Business RadioX ®

Erik Boemanns With Improving Atlanta

by

ErikBoemanns
Atlanta Business Radio
Erik Boemanns With Improving Atlanta
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improvingatlanta

ErikBoemannsErik Boemanns is Vice President of Technology at Improving Atlanta, as well as the office’s CISO. As a non-practicing attorney and technologist, Erik brings a unique perspective to technology and compliance. He’s led several organizations through their compliance journeys (PCI-DSS, SAS 70, HIPAA, and SOC 2), as well as their enterprise technology.

Connect with Erik on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Technology trends
  • Security
  • Cloud
  • Retention of technology talent
  • Recruiting in current market

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: [00:00:32] 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 Erik Boemanns with improving. Welcome, Eric. Thanks, Lee. I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about improving how you serving folks.

Erik Boemanns: [00:00:56] Sure. So improving is an I.T. consulting company. It’s based out of Dallas, Texas. But we have offices in Canada, US and Mexico and one of our offices here in the Atlantic region. We we actually have had a location here for about 13 years, but we were acquired by improving back in 2019. So we actually, like I said it consulting and we try to bring a slightly different approach to it consulting. We actually want to change the perception of it through trust. So if anybody goes to our website, you’ll actually see the word trust is one of the first words you see versus anything about what we do or the kind of services we offer. So how do we. Approach it in a way that builds trust and builds a relationship with our clients.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:42] So what is kind of that ideal client look like for you guys? What is an ideal improving client look like? Are they enterprise level? Are they small to midsize?

Erik Boemanns: [00:01:54] So we work with pretty much all sizes. We’ve got clients such as BP, American Airlines, all the way down to midsize clients here in Atlanta, as well as even startups in smaller groups. So we work with all the sizes and just depends on what they’re trying to do and how we can help.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:10] And what is the typical pain point that they’re having where improving is the right solution for what they need?

Erik Boemanns: [00:02:18] Yeah, so kind of two different pain points are pretty common right now. One is just in general the whole whole cloud thing. Right, is a lot of businesses are still trying to figure that out or they did figure it out, but are realizing that it’s quite a bit more expensive than they expected. So a lot of what we’re doing now is focused on how we can help with understanding how to best leverage the cloud, whether that’s Microsoft, Azure, Amazon, US or Google’s Cloud. All of those different things are areas that our clients are working in, and we’re helping them navigate those costs and helping them navigate. How do I actually use those services in a way that brings value to my business but also achieves on my goals? The second pain point, which is pretty common right now as well, is how do I staff my IT projects? How do I as a company, I’m needing to grow my IT services, my offerings, my products. How am I able to tap into talent that is very high in demand as they also are trying to hire? Also, instead of hiring, can a consulting company like improving it in a way that helps them accelerate projects where direct hire might be difficult?

Lee Kantor: [00:03:32] So it’s really turnkey services in terms of you can come in and fix the problem that I’m having. I can hire you as a consultant to fix the problems that I’m having. But you can also help me train brand new people to recruit or find the right talent to insert into my organization.

Erik Boemanns: [00:03:49] Yeah, absolutely. So we work on several different levels. One is absolutely that turnkey, that project based where we’re helping you solve a problem or even prevent a problem. Right. We can come in ahead of an initiative and help you plan that initiative out in a way that reduces risk and makes it a smoother implementation. And then we can help you actually implement it with teams that we can build from our side. And then ultimately we can actually even help recruit team members directly to to you.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:16] Now, what is the kind of the market look like right now? Historically, technology talent has kind of had a negative employment rate right there. The people you’re hiring aren’t just sitting on the couch waiting for the phone to ring. They’re already have a job somewhere or a project or they’re freelance or doing something.

Erik Boemanns: [00:04:37] Yep. And that’s only truer now. Right. A lot of big technology companies, especially in Atlanta, have either opened offices recently or some recent announcements that they’re going to be opening offices and hiring thousands of people. And if you’re already in Atlanta, you’re already trying to hire it. Then, you know, there’s there’s not thousands of people available. And so it absolutely is a market where the top talent really has their options in front of them and they’re looking for a job.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:04] So but part of your kind of secret sauce is you have the ability to help people recruit in this market and also retain their current talent that they have.

Erik Boemanns: [00:05:16] So so we can definitely recruit and that is something that we do help clients with. But I think the other part of that is more that we have our own talent, that we’ve been able to to build a strong team around in a lot of different trust principles that we bring. I mean, if a client’s working with us and we’re providing a team from our resources, they see consistency there. A lot of times you may go to a consulting shop and have a different consultant every month because they’re having their own issues. We work really hard with our internal team to make sure that we’re retaining the best talent internally so that we can always make those available to clients.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:52] Now, do you think that you’re good at retaining talent just because of the culture and improving? Like what is what is improving doing that maybe other firms can learn from in order to help them retain talent?

Erik Boemanns: [00:06:06] Yeah. Obviously, we’re not going to give all of our secrets away. But but yeah, I think culture is a huge part of that, right? We strive to really create a connection and a place for what we like to call magnets, where people see a reason to be a part of a team. They may be working with a client team, they may be working by themselves with a client, but they always feel a connection back to moving back to Atlanta office. We have tons of different type of culture events. We do a huge amount of internal education, typically two months of loans every week that are on different topics, both on technology and consulting, helping people identify. Because one thing about technologists is they almost always love to learn because whatever you know, today is going to be out of date sometimes within weeks. And so how do we connect to the individual with what they want to learn and where they want to head is something that we do that’s super important to our team.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:59] Now, when it comes to talent, are you finding talent locally here in Atlanta? Is it something that you have to kind of really be global in your thinking or are there kind of pockets of talent kind of hiding in plain sight in different regions?

Erik Boemanns: [00:07:18] Yeah. So that’s the interesting thing about improving, right, is we have offices in Canada, US and Mexico, so we are actively recruiting in all of those different regions from Minneapolis to Chicago to Ohio, Texas as well. And so each office has its own kind of recruiting focus. So here in Atlanta, we’re definitely focused more on local Atlanta talent. But at the same time, we’ve got employees working in Florida, North Carolina, Virginia. And so so we while we are Atlanta focused, when we do our recruiting, we obviously still have that global perspective because the talent could be anywhere. And with a lot more remote work, it literally can be anywhere. So we a lot of. To answer the first part of your question, a lot of the way we do find people is word of mouth and referral. People who work here, if they know people that they want to work with, often help us connect with those and bring them in.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:14] Now, you mentioned earlier training, coaching, education. Is that something you’re only doing for your own people or is it something that you do kind of outwardly to kind of grow your own talent so you can identify, oh, this person will be good here, and then we can give them a pathway to a full time position or a different type of position than they have currently.

Erik Boemanns: [00:08:38] Yeah, that’s a great question because we actually both offer training and coaching for technologies and things like Agile and Scrum to our clients and to their teams and help them adopt new technologies and new ways of doing technology projects. But we also absolutely offer that same level of of service to our internal clients. Our internal employees. Right. We’re helping them understand new technologies and grow. We also do National One and learn pretty much every week that are free to the public on a variety of topics. So we have a lot of different ways to to take the knowledge that we have, make sure that we’re sharing it with all of our stakeholders, whether they are clients, whether they are the general community or our employees. So that everybody has kind of that access to to new information, new technology.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:26] Now, you mentioned having the advantages of having locations around the world here in Atlanta. Are there kind of specialties that you’re you know, like we’re good at certain? Things here, like we’re going to health care I.T., we’re going to fintech. Are you finding the talent here kind of gravitates around those clusters or and then maybe a different part of the country that they have a bunch of people that are in cybersecurity or different types of specialties?

Erik Boemanns: [00:09:53] Yeah, absolutely. You mentioned both the medtech and the fintech. Those are both big for us in terms of our Atlanta office. We also do a lot of financial services, fintech and the insurance side, as well as the banking. And then but for a great example, right, our Houston office is much more involved in the the oil side of things. Right. So the local companies there. Dallas has some local major corporations there in the Dallas area. So you’ll see those slices, depending on which office you’re talking to, both in terms of the clients that we have, the internal expertise we have, and then also the the team members. We also do a little bit of technology specialization as well. So, for example, fintech may tend toward some of the Linux and Java side of things, whereas our office tends to lean towards Microsoft Azure. And so you’ll see a little bit of technology slicing in that way as well, just because of what kind of products and backgrounds those companies have.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:57] And I would think that that kind of gives you an advantage in the sense that you have specialists in all different areas because of your footprint all over the place.

Erik Boemanns: [00:11:09] Absolutely. Yeah, there are very few projects that we don’t have some level of expertise, whether it’s industrial or technical, not that we know everything about everything. There are definitely areas that we would always refer to a better specialist than we are, but we do have we can bring depth of experience to lots of different industries, lots of different verticals as well as technical backgrounds.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:34] So now when you’re working with a client, are you kind of triaging areas where they have a problem or a challenge, or are you kind of leading in the sense that you’re pushing them into, you know, into the future or like, say, like Web 3.0? Is that something that you’re like saying, hey, we have the skills to do this and you might be able to benefit because of this where they may not have been, you know, in a front burner issue for them.

Erik Boemanns: [00:12:05] Yeah, really, it’s both. I mean, we used to joke that you don’t hire a consultant if everything’s running great, right? Because why do you need to change anything? So we do absolutely a lot of that kind of troubleshooting, firefighting of systems, companies that have outgrown their current capacity, that are scaling beyond what they the systems they build. How do you take what you have, get it to a place where it’s stable and then how do you take it forward from there? And it becomes that next conversation. So if you’ve got something that you’re happy with and you need to grow it, scale it, become an international company, leverage the cloud better than you have today. And that’s something we can absolutely help. But a lot of times it does begin with that, hey, this is broken. Can you guys help?

Lee Kantor: [00:12:48] Now, what about kind of this push pull around hybrid remote in office? How are you kind of handling that turbulence in the talent market right now?

Erik Boemanns: [00:13:02] Yeah, I think that might be another advantage that we bring because we’re consulting, right? So we love to see people in our office when it’s safe and when they’re comfortable coming in or if it’s geographically convenient. We have an office in Alpharetta. It’s a great space, but at the same time. Even even beyond before COVID just commuting is can be a pain. And so we’ve always had a hybrid model. Our office is only about a quarter of the size of our company, so we actually never expect everybody to be here unless it’s an all hands meeting, which are almost quarterly at most when possible. So hybrid is really our assumption. So we’ve got employees who aren’t even local and even they will come in to some of these meetings, but that that hybrid model works well for consulting. The question mark is going to be our clients. Our clients also have to support a hybrid model or as they as the local companies are considering bringing their workers back to their offices. Will they be asking consultants to also show up? One of the things that we’re paying attention to and working with consultants who like the work but aren’t ready to show up on a client’s doorstep. So how do we create that balance of of local businesses who are ready to return to work that are our clients and we being a hybrid company, how do we support nearly both sides is one of the things that we work hard on now.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:29] Are you seeing any other kind of trends in the technology space right now that we should be paying attention to?

Erik Boemanns: [00:14:38] Well, you mentioned cybersecurity earlier. That is absolutely the biggest trend. So I mentioned at the beginning of cloud, right. How do we get to the cloud? How do we spend less money in the cloud? But the other current of all these is also how do I do that in a secure way? The amount of attacks on cyber resources, it’s only gone up every single month. And so how do we build something that is secure? How do we build something that meets a lot of different security requirements? That’s something that I personally work a lot in. I’m actually our local cybersecurity officer and have talked a lot about a lot of the different security approaches that we bring to a client’s all industry standards, the secret sauce there. It’s got to rely on what all the people are doing together, but I’d say that is probably the biggest trend other than just how do I better leverage the money I’m spending on my IT resources.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:34] Now, are you seeing regarding cybersecurity, there’s always been obviously attacks on enterprise level or organizations, you know, but now it seems like the the bad guys are going a little bit more downstream and attacking midsize and smaller organizations. And they tend to not have the, you know, all of the cyber security toys that the enterprise people have. And in some cases, they, you know, have their head in the sand. They don’t even want to think about it.

Erik Boemanns: [00:16:07] Yeah, no, exactly. And kind of saying is there’s a price for every size target. Right? I’m a grandmother all the way up to Fortune 500 companies. There’s a way to monetize an attack on any size of organization. At this point. It’s become very, almost a shopping cart style for the attackers to be able to make money off of anyone. Obviously, a lot more concerted efforts against the big players because it’s a bigger dollar value that you can get. The they’re the people who are doing the attacks obviously want to get a good return on their investment as well, unfortunately. But another thing that we’ve also seen and kind of want to make sure people are aware is as you’re thinking about that, they also look at LinkedIn and they see what your corporate org chart is. They also read your public PR releases. So we’ve seen companies who announce, hey, we just got this $50 Million deal a couple of days later. The attacks just go way up at that point because they just told the world that they’ve got some money coming in. So it’s a sophisticated environment that we’re operating in.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:14] Yeah, and that’s something I don’t know if everybody realizes that these are kind of professionals doing this. This isn’t the kid in the basement with Cheetos and Red Bull. These are they’re whiteboarding things out. They’re, you know, running experiments. They’re paying attention to not only your LinkedIn, but your Facebook. And if you’re I’ve heard horror stories of CEOs saying they’re on vacation and then on Facebook and then immediately somebody is sending a note to the HR person asking for something and, you know, pretending to be the CEO. It’s just these are professionals. These aren’t, you know, just kids just screwing around.

Erik Boemanns: [00:17:57] Yeah, absolutely. It’s it’s a monthly occurrence where somebody reports that they got a supposed text from our CEO and saying, hey, can you send some iTunes gift cards to me? And yes, they’re all fake. Right. And that’s the same thing we have to repeat. Our CEO has a different way. That’s right. And gift cards, right? That’s not texting the newest person who just got hired.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:19] Yeah, it’s it’s really it’s it’s tough for businesses because you want to be able to react fast and have that speed and the is expecting speed in in any interaction. But also you have to be cautious because with speed becomes these kind of mistakes that you can make. One click can be, you know, download malware and it’s game over.

Erik Boemanns: [00:18:44] Absolutely. Yeah. And that’s the balance. Right. And that’s what we’re working with clients is, is how do you strike that balance of speed to market, of being agile with your practices but also staying secure? How do you do secure software development? How do you do DevOps is a trend. Devsecops is the flavor that we try to preach, right? Because security really has to be present in every single decision point. If you leave it out, if you don’t have security, have a seat at the table yet you’re opening yourself up to huge risks. So it’s definitely something that we talk about a lot.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:19] Well, if somebody wants to learn more about improving, what is the website? What is the best way to get a hold of you or somebody on your team to have more substantive conversation?

Erik Boemanns: [00:19:29] Yeah. So improving. Com is our website. From there you can go to any of our local offices. The Atlanta office is there with our address phone number. I’m Eric Bowman’s as well. So I’m on LinkedIn and as well as the rest of our team. So it’s easy to find us and get ahold of us.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:44] Well, Eric, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Erik Boemanns: [00:19:49] Absolutely. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:50] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

Intro: [00:19:57] 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 at paycom.

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Jacqueline Johnson With Ferrari of Atlanta

by

Jacqueline Johnson
Atlanta Business Radio
Jacqueline Johnson With Ferrari of Atlanta
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Jacqueline JohnsonJacqueline Johnson is the director of marketing at Ferrari of Atlanta. Rides to Remember charity event gives pediatric cancer patients in Atlanta, Georgia a chance to forget some of their day-to-day struggles as they get the opportunity to take a ride in exotic cars at Atlanta Motorsports Park.

Ferrari of Atlanta chose to start Rides to Remember more than a decade ago to honor a family member who was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma. The dealership partners with their Ferrari clients as well as outside sports car owners and enthusiasts in an effort to raise funds for 3 beloved charities: Atlanta Ronald McDonald House, Camp Sunshine, and Cure Childhood Cancer.

Connect with Jacqueline on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Rides To Remember
  • The Pony
  • New at Ferrari of Atlanta

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 Atlanta Business Radio, we have Jacqueline Johnson with Ferrari of Atlanta. Welcome.

Jacqueline Johnson: [00:00:50] Hi. Thank you so much for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:51] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to first. Tell us a little bit about Ferrari of Atlanta.

Jacqueline Johnson: [00:00:59] Sure. So Ferrari of Atlanta is the only official Ferrari dealership in Georgia. It’s locally owned. We’ve been here for a little bit more than 30 years now, and we are located in Alpharetta. And yeah, I’ve been with the company for for almost going on five years now. And so it’s a great company to work for a great atmosphere and we just love what we do so.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:27] Well. I’m curious, as a marketer, I’m curious on how how do you market and you’re the director of marketing, how do you market Ferrari? Isn’t it something like anybody who would want a Ferrari kind of knows about Ferrari? Like how do you kind of stay top of mind?

Jacqueline Johnson: [00:01:44] Sure. A lot of people that is, you know, it’s a very popular brand in the world, world renowned brand. But, you know, we do other things. So we’re very local and we’re very involved in our community. So we throw events with the Ferrari Club of America for our clients. We do unveilings of new models, new model launches, things like that. And of course, digital presence is important. So we just want to immerse ourselves in the community as much as possible.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:16] And then when you immerse yourself in the community, is it something that like the community is a small group, right? The people that can afford Ferrari isn’t that like you’re not the community, is it? Every single person in Atlanta? I’m sure you want everybody to love Ferrari, but the typical Ferrari buyer, I would think is it is a short list.

Jacqueline Johnson: [00:02:38] It it is. But you know, we do. So we have an event actually. It’s coming up. It’s called Italian Car Day. And this is just an example. You know, Fiat, Fiat come and participate. Any type of, you know, Italian make. They come and they eat and they get to see our store and we chit chat about things and there’s prizes. So that’s just one example. We’re very inclusive of everyone. I do know that there’s a very short list of clientele that that can’t buy Ferraris, but do we do other things?

Lee Kantor: [00:03:18] So now one of the other things you do is rides to remember. Can you talk about that?

Jacqueline Johnson: [00:03:22] Yeah, absolutely. So it is a charity event that was created back in 2016 and we’re now on our 16th year. And the charity’s core mission is to give pediatric cancer patients a chance to forget some of their day to day struggles. And so we do that by giving them and their families the opportunity to jump in exotic cars and the exotic car at Atlanta Motorsports Park, which is an amazing private track that’s located in Dawsonville, Georgia. And our fundraising goal this year is to raise a total of 200,000. And a portion of those proceeds will be divided amongst three local charities we have supported since day one, which are all amazing their cure, childhood cancer, Atlanta, Ronald McDonald, House Charities, and then Camp Sunshine.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:15] So what was the genesis of the idea? How did this come about?

Jacqueline Johnson: [00:04:20] So back in 2016, we wanted to honor a family member who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma. So we decided to partner with our our clients and other exotic sports car owners and then let in the Atlanta community to raise funds for these charities that I mentioned. And we are also now giving children and families of the Make-A-Wish Foundation to participate as well, and we’re very excited about that. So that’s how rights for a member was born.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:53] And then at the event, what occurs.

Jacqueline Johnson: [00:04:57] So what happens is they well, the drivers and the sponsors arrive at the dealership, Ferrari of Atlanta. We have breakfast and then we all take a police escort to Atlanta Motorsports track that morning. And when we get there, the children and their families are already there, they’re already pumped, they’re excited. And it’s just amazing to see all of these. Actually, this year we have about 100. Cars that are participating. So it’s just amazing to see the motorcade and the cars pull around to the track. And when we get there, I mean, it’s it’s go time, you know, the cars the children pick, what car they want to get in, they take a ride around the track, they come back, then they pick another one and another one. And it’s just really fun for everyone.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:52] So they get to not only do they get to experience what that feels like, they get to go into several different cars. It’s so it’s like a whole day event or several hours.

Jacqueline Johnson: [00:06:03] So it’s so it’s from 9:00 AM until 1 p.m..

Lee Kantor: [00:06:08] And then how if somebody wants to get involved in this, how can they get involved? Like if they have an exotic sports car or if they, you know, want to volunteer or is there a ways for people to get involved?

Jacqueline Johnson: [00:06:19] Sure. Absolutely. So we have a website. It’s rights to remember dot org. There was there’s a registration page there for volunteers. There’s another page where kids and families who are involved with the three charities can sign up to participate. And then we have a place where drivers themselves can register to drive. There’s also a donation page there that anyone can contribute to, no matter if you’re participating or not. There’s no minimum. All donation amounts are welcome and very much appreciated.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:51] Now you mentioned you use the word community. I’m sure that wasn’t an accident. The folks that buy Ferraris or they’re part of a community. Right. That’s part of what you get when you’re kind of in the family there.

Jacqueline Johnson: [00:07:06] Absolutely. Yeah. We do a lot of events. We’re not just a brand, we’re a lifestyle. So when you buy a Ferrari from us, you’re not only buying a product, you’re you’re kind of in our family. So it’s a very experiential brand.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:21] And then so that if you have a Ferrari, you can participate in this event, right?

Jacqueline Johnson: [00:07:27] Oh, absolutely, yeah. You don’t even have to buy the Ferrari from us.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:31] But you can be part of this and be there with, you know, like you said, 100 other cars going around the track and helping these young people create memories that’ll be there for their lifetime.

Jacqueline Johnson: [00:07:45] Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:46] So what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Jacqueline Johnson: [00:07:50] Well, you know, we we would love more volunteers. They’re they’re pivotal. And every single year, they do so much for us. And we appreciate all that they do. You know, we need to raise a little bit more this year to reach our goal of 200,000. So but we are looking for sponsors still. We do need sponsors. So if you own, you know, a local business here and you think that this might be a good fit for you, just reach out to us. You can reach out to me myself or go on the website and fill out a form and we will reach out to you. Yeah, but help is help is always needed and greatly appreciated.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:35] So now what is the phrase the pony mean? Like what is Ride Shotgun with the Pony mean?

Jacqueline Johnson: [00:08:44] Sure. So this year it’s actually it is a new thing that we’re trying for the first time. It’s kind of a play on a mysterious driver from a popular British television show. I’m sure a lot of people listening are familiar with it, and we just thought it would be very fun addition to have to boost our fundraising initiatives. So the person who raises the most funds for the event, whether it be them or a friend of their sponsors them to do this, which is all can be all done in line. They get to ride shotgun with the renowned race car driver at the end of the event on the track. And let me tell you, it’s going to be worth it because the track at AMP is well known for its aggressive elevation changes and its technical layout. So it’s really a fun track to drive on. And when you have a professional racecar driver in the car with you, it’s going to be very memorable for the lucky winner. And the twist is actually the identity of the pony won’t be revealed into the day of the event, so you won’t find out who it is until you get there.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:58] So so that gets everybody kind of motivated and fired up to keep donating.

Jacqueline Johnson: [00:10:05] Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:06] And then, like you said, the sponsors can be any business. They don’t have to be car related. It could be any local business that just wants to participate in this event.

Jacqueline Johnson: [00:10:15] Any local business that wants to participate and our sponsorship deck and all that information and the different tier levels and all that can also be found on our website as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:25] And then at the website, that’s where like if you have a. Ferrari or an exotic car. You can kind of register your car there, or if you want to volunteer, you can register there. Or if you’re a parent of a child, you can register there as well.

Jacqueline Johnson: [00:10:40] Yes, yes. It’s it’s it’s it’s it’s a very easy website to navigate. And and there’s all all three you can do, whether you’re a volunteer driver or sponsor, you can do everything right through there.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:54] And that’s rides to remember dot org.

Jacqueline Johnson: [00:10:58] Yes.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:00] Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Jacqueline Johnson: [00:11:06] Well, thank you so much for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:08] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

Intro: [00:11:15] 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.

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Eric Anderson With The Carpet Chemist

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EricAnderson
Franchise Marketing Radio
Eric Anderson With The Carpet Chemist
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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.

EricAndersonEric Anderson, President at The Carpet Chemist

Eric Anderson is a business executive with experience in all areas of business development and management.

Connect with Eric on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • The Carpet Chemist’s services
  • Why not stay in the niche carpet cleaning space
  • The ideal franchisee

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:07] Welcome to Franchise Marketing Radio. 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. That’s seosamba.com.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:32] Lee Kantor here another episode of Franchise Marketing Radio and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Eric Anderson and he is with the carpet chemist. Welcome, Eric.

Eric Anderson: [00:00:44] How are you doing, Lee?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] I am doing well. I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about the carpet chemist. How are you serving folks?

Eric Anderson: [00:00:52] So Carpet Chemist is it’s bash. It’s basically a home service. We provide quite a few services carpet cleaning, carpet repair, carpet dyeing, upholstery cleaning, cleaning, hardwood floor tile and grout. So pretty much one stop shop for for anything flooring or upholstery needs.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:10] So what was the genesis of the idea? How did the brand get started?

Eric Anderson: [00:01:14] So the brand was the brand was started a few years ago by Brandon Cerrito down in Louisville, Kentucky. And the thing that that worked out well for him is he provided a lot of services, a lot of carpet cleaning places, didn’t do so. He originally started with carpet cleaning. Then he learned how to repair carpets, sew holes from pets and things like that that you wouldn’t think would be fixed. He can fix those dying carpets, red wine stains, bleach spots, things like that, carpet stretching, which is something that you’d normally have to have and install or do. Upholstery cleaning just started doing a lot of things that that other places didn’t do. So business really took off for him. He realized that that he had something special there and it would be a good thing to franchise. So then he brought me in on the team. We expanded it, expanded the services a little bit titling, grout cleaning, hardwood, floor cleaning, air cleaning. And here we are today.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:07] So he started out just kind of a guy with a dream, and he was just doing the work and just kind of listening to his customers and just adapting and then growing organically.

Eric Anderson: [00:02:19] Right. Exactly. He he started with one of the other major carpet cleaning companies and decided he wanted to go off on his own. And what would differentiate him from the rest of the competition would be these other unique services that that he would offer that no one else was offering so he could come out, he could clean the carpets, he could repair them, he could fix bleach stains where normally people would be replacing carpets. And that’s when things really took off for him.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:43] Now, when you’re working with this business that is now a franchise, how do you kind of, you know, thread the needle in terms of keep adding services but not kind of chasing every shiny object that’s out there.

Eric Anderson: [00:03:02] So all the services kind of work together. Obviously, the carpet repair and the carpet dyeing, there’s rug cleaning as well. All that kind of goes along with the carpet cleaning services. But at the same time, you also typically have rooms in your house with hardwood flooring, rooms in your house with tile, use a lot of the same machines to do it. So from a franchisee standpoint, makes a lot of sense because you’re already out there with the equipment that you’ve already purchased. And then the air duct cleaning was kind of already it’s kind of a natural fit because you don’t want clean carpets and dirty air ducts because it’s going to blow the dust right back on your clean carpets. So everything that we’ve put together, upholstery, everything we put together kind of sinks with each other.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:45] And then by having all these services, this helps the franchisee kind of have, you know, many more revenue streams because these are all kind of add on services.

Eric Anderson: [00:03:57] Right. Well, yeah. So it produces a higher overall ticket, but also at a time when I don’t know where everyone’s located, but gas is $6 a gallon by me. Instead of running all over multiple jobs a day, driving back and forth, wasting a lot of time and gas in the van, you can go to one person’s house, perform multiple services, get a higher average ticket, and it’s good for the consumer as well because they don’t have to find three or four different places to come out and do everything that they need. So it’s it’s a lot more convenient for the end consumer as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:30] And then from franchisee standpoint, this is something where it’s hard to acquire customers. So if you’ve acquired one, you can sell them a bunch of complimentary services. That’s a lot better for your business and your bottom line than it is chasing six different customers for six different services.

Eric Anderson: [00:04:47] Absolutely. You already have the customer, you have the van, you have the equipment. So it just it makes sense.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:54] So now what is the profile of that ideal franchisee look like?

Eric Anderson: [00:04:59] You know, it can be someone that’s currently doing one of those one of those things on their own that would be a conversion. Or it could be someone that’s just just a go getter, someone with a good personality, someone with good customer service that’s willing to hustle and they can get into it for for a low cost. We can turn it around, get it open fairly quickly. And they don’t have to worry about anything as far as real estate because realistically their van is their workshop, it’s their office, it’s their transportation, it’s everything that they need. So I think it’s a it’s a pretty broad group of of people that that we can appeal to.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:35] Does it can you be an absentee owner or is this something you’d like them to kind of roll up their sleeves and kind of get out there?

Eric Anderson: [00:05:44] Sure. You can be an absentee owner as well. You can you can have someone trained. We do a ten day training down in Louisville, Kentucky. So if you want to be an absentee owner, you could buy into the franchise. You could get your your general manager or your person that you want on the van, send them down for the ten days of training. We would recommend coming down as well for the training. Just just so you know what, what’s supposed to be done and how we do things. But yeah, it’s either either it can be you on your own or you can have multiple vans with with multiple people and just just manage it from home.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:15] Are you at this stage looking for kind of those single units or single locations, or are you looking for the kind of the empire builder that you, you know, wants to take over a kind of bigger area?

Eric Anderson: [00:06:27] To be honest, we’re open to either we we’re ready to scale. We’ve got everything set in place. So whether it’s someone that just just wants to start with one van and get out there and do it on their own, or it’s someone that wants to come in and buy multiple vans in a territory or multiple vans throughout multiple territories. We can service either one.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:45] Now, how do you help the franchisee with their marketing or is that something they have to kind of go to the the, you know, leads, clubs, meetings and kind of press the flesh and shake hands and kiss babies locally? Or is this something you guys handle digitally or a combination?

Eric Anderson: [00:07:01] Yeah, it’s a combination of the two, actually. We we have we have a start up marketing package where we get all their advertising set up in the area and then we have additional add on packages that that they can buy into different different levels of what they want to do depending. But we also recommend that they get out in their local area. We have a we have a great brand and the van is beautifully wrapped with the carpet chemist, the all the decals and the logo and everything like that. Just being out in their van, driving it through town, they get stopped all the time and have people requesting appointments just, just by seeing the van, because it’s just a it’s just such a great look. It’s such a professional looking brand.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:41] And is there any story you can share of maybe somebody who was hadn’t considered this as their franchise choice and ended up with it and has been able to become successful?

Eric Anderson: [00:07:53] Yeah, actually, our our Chicago franchisee, he he went for the training. He flew through the training, did really well with that, learned all the services during the ten day training. You can literally go from knowing nothing about carpets to being an expert. In the ten days of training he got back. He had appointments lined up throughout the month, took care of those. He he had great reviews that led to more appointments and he’s off and running. And then in addition to the digital marketing that we do for him, he goes out and he gets business from other other local business owners and other local businesses in the flooring industry and works on partnerships. So he does probably half of his business is commercial and the other half is residential. It’s working out great so far.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:36] So so this opportunity is not just kind of solely residential. You can work in a commercial setting as well.

Eric Anderson: [00:08:43] Oh, absolutely. Gyms. Office buildings, apartment buildings, nursing homes, everything like that. So the beauty of it is, is once you’re there, it’s it’s so much more beneficial to have a larger job because you’re already there, you’re already doing something. So and it works out for the person, too, because you can give them a better break on the pricing because you you can do more at the same amount of time so you don’t have to cover your travel costs on an additional call.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:14] Now, you mentioned that conversions are a part of the mix. What percentage are conversions in? What percentage are folks that are doing this for the first time?

Eric Anderson: [00:09:23] To be honest, we actually haven’t had any conversions yet. We’ve talked to some people that are interested, but we just haven’t had anyone quite sign on yet. You know, I think the benefits of of the conversion process would be the things that they would learn from the founder as far as the carpet repairs and the dying and the different services that we provide that maybe they weren’t existing doing existing already. So I think it would be a great opportunity for them to do that. In addition to the marketing that we provide, we can just add them straight on to the marketing and do half the work for them.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:57] Now I know you don’t have any conversions yet, but that to me is so intriguing because there are so many other brands that I’ve talked to that have an opportunity to target conversions. But a lot of times when a person is their own business, they think they don’t need any help and they think they got things figured out. How do you kind of educate that conversion potential conversion candidate about the help that you can provide the community you can provide and the ways that they can make a lot more money if they kind of took the leap of being part of the team rather than just kind of being a solo operator.

Eric Anderson: [00:10:34] You know, I think where we saw that being a possibility is Brandon, the founder. He gets a lot of messages from other people in that industry asking him how to perform some of the things that he does as far as the repairs, as far as the dyeing, the different things that they’re not currently doing. So there’s a lot of interest from other people in the services that we already provide that they just don’t have any idea how to do yet.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:03] So like, intellectually they understand, look, there’s stuff I don’t know and I need the education, but they are just hesitant to kind of take the leap to to become part of the family and join the team.

Eric Anderson: [00:11:16] Right. And, you know, but I think what intrigues people is, again, I’m going to say it and I didn’t obviously I didn’t invent the brand, but it’s just a great brand. It’s such a professional looking brand. From from the logo to the colors to to how they show up in the uniform and how they present themselves on the in front of the home, how they park the van, how they stand on the stoop when they when the person answers the door. There’s just so many things that Brandon has perfected over the course of the years that most people don’t do and don’t even realize that they should be doing. I think people realize once they once they talk to him that there’s a lot more that they actually don’t do or maybe don’t know.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:58] Yeah, and it’s so funny. People are so hesitant to partner when there’s just so much more opportunity when you’re part of a community and a network that you’re learning from others all over the place. I mean, there’s there’s so much upside to considering this.

Eric Anderson: [00:12:17] Absolutely. From the from the training that we can provide to even the the carpet chemist branded chemicals that we specifically picked and used to the to the deals that they can get on vans and equipment that they’re going to use just just by being able to be a part of the volume pricing. Even that alone can can cover any, any costs associated with with transferring over.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:42] Yeah. Yeah. I wish more people would just open their mind to the possibilities and not think that just because you’ve done it this way for the last ten years, you have to continue doing it this way. There’s a lot more opportunity there if you can kind of get your mind around it.

Eric Anderson: [00:12:56] Right. And and that’s what we’re looking for realistically. I mean, granted, yes, they’re called franchisees, but we’re really looking for four partners. So obviously we need them. They need us. So we’re looking to form partnerships with people to to get more carpet chemist locations out there.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:13] So now what areas are you looking to grow in? You say you’re I guess, starting in Louisville. Is that are you going kind of Louisville outward or or is kind of the world your oyster now? And it really doesn’t matter where they come from.

Eric Anderson: [00:13:26] Well, we can go anywhere. The direct focus now, just where we can provide the absolute most support, but also we already have the brand recognition is areas in and around the Chicagoland area and surrounding states and in and around the Louisville area and surrounding states of Kentucky. So in the Chicagoland area, we’ve we’ve done people outside of the area. Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, Brandon has done different. And down in Louisville, he’s done he’s gone into Ohio. In Indiana, he’s gone across the state. In Kentucky, he’s gone even further than that. So I think that there’s already brand recognitions in those in those areas. So it’s it’s a natural fit because people are already looking for our services in those areas.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:17] Right. And it’s just a matter of just finding the right partners, like you said.

Eric Anderson: [00:14:22] Right, exactly. Yeah. We’ve got a couple in the pipeline right now that that that should be signing up fairly soon in each area. So from that point, it’s it’s just going to grow from there. But we can go anywhere from California to New York. So it doesn’t doesn’t mean that we wouldn’t happily welcome someone from California or New York and provide them with the best support that they can possibly get as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:46] So if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, what’s the website or the best coordinates.

Eric Anderson: [00:14:54] So they can check out the carpet chemist dot com or the carpet chemist franchise dot com. So if they want to just see the brand and kind of see what we offer and what we do, that would be the carpet chemist dot com and then carpet chemist franchise dot com or B carpet chemist franchise dot com is going to tell you all about our franchising. There’s a contact us form on there that they can fill out and someone usually will get back to them if not immediately, within 24 hours at the absolute latest. But normally they would receive a call within hours just to answer any initial questions that they might have, since obviously they’re clearly interested at that moment.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:28] Well, Eric, congratulations on all the success and the momentum. You’re doing important work. We appreciate you.

Eric Anderson: [00:15:35] Yeah, thanks for having me, Leigh. I really appreciate it. It’s great talking to you.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:38] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on franchise marketing radio.

Matt Frentheway With Learn2Franchise/Franchoice

by

MattFrentheway
Franchise Marketing Radio
Matt Frentheway With Learn2Franchise/Franchoice
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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.

learn2franchise

MattFrenthewayMatt Frentheway, Franchise Consultant at Learn2franchise

Matt Frentheway is the co-creator of the Legends Boxing franchise. Today, he operates multiple franchise locations part time. As a franchise consultant, Matt helps people find franchises that match their lifestyle and skill sets – franchises that help them reach their goals and dreams so they can live life on their own terms. Matt lives in Park City, Utah, and enjoys wake surfing, skiing, traveling, and mountain biking with his family.

Connect with Matt on LinkedIn and follow Learn2franchise on Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Biggest failure in business
  • Two main types of business ownership
  • The secrets to running multiple businesses at the same time
  • The best franchises today

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:07] Welcome to Franchise Marketing Radio. 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. That’s seosamba.com.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:32] Lee Kantor here another episode of Franchise Marketing Radio and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Matt Frentheway and he is with learn2franchise. Welcome, Matt.

Matt Frentheway: [00:00:43] Hey, thanks for having me on. I’m excited to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:46] Well, I am excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about learn the franchise. How are you serving folks?

Matt Frentheway: [00:00:51] Well, learning a franchise is what I do is I help people that are interested in owning the franchise business of their own. Figure out which franchise to own. So to put it simply, I’m a matchmaker between the person that wants to own a franchise and finding the right franchise that matches up to them. So they’re super happy with it.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:08] So what’s your back story? How did you get involved in the franchising world?

Matt Frentheway: [00:01:12] Well, I came into it a little bit backwards. I’ve been an independent business owner my whole life, and back in 2014 and 2015, I partnered with a friend of mine in a boxing fitness concept called Legends of Boxing. And we had one location and we scaled it, made it successful, and we wanted to grow, but we didn’t have the capital we needed to to open up our own corporate locations. So we looked into franchising and thought that would be a great idea to do. So we made an international franchise in about 2018 and and it took off from there. And then I sold out of my partnership in that and became a franchise consultant.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:47] So you got so you got to experience franchising from the franchisor side first.

Matt Frentheway: [00:01:53] Exactly. Yeah. A lot of people that are consultants go the other way. They’re the franchisees first and then they become consultants. Some of them are franchise owners sometimes, but it’s kind of rare.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:03] So what do you think is an advantage of kind of looking at this puzzle through the lens of a franchisor?

Matt Frentheway: [00:02:09] So I’ve seen that, you know, the the the good things and the bad things about being a franchise or the what you call the ugly side of being a franchisor. So if I mean, so I know what to look out with my candidates and helping them choose a good franchise and that I can look at the pitfalls that a franchise owner may be going through or may experience if they don’t take care of it for, for example, financing a franchise or be well financed or else when they start growing, they’re not able to support their franchisees. That’s just one thing, part of the puzzle that I’m able to look at for my candidates.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:44] So now when you made the switch from being a franchise or to helping people become franchisees, obviously you were kind of enamored with the franchising system, the idea of buying a franchise that was attractive to you and you learned that through actually having a franchise. What kind of made you make this kind of in some ways a drastic switch from, you know, kind of running this empire business of businesses to helping other people just kind of get into business?

Matt Frentheway: [00:03:17] Well, so I learned through the school of hard knocks as far as being a business owner and how was I able to go back to my twenties? If I were able to go back to my twenties and instead of starting my own independent businesses and trying to figure out the hard way in the wrong way to do things and scale my businesses, I would rather own a franchise because I learned that franchises are already scaled for people. It’s just kind of a turnkey business system, especially for those people that have never been in business for themselves before and want to be. It’s a good safety net and it’s a great track to success for them to accelerate their their level of success. I wish I would’ve had that when I was in my early, early years. And so when we made a franchise, I saw that I’m like, Wow, I wish that would have existed. I want to provide this for other people too, so that people can minimize the risk and opening businesses.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:06] So if somebody is considering a franchise, what are kind of some of the things you have to educate them about? What are some of the maybe misconceptions they think it is? And and you have kind of the experience to tell them what the reality is.

Matt Frentheway: [00:04:22] Well, I think probably one misconception that people don’t know is sometimes they think the franchise is going to do everything for them. And that’s not the case. When a person owns a franchise, they are the business owner. It’s their business. The franchise is there to help them, give them their operations systems and give them support. But the franchise is not going to do it for them. And so that’s one misconception that people need to be aware of, is that they will be in business for themselves and then you need to put the effort in. The other thing is there’s a reason they’re buying a franchise and they need to follow the system of the franchise because they’ve proven to be successful. A lot of people forget about that part and they become mavericks, so to speak, and they kind of go off the reservation and try to do things on their own and their own way, which isn’t so successful. And if they just kept it simple and followed the franchise system, they’ll be successful faster.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:13] So now doing this show for the amount of time I’ve been doing this show and I’ve interviewed franchise owners and franchisees, inevitably the franchisor gets frustrated. The franchisee is kind of, like you said, kind of doing their own thing. And the franchisee is frustrated that. The franchisor doesn’t understand my market. It’s different. And, you know, we’re different than what you had when you started. How do you help them kind of make the right choice in terms of making sure it’s a fit kind of culturally that they each understand where, you know, each of their expertise lies and what each of them are really best at.

Matt Frentheway: [00:05:54] Yeah. So it’s kind of a learning curve of being a franchisee and a franchisor. So in the beginning the franchisees super excited and once you go in and then they usually follow the system pretty well with a franchise franchisor. But then after a while, especially after they start seeing a little success, they start to think, Well, what do I need the franchise owner for? What am I paying these royalties for is being successful. And so there’s some friction there sometimes. But what they don’t realize down the road is with the franchise, they got to realize that the franchise or they have a system of other franchises across the nation where there’s sort of a mastermind type of alliance. People can share best practices and ideas. And as you know, economies change, markets change. The franchise owner isn’t always going to know the answer to all the questions, but they do have the wherewithal and the and the mental pool to pull from to make changes and pivot, which benefits the franchisee. So to put it simply, I would just tell the franchisees to be patient, trust the system, and work together with the franchise or to come up with solutions instead of trying to fight them.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:01] And then I think you brought up a really great point. One of the strengths of a franchisor, especially as it grows and it learns more, is it’s it’s kind of accumulating all this market knowledge from other people doing the work in a variety of places and locales. So they’re getting kind of more and more IP when it comes to helping the future franchisee, whereas somebody says, Oh, I know enough, I can do this on their own. Maybe as an individual you can, but you don’t have kind of that brainpower that you refer to, that mastermind kind of level understanding of kind of macro things that you might be missing just doing your work in your own kind of location.

Matt Frentheway: [00:07:43] Right? Yeah, I like to call it kind of an experience where the franchisor has a whole wealth of experience, shares with all the franchisees in their system. And so with all that, so there’s got to be one or two experiences that other franchisees have had similar to what this particular franchisee might be having in their market that the franchise can draw from to help the franchisee the struggling.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:07] Now is that one of the things you’re looking for when you’re trying to match the right franchise with the right individual, that they do kind of share the knowledge and that they are kind of proactive when it comes to letting people know best practices or, hey, they tried this thing here and it worked great and I recommend you at least experiment with it.

Matt Frentheway: [00:08:29] Yeah, definitely. That’s one thing I have my candidates, you know, they they’ve got to investigate the franchise themselves, but I coach them along the way. That’s one thing. I have them make sure they ask the franchise owner as well as the other franchisees and the system. An example, be asked a question. Tell me a time you guys came into a market or came up with something that you’d never faced before. How did you handle it? The asking the other franchisees, they can do based on their answer. It can be good. It can be bad. If it’s good, of course, you probably want to be a part of that system. If it’s bad, then you might want to move on because it may not seem like the franchisor has the wherewithal to to have the foresight to change and pivot. And that’s a great question for franchise owners, too, is you can give them scenario questions like, for example, what if what if I’m in this area and you don’t have any other franchisees in this particular area? And I’m looking at a situation where I want to work together with you, how could you help me be successful? Those type of questions are really important to ask going into the investigation process.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:27] Now, are you finding the franchisee of today is different than maybe the franchisee when you started kind of working with them? Is it like our people looking for? At one time people were buying a franchise and it was one shop in their neighborhood and you know, that was good. Or maybe they’d buy a couple around and, you know, adjacent neighborhoods. But it seems like I’m seeing a lot of folks that are kind of empire builders that are buying complementary brands and they’re building up kind of regional kind of machines to serve a whole bunch of people. Is the franchisee look a little different today?

Matt Frentheway: [00:10:02] Yeah. As far as the Empire Builders go, I yes, I think so. I don’t know if this is a brand new what I’m going to tell you if it’s a brand new concept and franchising. But it seems something that’s catching on and it’s what I call going deep or some people calling going vertical. And so what empire building builders have done in the past is they’ll buy large geographical areas. You know, they’ll buy a whole area, five or six units, ten units, and then they’ll just grow one or two at a year until they have them all up and running. The next level that a lot of folks have been doing now is they’ll do that same thing, but then they will buy another brand that’s complementary to their first brand. So they already have a customer base from the first brand that they can feed into their second brand and get successful a lot faster. And it’s in the same geographical area. So there’s some economies of scale there. So I don’t think that’s a brand new concept, but I think it’s being used a lot more than what I’ve seen in the past.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:58] So is the profile of a potential franchisee like what do they look like to you and your area?

Matt Frentheway: [00:11:06] The ones that I work with the most are usually buyer and father, usually executives. They’ve worked in corporate America. They most of them still work in corporate America, and they’re looking for a few things. The first thing is a lot of them are very diversified into real estate. They have the retirement plans, which is in stocks and bonds usually, and they want a third leg of their studio or their stool, financial stool to be more solid. So they want to own a business. And so looking at a franchise to diversify their assets, another thing they’re looking for is they don’t want to be beholden to their job their whole life. They may really enjoy their life or their job, but they don’t want to be worried about what are they going to do for money if they get laid off. And so that’s another level of protection that a lot of folks are doing in starting a franchise so that they can fall back on that in case something happens to their job. And of course, you have the final person that just does not like their job at all and they want to transition out of the job and just be a full time business owner. And so they’ll start a franchise and do that up and running until it’s paying their bills and then they can leave their job. But by and far, I’m working with a lot of executives these days. It seems like that’s the way it’s been going.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:11] And then how do they become aware of you? Are you working with like their financial advisors and wealth advisors to explain this kind of three legged stool that you described?

Matt Frentheway: [00:12:21] I do have relationships with financial advisors, but I don’t get my referrals from them per se. I do a lot of networking on LinkedIn and it’s easy to find executives on LinkedIn. And so I reach out to them and and create relationships. And then of course, my referral network, people that I’ve helped in the past refer their friends and family to me. You know, those are the most effective ways I work. But really it’s just by networking, you know, locally and or nationally on LinkedIn and then local networking groups around where I live now.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:53] Are there certain trends in franchising that you’re seeing today that like there’s this is a good opportunity for certain kinds of franchises? You know, how they have some of these trends come and go, like some things, you know, frozen yogurt was super hot a while ago or cupcakes, you know, like all of a sudden you see like five of them popping up in a in a market. Or is there a certain trends right now you’re looking at?

Matt Frentheway: [00:13:17] Yeah. And I would say since since COVID, the large trend I see is in the service industry. And so what I determine is service industry. Is where the business owners take in their service to their customer, whether it’s a business or a consumer, rather than the business or consumer coming to one place of business like a bricks and mortar place. The reason services are taking off so, so fast now is, number one, they’re less expensive. They’re faster to start. But most of them are essential businesses so they can operate during the pandemic if that ever happens. And then a lot of them are also recession resistant because they’re needed. Service is not wanted services. So for example, something as simple as roofing, if your roof falls apart, you’ve got to get that fixed. You can’t wait until you have more money. And in fact, you usually have insurance to cover that. So it doesn’t really matter what the economy is doing. The roof’s got to get fixed, the insurance will cover it, which enables the franchisee to be successful. And there’s many other services that are needed too. But that seems to be the trend right now with the recession worries and what we have to provide.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:23] So what advice would you give that person, that executive that wants to explore, you know, having a franchise as part of their wealth plan moving forward? What is kind of the baby steps they should be taking today?

Matt Frentheway: [00:14:38] Well, if they’re interested in exploring franchising, I recommend that they work with a consultant, whether it’s me or somebody else that’s going to put them way far ahead of the curve, rather than trying to do that themselves. Most people don’t know all the franchises that exist out there. There’s three or 4000 in the nation right now, and then they don’t know which ones to even look at or which are good opportunities. So working with a consultant that’s already kind of preselected, prescreened a lot of franchisees and has relationships with them will put them ahead of the curve. The consultant can also direct them to a franchise that matches up to their personality and their skill set and their budget and things like that. Basically, it’s just going to save them a lot of time and headache. That’s probably the first thing I’d recommend is working with a consultant now.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:21] And that’s an important point that you bring up. You know, just because you like ice cream doesn’t mean an ice cream franchise is the right fit for you. I mean, you’ve got to look at what kind of lifestyle you want. You want to be home in the afternoon. You want to work on the weekends and the evenings. Like there are certain things that are much beyond, you know, you having a childhood dream of owning an ice cream store.

Matt Frentheway: [00:15:43] That’s right. That’s probably one of the most important things that a consultant is going to help. Somebody, a potential franchisee do is identify the characteristics of what their ideal business is going to look like. So a good consultant is going to take the brand out of the equation, not even focus on any name or brand or what it does or anything. They’re just going to focus on what a day in the life of the franchisee. What an ideal day in the life of the franchisee they want, like what hours of operations they wanted to run in. How many people do they want to work for them? All those other things you said, identify those characteristics and then that. And then in the consulting field, go out and pick the franchises that match up to that candidate’s characteristics. So it resonates with them and it’s a good match.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:23] Yeah. And something that I think a lot of people don’t realize going in the thing that they think is the the one they should pick is rarely the one they end up with.

Matt Frentheway: [00:16:34] That’s true. So, you know, I get a lot probably the biggest question I get these days is, hey, do you work with Chick fil A? And that’s understandable. Chick fil A, super successful. And I asked them, well, what do you like about Chick fil A? And they like well, and they say it’s just so busy there. There’s always a line going out the door and around the drive thru for business. And so I like to point out to them that maybe it’s not Chick fil A. They want they just want a business that’s super popular and needed and busy. That’s the character is that they want something that they want to have a service or a business where people want to do business with it. Like Chick fil A is not necessarily Chick fil A they want.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:11] Yeah. And that’s an important distinction. And that’s why it’s important to work with a consultant like you to help them kind of ask and answer those tough questions.

Matt Frentheway: [00:17:19] That’s right. Yeah. You could ask them a lot of questions they never considered before. You know, one question I asked folks that they haven’t really considered kind of goes along the lines of begin with the end in mind. And the question is, what is your what’s your exit plan for your franchise? Do you have one right now, even if they don’t own one yet, like five, six years down the road? Or is it something you’re going to want to sell? You want to keep it and hand out your children? Do you want to open more units? That’s just one simple question a lot of people haven’t thought of before because that but whatever their answer is, is going to determine what kind of franchise they should give into as well to match up to that plan.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:53] Yeah, this isn’t like buying a candy bar when you’re leaving the grocery store. This is a big decision that you need a professional advisor to help you kind of walk through scenarios.

Matt Frentheway: [00:18:02] Right? Yeah.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:04] So, Matt, if somebody wants to learn more, what is the website?

Matt Frentheway: [00:18:09] My website is learn to franchise two is the number two. So learn the number two franchise dot com. If people want my free e-book, it’s the top industry’s top franchise industries in the nation today. It’s a great book that will explain all the industries that are on fire as far as selling right now. They can go to learn to franchise Booking.com and get a free copy of it.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:36] Good stuff. Well, Matt, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Matt Frentheway: [00:18:42] Thanks. I appreciate you having me on the show, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:44] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We will see you all next time on Franchise Marketing Radio.

Woodstock Arts Series: July 2022

by

BrianGamelCSBC
Cherokee Business Radio
Woodstock Arts Series: July 2022
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This Episode was brought to you by

The Innovation SpotAlma Coffee

 

 

 

WoodstockArtsLogo

BrianGamelBrian Gamel, Managing Director of Woodstock Arts

Brian grew up in the Woodstock area and has loved this town ever since. After going off to get his undergraduate degree in Theatre from Florida State University he came back home and became a part of the Elm Street Cultural Arts Village’s team, now known as Woodstock Arts.

Connect with Brian on LinkedIn.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Cherokee Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Stone Payton: [00:00:23] Welcome to this very special edition of Cherokee Business Radio. It is time for our Woodstock Arts segment, one of my favorite times of the month. Really enjoy visiting with the folks over at Woodstock Arts. We have so much going on in this community and Woodstock Arts is such a big part of it. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast once again, no stranger to the Business RadioX microphone, Mr. Brian Gamel. Good morning.

Brian Gamel: [00:00:50] Sir. Good morning, sir. I’m glad to be here.

Stone Payton: [00:00:51] Well, it’s a delight to have you. Before we went on air, I was just thanking you for giving me the heads up on this. The Croce show. You said the stone. If you and Holly want to go this thing, you better get you some tickets, because this is going fast.

Brian Gamel: [00:01:05] Yeah, we. We are pretty dadgum close to selling out considering we went on sale less than less than 12 days ago. So, wow, we we officially went live with our new ticketing system. So it’s a lot simpler and easier to use for our patrons. And, and we also went on sale for everything next year. So through from August one through July 31st of next year, everything that we’re doing is on the website, on sale, all of those lovely things.

Stone Payton: [00:01:30] And there’s like a season option or two as well. You don’t have to just go in there and buy individual stuff and there’s probably some sort of incentive or some packages, right?

Brian Gamel: [00:01:39] For sure. So it’s super exciting because the old ticketing system, you used to have to go into subscriptions to get a subscription. This one as you’re going through, if you buy if you’re buying your table for lantern series and say, hey, if you want a discount, just get three more tables, there’s a pick for option. Just give, just get three more and we’ll give you this percentage off. Or if you buy all of them, you’ll get this percentage off. So it’s a really, really cool and advantageous system to allow customers to come in, buy a table and go, Oh, wait, you know what, I do want to go to a couple more of these and I can get them discounted instead of sitting here and, you know, every single time. Yeah. Trying to go and find a subscription. Right.

Stone Payton: [00:02:16] So and in these tables, this is not like you don’t have to mortgage your house to get these tables. They’re like a couple hundred bucks or something like 300 bucks.

Brian Gamel: [00:02:24] It’s it’s kind of insane, you know, it’s it’s sticker shock at first when you’re thinking about it, right? Because you’re buying the whole table, which is 6 to 8 seats.

Stone Payton: [00:02:30] Yeah.

Brian Gamel: [00:02:31] If you have four other friends or if you’re with a partner and you have four other friends or two other couples, that’s really all it takes. And you can fill that table up. Then you’re talking other than Croce, because that’s our headline and it’s going to cost a little bit more. You’re normally talking for a reserve table, 20 bucks a person somewhere in that ballpark, and the seats that you buy for just two of you end up being about 18 bucks a person. So, you know, you pay two extra dollars, you can get to sit significantly closer. And if you come and decorate your table, you get a chance to win a table to the next concert. So it’s it’s one of those things that the deal is just outrageous and people have a lot of fun with it. It makes it easier to just bring a meal, eat, have a good time. We have the we have waitstaff service for the tables as well. So you don’t have to get up and get your own drink and miss anything. We will come to you and ask if you need anything. Get you another get you another reformation, get you another land, hard cider, maybe some wine, you know.

Stone Payton: [00:03:22] Well, and a little plug for Christopher, because the first couple of times that Holly and I went out, she likes the Sauvignon Blanc and you didn’t have it. And Holly pestered Christopher to the point where you got plenty of Sauvignon Blanc now and every other thing, probably, yeah.

Brian Gamel: [00:03:37] When we when we first started the Lantern series, we just had the theater space, right? The Reeves house wasn’t built yet, so all the inventory was over there and it just turned into, well, you know, we’ll just use we’ll have a couple of more options over at Lantern Series. And now we basically bring up most of the Reeves house inventory of wine, too, which is a wine bar. So, you know, you have you have premium, you have house for most of everything. I think the Savion BLOCK is one of those more mid-tier where we don’t have a house wine. We have like the nice sauvignon blanc for you.

Stone Payton: [00:04:04] Sweet well know our M.O. and we’ll do it for for Croce but we’ll do it for the for the season. We’ll, we’ll smoke something on the grill during the day or the day before, or we’ll bring some shrimp out and we get kind of schmancy with it. My newest project, because I had it at a nice restaurant up in Chattanooga over the weekend. I’m an old country boy. I eat fried okra all the time. But this chef cut the the okra the long way. And then he he baked it or fried it in very shallow, a little bit olive oil. So we’re going to show it with like this stone special okra probably I got to experiment with. But yeah, we’ll we’ll steam some shrimp or smoke some, you know, smoke some ribs or some pork butt. And then you invite a couple other couples to come to the table and you say, tell someone you handle kind of order stuff, we’ll handle the main thing and then you do the dessert. It’s just, it’s, it’s it’s a party, man.

Brian Gamel: [00:04:58] It’s so much fun. And you got to try fry and pickled okra. I did that once. All right.

Stone Payton: [00:05:02] Now, did was it already pickled or did you pickle it?

Brian Gamel: [00:05:05] My mom pickled it. It was something from the family. So we we bought it and or we brought it over and went, why don’t we fry this like fried pickles and do it? Yeah. Yeah. It is amazing with a little bit of ranch and.

Stone Payton: [00:05:15] And so you bread it with like cornmeal or whatever the normal breading is and then you like deep fry it like the old school. Okay, I haven’t. I bet that does. It’s flavor.

Brian Gamel: [00:05:23] Yeah, it’s a nice little like a little bit like a fried pickle, you.

Stone Payton: [00:05:25] Know, man, I love to cook, I love to eat. I’ve been trying to eat a little bit less and a little less often, but I find that I enjoy food as much, if not more, than I did when I just gorged myself. So, yeah, I love it. And these are great opportunities, right? Take your cooler in. Don’t worry about the drinks. They’ll handle the drinks and just, you know, get you on a little roll in coolers. And we got us one of those. One of those little wagons. Yeah. Like the young couples have with the kids. Yep. Instead of having kids in ours, you know, we got food.

Brian Gamel: [00:05:54] Listen, my wife and I been talking about getting the same thing. We don’t have kids yet, at least. And, you know, those little wagons just moving them around wherever you need to go there, especially for events like the Lantern series or the Jazz Nights that we have at the Reeves house that are completely free to the public. Just go ahead and bring whatever you need on the wagon back there.

Stone Payton: [00:06:12] So I know I love Jazz Nights, too. I mean, this is. So you got jazz nights. You got the you’ve got the Lantern series, you’ve got the theater. And we’re kind of early in a new, relatively new installation over to Reeves House right now, right?

Brian Gamel: [00:06:27] Yeah. There’s the exhibit. It’s called Homegrown. So it’s all artists from Georgia and it’s a juried showcase, which means that they submitted and they had to be selected by a panel of judges and the judges that are going to determine a winner of it and they’re going to get a prize. So we’re planning on doing a similar thing next year, but expanding it to the entire southeast. So not just the state of Georgia, but this is all homegrown Peach State kind of tying in with our production of James and the Giant Peach, which opens when we’re recording this tomorrow, Wednesday morning, the 13th. So if you have any of the kids at home to that, yeah, you’re like, man, I need, I need to do something with these kids. It’s been a month of summer vacation. I need to do something with them in the mornings on a Wednesday well, 10 a.m. Wednesday mornings and also Saturday and Sunday afternoons. We have James and the Giant Peach for the next month for you and you.

Stone Payton: [00:07:14] That is such a cool story.

Brian Gamel: [00:07:16] Yeah, it’s a lot of fun. And the scenic team did a great job of building this giant peach on stage, and the cast is a lot of fun. We have a kid playing James and then we have adults playing some of the other roles. So it’s really that theater for young audiences, right? It’s not just kids in the show, but it’s it’s adults and kids, but it’s for kids, you know, and they do a lot of great work. The music’s a lot of fun. It’s by the same guys who wrote The Greatest Showman and Dear Evan Hansen. And a lot of those, the music is just so much fun. And the cast, you can tell, is having fun with it, too.

Stone Payton: [00:07:46] And there are seasonal options for the theater, their season options for the Lannan Series, or there’s all kinds of different packages, but just go to the website and run through it and find what’s right for you.

Brian Gamel: [00:07:56] Yeah, I know. It’ll be super easy. I will say for the theater where we’re introducing select your own seats. Not not for James, because it’s still part of this current season that doesn’t until July, but everything from August on, you actually can select your seats in the theater. So it’s not the general admission buy ticket, then hopefully show up 45 minutes early to get a front row seat. It’s sweet. You can go ahead and pick it out. And I’ll also say our subscribers, you get an insane deal if you if you subscribe to the season. Yeah it’s cheaper for the front row than anywhere else. If, if you subscribe. Wow. If you get the full season it’s, it’s something insane. I don’t remember the exact price. I want to say it’s close to like 12 bucks a ticket or something because it’s, you.

Stone Payton: [00:08:36] Know, and that’s great. That makes it accessible to everybody.

Brian Gamel: [00:08:40] Well, yeah. And that’s our goal, too, as an art center, obviously, with the way the world is working right now, you know, but trying to keep it as accessible as possible because we are a volunteer run organization, because there’s also being at the beginning of the new season, a ton of volunteer opportunities. If you’re if you’re crafty and thrifty and you really want to get make props, you know, we have those opportunities throughout the season. Same thing for costumes and for lighting and sound and all those fun things with the theater.

Stone Payton: [00:09:09] And like me, I have no discernible skills, but I have a truck and I have time.

Brian Gamel: [00:09:13] Yeah, that that is so important.

Stone Payton: [00:09:17] Those are stuff in a truck. Run it over to the to the green or whatever or you know, just I can do like the, you know, and it’s good to get out and do a little something physical or whatever. So, I mean, I can be ice guy, so, you know, go get us some ice.

Brian Gamel: [00:09:32] Yeah. And we have a couple volunteers who come every lantern series Saturday morning and roll some tables and put them out. You know, it’s, it’s there’s always something, you know, even if you’re not skilled and all you have is a truck, you can you can probably move at least a table in a couple of chairs. Right. But it’s you know, we we love our volunteers. It is so much fun to work with them. And, you know, we’re we have Camille, who’s doing a great job with it. And we’ve been counting ours because, you know, as an organization, we want to show the work you’ve put in and how that equates to financial or whatever that may be. So the system that we have tracks all of that, but also if you’re within a certain top ten or top 12 for that month or whatever it may be, you might be invited to extra special events.

Stone Payton: [00:10:16] Like.

Brian Gamel: [00:10:16] A preview night for a theater show or whatever that may be.

Stone Payton: [00:10:19] So you’ve got all these new ticketing. Season kind of packages and options. And part of it has been brought brought to bear because you have a new software system that’s more user friendly and all that stuff. Probably a lot easier to manage. Yes. And I think last time we talked, you were just about to install some kind of digital screen TV thingy. Tell us about that.

Brian Gamel: [00:10:42] So that the LED screen is completely installed. So have you been at Ben at Reformation, looked across the street, you can see a giant black wall because it’s not turned on that that we have beautiful picture. We’ve been working with the city on some events that they’ve been doing. So we’ve had, I believe, two movie nights up to this point. There’s another one coming up this month, Harry Potter. So Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone on the third Thursday of the month. And we’re super excited to have that. But also we’re going to start having some more events out there like with that. So they’re not technically on the website or anything yet. So there’s still kind of early phases, but we’re talking about having movie nights or selves kind of throughout whenever we can. We’re going to have a couple over December for the holiday movies. Those will not be at night, just a heads up. Those might be more of during the day for the families, but so we’re planning on having a lot more free events out there that, you know, because Lantern Series is a paid ticketed event, because we are a nonprofit that are paying for these artists to come in. But we definitely want to be able to make a lot more accessible and free programing for our community. And what better place than the event?

Stone Payton: [00:11:50] Green So where are you? I forget because we’ve been doing this segment for a while and I can I can remember there’s there’s a period of the year where you go out and source these marvelous acts. Is that is that in the fall when when do you do that?

Brian Gamel: [00:12:05] That’s normally fall winter area. That way we can get everything planned and then we announce next year it’ll be in April. Hold on. Let me do some math. I believe it’s going to be April 15th, if I’m not mistaken, that we’re going to announce all of what’s happening the following August, through the following July. So not 20, 2023, August through July, 2024.

Stone Payton: [00:12:29] So do you go to places where there are your peers from other communities and the acts come to you or do you go to? The acts are a little bit of both.

Brian Gamel: [00:12:38] It’s mostly been conferences from that side of things if we’re going nowhere. I also so we just recently had some radio, phenomenal group. They were a lot of fun, but I found them through an artist we had already had, you know, we had had Sammy Ray in The Friends October of 2020 and follow them on social media, because it’s the best way to kind of figure out who knows who in that industry because everybody knows everybody. Yeah. And then she just said, Man, I love these guys. And I went, Great, we can love them too. So I found their agent, talked to him a little bit, but like Croce and when we had Crystal Bowersox from American Idol, when we had her here, it was it was we were at a conference, Croce, I believe, actually showcase. We got to see him perform. Crystal did not and some of the other ones haven’t. But they we get to see some artist showcase, we get to talk to their agents, but also we get to just talk to whatever agents are there and figure out. It’s just what we normally say is we love the unexpected and high energy. Yeah, because that’s just what we found. Our audience likes and kind of the goal and mission of the Lantern series is to bring different cultures and conversations together. So being able to say, Yeah, I want people to go, I’m not so sure about that chamber soul and then come and have such a phenomenal time. You know, you come to one or two Lantern Series concerts and you’re going to realize you can trust us because, you know, the talent will always be there. And for me, it’s also when if you go, you know what? They were very talented. It’s not my cup of tea, but they were very talented and I’m happy I came.

Stone Payton: [00:14:03] Right. And we still had the shrimp and the wine.

Brian Gamel: [00:14:06] Yeah, exactly. You’re going to have a great time no matter what. But and in all honesty, very rarely recently have we had a lot of the you know, it wasn’t my cup of tea, but, you know, they were very talented. And we’ve had a lot more, I think, open mindedness because we have a lot of returners of like, you know, I’m going to go into this thing and I don’t know what I’m going to get and I’m going to have a great time because I know I will.

Stone Payton: [00:14:26] Well, I got to say, personal experience that has personally happened to me, I’ve opened my mind because, you know, in the old days I was like, yeah, man, I listen to both kinds, country and western. And now, you know, I don’t you if you if you get the email from Libby, which I do want and you want to make sure you get on that email list and get the information from which because they’ll send you an email and check out their website. But I mean, you might see like we’re going to have bluegrass and reggae, you know, I mean, it’s just there is no combination that’s out of bounds.

Brian Gamel: [00:14:54] Oh, yeah, no, for sure. And kind of like you said, I was like, yeah, I’m open to music, I like musicals and I like country. And that’s what I like, that I’m very open to all kinds of music. But you know, by doing this job and by doing it, I used to not like bluegrass at all. I really love it now. Obviously love it now. Yeah. And I specifically love Irish bluegrass too, because there’s a couple of groups that do it and they do it really well, and it’s a genre that’s kind of weird, but it could work. It works really well. So we had a big jam earlier. If it was this calendar year. It’s been a roller coaster of a year. Sure. I think it was in March. We finally had them after the pandemic, forcing them to get pushed back like two or three years. But yeah, it was great having these guys from Tullamore Ireland come in and play some bluegrass.

Stone Payton: [00:15:37] Yeah, yeah. All right. So to plugging in as a volunteer, a website’s a good place to poke around. And there’s probably some some people to contact or reach out or or, you know, what, swing battery’s house and can get you one of those waffles and then ask about it. There’s lots of different ways to plug in, but the website is just a wealth of information. That’s a great place to start it.

Brian Gamel: [00:15:57] Yes, for sure. And the website can give you direct access to our volunteer portal where you can sign up and log in. And Camille does Camille does what we call Visionary 101, because that’s what we call our volunteers, visionaries. They share in the vision of the organization.

Stone Payton: [00:16:09] Absolutely.

Brian Gamel: [00:16:10] But where she’ll give you a tour and talk to you about what’s going on in the organization, show you the entire property, because we have that four and a half, four and a half acre lot that we’re constantly developing. We helped design the playground that’s on the lot, all of those lovely things. But she’ll talk you through all of that and the easiest way to do it is just go on the website and sign up for one of those visionary 100 ones and figure out how you want to get involved.

Stone Payton: [00:16:35] And you can just straight up write a check, too. If you if you have the means and you resonate with the mission and you believe in this, I mean, there may not be an opportunity to buy a brick and a sidewalk anymore. I don’t know about that. But but if you just you can just straight up do that.

Brian Gamel: [00:16:49] And we are a50103. So all that is, I believe, still tax deductible. You can write all of that off even from a business side, from sponsorship standpoint to what we’re right now in sign up in renewal season because the next season starts in August. So yeah, if you’re a business really looking to throw your name on something in downtown Woodstock, we I believe, you know, Chris Van Zandt, he’s signed on to be our presenting partner for the theater suite. So we still have a presenting partnership available for the Reeves house. But then we have other other things you can find out as well. The best person to contact for that one would be Beth. She’s our development manager. So and the easiest way to contact any of us is our name at Woodstock Arts dot org.

Stone Payton: [00:17:30] Well, that’s.

Brian Gamel: [00:17:30] Easy. That’s our agreement.

Stone Payton: [00:17:31] So I love what you guys did. Is it accurate to call it like a rebranding from upstate to to Woodstock Arts? I mean, I think part of the team you had helped you do that is like these are people that did this stuff for like Coca Cola, like big companies and stuff, right?

Brian Gamel: [00:17:47] Yeah. Yeah. We did work with Tom Cox and a little bit with the city as well because he did their rebranding for the Visit Woodstock’s section of the city branding. But yeah, they did great work and Libby’s been able to use that well and to also take the overarching brand and create things in our theater season and to create things with the Lantern series. So everything feels cohesive and smooth. And you know what? Instead of someone getting on the radio and butchering Elm Street Cultural Arts Village, if I had a nickel every time, so that was a mouthful, we’d have a brand new $10 Million Theater. But yeah, now we just have Woodstock Arts because we’re in Woodstock and we do the arts and keep it simple.

Stone Payton: [00:18:29] No, I love it. And of course, now we have a Woodstock arts hat.

Brian Gamel: [00:18:32] Yeah, we are selling merch. You can find out the Reaves House or Lantern Series or.

Stone Payton: [00:18:35] Not in the studio right now because it’s in my personal collection, because I love that hat. I wear it everywhere.

Brian Gamel: [00:18:40] You got one right there.

Stone Payton: [00:18:41] I do. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I give you two. Yeah. Oh yeah. I do have one right by the on air light sweet. You did give me too because. Yes.

Brian Gamel: [00:18:50] Yeah. No, it’s it’s a nice it’s a nice hat too.

Stone Payton: [00:18:53] It is.

Brian Gamel: [00:18:53] It’s a mickey about my hat. So that’s a nice hat.

Stone Payton: [00:18:56] Very cool. All right, before we wrap, let’s let’s leave our listeners this month with some with some key URLs and some key dates just to give them a little quick reminder.

Brian Gamel: [00:19:07] Yeah, for sure. Homegrown is still happening throughout the summer. That’s the exhibit over at the Reeves house. So go in and check that out at any point. All those pieces are for sale. They have actually been going pretty quick. So if you like something, you might want to go ahead and yeah, go ahead and sign up and pay for it. But you would get those at the end of that exhibit. Obviously, we have a concert this weekend. Shoshana Armstrong, she is phenomenal. She’s a Georgia native, does great work. But then we also are kicking off next season with Croce plays Croce, which you might have seen on PBS. And he’s done some great work with that as well. And in the theater we have James and the Giant Peach, and then we’ll kick off next season with a play called Cry It Out. That’s about women who have just given birth and just kind of all of them are in different phases of motherhood. And it’s a it’s a beautiful story. And then we have auditions coming up for Rocky Horror Picture Show or no Rocky Horror Show. It’s not the picture show. There’s there’s a difference. So the live version, stage version of the show.

Stone Payton: [00:20:01] Oh, very cool.

Brian Gamel: [00:20:02] Yeah. So that’s just a few of the things coming up.

Stone Payton: [00:20:04] So check out the site is.

Brian Gamel: [00:20:06] Woodstock Arts dot org. Yeah, not dot org, but yeah.

Stone Payton: [00:20:11] All right. Well, thanks again for coming in and keeping us up to date, man. And I’ll. I’ll see you on the green.

Brian Gamel: [00:20:16] Yeah, see you then.

Stone Payton: [00:20:17] Okey doke. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Brian Gammel with Woodstock. Arts and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying, we’ll see you next time on Cherokee Business Radio.

 

Dana Weeks With MedTrans Go

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DanaWeeks
Tech Talk
Dana Weeks With MedTrans Go
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This episode is brought to you in part by our Co-Sponsor Trevelino/Keller

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DanaWeeksDana Weeks is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of MedTrans Go, a healthcare technology start-up based in Atlanta, GA. Prior to joining MedTrans Go, Ms. Weeks co-founded the Black Angel Tech Foundation, created to support and increase the number of underrepresented minorities in technology, and served in her role as President from April 2016 to September 2019. Ms. Weeks has also held leadership positions at AT&T, Pfizer, and in several innovative entrepreneurial ventures.

Ms. Weeks is a member of the Board of Directors of Blue Owl Capital, a member of the Board of Trustees of The Westminster Schools of Atlanta, the Treasurer of the Atlanta Chapter of Jack & Jill, an advisory board member of Stride: Win Your Way, and a Board Member for the Alliance Theater of Atlanta. She also serves on several Task Forces and Committees at both Stanford and Columbia Business School, including serving as a co-chair of the Stanford LEAD Council, a member of the Stanford Humanities & Sciences Council, and a founding member of the Women’s Circle at Columbia Business School. Ms. Weeks earned a B.A. with Honors from Stanford University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:07] Coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for another episode of Tech Talk with your host, Joey Klein.

Joey Kline: [00:00:16] Welcome, everyone. All right. We have a health care I.T. episode of Tech Talk today. We’re going to be chatting with Dana Weeks, the CEO of MedTrans Go. Dana, how are you today?

Dana Weeks: [00:00:26] I’m doing well, thank you.

Joey Kline: [00:00:27] Excellent. Okay. Well, you know, normally we have two or three guests on this show, but we have a very special show where we have you all to ourselves. So we are totally focused on med trends. Go. We’ll get to deep probing questions later on. But just for someone who’s just tuning in and wants a sense of what is med trends go high level. What is the company do? What is your mission?

Dana Weeks: [00:00:53] So just on a high level med trends go is solving the problem of cancellations in health care by providing a technology platform that helps doctors, health care providers and others providing health care services to a range of options, including transportation and interpretation, and the other reasons why cancellations happen.

Joey Kline: [00:01:15] Okay. And so let’s look, I think we’re all familiar with we’ve all canceled doctor’s appointments before. And I think that some people might be listening to saying, well, you know, is it really that big of a deal if I, you know, move my internist checkup or whatever it might be? So help us understand what type of cancellations we’re worried about, why it affects doctors and hospital systems and why it affects outcomes for patients as well.

Dana Weeks: [00:01:42] So I mean, it affects both the patients, but also the health care community. It’s a very disruptive situation when health care providers, if you’re looking at, for example, my co-founder who is an orthopedic surgeon and he dealt with cancellations and he actually still deals with cancellations where people are not able to get to surgeries or procedures. And ultimately it disrupts the flow, makes it hard for surgery centers and other facilities to do what they need to do. So in addition to having to reschedule potentially or in many cases, people don’t come back and actually get their the care that they need. And so the challenge to health care providers is that especially during these times, you want to be able to provide the care to patients and in the time that they need him. And if you then look at the most vulnerable patients, many who are, for example, on dialysis or those that need maternal care, really the the challenge becomes not only do they not get to appointments, that these could be life saving and or life altering situations if you don’t get to your appointments.

Joey Kline: [00:03:07] Okay. So, so we’re talking about a population. So so let’s let’s look at it from the surgery center, right. If you have a surgery scheduled, obviously, that surgery center has a certain number of staff they’ve allocated. They have reserved that spot for several hours. It’s not like you can easily fill it like someone waiting for a haircut. And so if someone doesn’t show up, that is simply lost time and loss of revenue, then you’ve got the person that hasn’t showed up. And if they reschedule, well, the schedule’s probably packed. They’re going to have to wait. Situation might get worse. Or if they don’t, if they don’t have reliable means of transportation, that’s just more time for whatever issue is occurring to fester, I’m assuming.

Dana Weeks: [00:03:50] Yeah, I mean, that is exactly the case. And in many cases you really should be able to get the health care you need when you need it. And if it is a solvable thing, like a transportation or other access issues or not being able to understand your doctor or health care worker, which is required by law, these are things that we should be able to easily access. And the great thing about our platform, it’s not just getting access to a car ride to get to an appointment. So potentially just a sedan ride if you just need to get in and out. But if, for example, you need access through a wheelchair enabled car or a stretcher or we have interpretation in over 100 languages, this allows the health care facilities to have everything at their disposal in one place that can adapt to any needs of patients and patient care. And the additional thing that has been a challenge for many patients are patients that are living in rural areas that are coming into urban areas to get care because they really don’t have access to those health care providers in their local community. And so the fact that they are outside of these urban centers or outside of a close proximity makes it even more challenging. If their transportation is not accessible to them and they often do not go back and just reschedule.

Joey Kline: [00:05:29] That’s that’s right. And I guess, you know, for some listening to this and I think certainly for those sitting across this table, we can sometimes take for granted the flexibility of life that we have and those around us friends, family, peer, group, whatever might be that can help us to an employment if we actually needed it. There are plenty of people who do not have a support network that can easily take them. There are plenty of people who cannot get the time off to do it. And like you said, you know, the rural issue of let’s say that you live in Vidalia, Georgia. Right. And you just do not have the specialty you need. You have to come in to Emory Midtown. That is I mean, that’s basically planning an out of town trip. That’s not just, you know, down the street, you know, easy sort of trek.

Dana Weeks: [00:06:16] Yeah. And even if you had a friend or family who could could take you, potentially, that’s a procedure that you need to do either multiple times or that you need to stay overnight. And folks don’t necessarily have that flexibility to be able to to do that here in Georgia. It’s it’s specifically it’s been a real challenge. We we ranked 40th in the United States when it comes to. Adequate distribution of doctors by specialty and geographic location. So increasingly, many patients who are who are not in reach of of doctors and facilities that can help them get that care.

Joey Kline: [00:06:58] Well, and it seems like, you know, we have to say we have we have an urban rural divide in this country. And there’s plenty of places that we’re not going to talk about on this podcast. But, you know, let’s let’s think about it. You could essentially transplant that situation onto any state. Right? You know, at the end of the day, yes, states are different, but most of them look like 1 to 3, maybe large metropolitan centers and then a bunch of areas spread out. And increasingly, if you’re a talented physician, are you going to go for the big city job or the small rural community that might be shrinking? And so in a world in which we have rural communities which either are staying the same or declining, then how do you get people access to the right health care they need? So I obviously totally get why this is needed. Let’s back up a little bit and talk about how did you discover that this was a problem and that you were the one to solve it?

Dana Weeks: [00:08:00] Well, I think it’s a twofold. So my co-founder, as I mentioned, is a board certified orthopedic surgeon, not only cares to do his orthopedic practice in a in a great way, he cares a lot about the patients. And about six years ago, he had two back to back surgeries canceled in one day. And in one instance, a neighbor had canceled at the last minute the ride that they were going to give. And and the other Spanish interpreter just didn’t show up. And he really didn’t have a one location that he could go to to solve these cancellation issues. And he and I discussed it and we looked into it and we realized this actually a huge challenge in the United States with cancellations in health care. As I’ve said many times in any other industry, 30 to 40% cancellation rates would not is that would not hold.

Joey Kline: [00:09:04] Well, 30 to 40%. Yes, that’s.

Dana Weeks: [00:09:07] Incredible. You know, and depending on where you are, the average is around 30%. And this is an over $150 Billion a year is lost every year on cancellations. And so for him on that particular day, these were high expensive surgeries and it was over 100,000 lost. When you take into account all of the staff that were there that were sitting idle, you were you’re taking into account the doctor’s time not being able to do that surgery. And then, of course, you know, other people could have used that time as well. Sure. And for what he saw and what we see as a majority of this is that these are solvable issues we can we can solve for the cancellation problems of transportation. We can solve for interpretation. And so we set out to build that very platform for health care providers to be able to get that on demand solution with the the safety and security of safe, reliable and predictable services.

Joey Kline: [00:10:11] Okay. All right. So there’s we have an aha moment from a real life example and the journey begins. What is your value? A serial entrepreneur? Are you a health care nut? What is your background that you said? You know what, I’m going to solve this. I’m going to dedicate myself to solving this.

Dana Weeks: [00:10:30] Well, for me specifically, yes, I am a health care nut. I am a technology nut, and I am a serial entrepreneur. I’ve done a number of different ventures where I have, I think from my young age, have looked at situations and think there are solutions to things when when I when I’m encountered with a problem, and especially when it comes to technology. And I think the deeper additional story that I have is my mom about 12 years ago now, was diagnosed with breast cancer and she needed a series of radiation and then chemotherapy appointments. But she lived in New York. I live in Georgia. This is one of those luxuries that I understood that I had where I could go up and help get her to appointments. And I had other family members who could assist her and go with her to be able to do that. And fortunately, now she’s cancer free. And but, you know, just going in and going through that process and understanding the vulnerability, I realized how important just being able to have some. That you can trust that is reliable, that can get you to and from appointments, whether or not your family members are there or are not able to get there. And, you know, it just was one of those real world experiences that matched my background and desire to kind of explore and create and solve for health care and technology problems.

Joey Kline: [00:12:12] Yeah, I mean, you know, some of the best companies are born of the seemingly well, that’s obviously not not a mundane experience. But I think you get these these these daily things that we sometimes don’t connect to larger problems or events. And he’d do a little bit of digging and you say, oh my God, how is no one solved this before? And that’s where great companies are born from.

Dana Weeks: [00:12:36] Yeah. And you know, I mean, I think in some senses we’ve seen solutions in in some of the the verticals. So you’ve seen some transportation solutions, you’ve seen some interpretation solutions. But this really combines all of them into one. And we really believe, because we have a health care DNA, that we’ve built a better mousetrap, that we’ve been able to create a very easy to use solution that allows those who are in health care an easy access to a platform that makes sense, that does the billing and invoicing, does the types of fulfills the needs of these customers. And our customers that we have believe this to be true as well. And that’s why we’re growing.

Joey Kline: [00:13:26] And so is your typical customer a regional hospital? Is it a kind of local multi office practice? Is it all across the board?

Dana Weeks: [00:13:37] It really is all across the board. And in some senses, we have now gotten to the stage of the business where we’re really able to focus on some of these industries and areas that are of most need surgical practices and facilities, hospitals. We’re starting to look into payer systems and health insurance companies, but the opportunities are so great if you’re looking at the demographics, the the needs, anything from assisted living care to another area that we really focus in is personal injury and worker’s comp and the ability to really solve for with this network of transportation interpretation providers the cancellation problems for many and it doesn’t matter if you’re a large hospital or a one or two person practice, this gives you that access, the ability to have the top interpretation and transportation providers that are vetted, HIPAA compliant and has that safety and reliability that really you have to be able to have for your patients. And ultimately, the patients want that as well.

Joey Kline: [00:14:56] So let’s let’s talk about the vetting. That’s an interesting topic, right? Because these are you know, this is not just someone signing up to be an Uber X driver. Right. And so how do you go and find the crop of folks, interpretation or transportation that are going to be right for this? What sort of checks do you undergo to make sure that they’re the right partners?

Dana Weeks: [00:15:17] So on the transportation side, we have a ten point certification that they require from everything from background checks to the HIPAA compliance to just a minimum age of of those drivers. And then we continue to do compliance so that we ensure that they have that as well as insurance requirements. And that’s for mainly non emergency medical transportation providers. We realize it’s a fragmented market and they fulfill a need, especially when it comes to wheelchair and stretcher where you can you don’t necessarily need an ambulance, but you definitely don’t need a a taxi that will drop you off at the curb or down the down the street. Sure. However, we want to be able to provide all different options. And so we have a partnership with Lyft where we also for if you only really need a curb to curb solution, that we have access to those as well. But it allows our platform allows you to be matched with the right type of service.

Joey Kline: [00:16:30] That’s very cool. So so let’s I’m curious about the economics. Is this a SAS license where someone’s paying a month a a health care system or doctors? A monthly fee to use it. Is this something where sort of per ride or per transportation session, for lack of a better term, you’re taking a piece of the fee. How does that work?

Dana Weeks: [00:16:51] Yeah, the revenue model is really transactional, although we do have a subscription based so that you are able to access our platform. But that subscription is way the fee is waived if you reach a certain threshold of transactions.

Joey Kline: [00:17:07] Okay. Okay. So you’re you’re going to let’s let’s take your orthopedic surgeon example, right. Or orthopedic surgery center there slice. There’s four offices in a metro area. And as long as they can provide the requisite volume of transactions, essentially you’re making enough off of that that the license fee from them isn’t really necessary. And of course, from their mind, they’re saving all this money in wasted no shows.

Dana Weeks: [00:17:38] Yeah, absolutely. And really, the other part about our platform is we we developed a video interpretation platform to be able to provide American sign language interpretation to our clients who needed it. And it was in the middle of March of 2020 that we were launching it. And the timing from a health care perspective couldn’t have been better, as you know, as that time was becoming one where all these facilities were closing. Telemedicine was becoming increasingly used and utilized overnight. And so in some senses, it really boosted the health care industry’s comfort with using technology solutions and then finding that the technology solutions in some senses can complement what they are doing in person, but also be a very viable option. And so having a telemedicine platform that allows for an interpreter to also be on there in this number of languages that you need, it’s turned out to be a really great access point that people wanted to be able to have the subscription model just to have that platform. If there is a closure for a week, if potentially a patient gets sick with COVID. And so you have to switch that online. And then there’s a real model where many follow up visits don’t necessarily need to be in person. And so this allows for our customers to not necessarily have to invest in another telemedicine platform if their usage of telemedicine is not that great and that they can kind of complement that.

Joey Kline: [00:19:26] So so that’s an interesting, albeit not entirely unexpected with two years of hindsight development, I have I have a health care client and obviously wasn’t planned this way. Right. But I mean, COVID just catapulted their business like they could have never imagined. I would guess that as an entrepreneur with a young company that at the beginning stages it was a bit scary. But, you know, talk to me about how the last two years have been for your company. Kind of once you got your sea legs under you has I’m assuming that it’s been pretty decent growth for the past couple of years.

Dana Weeks: [00:20:02] Yes. I mean, in in many ways, COVID validated the need for health care providers to understand the impact of cancellations. And more so, they’re realizing if, for example, their facility had been shut for a long time, then every single person when they’re actually opening, every single patient was more critical than ever. And so they couldn’t just ignore cancellations. And I think it was one of those stopping moments similar to what Dr. Abagnale had, which was he he had these back to back surgeries canceled where it was happening maybe once each day or something. But when it was that long period of time and these really complex surgeries, then all of a sudden he was like, wait a second, right? How is this really impacting my business? And a similar thing happened, I think, to health care. At the same time, the technology regulations, the technology usage became more prevalent within health care. And so those two things combined really made our solution. One that was here for the times and access to health care. A lot of the issues of cancellations, the reasons for these cancellations were were growing and increasing and we were getting there. But this really catapulted the need in in a way that I think is makes me feel good, because if we can address these issues, we can look at long term. Societal challenges of health disparities and others that in some senses seems daunting. And if we can use this as one particular way that we can solve for and get better care, better solutions for all, then it it’s a win win all around.

Joey Kline: [00:22:03] It does really seem like you’re just scratching the surface here. And obviously, at this stage of your company, it’s it’s important to be focused, you know. You know, lest you sort of get distracted by so many shiny things out there that you’re, you know, nothing to no one. But, you know, I’m curious about the go to market strategy at this point. Has this been doctor a referral doctor network? Has this been an outbound sales team? What is the next 12 to 24 months look like from a growth perspective? Both, you know, pulling people in and kind of pushing out.

Dana Weeks: [00:22:41] So we really have seen how many opportunities there are. And so we’re really looking at data and looking at especially our presence here in the Southeast and Georgia to find those right models and to look at the areas to go to first. And, you know, we’ve we’ve discovered a number of those areas and really want to focus on them here in Georgia and then replicate it. I mean, we’re right now we’re in 11 states, but our strong presence and growth in terms of our go to market strategy is here in the southeast because we can expand in different types of surgical facilities. So to your to your question, we have a sales team. We actually have a strong customer success team. And a lot of that is sort of matching not only do we want to have the sales to to get agreements in place, but to actually have them use us, especially given that it’s a transactional model. And I think that the opportunities are are growing and we get a lot of referrals even from our current customers. And that has been another really great advantage.

Joey Kline: [00:23:59] Yeah. From a geographic standpoint, I mean again, it’s just the universe is so wide. Are you prioritizing going really deep into the states in which you are operating or at this point, it’s let’s let’s get a toehold in as many states as possible and then we can kind of dig in, you know, past the surface from there.

Dana Weeks: [00:24:21] We really have have remained true to that focused approach. And but we have been able to explore new opportunities because we have customers who have a strong presence here in Georgia that are national. And they say, okay, well, we love what we’re doing here with you in Georgia. Can you set up a network in Massachusetts? Can you set up a network in Colorado? And we’ve been able to be successful in that. But one of the exciting parts about having a double sided marketplace in having to find matching service providers of transporters and interpreters to those clients, is that it’s a it’s kind of a lever. It’s a balancing act. So you have the demand, then you have the supply, and then once you have the supply, you want to find more demand. So in many ways, it’s it’s a great way to continue to feed back into what you have. And so that’s where having that focused approach is good so that we if we’ve built up our network of transporters in the Houston area, for example, then we are now looking at getting more clients in that area because it will feed onto each other.

Joey Kline: [00:25:43] I have always been fascinated by companies that have this unique marketing. You can call it a challenge or an opportunity depending upon your mindset where you’re sort of B-to-B to see you. Your product is touching both a business and a consumer. And in addition to that, you, of course, have a network effect that you have to be concerned with. And finding that equilibrium is and there’s no question here, it’s more just it is a very complicated balance and challenge. And I imagine that it is, you know, intellectually rigorous as well as somewhat. You know, it’s hard it’s hard to get right.

Dana Weeks: [00:26:22] I imagine it’s hard to get right. But when we’re talking about health care, it’s a lot easier. And I and my background is in marketing and in management. So in some senses this is for me really fun. Yeah. Because you have the opportunity to impact not only the health care community, but you have the opportunity to impact and disrupt the non-emergency medical transportation market. You have the opportunity to disrupt interpretation and the interpretation market. And the need is so there and so being able to connect those who need those services, those who need the business with the right patients, the right customers, it’s a win win for everybody.

Joey Kline: [00:27:11] So if if you came back here in 12 months and we were to sit down and say what what has happened in the last 12 months, what has changed with that Transco? What are the top couple of whatever? Choose one, two, three, everybody you want that you want to be able to say you have accomplished product funding team, whatever it might be in the next 12 months.

Dana Weeks: [00:27:34] Well, in the next 12 months, we are looking to go bigger and scale more. And a lot of that has to do with some of the customers that are in our pipeline. We are about to close a big hospital deal and we will be looking at and talking to a couple of insurance companies and payer systems. And the ability to adapt our technology to these larger customers is in the pipeline. We have a number of compliance upgrades to compliance, others that will make our platform easily plugged into some of the larger systems. And we see that as tremendous opportunity to not just continue to see the growth that we’re seeing, but really accelerate that growth and and seize upon a real need. And in talking to those that were that are in our pipeline, they they see how our product can really help them reduce costs, increase revenue, help provide better patient care, help in terms of hospitals, really make the the process more efficient.

Joey Kline: [00:28:54] Yeah. I mean, as I’m thinking about this, okay, so I’ve heard of transportation matters is not the right term, but I’ve heard of, you know, you know, companies that can help augment transportation. Right. I’ve heard of companies that can do some interpretation work. I’ve never heard of a company before that really focuses on no shows, is there I mean, is there really anything out there, one that focuses as much on cancellations and two, combines all of these things together?

Dana Weeks: [00:29:25] I don’t know. One that combines all of these things together. Yeah, but there are definitely folks who are looking at no shows and in a number of different ways, I mean, there are other ways that to to look at it. But transportation and interpretation are the two. Number one, reasons why cancellations in health care happen. Over 54% of cancellations are due to those two reasons. And so that’s why we focus on them. And in many ways, people who are not necessarily in health care, they’re like, well, that’s an interesting marriage. Why would you have interpretation and transportation? They seem so dissimilar, however, for a health care provider that are increasingly taxed, burdened, busy, tired with potential staff transitions, they really need a an all encompassing solution that doesn’t matter what the patient is, the cause of that cancellation, we have an easy solution that’s all combined into one.

Joey Kline: [00:30:24] Well, and I imagine that there is a decent. Okay, so if you if you take the whole pie of cancellations right there is I’m going to guess some significant minority for whom both the translation as well as transportation are acute issues. Right. You’ve got some folks that you know, it’s an either or but you know, I imagine the population that you see that is vulnerable to this sort of thing. There’s going to be a decent number of folks in there that need both of those and more.

Dana Weeks: [00:30:55] I mean, I, I totally agree. And, you know, when it comes to health care, you really want that trust factor. You really want to be able to get there, understand your customer, I mean, understand your health care provider, and then trust that you can get home safely and reliable reliably. And so having a network that has done. That has been and done the vetting for you really does help the patient primarily, but also those health care providers provide better care and better solve the the more the bigger challenges of running a practice in today’s world.

Joey Kline: [00:31:40] That is all super exciting, challenging, but a very good challenge. So anyone listening that has this has piqued their interest. They want to learn more. How can they get in touch with you or and or learn more about med trends? Go.

Dana Weeks: [00:31:54] So you can find us on the web at med trends. Go Med Trans Geo or geo and or you can call us at 400 4826 7300 and we’re excited to provide more information, connect you with someone on the team. And, you know, we do get a lot of referrals, sometimes patients and you know, again, we are right now a business to business operation, but the patients are really the ultimate end user. And so if patients also hear about this, too, it makes a lot of sense. And, you know, we want them to be asking their health care providers as well how they can partner with med trends. Go.

Joey Kline: [00:32:46] That’s great. Well, Dana Weeks, CEO of Med Transco, solving health care, one cancellation at a time. Thank you so much for coming.

Dana Weeks: [00:32:54] Thank you so much. Nice talking to you.

 

Dr. Pinkey Patel With SnapBack

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Pinkey-Patel
Startup Showdown Podcast
Dr. Pinkey Patel With SnapBack
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Dr.PinkeyPatelDr. Pinkey Patel, CEO/Founder at SnapBack

Dr. Pinkey Patel, a mama and clinical pharmacist who is also a certified NASM personal trainer, specializes in pre/post natal corrective exercise. Dr. Patel first hand experienced the gap in women’s healthcare and the lack of reliable, credible resources.

From learning how to establish a business from scratch in 2019 to developing a consultancy, and building out an app, Dr. Patel has previously juggled working full-time as a pharmacist, being a mother of two, being pregnant and successfully bringing a product to market. When you’re doing something as visceral and life-altering as growing a human, the resources you receive during and afterwards should reflect that magnitude, they should be as thoroughly created, as seriously considered as the life we create.

Connect with Dr. Pinkey on LinkedIn and Twitter and follow SnapBack on Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • The greatest challenge in building the business
  • Things people don’t know about building a business from scratch
  • Work-life balance

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: [00:00:38] Lee Kantor are here. Another episode of Startup Showdown Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor Panoramic Ventures. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Startup Showdown, we have Dr. Pinkey Patel and she’s with the snapback. Welcome.

Dr. Pinkey Patel: [00:00:58] Thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:00] I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about the snapback. How you sovereign folks.

Dr. Pinkey Patel: [00:01:06] Yeah. So I’m a clinical pharmacist, but I’m also a pre and post-natal certified trainer and a personal trainer. And I always say that the three of these things collided to make my third baby. I have two other children. And, you know, pregnancy always has these ample resources. It’s often viewed as this beautiful experience. But postpartum is pretty isolating. I think a lot of us moms agree and it doesn’t come with a manual. So the snapback app, currently, it is an all in one postpartum assistant and it provides evidence based resources in a community for women.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:42] So was this something that kind of developed with you personally? You wish there was this and then you created it?

Dr. Pinkey Patel: [00:01:48] Absolutely. I always joke and say that I could do organic chemistry in my sleep five times, but some business was something that I was never planning to go into. However, my experience and post-partum myself and validating it among others, compelled me to create a solution for every mother after me.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:07] So now, were you working like at a in a traditional job, in a traditional kind of practice?

Dr. Pinkey Patel: [00:02:13] Yeah. So I actually worked as a clinical pharmacist up until last year, and I was working full time while I was pregnant and had a toddler that was two years old at the time while I was building the community and the app that exists at this time. So I just I did both essentially until last year when I left pharmacy completely. But yes, I was a clinical pharmacist in the typical setting.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:40] Can you share a little bit about the decision making process you went through in order to take the leap into being an entrepreneur?

Dr. Pinkey Patel: [00:02:47] It was the most difficult decision that I could have ever made. So. My parents are immigrants. They came from India with $7. And, you know, the whole the American dream is and was a thing. And so I was the first in my family to graduate and only graduate, but get a doctorate by the age of 23. And so, you know, being having parents that aim to wish that I had the life that they that they wish that they had themselves in kind of working to become a pharmacist was absolutely something that we were very proud of. But when when my experience postpartum, when I went through it with Karishma, my daughter in 2016, I couldn’t believe that this was the norm, that postpartum was very isolating for not just myself. There was just not so much dialog around it. So yeah, absolutely. It was very difficult. A lot of folks say that go chase your passion, just leave your full time job. But that wasn’t really in the books for me and I felt like it was. Since it was bootstrapped ourselves up until now, it was not an option. So I decided after two years of doing both, essentially to finally. Divert all my attention to the snapback.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:03] Now, when you made that leap. That’s kind of, you know, kind of burning the boats behind you. Was that conversation difficult with your family?

Dr. Pinkey Patel: [00:04:14] You know, my parents, they’re they’ve always been supportive and a lot of things that I’ve done that have not been so traditional in our community. But beyond that, even my spouse, my husband, we’ve had several conversations, you know, and it was like, you know, we can go two ways because you can continue being a pharmacist and doing this and then having a little bit on the side that fulfills your passion just to help women in in postpartum. Or you could go ahead and leave pharmacy and, you know, utilize all your attention towards this and build this out to be bigger and impact more women. And it was very difficult because considering that when I launched the app, it was it was launched in 166 countries, the beta version. And I was nine months pregnant. So I had the baby a couple of weeks after or June and it was, I was postpartum I the app had launched and then I was going to go back to work full time. And that is the same week that COVID was a thing in March. And so obviously as a mother to a five month old baby that I was breastfeeding while I was trying to keep snapback alive and going back to work full time, that wasn’t the right time to go full time at the snapback because health insurance and everything else that we were getting from being a pharmacist, it just wasn’t the right decision. But after one year of practicing again and then being in a better space, it was a better decision for our family. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:44] Now, when you launched the app, were you the technologist or you had to find a technologist?

Dr. Pinkey Patel: [00:05:50] Yeah, we outsource the development to a team here and they built the app for us and then give it to us to go ahead and launch. So I was not the person that physically coded the app. No.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:04] Was that difficult for you to find the right fit when it comes to someone that can make your vision, you know, become a reality.

Dr. Pinkey Patel: [00:06:11] Very difficult because at the beginning you’re like, where do you go? You know someone who comes from zero business background and is strictly I call scientists minded. I could do science and math all day long, but then when you’re starting to think about outsourcing something and building a vision, it takes a lot of trust and a lot of gut in finding the right person that aligns with your mission was very difficult, but luckily we were able to find someone that not only met our expectations but beyond. And that was it took time. Right. And so there’s not a proper book or a blueprint to do this. And I think that was the most challenging piece for me, because I come from a very black and white type of background in terms of my education.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:54] Now, did you see any similarities from that science and math background in the world of startup, in that you have to have a hypothesis, you have to test it, you have to tweak it, you have to, you know, make changes based on real information, not what you thought.

Dr. Pinkey Patel: [00:07:09] Yes. A lot of it is similar in different capacities now, now that you kind of made that analogy of thinking about it and, you know, in 2018, before even the app was launched or the snapback was we built the community for snapback. It was more so me understanding product market fit and I didn’t realize that’s what it was called. You know, now retrospectively I’m like, Oh, that’s how I tested product market fit. But working with other women and understanding their pain points and then creating a solution, I feel like a lot of the science and math type of infrastructure I was using, I was using, utilizing it. And I have to say the grit and the discipline of becoming a pharmacist and getting my doctorate at a young age, I certainly did apply that because that does absolutely changes the trajectory of being an entrepreneur as well, because it’s one of those things that there’s no direct ROI when you’re building something from ground up yourself. And those characteristics definitely helped in in being a founder.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:17] So what are some of the early signs that this thing had legs, that you were getting traction?

Dr. Pinkey Patel: [00:08:25] So the early signs were in 2018 when I started working with women because I am a pre and post-natal corrective exercise specialist. There are women that were trying to have babies, they were pregnant and they were also postpartum. And when women continuously, you know, we’re really tired when we have babies, not only are we leaving the hospital with a new human being, but we’re having to navigate feeding this human being, whether you try breastfeeding or not. A lot of us try to attempt it. We see how far we can get. Some of us do formula feeding. Either way, irrespective of how you decide to feed your baby, you’re also navigating your own hormones and operating on very, very little sleep while having to be on all the time. And so given that we’re doing all this alone without a manual and then we’ve pretty much reorganized our organs for nine months, and then we go home and nothing happens for six weeks. You do not see a provider unless you have an appointment for another reason, but the standard of care is usually 6 to 8 weeks. You see your OB and then they clear you for movements. Whatever you’re doing before you can do anything under the sun, there is no roadmap.

Dr. Pinkey Patel: [00:09:35] So then women later, 12 to 18 months later, they’re like coming up for air. They’re sleeping at night. They’re realizing that things aren’t working like they were used to. Maybe they’re peeing on themselves incontinence. Maybe they’re having lower back pain, pain with intercourse. So the same story over and over again that women are using panty liners when they’re running or they’re not talking to anybody about leaking or they’re embarrassed to go to Orangetheory. You know, those stories were consistent. And so that was where I was like, something has to change. And I started recognizing that in some countries, not many, there are government mandated physical therapy sessions where someone comes to your home after you have the baby and they make sure that you can walk before you run or crawl before you walk. And essentially a lot of that is missed entirely. So changing the narrative in our society has been a challenge. But yes, this story is beyond 2020 or 2019 up until now. This is something that’s been happening for a while. And I think it’s just because. It’s just never been addressed in this capacity or there’s just more folks talking about postpartum now, which makes it a little easier.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:46] So the community is a big part of the app?

Dr. Pinkey Patel: [00:10:49] Absolutely. We before we ask for a single dollar, we launched the community and that is our catalyst. Without we didn’t spend a single dollar, aside from maybe a four week test ad campaign on marketing or ad spend. And that was because our community was built on credibility, transparent information that was deeply rooted in science. And we wanted to earn the trust of other health care professions. Me being, me having a doctorate myself, I obviously value evidence based research and data, but also coming coming with a presence of like this is a safe place where empowering you with knowledge and these are things that should be discussed. Our audience really resonated with that. So our community being built on Facebook and Instagram through word of mouth, and then in September we came with a solution like, This is how we can help you. So I think that building the community first absolutely was was something that I’ll never regret. And that same community continues to come back.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:57] So now how do people engage with the app? So it’s through the Facebook or the community first, and then the app is presented as a solution for some of the challenges they’re facing.

Dr. Pinkey Patel: [00:12:09] So that was how we started before we launched, launched the app and said, Hey, we actually have an app for an all in one postpartum assistant because it was created because number one, we’re busy, we don’t need to Google at three in the morning because we’re all worried about the same thing. We have neurosurgeons that are probably Googling it during the morning because we want to make sure, I don’t know, mothers just they worry a lot about a lot of things and we need to keep everything in one place. So that was the premise of creating an all in one type of assistant. But. The app was launched in 166 countries and we started noticing we have over 40 countries that are paid and using it that folks were going into the App Store. So you can go to the App Store and you can go to Google Play Store and you can just type in postpartum and the snapback will come up as an app. So there were people in other countries that probably aren’t following us on social media, haven’t heard about it, but they were searching postpartum and that’s where they downloaded the app. So when you download the app, there’s, there’s a few features where they’re free, right? Or we’re the first in-app anonymous community for postpartum women where you can talk with anybody across the world that’s on the same app at any time. So yeah, you can download it from the App Store. A lot of folks just find us because they’re typing post partum, but if they happen to be a follower on Instagram, yeah, they’re going to hear about the snapback app. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:30] Now what got you interested in participating in the start up showdown?

Dr. Pinkey Patel: [00:13:37] So as I started realizing how I wanted to scale and reach more women and impact, we decided that we were going to entertain raising capital and the startup showdown. I don’t even remember. I think it was through LinkedIn or somebody had mentioned it to me and we kind of fit the demographic. I’m in Oklahoma, there in Atlanta, and so I thought, Well, why not apply? It seems like a great opportunity. I’m a firm believer that making yourself, putting yourself in uncomfortable positions always helps with building character and learning something. So I said, Why not just do it? It was last July, actually, when I did Startup Showdown, and I was they were able to link me up with mentors, which I found very valuable. When you’re a founder, you wear every hat and there are some hats that may not fit as well as you want them to. So I found value in what they were creating. They were not just creating a pitch competition, but they were also giving value to founders. There’s a lot of noise when you’re an entrepreneur. There’s a lot of noise when you’re when you’re fundraising. Not only are we fundraising, we’re scaling, we’re sourcing leads for hires, we’re building communities. We’re making sure our product works for showing our metrics. So I think that they’re doing something right because not only are there like, hey, come pitch, you know, because that takes time too, but also here are some mentors that can help you before you pitch. And I think what they’re doing is great.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:03] So have you been able to get funding?

Dr. Pinkey Patel: [00:15:06] Yes, we have secured a lead investor and we’re continuing to close this first round. So yeah, we’re working towards securing this first round of funding and we’re really excited about that.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:19] Now how do you how did you find the funding adventure? Because that’s like a whole other business, if you know.

Dr. Pinkey Patel: [00:15:28] My goodness. Fundraising is a necessary evil. It’s one of those things where the chicken and the egg. Right. You have to have if you want to scale at a certain level, you have to have a certain amount of capital to get where you need to be. Now, me being a woman of color, a first generation immigrant, and in essentially to those in Tier one cities in the middle of nowhere, I’m in Norman, Oklahoma, it’s a little bit more difficult. But I think if Cuba did one thing, it allowed us to use Zoom, whether we love it or not. But fundraising is one of those things that’s the only 2% of women get get funding. And so you’re already saying, all right, I’m going to I’m going to try to go after this, but it’s going to be hard as hell. But, yeah, I certainly see that I’ve made I’ve met incredible people. I’ve learned a lot about myself. I’ve learned a lot about how venture capital works. There’s not really a book. I mean, certainly, yes, I did read a few books, but I had to spend a solid 3 to 4 months to understand cat tables, term sheets, what that even meant.

Dr. Pinkey Patel: [00:16:29] How do you navigate this? There’s so much noise. What makes sense? What do you say no to? It is one of those things where no one can really prepare you. You just have to throw yourself into the fire. And that means at one point, I don’t know if you remember when Clubhouse was a thing, but I would sign up for every pitch competition and I would be changing diapers because my son was only like six months old and I would just start throwing myself into rooms and pitching. I’m like, They can’t see me. They don’t know what I look like, they don’t even know me. So it’s one of those things that I mean, I know a lot of people don’t talk about it, but I have no issues discussing like how that looked. Clubhouse is not like huge anymore. I guess I don’t open it as much, but at the time it was a way for me to practice. So the most hardest thing I’ve done is fundraising.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:14] So now any advice for other, let’s say, first generation immigrant founders? What are some of the kind of do’s and don’ts?

Dr. Pinkey Patel: [00:17:26] Do lean into the grit or discipline that you’ve learned as being a first generation founder. We all kind of go, we have similarities. And the similarities are that we are often faced with adverse events or put in positions where we’re having to dig deep, and that same characteristic is going to carry on in whatever we decide to do, whether it’s building a business or whether it’s fundraising. A little bit of both there. There. Absolutely. My my background and and everything that I’ve seen and my parents being immigrants 30 years ago has definitely helped in this process. This is a long game. And now any founder will tell you, like if you’re not deeply passionate, it’s not going to last very long and you’re definitely not going to do it for the money. And it’s if you’re doing it for the money, then you’re doing it for the wrong reasons. But lean into the characteristics that really make you who you are to weather the storm. The don’ts is take every and do take everybody’s opinion with a grain of salt and go with your gut. Because at the end of the day, that’s why that’s the reason why I’m still here doing what I am. And the reason why I started this was so I can impact women and strengthen and strengthen the pillars of our society. Right. So if you’re if we’re ignoring what what women need at that very vulnerable time frame, then we’re really not facilitating a thriving society or family. And so just leaning into your Y at all times, don’t don’t listen to the noise. There’s a lot of noise now. I think being a little more minimalist and simplistic is is key. So I think those are kind of my my high level.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:12] Now, you mentioned that one of the benefits of going through Startup Showdown was the mentors. Has there been a mentor for you that has helped guide you through this adventure?

Dr. Pinkey Patel: [00:19:23] Yeah. So specifically startup shutdown because I.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:25] Have someone know anybody in your life.

Dr. Pinkey Patel: [00:19:29] A mentor. Well, I’d hate to. I mean, honestly, my mother, she has no. She’s just somebody that I lean into whenever for any reason, whether she understands, whether she understands what I’m doing. Half the time, I don’t even feel like they know and understand what I’m doing, to be honest with you. But they’ve always been open, and her guidance and insight that always leads into working hard and being honest is not lost on me. I don’t have a specific mentor for entrepreneurship at this time, but I don’t I mean, I do believe in coaching and investing in yourself. But yeah, she’s been a constant mentor. Just by whether her act of what she’s done in her past, watching her navigate what she did when she came into to America, those things have carried with me. Now, there was a mentor at sort of showdown that I still keep in touch with. And and I I’m really I’m really I really appreciated that connection because at the time, I was navigating a part of business that I wasn’t very familiar with. And that’s why I feel like startup was a little piece of my heart for that as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:40] Now, what’s been the most rewarding part of this? You know, in your career? You’ve had a very eclectic career that have touched a variety of the elements of what you’re developing now. But as you know, working individually as a trainer with these moms, you know, where you see a person kind of thrive because of your help or in this sense of building a community where there’s lots and lots of people there. Has that been more rewarding?

Dr. Pinkey Patel: [00:21:11] The reward comes from the community aspect and the like. For instance, the community aspect, number one, because they’re like, I did not know this. I am so glad that I knew about this because of what I saw on your blog or your website or the app or the Instagram things. For instance, post partum, whenever you’re weaning, there’s a hormonal shift. So mental health is impacted. These are things that a lot of folks don’t talk about. So really, really hearing stories from women, whether it’s through DMS on Instagram or a message in our our inbox of something that they’ve learned from our community that’s very fulfilling. Another piece is when I’m going on to the App Store and I see positive reviews that I had nothing to do with, and they’re like second time mothers and they post that the first time around they weren’t able to have X, Y and Z control. They had these impairments in their quality of life. And then the second time around, they implemented the techniques that we suggested for rehab and recovery, and they had a completely different experience. And now they’re able to do the things that they love without pain or embarrassment for other reasons. To me, that’s very fulfilling. That means that something is working and that we’re doing something right.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:30] So what do you need more of? How can we help?

Dr. Pinkey Patel: [00:22:34] I think that just raising more awareness around postpartum dialog making continue continue the startup showdown and having these mentors available for founders that are in the same boat as I that we’re raising their first rounds of capital that needed some of the mentorships and elements. Just keep doing what you guys are doing because it’s working.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:56] Now, if somebody wants to connect with you or learn more about the snap back, what’s the website or what are the coordinates?

Dr. Pinkey Patel: [00:23:02] Yeah, so the website is the snap bbc.com. You can also find us on Instagram and Facebook at the Snapback, and we also have contact information on our website as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:13] Well, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Dr. Pinkey Patel: [00:23:18] Thank you so much for having me. This was awesome.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:20] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Startup Showdown.

Intro: [00:23:25] As always, thanks for joining us. And don’t forget to follow and subscribe to the Startup Showdown podcast. So you get the latest episode as it drops wherever you listen to podcasts to learn more and apply to our next startup Showdown Pitch Competition Visit Showdown Dot VC. That’s Showdown Dot VC. All right, that’s all for this week. Goodbye for now.

Julie Fabsik-Swarts With Employees Assistance Professionals Association

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JulieFabsik-Swarts
Association Leadership Radio
Julie Fabsik-Swarts With Employees Assistance Professionals Association
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JulieFabsik-SwartsJulie Fabsik-Swarts, MS, CFRE, CAP is the CEO of the Employee Assistance Professionals Association (EAPA). EAPA supports thousands of professionals in Employee Assistance throughout the United States and in over 40 countries. She is a skilled and dynamic nonprofit, association, and sports leader with over 35 years of experience. Raised in New York City, Julie has led such prestigious organizations as the National Postdoctoral Association, the National Intercollegiate Soccer Officials Association, and the national governing body of an Olympic sport.

Additionally, she has worked for organizations such as The Pennsylvania State University, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee, The Seattle Organizing Committee of the Goodwill Games, the Purple Heart Foundation, UC Berkeley, Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pennsylvania, and the American College.

Julie has extensive experience having served on numerous nonprofit Board of Directors including the Philadelphia Committee on City Policy, Women in Development, and the National Association of Women’s Gymnastics Judges. She is an accomplished author having written numerous articles for Advancing Philanthropy Magazine, Purple Heart Magazine, and the book Parenting a Gymnast. Julie earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology from San Diego State University and a Master of Science focusing on Sports Management from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

She is a Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE), a Chartered Advisor of Philanthropy (CAP) from the American College, and a certified nonprofit executive from LaSalle University. On the personal side, Julie is a nationally rated Women’s Gymnastics Judge for over four decades for USA Gymnastics and the NCAA, a certified to official for collegiate tumbling and acrobatics (NCATA), and a certified judge for youth acrobatics and tumbling competitions.

She is President of Blue Tail Consulting and has traveled to over 35 countries including Siberia Russia to teach, Australia for the 2000 Olympics and to Asia to scuba dive and to celebrate her 25th wedding anniversary. A certified Master Scuba Dive, she lives with her husband and dive partner, Mike, and her rescued dogs live in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area.

Connect with Julie on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Employee Assistance Professional
  • The advantage for an EAP to be a member of EAPA

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 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 Julie Swarts and she is with Employees Assistance Professionals Associations, EPA. Welcome, Julie.

Julie Fabsik-Swarts: [00:00:36] Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:37] I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about EPA. How are you serving folks?

Julie Fabsik-Swarts: [00:00:42] So EPA is the Employees Assistance Professionals Association, otherwise known as EPA’s. And in the private sector, about 84% of American companies have an EPA on staff. And in the government world, it’s about 90%. Yet those 74 million people don’t always seem to recognize that this is a benefit that comes with part of their package for employment. And it’s a great resource. Ips are like the unsung heroes of our corporate world. They are there to help individuals who are struggling with mental health issues maybe depression, anxiety, addiction. If you’re dealing with workplace violence or maybe a maybe need a treatment center, maybe you’ve got an issue with domestic violence or child care. They’re there to help you. And they are amazing individuals who get don’t get a lot of credit and certainly not overpaid. And we’re here to talk about them and the great work that they do. And EPA is their association that supports them and helps them grow as professionals.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:48] And then a person that becomes an employee assistance professional. Is that part of H.R. like how are they involved with the organization?

Julie Fabsik-Swarts: [00:01:57] Usually just like a another benefit like retirement person or a medical benefit. Aps are a variety of different ways and they can either work full time for a specific company, so they’re on staff at a hospital or corporation, or maybe they get contracted out. So maybe the corporation hires an outside company such as Beacon or Life Works or some E&P to hire them to be providing services to assess and to refer out to help solve whatever problem is going on with the employee. And then study after study has shown us that when employees reach out and ask for help, we can keep them in their jobs and make them productive long term employees, which is good for the employee, their families, and for the corporate world.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:49] So how did kind of employee assistance professionals come about? What’s the history of this? Were they kind of bubble up from the corporation or from the government? How how did it occur?

Julie Fabsik-Swarts: [00:03:01] Neither of those they actually their roots were in addiction. Starting out in Alcoholics Anonymous kind of area. And if you go to our website at EPA, CSN org, you can see the whole history there. But really its roots were specifically in helping individuals battle alcohol addiction in the fifties and sixties eventually. Epa was born in 1980 to help support all of those individuals that were growing professions in making this. Something that every corporation should have and every employee should have access to.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:43] Now, when a company is deciding to have an employee assistance professional, what are some of the like? What would be a reason not to have one?

Julie Fabsik-Swarts: [00:03:54] Well, there is a cost to it, just like bringing on medical benefits for your employees or bringing on retirement programs. There is a cost, but a recent study we have a study called Workplace Outcome Suites, which recently showed us that most cases there are 1% or less than the benefits budget. So they’re really a great bargain. And overall, the statistics are telling us they are doing amazing work. They are helping people be more engaged in the work that they do. They’re helping prevent turnover. They’re helping them deal with their issues so that they can stay productive on a job. Also, if you think about today’s news, if preventing gun violence or if something happens, helping solve and prevent PTSD on the other side of a critical incident, unfortunately, that’s the reality. So when commit suicide, a gun is brought to work. Something happens in the home front. These are the folks that are helping to deal with these critical issues. And let me tell you, Covid’s been no friend to the gaps. So many people working at home in isolation, very high rates of depression and anxiety.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:00] And and the way that an EAP helps is that they become a resource for the employee to help them if they’re struggling in one of these areas.

Julie Fabsik-Swarts: [00:05:11] Exactly. So maybe they might help them get counseling. Maybe they might help them get the help of a psychiatrist or a treatment center. They might help them find a resource to deal with domestic violence. They might help them even find child care centers that might fit into their their financial needs and employee package.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:31] And this is one of those things that once the employee is aware of a benefit like this, I would imagine they become more loyal and the retention improves.

Julie Fabsik-Swarts: [00:05:40] Exactly. Unfortunately, we still have a tremendous stigma with mental health issues these days, and ourselves and our association partners are working very hard to try and break down that stigma. You know, no one have a problem saying I’m going to the doctor because I broke my leg. But going to the problem, going to the doctor or the therapist is a lot less comfortable. But the good thing about it is it’s usually available at work. It’s usually and it’s always confidential unless there’s a crisis situation. But it can also get individuals into badly needed care much faster than outside medical benefits will help you get to a psychiatrist or psychologist. So we’re hearing about 3 to 4 months to get a psychologist or psychiatrist. They’re just so overwhelmed out there, whereas an EAP and if there’s a real need, they can help do it. It’s usually a matter of days to weeks.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:36] Now, what about kind of coaches? Do you help in that area or do you kind of draw a line of this has to be kind of a physician led interaction?

Julie Fabsik-Swarts: [00:06:46] Well, many EAP, these are counselors themselves. But there’s a very fine line that if they’re referring and assessing, assessing excuse me, assessing and referring, they are not doing the counseling themselves. They’re usually putting that out and referring that to someone else in the mental health field. Most of our EAP are licensed social workers, psychologists, counselors, therapists, nurses, even. Sometimes they even have their second, second careers. They’ve found a calling in the EAP world. So they’re really an amazing group of individuals who have received a whole lot of training and now are really putting it right into the daily work space.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:28] Now, as a leader of this group, are you spending a lot of time kind of coaching up your yaps or is it educating kind of corporations and government about the services that the app can provide?

Julie Fabsik-Swarts: [00:07:44] So most of our time in leadership is spent working to educate and develop our apps as professionals. We have a certification program called The Seep, and also we provide a number of educational opportunities in a variety of areas. Anything from understanding what’s going on with marijuana across the states, understanding different aspects of psychedelics, how do you deal with counseling someone who’s addressing the current crisis issues abortion, gun violence? All those issues are right up front with our counselors. Additionally, we run an annual conference. This year’s conference is going to be in Norfolk, Virginia, October seven through ninth. So we’re really excited about that. And then we do things like we create. We are part of a team. That is advocating on the federal level for positive mental health advocacy. And we are really looking to bring on the next generation of yaps. I hate to tell you, but a lot of our folks and myself are beginning to see that gray on the roof. And we’re really hopeful that we can reach out to the next generation of social workers, counselors and really think about get them to think about EAP as a career choice, really.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:03] So that’s a challenge that I would think that this would be an area that a lot of people are drawn to because, number one, it’s helping so many people. And, you know, there are so many more service minded people, I would think today that they would want to kind of feel good about their day to day.

Julie Fabsik-Swarts: [00:09:19] I think it’s one of those best kept secrets. 74 million people have EAP as part of their benefits package, yet we don’t have anywhere near percentage of 74 million people. Very it’s much lower than it should be. And I think it’s because one of the social stigma and two I think people don’t realize that they have I have an EAP available and what that means and I think the biggest successes we’ve seen have been when CEOs embrace EAP work, they get out there and say, you know, we all need some help. Sometimes we’re all human beings. No matter where you are in the globe, we are there and we are needing help. And I reach out for help. We recommend that you do. We want to keep you for around for a long time. And we want to see all your challenges met. And I use the EAP. Why don’t you join me when you need that? And by the a CEO being able to say that it goes a long, long way. Also, regular seminars and promotion of that. The EAP program is there at work has gone a long way as well in conjunction with wellness programs such as meditation and yoga. All those are wonderful, but having that mental health issue is really a benefit that’s second to none.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:35] So now is there is there a program for like young people in college so they can learn about being in the AP as a career choice?

Julie Fabsik-Swarts: [00:10:44] There’s not enough programs in college, and we would love to have more. We’d love to reach out to them. We’re trying to reach to many academics to get them getting EAP as part of their curriculum, especially in social work and is part of counseling or work as a nurse or therapist, we really believe that it would be a great asset to their their curriculum and it would help introduce the profession to a lot of people who don’t even realize it exists. People who have it as a benefit don’t realize it exists. So young people definitely don’t because they usually aren’t working at corporations that have that kind of support system.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:21] So the EAP that exists right now and they’re working, are they sometimes solopreneur is like their that’s their business and they’re serving a variety of, you know, industry or government government offices within their where they’re located. Is that how it works? Are they’re part of a like kind of a mega company that does EAP as a service for lots of people.

Julie Fabsik-Swarts: [00:11:43] So a quick answer is yes. We have single practitioners that hang out their shingle and will take on clients as referred. And we have individuals who are hybrid. We have individuals who work in union situations right in on shop floors and understand what’s going on in day to day with the employees. We have individuals who work remotely on large, large corporations such as Beacon Health, Life Works, some jail, some to name a few. So we have every kind of work situation you can imagine some 100% remote online that you would reach out to someone on a phone or a zoom or some are in person and some are hybrid. But the important aspect is that we want to make sure that people know they’re there for them and that they can reach out. Confidentiality applies and they are 100% of the time.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:37] Now, if if an EAP is out there, are they kind of an automatic member of your association or is this something that you would like them to join to be part of, you know, the greater good here and everybody helping everybody.

Julie Fabsik-Swarts: [00:12:53] So they have to join. But there is a benefit to being a member of EPA. All our educational programs are certification program, our conference, all that, all those items are all tremendously discounted. We teach a full course load of EAP education and professional mental health education, and it’s a great way to get those get those hours in. Additionally, on bigger things such as our conference, we can go out and get the approval of social work and MSW or different other associations so that if you’re a social worker and you need credits to keep your license, you can come to an EPA event and still get social work professional. Development hours. So we hope that individuals come on out and who are IPS and become members. A couple of other things that we do, we offer every Wednesday and this was started back two years ago at the beginning of the pandemic. Every Wednesday we have usually about 100 apps dial into a Zoom call and there’s a facilitator and a topic, but it’s an opportunity for them to share best practices, to almost let their hair down and be comfortable among each other and to hear what other people are going through. And it’s really wonderful to have one app who’s struggling here that they’re not alone. The other thing we’ve been doing is the beginning of the year. We gave 16 weeks, so we call them free Friday webinars for members. You get 16 professional development hours to use just by coming every Friday and learning a new topic. So we try and provide as much support as we can for our members and we even find niches. There’s a specific group of apps and health care apps in various aspects in the government, and if we can help them facilitate them getting together higher education together, especially around our conference, it’s really a great experience.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:51] And then there’s also local branches that an EAP can join and become part of that local community as well.

Julie Fabsik-Swarts: [00:14:58] Absolutely. We have chapters throughout the country and they’re all volunteer led and they develop their own professional education as well as mentoring. And then we are actually in officially in nine other countries, we call them Branches and Asia being the most popular, Japan and China and Taiwan, very active branches of EPA. And then there are other places in the world that we are trying to make headway in. We actually have had members in over 40 countries in the world.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:30] Now, I would imagine if you’re in the AP and what better way to kind of plug into your community and learn just from people the good, the bad, the ugly about what’s going on, how to grow my practice, what other services are out there. Or I’d learn about it and be able to get credentials to increase my value. And it just seems like a no brainer for anybody that’s in the AP.

Julie Fabsik-Swarts: [00:15:55] Well, we hope we hope to get in front of everybody and hope they agree with you on that point. And, you know, any profession, whether you’re a doctor in the AMA or a nurse in the ANA or any other profession, it’s always best to join your association. Together we are stronger. We can find a common voice. We can find what is most advantageous for that. Profession and we’re always to say all associations are non profit. So we are owned and operated by a volunteer board of directors. No one gets paid to be on the board of directors. They give a tremendous amount of hours and we have a number of committees people volunteer on whether it’s develop the conference or to support membership or specific task force. Currently, we’re actually working on redoing our website. I actually have 973 pages being reviewed by volunteers to make sure they’re accurate before they go on to the new website. It’s a great way to build friendships, networks, support systems, mentors, association work is just been a wonderful boon for my personal ethics and goals of my career.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:03] Now, can you share a piece of advice maybe, for that young person out there that hasn’t, you know, kind of really leveraged the association to its fullest? What are some things you would do if you were coaching a young person that’s an employee assistance professional and they join. They just joined. What are some of the things they should do to really kind of wring out the most value from their membership?

Julie Fabsik-Swarts: [00:17:30] So I would highly recommend coming to those Wednesday, we call them Wednesday wellness sessions where you can get to meet and see a whole bunch of folks and build a little network. I also recommend coming to our conference where you can build one on one opportunities to really find that person that’s going to share with you their vision and how they got there. You can see the best of what they do and is really an impressive group and it’s always amazing is they’re so willing to share their time, their expertise, their talents, and they really want to see the next generation come on. So they are more than welcoming and bringing on new folks. Additionally, we have a great certification program. We’ve just converted it in the last year to five learning modules where you can sit in the comfort of your home, in your jammies and and learn about ERP work and then take a test. And each time you do that for five modules and then if you’re not already an experienced VP, you can go through our mentoring program where you can learn a lot of different areas by experience professionals, and in the end you will have a network, you will have a certification, and you will have resources for questions, concerns, challenges, be everything you need. And then we expect you to get involved and start leading us for the future.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:46] Right. And that’s an important thing, that joining is great, but you have to get involved, right? You have to take action. You have to kind of volunteer and demonstrate kind of your passion and your intelligence and your skills.

Julie Fabsik-Swarts: [00:19:01] Quite often, many things in life are what you you get out of it, what you put into it. And I think associations are definitely along those lines. They most people who I’ve talked to in this association love what they do and are passionate about it, but they are also passionate about the work EPA does. And we couldn’t have formed, developed and been supportive to the next generation. Now the staff are not. We are profit professionals, we are not yaps. We expect each to deliver and determine our direction. Our course load are whatever the next generation of VAP need that is all generated by professionals.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:42] Now is there a story you can share about the impact that the AP has made on an organization that you’re aware of and maybe help them get to a new level?

Julie Fabsik-Swarts: [00:19:52] Well, I’ll tell you two stories about me personally. So the reason I took this position was, one, I had a good friend of mine still do a good friend of mine who realized that she was struggling with alcohol and she went to her E.P. at her work and they helped her get clean and sober. And she is a recovering alcoholic to this day, clean and sober and and having her best life. And that’s the bottom line is helping workers have their best life and addition. I also have a relative who is actually dealing with a very stressful mental health issue. And it turned out he was bipolar, but he didn’t know this at the time, went to work and was really suicidal and called his E.P. and they walked him into a mental health facility where he was able to get diagnosed and followed and treated on medication. And he is a very happy and now a productive employee of this company. So those are the kinds of success stories I personally have witnessed. I also heard about a great story about an individual who was struggling at a West Coast university, and the gap was kind of on like almost like a retainer when they thought they really needed assistance, they would call them. So this university department called them and they said, you know, this this gentleman’s not doing well.

Julie Fabsik-Swarts: [00:21:16] He’s struggling in his position and he keeps talking about his guns and his coworkers are really getting nervous. So the AP came in and met with them and they had a long conversation. And I’m making this sound much quicker and easier than it was, but it was an extensive conversation about what his goals were, what the challenges of the job were, and in the long run, they decided it would have been a great time for him to retire and he could go out with medical benefits and nice money package and respect of his coworkers and and his supervisors. And it was time and together they walked down to the HR office. They got the gentleman all the paperwork done, and he left with respect and happiness, as opposed to the scenarios where someone feels very disrespected and underappreciated and they try to come back with their guns and find their boss or whoever else in the way. And then you have nothing but tragedy. You have heartbreak, you have violence in the workplace, and there’s there’s no win. And in the long run, that’s a little bit invested in the benefits. Budget saves a lot a lot of tragedy, lawsuits, money, heartache and stress and production of an organization. So EPS are, as I said, were are often the unsung heroes.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:36] Absolutely. I mean, the impact is real. So if there’s an E.P. out there that wants to learn more about the association or a corporate organization or a government organization that wants to learn more, what is the website for the association?

Julie Fabsik-Swarts: [00:22:53] So it’s EPA, SSN dot org. So EAP Association dot org EPA SSN dot org.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:03] Well, Julie, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Julie Fabsik-Swarts: [00:23:09] Thank you so much. We appreciate the opportunity to share the great work we are doing throughout the world.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:14] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see all next time on the Association Leadership Radio.

Ed Bardwell With Rainmaker Digital Services, LLC

by

EdBardwell
High Velocity Radio
Ed Bardwell With Rainmaker Digital Services, LLC
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EdBardwellEd Bardwell is the President at Rainmaker Digital Services (RMDS), the providerof the Rainmaker Platform. With clients and staff across the globe, RMDS is aglobal leader in content marketing solutions that develops marketing strategiesand technologies that help clients meet their business goals.

Ed also serves as the CEO Nimble Worldwide, an integrated advertising agencybased in Dallas, Texas. Nimble Worldwide has been recognized for its innovativeuse of technology to support the marketing efforts of its clients. Awards haveincluded agency of the year by the Social Media Club, Emmys, and Addy Awards. Astrong proponent of the concept of “Method + Message = Results,” Ed leadsNimble’s strategic efforts within the agency.

Connect with Ed on LinkedIn and follow RMDS on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • The power of content marketing
  • How has technology changed the relationship between a brand and a consumer
  • A content framework is critical to every business
  • Marketing used to be a broadway show, today it’s a conversation
  • Marketing is an investment

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:05] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for high velocity radio.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:15] Lee Kantor here, another episode of High Velocity Radio. And this is going to be a good one. And if you’ve got a pencil and paper, get ready to get a lot of notes and a lot of great information. We have the president of Rainmaker Digital Services, Ed Bardwell, with us today. Welcome, Ed.

Ed Bardwell: [00:00:33] Thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:34] I am so excited to be talking to you. Full disclosure, Business RadioX, which produces this show, is a client of Rainmaker. They do our website and they have done it for many, many years and we’ve been extremely happy with them and proud to call them a partner in our business. And I would love for Ed to share a little bit about Rainmaker Digital Services in terms of some of the services you offer other small to midsize businesses.

Ed Bardwell: [00:01:01] Well, sure. First of all, Rainmaker Platform is a comprehensive business marketing platform. And what we mean by that is we take technology out of the conversation for our clients as it relates to their customers. So if you want to add video to a website or simply build a basic blog or web presence, Rainmaker platform is the tool for you. But what we found over the years is many customers become very successful and become our clients, and that’s a distinction that we use to represent those clients that need additional services. In the old days of advertising, and I remember a time I was in a presentation and there were a bunch of ad agency guys, you know, the really good looking type t shirt wearing guys. And I was up there and I was kind of a geeky guy and people were asking why I was so successful. I said, Well, you know, the agency model is dead, you guys are dinosaurs, you just don’t know it. And they were all taken aback. And I went on to explain that everybody needs these basic services, how to build a relationship, how to creatively tell their story, how to represent themselves in the best manner in whatever channel that they’re trying to work with.

Ed Bardwell: [00:02:26] But people were tired of simply buying into the expertise of the agency. And so what we’ve done here at Rainmaker Digital Services is combine the power of the technology with the creative and technical resources to provide a full suite of services, everything from basic branding to media planning, all the way to specific targeted campaigns, depending on a client’s objectives. You know, we’re really big believers that marketing is an investment, not an expense. And so if a customer, if a business is thinking about, oh, my gosh, everybody’s talking about fill in the blank technology or this new channel or this this new social media, we say stop time out. Tell us how that’s going to be an investment for you. And so we try to take a business first, a marketing first, a creative first approach to technology, which is our fundamental differentiator from both the technical competition, who focuses only on the technology and the creative competition that focuses only on the message. We try to bring them together. Message and method is the way we get results.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:36] Now, do you have kind of an avatar for the ideal rainmaker client? Are they solopreneur or are they big firms? Are they in technology or are they in services?

Ed Bardwell: [00:03:50] Lee That’s a great question. The reality is Rainmaker Platform was originally conceived for the small to midsize business. Everyone from the solopreneur that wanted to do this as a side gig up to the company that might have some version of a dedicated marketing resource. But what we’ve found, especially over the last three years, is some of those businesses have had enough success that now they do have dedicated resources, you know, typically not a marketing or creative team of 5 to 7 people, but under five people, though, we do have a handful of global 2000 relationships and most of those folks, most of those enterprises turn to us because our technology and the and the philosophies, the content marketing philosophies behind our technologies allow the the media to be iterated for specific target audiences geographies, and they can do it much more economically than with traditional enterprise software. So the the foundation has always been the small to midsize company. But we have had the opportunity to sharpen our teeth with some enterprise level partners as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:11] Now, what’s the pain that those prospective clients are having where Rainmaker Digital is the solution? Like what are maybe some of the breadcrumbs that this business owner or business leader is having that kind of lead them to you?

Ed Bardwell: [00:05:28] There are typically two types of businesses that reach out to us. The first is someone who has had a website or they have a Google my business account, or they’ve done some Facebook advertising and they really don’t know what it’s done for their business. They know they’ve got to have it, but they don’t know what it’s done, how it’s working. And in some cases, unfortunately, there’s been a hack or there’s been some kind of issue. And they may understand the goal of building a relationship through content, but they really struggle with the technology. And those people typically they’ve talked to like an I.T. firm or a consulting firm who starts to use acronyms and the different letter soup that you’re going to find in technology to try to convince these businesses that they should do that, that they should work together. I’ve never thought that technology should be a sword. I’ve always thought it should be a shield. And so for those guys, typically what we tell them is, hey, you know, at the end of the day, you know, all you care about is, is your message in front of the right audience. Is it doing what you want it to do from a marketing perspective? And can we make sure that someone else, a bad actor, can’t negatively impact your brand? So those guys typically turn to us because especially with Rainmaker Platform, you know, from from the time you sign up for the license to the time you leave the platform, which we hope is never you don’t have to talk about technology ever again.

Ed Bardwell: [00:07:19] We can we can control all aspects of your digital presence from the moment that you build that relationship with us. And then the other group of folks is is typically a group that is very technically savvy. We see this with affiliate marketers. Certainly these drop shippers and certain groups of businesses that have strong I’m thinking of like I.T. support groups. They don’t need help with the technology necessarily, but they have very little clue about what digital marketing has to be about today. And that is it has to be about the story. You can’t simply put up a price list or we’re the best in the market at running cable in your office. People need to understand the story behind the business because frankly, today that is what sells. You have to have that relationship with your audience. People are buying more with their heads and hearts than they are with their pocketbooks. So for that audience, we train them on content marketing. We hopefully show them folks like Business RadioX. I mean, your presence is amazing from a content perspective and you certainly are a great illustration of the power of content. And a lot of people say, Well, I want to do that. And so we try to show them some of the basic techniques for blogs, podcasts, video, blogs, things of that nature, where they can begin to build those audiences and have a relationship that goes beyond simply the transaction now.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:03] And that’s kind of a mental shift for entrepreneurs, right? There was a time when the salesperson had all the information and then the customer needed the salesperson in order to kind of buy something. But in today’s world, with so much information available to everybody, you have such a more informed consumer in that you better have a compelling story. You better have a really good back story about how you got involved in this business and what makes you different and special. If you want to build that kind of relationship between you and your customer, is that an area that you help folks with kind of crafting that messaging and crafting that story and giving them the tools to kind of share it?

Ed Bardwell: [00:09:48] Absolutely. You know, if you look back at our history as Copyblogger with Brian Clark and some of those folks or my team’s background, we did some work with Disney back in the early 2000. It’s all about the back story. It’s all about trying to create a approachable and understandable persona that your prospective buyer can understand. We talk frequently about the role of authority and authenticity in our content. Nobody’s going to believe you if you say. I’m. I’m the smartest guy in the room. But if you have a story that shows that you’re the smartest guy in the room or you have testimonials, that’s the power of word of mouth today. And digital is so incredibly high. Reviews, testimonials. Those those adds such color to the story that you’re telling that you can you can introduce the fact that you’re the smartest guy in the room or you’re the best vendor for a potential relationship. But if you have these other elements in your story, well, it becomes much easier to believe that you’re the authority. And then if you add to that. The fact that I’m not the best guy for everybody or I too have stumbled or frequently we will. We will use. In educating customers, especially that second group of folks, you know, tell us tell us the time that you weren’t successful. And then we will help them craft that into the story, because few things are more authentic to prospective customers than knowing when you failed and then how you’ve learned from that failure and corrected it for the future. If you’re human and if you’re if they perceive you as being willing to to act in that transparent and authentic way, it’s much easier to convince them that as an authority that any recommendation that you might make is comes from a place of mutual benefit.

Ed Bardwell: [00:12:01] And really, today, we like to tell folks everyone’s in the media business, whether you like it or not, whether it’s that that unfortunate picture at the PTA meeting or you having a, let’s just say, animated text conversation with a customer that they’ve screenshot. It’s out there. And if you’re not authentic and say, you know what, with with customer X, I did lose my temper or they simply didn’t do X, Y, Z, or whatever the case is, your audience will forgive you. I mean, we’ve found, especially in in the business community and the United States in particular, we’re very forgiving. We just have to believe that there’s a reason to forgive. So you combine a good story that helps establish your authority with things like testimonials and reviews and that transparency and that authenticity to really build a relationship with a prospect. Because what we know is the purchase is not the end of the relationship. You know, I don’t care what you’re selling today. It could be a widget at the end of the day, if the widget doesn’t last, as long as you think people will go on to social media, they will go out into the digital realm. And they’re going to say, Ed’s widget just didn’t do what it said it would. It only lasted for five years and I thought it would last for ten. And people are going to take that as a critique where maybe the rest of the marketplace is only lasting one year. But regardless, you have to be present and prepared for those kinds of media conflicts.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:48] Now I find that I’m sure you do as well. A lot of folks spend their time on their website just talking about themselves. And like you alluded to it earlier, it’s one thing to say, Oh, we’re the best or we’ve been around for 100 years. That doesn’t mean as much to the consumer as I think that the person who wrote that copy thinks it does. You know, the person who’s reading a website or going to a website wants to solve a problem. So if you’re not solving their problem and you’re not showing examples of how you solve similar problems for other people, and having those people speak up and say, hey, without this company and their team, I couldn’t have done that, or I got to a new level because of this person. If your website isn’t filled with that kind of content, then you’re really almost wasting your time because at one time websites were just kind of billboards and they used to be like, Hey, this is my stuff. These are my, you know, it’s like a Yellow Pages ad. Yeah, but not anymore. You’re your website should be a living, breathing thing that’s evolving as you evolve. And it should be filled with information and help and education for your best prospects to learn more about you and understand what makes you different and special.

Ed Bardwell: [00:15:06] Yeah, you’re exactly right. We use a content framework for not only web content, but frankly, any type of business communication called pie. Pie stands for promotion, information and inspiration, and every brand has a unique combination of all three. But exactly to your point, if you simply say, I’m the best at this and here’s my price list, and you just go on and on about how wonderful you are, and you don’t inspire people. You don’t share the information. You know, the power of information sharing today is so much different than it was even ten years ago that we find fairly sophisticated brands really missing the mark by saying, well, we don’t want to tell them how to fix their radio or we don’t want to tell them how to how to reboot their computer. We want them to call us so we can charge them 40 bucks for the for the repair. Well, unfortunately, if you don’t tell them information that is relatively easy to find, they’re going to go to YouTube or to your competitor. They’re going to get the information. And while everyone may lose on that $40 opportunity when they need the $250 OS upgrade or when they want to have somebody help them buy a new computer or whatever the case is, they’re not going to come back to you because you chose not to share information. You’re exactly right. We you’ve got to have all aspects of a content relationship with your prospect.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:41] And you have to have a long term view of your relationship. If you’re looking at a relationship as just transactional, that you’re just trying to get money from somebody today and not trying to serve them over the long haul, then you’re missing out. You’re spending a lot of time and energy to earn that one account for just a short period of time, knowing that they’re going to find somebody else that has this similar thing cheaper elsewhere. So you better be kind of pushing the value curve up and adding more and more value and more and more reason for you to be hanging out with them so they can be doing business with you over and over because it’s so much less expensive to get more business from your existing customers than it is to keep finding brand new customers. I know it seems like there’s billions of people out there, but believe me, it’s a lot easier to get the 100 people that already like you to buy a little more than it is to find another 100 people.

Ed Bardwell: [00:17:34] Yeah, you’re right there, too, you know. With the market today. It’s it’s very easy, whether it’s the the big tech companies or even the boutique craftsmanship e-commerce sites that are out there. You can find business to business, business to business to consumer, a variety of services all across the globe. And so if the only thing you’re competing on is price, you will lose. There is no way to to to win a race to the bottom in terms of price. And it not not only is it easier to to upsell, resell, continue to engage with previous relationships, but it’s also when you create or add value to the relationship, that becomes a barrier to competition that is so difficult to to to crack. You know, we have you know, we are not the cheapest Web solution in the marketplace. In fact, we’re kind of in the middle. You know, there are several that are much more expensive than we are and then several that are much less expensive than we are. And one thing that we have found is from our customers, them telling us things like we see as much value as the much more expensive guys, but at a price point that’s much lower. And then that for those that are at the other end of the spectrum. Well, no, we don’t get any of these services that you guys include for free, whether it’s basics like SSL or secure certificates to make sure your site is protected or logs or database space or whatever it is. You know, we you’re right. It has to be a competition for value. And, you know, everybody since value has a qualitative component to it, everybody’s going to have a different lens or angle that they look at value. And so obviously we’re not the right fit for everyone. But what we do believe very strongly is we have to be a valued partner, not just a vendor. And I would suggest that most businesses, regardless of vertical, regardless of size and regardless of location, needs to be thinking about how you become a partner with your customer, not just a vendor.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:10] So, Ed, what is the the pain that somebody is having today where they should call you and your team? What is what’s kind of that thing that that’s right in their face that maybe they aren’t connecting the dots, that that having a conversation with you and your team could help them sleep better at night.

Ed Bardwell: [00:20:29] First and foremost, if your website’s an expense, whether it’s a billboard or a brochure, if you can’t directly track from your website. To your accounting system somehow say, this is how we’re making money through our website, you should contact us. And then second, if you’re if the message that you’re sharing to the marketplace in any regard is different than the message that is circulating on the Internet, whether that be in social media, your website, your email, then we would strongly suggest that you reach out to us as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:08] And if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, what’s the website?

Ed Bardwell: [00:21:14] The two that I would suggest is specifically if you’ve got website questions, rainmaker platform and for broader relationship questions, Rainmaker Digital Dotcom.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:24] Well, Ed, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Ed Bardwell: [00:21:30] Thank you so much. I appreciate the opportunity to be with you today.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:33] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on High Velocity Radio.

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