:03:29] I definitely don’t think I got the short straw. It’s been an amazing adventure so far. Really awesome opportunity to come over to the US and to build the team and operations over here. So I was the last kind of two or three years was looking at international expansion, looking at new markets that could be interesting for the business to expand into. And the US had always been one that was kind of front of mind for us. Our CEO and CEO are both from Atlanta and they they definitely had a connection here and kind of that that goal of launching into the US. It’s always been been one for us. And so as we started looking into different markets, it then became apparent that US was going to be a great one just in terms of market size, opportunity and kind of some of the opportunities with with payments and banking systems here. I’ve, I haven’t used a checkbook so much since I’ve been over here in the last 20 years in the UK, I think. So there’s definitely opportunities to be really streamlining and improving that payments journey for small businesses.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:32] And then when you were looking at coming to America because of some of your leadership was from Atlanta. That’s why Atlanta got chosen. Or did you look at kind of the different places to be? And just because of the strength of our fintech, this became like kind of a logical place for you.

Zoe Newman: [00:04:49] Yeah. And I definitely, definitely a bit of both. And that connection to Atlanta was was strong for the for the leadership team and just coincidentally was also a really strong city in terms of payments, infrastructure and talent and and fintechs more generally. As I’ve as I’ve spent more time here, I keep seeing more and more amazing fintech companies popping up that I’ve been starting to connect with. So there’s a really awesome and kind of network and community of entrepreneurs, venture funds and investors, and also kind of the fintech space. So yeah, it’s been a really, really, really good opportunity and. Any great talent here. And yeah, it just just feels like we just sort of scratch the surface and really sing some some great stuff from Atlanta.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:37] So how do you kind of kind of penetrate America? It’s such a large market and there are so many business people where I would think that this is something they should know about and, you know, and try. How do you kind of get the word out to help, you know, put your card on their radar?

Zoe Newman: [00:05:58] Yeah, it’s a good question. So our kind of playbook and how we’ve approached things has been see what has worked well in the. We’ve got that sort of foundation and that knowledge. And we’ve then brought over and kind of followed up one of our key values, which is just pilot and testing that and seeing if that sticks in the US market and has some traction here, and then if it works, then we run with it. So we’ve tried a complete mixture from online marketing channels, digital channels and PPC and pay per click and using AdWords, that sort of thing. We also have been approaching a lot of the aggregator sites. So those platforms where you would want to look for a credit card and you know the kind of household names of ones to go to and reaching out to those providers and trying to get listed. That’s been a really good opportunity for us to kind of gain brand recognition and credibility in the US market, where we’re pretty new. We also have used direct mail in the UK, so have started campaigns with with that channel and then also looking at some above the line, we’ve done some podcast sponsoring, we’ve looked at kind of some magazine ads and billboards potentially in the future as well.

Zoe Newman: [00:07:17] So really for us it’s kind of looking at those different opportunities and seeing which ones kind of work from a pilot perspective, sort of putting a small budget into one of those channels and seeing if we can attract the right business customers, if we can convert those customers to being kind of loyal customers that are choosing to use our card over others in their wallet and then doubling down as soon as we get that traction and we can prove that those economics are working and really then kind of going full throttle to roll that out and grow that channel as much as we can. One of the other interesting ones we found in the US has been, which has been interesting because the UK has been customer referrals and and influencer channel as well. So I think it’s a British thing. People often don’t like to talk about their credit products and if they’ve if they signed up for a credit card. But we’ve seen some really good opportunities through our customers, really going out and telling their networks, telling their small business owner friends about capital on tap and really getting the word out there, which has been it’s been an awesome channel for us.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:26] Yeah, that kind of organic growth is probably the best because it’s coming right from the horse’s mouth. People who are benefiting from it.

Zoe Newman: [00:08:32] Exactly. Exactly. Just yeah. That whole piece, as I mentioned, sort of brand recognition, credibility being a new small business credit card in the market takes some time for people to trust and kind of be willing to take a punt on us. So having that that word of mouth and yeah, people telling their friends and kind of backing us in our abilities has been a really, really great channel for us and for some great customers.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:58] So let’s educate the market. So tell us about capital on tap and tell us why a small business would benefit by using your service.

Zoe Newman: [00:09:08] Sure. So as I mentioned, we are really trying to make it as quick, easy, streamlined and simple as possible to sign up and start using our credit cards. So we have a very simple application form. It’s one page on our website. On tap. And we don’t ask for a ton of documentation. We try and source that data as much as we can so that the customer’s not having to send in lots of paperwork and lots of proof of business and all of those types of things that traditional credit card providers might ask for. And we have an all digital journey. So within four or five clicks, the, the business owner can be all the way through the process and can be accessing a virtual card to add into their digital wallet and then can be using that, that credit card for their business spend and so matter of minutes that they can get all the way through that process. And then once they once their virtual card is activated and ready to go, they can start using it for their business, earning 1.5% rewards on all their spend, and also activating additional cards for any employees in the business. They want to get signed up as well. So your finance manager, your sales manager, people team, any of those different employees can have access to. The cards can have spend controls, receipt management, tracking, and then all of that spend can flow through into your counting package. So hopefully launching with QuickBooks in the next few weeks so that any spend on the card is just straight into QuickBooks and can be easily reconciled for your business. So just really easy to use simple products with great rewards and credit limits that small businesses are looking for and needing to help them manage their cash flow a bit more effectively.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:59] Now, is the business solely focused on business credit cards, or is it eventually going to be like, you’ll be my kind of merchant account where I can clear credit cards myself in my business? Or is this the kind of the main and sole service that you’re offering businesses at this point?

Zoe Newman: [00:11:18] Yeah. So for now, we are fully focused on the credit card products and it’s tough to build a credit card product. So we want to make sure we’re doing it right and we’re focused on building the best products that we can. And I think often other financial institutions, fintechs, can try and do a lot of different products for a lot of different people. That’s not what we’re about. And so we are really focused on supporting small business owners who historically have been forgotten about by other financial companies that maybe are going after consumers or going after larger corporates. And so we always think there is a market that’s really underserved. We want to fully dedicate and focus our time on supporting those customers. And for now that credit card products, we’ve still got work to do. We can still make it better. So we want to focus on making that the best we can. And who knows, in the future there will be other opportunities, hopefully other products we can start to look at, see what pain points we can solve for our customers, take that feedback in and start to develop over time, but for now pretty fully focused on the credit card.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:24] Now, is your team solely in Atlanta or do you kind of have boots on the ground in other parts of the country?

Zoe Newman: [00:12:31] Solely in Atlanta, we have one office and that is in Atlanta. And we do have a couple of remote team members. We have one one lady who is up in Brooklyn and then a couple of members of our team are in Maine, but everybody else based in Atlanta, majority of people coming into our midtown office. And yeah, just just really building out that that office culture and kind of startup atmosphere here in Atlanta.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:58] And so how has it been have you been able to get you know, are you are you growing at the pace you’d like or what do you need more of? How can we help?

Zoe Newman: [00:13:08] Yeah, it’s been it’s been good. It’s the first few months I was I was remote from London. That was definitely pretty challenging. And time zones and just not being able to be here was, was tough. But since I’ve been able to be here and since we’ve started to kind of build out our office in this midtown location, we’ve brought in a number of people. We’ve got over 50 people in our office here now. And so, yeah, really just always looking for new talent and new people to join the team and any of your listeners. I would I would always suggest reach out to us if people are looking for new roles in a in a new fintech interested in the space, we always love to hear from you. And then yeah, really try now to support as many small businesses. We’ve started to do a few events in Atlanta to reach out to the Small Business Network here. But yeah, if anybody is interested in kind of checking out our products, please, please come and see us and have a look on our website and reach out for any questions you’ve got.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:09] Now, is there a certain type of business this is better for? Like, is it better for, you know, brick and mortar stores is a better for ecommerce? Is it any service business, professional service, creative like? Is there a better fit or is it just kind of industry agnostic? And if you’re a small business, then you should consider this product exactly that.

Zoe Newman: [00:14:34] Yeah, we really try and keep it industry agnostic. We’re not specifically focused on ecommerce or service providers. We really want to keep it broad. And the small businesses we serve usually kind of less than 20 employees and kind of not multimillion dollar revenue is probably our sweet spot. So those smaller mom and pop independent retailers, stores, consultants, landscapers, they have real, real mixture of businesses. But as I said, ones that are often kind of seemed to be underserved by the banks can be forgotten about in terms of the products that is offered to them. And so that’s the pain points that we’re really trying to solve. So again, no industry specifics. Any school business definitely welcome to apply.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:26] Now, is there an annual fee for this?

Zoe Newman: [00:15:30] No, no annual fees. No fees. So if you’re ever traveling abroad and you’ve been charged 3% by a lot of the other traditional banks, yet we do it as a 0% fee on any international spend, no fees for kind of adding supplementary cardholders. And we also don’t leave any hard inquiry on the individual’s credit report. So no harm in applying. So it has no impact on the individual that makes the application always worth. I would recommend to anyone to just fill in that one page application and see if you can get through that journey and hopefully you would be approved and it has no impact on your on your personal credit.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:15] And if somebody wants to learn more, what’s the website or best way to connect with you?

Zoe Newman: [00:16:21] So our website is WW Capital On Tap and if you want to learn more, reach out. I’m on LinkedIn. My name is Zoe Newman and. Yeah. Come and come and come and learn more. Come and see more on our Twitter page or Instagram page. And hopefully we’ll be supporting many more small businesses in Atlanta over the coming months.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:44] Well, Zoe, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Zoe Newman: [00:16:49] Thanks so much, Neal.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:51] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

Intro: [00:16:57] 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 add on paycom.

 

About Our Sponsor

OnPay’sOnPay-Dots payroll services and HR software give you more time to focus on what’s most important. Rated “Excellent” by PC Magazine, we make it easy to pay employees fast, we automate all payroll taxes, and we even keep all your HR and benefits organized and compliant.

Our award-winning customer service includes an accuracy guarantee, deep integrations with popular accounting software, and we’ll even enter all your employee information for you — whether you have five employees or 500. Take a closer look to see all the ways we can save you time and money in the back office.

Follow OnPay on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter

Abdoulaye Djire With FIND

by

Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Abdoulaye Djire With FIND
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AbdoulayeDjireAbdoulaye Djire is currently a graduate student at Georgia State University getting his Masters in Information Systems. His entrepreneurial journey began as he was walking down the graduation ceremony to get his first degree. At that moment he realized the career path he was about to enter he could no longer see himself doing long term.

This led him to think long and hard about what his next steps should be. He realized a pain point that not only he experienced but several other people did too. He then created a social media platform and business around this core problem and that was the birth of his company, FIND. This newfound path also resulted in him entering higher education once again this time with the goal of gaining knowledge to increase the chances of his business succeeding.

The journey has been full of twists and turns but he is grateful to say they have garnered 1,000 users, 2,400 followers on social media organically, and over 800 posts on the platform thus far through bootstrapping. He is excited to gain more resources in the near future to grow the company and platform the way he envisions to make a truly lasting and positive impact in the world.

Connect with Abdoulaye on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • About FIND
  • The hardest challenges

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 are here. A very special episode of GSU ENI radio. Today on the show we have Abdoulaye Djire with FIND. Welcome.

Abdoulaye Djire: [00:00:44] Hey, thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:46] Well, I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about find how you serving folks.

Abdoulaye Djire: [00:00:51] Yeah. So for the people who don’t already know what find is, it is a B2B social networking platform where through the use of pictures, videos, comments and ratings, we can all share our best one of a kind locations, what we like to call hidden gems.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:07] So what’s the had you had this idea come about? What was the genesis of the idea?

Abdoulaye Djire: [00:01:12] Yeah. So there is there’s a couple of different stories that kind of weave together to make this story come alive. The most prominent one would be I have some relatives in Paris and I went to go see them one summer. And for me I was able to explore the city and stuff because I was there for a month while they’re at work and everything and I got to discover all these just very unique experiences and very hole in the wall of places. But the issue was when I wanted to show them my experience and have them go there too, there was no platform that had a solution like that, right? And when I came back home, there was I noticed so many people around me were living in Atlanta for years, but there are still struggling to figure out where to go and what to do to enjoy themselves. So once I saw these kind of two things happen, I was like, okay, well, I might be the one that needs to make something or do something about this. So yeah, that was kind of the start of fine.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:11] So when you’re kind of creating these kind of experiences for folks, how do you kind of vet them to make sure that just because you like them, other people will like them as well?

Abdoulaye Djire: [00:02:23] Yeah. Great question. So best way I can answer that. It’s kind of like what you see on your Facebook or Instagram feed, right? So that content, Facebook is not creating themselves to give to you, right? Those are your friends on the platform making it what it is. So essentially here it’s the same exact concept. The places that you’re viewing are from the people who you’re friends with on the platform. So it’s to everybody is a value added that everybody posts great locations and great experiences.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:58] And the more that people do that, then kind of the app gets smarter and then you’re going to be able to find those hole in the wall gems.

Abdoulaye Djire: [00:03:06] Exactly. You got it? Yeah. It’ll get eventually. We’ll have some kind of algorithm that will even show you places that you didn’t even know you would love. And you end up loving those places just as the same as the ones you thought you would. So that’s what we’re gearing towards.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:21] Now, is this your first tech startup?

Abdoulaye Djire: [00:03:24] Yes, it is. First, this is a quote unquote. Yeah, that’s the best way to put it. The first. Yep.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:31] Now, since you’ve never been a founder before, was this a kind of difficult is this how you saw kind of your career evolving or did you think, oh, I’m going to go to school and I’ll get a job? And that’ll be that and this I don’t know if this is I would assume in a positive way has at least derailed that a little bit.

Abdoulaye Djire: [00:03:52] Oh, absolutely. Completely derailed it completely. So for me, I got my exercise science degree and the plan was to get my doctor in physical therapy school. And so once I got some time after school, when I got finished, I realized that my passion ran out for the health care field. And so I was like, Man, I need to I need to think about something. I need to figure something out. So after praying on and brainstorming, a lot of this kind of entrepreneurial pathway was for me, something where I felt like I could dive all of my efforts into and still love what I’m doing in the process of it.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:35] Now, are you are you the technologist on the team or did you have to find one?

Abdoulaye Djire: [00:04:40] I had to find one. And so as I was finding one, I became more and more tech savvy. Right. So. I kind of messed around with different bootcamps on Udemy, for example, and now I can know what code is and what’s going on, and then I can do a little bit of coding myself, but I’m also in my Master Information Systems program at State as well. So that ties in the business side to the technology side of things. So definitely not the expertise in the company as far as the technology piece, but I definitely have a very, very good understanding of it.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:23] Now, any advice for other founders out there when it comes to finding a technology partner on the team? How did you go about doing that? That seems like, you know, that’s kind of important, right? You’re building a tech startup.

Abdoulaye Djire: [00:05:35] Yeah. No, that’s a that’s a great point. It definitely is. Just like anything else, I think even outside of their knowledge and outside of what they’re capable of doing, it has to be more so that the person that you’re working with, if you can see that being a long term relationship. And what I mean by that is, you know, your partners become the people that you speak to more than anybody else, literally more than your friends family, more than your close friends. So it has to be somebody that you can not only see yourself in a professional setting with, but somebody that you can actually personally see yourself being around for long periods of time. Right. And second, to how does that person kind of go about adversity and how do you guys talk about conflicts are the most important things versus what they’re able to do for the company?

Lee Kantor: [00:06:29] So how did you find this person?

Abdoulaye Djire: [00:06:32] Yeah. So at first for me, it was. Kind of figuring out the things we needed to in the journey eventually led to. I contacted a friend of mine from I’ve known him forever. We went to middle school and high school together actually, and he got me in contact with somebody else that he felt was capable of helping out with what I’m trying to do. And so that’s kind of what led us to meeting each other. And eventually that person in particular also has their own set of stuff going on in their place. So they did have to walk away from the company. But we’ve been able to fill in our technology gap through other developers and through other people.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:20] Wow. Exciting time. Congratulations. That’s a big milestone to be able to get that part right.

Abdoulaye Djire: [00:07:25] Yeah, for sure. Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:27] Now, how did you find out about the Main Street program and and how has it been?

Abdoulaye Djire: [00:07:34] Yeah, it’s been amazing. I’m very, very, very glad that we’re in it. I found out about it through Georgia State’s website soon after I graduated. And so I actually I applied for it last year for us to get in and we didn’t get in. So this year it felt like all the pieces were clicking together and that this is the year that God planned for us to be a part of it as part of this cohort. And it’s been great in the sense that any kind of plans that we want to execute, we can have feedback from the Main Street mentors and all the other businesses in the cohort that kind of, you know, get what they would think about the execution and then sit down and we think about ourselves and then we can adjust it accordingly and have even more successful way of going about it.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:24] So has there been any part of the process thus far that’s been most beneficial?

Abdoulaye Djire: [00:08:30] I would definitely say our our sessions, right? So we through the six month program, we have different sessions where we’re talking legal or excuse me, where we’re getting legal advice, where we’re getting product market fit advice, accounting advice, just everything to really grow a business. So this for me, anything that I haven’t learned on my own or anything that I haven’t learned in the classroom is also plugging in those holes. So this is kind of to wrap things up as far as knowledge wise been very beneficial.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:08] So have you been enjoying the process? This is it’s a different kind of challenge, right?

Abdoulaye Djire: [00:09:13] Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And me, I grew up playing sports, so I kind of that competitive edge or that kind of man. I really don’t feel like doing this as far as like certain things when it comes to the business. But it’s like, no, I know the end goal and I know what I want to achieve. So then you you’re able to kind of push yourself to do the things you don’t want because when it comes time to do the things you actually do, as far as the business, those are a lot easier, you know?

Lee Kantor: [00:09:44] So what’s next and what do you need and how can we help?

Abdoulaye Djire: [00:09:48] Yeah, absolutely. The next few kind of steps that we’re taking is we learned a lot from our MVP. We garnered 1000 users organically on the platform and more than 800 gems were posted. So through all that feedback and the things we learned and that MVP, we’re taking into the full version of the platform and we’re hoping to get that launched and out there in the next couple of months. And our biggest challenge thus far has been really raising funding. So with the Main Street program, we’re able to get a grant, which was our first external funding and has been a blessing. And we also got second place in our first pitch competition. So that added on to some of our grant money. So really we’re just looking for funding to really do what we want to do because we’ve done so much with so little. So only imagine when we get the right capital to, to get this thing really going.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:52] And if somebody wants to learn more about the app or maybe get a hold of you, what is the coordinates?

Abdoulaye Djire: [00:10:57] Yeah, absolutely. My email is Abdoulaye at the find out and that’s as an app will be as in boy Diaz in dog 0ulaye at the find out dot com to find the app. And then also our website, the find app.com is amazing. And then last night at least would be our Instagram defined app underscore.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:26] All right. Well, congratulations on all the momentum and thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Abdoulaye Djire: [00:11:35] Absolutely. Thank you guys for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:37] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on GSU. Any radio?

Intro: [00:11:44] 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 paycom.

About Our Sponsor

OnPay’sOnPay-Dots payroll services and HR software give you more time to focus on what’s most important. Rated “Excellent” by PC Magazine, we make it easy to pay employees fast, we automate all payroll taxes, and we even keep all your HR and benefits organized and compliant.

Our award-winning customer service includes an accuracy guarantee, deep integrations with popular accounting software, and we’ll even enter all your employee information for you — whether you have five employees or 500. Take a closer look to see all the ways we can save you time and money in the back office.

Follow OnPay on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter

 

 

Amy Hager With Association Rockstars

by

Amy Hager
Association Leadership Radio
Amy Hager With Association Rockstars
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Amy HagerAmy Hager, Co-Founder at Association Rockstar.

She is a true marketer at heart, uses her years of expertise and her go-getter personality to relate and apply business strategies across many businesses and industries. Her love of small businesses and the community is reflected in her work; driving revenues and new engagement tailored to a business’s strengths and breaking down weaknesses with strategy and tactics is Amy’s superpower.

Connect with Amy on LinkedIn and Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Build marketing and sales teams in non-profits and associations

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: [00:00:20] Lee Kantor here another episode of Association Leadership Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Amy Hager with Association Rock Stars. Welcome, Amy.

Amy Hager: [00:00:31] Hey, thanks for having me, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:32] I’m like, so I’m so excited to learn what you got going on. Tell us a little bit about association rock stars. How are you serving folks?

Amy Hager: [00:00:39] Yep. So Association Rock Stars is a online community where we’re really focused on singing the praises of those unsung heroes. There’s a lot of association professionals out there who are CEOs and working in different communities for different movements and missions. And we really think they all have a unique and different story to tell. And so we’ve brought them together and created a interview series that we do every single month, and we really just try to find these unique stories in the different communities of which we all live in.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:14] And then what drew you to associations? Why did you decide to focus in on that group?

Amy Hager: [00:01:19] Yeah. So my personal story of my association journey, because I feel like, again, they’re all so different, is I actually used to work for a publishing company as their PR director, and my main job was to belong to all of our local chambers and our local associations like Kitchen and Bath Association and everything along those lines. And so when I made the move out to Washington DC back in 2008 with my husband for a job change, I was moving to the Mecca of the association world. Everybody is in DC who’s an association. And so I started to work in the marketing and membership and events areas, and as I continued to grow my career and move into the executive director role, I was one of those executive directors that was out there just working so hard for my members and for my industry and didn’t really get a chance to connect with other executive directors who were working super hard for their industries. And so when I was presented with the opportunity to kind of create association rock stars with our co founder, Lowell Applebaum, it was just, again, this this chance to bring people together who are really champions for their association, because sometimes it is that alone feeling. You feel like you’re the only executive director of the organization and you’re going through a lot. So opening up the conversation so that they can collaborate and come up with solutions together because being a CEO sometimes is very, very lonely.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:53] Yeah. And I think that in today’s day and age, it’s much better to be investing in community than it is audience necessarily, which is kind of a slight departure for folks in in kind of marketing and the marketing world to invest in building a community where people can work together and collaborate and help each other. It’s it’s refreshing.

Amy Hager: [00:03:17] Well, and I think when you get a community of like minded professionals together, it is refreshing. You have the person to cheer you on when you need to be cheered on or to cheer with when you’re celebrating something. And I do think that through conversation, we become a lot more clear on what we should be communicating or how we could be communicating, or where we could be communicating a message. So I totally appreciate you nailing that on the. Headlee It is a different way that we think about marketing than what the traditional was communicating to an audience and broadcasting your message everywhere and instead focusing on building that collaboration, who’s really behind a movement. And sometimes the movement is the individual right. But a lot of times it really is that larger movement where we’re trying to better the lives of of the industry that we’re representing.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:14] Now on this show, we are talking to association leaders and we’re trying to share with them some best practices and maybe some tips and tricks that other association leaders have gleaned over the years. One of my I don’t want to say concerns, but it’s something that I’m trying to keep an eye on, is the attracting of young people into the association world. I think a lot of young people are cynical and aren’t embracing and leaning into associations and really taking advantage of the opportunities that they offer a young person, especially in a career. Do you have any advice for leaders of associations that want to kind of open the doors to younger people because they become the pipeline of of leaders, of future leaders, of the association? And if you ignore them for too long, you’re going to have a problem at some point.

Amy Hager: [00:05:07] Yeah, no, I think one thing that I’ve really honed in on as a leader of an association and as a leader of a team and staff and those. New generations coming in to the workforce. You know, I really feel that as an association leader, I have been asked to be a jack of all trades all the time. I need to be good at writing. I need to be good at speaking. I need to be good at video. You know, I need to be good at graphic design and putting together events and all the things. And I think what we’ve really unfortunately done by becoming a jack of all trades and trying to be really good at all these things is we’re spreading ourselves just way too thin. And so as this new generation is coming in and what I think current leaders need to really look at is what is the strength of that individual that’s sitting in front of you? What do they what do they bring to the table? Because a lot of young people are bringing amazing experiences, great new thought leadership to the table, but they’re just not being asked, what is your strength? Where do you rock at? What do you rock at? How do you want to create content? Do you want to create an audio file or a video, or do you want to write or do you want to do graphic design? And so instead of having these job requirements where they’re so spread thin with every single task, doing all the things, if we can micro task and we do this with our volunteers, a lot of times now I don’t know why we haven’t thought to really implement this one with our staff, especially newer staff. But I do think that that’s really a different approach to look at bringing on the newer generation is allowing them to thrive in their strengths and not telling them to be the jack of all trades that we were forced to be in.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:00] So what is your superpower? What is it that you bring to the table that really can help another organization get to a new level?

Amy Hager: [00:07:09] I would definitely say that the approach that I’ve been focusing on to help organizations market to the community and the like, I didn’t know you were going to mention how strong and how important communities are in marketing, but really to be able to attract those who can get behind a vision and a mission and actually repel the ones who aren’t the right ones, who aren’t going to be on that mission or vision with you. And once we really look at the attraction and the repel type marketing, tapping into your team and allowing them to especially market an organization market and sell an organization based off of their strengths and really shifting that narrative. That’s where I’m seeing the most success with the associations that I’ve been working with in adjusting their marketing implementation strategy. When you look at your staff and what you’re actually trying to achieve.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:09] And when you do get clarity of a true north or what the ideal person looks like, it is easier to say no to things and to recognize when you’re kind of stretching in areas, maybe you shouldn’t be stretching and you’re kind of compromising in places you maybe you shouldn’t be. I think that’s a key point to know not only what the person looks like, but also what they don’t look like and to to avoid those people.

Amy Hager: [00:08:37] Well, and I think, too, that there is an association for literally everything out there. Right? There’s a nonprofit association for everything. And so if that person sitting in front of you isn’t the right member for you, they will find support somewhere else. There’s plenty of people out there who need to belong to a community of like mindedness and who need to belong to a mission and a vision of how we’re going to move forward and whatever the industry is. Right. And so I think as leaders, again, we tried to not only ourselves be jack of all trades, but a lot of times the associations started to become the jack of all trades. And so if we really focus our niche on what our organization does really, really well and how we make that positive impact on the member’s lives, and we focus on the thing we do well and we help those who need that thing. That is your ideal member right there. And that’s who you need to be marketing to.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:35] Right. And those are the people that you have to be investing in and leaning into rather than trying to to fix somebody or to, you know, kind of force a square peg into a round hole.

Amy Hager: [00:09:47] Yeah, most definitely.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:49] Now, in your career, I’m sure there’s been ups and downs. Do you mind kind of sharing a challenge that you went through or maybe a mistake that you made that you were able to overcome and maybe got you going in the direction that you are now?

Amy Hager: [00:10:02] So I would say one of the mistakes that I made is when I was at an association where I was the only staff member and really did a great job of talking to. The members and talking to prospective members and figuring out their biggest pain point in their need because the association was spread way too thin. We are doing lobbying, we are focusing on marketing, we’re doing inspections and making sure that there were these industry standards that were being held. And when it really boiled down to what the actual member wanted, they really wanted help marketing. They really wanted help getting foot traffic into their businesses. And so when we switched the organization to focus on that, it was a great micro niche. I think the mistake that was made and this was a mistake on my part and by the board is we really structured the offer and the benefit of being a member based off of the benefit of my marketing strengths. And so when I left the organization and they couldn’t find a marketer who was a like minded marketer that I was, it really left the organization into a pinch of do they hire that square peg to fit in this round hole and try to make this person be what the organization needs them to be? Or does the organization have to shift and go back to spreading itself then being in all these different places? And so the one thing that really turned my perspective is making sure that we do have other professionals in, I guess, entering the workforce who see this new way of creating a association and making it sustainable by niching down.

Amy Hager: [00:11:52] Who agreed to that? Because it’s kind of hard to come across, but I think it’s slowly making a shift and I’m seeing this a lot better. And this was back in 2015, 2016. So we’re quite a few years away from there and also have experienced a lot different experiences. But it really did show me that we’ve got to make sure that we’re starting to get a shift of the leadership, either thinking differently of how to run the organizations who are currently in those positions or attracting future leadership who see it that way as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:27] Now, in your career and where you’re at today, when you made the shift to this community oriented marketing style, when did you start seeing kind of the breadcrumbs of, Hey, we might be on to something here? This is starting to resonate. This is I feel better about it. The people we’re serving feel better about it. When did you kind of get the hint that you were on to something?

Amy Hager: [00:12:51] I would say. Pretty instantly with the current members, with those really active ones who are going to tell you what they think no matter if it’s good or bad. It was very instant with them, with the potentials and with the people who have left the organization. It took about a year. It was an overnight success, and it took a lot of breaking down barriers that were not that old organization that was doing too much and trying to do too many things, and that we’re really focused on helping this piece. So I would say instantly with the members who were super involved, but it did take about a year and it did take a lot of one on one meetings for them to really gain the trust of the organization again, because they felt that they had been burned or they felt that the organization didn’t meet what they needed. And so building that one on one trust and building then those champions within the organization to help spread that message was super key. Because if I tried to do it again as the staff of one all on my own, we would have never achieved it. So it really was making sure that those who truly believed in the mission really saw the vision, were also equipped with the tools to then talk about that and really enroll other people into this new vision, into this new movement, into this new way of thinking, and get them to join onto that movement with us in when we built the movement, of course we had their input before, so it was kind of easy because that’s what they said they wanted. But it was getting them focused on that one pain point within business that an organization or an association can really help them do.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:45] Now, can you share a story? Obviously don’t know the name, but maybe share the challenge that the association you were working with had and then how you were able to help them get to a new level.

Amy Hager: [00:14:58] So I think again, when it comes to recruiting members and getting members behind that movement, if if it’s too widespread, it’s it’s too hard for everyone to buy on. And so when I’m working with organizations now, we really want to hone in on, on, on that process and on the results that you’re going to get from interacting with us. And a lot of times we focus too much on the oh, we have a conference. Oh, you can come network. Oh, you can come do this. You can do that. If we really scale back on the I call it the boat. So we’re selling the boat like the peanuts of the boat, the captain at the boat, the music that we’re going to listen to on the boat. And if we really talk about the results from being in the organization, the results from working within community, the results of how we’re moving this mission or this vision forward when we’re able to really have those higher level conversations and get out of the weeds of the how to and get into the result conversation, that’s where you really see the turn of the members who want to be there because they’re on that vision with you. They’re not there because they want to go to networking events or they’re not there because they want to have that trip to Orlando to your national conference.

Amy Hager: [00:16:24] Right. You see the turn in your membership becoming quality and more invested in investing more of their time and their business into the organization because of that overall movement. And so how I’ve seen this work out, organizations now, again, it’s a different way of thinking. You really have to reprogram the conversation and you have to reprogram the person who is sitting in front of you of how they see the organization. And it’s it’s definitely, I would say, like an educational type campaign, right? Letting them kind of build that like love and trust factor with the organization and and see that their business is going to benefit or their individual professional development or whatever the certification might be, will benefit from being in that organization. But I think shifting the conversations leave from instead of all the little the little cool, fun things that you get with membership and you know, you have a three page long list of all of these things. If we talk about the results you get by being involved in this community, being involved as a member and being a part of this organization, you will see the up level of that membership.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:42] Yeah, I think it’s funny that a lot of associations, they forget to ask what the outcome that the member desires is and they’re adding all these features in and what they. Membership perks, and they’re not really having conversations with the members to see what they’re really trying to get out of this.

Amy Hager: [00:18:02] Exactly. Very true.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:05] Now for you, what is the ideal association for you to work with? What what’s the profile of a good fit client for you?

Amy Hager: [00:18:14] I would say really the organizations who are working on serving their business, usually business based organizations. Even though I’m a certified association executive SCA and I also hold my IOM Institute of Organizational Management designation, and I believe that those trainings and those professional, professional development opportunities have really helped me in my career. I know that my strength lies within organizations who are really supporting businesses. So I really love working with local chambers, working with travel and tourism industry businesses and hospitality organizations, and really helping them connect that larger business community of how do they help those members? How do they help the members grow with foot traffic? How do they build the the economic developments that need to be built within a community to support business? So that’s really kind of where I thrive.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:19] Now, if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on your team, what is the coordinates website, LinkedIn, things like that.

Amy Hager: [00:19:27] Yeah. So if you literally just look up Amy Hager it’s a y, h, a g e are either on LinkedIn, Facebook or if you Google. I do have a website. Amy Hager Solutions to get to the Association Rockstars. You’re definitely going to find us on Facebook. That’s where our major group lives. And then we also have association rock stars dot com, which you can read about our rock stars. You can listen to our interviews on our podcast. So if you got iTunes or Google Play, we’re there. And then also on YouTube, we’ve got all the interviews housed there as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:05] Well, Amy, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Amy Hager: [00:20:10] Thanks for having me, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:12] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on the Association Leadership Radio.

 

Chris Williams With VPPPA

by

Chris Williams
Association Leadership Radio
Chris Williams With VPPPA
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VPPPAChris WilliamsChris Williams, CAE serves as the Executive Director of the Voluntary Protection Program Participants’ Association (VPPPA), a 501[c](3) association representing participants and stakeholders in OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program. Chris has served as an association leader for more than 20 years, leading membership growth, program development, and safety & health for a variety of organizations.

Connect with Chris on Linked and follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Association leadership
  • Membership growth
  • Governance, safety & health
  • Program development
  • Emerging leaders

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 Chris Williams with the VPPPA, which is the Voluntary Protection Program Participants Association. Welcome, Chris.

Chris Williams: [00:00:36] Thank you for the welcome. I appreciate that. And I apologize for the mouthful there. It was a VPPPA.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:42] Well, before we get too far into things, tell us about the association, how you serving folks?

Chris Williams: [00:00:47] So VPPPA has been around now since around 1984 or thereabouts, going on 40 years here we serve. The best way to put it is we were started as the Association for OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program participants. What that is, it’s a compliance assistance program for all industries that companies are involved in basically the best of the best in terms of safety and health programs. And as we’ve evolved over the years, the association has focused more on all companies. What we mean by that is there are other safety associations out there that represent the safety and health professionals and the companies that that really are striving for that VPP star designation. And also to be the best of the best, the world-class companies, we bring them into the fold as well instead of focusing just on that VPP program. So that’s as I’ve mentioned previously to a number of folks that are listeners here that I’ve worked with directly. We like our name Voluntary Protection Program Association, love it. It’s a mouthful. So we go by VPPPA because we represent, as I said, the best of the best in terms of safety and health.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:47] Now, when you have safety and health as the forefront of the mission, do you spend a lot of your time kind of in education mode where you’re just trying to share these kind of best practices?

Chris Williams: [00:02:00] Oh, certainly. In fact, our main focus as a5c3 is the education, not just of our members in terms of evolving their safety and health programs, but also industries as a whole. That’s construction, manufacturing, industrial, petrochem, everyone down the line from companies like Amazon all the way to Honeywell and some of the energy generation companies into the construction field as well. The education, it really starts with our safety convention, our symposium. That’s usually every August this year it’s in Washington, D.C. So coming up here soon and we focus on, as I said, not just educating the industries that we focus on, but helping them to connect and helping them to share their best practices. The popular saying from a safety and health perspective and I’m a safety and health person by trade. Previous experience with associated builders and contractors as director of Safety and Health, my father’s been a construction forever. We talk about until we get to zero incidents worldwide, we’re never going to have the very, very, very best program we can have. We need to keep evolving that program to continue to focus on helping all industries and all workers go home at the same or better condition in which they arrived. And that’s our primary goal.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:04] Now, how are we doing? Like what is the kind of state of the industry right now, in your opinion?

Chris Williams: [00:03:10] State of the industry, safety and health? We are better than we have ever been. I can tell that. I can say that with absolute certainty. You know, I’m old enough to remember back back in the nineties, safety culture was give a great example in terms of fall protection in construction. It was wear body belt. Well before that it was well, if you feel bad things are going to happen, you’re most likely going to perish. Then it was Wear Body Belt and if you fell, well, okay, you might be paralyzed from the waist down from the nineties. Oh, we evolved in that piece of equipment, evolved into a full body harness, which protects the wearer from serious injury. And so as we evolve safety in health, we’ve reached a point now that, especially with EPA members, are lagging indicators for our members, or at least 52% better than industry averages across the board. And while that’s great, as I said, one of the things that we as an association focus on, we continuously try to educate and share those best practices with our members to get that number to absolute zero. In terms of incidence every hour, our primary resource, our best resource we could possibly have are our employees, our workers out there. And our goal is to make sure that every one of them goes home safe.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:17] Now, do you find that the the companies you work with, a lot of companies, obviously, people are our most important asset and they there’s a lot of lip service towards that. But practically, you know, when the rubber hits the road, are you seeing them as maybe motivated and inclined to take action when it comes to safety and health as you’d like? Or is this something is it getting better? Like, where are we at from that standpoint?

Chris Williams: [00:04:45] That’s that’s a great question with VPA members. Our members, as I said, are always striving to be the very best. The best, and that’s what we look for. But as as we’ve expanded as an association and evolved our mission, some of those companies, sadly, there are companies out there. We see them in the news all the time that that they pay that lip service to. Yes, we safety is our priority. And yet you look at their their safety performance, it’s simply not there. And as we’ve evolved our association, our focus is to bring those companies in. We want those company. Used to join us. We want those companies to be a part of VPA so that they can learn and apply those lessons and get better. You know, we see them anytime I see a company and this is personal opinion, not a VP. Again, my safety backgrounds come into play here whenever I see a company or a person talk about safety as a priority. I always question that because priorities change. My priority for the longest time, every every January 1st, is I’m going to lose weight. And every March 1st, that priorities got. It’s changed. There’s something else to put out there. Safety to our members and our association. It’s a core value. It’s what we are. Our businesses, our members build their business on, their model on. And when I worked in construction, there are a number of companies that you talk about lip service say that their statement is essentially we will not perform any task if it is not completely safe. But those companies walk the walk. And our goal as an association of VPAS to bring members on board, to get them to where it’s walking the walk, in addition to talking the talk and to raise that boat with you, we talk about rising tide lifts all boats. That’s our association’s mission now and then.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:20] So, you know, you’ve been doing this for a minute and it sounds like it’s trending in the right direction. And do you think that just by kind of holding up the examples of the people that are doing it well and then I don’t want to say shaming, but just making the public aware of the people that aren’t doing it as well or could improve. Is that kind of the lever that you need to get more people prioritizing safety and health? Like, what are the levers you have to pull to, you know, encourage more companies to really walk the walk?

Chris Williams: [00:06:53] So it’s interesting to say that when we talk about shaming companies and that’s certainly been been something that that is an industry. And in terms of other agencies as well, they’ve worked towards, you know, it’s we bring attention to the company that’s not performing well. The reality is what we found in safety and health is that for the longest time I said the culture change is really started back in the nineties. I use the fall protection example, but the reality is safety is a culture. As the cultures of cultures evolved from the nineties, we realized that the culture of the generational leadership style of tell somebody to do something and let them do it, make sure they do it and come down on them hard. If they don’t do it the right way, it’s changed instead of shaming. Now it’s we work with not just employees but companies and say, listen, we understand these are things that are happening and we have the solutions for you. We can get you to where you need to be. Let’s work on that together and bring you up to speed so that you’re not going to be in the news for all the wrong reasons. You’re going to have employees who want to stay. You’re going to have employees that are working safe and understand the importance of safety because it is a cultural issue.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:00] So you’re finding that by bringing attention in a positive manner to the people that are doing it well and holding them up and spotlighting them and using them as an example, that brings more people into the fold.

Chris Williams: [00:08:13] Absolutely. Absolutely. And I’ll say this, our safety symposium we have every year, we have a large portion of our sessions dedicated, like I said, to sharing best practices and sharing our award winners, success stories, the best, the best. Again, showing how they’ve done it. That said, we also, from a safety health standpoint, know that we need to the best way to put this is most people their safety. Why why they do what they do, why they work safe. It stems from a catastrophic incident, a tragedy beyond explanation. And people that have gone through that loss, that have gone through either a death penalty on the job site or a serious injury with one of their employees. You can see the change there. And so what we also attempt to do is, is we bring in speakers that have have gone through that safety. Why? Because the last thing we want a company or one of our members to have to go through is that catastrophic incident to finally realize. So we try to duplicate that condition as much as possible and then promote the best practices after that and say, listen, this is something you never want to have to go through. Here’s how you never have to go through it.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:20] Yeah, because the people have lived through it. They, they know the importance, but they had to experience that devastation in order to really have it kind of sink in and probably make that cultural change. I mean it sadly. But you want to learn from their pain, really, so that you can eliminate the pain going forward for others.

Chris Williams: [00:09:41] Absolutely. I had a great conversation with one of our closing session speakers yesterday about this very topic, and she used to work at NASA during the Columbia disaster and said that NASCAR, and rightfully so, USA, has an exceptional safety culture. But unfortunately it was the Columbia incident and Challenger before that that there were slips. And in our profession, when there slips, it’s catastrophic. And so our mission is to avoid help companies avoid those slips.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:10] Yeah. I mean, it’s one of those things where, I mean, you’re dealing with human beings. So mistakes. You know, humans make mistakes. But if you can, you know, get to the heart of the systems and make sure that you’re catching some of these potential mistakes before they can happen systemically, then you can really make an impact and then you can prevent some of this.

Chris Williams: [00:10:33] Absolutely. And incident prevention in any industry is always a tremendous asset. And it’s something that we preach incessantly and for good cause. And it’s it also comes down to when we talk about culture as we’ve seen this this cultural evolution in safety and health. As I said, it went from. Do the job, get it done back it back up until OSHA was created back in the early seventies that it was all right. You work safe. But that was it. You were responsible for your own safety and you are still responsible for your own safety and the jobsite you’re on. But the cultural evolution we’ve now started to focus on in the early 2000s, and it’s been tremendous in terms of helping us get this message across, that it’s not just about you working safe, it’s about you watching out for the people around you to make sure that they’re working safe. And we’ve accomplished this. And in a way that I don’t think anybody, if you’d asked them 25 years ago, would have said this is possible, but we’ve accomplished it by. By having family days, by especially in construction, shutting down the job site and having families commit so that I, as an employee of the company, I as a steelworker, I as a carpenter, I as a laborer can see that the person working next to me has got got a wife and kids, got a husband and a child.

Chris Williams: [00:11:44] They’ve got parents. Those are the people that they’re working for. And so what we’re doing from a cultural standpoint is reinforcing that you’re not just responsible for your own safety, but you need to make sure that the person next to you continues to work it because they’re going to go home to a family. And if there’s that catastrophic loss, that safety, why that happens and we never want to see it, that’s where the loss is going to be felt. And I can this is a topic that I’m very passionate about because in my previous career with ABC as director of safety there, I had a member who shared a story with me from back. Back in the early 2000s on one of their job sites, a crane collapse killed a young man. Unfortunately, it was their safety. Why? And on a Facebook every year, we unfortunately have the parents of that young man. They post every year how much they miss them. And we’re now 20 years on from that. And it never we never want to have to see somebody go through that. And that’s why we do what we do.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:36] Right. And by including the families you are, you know, you’re kind of demonstrating the stakes like it is in Bob. There’s Bob and his kid and his wife and his, you know, grandkid like Bob’s more than Bob. So, I mean, the stakes are high. And everybody, it sounds like it’s very holistic. And I mean, I remember when I was in school and we’d read books about what it was like a hundred years ago. I mean, it seems like we’ve come such a long way because of, you know, organizations like yours that are really kind of giving people the tools to be better. And it sounds like that we are making progress. This isn’t a dream that can’t come true. I mean, with people kind of can learn from your association and the members and really can make a difference. And it sounds like it is.

Chris Williams: [00:13:25] Oh, absolutely. I pinpoint back and you can’t pinpoint a date, but when we when we realized that we could throw all the money and all of the best practices in terms of technical knowledge, in terms of personal protective equipment prevention to design, we could throw all of that technical knowledge into safety and health, but still not reach our goal. Once we figure it out, we need to include the human component. That’s when it really started to click across all industries that once we got the human component in there, realized that behavior really does have an effect on how somebody works. Not only that, the conditions they face off the job and we started to focus on employee wellness outside of the outside of the job, the workplace. That’s when it really started to shift. To get us to the point we’re at now. There’s still a long way to go, don’t get me wrong, in terms of any any any injury on any job site or any plant, any manufacturing facility is one too many. And as we still need to focus on that improvement, but we’ve come so far in the past 25, 30 years just from that. And then even before that, the famous photo of the New York skyline, the steel work is sitting on a steel beam. There’s I see that photo today. And I still my heart stops because, number one, I’m afraid of heights. Number two, there’s I can’t even fathom having someone at that height with absolutely no fall protection. And we’ve come so far and we’re so safe that I think workers from that day and age would be astounded to see where we are at from a safety and health standpoint. Again, there’s still some we still have to get to that zero.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:00] Now, are you finding that today’s generation of workers, you know, they’re elevating maybe mental health as high as physical health when it comes to their workplace experience?

Chris Williams: [00:15:14] Oh, absolutely. And we’ve started to see our members, VHP members are at the forefront of recognizing that employee wellness is critical to not just working safe, but the employees long term success in health. And we focused on, especially with our association. In fact, when I started I’ve been here about a month now. Like I said, my background is in safety and health. But it was amazing to see how proactive not just our members have been, but also the association itself in terms of focusing on that, you know, we have members that that will have mental health days for their workforce that say the force them to take the day off. And we do that as an association as well. We tell our employees, my team, listen, once a day or once a quarter, you’re going to take the day off and we’re going to pay you to take the day off. And we want you to go do anything that’s not work related. Because if you’re not mentally sharp and this is not just from the association standpoint, from a workforce standpoint in general, if you’re not mentally sharp and ready to go, that’s a mistakes happen. And again, in our in our industry, in safety and health, one mistake is catastrophic, can have catastrophic consequences, not just for you as an individual, but for those working around you.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:23] Now, is there an example you can share? I know that this is kind of new for you in this role, but maybe an example you can share that illustrates the change that can happen when a company leans into safety and health in terms of just better results and better maybe retention and better just, you know, you’re just a better organization when you lean into and elevate safety and health, not from lip service, but to actual action where you are kind of watching the back of your people.

Chris Williams: [00:16:56] Absolutely. And I can show you a recent example. I came over to the EPA from the Association of the Wall Ceiling Industry and Administering the Safety Awards there at a company when I started about five years ago that I talked to you guys, you’ve got a pretty good program. Why don’t you apply for a safety awards? And they said, well, you know, we’re still working on our culture and we still have some issues and some of our some of our officers, we want to make sure that we’ve got them on the right path. And so we brought them aboard the safety committee. And this is now three years ago, they applied for the first safety award they want for one of their offices. And they said, why don’t you apply as a whole company? They said, Well, we still have work to do. And that recognition, we haven’t earned it. The sea change from them when they applied last year and won our highest award at WCI was phenomenal from when I had started working with them. It wasn’t just the tangibles of employee retention, and the employees absolutely raved about their involvement in the safety and health program. It wasn’t just the increase, the better performance in terms of their lagging indicators. It was the fact that safety and health have become an absolute obsession with the company, whereas before it was, as I said, a priority. Now it was something that they strove for 24 seven. It was something that was at the forefront as a core value in everything the company did.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:17] Now, any advice for maybe other association leaders out there that are like you? You’ve been in this space for a while, but now you’re taking over a new association, how you can kind of, you know, maybe your first hundred days, how you kind of went about joining this association and kind of making a plan to make the largest impact you can.

Chris Williams: [00:18:42] That’s a loaded question, Lee. It’s like I said, I started here about a month ago, but in reality. Started when I was announced that I’d accepted the positions that was back in May. And so some of my advice is that when the opportunity arises, seize it for those out there looking to take that that top seat, that CEO, that executive director position, but start laying the groundwork for success even before you start that. That’s engaging with the executive committee and the board, getting to know what their goals are for the association, getting to know what the rules are, speaking with staff when the opportunity arises. Being able to really explore that relationship and build that relationship from a foundational standpoint with them from the outset. Because I can tell you when I started, I started July 1st and it was a half day and then July 4th was a monday. So all right, I’m in the office for 3 hours and that’s it.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:31] You eased into it?

Chris Williams: [00:19:32] Yeah, I remember. I won’t remember any any faces or names the next week because there’s there’s three and a half, four days in between. But because I had gotten to know everyone, because I’d had those conversations with both volunteer leaders and staff, it really sets you up for success and what you’re looking at, especially in the first 100 days. One of the things I’d recommend for anyone that’s interviewing for a position like this, the question always comes from the interview committee, the nominee, the committee, it’s what would you do in your first 30 days or 60 days or 90 days? No, it’s the first six months minimum, because the first 90 days in this position are spent learning. It’s that that old that old adage of children should be seen and not heard. Well, executive directors and CEOs, in the instances where they can they should be seen heard only on occasion, but absorbing as much information as they can. Because if you go into it with why I’m going to change X, Y and Z immediately, that’s that’s not possible in associations. I think we we all know the pace that associations move and on change, it’s it’s not quick and that’s fine. But we also when you go into it with that mindset, I’m going to make these changes immediately. In my first 90 days, you start to lose staff the buy it in. It’s critical to earn the respect of your staff, your team from the outset and also their buy into your vision for the association. That’s a more long term goal. So never, never go with that first 90 days. So it’s the first six months because it takes six months to build those relationships up.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:03] And you have to manage the expectations of the board in that regard as well, I’m sure.

Chris Williams: [00:21:08] Absolutely. It’s unfortunate. Vpas is in a really good position. Obviously with the pandemic coming out of this, there’s still uncertainty around many associations or is included in terms of attendance at our upcoming safety plus event, in terms of how things will look when we’re fully out of the pandemic, knock on wood. And so keeping that in mind, it’s it becomes one of those challenges of you don’t want to say, oh, we’re going to have 3000 people at this event realizing that the market conditions simply won’t support it. Or, again, coming out of a pandemic, there’s still uncertainty and there’s still travel restrictions. So it’s it’s not necessarily the old under-promise, overdeliver, but be realistic in your expectations. Don’t. My advice is don’t don’t go into it as I know I can make these changes and we’re going to do tremendous work and we’re going to succeed right off the bat. No expect that. As I said, you’re learning as you come into it and especially that first six months, make sure that the board understands that. Yeah, you need to take that six months to really be integrated into the association. And that’s not just the operations but the history of the associations, what the association has done before, and then laying out that vision in conjunction with your board of where you want to take the association, what you see the opportunities as being.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:22] Well, Chris, if if there’s people out there that want to learn more about the association, what is the coordinates or the best way to connect with you and your team?

Chris Williams: [00:22:31] Absolutely. I can always go to our website VP dot org. It’s got all of our contact information and if any, any aspiring leaders want to reach out to me. I’ve been on this journey now for 22 years and it’ll never stop because I love associations and also safety and health and they like advice and in this position they can always reach me. My email address is C Williams at VP dot org.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:52] Well Chris.

Chris Williams: [00:22:53] Remember three.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:53] Ps three PS V three PS in an A. Exactly. Well, Chris, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Chris Williams: [00:23:02] We appreciate the opportunity. Thank you very much.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:05] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see y’all next time on the Association Leadership Radio.

 

Aarti Sahgal With Synergies Work

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AartiSahga
Atlanta Business Radio
Aarti Sahgal With Synergies Work
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AartiSahgaAarti Sahgal is the Founder & CEO of Synergies Work – the only nonprofit in the U.S. that enables entrepreneurs with disabilities to build sustainable businesses. We do so by providing end-to-end business solutions and bridging the opportunity gaps between the disability and the business community.

Synergies Work is a personal mission that stems from the life experiences of Aarti Sahgal. As a parent of a child with Down syndrome, she is constantly challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations that excludes people with disabilities from living their true potential. Aarti has been working for more than 17 years on building inclusive communities and workforce strategies for individuals with disabilities.

Aarti is the President of GA APSE(Association of People Supporting Employment First) and is on the board of the state Rehabilitation Council.

In her previous avatar, she worked for 14 years in advertising & marketing. She has a Master’s in business Management from one of the top management schools in India.

Connect with Aarti on LinkedIn and follow Synergies Work on LinkedIn and Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • About Synergies Work
  • The Ideato Incubation (i2i) program
  • The mission behind Synergies Work so important
  • The ImpactGrants

About Our Sponsor

OnPay’sOnPay-Dots payroll services and HR software give you more time to focus on what’s most important. Rated “Excellent” by PC Magazine, we make it easy to pay employees fast, we automate all payroll taxes, and we even keep all your HR and benefits organized and compliant.

Our award-winning customer service includes an accuracy guarantee, deep integrations with popular accounting software, and we’ll even enter all your employee information for you — whether you have five employees or 500. Take a closer look to see all the ways we can save you time and money in the back office.

Follow OnPay on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter

Joe Delatte With Home Clean Heroes

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JoeDelatte
Franchise Marketing Radio
Joe Delatte With Home Clean Heroes
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Brought To You By SeoSamba . . . Comprehensive, High Performing Marketing Solutions For Mature And Emerging Franchise Brands . . . To Supercharge Your Franchise Marketing, Go To seosamba.com.

JoeDelatteJoe Delatte, President at Home Clean Heroes

Whether it’s business ownership, management or sports, a coach’s main job is helping individuals and the team reach their full potential.

Joe spent his entire career building and sharpening skills in business management, leadership, strategic marketing, sales, product development, process improvement and creative thinking. Along the way, he held key marketing positions for several large communications players, including Landmark and Cox Communications.

He also owned and operated a home services franchise that quickly became one of the area’s highest quality and well-known home services companies.

Now as the President of Home Clean Heroes, he gets to put it all to work coaching their franchisees and corporate team to help them each reach their full potential and their personal dreams.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • About Home Clean Heroes
  • The brand’s summer signing event

John Howard With Use Slingshot

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JohnHoward
Atlanta Business Radio
John Howard With Use Slingshot
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UseSlingshot

JohnHowardJohn Howard, Founder at Use Slingshot LLC

John talks about bootstrapping and getting to profitability in your business. He runs a swag company.

Connect with John on Linkedin and Twitter.

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 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 John Howard with Use Slingshot. Welcome, John.

John Howard: [00:00:50] Hey, how’s it going?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:51] It is going well. Before we get too far into things, tell us about you. Slingshot, how are you serving folks?

John Howard: [00:00:58] Yes. So basically we work with startups and agencies and companies like Adobe and help them give swag to their people and make that super effortless.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:07] So swag, can you explain what it is and why it’s important?

John Howard: [00:01:12] Yeah. So apparel, gifts, little knickknacks, but things that make your people feel good, that’s either internal your employees or external being the people you’re trying to serve as customers or leads. And it’s important because they want to feel love, they want to feel heard. And showing this kind of admiration for them during a deal or doing an onboarding for a customer or employee is very important.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:37] So this would be different than than what I would see at a trade show where they have, you know, a jar of pens or flash drives.

John Howard: [00:01:47] Yeah. So those things we consider a little bit kitschy, but they do work, so we try to actually make sure the experience that means the package, the handwritten note, how it feels, what it’s paired with is an experience that they feel not just something they pick up and throw in the bag and forget about. So it’s all delivered directly to their doorstep. And so trade shows can actually send this from the trade show just through a QR code without having to worry about how that gets lugged around and thrown in the trash later.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:14] So you are trying to elevate kind of this industry a bit?

John Howard: [00:02:18] Yeah, it’s it’s not that it’s antiquated, but usually people are going for quantity, not quality. So customers come to us for that higher experience because you’re competing with their closet, you’re competing with their wardrobe. And so you want them to pull out the thing that really means something to them. So instead of sending just a bunch of things out into the wild with no tracking, we help you elevate not just the items themselves, but the experience when it’s opened and the follow up behind that to make sure they’re onboarded or go to that next step. You want them to.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:47] Now, how do you help your clients kind of determine if it’s even possible, like an ROI for something? Because I’ve been to a million trade shows and some of this stuff, I’m like, how can they, you know, what’s the ROI of, you know, a pen or a flash drive.

John Howard: [00:03:05] Right? They already have marketing budget for this, which is funny. But the baseline for years and years and years historically has been brand awareness. Basically. I hope they really have my shirt on. I hope they pull my pen out to use that and remember us. That’s the baseline. What we do is create a funnel, just like a marketing funnel, and when someone goes to redeem your gift at the end of that, they’re asked for an action that could be jump on a call with me. Schedule a Zoom call, download a PDF about our sales products. Or it could be somewhat internal, like go to the next step of onboarding. So we really measure that and measure those click through rates so we can actually put real numbers to the impact, not of the item itself, but of the emotional transaction that just took place.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:46] So this really are the item, really isn’t the important part. It’s the relationship that’s the important part. And these are just a means to an end to build and nurture existing or new relationships.

John Howard: [00:04:00] Right. Yeah. And then we the high end stuff allows it more to be more shareable, naturally. So we try to create that organic sheer ability. But yes, it is not the item itself inherently. It is that whole experience. And then being able to track that in some kind of way, that relationship is there in and out of our forms in 15 seconds. So it’s a really quick transaction and then they’re asked to do something optionally. So those click through right through those conversion rates that more traditional marketers would measure can actually put to real dollar spend and really measured that way.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:30] So what’s your back story? How did you get into this line of work?

John Howard: [00:04:34] Yes, my last company was Black Airplane. It was a design agency in Atlanta. And so I sold that to two people back in 2017. I stayed on for two years and I saw that our customer swag, we just didn’t slap our logo on it. We tried to make it real experience internally. People love that. And so I wanted to go back into building another project or another business. And so once I left there in March of 2020, historically a bad month to leave, but had no idea. We started this new company and it’s been great because everybody’s been distributed. A lot of people are trying to reach people they could not normally reach, and we shipped to 88 countries last year. So it’s not just here locally in the United States, the world has been impacted with distributed teams both in a good way and of course, historically otherwise. You all heard about.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:19] Now when you kind of made the leap into this industry, did you have kind of some breadcrumbs or some clues? It’s like, Hey, this is something that could work out. We’re starting to get traction. What were some of the earliest kind of hints that you were on to something?

John Howard: [00:05:37] Yes. So I’m a big believer. Again, I sold an agency I’m big believer in like UX and research and discovery before you actually start something. So I went and met with a lot of companies here in Atlanta just to say, Hey, let me buy you coffee, just not pick your brain, but just sit with you and find out what your industry does currently with this. And so there was obviously an incessant need that nobody had a full time job doing that. It was pretty much the number one identifier that people were being asked to do this job and hand out swag and put together these packages and run to the post office, deal with the customer service, all of that kind of stuff, and gathering the stuff in spreadsheets. And they weren’t paid to do that full time. They were paid normally to be people ops, meaning focus on my people and make them happy. This was a small subset of the job, but it took out an enormous amount of time. So it was a really easy win for us to say, Hey, what if we relieve that part of the process for you?

Lee Kantor: [00:06:23] And then once they kind of raise their hand and say, sure, we’ll give that a shot. What were some of kind of the the earliest iterations of what swag could be for like an early customer?

John Howard: [00:06:36] Yes. So actually one of our first companies luckily was Adobe. And so they’re a big company like Photoshop and Illustrator and XD. I had met them when I had my agency at a at a conference. They took us they flew us all out there, a few of us designers to LA to do a new product demo. And so while I was there, I had already been working on this, conceptualizing it. So I said, Hey, who’s your people ops person? Are they here? I just I don’t need to meet them, but just to know who they are. And somebody said, No, no, no, let’s actually go up there and meet them. And so they took me up front to meet this person. So I guess it was serendipity in a way, but basically got to talk to them and six months later we finally won them and we kicked off our major product that we have now. So it was kind of easily validated, but we had spent a lot of time to get all that prepped, a lot of research to build the product. I mean, that first version was built in and done with no automation, but the customer didn’t know. It was built in a weekend through web flow and WordPress, a few other products.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:34] Now, when you’re working with a client that maybe hasn’t invested in swag in the way that you deliver the experience, like what is that kind of onboarding? Or what are some of the questions you’re asking them and they’re asking you about what it could be and what it’s going to look like.

John Howard: [00:07:50] Yes. So we ask people like, what’s your audience? Who are you trying to reach? If they’re asking us, hey, we’re trying to make our employees feel more love. Well, of course, that’s the baseline. You want them to feel great, but we’re trying to push them into that next step. Well, the next step is I’d love them to tell other people about this company how awesome it is so we can build on those call to actions for that. If it was an external person like, Hey, we’re a sales team, we’re trying to drive more sales, like, how could you help us? Well, of course you could just buy swag and give it away, but let’s actually set up a funnel to get those people to jump on calls. They’re already interested in you. They’ll get some really nice swags for free, and then you can have them jump on a call and then maybe they’ll they’ll give you 15 minutes to talk about that. Since our click through rates are really high, that works out well. So we really try to discover what your audience, what’s your end goal, not just brand awareness. They’re holding your gift in their hand, but what are they actually trying to achieve with this and that? That really helps them elevate that. That’s why we charge for that’s why we’re different services, because we really try to position the swag to do something and to be meaningful.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:46] And so what do you need more of? How can we help you?

John Howard: [00:08:50] Yes. So always leads relationships. We are we’re we’re pretty much humming now at this point. But it’s been a long road. So anybody else has been in this industry or that is just interested in what we do. It’s always fun to have a conversation. I love meeting new people. I love trying to discover better ways that we could use our swag and maybe help other companies elevate this or just talk to other marketers. People that understand the business of marketing, that want to talk about how we could get better about that and more efficient in the way that we use swag to do the same things they’ve done traditionally for years now.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:24] Swag, it sounds like swag could be pretty much anything, right? This is just a means to an end of kind of serving somebody and building a relationship, nurturing a relationship. So what are some of the crazy swag items that you’ve seen out there have used for clients?

John Howard: [00:09:41] Yeah, we’re a lot different than our competitors and the fact that our stuff is much more high quality and you can print in different locations. We don’t do the low quality printing. There’s different types of ways to print on materials, but we do everything. There’s like 1500 items that we’ve done historically, but even stuff is crazy. As last month we had a company called Loops, and so they’re a marketing company. They have nothing to do with the word loops or Froot Loops. We said, Hey, what if we did something crazy and created a viral marketing cereal box for y’all? And so we actually went out and got the cereal. We got the boxes printed and procured. We got a 3D printed. What do you call those things? They are decoder ring and had it solve a mystery so you could pull up this prize and solve a mystery. And through that, you got another prize, which is a hoodie. So it made it an adventure, it made it go viral, and it really helped that company do well. And they actually trended top ten on product hunt last month when they launched this product with us.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:32] Now, when you’re working with your customer, is this something that they’re, you know, getting 1000 of these products, 100 of these products, like what is kind of what what’s kind of the number they’re getting from you? Is is it in mass or is it really kind of targeted like a sniper for a specific group or the type of person?

John Howard: [00:10:56] We’d recommend never over buying. So we really tried to position it based on the audience or the event you’re trying to attend or reach out to. Like in the case of loops, we have them order 100. It was a micro release, so basically only 100 of them were out there and it created more buzz because of that. So we do that or we could do large campaigns for camps or tradeshows, etc. So it really doesn’t matter. It’s kind of based on the item first. Like most of our items start out at minimum order quantities of 25 and there are certain items like pins like you mentioned that that could be like 1000 you have to buy because they’re so cheap. That’s just the minimum order quantity. So it really depends on the item and it depends on the audience and thing you’re trying to reach.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:34] So this this second venture for you to go from a design firm to this, this is still you know, you’re still kind of scratching that creativity itch. You’re still using your skills in just a slightly different way. Congratulations.

John Howard: [00:11:49] Yeah, it’s been a lot of fun. So basically I love SAS businesses, but I love something about the brick and mortar and the agency consultative business. So this is a good blend of both. We actually have a physical space in Acworth, Georgia, so about 30, 35 minutes north of Atlanta. But we also were able to build software around that. So our platform on top of it is amazing, it’s magical and it’s a subscription platform. But the swag itself and all that is still the old school physical way of doing that. We’re just really good at that part of the process.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:17] So who is your ideal client?

John Howard: [00:12:20] We love Adobe’s. I mean companies like that, we have agencies that are small, it really doesn’t matter as long as we’re seeing value from you giving away the swag and it’s measurable, it’s a great client. But somebody like Adobe, we basically started with one account and we’ve spread to 13 different business units. So that’s all about word of mouth. So again, it’s fun to go into one company and kind of spread a different departments when they have 18,000 employees. That’s a big deal. So we’ve we’ve done that really, really well. It’s all been by word of mouth, but also we have lots of small companies work, work we work with. We mentioned before that just have cool ideas that are willing to take chances and move the needle a little faster than some of the monoliths. And so it’s been a lot of fun. There’s a lot of there’s a good wide spread of people. Everybody needs swag and everybody wants to give it away more effectively and not do the work.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:04] And if somebody wants to learn more, have more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, what’s a website?

John Howard: [00:13:10] Yeah use so USD slingshot dot com good stuff.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:16] Well John thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

John Howard: [00:13:20] Awesome. Thank you so much.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:22] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

Intro: [00:13:28] 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 add on paycom.

About Our Sponsor

OnPay’sOnPay-Dots payroll services and HR software give you more time to focus on what’s most important. Rated “Excellent” by PC Magazine, we make it easy to pay employees fast, we automate all payroll taxes, and we even keep all your HR and benefits organized and compliant.

Our award-winning customer service includes an accuracy guarantee, deep integrations with popular accounting software, and we’ll even enter all your employee information for you — whether you have five employees or 500. Take a closer look to see all the ways we can save you time and money in the back office.

Follow OnPay on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter

Shondell Varcianna With Varci Media

by

ShondellVarcianna
Atlanta Business Radio
Shondell Varcianna With Varci Media
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ShondellVarciannaShondell Varcianna is the owner of Varci Media. A content writing company that helps financial institutions save time by writing content that speaks to their target audience. Shondell and her team have transformed their clients blogs into a solution provider for their customers.

Connect with Shondell on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Writing content for a particular group of people
  • The importance of having a strategy on how you’ll promote your content
  • Be consistent with publishing content
  • Only publish content that speaks to your customers and your target audience

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 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 the Land of Business Radio, we have Shondell Varcianna and she is with Varci Media. Welcome.

Shondell Varcianna: [00:00:49] Thank you so much for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:51] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about varci media. How are you serving, folks?

Shondell Varcianna: [00:00:56] Yeah, we’re we’re a content writing company. We write blog posts, newsletters and web pages for financial institutions.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:04] So what’s your back story? How’d you get into this line of work?

Shondell Varcianna: [00:01:07] Okay. I’m originally from Canada. I was born and raised in Toronto and my whole career was actually in banking. And when I was 20, I had purchased my first property and I purchased a second one at about 25, and I paid both mortgages off when I was 31. So my girlfriend suggested that I start helping people do the same thing, and she suggested that I start blogging. So I thought, Wait, that’s not a bad idea. So I started a blog and it became popular and over time, magazines and radio stations started contacting me, wanting to hear my story. And that led to companies reaching out to me and wanting me to write for them. So that, in a nutshell, is how the business got started. I was still working my full time job at the time and didn’t have enough time to write, so I started hiring writers and then the business just kept growing. And then I, you know, I quit my job and moved the business to Atlanta, Georgia, which is where we are today.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:06] And then these financial organizations that hire you, are they like kind of large institutional banks and things like that, or are they smaller, like financial advisors? Like who is your ideal client?

Shondell Varcianna: [00:02:19] Both, actually. So we we work from the largest institutions to the local credit union, so we don’t write for financial advisors. It’s just financial, mainly banks, credit unions and mortgage companies. That’s our ideal clientele.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:35] And then if they’re not working with you, how are they kind of attacking this content problem or do they not see it as something that they should be doing?

Shondell Varcianna: [00:02:43] Well, normally with our clients, we don’t do a lot of convincing in terms of content. So if they don’t kind of understand the importance of content, we don’t do a lot of convincing. We kind of want them to come already with the idea of knowing that content is important. So by the time they come to us, they’ve seen us somewhere online or seen us or heard us on a podcast or seen us at an event. And they usually come already understanding that the importance of content, the institutions that don’t outsource typically have an entire department that does different kinds of marketing. The content is one component of of marketing because of course, you know, there’s there’s so many other ways to market their services. So content is one component and the ones that outsource are typically the ones that just don’t have the staff to write content and or they just they have the staff, but they just don’t have enough time. So those are the two reasons why they’ll typically outsource.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:49] Now, one, when one of these institutions raises their hand and say, Chandel, we’re ready, we’d like you to kind of help us be better in this. Are the topics kind of similar from institution, institution or do? Or is there really kind of different types of content that are appropriate for these different types of institutions, you know, but to the layperson, they kind of all look similar.

Shondell Varcianna: [00:04:15] Great question. So the content is always based on who they’re targeting. So we don’t believe in just kind of writing what you think is trending or what’s happening. The content should always be tailored around being a part of the conversation that your ideal customer is already having. So the questions that your target audience has, the complaints that they have, the misconceptions that they have, those are the that’s the type of content you should be creating, addressing their pain points, addressing their concerns, answering their questions and things like that. So different institutions are targeting different people. So if they are targeting the same people, they still may have different questions because they’re in completely different markets. So, you know, somebody a first time homebuyer in New York City may have different questions than a first time home buyer in Columbus, Georgia, just because it’s two completely different markets. So we will be speaking to different people all the time simply because there are different audiences in different markets and different products and people want to know different things. So the content should always be tailored around what their ideal customer wants to know.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:27] Now how do you help? Your people that are doing the writing kind of captured the voice of the company you’re working with, because I would imagine while they are all, I would imagine somewhat similar in the sense that they’re serious and they’re not kind of irreverent at like some maybe some of them are, but I would imagine that’s the exception. But how do you capture the voice of the company through kind of your writers like that seems, you know, so it stays consistent with their brand.

Shondell Varcianna: [00:06:01] Yeah. Wonderful question. And that’s a great question because we we always come in at under as ghostwriters, like by the time we start writing for our clientele, they already have a lot of content either on their website, they’ve got brochures, they already have their own voice. So we are coming in as ghostwriters. So we start before we even start writing. We, we do a client content brief with each of our clients and it’s like a seven page questionnaire that we go through with them. And it gives us a lot of background information on who they are as a, as a corporation, who they are as a brand. What kind of message are they wanting to relate to their ideal customer? And then we also have to get to know their ideal customer because they are speaking to the ideal customer. And we’re trying to bridge that gap between what the institution has, the products and services and what their ideal customer wants. We’ve got to bridge that gap. So we do a lot of behind the scenes work before we even start writing, and then we stop their website, of course, because that is going to give us and their marketing material and their brochures a lot of the content that they already have.

Shondell Varcianna: [00:07:07] We have to study that to get their voice tone, format style to how they want it. And we ask a lot of questions about those things before we start stocking their website as well. So that’s how we get their voice, right. The other thing too is we also come 90, I would say about 90% of our clients, we come up with the topics for them. So we will come up with the topics for them based on what they’re focused on, based on what their ideal customer wants to know. And we’ll also come up with an outline before we even start writing. So we create an editorial calendar and that includes the topics as well as an outline of what’s going to be written in each piece that is approved by our client before we even start writing. So they’re very aware of what’s going to be in each piece. So it is in line with who they are and the message that they’re trying to relate to their ideal client.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:59] Now, in this case, is your writing kind of B to B to C or is it B to B to B in the sense that you’re the people you’re writing for? Are they kind of just individual people that might be interested in a bank or credit union? Or are they somebody part of a company that’s saying, okay, I’m going to use this bank, this I’m changing bank. So this is kind of more of a business decision than a personal decision.

Shondell Varcianna: [00:08:26] We write for B2B and B2C, so B2C is the majority of the content we write. So it’s the the bank, the mortgage company or the credit union writing to their customer who’s going to be buying a house, getting a car loan, getting a credit card, getting investments. So that would be B to C. So we’re typically writing for them. And then we also write for mortgage companies that are targeting brokers. So that would be B to B, so they’ve got their own brokerage and we do write a lot of content for brokers as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:55] So that’s similar, but different because the tone, I would imagine would be different.

Shondell Varcianna: [00:09:00] The questions and everything is different. The broker is not really wanting to know so much about a particular area, school districts, things like that. They were wanting to know how quick can I get my loan approved for my particular client? They want to know the different mortgage products that are out there, the minimum credit, credit scores, so that they can offer that to their particular client. So those the audiences are completely different. The questions are completely different. So the content would be completely different for those two audiences.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:34] Now, when you’re now, let’s talk about maybe some advice for the listener who is thinking about, you know, kind of using this content marketing strategy, which obviously you believe heavily in, right? You don’t believe the written word has. That’s a fad, right? Like the world isn’t going to turn exclusively to Tik-tok for information. Right. You still believe in the written word?

Shondell Varcianna: [00:09:57] It’s actually I actually believe in many forms of content. We just focus on the written word. But I believe in video. I believe in audio, which is what we’re doing right now. I think that you need to provide it all to your audience because you never know how your audience wants to consume content. Some people prefer to read, some people prefer to listen, some people prefer to watch. It’s kind of like when Amazon used to just sell books and then they now they sell Kindle. Now, now you can read the book on your phone and now you could also listen to the book through all. So they’re just providing many ways for their audience to consume content. So we’re focused on the written word, but I believe in it all. I think you should be providing as many ways and make it as easy as possible for your ideal customer to consume content. I do video to get clients, so it’s not again, our company is just written, but I believe that you should you should never limit yourself to how you market because as I said, you never know how your your ideal customer wants to consume content and you always want to make it as easy as possible for them to consume your content.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:03] And then what do you feel about are there rules of thumb when it comes to how often you should publish whatever it is, whether it’s print or video or audio? Is this something that should be happening multiple times a day, once a week, once a quarter? Like what’s a rhythm that makes sense to you and this niche that you serve?

Shondell Varcianna: [00:11:22] I would say multiple times per day on social media, a minimum of one a week on your website. Blog posts can be repurposed and broken into two weeks worth of social media posts, so I’m really big on repurposing content as well. Just always remember, especially if you’re focused on organic content, the more you publish content, the more your audience sees you. Unless you’re getting more high level than you’re doing ads where you can actually target and be very specific with who sees your content. If you’re focused on organic, you’ve got to post often because you’re all of your followers do not see all the content that you post. They’re not always online at the time you post it. Some of them may not even be online for a few days. So the more you, the more you post, the more attention you’ll get on your content.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:09] So you have to create kind of that brand ubiquity so that you want to feel that you want your customer to feel like whenever they look around their names, they’re so reminds them because you never know when they’re going to buy or want to be in the market to buy 100% correct.

Shondell Varcianna: [00:12:23] You never know if they’re ready. They could be ready in six months, but it’s also brand awareness as well. And at the same time, while you’re publishing multiple pieces, you’re starting to create that know like and trust factor, which is what we all need in order for people to do business with us. So over time, as you’re educating your clients, as you’re producing videos, you’re producing written content, as you’re producing audio, they’re getting to know who you are as a brand, and then they can determine whether they even like you, because if they don’t like you, they’re of course they’re not going to do business with you. But all of that helps to build that relationship with your ideal customer so that when they’re ready, you’re right there to help them with their mortgage needs or investment needs or whatever.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:03] Now, how do you when you’re working with a client, maybe early on, how do you kind of manage their expectations when it comes to the results of your work? Because this seems like a long term play, that this isn’t something like you write a post and like, Hey, where’s the customer that came from that like, you know, it’s not like kind of a direct line between one article and then a client like this is something it sounds like it’s a long term investment that you’re really investing in your brand and educating people over time so that eventually you win them over when they are ready to buy.

Shondell Varcianna: [00:13:37] Yes, I believe that. Excuse me. And we’re really transparent that if they’re needing immediate results, then you’ve got to do some type of paper click ads or Facebook ads. You’ve got to you’ve got to pay for some type of ad spend in order to get the immediate results. The organic content is always a long game because it that’s part of building the relationship. And I think you should be doing both. I think you should be doing pay per click ads, social media ads, as well as organic because the organic is good to nurture the long term relationships. You never really want a client who’s just going to come and give you a checking account and then not bring them more, not get a mortgage with you or not get some credit cards or not get a car loan like you want the whole gamut of products with them. And that typically will come through relationships, through how well they know you, how well they like you. Do they trust you to have all those products with you? So that will come typically with the organic content. So I think you should always be doing both.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:43] And is it one of those things where maybe the person who is responding to an ad might be more transactional minded, where the person responding to an article might be more relationship minded?

Shondell Varcianna: [00:14:53] Exactly. Exactly. So and that’s the reason why I think both the you know, the pay per click ads will get the immediate client, but you want to keep the client. And if you’re constantly educating people and when I say educating, I’m more I’m more addressing their pain points. So especially with financial institutions, because you can have customers from 18 until retirement. So if you stick with them along their journey, there’s really no need for them to leave if you’re if you’re helping them along the way. So it’s it’s when they get upset or when they don’t feel like. You’re there for them, then they jump ship. But I mean, when you think about it, once you once you start banking with an institution, you’ve already registered all your bills to get paid with them. Like it’s it’s a hassle to leave and it’s easier to just be with who you already have an existing relationship with. But because there’s so much competition out there, if you’re not part of their journey, if you’re not continuing to build that relationship with your audience, they will jump ship simply because the rates are lower. Or they didn’t even know that you had to have a particular product. But another institution has been in their ear, you know, every week or every day, so they naturally just gravitated towards them. So if you’re as long as you’re a part of that journey and and you’re thinking long term, long game, you’ve you should always have a good relationship with your ideal customer and continue to deepen those relationships so that you continue to get the business.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:20] Now, can you share a story? Obviously don’t name the name of the institution, but maybe they came to you. Maybe they were a little skeptical. Maybe they were burned in the past and they were a little gun shy. But when you started working with them, you were able to take them to a new level.

Shondell Varcianna: [00:16:35] Yeah, we hear some great stories. There was an institution that we were working with, we’ve been with them for. We’ve been working with them for a few years now. But we when we started with them, they really wanted to capture the first time homebuyer in their local area. And we I suggested that we start writing a series of first time homebuyer posts so they would come back. Once they subscribe every week, they would they would get a new a new post about the next step in the home buying process. And about eight months later, the marketing director contacted me and she was telling me about a young lady who bought their first her first home. And she was she she came to them because of the blog post that we wrote and she subscribed. And every week she would get it. And she was thinking about buying but wasn’t sure. And we went into everything. We went into minimum, minimum credit requirements, the minimum down payments that you have different things to look for, different things you should look for when you’re wanting to move into a different area. If you have kids, how to look up school district ratings and all that kind of stuff, like we we went through the whole gamut of what you need to go through at the very beginning to actually the closing day and then moving in and then, you know, things that you need to be aware of, maintenance issues that could come up if it’s not a brand new home and things like that. And she had ended up getting a mortgage with this institution, moved in and came back and shared with them that she was the first person in her entire family to ever buy a home, and she didn’t think it was possible.

Shondell Varcianna: [00:18:09] And as she started reading some of the information that the institute well, some of the stuff that we wrote, she started to educate herself on what was required to buy a home, and she didn’t even think she qualified. But when she started reading the posts on, you know, the minimum down payments, how much you should, how much you need in closing costs, things like that. She started to think, You know what, I’m in a position where I think I could apply. And she applied. Got it. And now she’s living in her, you know, her dream home. And she’s a single parent. So, you know, that was one of those feel good stories where and we don’t always hear these stories. We don’t always hear the feedback when it comes to people buying their first home and things like that. But the feedback we normally hear is, you know, because we’re very big on results. So a lot of times when we write content, they’re doing some type of search engine optimization as well. So we want to know things like, you know, what keywords are they focused on? Are the clients converting? Are they clicking the call to action? Are they staying on the page or are they clicking the internal links? That helps us to know if the content is engaging. So we look at that. That’s the kind of result, the information we get. But those feel good stories when the client’s customer comes back and shares those things with us is heartwarming for all of us, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:19:26] The impact is real. I mean, that’s the thing. It’s it’s indisputable the impact, that’s for sure.

Shondell Varcianna: [00:19:32] Oh, yeah. And I was raised by a single mom. So that particular story really hit home with me because it’s, you know, it’s a huge purchase. But at the same time, you know, when when when a little child sees a mother stretching out and buying a home, then that little child could now start to believe in themselves and say, well, if Mommy did this, maybe I can do this, maybe I could dream bigger. So that was a beautiful story.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:56] Now, before we wrap, you’ve achieved so much and you have an interesting Facebook group strategy. Do you mind sharing a little bit about how you marketing and go to market to find your, you know, target audience and get business from them? Do you mind sharing that Facebook group story, the strategy?

Shondell Varcianna: [00:20:15] Yeah. So we we we don’t use Facebook groups to get our clients, but our clients use Facebook groups to gain clients for themselves so I can share. What we do and what our clients.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:29] Okay, sure.

Shondell Varcianna: [00:20:30] Yeah. But yeah, we actually get the majority of our clients come from LinkedIn. So remember I was saying, well, I don’t know if I did say it, but you should always be where your target audience is. That’s where you always have to be. That’s where you should be focused. Our target audience is on LinkedIn, so we have a complete LinkedIn strategy for Reach Out. I post on LinkedIn every single day. I comment on my ideal customers post every single day on LinkedIn. So that’s just part of building my brand. The team does that as well. We’re very strategic when it comes to LinkedIn, simply because our ideal audience is there for Facebook groups. What I suggest for and this is for institutions that are not and not even just institutions like anybody can do this. But if you are trying to find out what your ideal customer wants and if they are on Facebook, Facebook groups are really, really huge for that. So for our our our clients, they let’s say they’re focused on home buyers or let’s say our ideal customer wants to target people who buy rental properties. So I would suggest that they join Facebook groups where investors are in there. So and they’ve got a bunch of different Facebook groups where people are wanting to buy a house, people are wanting to buy rental property.

Shondell Varcianna: [00:21:50] So join those Facebook groups where your ideal customer is. Once you get into these Facebook groups, just be a fly on the wall. Just listen to what people are saying for a few months. Look for patterns, look for common questions that people have or similar questions. Look for complaints that what are people complaining about? Look for misconceptions? What are people confused about? What do they think? What are they saying? But it’s incorrect. And your content should be focused around those things that your ideal customer are complaining about, questions they have in misconceptions. Now, if you could provide value, if you can answer some of the questions that people have in these groups, if you could address some of their complaints, do that. Don’t. You can’t sell yourself in a lot of these groups, but you don’t need to. If you’re answering enough questions, then on your Facebook page, whether it’s your business Facebook page or your personal Facebook page, it should be decked out. And what I mean by that is it should have exactly what you do. Contact information. Easy, easy way to get a hold of you. All of that should be on your Facebook page exactly what you do.

Shondell Varcianna: [00:22:53] Because oftentimes when you’re commenting in these groups and people see you a lot, they’re going to click to your Facebook page and probably raise your hand and contact you and ask, Can you help me with a mortgage or are you familiar with this particular product? This is my situation. Can you help that? That’s typically how it goes and at the same time, you should be creating content, addressing what they’re talking about in these groups. So it’s a holistic approach. Then you can take it a step further and if you want to get into some search engine optimization, the same things that they’re talking about in these groups, look for Google keywords that match them, and now you can start a search engine optimization strategy. You can also, if you want to start doing Facebook ads, you can also start doing Facebook ads around the complaints and the concerns that people have in these groups. And you can target the same people in these groups. So Facebook groups, in my opinion, are huge for research and for finding topics to to write about, to do video about that will address the pain points that your ideal audience has.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:56] Well. Shontell Congratulations on all the success. If somebody wants to learn more and maybe get on your calendar or, you know, find out more about your organization, can you share the website?

Shondell Varcianna: [00:24:09] Yeah. And thank you so much. Yeah, our website is vast media, VA, RC Media and my my handle everywhere is Shawn del Valle. I’m on LinkedIn most often, but I’m on Facebook as well. I’m on Instagram, not so much on Instagram, but LinkedIn is where you can get a hold of me the most.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:28] And then at your website, medium.com, there’s you have a blog like you have a lot of a lot of education there as well.

Shondell Varcianna: [00:24:38] Yes. Yeah. There’s a lot of free stuff. You can download our blog content checklist. We’ve got a guide, we’ve got blog posts there. I post a lot on LinkedIn as well, so we’re always providing some type of educational piece to help you with your content.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:52] Well, thank you again for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Shondell Varcianna: [00:24:56] Thank you so much for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:58] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

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Felton E. Lewis III With Lab References Advisory Group/Ride Share Drivers Association

by

Felton Lewis
Association Leadership Radio
Felton E. Lewis III With Lab References Advisory Group/Ride Share Drivers Association
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Felton Lewis Felton E. Lewis, President and CEO at Lab References Advisory Group/Ride Share Drivers Association.

He has been in the Insurance Business for 45+ years. He is a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Business (Air Force). They pivoted to PPE Equipment when the Covid-19 Virus came and now that it is abating we are getting back to our Core Values and seeing the need to provide assistance to Ride Share Drivers.

Connect with Felton on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Drivers are not employees, independent contractors.
  • Drivers have no benefits, health insurance, dental insurance, disability etc.
  • Drivers Safety is at risk from some violent passengers
  • Many female drivers have been sexually assaulted
  • Protecting drivers and providing them with benefits they need for them and their families

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: [00:00:20] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Association Leadership Radio. And this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Felton Lewis III, and he is with the Rideshare Drivers Association. Welcome, Felton.

Felton Lewis III: [00:00:34] Thank you, Kan, appreciate it.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:36] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about Rideshare Drivers Association.

Felton Lewis III: [00:00:42] Well, we started it. We had a vice president of diversity working with us, and then she went to Lyft and as a service-disabled veteran on business, she said she thought she can get us a meeting with the founders of the company. And so we started the Rideshare Drivers Association to benefit the 1.5 million Lyft drivers, although there are more Uber drivers than Lyft drivers. But we had someone, Brinda Smith on the inside that Lyft, so we proceeded to offer it to live and we met with them a couple of months ago and the founder and a couple of the members on their board and we let them know, in fact, we have a Lyft driver, Freddie Stewart. And on my LinkedIn post, his comment, they said it would be good if he could give his experience with Live and what happened with Mr. Stewart. He’s been with Lyft for over six years, over 10,000 rides that he’s picked up. But last December his wife died and his wife had all the family benefits. He has a 12 year old daughter, so the health insurance, dental and all of that came through her employer. And as a Lyft contracted employee, he has no benefits. So when she died, he lost all the benefits.

Felton Lewis III: [00:02:04] So it left him and his daughter trying to fend for themselves. So we let him know that if he could give us some video of his experience that we could share with the founders of Lyft, that it might assist. And Brenda thought it was a great idea because now you have a Lyft driver for six years, 10,000 rides, given his experience. And since none of these companies, they don’t want to be their drivers title employees, they’re subcontractors, they’re independent contractors. They’re 1099 employees, not even employees. They’re just 1099 person. So if they get hurt on the job, if they don’t have any, there’s no workman’s comp that covers their injuries or anything because they’re not an employee. So we presented to the founders in the group that we have a program that will provide their members health insurance, dental vision programs and disability, and they can do it based on number of years. They spent like $1.5 billion to retain and recruit drivers last year. And we said would it be a lot less to just reward drivers for their faithful service by allowing them to have shares that the company would pay for? But the driver is getting it as a tool for faithful service to live.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:30] But but then they become a member of your association and you’re handling kind of the benefits and the insurance.

Felton Lewis III: [00:03:37] Yes, sir. Yeah. They become a member of our association, so we have little packages that we can put together for them.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:43] So did they go for that? Did Lyft go for that?

Felton Lewis III: [00:03:47] Well, what happened? Their stock went down. And they dropped everything. They stopped talking to us. So I told my son, I think we ought to approach Uber because Uber has more drivers than Lyft. And Uber has a health insurance program that’s horrible. It’s $10,000 deductible, 15, 20,000 deductible in a driver. Can’t I mean, the deductible will put him in bankruptcy. It doesn’t make any sense. So my son said, well, let’s just wait to see what happens with Lyft. And like I told him, well, I’m a service disabled veteran and I’m not used to having people put us on hold for months at their pace, I mean, especially since there are opportunities for others. So we haven’t cracked a nut yet. We haven’t been able to have Lyft or Uber say, okay, well, we’ll provide some kind of incentive. Stay with us for X amount of years. You get this complete, so many drives, you get that we just haven’t come to a meeting of the mind. They realize there’s a problem. In fact, many of the women and drivers are being assaulted. Fact Lyft is being sued because women drivers have been sexually assaulted.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:14] Now, what about going directly to the drivers and just not going through these big organizations? Because there’s a lot of I mean, there’s Uber and there’s Lyft, but there’s DoorDash. There’s lots of other driving and rideshare apps out there. I know those are the largest and most active, but there’s a lot of people doing this kind of work. So wouldn’t anybody doing this kind of double sided market work?

Felton Lewis III: [00:05:38] Yeah, they would benefit. But it’s not like they make a lot of money, you know, to be able to afford the health insurance package, even the US dot gov, you know, they get low premiums but the same thing with them, they get a high deductible and the deductible is what kills you ten, 15 to $20000. You just can’t afford it. If you get a hospital bill and it’s $10,000 and you got a $10,000 deductible, that’s that’s your bill now.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:12] So you have an association right now or you’re trying to start an association. Do you have any members thus far?

Felton Lewis III: [00:06:19] No, we hadn’t promoted it. We just went and get the AI in the articles and corporations and whatever because we were trying to get. One of the companies to say, okay, well, just have your members come to our association and we’ll provide the benefits, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:06:37] But then that would require them paying you.

Felton Lewis III: [00:06:41] Well, they’re paying the drivers. And if if it’s a benefit to retain, I mean, rather than spend 1.5 billion to try to retain drivers each year, I mean, it would be a lot less the program that we’re offering now.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:56] If you went directly to each driver, how much would it cost the driver?

Felton Lewis III: [00:07:02] Depending on the basic package, $49 a month would get them free prescriptions, telehealth, one dental, which is a dental program.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:18] Right. So $49 a month, they can afford that.

Felton Lewis III: [00:07:22] Yeah, but it doesn’t give them health insurance.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:25] So how much to get health insurance in that mix?

Felton Lewis III: [00:07:29] No, we’re talking about three, 405, six, $700, depending on the size of the family.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:35] So that’s where it becomes where it gets more expensive. So it’s less affordable for these folks.

Felton Lewis III: [00:07:44] Yes. Yeah. And we’re trying to see if the company realized they’re benefiting from the drivers, providing a service to them and they’re making millions, billions of dollars doing what they do. Why not? Instead of spend 1.5 billion to try to recruit and retain drivers, why not give your faithful drivers like Freddy Stewart, who’s been with you six years and 10,000 rides, give them some type of incentive to stay with you. Make it worthwhile for them to keep.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:21] Right. I mean, but you’re asking them to make this business decision. And obviously, they’ve chosen not to. But you have if your mission is to serve rideshare drivers, then you really don’t care who pays for the the premium. Right. So you can get a sponsor to kind of co-brand your association. That’s not just Lyft. It could be anybody. It could be, you know, some restaurant chain. It could be it could be anybody. It could be your insurance company. I mean, there’s lots of folks that can afford that want they would want these drivers as clients for them. I mean, why not expand beyond the two big rideshare companies? I mean, they obviously don’t have an interest in doing this. Why don’t you just find somebody else who would benefit from having relationships with millions of rideshare drivers?

Felton Lewis III: [00:09:13] Yes. And like you said, there’s Instacart. There are a whole lot of different rideshare, Walmart, cab people delivering groceries, Myers, Kroger’s, and so all of them independent contractors like Uber drivers and Lyft drivers.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:32] Right. So there must be a reason why that all those big companies are going that way. And the reason is probably they have a lot of drivers and they don’t have to pay anything and then they’re going to get them. But they know they churn through them because they can’t it’s not sustainable for a long periods of time. But there must be other companies that would benefit from having relationships with millions of drivers?

Felton Lewis III: [00:09:56] I would think so. Even Domino’s Pizza, you know, all of them now everybody is delivering. So.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:03] Right. So now for you, starting an association, I mean, this is a noble cause for you to help all these millions of people that are really struggling out there. I mean, they’re making they want the flexible hours. They want to be able to turn on and off the app and work whenever they feel like it. And they make, I guess, they think is a fair it’s a fair trade for them to make the money for doing the work they’re doing. But like you said, they don’t have any benefits, they don’t have insurance, they don’t have disability, they don’t have all these things that a traditional employee would have. What kind of was the catalyst for you to get involved in helping all these people?

Felton Lewis III: [00:10:43] Freddie Stewart He grew up with my son here in Battle Creek. He’s in Denver, Colorado.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:48] So you knew him? It was personal for you?

Felton Lewis III: [00:10:51] It was personal, yeah. And his wife had died and he had a 12 year old daughter and he had no benefits.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:59] So now starting an association, though, that’s a big undertaking. Had you ever been involved in associations before?

Felton Lewis III: [00:11:07] Oh, yes.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:09] So you’ve been involved in associations. So you knew how it worked and you knew how to get one set up and you knew how to kind of fund it.

Felton Lewis III: [00:11:18] Yeah, I’m not a spring chicken. I’m 80 years old, so I’ve been around the block a while and I’ve been involved in accounting and business law and self employed for over 50 years.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:30] So so you know, as being self employed that that lifestyle doesn’t come with benefits usually.

Felton Lewis III: [00:11:37] Right? Right. But if you make enough money, you can buy the benefits, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:11:40] So you think the challenge for drivers are they don’t make enough money to buy the benefits.

Felton Lewis III: [00:11:46] Right. Without some support from the company that’s benefiting from their labor? You know, I mean, these guys are I mean, and if you I mean, Lyft and Uber now have a program where you can lease one of their cars, but it’s astronomical. I mean, that’s ridiculous. And then if you buy if you use your own car and the engine blows out. How do you replace the engine of the transmission? How do you keep your car service? And we offer that as a benefit to a company called High Speed X that offers oil changes, express lube and things like that for the drivers to.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:27] Right. So you’re trying to kind of put together a package that has all of the things that a driver could benefit from having.

Felton Lewis III: [00:12:34] Yes, sir. Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:36] And it’s just a matter of getting more drivers to either sign up for it and pay the price and pay the money for that or partner with another organization that has the funds that will sponsor, in essence, each of these drivers.

Felton Lewis III: [00:12:49] Right? Correct.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:52] Well, that’s a tough it’s tough. That’s a tough one. I mean, you know, you’re you’re asking for these companies to invest a lot of money and change their business plan. So, I mean, it’s going to be a.

Felton Lewis III: [00:13:03] Challenge when I have to do it anyway, because so many drivers have been assaulted, especially females sexually assaulted. I mean, if you go on Uber and you see you just put in a search or a rideshare drivers or Uber drivers, Lyft after that has been assaulted. Even killed. In fact, like I said, there’s a big billion dollar lawsuit against Lyft now because it’s not one or two. It’s several hundreds of female employees being sexually assaulted. So they don’t have any kind of protection, any kind of benefits.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:41] Right. But there’s also lots of people signing up for this app because they want the flexibility and they want that fits in their lifestyle. So, I mean, the companies will change when there’s a reason to change. So thus far, the pain of all of that isn’t greater than the pain of just getting new a new driver.

Felton Lewis III: [00:14:04] Right? Correct. But now they have this suit against him, you know.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:10] Right. But I’m sure that’s not the first suit. I bet they’ve been sued since day one.

Felton Lewis III: [00:14:15] Probably problem. And they feel as though they have the lawyers and the legal to settle. Without losing any benefits or the company going out of business.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:33] Right. I mean, those kind of large businesses, it becomes a math problem, really. You know, which one is the thing that is going to cost them more.

Felton Lewis III: [00:14:44] With cost more? Yeah. And about the dollar.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:47] And then right now it’s cheaper for them all to be 1099. That pain isn’t greater yet. At some point, maybe with government regulations or different states changing the rules about 1099 independent contractors versus employees. Then the pain.

Felton Lewis III: [00:15:05] Necessary movement now to unionize in New York and California. So.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:10] Right. But we’ll see. I mean, that’s a I mean, it’s those examples have been few and far between.

Felton Lewis III: [00:15:17] Correct.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:19] So you got your work cut out for you, Feldman.

Felton Lewis III: [00:15:23] Yeah, but we are right. We’re we’re taking our time, but we’re not in any rush to, you know, create any strikes between us and the companies or us in the drivers. It’s not it’s like, here’s a benefit from someone who grew up with my son who works at.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:43] Lyft right now. What about just kind of getting a bunch of drivers on the wait list to show to all these larger firms like, look, I got a million drivers that want this. You know, you’ll have a lot more compelling case if you have a whole lot of drivers signed up, you know, for this program.

Felton Lewis III: [00:16:03] That’s a great idea. Never thought of it. Yeah. We can present it to them that we have x amount of drivers who are in need of this program and they sign a little document. We have that showing that they would love to have.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:21] It right if they had it, they they’d take it, you know, kind of thing.

Felton Lewis III: [00:16:25] Right. Right. So great idea.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:27] Well, that might help you get the momentum you need. So you got to just get in front of the drivers and just offer it and say, hey, if this existed. Would you sign up for this?

Felton Lewis III: [00:16:37] Yeah, well, and that’s the key is how do we get to the drivers? I mean, even though I’m on LinkedIn and I have 30,000 connections, I have very, very, very few Lyft and Uber driver connecting. I don’t know if they use LinkedIn, I don’t know what how do we get to them?

Lee Kantor: [00:16:56] Right. That’s the that’s the secret. I mean. I mean.

Felton Lewis III: [00:17:02] How do we get to them to let them.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:04] Know? Right. Because a Lyft driver or an Uber driver is probably not putting that on LinkedIn because they probably just do this as a side hustle. They have another job that they’re just trying to squeeze in a few hours here and there.

Felton Lewis III: [00:17:17] Correct.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:18] Between their other job?

Felton Lewis III: [00:17:20] Yes, sir.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:21] So that is going to be a challenge. But there might be kind of Facebook groups or other LinkedIn groups for Uber drivers or rideshare drivers where they hang out.

Felton Lewis III: [00:17:33] Okay. We’ll check it out. Check it out.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:36] So any advice for someone who’s starting a brand new association of how to get those initial members? How do you get people kind of engaged with you at the very earliest stages?

Felton Lewis III: [00:17:50] Well, we thought if we go to the big companies, that would be the way to do it, because they have the people. But it hasn’t worked that way.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:00] Not yet. But any anything in your 80 years of of life and the other associations you work with, like how do you get those initial members? Or How do you find those people?

Felton Lewis III: [00:18:12] Well, we have constant contact. We have different types of email. But, you know, then you’ve got to pay for that service. Godaddy the same thing. We have like 12,000 disabled veteran emails. We thought we start out with the veterans and and what they’re asking is exorbitant just to send out emails.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:36] Yeah. I guess that’s how you get them one at a time, right? I mean, there’s no easy way of getting them.

Felton Lewis III: [00:18:41] No easy way to get them. So if some company unless the company said, well, here’s the new program.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:47] Right. If they endorse it and then offer it to their people, then that’s kind of a shortcut. But otherwise, it’s one at a time.

Felton Lewis III: [00:18:55] One at a time. Yes, sir.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:56] So I.

Felton Lewis III: [00:18:57] Appreciate.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:57] If somebody wants to learn more, what’s the best way to get a hold of you?

Felton Lewis III: [00:19:03] On our website, lab references. Dot com or they can email me at fell fl3 at live references dot com or they can call me at 2697198797.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:20] Well, Felton, I mean, you’re fighting the good fight. Best of luck. And thank you so much for sharing your story today.

Felton Lewis III: [00:19:26] I appreciate you, sir.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:28] Thanks, Lee. All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Association Leadership Radio.

Felton Lewis III: [00:19:34] Thank you. Bye bye.

 

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