Business RadioX ®

D’Loreyn Walker, MD With Momma’s Money Tree

by

MommasMoneyTree
High Velocity Radio
D’Loreyn Walker, MD With Momma’s Money Tree
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DLoreynWalkerMDD’Loreyn Walker, MD is a wife, mother, and retired General and Child-Adolescent Psychiatrist. In 2012, she asked God to show her His plans for her business. He responded with an in-depth introduction to biblical entrepreneurship, money management, community service, and wealth stewardship.

Dr. Walker is the founder of Momma’s Money Tree. Initially written for her children, The Proverbs 31 Millionaire was published to share the blessing of biblically debt-free business and finance with other mothers and entrepreneurs.

Follow Momma’s Money Tree on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Youtube.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Bible-based plan for business, money, and stewardship
  • Money Management
  • The Proverbs 31 Millionaire

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 high velocity radio

Lee Kantor: [00:00:13] Lee Kantor hear another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is going to be a fun one today. On the show we have D’Loreyn Walker, MD, who is the founder of Momma’s Money Tree. Welcome.

D’Loreyn Walker, MD: [00:00:25] Hi Lee, thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:27] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about Mama’s Money Tree. How are you serving, folks?

D’Loreyn Walker, MD: [00:00:33] I’m sorry. Basically, I’m serving moms who are trying to juggle the art of starting a business from home and at the same time meeting their responsibilities to both their creator, God and also their children and their families. It’s been an interesting adventure so far.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:51] So what’s your back story? How did you get into this line of work?

D’Loreyn Walker, MD: [00:00:55] My back story goes way back. It started with a practice that I began in 2012. My career training is actually in medicine. I’m trained as a general adult psychiatrist as well as the child and adolescent psychiatrist. So back in 2012, I was starting transitioning out into my own practice, and I had an interesting realization at that point in time that I had been very well trained in medicine with all that schooling, but I hadn’t really been taught much of anything about money management or starting a business. And that was just really frustrating to me considering how much education I’d had, and I think I pretty much wore up my husband’s ear with talking about the way it should be. So I started that process back then just reading, trying to understand more. Since I’m a Christian, I was also looking to learn more about what the Bible had to say about all of this, and I gradually started to realize that there was information available about a different way of approaching business and finance than I’d ever really been introduced to. And so I just started studying and exploring from there, and that put me down this pathway.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:15] Now you bring up an interesting point about how when you were in school to do the work that you did in your career, they neglected the element of kind of the business side of the work and they focused on. Sure. You know, kind of the work part of the work, and I’m sure it’s not just unique to psychiatry or psychiatrist that this is probably happening for a lot of other folks out there. Is there any advice you could share with somebody who is maybe a working for somebody else doing a professional job like you were at the time and then is thinking about going out on their own to do their own business? And this requires not only all the skills you learned and have been practicing for years, but now these new skills of how to be a business person.

D’Loreyn Walker, MD: [00:03:05] I think I’d say two things, one, be patient with yourself. For me, that was really challenging because I tend to have a classic medical perspective or a personality, which is a plus one everything now and do it yesterday. So when I realized that there was this need for me to try and expand my education in this respect, it wasn’t that there were no lessons, but I can count on one hand and only a few fingers. The number of classes that we had relating to medicine and business, and even those were not very thorough in relation to what you actually encounter as a private practice entrepreneur. For people who are trying to move in this direction, I would say start with the information that’s just readily available to you and use the algorithms. If you train Google and YouTube to bring you information or just simple information from people who are talking about business and money from a layperson’s perspective. Yes, there will be some misinformation in there, but it will at least start you thinking about different things and questioning learning some of the financial vocabulary and begin the. It will give you the opportunity to begin the process of thinking about these concepts and kind of turning them over in your own mind to start to formulate your own opinions and decide where you want to go with things.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:30] Now in your work, you mentioned faith is an important component of what you’re doing and and kind of leaning on Bible based resources, I guess, to help navigate through business money and things like that. Was that something that was intentional that you said, I am looking for that. So therefore I’m going to build something that looks like that and features that? Or was that something that just came about in your research that you stumbled upon this and said, You know what? This really resonates with me.

D’Loreyn Walker, MD: [00:05:02] It was a bit of both. One of the challenges that I had when I was starting my practice was I was very resistant to the idea of. Going after money at all costs or just finding a way to make the bottom line work, I wanted people to feel cared for. I wanted them to feel loved, appreciated, seeing validated. It wasn’t enough for me to just make the bottom line work, and I started to realize that from the perspective of my business, that was an approach that was strongly influenced by my belief system. And at the same time, since so much of my life was informed by my belief in the Bible. I have this curiosity to say, Well, what is in there like? Does it mention anything? Are there principles that can be applied outside of the Bible to finances? And then, with studying the Proverbs 31 woman and other parts of the Bible, I was pleasantly surprised to find that many of the principles were generalizable outside of religion into the world of finance and business. So that was pretty much how I started down that pathway and what caused me to actually move in that direction.

D’Loreyn Walker, MD: [00:06:16] The part that was actually kind of fun to realize over the years was that with making the adjustments that that matched with what I was learning, they worked. At first I was just kind of doing it because it made sense to me. But especially in 2020, I started to see some things in my family and finances that we would not have had the same outcomes that we had if we hadn’t have been years in the process of learning a different way to approach money in business. I know for my business when I was in practice, my patients really appreciated having someone who was willing to take an alternative approach to their care and think of them as people before the transaction. Sometimes that meant that we did things a little bit differently when it came to the financial end of things, but it really worked for them and it allowed them to feel like they were actually getting the type of care that they wanted. So I kind of felt like it was a win win on both sides.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:18] Now what do you tell the people who equate money in a negative way, like as greed or exploitation? And and that prevents them, maybe from making the leap into business where there has to be some money flowing in order to have the business keep providing the services that the business serves. But if they have a negative connotation with money, they might be doing things that self sabotage their efforts.

D’Loreyn Walker, MD: [00:07:50] Well, there, I forget exactly which verse it is, but there is a verse in the Bible that says the love of money is the root of evil. But people leave off the love part instead of using money as a tool. They kind of look at it as this thing that causes problems throughout the world. Whereas when you actually look at how people in the Bible use money, it’s a tool. It’s a tool that tends to amplify whatever your personality traits and character are. But it’s also a tool that allows you to be of amazing service to your fellow man. And what I very much saw while I was studying the Proverbs 31 woman was that her means were. Leveraged to a large degree, to be of service to the people around her, to the people in our household, to the businesses that were around her. She was very much oriented toward finding ways to be of service through her business and studying her actually caused me to realize that when you’re taking a biblical approach to your business, it doesn’t become that you’re chasing money as much as you’re finding ways to serve other people and your business becomes an extension of that desire to serve. Yes, you’re being paid for that. But in a lot of cases, people would be doing it anyway because they want to help and they want to to be a resource to others.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:20] And if your heart is of service and you have more resources that a lot of times means you’ll be able to serve more people, definitely.

D’Loreyn Walker, MD: [00:09:28] And in the case of the proverb Proverbs 31 woman, she ends up being of such service that her entire community is literally singing her praises like they’re hailing her at the city gates, which is very atypical for a woman in that period of time to be so well loved and lauded for the fact that she’s just serving people out of a desire to to generally genuinely see them do well. So in my mind, I start to equate business and money less with something to be hoarded as much as it’s something to be used to help others. Your future generations, your community, people of need. There are so many different ways this world is full of opportunities for people to serve, and so that’s how I start to look at money when I’m looking at it from the Bible’s perspective.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:18] Now in your work, are you doing working, coaching other people? Are you writing and just sharing the information that you’ve learned? Or are you helping people like rolling up your sleeves and helping people kind of manage their business? Like, what are the services you’re providing?

D’Loreyn Walker, MD: [00:10:34] I’m doing a little bit of both. So I do have some people that I’m working with to mentor at the same time, because I’m a mom, I can’t fully dove into that. So I have to automate some of what I’m doing, and that’s where people see the books and other things that are being generated to help them because I realized I have to find a way to multiply myself. There are options for group coaching things like that. I try to be hands on, but I have to go virtual just because I can’t travel as much as I might at this stage in my my life. So finding different ways to get the information out to people. Some of that is one on one. Some of it is one to many be a group coaching and then others is just there are some people that I’m just in communication, going back and forth with emails and things like that, giving them pointers and pointing them in different directions. So it’s it’s a combination. And then the the print and other materials are mostly just to give people who are saying, Hey, I want to go further an opportunity to do that without having to wait on me.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:43] Now have you retired from the psychiatric psychiatry portion of your career and are now full time in this portion or you’re doing a little of both?

D’Loreyn Walker, MD: [00:11:53] I am full time mom when it comes to the business and psychiatry psychiatry I had to transition out of. That was at the beginning of 2020. I had some things that were happening as far as my children’s health, and I really couldn’t juggle both my kid responsibilities and mom responsibilities and give good patient care. And I wasn’t willing to have my patients, even though there were amazing. Try and be patient with that sort of thing. I just had standards that wouldn’t let me do that. So I did close my practice at the beginning of January, in 2020. At this point, what I do is I’m full time mom and then on the side, I’m also working with Momma’s Money Tree and the people who want to learn from me

Lee Kantor: [00:12:38] Now from a from a personal level. Is this kind of work more rewarding than the psychiatry? It sounds like you’re touching people in little different ways.

D’Loreyn Walker, MD: [00:12:48] I wouldn’t say it’s more rewarding. It’s a different hat, and I would say they were both. They’re both rewarding. I saw a lot in my practice of psychiatry how the financial aspects of things can really make it really negatively impact people’s mental health. There were many times where I was just sitting listening to people’s story, and I was thinking, Really, if we could just get the finances, I know so many of these other portions would fall into place for you. And in those cases, you’re doing what you can to help that person transition through that tough time while also doing what you can to support them as as best you can toward fixing the financial aspect of things. So I wouldn’t say one is more rewarding or the other. I still have some patients that I. I’m not in touch with any of them, but I don’t regret the time that I spent as a psychiatrist at all, like I was very privileged to be able to interact with people, and I had some amazing patients who really took life by the horns and made the commitment to work on things and change themselves, which is not easy for anybody to do. So I was just honored to be along with them for the journey.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:59] Now, have you had any opportunity to work with any of the folks in this new hat you’re wearing to see that kind of impact?

D’Loreyn Walker, MD: [00:14:07] I’m starting to work in that respect, I because I’m so early in this process. I wouldn’t say that I’ve had a lot of opportunity to work as one on one as I would like. I have a couple of people that I’m working with at this point in time, and I’m just taking it slow because I’d rather make sure that I have the quality of information and the quality of infrastructure and process to make sure that people feel loved and cared for it, then to try and go whole hog and do things sloppily from my standard.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:41] So what do you need more of? How can we help you?

D’Loreyn Walker, MD: [00:14:44] I’d love for people to start to explore the information that I have out there if they want to get more information or coaching. I’d love to hear from people. As I said, I’m already working with a handful of people to start to give them more information. And then for those who are saying, Hey, I’m curious to know more about what the Bible has to say about this process. Then I would say, go ahead and grab the Proverbs 31 millionaire. Like, I poured everything that I could get into print media and have work for that type of media into that book because when I wanted my kids to have it, but once I saw just how powerful it could be for helping to get people stable and then move them forward in business, I really felt like I had to make it available to others as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:34] Now, as as 2021 kind of winds to an end here, is there any advice you can give an entrepreneur to maybe kind of be more service minded and as they kind of jump into the next year, is there anything you would like to share?

D’Loreyn Walker, MD: [00:15:51] Yeah. One of the things that I know people are struggling with right now is depending on what your business is like, this could be a really quiet time of year. And then you kind of turn the corner head into the beginning of the year and people are starting to want to move forward with different Leveson chapters of their lives. And if you’re looking to be of service, it can be interesting to know how to kind of keep up with that momentum and get in front of people to say, Hey, I’m here to help. And especially with so many moms at home saying, Hey, I could also use some income. One of the challenges is saying, OK, I’m at home, but how do I start to be in front of people? And so I’m just trying to encourage ladies to think about getting to our meeting people where they are. In some cases, you will have a group of people if there are three groups of people that I try to remind people of when they’re looking at prospective clients. There will be the population that’s looking for your services. And in my case, when I was in psychiatry, that was one of the easier populations to reach because they were already searching for a provider. So if you go and put yourself where they’re likely to look, then it makes it a lot easier for them to find you. So that’s where the search engines, Google places or Google. My business and big places, things like that, as well as professional and service directories can make a lot of difference.

D’Loreyn Walker, MD: [00:17:14] But then there’s another group of people who kind of know that they are needing your services, but they don’t necessarily know to go look for you, per say. And so those people, you’ll have to meet where they are, and if you know that that’s the population that you’re trying to reach, then it becomes very important for you to have an idea of what your prospective client avatar is and where they’re likely to be, and then put your information in front of them. One of the hangouts for entrepreneurs is that they tend to go straight to online because so much is done online nowadays, and I’m not saying not to do that, but don’t forget your offline resources as well. If you know that there’s a mommy group near you or a school near you that pulls a lot of people and you could be of service to them, then send them a card with your information and some cards them that business cards in there or find a way to reach out to them offline as well. The same with going in person. It’s not as easy now due to everything that’s going on, but you can use virtual interaction to start to bridge that gap and meet people where they are as well. And then finally, there’s a group of people that’s kind of like there’s a parable of the lost coin in the Bible where they don’t know that they need you. They would like to need you. They’re open to your services, but they don’t know they aren’t there yet.

D’Loreyn Walker, MD: [00:18:27] And so you’re going to have to find a way to speak their language, put information in front of them, use questions to help them start to think about what they help them see themselves. From the perspective of Hey, this person can actually help me. I like to use the example of a lady who’s thinking, Hey, I want to lose weight. Well, she may not be thinking of it from the perspective of she needs to work on how she deals with her emotional state and comfort eating in order to help herself lose weight as the person who’s going to be a best service to her. Your job is to get in front of her and then find a way to help her see that you can serve her in her area of need, which isn’t necessarily the weight loss that. Will come as she changes her approach to our emotions. So just coaching people in that respect and in the next couple of days, I’ll actually be producing or putting up a hand out for people if they want to download it from almost money tree so they can just pull that. It also lists for marketing skills that people can use to try and help them reach their population or their client audience, and to be memorable so that people will say, Hey, this is somebody that can be of service to me and allow your perspectives to know who that you’re actually there to help them and you’re the right pick.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:41] If somebody wants to learn more about your books and or your practice, is there a website?

D’Loreyn Walker, MD: [00:19:46] Yeah, they can just go to momma’s money tree. That’s W-w-wait Mama’s Mommy’s Money Tree.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:55] Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work, and we appreciate you.

D’Loreyn Walker, MD: [00:20:00] Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:02] All right, this is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on high velocity radio. And.

Carolyn Kopf With C.E.K. & Partners

by

C.E.K.Partners
GWBC Radio
Carolyn Kopf With C.E.K. & Partners
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CarolynKopfIn 2008, Carolyn Kopf had been around the world—NYC, Boston, Madrid and Tokyo—working at top global agencies like Young & Rubicam, Arnold Communications, and Euro RSCG.

After moving to Atlanta while interviewing during the great recession of 2008, she started consulting. Upon the successful completion of several contracts, she saw the opportunity to establish a company to help businesses extend their expertise and capacity and thus C.E.K. & Partners was established.

C.E.K. & Partners, based in Atlanta is a woman-owned market research, branding and marketing agency that offers the following core services: market research, brand strategy, brand purpose, content marketing, creative design & web development. Today she manages a team of 14 across these core areas.

Today, the company continues to provide expertise and capacity to our clients.

They bring their clients big agency expertise with the heart and soul of a small marketing agency. Their clients are their top priority staffed with senior experts

Connect with Carolyn on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Benefits of conducting market research
  • Planning for market research
  • When to consider a rebrand for company/product/solution
TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for GWBC Radio’s Open for Business. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:18] Lee Kantor here. Another episode of GWBC Open for Business, and this show is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Carolyn Kopf with C.E.K and Partners. Welcome, Carolyn.

Carolyn Kopf: [00:00:30] Thank you, Lee. I’m so excited to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:33] Well, I’m excited that you’re here and I’m excited to learn what do folks at C.E.K. and Partners are doing. Share with us a little bit about how you’re serving folks.

Carolyn Kopf: [00:00:42] Yeah. Absolutely. Well, we’re here based in Atlanta as a woman-owned market research, branding, and marketing agency. So, what that means is, we help clients gather data to understand their customers and their marketplace develop brand strategy, and we do content marketing. So, we’ve got a team that supports clients as far as Australia to as close as down the street here in Midtown.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:12] Now, what’s kind of the genesis of the idea? How did you get involved in market research and the work that you’re doing?

Carolyn Kopf: [00:01:19] Sure. Absolutely. I started out on Madison Avenue. So, really, that’s my professional background, is, helping brands better communicate with their customers. And in order to do that, you have to understand them, so market research is a natural fit.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:38] Do you find that organizations are leveraging market research as much as they should?

Carolyn Kopf: [00:01:44] You know, that’s interesting because it’s really a mixed situation. Some companies just can’t get enough of the data and insights about their customers. And others want to skip that step and don’t realize how expensive it is to fail and not have the right information.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:06] So, if you’re an organization that maybe hasn’t leaned into market research enough, can you kind of share the pros and cons of kind of leaning into market research?

Carolyn Kopf: [00:02:15] Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, really, it informs business strategy, so it can really help a company get the right data and information to change their strategic direction and actually put them on the right course versus basing decisions on their gut or opinions. So, again, that leads into avoiding mistakes. Ninety-five percent of new product launches fail, that’s a stat from Harvard Business School. That’s expensive. I mean, product launches are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars. And that could be avoided through making a comparatively small investment in market research.

Carolyn Kopf: [00:03:03] And then, I think the third piece is, it really offers credibility. So, if a board asks a marketing team why they made a decision, they can point to data and a real credible rationale versus, “Oh. It felt good” or “We wanted to go this direction.” So, it really offers credibility.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:26] So, now, on that stat of 90 percent of the launches failing, and everybody’s heard about, you know, 80, 90 percent of businesses failing, are those businesses that hadn’t done any market research or are those just businesses in general? So, even if they had done market research, there’s still a high probability of failing. But with market research, you’re kind of increasing your odds of success.

Carolyn Kopf: [00:03:50] With market research, absolutely, you are increasing your odds of success. It’s already challenging enough, to your point, to launch a new product or service. And if you have the right information, you’re going to increase the odds of success.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:09] Now, for some folks, though, they are afraid to take action. And this sounds like something that might make them feel more comfortable taking action because they have more research and statistics that kind of back an action to take. But how do you kind of work with your clients to not use research or kind of doing this research to kind of stall instead of taking an action?

Carolyn Kopf: [00:04:38] That’s a great question, Lee. I think part of it is, you know, research doesn’t have to be time consuming. I mean, we’re talking about a 12 week investment. Whereas, a product launch or repositioning project, that could be 18 months that a company is investing. And if they don’t take that initial 12 weeks to get smart, then they’re wasting 12 months of their time basing it on hunches and opinions, and that’s where the risk is.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:14] Now, is there kind of a right and a wrong way to do research? Like, I could see people feeling confident, like, “Oh, we’re doing research, so then this is going to glean that insight that we need.” But sometimes isn’t it difficult to really ask the right questions so you’re getting the right information so you can make these informed decisions? So, you need to partner with somebody who has kind of been there and done that when it comes to research, not just kind of getting in a room and saying, “Hey, let’s ask these six questions and see what people say.”

Carolyn Kopf: [00:05:46] You know, that’s a really great reminder for our listeners, is that, certainly, asking the right questions matters. The questions you ask are the answers you’re going to get. So, if you’re not asking the right questions, you’re not getting the right answers. So, certainly, we always counsel our clients to definitely identify what do you want to accomplish with your business objectives? And what do you need to learn from research to close your knowledge gap?

Carolyn Kopf: [00:06:19] And then, from there, there’s other areas and pitfalls that those who don’t have research expertise need to avoid. Everything from who participates in the research, do you have the right people involved to answer those questions? Do those people know who’s sponsoring the research? Does that matter? Because if they are a customer, they know that you’re sponsoring the research. They may just agree with everything you’re saying because they want to be polite or respectful.

Carolyn Kopf: [00:07:00] But when you bring in a third party, you can have the research be blind or you provide an objective conversation because the participants aren’t trying to please the moderator or who the survey is sponsored by. So, there’s all sorts of areas to fall down outside of asking the right questions.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:22] Now, even using the phrase market research, is that something that has changed over time? Like, I remember there was a period of time, like, when focus groups and people would come in person in a room, and there would be a moderator, and they’d ask questions in the group. Dynamic would come into play, and that would be a way to glean research. And then, now, you hear so much stuff about polling where people are calling, nobody’s on the phone anymore. So, that’s not really getting the right people to ask any of the questions. And to your point, they could be just saying yes just to get me off the phone so it can be done. How has kind of, you know, research changed over the years? And where are we at today in this regard?

Carolyn Kopf: [00:08:04] Well, certainly, I’ll tell you where we are today, because those are the techniques that are going to matter to our listeners. Really, what we’re seeing, we’re still, unfortunately, navigating wearing masks depending on the market you’re in and these different situations.

Carolyn Kopf: [00:08:25] So, the role of digital and virtual techniques has really advanced in the past five years. We have techniques where, of course, online surveys. You can be anywhere any time of day and complete an online survey, whether you’re on your computer or you’re on your mobile phone. So, those are fantastic and a tried and true technique.

Carolyn Kopf: [00:08:49] Of course, focus groups, that you mentioned, are still a fantastic way to gather information and to complement an online survey. And we’ve got great ways to do that virtually. The platforms that are available, whether it’s Zoom or Proprietary One to bring people together online for focus groups has really taken off in the past two years, as you can imagine.

Carolyn Kopf: [00:09:14] But, of course, there’s other techniques. When you think about social media and how we all may use these different platforms, market research has started to come up with some proprietary tools that look and feel similar to social media, and they’re called bulletin boards, they’re virtual bulletin boards. So, again, people can go in, they can interact with one of our moderators, they can interact with other like-minded participants invited into the research study. So, there are some really great tools out there now that are heavily digital and virtual.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:57] Now, you mentioned that some of the services you provide include rebranding. Are there kind of some signals for a company to pay attention to when it comes to rebranding? Like, just because I’m bored of my brand doesn’t mean my customer is bored of my brand. Can you kind of inform our listeners about that, like when is kind of the time to rebrand or consider rebranding?

Carolyn Kopf: [00:10:23] You know, I’m glad you brought that up because, obviously, research is a critical component to a rebrand. But like you said, how do you know if you need to rebrand? If you answer no to some of these following questions, you probably need to rebrand. Do you know your customer’s current attitudes and behaviors towards your brand and the category of solutions you offer? Another question would be, can you clearly articulate how your brand is special, better, and different from your competitors? If you answer no, you probably need to rebrand to work on that.

Carolyn Kopf: [00:11:03] And then, a third question I’ll share is, do you have a brand story and messaging that effectively connects and engages with your buyers and your prospective buyers? If not, you probably need to rebrand so that you can create that.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:21] So, if I answered in a way that it said, “You know what? Maybe I should be considering rebranding,” is this something that is super hard or is it something that takes, like, a year? What is kind of the steps to a rebrand?

Carolyn Kopf: [00:11:41] Yeah. I think that’s a really important question. And there’s often so many interpretations of a rebrand. So, when we think about a rebrand, we think of it as a complete overhaul. Think about gutting your house and working with an architect on designing new plans and room layouts, that would be a rebrand. Whereas, a brand refresh, you’ll leverage existing brand assets, you know, the colors, the logo. And that would be more similar to updating your kitchen. You’re replacing some countertop tile, backsplash, changing the cabinet colors. So, that would be a brand refresh.

Carolyn Kopf: [00:12:21] If our listeners really need to undertake a true rebrand, they would start with discovery. Getting smart, getting the information they need about understanding the perceptions of their brand, understanding their competitors, and understanding their customers. And then, from there, once they have that intelligence, it’s possible to articulate a brand strategy. Those key components of how are you going to compete? What is your story? What is the messaging that you want to consistently put out into the public realm?

Carolyn Kopf: [00:13:04] Once you have those pieces, you can then work on the step that everyone wants to get to, bringing the brand to life visually with those creative concepts of what will it look like. So, those are really the three core steps to summarize at a very high level.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:22] Because a rebrand isn’t just changing the name, right?

Carolyn Kopf: [00:13:26] That would be a renaming. And, certainly, that can prompt a rebrand, but you can rebrand your company and not change the name. Maybe the rebrand, you change the logo, the look, the feel, the positioning, and the messaging.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:45] So, like Netflix, Netflix was sending you DVDs in the mail and now Netflix is a streaming service. It’s still Netflix, but it’s really a different brand.

Carolyn Kopf: [00:13:56] Yeah. It’s repositioned itself as it now has different offerings that are broader than when we used to get those in our mailbox. Absolutely. That’s a great example.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:09] Now, another service you mentioned was content, and for a lot of folks they think they’re creating content, and they might be, but they may not be creating thought leadership. Can you kind of explain the difference between the two and how you help folks kind of elevate their content into the positioning of thought leadership?

Carolyn Kopf: [00:14:30] Absolutely. I mean, I think what’s important about creating content is, we are in a digital first era. You need to be creating content. And you need to be creating different types of content. Really, you’re developing content and blog posts that are going to support search engine optimization. Ensuring that your brand shows up when someone searches in Google for the types of services or products that you offer. Lead generation content to support moving prospects through that journey. Or, just educating existing customers and the industry through virtual or in-person trade shows.

Carolyn Kopf: [00:15:13] But the difference with content that promotes a product or a solution, it’s very focused on the company. Whereas, when you develop content to establish thought leadership, you may not be referencing directly your own solutions or products. But you’re purely forward thinking and thought provoking to show that you’re looking ahead, whether it’s a couple of years out, you’re focusing on trends and the future landscape. But why should you do this? It’s important to really reinforce that your company is a leader and not just pushing products and solutions. But they’re really looking ahead and understand the industry and category.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:05] Now, when you’re working with your clients in this regard, are the people that are doing this kind of thought leadership, content creation, are they only the leaders or is this something that can permeate the entire organization?

Carolyn Kopf: [00:16:17] Oh, absolutely. This is something that should be for the organization, the leaders. It’s really about positioning the organization. Some organizations may have leadership attribute their name to the content, but it’s not necessary in order to reinforce a company’s position of leadership in their industry.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:42] I would think this is an interesting way for organizations to really keep their employees by positioning them as thought leaders. They’re establishing them as kind of the go-to folks for that area of expertise, which could help keep that employee around the organization longer because they’re helping them become kind of the best them they can be.

Carolyn Kopf: [00:17:05] Absolutely. I think that’s a great reminder that it really positions different individuals as experts while still positioning the company in that role. The other piece is, it’s not just for supporting – certainly, it supports lead generation and business development – but it also validates existing customers and why they’re working with a company of, “Oh, I’m working with them. They know what they’re talking about. They’re the experts.” So, like you said, there’s quite a few ways to leverage this to improve the company.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:41] So, now, in your work, is there a story you can share of maybe doing in the framework of kind of a before and after company that you were working with? They had a challenge. You were able to come in and help them overcome that challenge and then take them to a new level. Obviously, don’t name the name of the organization but explain the problem they had and how you helped them solve it.

Carolyn Kopf: [00:18:04] Yeah. Absolutely. Gosh, I mean, there’s so many examples that it’s hard to choose. But I’ll pick one that is probably a simple and relevant example for today. In supply chain today, there’s really this need to move towards networks that are digitized. So, if a beverage company is moving soda, the supply chain company can say, “Hey, you know what? That truck load is in Atlanta, Georgia. The delivery is happening in a few hours or days, or whatever it might be.”

Carolyn Kopf: [00:18:46] So, when we work with companies that provide that type of technology, it’s often easy to get lost in the text and specs of the type of network, the capabilities, and features for containers, devices, and people to connect and talk to each other, if you will. Instead of elevating to a higher level – which is where we come in – we tell a bigger story. Really positioning for leadership around optimization and sustainability, and helping the company get out of the weeds with the text and specs. So, that’s been a real, wonderful example where we can just elevate a company to reposition them. You know, getting them away from making the containers, making the devices, but that end benefit of optimization and visibility.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:44] And then, working with an agency like yours to take kind of the mundane to them, the day-to-day stuff that they might be taking for granted that they do, and they have a storyteller like you and your team to come behind it and make it real and tangible and visceral, that can make all the difference in an organization.

Carolyn Kopf: [00:20:04] Absolutely. And I think that we talk about – I mean, just how you mentioned earlier – connecting and engaging the employees. I mean, when they have a bigger story of why they’re at the company and what the company is accomplishing, it increases productivity engagement satisfaction as well as clarifies for customers and prospective customers the offering and why organizations should be working with them.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:34] And it goes full circle back to the research where, when you have clarity of information and knowledge, then you’re able to make better decisions.

Carolyn Kopf: [00:20:45] I think that’s a great way to bring it back to the research. Absolutely. It all starts with getting the information, getting that intelligence to provide the clarity.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:56] Now, what was kind of the impetus for you and your team to get involved with GWBC? Why was it important for you to join their community?

Carolyn Kopf: [00:21:06] Absolutely. Well, you know, we are a woman-owned business, and we have been for – gosh – 12 or 13 years. We just recently completed the exhaustive audit to be properly certified, because we’re seeing more and more Fortune 1000 companies want to work with diverse suppliers. And so, really being part of this community has helped us navigate those conversations and how we can support companies with meeting their objectives while also growing our business and getting our team projects that they’re excited to work on.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:47] Well, Carolyn, congratulations on all the success. If there is a prospect out there or somebody who wants to learn more about your agency or your team or you, is there a website they can go to?

Carolyn Kopf: [00:22:02] Yes. Our website is C as in Cat-E as in Edward-K as in Kite, and that’s partners.com. So, it’s cekpartners.com.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:14] Well, Carolyn, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Carolyn Kopf: [00:22:20] Thank you so much, Lee. I’ve enjoyed this.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:22] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We will see you all next time on GWBC Radio.

About GWBC

The Greater Women’s Business Council (GWBC®) is at the forefront of redefining women business enterprises (WBEs). An increasing focus on supplier diversity means major corporations are viewing our WBEs as innovative, flexible and competitive solutions. The number of women-owned businesses is rising to reflect an increasingly diverse consumer base of women making a majority of buying decision for herself, her family and her business. GWBC-Logo

GWBC® has partnered with dozens of major companies who are committed to providing a sustainable foundation through our guiding principles to bring education, training and the standardization of national certification to women businesses in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Christine Edwards With Amplify Consulting

by

Christine Edwards
GWBC Radio
Christine Edwards With Amplify Consulting
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Christine EdwardsChristine Edwards is a civic firebrand that has immersed herself in helping urban communities reach their highest levels of growth and success.

She founded Amplify Consulting in 2018, a company that delivers community engagement outreach services and resources for small businesses interested in winning government contracts. Christine earned her MPA with a concentration in Urban Management and Policy from UNC Charlotte.

In her spare time, Christine volunteers, enjoys southern food and loves seeing urban policy theory play out in daily life.

Connect with Christine on LinkedIn and follow Amplify Consulting on Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Competitive bidding and government contracts
  • How to be a good partner on a contract/project
  • Competitive advantages in the consulting world
  • The importance of equity in community engagement
TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for GWBC Radio’s Open for Business. Now, here’s your host

Lee Kantor: [00:00:18] Lee Kantor here. Another episode of GWBC Open for Business. And this is going to be a fun one. Today, on the show, we have Christine Edwards with Amplify Consulting. Welcome, Christine.

Christine Edwards: [00:00:30] Hi, Lee. Thank you so much for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:32] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about Amplify Consulting. How are you serving folks?

Christine Edwards: [00:00:38] Sure. So, Amplify Consulting is a community engagement consulting firm headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. And I serve our clients by helping build trust in the community and helping communities grow with dignity.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:53] So, what’s your back story? How did you get into this line of work?

Christine Edwards: [00:00:57] So, I’m so glad that you’ve asked because I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on this kind of with the end of the year coming up and just thinking of what all we’ve done this past year. I really do believe I’m in my calling and I’m right exactly where I should be. I have about a decade of experience in local government, so I come from a local government community outreach background working in Charlotte and working in North Carolina in these growing communities that oftentimes just don’t get their voice at the table and they just don’t get their voices heard whenever our communities are growing, whether it’d be at the neighborhood level or you have these big, huge projects coming into town. And so, that’s how I really got involved was jumping from being an employee to being a business owner.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:54] So, now, when you’re saying the word community, like how do you define community because it’s multifaceted?

Christine Edwards: [00:02:02] Yes, absolutely. So, community is multifaceted when you think about it. I think about community in terms of belonging. You know, where do you feel you belong? A community could be at the neighborhood level. A community could be at your school, your faith house or your company that you work at. But community could also be like a cultural tradition or a cultural identity, even at the national level. So, I define community in a lot of different ways, but it’s really more so about belonging and where you feel you belong.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:41] So, now, when you’re working on a project or with a client, how do you help them kind of immerse themselves in the community and to serve their community?

Christine Edwards: [00:02:53] So, it can be kind of tricky because I really challenge my clients sometimes to think differently about how they’re engaging with folks. And my philosophy is to have an engagement-first approach. So, whenever a development is happening or a new project is coming online, let’s say the city or the county government, they’re building a new recreation center in your neighborhood, their approach typically is to get the research done, get the specs, get the cost and just get to building, but I would challenge them to have this engagement-first approach to first go out into the community and ask people, “Is this what you want? And is this what you need? And how would you like to see it come to fruition?” So, that’s kind of how I challenge them to look at community and get out of the office and start asking those questions of people who live there to kind of give feedback,

Lee Kantor: [00:03:58] So, you found that sometimes when these projects happen, then people may be in an office building or just making decisions without really engaging the people that are going to have to live with whatever this project is?

Christine Edwards: [00:04:13] Oh yeah, that definitely happens. I think that organizations have community outreach staff in house but oftentimes, these relationships that they have are not ongoing. It’s just project by project. And so, yeah, I’ve seen that happen before and it hurts trust. It hurts trust. And so, I just try to follow what’s going on in the national climate and what’s going on locally in my hometown where I work just to kind of see where that trust can be fostered.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:48] So, now, let’s play out, in your perfect world, a project occurs, so what would you do first? Like what would be the ideal? In your vision of how things could be, what would be kind of the ideal path for moving forward with a given project?

Christine Edwards: [00:05:03] That is a good question. I like this idea of sort of extracting all of the references from a project, all of the reference points. So, let’s go with the example of the REC center again. So, thinking about what you want to accomplish, what are the goals, is it about health, is it about fitness, is about literacy education? So, really just extracting everything out of that? And so, what that looks like is a work session. So, I would get them to sit down and have this activity where we would extract all those reference points and thinking about what are our goals.

Christine Edwards: [00:05:44] So, not only the goals in terms of how it would be things, but also looking at the history. What is the history of this particular area or location? Naming, look and feel, branding, future use. Not only looking back 50 years, but looking ahead 50 years. So, just sitting down with my client and just doing that initially, but then also thinking about who they could bring to the table and help them extract those reference points.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:18] And then, kind of really look at it holistically, and not just like, “Okay, we have this thing and we’re going to force fit it into this world that may or may not really exist, but we’re going to really get to know the people here that are going to be impacted and help them kind of bring out the most value from this.”

Christine Edwards: [00:06:35] Exactly, exactly. Bringing out the most value and really defining that value.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:42] And when you’re clear from that standpoint, when you have a clear kind of North Star, it helps everything move forward easier because, now, you all know what you’re aiming at.

Christine Edwards: [00:06:53] Exactly, yes, yes. And then, you know, when it comes to public sector projects, I mean, you hope that it’ll be that clean cut. Sometimes, it’s not. I know my story is probably similar to a lot of consultants where you want to get the project done on time and under budget. That’s important, yes; however, as a community engagement consultant, I try to get them to see that having the community on board in the beginning will make for a smooth project overall.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:25] So, now, are there some things you’ve learned on how to bid on and get government contracts, so you can share with our listeners?

Christine Edwards: [00:07:36] Sure. So, that is a question that I get a lot because 1000% of Amplify’s clientele is public sector. We work with cities, counties, universities. We work with the state. We have not worked on federal level contracts yet, but one of the things that I can share about working at the state and local level is the power of partnership. Really just looking to your peers, and look to your left and right, and see who can be your partner when it comes to servicing these contracts.

Christine Edwards: [00:08:18] So, a lot of how I got my foot in the door when we first started, Amplify was a subcontractor, because not a lot of projects are going to lead with community engagement. Maybe it’s a transportation project, or maybe it’s a utilities project, but there is a community engagement component. So, what I would say to listeners is think about who you can partner with and be a subcontractor. That’s a really big part of winning government contracts.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:48] So, now, what are some qualities of a good partner?

Christine Edwards: [00:08:52] Qualities of a good partner, I think just being open to the partnership, good communication, having a specific quality, like something that’s specific that you bring to the table that will make them keep coming back for more. I try to tell folks, you don’t have to be the jack of all trades and master of none. You really can master one thing. Even if you get sick of doing it, you will get really good at doing it. And for me, that is listening sessions, and focus groups and surveys.

Christine Edwards: [00:09:32] I cannot tell you how repetitive that can be at times, right? But we’ve really mastered this strategy of going out, talking to people, listening to folks. And so, you don’t have to be a master of everything. So, I think that’s a really good quality of a partner is that you have that one thing that people will keep coming back for you again and again. So, it would be that niche quality, good communication, but then also just being open to it in the first place and of course, being professional

Lee Kantor: [00:10:09] And then, being that go to resource is critical, right? Like you want to be the person they go, “Well, if we need this, we better call Christine”?

Christine Edwards: [00:10:17] Exactly. I listen. I will be your girl. Right now, we’re expanding our talent network to make sure that we can cover everything that we’ve been requested to do, making sure that we have facilitators that can work virtually and that can work in-person events, making sure that we have data scientists that can then take our listening session and focus group data and put it into reports for our client. So, I definitely want to be that go-to person for community engagement.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:52] And it sounds like you’ve started with something, and maybe the first iteration of this listening session that you created is a lot different than it is today, but you’ve kind of expanded upon it, and delivering more and more value and more and more kind of information based on those over time. You start getting really deep knowledge about this, and how to get the most out of it, and give your clients the most value from the investment they make in you.

Christine Edwards: [00:11:22] That is true. And when you say the word investment, the client is making an investment, but I also feel like I am making an investment when I think about hiring partners or hiring subcontractors that can do work that maybe I’m not necessarily good at. But as a leader, you need to be able to hire for those roles. And so, yeah, it’s a huge investment, especially when you’re good at one thing, like a focus group or a listening session, but if you need a data scientist, or you need somebody that can write reports or somebody that can do graphic design, that’s a huge investment too.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:02] Now, let’s talk a little bit about the importance of equity in this kind of community engagement. Can you talk about how maybe there’s a miss out there that’s happening and how a firm like yours can help?

Christine Edwards: [00:12:16] Sure. So, in terms of equity, I think equity and inclusion is just such a big topic right now, and it has been for a long time. But I think that organizations are finally starting to come around to building it into their policies and building it into their practices. And so, that is what we do is we help our clients reach diverse audiences, and we provide feedback opportunities for people who haven’t necessarily been invited to the table in the past on topics that impact everybody.

Christine Edwards: [00:12:56] These topics really impact everybody, but they’re not typically invited to the table. I’ll give you an example of, let’s say, there’s a huge transportation project coming on board. It’s important to talk to the people that use public transportation. It’s important to talk to people that maybe they don’t use public transportation, but maybe what they can add to the conversation is communication. Maybe they need signage in different languages. So, I try to go out into the community, and talk to people, and just provide a voice where there hasn’t been one historically in the past.

Christine Edwards: [00:13:34] But I mean, just from a broader standpoint, equity is just so important because you can’t be what you don’t see. And we get back to that definition of community, which is about belonging. And so, myself, being a black woman and being a black business owner, it’s so important for me to be able to go out into the community and have people see me and see my team because it provides that sense of belonging, I feel.

Intro: [00:14:03] And it’s so important because this goes to the heart of why this project even existed to begin with, right? Because it was built to serve the community. And like you said, the community is a lot larger, maybe than the people who are thinking about the word community. So, to have a voice for those people that aren’t obvious to certain people, it’s important. That way, everybody is included and everybody kind of benefits from this project.

Christine Edwards: [00:14:31] Exactly.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:33] So, now, talk about why it was important for you to get involved with the GWBC.

Christine Edwards: [00:14:40] So, once I first started my company, I knew that it would be important to get certified as a minority business owner and as a woman business owner because, again, having worked in local government, I saw the other side of it where we were hiring consultants and where we were making goals, MWBE goals on certain contracts, so I knew that would be an asset. And it turned out to be a huge asset. In 2019, I did get my MBE certification. And from that, I got my first contract. And so, and then after that, I said, “Okay. Well, I’ve got this formula down. Why don’t I go get my WBE certification.” And the only way I was able to do that was through WBENC and through the GWBC.

Christine Edwards: [00:15:38] So, it turned out to be a real awesome partnership. Not only did I get certified, but I also got access to a huge network of women business owners, going to different networking events, having opportunities for speaking engagements, and actually having opportunities to get into these databases to win contracts. I mean, it’s huge. So, it was one of the best decisions that I could have made. And I always tell people, if you want to get into the public sector or even the private sector, if you are a B2B business, you’ve got to get certified.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:18] And you mentioned earlier the importance of community and the importance of being a good partner. This, I’m sure, helps you vet good potential partners that you would, now, subcontract with or could be good subcontractors for you. It enhances and builds your network and your community.

Christine Edwards: [00:16:36] Oh, for sure. For sure. There’s one thing to say that you’re working with a woman-owned business or you’re working with a minority-owned business, but did they go the extra mile and get certified? That’s huge. It really shows people that you’re on top of your game and that you care deeply about this. Kind of going back to just the broader high level look, the more that we participate, the more that we win. So, the more of us that get certified, the goals will increase, and we’ll be able to contribute to this ecosystem. So, I always tell folks to get certified.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:18] So, now, what are the kind of the ideal projects you feel your firm is best suited for?

Christine Edwards: [00:17:27] Well, I try to niche as much as possible but, lately, we’ve been working on two or three main types of projects in the public sector. And that includes transportation. I know I’ve mentioned transportation a couple of times. Like transportation and mobility planning, local street design projects, and things of that nature. The second would be budget engagement. So, local and state level governments have been more transparent in how they’re budgeting and how they are spending taxpayer dollars. And so, now, there’s this focus on equity-based budgeting and participatory budgeting where the community actually gets to decide where that money is spent. So, that’s the second one.

Christine Edwards: [00:18:15] And then, the third one has been – and this is really interesting – public safety. So, there’s been this sort of magnifying glass on public safety and policing. And one of the projects that we worked on in 2020 was reimagining public safety in local police departments where we’ve held some listening sessions, and we talked with folks about where they would like to see those resources allocated and what their experience with the police has been. So, those are kind of my main three projects lately – transportation equity, public safety and public sector budgets. So, yeah, anything that has to do with the public sector, I could probably excel at but those three areas lately have been our focus.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:07] Is there a project you can share with our listeners that was the most rewarding for you where you felt, “Wow, we’re really making a difference”?

Christine Edwards: [00:19:15] I would say the one that really wowed me and just really hit close to home was our transportation project with the Charlotte Department of Transportation. We were actually able to earn some additional funding, so we could compensate people that participated. That was my first time actually having paid incentives for focus groups, and it just made a huge difference in the turnout, but I also feel like it made a huge difference in people’s willingness to be honest and give back.

Christine Edwards: [00:19:55] We were able to bring so many people to the table that we hadn’t heard from before. And I mean, you’re thinking, “Oh, well, of course they’re going to come because you’re paying them,” but I really think it just shows how much you value people, and it shows how much you value their time. So, that was the one that I loved. We were able to get, I think it was $25,000, in addition to our contract to do these focus groups. That 25K went directly to incentivizing people that came to the focus group. So, everyone received a gift card between $100 and $150 for their time.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:36] Wow, that is a great story, Christine. Congratulations on all the success. If somebody wants to learn more about your firm or maybe either partner with you or let you know of an opportunity, what is the website?

Christine Edwards: [00:20:51] It is amplifycharlotte.com.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:55] Amplifycharlotte.com. And they can get a hold of you or somebody on your team or learn more about what you got going on.

Christine Edwards: [00:21:01] Yeah, absolutely. Navigate to our website, amplifycharlotte.com. You can read about our projects, you can read about our team, and I welcome you to reach out.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:12] Well, thank you again for sharing your story. You’re doing such important work, and we appreciate you.

Christine Edwards: [00:21:17] Thank you so much. Lee, you’re awesome. I really appreciate the opportunity.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:22] All right. Well, thank you for playing along. You did a great job. All right. This is Lee Kantor. We will see all next time on GWBC Open for Business.

About GWBC

The Greater Women’s Business Council (GWBC®) is at the forefront of redefining women business enterprises (WBEs). An increasing focus on supplier diversity means major corporations are viewing our WBEs as innovative, flexible and competitive solutions. The number of women-owned businesses is rising to reflect an increasingly diverse consumer base of women making a majority of buying decision for herself, her family and her business. GWBC-Logo

GWBC® has partnered with dozens of major companies who are committed to providing a sustainable foundation through our guiding principles to bring education, training and the standardization of national certification to women businesses in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Tim Stutz With Insight Global

by

Tim Stutz
Atlanta Business Radio
Tim Stutz With Insight Global
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Tim StutzTim Stutz is the Chief Operating Officer at Insight Global, an industry leading staffing and talent solutions company that prides itself in developing a purpose-driven culture where its people come first. Tim is responsible for managing operations and systems for 63 field offices across the US and Canada that support 4,000 corporate employees and more than 30,000 consultants.

Tim started his journey as a recruiter for the company and has taken his field experience and diverse interactions to advance his 18-year career with the organization. He has been an integral contributor to the company’s impressive 30% year over year growth, holding several leadership positions that have supported opening major market locations to standing up the Direct Placement division to building out the recruiting leadership team.

Tim has a passion for leadership development and has worked with hundreds of employees – from entry-level to C-level – on their professional growth through the company’s unique approach, which is to help people become the best versions of themselves. Tim facilitates courses for the company’s career enrichment program, Insight Global University, and its Leadership Academy.

An advocate of community engagement, Tim also serves as the company’s executive sponsor of corporate philanthropy. In his determination to live the company’s shared value of caring for others, one of Tim’s proudest moments has been the integration of Insight Global’s and OneWorld Health’s partnership, where they broke ground on the first-ever Insight Global OneWorld Health Grit Medical Clinic in Kyenjojo, Uganda and raised more than $800,000 to-date. The clinic is scheduled to open in 2021.

Tim resides in Atlanta, GA with his wife and three children. He is a graduate of Florida State University and an active alumnus.

Connect with Tim on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Business Emotional Intelligence
  • Creating a purpose-driven work culture permeates into making people better
  • How to build connection in a hybrid workforce

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 onpay built in Atlanta. On Pay is the top rated payroll and HR software anywhere. Get one month free at Onpay. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:31] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio, and this is going to be a fun one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor AMP. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories today on the Atlanta Business Radio. We have Tim Stutz with Insight Global. Welcome, Tim.

Tim Stutz: [00:00:48] Thank you very much, Lady, appreciate you having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:50] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about Insight Global. How are you serving, folks?

Tim Stutz: [00:00:55] So we are Atlanta based, but certainly not certainly not exclusive to Atlanta. We’re a, I’ll say, North American staffing and talent solutions company. Hq is here in Atlanta, but we’ve got sixty three locations throughout North America and and staff across I.T., accounting and finance, engineering, health care. We do culture consulting and AI consulting. So a lot to offer throughout corporate America.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:26] So what’s the kind of the history of the company? What was the genesis of the idea?

Tim Stutz: [00:01:31] Yeah. So the genesis of the idea was just was was as simple as an I.T. staffing company. We started back in 2001. A company was founded by two gentlemen, Glen Johnson and Scott Madden and and has really grown tremendously over that time. So we just celebrated our 20th birthday, if you will. This past May and and obviously over that time, a lot has changed. The talent landscape has changed a lot. In fact, the talent landscape has changed significantly, as you might imagine in the last in the last, say, a year and a half since since the start of the pandemic. But it was just that it was two guys who had an idea that that they could provide services not just to clients, but to the job seekers in a better way.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:19] Now what was the kind of the reason to go have locations around the country if a lot of your work, I would imagine, is on the phone?

Tim Stutz: [00:02:29] A lot of the work is actually, well, it used to be in person because we’ve got kind of a mixed environment of salespeople, you know, the easiest way to describe it in our world, it’s it’s outside salespeople and then it’s internal recruiters, but the internal recruiters are sort of the delivery arm. But prior to the pandemic, our salespeople were client facing and by client facing, I mean, out meeting with folks, you know, on site understanding what their needs are partnering to provide solutions for openings and employment gaps and such. And a lot of our customers, especially as you enter into the Fortune five thousand field, are not just in one location. And so oftentimes what would happen is you’re doing work with a customer. I think about Cisco Systems, for example, who we work with in Raleigh early on in the company days. And as you may know, Cisco is headquartered out in the Bay Area. And so they ask, Hey, we could do a lot more business with you if you guys were willing to have a brick and mortar location out there. So that’s that’s sort of how we’ve expanded into into new markets and an opportunity just keeps popping up, as you might imagine, especially now being virtual.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:39] So now now being virtual and having all those kind of boots on the ground in those markets, how how do you kind of mesh that kind of remote work with this kind of building those tight relationships with your clients?

Tim Stutz: [00:03:51] Yeah. So that’s that’s been, I would say, the most remarkable thing that we’ve seen. There’s been a lot of remarkable things that we’ve seen in the last 18 months or so, but we’ve learned a lot about ourselves and that you don’t actually have to be on site with a customer. In fact, we were forced not to be. For most of this time, to establish meaningful connection, strong relationships and to do good work together.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:17] So, so then the net of that is you’ve figured out other ways that it’ll probably kind of serve you as we get beyond the pandemic moving forward.

Tim Stutz: [00:04:25] Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that the future will look different. I think that you I think people in general, they want to be in community with one another. I think being here in Atlanta, we’ve certainly seen that through the certainly the last year. So I do think that that the future holds a more in-person, relationship based environment. But the fact that we learned how to do our work and I’m not just saying in staffing, I mean, just in general, in a virtual environment over the course of this last year and a half has been, I think it’s been eye opening for all of us. I mean, just the fact that we’ve been given a lot of time back, you know, I think of a salesperson. And again, it doesn’t have to be in staffing, but a salesperson who’s just on the road spends a lot of time in the lobbies of buildings waiting for the client to come meet with them. They spend a lot of time in their car, driving from building to building. All that time now has been given back because you’re you’re at home or you’re in a remote work environment and you can you can hop from meeting to meetings and meeting with no commute and very little to no wait time at all to be able to interface with your customers and with job seekers. It’s really it’s really neat.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:37] Now, do you help? I know consulting is a part of your work. Do you help with your clients through this time in kind of keeping their culture alive and and kind of morphing to this new environment? Because it’s one thing to have a corporate culture that’s positive when we’re all together and seeing each other and waving and then smiling or seeing, you know, someone’s kid walk through the office and create that kind of we’re in this together environment. But then when you do go remote, you’re missing some of that in some ways. But then you’re seeing some of it also maybe in Zoom calls or where you see in the background a kid walk by or a cat walk by and you’re like, Hey, this person likes cats or something, so you can create kind of that personalization. But are you helping your clients kind of work through their efforts to keep that sense of community going for themselves?

Tim Stutz: [00:06:29] Yeah, we definitely are. Because I think that, you know, in just in the spirit of the industry that we work in, we we’re just we happen to be on the front lines of all things talent. And and so we’re seeing in different markets what talent is available, what talent is not available, what what is the what, what is the job seeker looking for today, you know, different from what they might have been looking for a year ago or two years ago? You know, what is it? What does it look like to hire and on board in this virtual environment? You know, a lot of our customers have not ever been trained in that, and technically we weren’t trained in that. But because it’s what we do, we’ve had to learn it, and I think our entire industry has had to learn it. And so there is, you know, there’s a lot of opportunity to consult in that space and to, I should say more advise in that space because our customers oftentimes, you know, I think about a hiring manager at ABC Company, their exclusive job is not to hire and on board. It’s a very important part of the job, but most of the time, if not all the time, they are responsible for delivering some results back to their business. Hiring is a small part of that, and that’s sort of where we come in. And then, of course, when you start to think about culture and togetherness, we certainly advise on, you know, there’s just a lot there’s a lot of I’ll call it business emotional intelligence. I think that goes into play there. And how can you make sure that when you’re going on board a new employee that they’re going to get that same experience because data will tell you that the first 30 days of an employee’s experience, you know that onboarding 30 days will make or break their tenure at that organization. And so a lot of our clients are wanting to know what can they do to be better in that space?

Lee Kantor: [00:08:21] And one of the benefits of working with a firm like yours is that you’re getting to see kind of in real life those best practices play out. And I’m sure you found that some things work better than others and then in certain environments, and you can kind of share that kind of best practices with your clients.

Tim Stutz: [00:08:40] Yeah. And you know, I’m going to say it’s the secret. It’s not a secret. It’s actually a really, really simple recipe. And. And so to me, it’s two things, right? It’s if we’re virtual number one, you’ve got to commit all the time to being fully present. I’ve seen even in myself at times that I’m more easily distracted. I’ve got two monitors at my desk, not one. Then I’ve got my cell phone that’s on my desk. And so if I’m if my eyes drift away from the screen for even five seconds, I’m not fully present. And so it’s. Just but that that’s on the person, right, the person has to commit to being fully present and then the person on the other end will respect that, they will feel that they are seen, that they are heard and that they’re appreciated. And then number two. And this goes for everybody is this you have to fully trust the employees in a work environment, you know, and if you do those two things, then what you’re really saying is, you’re saying. It’s all about our people, and that’s that’s how we are at, it’s like global. We we believe that if you take care of your people, I mean, our purpose is to develop our people personally, professionally and financially so that they can be the lights of the world around them. That is all about making our people’s lives at work as good as they possibly can be. It’s not to say that every day is sunshine and rainbows, but we’re a values based organization, and when people come in and they feel like the groups that they’re engaged with are present and that their bosses and their peers trust them, even though they may not be together. That’s a really powerful thing.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:14] And is there data to support that, those kind of purpose driven kind of cultures? Keep their their employees longer, that they have less trouble recruiting new employees, that it kind of permeates into their their business deeper than just, you know, kind of a mission statement on a website that when there is a larger why, then people aren’t maybe shopping for a new job for a few dollars more or they’re more excited about, Hey, I got a mission here that I’m trying to accomplish with these folks and I believe in them. They believe in me, and I’m not kind of going anywhere for a while.

Tim Stutz: [00:10:58] Yeah. You know, it’s hard to cite external data because, you know, culture culture is a hard thing to measure. I think anybody would tell you that we can look internally and look at what was the turnover at inside global holistically even just three years ago and what is it now? And in obviously that three year period a year and a half or more of it has been in a very disconnected state, to say the least. And our turnover has dropped from probably in the call it, thirty two to thirty five percent range, well below 15 percent. And and that’s in an environment where you’ve got this, this great resignation going on, you know, these really, really uneasy employees who are realizing after spending a year and a half plus at home that they want more from their employment experience, from those they work for and those that they work with. And so when we look at our internal turnover and we see that that the people are not leaving, it’s because we’ve leaned into our people. We’ve leaned into, like I said earlier, making their work lives better and and and putting being a purpose driven company at the forefront of what we do. I mean, we this year we will put seventy thousand people to work across North America. And and while that’s seventy thousand doesn’t maybe stack up to the millions of people that filed for unemployment month after month after month last year, you’d be hard pressed not to ask does seventy thousand people if Insight Global didn’t make a difference for them? And more importantly, the individuals that they work with at Insight Global didn’t make a huge difference because we build relationships with those folks as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:39] Now are are your clients coming to you to say, Hey, we’re frustrated by this great resignation? Should we become a purpose driven like, like, are they asking you like how to do that? Or is it something that they’re coming? They’re saying, Hey, we have to do that now. That’s not a nice to have anymore, that these purpose driven companies are winning more. So we want to win more.

Tim Stutz: [00:13:02] I think in some, in some windows, you see them come and ask that. I still think that we’re. I think that we’re still this is going to sound crazy, but we’re still sort of on the front end of figuring out what does the future look like as we as we come out of the pandemic and you’re going to really start to see a divide, I think in in in sort of employer profiles. And what I mean is, is one, are they purpose driven? And I think a lot of companies are trying to get there but don’t know how. And and it is it’s tough if you make it tough, but it’s easy if you’re just if you can create a culture where everybody can just lean in, right? And I think that there’s a lot that goes into that we’ve got here. We’ve got a big emphasis on philanthropy. We’ve got a big emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion. We’ve got a women’s leadership council. So it’s just it’s creating network and resource groups within the organization that allow people to feel like this is more than just work. And so, yes, some companies are figuring that out. Like I said, it’s tough if you don’t build the infrastructure in. And then I also think that companies will will start to. You’ll start to see a divide in which companies are going to be stubborn and mandate that that all employees either have to be at work in the building five days a week or even that.

Tim Stutz: [00:14:26] All employees have to be in the same city as the organization because the wake up call that I think that we are seeing. And I think other staffing companies would agree is that remote work is here to stay. I mean, when you hear the American worker talk about this, this yearning for work-life balance, you know, I don’t know that anybody could have defined that, but I do think that the flexibility that was sort of forced upon us all and the trust that was forced upon us all as a result of the pandemic and as a result of going virtual has really shown people that’s what Work-Life Balance is. It’s that I can work at home if I want, I can work in the office if I want. And I think that the companies that are going to demand on site work and again, there’s going to be organizations that have to given the nature of the work, but those that have the flexibility to allow workers to remote but choose not to over time, they’re going to experience hiring of of, you know, third tier candidates. Not to say that those candidates aren’t worthy those jobs, but they may not be the candidates that those employers want because they either a can’t afford them or B aren’t willing to be flexible with those employees worksite desires.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:39] Now, in this kind of future hybrid workforce that may or may not exist in the future, but when you’re saying hybrid, is that something that the individual is sometimes working at home? Sometimes not, you know, going into the office, if that’s the definition of hybrid, then you’ve eliminated kind of global workforce, right? Because it’s going to be hard if I’m living in Italy to come into my Atlanta office, you know, once a week. But if I’m the best person for the job and I want to live in Italy, you know, and you’re allowing that now, and I’m OK with it, that. That works for me, and then you win, I win. But if you’re saying it’s hybrid that, you know, once a week, once a month, twice a month, I have to come in the office. Then you’re still only pulling from people around you. You’re not kind of tapping into this kind of the best of the best wherever they live.

Tim Stutz: [00:16:35] No, that’s exactly right, and let me be more specific on hybrid hybrid, at least for us, is is it’s giving the flexibility to our folks, right? And it’s allowing them to decide, do they want to come in? Do they not? You know, we we feel that as a part of culture, you do have to be connected with people. And of course, we’re still in this thing. I mean, we’ve got this new variant now that’s coming out. And so safety has to be the number one priority regardless of people’s stances on vaccines or not. You just you’ve got to make sure that your work environment safe. And so I don’t think we’re out of the woods yet. But but in many cases, we try to get the new employees to say, Hey, look, it is important that you can that you can show up now. That’s just insight global. But I think I think the nature of the work when you start to look across all of all employers in the United States is really, really that’s what’s going to define whether or not you can be fully remote, you can be hybrid or you have to be in person. If you think of an assembly line, for example, there’s no such thing as remote work on an assembly line.

Tim Stutz: [00:17:39] It’s just it’s just not physically possible. But for programmers who are, you know, just who are just kind of writing code all day, there’s really no real reason for them to have to be in the office. And so each employer will have to decide which roles within their organization. Can they be flexible with which require some hybrid work work environment, which which are totally fine to just be entirely remote? And then once you’ve identified which roles can have which, then you can start to really go out and get that best talent like you describe because you’re right, there’s there. Facebook is a great example, you know? Zuckerberg was adamant that and this is, of course, pandemic that if you work for Facebook, you were in the valley and you were on site. And that has since changed, and now they allow people to work from all over. I don’t know about the world, but certainly all over North America. And so if the top programmer in the world, it just happens to live in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, because he’s at home taking care of his ailing mother. Two years ago, he couldn’t have worked for Facebook because he couldn’t move because of his mom. Now he can. And I think that’s really neat for the future.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:51] Right. And that’s where you really kind of live into those values of community. What’s important and creating that balance? Because if caring for my parent is the most important thing on my list today, I might have to be forced to take a lesser job in order to do that. But now in today’s world, I might not have to.

Tim Stutz: [00:19:13] Yeah, and that’s what you’re seeing in in the job seeker, excuse me, in the job seeker environment is you’re seeing this awakening, if you will, with all job seekers that that right now. And I don’t I don’t think that this is a moment in time. I think this will be here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. But they they can come with all their demands and it is a job seekers market right now. There’s no question about it.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:41] Now, as we evolve into this and and and things become more than this new normal just becomes normal, right? How do you see more of the politics of an office playing out? And a lot of cases there were human beings, right? So the person in the office is hanging out with the boss and they’re playing golf because he lives down the street or, you know, lives near the office. But the person who lives in Cedar Rapids isn’t playing golf. And then the the golf buddy is being promoted in the Cedar Rapids guy who might be equally good not being promoted because he’s distant. How? How do you see companies kind of managing the human, you know, interactions that happen, you know, in-person versus remote that sometimes you know, you bond, have a beer hang out that is not going to be possible in these kind of remote worlds like that has to be, you know, this is where this gray area comes in and the the human factor comes in. How do you help your clients through this? Because this, to me, is where this is, where it’s going to get tricky.

Tim Stutz: [00:20:51] I agree, I think, you know, and it’s hard for me to speak for other organizations, but what I would say if asked and you’re asking is I think that’s where being a truly authentically a purpose driven company with a good value system matters. We have shared values here. There’s five of them and they’re really there are table stakes to work here. We don’t put you through training on them. They’re just but, you know, they’re written in a lot of places and they’re just good reminders that this is how we uphold ourselves here. And I think that in those values, they they transcend all politics, they transcend all drama, and they’re designed to do that. And I’ll share them with you. Their number one is everyone matters. Number two is we take care of each other. Number three is leadership is here to serve. Number four is high character and hard work above all else. And then number five is always know where you stand. And and look, we’re not absolutely perfect across all five at all times, but you do really see people when there is a value system that collectively people believe in and they rely on it. It may sound crazy, but it does eliminate all the politics and it does eliminate all the drama because everything in there is is spoken in a way that says you will always like, you will always know where your stand is. A great example because if you are that remote person and you’re doing the and you’re doing the right work, the high character and hard work above all else, then if you’re if your organization is built on those values, then you promote the right people, not the people who are your golf buddies.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:31] Right. And at the heart of it is that level of trust, and it’s a two way street trust. You know, if if an employee sees, you know, these values on a wall and they’re not being practiced, the employee is not going to believe you. They’re not going to trust you. But if you’re living into them and they’re seeing it happen, then they are going to trust you and give you the benefit of the doubt. And you see in the world today, people give benefit of the doubt to people they trust. They they assume they’re going to do the right thing and they are watching their back. They don’t get benefit of the doubt to the people they don’t trust. And you got to. That’s to me the heart of, I mean, a lot of the problems we’re having in today’s world is that we aren’t giving everybody the benefit of the doubt. We’re, you know, not trusting everybody. And if you really have that trust based environment, then like you said earlier, easy things become easy. You know, you’re not battling at every turn.

Tim Stutz: [00:23:28] They absolutely do. And I think that trust is trusted as as hard as you want to make it, or it’s as easy as you want to make it. And. And I think for us, we choose to make it a very easy thing. You know, I know me personally as a leader, I’m not one of those leaders that wants that’s going to make you work for months to earn my trust and my respect. Know we start with a full tank and and I think that’s because I like a lot of leaders here, and I just we’re authentic, know we believe in authentic leadership with meaningful connection with people. There’s a lot of room for vulnerability. It’s safety and and we really want to get to know who are people are. I mean, we’re sort of, you know, I hate to say, frontline obsessed, but the executive leadership team here is very plugged in. You know, you could argue almost too plugged in to what’s going on on the front lines, but that that is that foundation of trust. And to your point, it is it’s kind of everything.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:29] Right. That’s the linchpin. You know, the foundational point, if you don’t have that, everything collapses underneath it.

Tim Stutz: [00:24:38] That’s exactly right, and and you know, the fun thing about Trust two is that you even if you don’t get it right every time. Um, what’s the level of ownership, right, I talk about vulnerability. Are your leaders willing to admit when they messed up? Are they willing to admit that maybe they didn’t trust where they should have? Because I’ll tell you what, when you’re willing to do that, what comes right after is forgiveness and then comes healing and then comes growth. And and and you know, that’s just that just continues to. If you can create that cycle, right, that feeds into a better, stronger culture.

Lee Kantor: [00:25:12] Right. And it cycles back to more trust because they know you’re going to own up and they they know that your heart’s in the right place.

Tim Stutz: [00:25:19] Exactly. Yep. And there’s nothing to there’s there’s no you mention the word politics earlier, and it’s just it’s saddens me when I when I’ve got friends to other organizations who are dealing with with office politics because it’s just it is. It’s just to me, it says that, you know, not to call, not to call bad leaders out, but that’s what it is. It always comes back to the leadership, in my opinion, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:25:41] And that purpose and the why. If the organization really is living into the values that they espouse, then this that shouldn’t happen.

Tim Stutz: [00:25:50] Yeah. And you’ve got to walk the walk, too. There’s a lot of, you know, there’s a lot of companies out there as you start to look into like the ESG space that that are that are saying that those things are important to them and that purpose is important to them. And, you know, but if you really look into it, you’ll see that a lot of companies kind of are virtue signaling, if you will, right? And you know, it’s funny as we as we lean into the different things that we do outside of our day to day work, you know, we’re we’re we’re paranoid about that. Does this look like we’re like we’re value signaling or virtue signaling because you want to make sure that the that the purpose that you’ve given to your people and that you’re walking right now is that it’s very, very real. And and that’s just that to me. Again, we’re going to go back to this word trust and meaningful connection. When you’re when you’re your team knows you and you know your team, then there’s no reason to call into question that what you’re doing is inauthentic. Authentic. It isn’t real, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:26:51] And look, the proof is in the proof. If you’re if your turnover rate is getting less and less, that means you are obviously living into that. If you were telling me that, hey, we believe all these things, but you know, we’re turning over 100 percent, then maybe you’re not, you know, like, right?

Tim Stutz: [00:27:08] Yeah. And we, you know, and I think that that, you know, the turnover going the right direction people want to be here has resulted in a really, really astounding year for us. For us, I mean, it looks like we will grow thirty five percent year over year in revenue this year. And while we don’t necessarily obsess over revenue, we obsess over our people because if your people are happy and they feel fulfilled and they feel as though they’re looked after and they have a means to contribute and to be successful within the organization, then the revenue just that just come secondary, right? That’s the byproduct.

Lee Kantor: [00:27:44] Right? I mean, that’s I mean, I’m a big believer in I’d rather have a good system than the good goal. If you have the right system, the goals are going to take care of themselves.

Tim Stutz: [00:27:55] That’s right, yeah, people, people will. People want to work with like minded people, right, and and sometimes if you build a system that allows people to come in and be like minded, but also get perspective from diverse groups and such, then then it does. You can build goals around people from thirty seven different backgrounds, you know, and you can accomplish those things.

Lee Kantor: [00:28:20] So now what is that ideal fit client for your you and inside global like? What is kind of that perfect client that you know that you can deliver on your promises?

Tim Stutz: [00:28:31] It’s a hard question to answer, I mean, it’s we do work with probably over five thousand customers across North America right now. You know, small, medium and large. I mentioned all the different industries that that that we work across. And so, you know, it’s it’s what we want is is somebody who’s going to value the partnership and somebody who will lean on our expertize as it relates to the overall talent market because we’re on the front lines of it. And just, you know, I think for us, if we feel as though we can have a meaningful and successful partnership, then you know, we’ll take any opportunity. I mean, we really will, and we’re not picky about the type of work that we do. I would say we’re mostly in the professional space just because that’s the that’s the line of work that we have been in for the last 20 years. But I think as we continue to look to the future and say that we want to grow. You know, there’s so many other sectors that we could get into that we’re not touching right now. So, you know, so I realize I sound like I’m dodging your question, but it’s kind of anybody, honestly.

Lee Kantor: [00:29:36] And the pain they’re having is that they are looking for a specific, you know, person or fill a certain slot that they can count on you to help them find the right fit. Or is it kind of more on the the advising side? Is that usually the the way in for you or combination?

Tim Stutz: [00:29:53] No, we’re primarily we are. If you have an opening and you want us to fill it, we’ll work together to fill it. You know, like, like I said, it’s mostly in professional like, you know, there’s a big void in hospitality right now. And and unfortunately, we’re just we’re not in that in that side of the world yet. I think that’s for everybody. I’m sure you’ve experienced that you go out to dinner and the wait staff is is light and everything seems to be a little bit slower. And there’s a we’re hiring sign on the door. We’re just we’re not quite in that space yet. I think eventually we will get there. But but yeah, it’s it’s for us. It’s it’s where there’s an opening. We’ll take those to the opening or openings, I should say, and then we get to work and we go out and then work with with our recruiters and get into the candidate pool and again. Then he starts to look at the parameters Is it local? Is it remote? What’s the skill set? What’s the what’s the culture fit? And then and then we fill the positions and we probably put, you know, I mentioned we put 70000 people to work this year. So it’s been that in and of itself has been truly, truly special to just know that, you know, that that many people’s lives have been touched by us, even if just by happenstance.

Lee Kantor: [00:31:01] Now, Tim, if somebody wants to learn more about Insight Global, what is the website? What’s the best way to connect with you or somebody on the team? Or, I guess, if they’re listening anywhere in the country, they can find the local office may be near them.

Tim Stutz: [00:31:15] That’s exactly right. Yeah. So the best starting point would just be w WW Dot Insight. And then from there you can find all of our offerings, all of our locations. And that’s a perfect landing spot for both job seekers and for hiring managers or companies that are looking to bring talent on and everything that you need to know about us and our offerings are all on there. And then then if anyone wants to connect with me, probably best way is LinkedIn. I do not have a very special LinkedIn profile. It’s pretty boring, I’ve been told, but it’s there.

Lee Kantor: [00:31:47] Well, Tim, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Tim Stutz: [00:31:52] Well, thank you very much for having me, Lee. This is this is a great conversation.

Lee Kantor: [00:31:56] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

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Laura Lahr From Dr. Fahrenheit, Kim MacInnis From Plexus, And Morgan Stattuck From Hotworx

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LauraLahr
Women In Business
Laura Lahr From Dr. Fahrenheit, Kim MacInnis From Plexus, And Morgan Stattuck From Hotworx
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This Episode is brought to you byAlpha and Omega

Laura LahrDr. Fahrenheit was started by husband and wife team Randall and Laura Lahr in 2001. With Randall’s HVAC experience and Laura’s construction and sales experience, they developed a dream–a dream on which they have raised their children and lived a blessed life.

Randall Lahr is a proud Marine Corp Veteran with a passion for service and his fellow brothers and sisters in arms. He is a proud supporter of the Wounded Warrior project and member of the Marine Corps League of Woodstock. In 2018, Mr. Lahr was involved in a horrific motorcycle accident, and by the grace of God, he survived.

With an “Ooh-rah,” he set out to “adapt and overcome” and today, with a dedicated team that shares a common mission, Randall builds his business on that of honor, courage and commitment.

 

Kim MacInnisFor years,  Kim MacInnis suffered with swollen joints, ankle swelling and fluid accumulation, constant bouts of pleurisy, pneumonia and bronchitis, plantar fasciitis, lower pain, and prolonged and extreme fatigue. She finally has a rheumatologist connect the dots and tested and diagnosed her with Lupus about 10 years ago.

Because she didn’t look sick on the outside, it was hard for people to understand and she found herself isolating a lot. About three 1/2 years ago, a friend of hers that she’d known for almost 28 years had been posting pictures and information about the “pink drink.”

She told her about Plexus and explained how gut health had such a huge impact on overall immunity. She then introduced me to a friend of hers who also had lupus that had found some success with the products.

After battling numerous infections for years and rounds and rounds of antibiotics. She started to learn of the negative impact that they have on gut microbiome and the good bacteria. Antibiotics kill all of it, good and bad. and it takes a very long time to repair gut. After a couple of weeks, she noticed she was sleeping better and started gaining some energy.

After taking her products consistently, she started to see a huge shift in her health. Within four months, her pain was starting to diminish and she started to lose weight. After 9 months she had lost 24 lbs and stopped having lupus flareups and her pain was gone. She was shocked. She felt like she had tried everything and this too was probably too good to be true. But over ti0me, the products proved that they did work. She has been on the products for over 3 1/2 years now and has lost 45 lbs and has yet to have a single flare-up.

 

Morgan StattuckMorgan Stattuck From Hotworx is a self-motivated professional, able to establish long-term, positive relationships with clients, co-workers and outside partners and looking to expand upon the community networking through new opportunities and channel endeavors. Innovative, enthusiastic, and uncompromising work ethic with a goal to bring energy and achieve potential objectives.

Hotworx is a virtually instructed exercise program created for users to experience the many benefits of infrared heat absorption, while completing a 30-minute Isometric workout or 15-minute High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) session. As the infrared heat penetrates body causing you to sweat, the isometric postures further accelerate detoxification by physically removing the toxins from organs through muscle contraction.

 

 

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

 

TRANSCRIPT

Speaker1: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Woodstock, Georgia. Welcome to women in business where we celebrate influential women making a difference in our community. Now here’s your host.

Speaker2: [00:00:29] Hello, this is Laurie Kennedy, and I’m your host today for women in business, powered by Business RadioX Stone Payton, our producer is also in the studio with us today and we are grateful to have you tuned in today. We are interviewing three amazing women and I can’t wait for you to hear about them and their stories. The first one is Laura Laura with Dr. Fahrenheit H vrc. And then we have Morgan with hot works.

Speaker3: [00:01:02] Yes, yes, that’s correct.

Speaker2: [00:01:03] And I can’t wait to hear more about that. And then we have Kim and Kim has started her own business outside of her regular job with Plexus, and it is turning into quite the sensation. So I’m going to start with you, Laura. Tell us a little about who you are and how you started this business. I will say this. I know you personally and it’s been I’ve seen some very some creativeness that has made me giggle like the fact that Dr. Farenheit is an HVAC company with an ambulance like that makes me giggle. So tell me a little about how you are now in this, this relatively new venture, but yet with so much experience.

Speaker1: [00:01:44] So we got into this business 20 over 20 years ago with my husband. I was working at a roofing company. He was working at a heating and air conditioning company, and we decided it would be a good idea if we went into business together. So 21 years later, two kids, we this is what we do. So Randy had. My husband had a motorcycle accident a few years ago, so we kind of put everything on hold, not really sure what we were going to do. So I went full time into the insurance business. But now we’re back, got the ambulance rolling and we’re out there. So that’s where we are today.

Speaker2: [00:02:26] Yeah. And how has that? Has it taken off for you or you’re like crazy busy? It seems like you are.

Speaker1: [00:02:33] We’re busy, but I think a lot of people aren’t aware that we’re open. Oh gosh, it takes years to build a business in connections. So we’re just it’s almost like a startup. We’re starting over.

Speaker2: [00:02:45] Well, it is a new name, right? Like, no. Oh, you were.

Speaker1: [00:02:47] You had the same name.

Speaker2: [00:02:48] I didn’t know that. Ok? Yeah, OK. Got it. Great name. All right. Yes, it is. It’s so much fun. All right, Morgan, tell us about how it works, what it is, what y’all do, and why it’s different than other things that people might.

Speaker3: [00:03:07] Confuse it with. Yeah, sure. So we are it is hot works, not hot walks. We have a lot of people walk into our business thinking it is Chinese food, which, you know, they walk in and they see all these people work it out and they’re like, Oh, I don’t think I’m in the right spot, but we take we take care of them, and I’m extremely nervous, by the way. So my family’s always told me to picture everyone naked and everyone looks fantastic.

Speaker1: [00:03:32] Thanks.

Speaker2: [00:03:33] I’m I’m blushing.

Speaker3: [00:03:37] But we are a it’s a twenty four hour infrared fitness studio, so we do kind of three dimensional working out. You’re able to do your workouts in an infrared sauna. So we’re not just focused on fitness, we’re also focused on people’s health, which is kind of kind of cool. So we’re getting ready to open up our second location off Marietta Square. It’s been quite the journey, but we just kind of we jumped into it. I told my husband, I said, if I ever have to go to another job and wear heels, I might just be six feet under. I’m not sure. So we we jumped into the fitness industry and I’m loving it. So I get to wear yoga pants and tennis shoes every day.

Speaker2: [00:04:15] I know, right, that you’re dress up clothes. I love it. Well, so how long have when did you start on this venture? And I don’t tell me what infrared like, how that works?

Speaker3: [00:04:25] Yeah. So we we started on this venture. We got our franchise franchise license right when COVID hit and everyone was shutting down. So we had just purchased our license and then all of COVID happened. So we were a little nervous, but we stuck it through and went through construction and we just opened up in June of this year. So just right out, right at six months. So we’re super, super stoked about it and just just going from there. So and with the infrared, so that is focused. It’s kind of new to the industry, but what it is is a it’s an infrared heat that allows people to basically burn more calories and in less amount of time. So a 15 minute hot cycle is equivalent to going and doing like a regular cycle in an AC fitness studio for one hour. So you just you burn twice as many calories as you would sitting on a cycle bike for, you know, for an hour. So you can do that in 15 minutes. We offer hot yoga, hot pilates, the infrared heat you from the core out versus a lot of people have done hot yoga before or that that heat heats you from the outside in. So it’s helping with your respiratory system. It’s helping with just overall blood circulation, cellulite, ladies’ skin aging, blood pressure, all all the good things. So no,

Speaker2: [00:05:43] I don’t have cellulite. I’m naked,

Speaker1: [00:05:45] Right? Exactly. I was thinking the same thing. Why is she looking at me?

Speaker3: [00:05:52] That’s always a big seller. When when women walk in there were like, you start aging backwards and just get in this little sauna if we’re going to heat you up and you’re going to look fabulous when you come out. So it’s it’s fun.

Speaker2: [00:06:02] That’s awesome. Well, Kim, why don’t you tell us about your business?

Speaker4: [00:06:05] Yes. So I am with Plexus worldwide. It is a all natural, plant based supplement company, and I started this about three and a half years ago. Inadvertently, I didn’t plan on starting a business. I have lupus, and so I struggled for years, suffering with a lot of pain and inflammation and sickness and in and out of the air. And I saw a friend posting about this pink drink, and I asked her one day what she was doing because she was a nurse, so I trusted her. She introduced me to the products and I went full on in on the products for nine months and I haven’t had a flare up since then, so I’ve been two and a half years off all of my medications. And so everyone around me wanted to know what the heck I was doing because, you know, my best friend in California, she’s like, What do you mean you were hiking? You don’t hike like you don’t do those things. What are you doing? And do you think this could help me? And so inadvertently, it started, you know, people wanted to try. And so now I’ve been promoted six times in two years within within the company, and it’s just been a huge blessing

Speaker2: [00:07:08] And all while you’re keeping your full time job.

Speaker4: [00:07:11] I work full time.

Speaker2: [00:07:12] Oh, wow. All right. Are you still doing insurance, Laura? Yes. Ok, so you have two full time jobs too.

Speaker1: [00:07:18] Well, some weight and Morgan,

Speaker2: [00:07:21] Do you work 12 jobs or 10 jobs? I mean, because if you’re open 24 hours, like, how often are you there?

Speaker3: [00:07:28] Well, we’re only staff certain hours, but I’ve also got two teenagers. So yes, I work two jobs.

Speaker1: [00:07:33] Oh my god. I know a little like a teenage mom.

Speaker2: [00:07:36] No, no. It looks like a teenager herself. Yes. That’s because she’s doing the backwards workout. Oh, yeah, that’s right. It’s working. Yeah.

Speaker3: [00:07:44] Secret the secrets. A little bit of plexus mixed in there, too.

Speaker1: [00:07:47] Ooh.

Speaker2: [00:07:48] All right. Well, I’m going to start this next question with you, Kim. Ok? How does who you are as a person reflect in what you do?

Speaker4: [00:07:57] Well, I’ve always had a heart for ministry and to help helping people, especially women, and this business has given me a platform to not only help people with their health, help people with their mindset, growth, just their personal growth and then actually developing an income. One of the things that I’ve done this past year, I’ve done a lot of work on my mindset because I realized, you know, I was a single mom. I’m still a single mom and my kids are adults now. But I realized that I never felt worthy of success. I never felt like I deserved the success that other people had. And so I’ve had to do a lot of work on myself. And so now I’m able to pass that on and help other people overcome those mindset issues that they have, that that they can have the dreams they can actually dream and fulfill those dreams.

Speaker2: [00:08:43] Tell us a couple of examples of some things that you are thinking of differently today than you did. Four years ago, five years ago.

Speaker4: [00:08:55] Well, four or five years ago, my kids were in college and I had so much debt, you know, being I have twins. And so when they went off to college, my debt just racked up over the years and I never, ever, ever expected that I could get out of debt. Well, last year, during a pandemic when everyone’s in quarantine, my business was thriving and I got I was able to pay off all of my credit cards.

Speaker2: [00:09:15] Wow, that’s awesome.

Speaker4: [00:09:16] Yeah, it was life changing. And so just a shift in how you think you start showing up for yourself differently.

Speaker2: [00:09:23] That’s great, that’s great.

Speaker1: [00:09:25] I think I think you to practice this. That was too good. Oh no,

Speaker3: [00:09:28] It’s so good.

Speaker2: [00:09:31] We have known each other for a day or two or 10 years or so. But OK, so what about you, Laura? How does who you are as a person reflect on what you do?

Speaker1: [00:09:45] At the same, I have a heart for people in ministry, and I want to help people, and if this is, this is a way to do it, you know, to help people with their heating and air. And it’s not only that I make I, I build relationships with these people, you know, I know about, you know, their dogs, name their grandchildren. I just build relationships and this is a way that we can help.

Speaker2: [00:10:06] So, yeah, I think you should mention that you have some specials or some certain people groups that you do things specifically for. Tell us a little about that.

Speaker1: [00:10:17] So we give free service calls to veterans. My husband’s a marine veteran, so we have a heart for veterans. We also do discounts for senior citizens. Ok, awesome. Yeah.

Speaker2: [00:10:31] What about you, Morgan? How does who you are as a person reflect in what you do?

Speaker3: [00:10:36] I I think in the in the search of all of it, I was trying to land something that would not only benefit the community but also benefit my my family. So I feel like if you are able to find something that you’re good at, like managing a team and boosting people’s self-esteem and helping not only women but also men and families on their health journey, that that would keep my family and I on also a path of a health journey. So jumping into this, this fitness industry, if you will, has been has been amazing all the way around for not just our members that we have there at the studio, but also from like a family perspective in and building and in a healthier manner.

Speaker2: [00:11:16] So, so tell me a little about like what? What is it? How does it work? Do you pay a monthly fee or do you pay as you come in? Or how does how are you structured in reference to that?

Speaker3: [00:11:28] Yeah. So we we are membership based. We also definitely offer specials to our veterans service care providers, you know, military, all of that. But it is membership based. We have different options. We’re right next to KSU too. So we have to think about those kids that don’t have a lot of money in the bank. So we have membership options and we also have like paid and full packages. The first workouts always free so someone can come in and try it, see if they like it first. But we’re always willing to get creative when it comes to them.

Speaker2: [00:11:58] So we’d like you to open one in Woodstock. Yes.

Speaker3: [00:12:01] Yes, please. I would love to open one in Woodstock. I hope my husband’s listening to this.

Speaker2: [00:12:07] We are a pretty vibrant community up here in Woodstock. We would like you to join us.

Speaker3: [00:12:12] All right, love. I will work on that.

Speaker2: [00:12:14] Now, Kim, she lives in Marietta, so she may be close to you. Where exactly are you guys located?

Speaker3: [00:12:21] So currently we are off Chastain Road. You’re probably familiar with like the Taco Mac and yeah, pretty sure, the busiest Chick fil A in Georgia.

Speaker2: [00:12:28] At least it feels like that when you’re looking for a parking place. It does.

Speaker3: [00:12:31] Yes. Yes. And we battled that. We knew we were, you know, taking a risk, building a business right there in that busy parking lot. But knock on wood, that hasn’t been an issue yet, but we’re right there off Chastain and location number two will be off Whitlock. So coming soon. Great.

Speaker2: [00:12:46] That’s awesome. Ok, Kim, another question for you to start or what are some misconceptions about your industry?

Speaker4: [00:12:56] Well, I think network marketing really gets a bad rap and just about justifiably so, there’s a lot of companies out there that don’t do it right, it don’t do it well and really do take advantage of people. And so a lot of people lump all network marketing companies. And together, Plexus has been the biggest gift for me because they do it right. They’ve got quality products that they back with 100 percent money back guarantee their the integrity that they have. They don’t nickel and dime, they’re their ambassadors at all. I mean, you pay this month, it’s nine dollars. Ninety five cents to start a business. You don’t ever pay anything else except your own. You buy your own products. That’s it. And so when you’re backed good products, a great company and a phenomenal compensation plan that works, you know, it has been the biggest blessing. And I think people hold back trying things because they’re fearful based on other experiences.

Speaker2: [00:13:48] Yeah, I definitely agree with that. I think that’s how we’re wired. So right? What about you, Laura? Misconceptions about your industry.

Speaker1: [00:13:58] I have no idea.

Speaker2: [00:13:59] Yeah, I feel like, I mean, I’m an automotive, so I feel like we’re kind of along the same lines like people assume that we’re going to.

Speaker1: [00:14:07] Oh yeah. Yeah.

Speaker2: [00:14:09] Yeah. And they assume the worst. And then they also don’t necessarily understand that sometimes one thing makes something else go bad and you have to fix the one thing before you can figure out that the other thing was what actually was broken because it made the other thing go bad. But you had to fix that to make it run so that you. You know what I’m saying?

Speaker1: [00:14:28] Yes, I do. I think that happens. Yes.

Speaker2: [00:14:35] Morgan, what about you? Misconceptions about your industry? Am I?

Speaker3: [00:14:39] I think I could speak a lot on this just because it is fitness related. So I think a lot of women, you know, they want to come in, they want to jump into this little box and then come out looking like a like a million bucks the next day. And so. And I wish I could make that happen. But it is being consistent and showing up and, you know, doing that for yourself. So I think the biggest misconception is, you know, coming in thinking that it’s going to happen overnight, but giving yourself and allowing yourself that time to to grow and and and do the work you got to put the work in.

Speaker2: [00:15:10] So yeah, for sure. For sure. So I am going to jump to another question. Morgan, let’s start with you. Sure. Do you have a message that is for women specifically?

Speaker3: [00:15:25] I do. We see a lot. 80 percent of our clients or members are women of all ages, all sizes, all colors. And we we love that. I was scrolling through Instagram the other day and I saw I saw a sign or something that said, you know, what’s the secret to Bikini Body? And it was step one Put the bikini on your body. Step two You’re done like except except who you are and rocket, no matter what you look like. And we’re such a happy community over there that we’re going to celebrate you no matter what.

Speaker2: [00:15:56] So, yeah, it’s awesome. Kim, what about you? The question was, do you have a message that is for women, specifically

Speaker4: [00:16:06] For women specifically? Yes. It is always OK to take care of yourself. So many women, I think, put their families first. They put everyone else before them, before they take care of themselves. It’s OK to take care of yourself fur, because once you’re happy and whole and healthy, you’re going to be the best version of you for your family and your friends.

Speaker2: [00:16:27] Yeah, that’s awesome. What about you, Laura? She was too chicken her. Don’t ask me. Don’t ask me. I think Nurse Celcius shows up. Girl, does she know herself? And she got Dr. Farenheit and Nurse Celcius? She isn’t that cute. That makes me

Speaker1: [00:16:45] Giggle. Yeah. Yes, I bring heat.

Speaker2: [00:16:50] Well, Laura, what about your seasonal specials? Do you have anything that seasonal?

Speaker1: [00:16:55] We do. We have maintenance where you get your furnace checked out beforehand in the fall. That’s very important. You want it, you don’t want it to break down in the middle of winter. Right. So it’s important to get that checked out and we do run specials. We also have yearly specials. We can break it down every month. We go out and change your filter twice a year. Check everything. It’s a twenty four point check inspection.

Speaker2: [00:17:19] Yeah. So like a maintenance plan kind of thing, it’s a monthly fee. It is to do that.

Speaker1: [00:17:23] You could you could do a yearly, you could do it monthly. It’s it varies.

Speaker2: [00:17:27] Ok, got it. Yeah, I think that you probably get like 150000 calls on the first hot day in the spring and the first cold day in the fall.

Speaker1: [00:17:37] Yes, people want to wait. They try to put that off. And then it’s an emergency.

Speaker2: [00:17:41] Yeah, because they turn it on and they’re like, Well, I get that. Don’t work.

Speaker1: [00:17:44] That’s right. So it’s important to get get that check. Just just a wellness check. Yeah, the doctor recommends a wellness check.

Speaker2: [00:17:51] Yeah, yeah. Well, as far as your message for women specifically, I think the fact that you’re so involved in the business with your husband that you’re, you know, and your relationship oriented, you just want to make sure that the the women are feel as comfortable as anybody else, you know, like I can again, our our our industries are somewhat similar in so many ways.

Speaker1: [00:18:12] So I and I think, well, we’ve been I’ve been going out to inspections with Randy and I have noticed if it’s a woman there by herself, she’s at ease. Yeah, I talked to her, you know, I built a relationship while he does his thing. Sometimes I hold the light.

Speaker2: [00:18:27] But yeah, yeah, yeah. Danny would probably like me to go to the shop and hold the light under the hood. I cannot. I just I haven’t gotten quite there yet. Let’s talk about mentoring Kim. I’m going to jump back to you. Ah, the question is, are you being mentored and are you mentoring others? And then what does that look like

Speaker4: [00:18:45] Every single day? And I absolutely love it. So this business has been such a blessing because all of the women that have come before me, I’ve been able to watch them. And so I’m able to emulate what they do. And so they’re pouring into me constantly. And so now I’m able to do that with the 300 people that are following behind me. I’m constantly mentoring them, teaching them, training them. And it’s just that’s just that’s the business model. You know, you reach up and follow somebody and then you reach behind and you pull someone up behind you.

Speaker2: [00:19:16] Well, I do love the concept of not just sell, sell, sell, but grow, grow, grow. You know, like, you know, let’s let’s go through this book together, because not only is it going to help us be more successful in like if you’re more successful in who you are, then that’s just going to overflow.

Speaker4: [00:19:34] Absolutely. And that’s one that’s been one of the biggest blessings because I mean, let’s face it, if you go to Walgreens and buy a vitamin over the counter, you’re not going to have someone coaching you and guiding you and mentoring you as you’re taking the product. But with Plexus, you get that. You get that with me.

Speaker2: [00:19:50] That’s awesome. Morgan, what about you, are you being mentored? Are you mentoring others? And what does that look like for you?

Speaker3: [00:19:57] Sure. Yes, we are mentored by artwork’s corporate in general, and we have a coach that we meet with on a weekly basis that kind of keeps us in line and, you know, suggest ideas for the business and, you know, just brings new opportunities to the table. And then in turn, I take that and mentor my team. I’ve got a I’ve got one guy in the team, but the rest of my team are all female, so we do what’s called a daily huddle every day. It’s through an app on our phone and we just kind of regroup in the morning. We help each other build each other up, kind of give, you know, a heads up as to what’s going to happen that day. It’s kind of funny. I do have a case you call a girl that is I won’t I won’t mention your name that is working for us. And she had never left a voice message before. So when she started working for me, I was like a big part of your job is its calling people and talking to them over the phone. You know, she’s 19, 20 years old and she’s like, I have never left a voicemail before, and I was like, Well, you got to learn today, girl, you’re going to learn today. So they’ve learned a lot from just working in this environment, which has been kind of cool.

Speaker2: [00:21:01] Yeah, that’s so interesting. I have I heard recently that they stopped teaching handwriting cursive. Yeah, cursive in in third grade. Now I heard then I heard that they put it back in. But I don’t, I don’t know. It seems foreign to me on some level. Laura, what about you in mentoring?

Speaker1: [00:21:20] I have a couple of mentors in the HVAC field, so I do a lot with them. I’m in a lot of groups, HPC groups. I’m in the some groups for women in this industry and and I mentor anyone that needs. I just do that anyway. Anyone that needs help, I try to help them and figure out a way to to help them be better.

Speaker2: [00:21:44] So will you have some youngins you got to mentor them to tell us about who’s in your family?

Speaker1: [00:21:49] So I have five children and seven grandchildren. Yes, so mine just blew. Yes. So we have one still at home. She’s 15. She’s the caboose. And how old are your children? So I have a 35 year old with thirty three year old, a twenty six year old and 19 year old, and then faith the 15 year old. Awesome. Yeah. And seven beautiful grandchildren.

Speaker2: [00:22:15] Congratulations. That’s amazing. Morgan, what about you?

Speaker3: [00:22:20] We we’ve got like I said earlier, we’ve got two teenagers. I have a lovely stepson who is 20. He’s he has just moved back home and we’re helping him get on his feet. And then my daughter just turned 18. We all come from split families. So when my husband and I got together almost nine years ago, we always used to joke with people and tell them, we’re like, you know, Insta family, just just add water. So those are the two kiddos. And then and then we’ve got five animals, so.

Speaker2: [00:22:51] Big family, big

Speaker3: [00:22:51] Family, big furry family, yes, an extended family spread out all over the U.S.

Speaker2: [00:22:56] So. Gotcha. Kim, what about you?

Speaker4: [00:22:59] So I have twins. They are. I have a boy girl, twins, they’re going to be twenty seven in January. One lives in California. The other one lives in Tulsa.

Speaker2: [00:23:07] Well, they they they went a little far from home, huh?

Speaker4: [00:23:10] You know, I raised them to be strong and independent. I didn’t think they’d listen,

Speaker2: [00:23:16] But they probably didn’t for a few years.

Speaker4: [00:23:18] But they are absolutely amazing. I’m so proud of them.

Speaker2: [00:23:21] That’s awesome. Ok, so I do want to ask, how can others get in touch with you and your business? So I’m going to start Kim with you.

Speaker4: [00:23:31] What you can reach out to me through Facebook. Kim McGinnis, or you can email me at Kim at Pink drink crazy.

Speaker2: [00:23:40] Can you spell your last name?

Speaker4: [00:23:42] I can. Ok. M.a.c ionize.

Speaker2: [00:23:47] Ok. Awesome. And that’s how we get in touch with you. Yes. Ok, what about you, Morgan?

Speaker3: [00:23:52] And well, you’re welcome to always stop by the studio again. We’re we’re right there by the Taco Mac on Chastain. We’d love for you to follow us on Instagram at how it works can. And you’re always welcome to give us a call as well.

Speaker2: [00:24:08] Awesome.

Speaker1: [00:24:09] Laura, you can get in touch with me through WW Dot, Dr. Fahrenheit Fvcom or call me at seven seven zero nine two six six seven seven three.

Speaker2: [00:24:20] Ok. Can you spell Fahrenheit for those of us who didn’t learn how yes, the Cherokee County education?

Speaker1: [00:24:29] Dr. DJR Period. Fh r e nh i t h v AC.

Speaker2: [00:24:37] Quite a mouthful, for sure. And I know that sounded like something we do at the end, and I probably should have made it at the end, but we’re not at the end. I just wanted to make sure I asked all the questions that I knew you guys wanted me to ask. So now that those are done, we’re going to jump into something else. I want to know what makes your life significant.

Speaker1: [00:24:58] Laura? I’m going to get emotional. My family, yeah,

Speaker2: [00:25:04] Yeah, that’s awesome.

Speaker1: [00:25:05] So, yeah, that’s my that’s my inspiration there. My motivation.

Speaker3: [00:25:12] Morgan, I’m probably going to piggyback off off yours. Yeah, my my big biggest motivation would would be my family, my husband and our family and friends. So I think what I’m forgetting, what makes us unique, correct? Yeah. Well, all of us all the same thing with big bow on it.

Speaker2: [00:25:33] What makes your life significant?

Speaker3: [00:25:36] I think, yeah, just family and where we all come from. So again, with the whole we’ve all come from split families and stuff like that, I think being able to come together and and love one another has been significant for us.

Speaker2: [00:25:50] Yeah, I think when you are trying to combine families, that also adds a degree of complication that you have to navigate. And so kudos to you for for making that work, for sure. Thank you. What makes your life significant, Kim?

Speaker4: [00:26:06] You know, I’m a firm believer. I learned a long time ago, you know, God has blessed me so many times in my life and I always come back to he doesn’t do it just for me. He does it so that I can help somebody else and introduce him to somebody else. And so paying that forward, so the saying, if you’re a blessing, if you’re blessed, be a blessing.

Speaker2: [00:26:24] Yeah, that’s great. That’s great. How do you handle mistakes in your business?

Speaker4: [00:26:32] Kim, the first thing is I don’t consider the mistakes, I consider them learning opportunities because everything that you do is an opportunity to grow and learn from. And if we don’t have those challenges, we’re not going to learn. We’re just going to keep moving forward.

Speaker2: [00:26:46] Yeah, that’s awesome. I saw it a few weeks ago. I start. I want one of my goals this year and to 2022 is to redefine failure. And so one of the things I want to do is every Monday morning or whatever, whatever morning, Monday just is a good day to start things right? And want to look at the prior week and say, OK, where did I fail so that I can just basically, you know, dissect it and use it as a learning opportunity? If you if you keep doing something and then you don’t pull it apart to try to find out what you can do different to change it for the future, then you just, you know, that definition of insanity, right? Doing the same thing over and expecting different results if I’m going to expect different results. I got to do something different. So I’m going to go look at and dissect the thing I didn’t do the way I wanted to do it so that I can have a better opportunity for success.

Speaker4: [00:27:41] Just make sure you don’t beat yourself up over it.

Speaker2: [00:27:43] Yeah. Good word. Gimme. I need that for sure.

Speaker4: [00:27:45] You can analyze it, but then you’ve got to move on. Yeah.

Speaker2: [00:27:48] Just yeah, analyze it. Create the strategy for moving forward. But don’t kick myself in the process. Absolutely. Yeah, for sure. What about you, Morgan? How do you handle mistakes in your business?

Speaker3: [00:28:02] I just pass. Those right on to my GM

Speaker2: [00:28:05] Is the best answer

Speaker3: [00:28:06] I’ve heard. There’s also my best friend, and I hope she’s also listening. No, we I. I like to sit down, process it. Listen, I think listening is the key. So depending on what that my mistake is, we if we’re not making mistakes, then we’re not humans, right? So I don’t think I’d be where I am today if I didn’t make a million mistakes. So I turned them into a positive affirmation. And I pick up the next day and I learn and I grow and I move on.

Speaker2: [00:28:33] Yeah, yeah. What about you, miss Laura?

Speaker1: [00:28:36] I try to correct my mistakes. Yeah, right away. And like you, Lori, I analyze everything and pull things apart. I mean, at the end of the day, I look over everything. I did do this. I could have done this better. Yeah, I’m the same way. I do the same thing, but I do have a tendency to expect more out of myself. So I pushed myself and yeah. Yeah, but then I overcome, then I adapt and overcome that. Yeah, that’s for sure you have to you have to keep going and learn from it.

Speaker2: [00:29:04] Yeah, I think for I mean, in our business, if we make a mistake on a vehicle, for example, like I think the first thing that we need to do is own it. Yes. You know, instead of trying to push it off on something else, just own it. People know you’re going to mess up every now and then just own it and make it right. Exactly, you know, and then they’re more forgiving, right? Right. Yes. What are the greatest challenges you are facing right now as a business or industry, Laura?

Speaker1: [00:29:33] For me, its employees are, yes, it’s really hard to find people that want to work.

Speaker2: [00:29:40] Ok, I’m with you.

Speaker1: [00:29:41] Yeah, I agree. Challenge. I’m having personnel.

Speaker2: [00:29:45] And what are you looking for in case somebody listening that might be interested, what would that look like for you?

Speaker1: [00:29:51] I’m looking for a lead technician, someone that’s got at least three years of experience that can repair a service repair person in this industry that wants to grow with this. Ok, yeah, great.

Speaker2: [00:30:04] You all learned how to spell Farenheit a few minutes ago. You know how to reach out somewhere.

Speaker1: [00:30:09] That’s right.

Speaker2: [00:30:11] Morgan, what about you? What are the greatest challenges you’re facing as a business or industry?

Speaker3: [00:30:16] I think one of the greatest challenges is just creating that longevity, keeping people motivated and around for the long haul, right? So a lot of people like to go and jump into the next big fitness among listening whenever it’s new and bright and shiny. And so keeping that just charisma about your studio is really important and another I need to stop giving things out for free. My husband’s like, if you just give everything up for free, we’re never going to grow, so I’m personally working on that. Yeah, that’s that’s a challenge because I just want to give give give all the time. So I’m working on that.

Speaker2: [00:30:50] So does everybody at this table have a hard time saying no?

Speaker4: [00:30:53] Yes, no.

Speaker3: [00:30:55] It depends. It depends.

Speaker4: [00:30:56] Ask a few questions.

Speaker2: [00:31:00] All right. Well, I’m going to jump back into greatest challenges you’re facing as a business or industry for you, Kim.

Speaker4: [00:31:05] You know, ironically, in the last year and a half since we’ve been, you know, in this pandemic, we really haven’t had challenges. I mean, wellness, health and wellness and immunity is on the forefront of everybody’s brain. Yeah. And so and I think in the last six months, you know, there’s been a lot of issues with people, you know, having to choose career making career decisions because of mandates, because of job requirements of mandates and in their personal choices. And so it has really blossomed and opened up an arena for women that want to stay home with their kids that don’t want to have to to live under those those guidelines. And so it’s a great opportunity for people to do that.

Speaker2: [00:31:45] For sure, hey, Morgan, what advice would you give to someone trying to get into your industry?

Speaker3: [00:31:52] Um, just just come on, I don’t even know what advice I would give, I would just encourage them to make that step. Make that phone call reach out to people that are also in the industry and how they can be successful. If it wasn’t for another franchise owner, the Smyrna network’s owners back to the mentors, they were kind of our mentors and help guide us through some of these processes and without them, I don’t know where where I’d be. So just reaching out to those people that you can get knowledge from.

Speaker2: [00:32:22] How many hot works are there?

Speaker3: [00:32:25] There’s over a hundred and twenty nationwide. We’re also abroad as well. Ok. So I think here in Georgia alone, we’re creeping up on the 50 plus.

Speaker2: [00:32:36] Oh, wow. Ok. Is this where did it start?

Speaker3: [00:32:40] It started in New Orleans.

Speaker2: [00:32:43] Oh, wow, that’s interesting. Ok. All right. Well, I’m going to ask you another question that’s not on my list, so I didn’t prep you for it. Back to this infrared thing, like what heat is in the room, I want to know how hot it is in there.

Speaker3: [00:32:56] So you actually get to control it, but all of our asanas are patent to go up to one hundred and thirty degrees. I definitely don’t encourage first timers to do one hundred and thirty degrees. It’s like a little human microwave, which is you in there, but you have control over that. So for new people, I start, I’d like to start them out at like one 15, maybe even lower, just so your body acclimated to that heat. After two or three times your body, believe it or not, actually starts craving that. So you get better sleep. Kind of the same stuff that you’re doing better sleep, more energy and you start to crave it and you want more. So.

Speaker2: [00:33:32] Awesome. Ok? What advice would you give to someone trying to get into your industry or business, Laura?

Speaker1: [00:33:39] I would say be teachable. Learn as much as you

Speaker2: [00:33:42] Can,

Speaker1: [00:33:43] Learn as much as you can about the industry and care about people that’s important to. Yeah. Learn as much as you can, like I read, I just learn.

Speaker2: [00:33:56] I think one of the things that I sometimes I end this show with a saying that has to do with, you know, basically being teachable, I feel like if you think you already know everything, then you’re sure to learn nothing. That’s normally what I say when we’re ending the show just because it’s like, I definitely feel like. That sometimes my biggest problem is I get too confident about something and then I stop learning about it, you know? Right? Yeah. So tell me your most rewarding experience with a customer recently.

Speaker1: [00:34:36] So many, if we can make them comfortable, I’m happy. Yeah.

Speaker2: [00:34:41] Well, you had mentioned there was a lady specifically recently that had been had heat for three years.

Speaker1: [00:34:48] We’re working on that. Yes. So she yes. So we are. It’s a big project. She hasn’t had heat in three years. She’s got MS. She can’t speak. So her daughter reached out to us. And so we’re trying to come up with a plan to bring her some heat. So yeah, so I think this is a tradition that I would like to do once a year is to give heat to someone who can’t afford it. So, you know, that’s that’s what we’re that’s what we’re working on right now. That makes me feel pretty. It makes you feel kind of sad for them. But also you can do something to help. Right. So that’s yeah, that’s great for sure.

Speaker2: [00:35:27] Yeah. Hey, Morgan, do you have a customer story that is a success story from recent times?

Speaker3: [00:35:34] We do several just, you know, people that are on there again, their fitness journeys and their their missions. We do have a single mom that finally learned how to say no and stop apologizing and decided to do something for herself. About three months ago, and she’s just been working really hard, and she announced the other day, you know, and it’s not just about losing weight for her journey, it was about losing weight so she could be a better mom to her kids. And she she’s lost 50 plus pounds in the last 60 days, and she feels like a whole new person, so we can’t even keep her out of the studio.

Speaker2: [00:36:09] That’s so great.

Speaker3: [00:36:10] And you can just tell your customers they can just move into hot works. We will give them heat plenty of it.

Speaker1: [00:36:15] So if I can’t bring it, you can absolutely.

Speaker3: [00:36:19] Girl, I got your back.

Speaker2: [00:36:20] Yeah, I got here today, and Laura was like, This is an interesting mix of businesses, but see how that just connected?

Speaker1: [00:36:26] Yes.

Speaker2: [00:36:26] Yes, I do. Kim, what about you and most rewarding recent story with a client?

Speaker4: [00:36:36] There’s there’s so many, but there’s one that’s jumping out that this week this woman actually posted a picture of herself. She started on our products about a year and a half ago. She had rheumatoid arthritis, had a lot of pain, inflammation. She couldn’t walk, she couldn’t exercise. And she’s pain free and she’s actually lost 60 pounds. And she posted a selfie, a full body selfie, like unprovoked.

Speaker2: [00:36:59] So that is so awesome. She look as good as us. She Yeah, I mean, I can’t see her, but I don’t think she was naked, though like we are. Well, Kim, you got as gifts. I did. What did you get us?

Speaker4: [00:37:15] Well, you can open it.

Speaker1: [00:37:16] Ok.

Speaker2: [00:37:18] All right. We’re going to open these real quick what we get.

Speaker4: [00:37:21] Well, I’m a sample queen, so I bring samples everywhere I go,

Speaker1: [00:37:25] Oh, look,

Speaker4: [00:37:27] Oh, so this is our new this is our new holiday blend. So this is a black cherry lime blossom. This is a new version of our pink drink, and the pink drink was actually created by an endocrinologist to help balance blood sugar. And so it and once you balance your blood sugar, it helps all of your other hormones get lined up and start working right, so it helps curb sugar cravings, gives you more energy and it has a prebiotic in it. And it’s called it’s called plexus slim. Its microbiome activating.

Speaker2: [00:37:57] Awesome. All right. Well, we’re going to go into last comments and I just want I want to start with you, Morgan, because I’ve started on this end in this end, but not in the middle. So I’m starting in the middle. Ok. Just give us some last comments or words. What are some things that we need to know about you or your business or how to connect with you? Or what are some? What is one thing you want to leave us with?

Speaker3: [00:38:23] First off, just thank you for for having us here. It feels really good to be sitting around a table with women and that are in all different industries, somewhat similar to in some. But just I just want to say thank you. And if you have an opportunity to to come out and see us, please do and we bring your business to, I mean, sometimes we get slapped on the hand from, you know, franchises, but we we want to be the people that we can say, yes, we know that girl that does Botox, or yes, we know that woman that owns an ornament automotive business or we know someone that digs holes like we just love being that community where we can help everyone grow.

Speaker2: [00:38:58] So awesome. Well, thank you for being here.

Speaker4: [00:39:00] I think you and I should go do a workout.

Speaker2: [00:39:02] I think I know, I think we should, too. I like the naked whoa that just went somewhere I’m not OK with. I’m fine with being in the studio pretending to be naked, but I like that she looked at you and she said, dig holes, though I know

Speaker3: [00:39:27] I challenge all of you guys to come to the studio and we’ll have some fun too. Maybe we’ll we’ll have some champagne afterwards.

Speaker4: [00:39:33] Well, there will be laughter.

Speaker2: [00:39:36] Ok, awesome. Challenge accepted. We’ll look at that in the new year, for sure. All right, Laura,

Speaker1: [00:39:44] What would you like? 30 second opinions on new systems?

Speaker2: [00:39:48] Oh, that is that a common thing? Like, is that a common thing that happens where a whole system is recommended, when it’s not necessary?

Speaker1: [00:39:56] I don’t know. Yeah, OK, but I bet, you know, I know that we can save people money, that we can price match. So, you know, if you want to, if you don’t feel comfortable with someone saying that you need a new system, we’ll come out for free and look at everything and tell you our opinion.

Speaker2: [00:40:10] Aren’t you awesome?

Speaker1: [00:40:11] Ok, thank you. Nurse Celsius.

Speaker3: [00:40:16] That’s right. You know, I wish we would have known this about a month ago.

Speaker1: [00:40:20] Always say that you don’t know how many times I hear that. We’re always a day late.

Speaker4: [00:40:24] I’m going to spread the word now.

Speaker2: [00:40:26] Thank you, Miss Kim. What would you like to leave us with?

Speaker4: [00:40:29] Well, anyone that that reaches out to me today and mentions this interview, I will give a very big discount on you getting started on your health today. What?

Speaker2: [00:40:40] Awesome. Yes. Well, Stone, do you want to tell us what you want to leave us with today?

Speaker5: [00:40:48] Well, this is just so much fun. It’s such a joy just to sit here and watch people get to know each other and learn about each other’s business. I’ve got a thousand questions, so I’m going to have to do a whole nother episode. But thank you for letting me be a part of this. An absolute joy to to and to watch you facilitate the conversation and in the energy that all three of you bring to it. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker4: [00:41:11] Thanks for having

Speaker2: [00:41:11] Us. Awesome. Well, if you think you know everything. You’re sure to learn nothing.

Christina Ross With Silverfrog Marketing

by

ChristinaRoss
Coach The Coach
Christina Ross With Silverfrog Marketing
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ChristinaRossChristina Ross is the President and Marketing Director at SilverFrog Marketing and loves helping businesses with their creative design and overall marketing efforts.

She has spent the majority of her career in the marketing industry, gaining experiences in areas such as website design, social media marketing, TV/Radio broadcast, and Google marketing. While marketing is her primary job function by day, Christina also enjoys painting, yoga, and spending time with her family.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • How to get started Marketing for business/small business
  • Maximize SEO, PPC, and digital marketing
  • Balancing all digital marketing
  • Best tactics for a brand based on industry

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Coach the Coach radio brought to you by the Business RadioX Ambassador Program, the no cost business development strategy for coaches who want to spend more time serving local business clients and less time selling them. Go to brxambassador.com To learn more. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:33] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Coach the Coach Radio, and this is going to be a fun one today on the show, we have Christina Ross with silverfrog marketing. Welcome, Christina.

Christina Ross: [00:00:44] Hey, Lee, thank you so much for having me on.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:46] I am so excited to talk marketing with you. Tell us a little bit about Silver Frog. How are you serving, folks?

Christina Ross: [00:00:53] Oh, wonderful. So Silver Fraud Marketing is a full service agency, so at this point, we do everything from websites, SEO, digital marketing into the TV radio space.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:05] So what’s your back story? How did you get involved in your own agency?

Christina Ross: [00:01:09] So I, you know, I’m a serial entrepreneur and through a series of trying my own businesses and really always kind of coming to the marketing part and getting stuck. So going through everything that I had to learn from that I started serving small businesses with just one offs. So like a website here or a PPC campaign here for probably a good five years. And that was going really well. You know, I I did it alone. I started silver frog marketing in twenty fifteen in that method of websites and just getting people found right at that point. 2019, my husband joined me and brought in TV and radio, which just brought a different level of clients. So now we do both, we do the marketing, digital marketing and the TV radio.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:06] So now was that a big shift for you just from the in terms of an ideal client fit? You know, when you’re doing the one offs of websites that’s probably attracting a certain type of entrepreneur? And then when you layer in these larger mass mediums that might attract a different entrepreneur.

Christina Ross: [00:02:23] It does. We definitely found that there’s different clientele that need the TV radio. Those are typically larger markets, more branding, direct response. And then there’s a huge cluster of small businesses, entrepreneurs just getting started that really don’t need TV and radio at all. What they need is a good, solid digital presence, and that goes more than just being on Google or just being on Facebook. It’s really a blend of all the moving digital mediums, and that’s where I kind of developed this. You know, no one I’ve gotten really good at figuring out what works with what and why. Right. And we can go into some tips and details in a few minutes, but there’s definitely a lot of moving parts to be found that I think a lot of small business owners just need to have in place. And they may never get to the TV radio need. And that’s OK. There’s a lot of digital mediums.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:22] Now you mentioned earlier, use the word brand and a lot of folks use media, whether it’s digital or traditional for brand, you know, to create that brand ubiquity so that they see the brand. And then hopefully at the time of purchase, they think of my brand at that moment in time. But smaller entrepreneurs sometimes need more ROI driven marketing where they know that if I’m investing this amount of money that I’m going to get that amount of money plus more back or else I can’t stay in business like they, I can’t afford to just throw it out there and hope that over time, in the long run that this is going to pay off. How do you kind of educate your clients on the difference between the two and to manage their expectations on how both of those kind of perform?

Christina Ross: [00:04:16] Definitely. And that’s a great topic. So consistency is key, right? And I think what you just spoke to is these larger brown brands. They show that right. Their consistency through their brands, their messaging, their marketing, their colors. While small business owners can do that exact same thing, that exact same mindset on a lot smaller budget. And that’s a lot of what I talk about, and a lot of what we implement in our team is the consistency because of the trust that it builds in your consumer. So regardless of if you’re a one man shop just selling out of your home, or if you have a building full of staff and you’re a medium sized company, you definitely need your consumer to have the trust in your brand. So that’s huge.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:05] Now, when you are dealing with the smaller folks and a lot of their rhythm of their life is get a client, got a client, work on the client, don’t have the client better, find a new client, you know, like it’s feast or famine existence, and you were mentioning the importance of consistency. A lot of the smaller folks, the ones that are also doing the work, that they have to be the hunter to get the the client, but they also have to be the worker that’s doing the work of the client. So while they’re working on the client, they’re not saying, I gather, Hey, I got maybe I should be, you know, still doing stuff to get the next client because I’m so busy with this client. How do you help that person?

Christina Ross: [00:05:48] Absolutely. And that’s exactly where I was, and I think a lot of people, especially getting started, have all the hats there, the accounting department there, the service department and the marketing department. So one thing that I tell any small business owner is have a plan. So even if it’s just you, you know, once a month, sit down and think about what you need to do for marketing, but on your marketing hat once a month and create a plan because putting a plan in place, even if it’s just a list of things that you’ll get done over the next month, maybe that’s a Facebook page. Maybe that’s a Google my business page. Maybe that is a website if you don’t have one. All these things don’t cost anything or are low cost, but are very important in terms of getting found online. So I the few things that I would tell people that have no money but a great idea, right? And it’s only them is work on getting a Facebook presence because that comes up when people search for your service, have a website, if you can afford it, there’s definitely cheap options that are still relevant and still work for a lot of businesses. Google My business is actually probably the the number one thing that is going to get you driven on Google. So with a good Google, my business page and a Facebook page, that’s a great start to get yourself out there and to start gaining followers and gaining visibility without necessarily doing much. And again, I tell people, you know, just sit down once a month and implement certain things, and then you get to a point where you can almost set it and forget it with certain marketing techniques.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:30] Yeah, I’m with you totally. When it comes to that, I’m always recommending folks, just put it in your calendar, just block a certain amount of time every week, every month, whatever. But just put it in, make it non-negotiable, you know, schedule around it and just invest some time because there is a compounding effect. If you do this kind of regularly and reliably, that pays off dramatically in the long term, long term, even though it might seem like you’re not doing a lot in any. Given session, it compounds over time.

Christina Ross: [00:08:03] Absolutely. I mean, I’ve seen I’ve seen cases where a client literally just sends one email a month and that drives in a $100000 sale, you know? And again, it’s it’s the planning and the having a good list, you know, so you can do this with your website. You can do this if you’re gaining leads through Facebook. However, you’re gaining leads. Just be aware of it and to your when you’re at the point where you can run email campaigns do it consistently, you know, at least once a month, you want to be touching your customers and not always with a promotion, sometimes just with news about your industry or your growth as a company. Because, again, just the consistency of touching your the client’s email box once a month, that gets you back top of mind if they need your services in the future.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:57] Now, what do you tell the folks that say, You know what, I don’t have to do any marketing. I get all my business through word of mouth.

Christina Ross: [00:09:05] You know, and that does happen, and I say that that’s great. But I believe it will be hard to scale like that. And if that’s working for the person at that point, then you know what? Nothing I can offer is going to help. However, it’s very hard to scale your business if you’re not putting yourself out there in front of other people in front of new people. Referral programs are great. Word of mouth is absolutely wonderful and still a fantastic marketing medium. However, there’s a lot of other things that you can be doing to get new clients.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:40] Yeah, and you have to always be kind of getting ready for that rainy day because it’s going to come and it’s better to have people in the pipeline and a wait list than it is to say, Hey, I don’t have any business, but guess what? Rent’s going to be due at the end of the month. So surprise there. So it’s always good to keep the pipeline is filled as possible if you can can, and a good list goes a long way to doing that.

Christina Ross: [00:10:04] Absolutely. And if possible, a list differentiated between current customers and prospects because you can absolutely do different types of marketing to different types of people in your pipeline.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:18] Now, we talked a little bit about marketing with no budget. If you were to kind of advise people and then they do all those kind of basic blocking and tackling, like you said, the Google My Business page, and they got their Facebook page and they’re doing the stuff that they can control and they’re getting a little bit of traction and they’re getting, you know, things are starting to happen, but they want to take their business, their marketing to a new level. What would be kind of the progression, like, how do you go from this? Do it yourself kind of strategy to maybe do it with somebody like your former firm or a marketing person?

Christina Ross: [00:10:54] Definitely. So that’s an exciting point when you get to your business to the point where you can actually put money into marketing. And so at that point, I think Google and Facebook are great ways to put low amounts of budget in to start gaining the traction, figuring out what types of messaging, marketing promotions are going to work. We do budgets as low as $500 a month, you know, sometimes, especially for local businesses. The way that you target, especially with radius, is around your business. You really don’t need much as long as you do a little bit of research, you know your keywords. You have a good promotional message. You know, maybe it’s a holiday coming up or you’ve got a good new customer message. Those are great. People respond to that. I would definitely do a Facebook campaign or and or a Google campaign.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:47] So even if the business is maybe more B2B, you would still recommend Facebook. Or is that something that is so Facebook to you works no matter what type of business it is?

Christina Ross: [00:11:57] Yes, because SEO and B2B, you’re right is it’s definitely different in terms of marketing. Google, for instance, doesn’t work as well. However, Facebook is still good because of the targeting. So whereas for businesses, for instance, let’s say it’s a payroll provider and they’re looking for small businesses. I can go into Facebook and look for HR administrators, small business owners, you know, people with different titles or people in different industries, HR industries that I can put that message in front of the right person. So even be to be and then be to be. There’s a lot of opportunities with just SEO and blogging to get tips out there for other business owners who are looking for your services.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:47] And then when you’re working with a client. Talk to me about what does that look like from an onboarding standpoint, like how do you get them up and running? Like how much time does it take for you to kind of get the information you need because you mentioned things like keywords or ideal client? You know, to be as clear as possible when it comes to things like that goes a long way because the worst thing to happen is you have a great campaign and it’s aimed at the wrong group of people and then you’re getting you’re not getting the best fit client for the effort.

Christina Ross: [00:13:19] Definitely. So when we onboard a client, you know, we’re doing everything from the website, the SEO to all the marketing. So we do an extensive amount of research first where we’re looking at their competitors, we’re looking at existing Google information. If it’s not on them because they’re new, we look at other industries, you know, we start there, we look at what keywords are converting, what keywords are resonating. That’s a good point. Even existing businesses, there’s a lot of not a lot. There’s a few sites that you can go and get some free data in terms of SEO and keywords. I know Google’s got some great tools. From there, we come up with just strategic campaigns that flow together and are backed up with automation and that goes to planning. You know, anybody can do this where you’re just saying, OK, I’m going to send this email to this group of people, the people who open, I’m going to take this step, whether it’s be to send a follow up email or to notify somebody or to add them to a different list. You know, whatever step that is, you want to make sure that you’re constantly moving people in the pipeline and marketing down the funnel.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:30] Now you mentioned a funnel, a lot of our listeners are business coaches or their coaches, they’re in the coach business. And, you know, so they’re advising people about their business, but sometimes it’s like kind of the cobbler’s children that they are not doing the marketing themselves. Is there any advice for a coach, somebody that sells a service that isn’t necessarily selling a thing, but selling a service for them to kind of get the most bang for their marketing dollar?

Christina Ross: [00:15:01] Yeah, absolutely. So definitely email automation and really just workflow automation in terms of your events that you’re you’re holding any webinars that you’re putting out, keeping so well, like what I’ll do is I’ll send an email out and then I have a structure of auto drips. So if an email goes out, those people are automatically getting weekly drips in those campaigns. So things like that where you understand, I mean, you know, it’s marketing, not mind control, right? Not everybody opens the email, even if they are a fan of yours or are interested, they just don’t have time. So staying top of mind and constantly touching those people, I think, is very important, especially for B2B. And so, yeah, I mean, just definitely email automation would be my my first, my first key there.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:52] Now, can you share a story of maybe before and after somebody that obviously don’t name their name or their company, but explain like the challenge they were having? Then they found you and then you were working with them and you were able to take them to a new level.

Christina Ross: [00:16:06] Yeah, absolutely so. And so I recently had a client. It was one main company and they were kind of an umbrella for four different companies. And now at the time, they had brought in those companies at different points and they kind of had different things implemented. There was no consistency, and from their point of view, they really weren’t getting the leads that they were expecting to be getting from having all these brands. So what we did was we came in and just created consistency throughout with the marketing. With their list, we organize their lists. We developed different messaging in different methods of social media and email and automations that show no one showed the client where people their clients were actually interested in and then helped the client to then better follow up with those visitors by just understanding what they were interested in. For instance, if they got an email and then clicked on a link, OK, now did they fill out a form? Did they bounce off the page? Did they follow it to another link? And what we realized was a lot of their current clientele was gravitating towards one brand. What we were able to do the following month is develop different material for the other lacking brands and put money behind the working brand, and they are seeing a great return on leads coming in from that one brand. And we’re definitely seeing spikes in the other brands. So hopefully that that helps a little bit. But again, just having a plan, planning it out, utilizing marketing and follow ups.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:49] So now in your firm, do you have kind of your own personas of ideal clients? I know you mentioned that with the TV and the mass media, that might be a little different than the digital marketing for the entrepreneur. But can you explain like who the ideal silver frog clients look like? What do they look like?

Christina Ross: [00:18:08] So for digital marketing, for our core package, it works really well with local businesses that need customers to come in. So you know, the hair salons, landscapers, tax shops, those people, they need to be found on Google, they need to be found near me. So a lot of what we do is through Google, my business algorithms and SEO to have just anybody who’s searching for that service. We make sure that our clients come up first. We also work with a lot of specialty medical so allergy centers. We do a lot in terms of TV and email automation that works well, as well as online, just online only e-commerce. So we’ve got some vitamin brands that they sell vitamin powders online only e-commerce, and we do a lot of automation for that as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:02] So you can help somebody who has kind of a national business as well as local businesses.

Christina Ross: [00:19:08] Correct? Yes. And honestly, we put them on different platforms. The backend platform systems are different. But again, it matters. It really does matter what systems the business is using, what marketing efforts they’re using to put out based on the consumer that they’re looking for.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:24] And this kind of work is not fully set at. Forget it, right, this is kind of a living, breathing thing that has to be tweaked and modified and and testing different concepts and creatives and offers like right, this is this is not something you just say, OK, I do this once and I don’t have to think about it again.

Christina Ross: [00:19:45] No, no. And I think that’s why, you know, having a one month meeting with yourself is great because that’s what we do with our clients. You know, at least once a month, we’re having a marketing meeting where we’re looking at results. You’ve got to find out how did your marketing do to figure out if you want to do it again or improve on it or do something different. Also, when you consistently go back and touch on things on your marketing, you’re able to tie in new promotions, keeping things fresh, giving your consumers and your audience something new to look at and be engaged by.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:20] Well, Christina, if somebody wants to learn more, is what’s the best way to get a hold of you? Is there a website or is it through social media channels? What can you give us the coordinates?

Christina Ross: [00:20:29] Absolutely. So Silver Frog Marketing is our website, and we are also on Facebook and LinkedIn and Instagram, and I think we’re even developing a Snapchat channel at this point. But definitely. Or just reach me a Christina at Silver Krug Marketing.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:48] Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Christina Ross: [00:20:53] Thank you. You, too.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:54] All right, this is Lee Kantor will sail next time on Coach the Coach radio.

Regan Bercher With The Gathering Spot

by

ReganBercher
Atlanta Business Radio
Regan Bercher With The Gathering Spot
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thegatheringspots

ReganBercherRegan Bercher Harlin serves as Chief of Staff of The Gathering Spot, a private membership club with locations in Atlanta, DC, and LA.

Regan joined The Gathering Spot in 2015 as the first employee serving as Membership Director and helping to open the first location in Atlanta. Now, Regan leads special projects related to the growth of the company.

Connect with Regan on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • About The Gathering Spot
  • The learning lessons from this experience joining a start-up as the first employee
  • Pivoting as acompany
  •  Top moments about The GatheringSpot that set it apart from other private clubs

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. OnPay is the top rated payroll and HR software anywhere. Get one month free at onpay. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:31] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio, and this is going to be a fun 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 Regan Bercher with the gathering spot. Welcome, Regan.

Regan Bercher: [00:00:49] Hi Lee, how are you doing?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:50] I am doing great, I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about the gathering spot. How are you serving, folks?

Regan Bercher: [00:00:56] Yeah. So the gathering spot is a private membership club. We were founded here in Atlanta in twenty sixteen. Since opening in Atlanta, we now have a Washington, D.C. location that opened last year and then a location in L.A. is under construction should be opening in the next couple of months. So we’re in Atlanta born company, but we’re growing.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:15] So what is the gathering spot? How are you serving, folks?

Regan Bercher: [00:01:19] Yeah. So we are a private membership club. So by nature, that is a physical space. But we also really pride ourselves on being about community. So the gathering spot members are innovators. They’re forward thinkers, they’re creatives, they are entrepreneurs coming from all different walks of life. Our space here in Atlanta has a restaurant and bar, a workspace, event space and members come together to gather over food events programs. We’ll do speaking engagements where they can listen and learn something new workshops where they can have professional development opportunities and then fun stuff to like. Listening to Gabrielle Union. Tell us about her book or a cocktail workshop where you can learn how to make a new drink, things like that as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:04] So is it a kind of a co-working space that also has a lot of curated content happening there? Or is it not a co-working space? And it’s a place where people just gather like almost like a country club for business people,

Regan Bercher: [00:02:22] Probably saying more like a city club would be the easier way to describe it to someone who hasn’t been there. So workspace is an amenity for us, but I would say we’re very different than if you were looking to join a traditional co-working space. When we talk to someone who’s looking for a private office at a co-working space, we tell them that’s great and they might want to look at that. In addition to joining the gathering spot, you would join the gathering spot for connectivity to meet new people, to be a part of the movers and shakers here in Atlanta. But as far as the physical space, yeah, something more similar to a city club. Or you could think of a country club without the golf and the pool, so more of a members only restaurant and bar and event space. You can rent out conference rooms, podcast studio, things like that.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:06] So it’s a place where people can go and hang out with like minded people like themselves.

Regan Bercher: [00:03:12] Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:13] And then they can they bring clients there as well? Or is it just members only?

Regan Bercher: [00:03:18] So the spaces members only and members guests, so a member could bring up to three people with them at any time and their guests will just need to stay with them throughout the club. So they is great for entertaining clients, business meetings, things like that.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:32] So now how did the gathering spot manage through the pandemic when a lot of folks couldn’t go to places like that?

Regan Bercher: [00:03:41] Yeah. So interesting time we were about to open our D.C. location halted that, which was good for the way DC handled the pandemic here in Atlanta. It was a test of a theory we’ve always had, which was what makes the gathering spot special is the community of members and it doesn’t need a space in order to have community. We always thought that to ourselves, but we never really had a test where we could experiment if that is actually true. So when we had to close our doors in March of twenty sixteen, a lot of other places were telling members that they were going to pause membership dues and reevaluate after what everyone thought was a couple of weeks. But we looked and we said, You know, we have a whole team here in Atlanta. We have employees who are going to suffer. We really can’t waive membership and just wait this out. So our members stuck with us and we really had actually a ninety nine percent retention rate during COVID as high as it’s ever been. Our members did not cancel their memberships. They stuck with the gatherings, even if that meant they couldn’t come to the club. We worked really hard to create online resources and digital content so that members could keep up with everything that we were doing. So, you know, members are watching virtual conversations and doing virtual meetups, and we were really quick about turning that around. And we also created a fund so all of the members who were still paying dues. We created a fund so that members in need. We’re able to apply for the fund and receive some allocation of money to help either their small business or their personal needs during that time. So we gave over. We gave six figures a way to members during that time, and a lot of members are really happy that their dues were going to a good spot during that time as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:27] So now we’re any of those changes that were kind of had to happen to survive during that time, anything that’s going to carry forward post-pandemic.

Regan Bercher: [00:05:37] You know, virtual events is the new norm, so we are lucky that we already had a great online portal for members where they could go watch all of our events. Now everything is a hybrid event, or sometimes we still do virtual only as we’ve expanded. I mean, when COVID hit, we only had Atlanta. Now we have actually communities and eight cities across the country. So now we have members all over the country. So having really built out a great virtual component to the membership and the digital resources has been really beneficial for the members that don’t have access to a club as easily as other members.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:12] So now how did you expand into those other markets virtually? Are you partnering with other folks or are you, you know, kind of hiring boots on the ground in those markets?

Regan Bercher: [00:06:22] Yeah. So earlier this year, we launched connected cities, which is communities and cities that do not have a physical space, but we are still gathering community there. So. So we have New York, Detroit, Charlotte, Houston and Chicago are connected cities. We have several hundred members in each of those cities now that are going to events. We do programing for them. We’ll do meetups for them in person. Something like a pottery class or a New Year’s happy hour, things like that. So you can still meet people in your city and still go to tgz programing. And then also we’ll have the digital resources for them and then access to the club when they travel.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:05] So now how important is it to just constantly be constantly be coming up with kind of compelling events? Is that a lot of what you’re you’re trying to do is kind of, OK, what creative thing can we do to get people excited about? And you know, that makes us special and unique?

Regan Bercher: [00:07:23] Absolutely. Yeah, we have a really, really great team who is constantly thinking of events and new ways that members can be excited to come to the club. So we’re always looking at it. I think we always try to stay really relevant to what’s happening in the city and culture kind of in the world. So always looking at on Twitter to what’s the hot topic on Twitter and then doing a pop up dinner conversation on that. If someone there’s a new TV show that everyone’s talking about, we’ll just will react quickly and we’ll do a dinner where you can come and talk to other people about that as well. So we find a lot of success in that, too.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:59] So like, how would a virtual dinner look like? If you’re a gathering spot member, how does that work?

Regan Bercher: [00:08:05] So probably those dinners we do, the more so in person. In Atlanta, for example, we have a private dining room. We would reserve members would just show up to the private dining room and have an intimate dinner with 10 people. We do virtual pop up conversations as well, something like something similar, but everyone would pop into a zoom and have the conversation. Sometimes they’ll be fun. We’ll encourage everyone to BYOB and have a drink with us. Those were a lot of fun, especially in the pandemic.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:33] And then somebody at the gathering spot is kind of the facilitator. Mm hmm.

Regan Bercher: [00:08:38] Yep.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:40] And is that something that really separates a gathering spot from other places is to have that kind of a curator facilitator that’s helping people connect and helping people kind of make new friends and make new, you know, business associations?

Regan Bercher: [00:08:54] Yeah. So connectivity is probably the biggest benefit of being a member. Members are able to reach out to our team at any time, say they are building a new website and they’re looking for someone to help them. We have a great Rolodex of members. At this point we have over five thousand across the country, so it’s really easy for us to connect them with another member. And so everyone’s really benefiting from that all the time. We also have some a mobile app where members can search a database and be in touch with members through there as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:25] So for you, what’s the most rewarding part of the job? Is it when the, you know, two members that maybe didn’t know each other connect and all of a sudden they got some hot startup they’re working on or something like that?

Regan Bercher: [00:09:38] Absolutely. Yeah, there’s a lot of stories like that. I joined the gathering spot. I was actually the first employee back in twenty fifteen. So six and a half years ago, I started working with the two co-founders to build this out. So I mean, it’s been extremely rewarding to see this from the very beginning when we were under construction and trying to open and really trying to explain what the gathering spot was going to be to people. It was a really foreign concept and we were trying to open in twenty sixteen. So the things that are rewarding, I could go on and on. I mean, the members who joined early on that are still with us. That’s so rewarding. We’ve now formed, I mean, I’ve known these people for six years now, their family and the members, like you said, the ones that this is such an integral part of their life where we’ve had a tgz marriage, we’ve had hopefully there’s a baby soon. We’ve had businesses formed out of the gathering spot. We’ve had some really cool conversations come out of the gathering spot. We actually. Most recently, Andre Dickins, our new mayor, he was a founding member of the gathering spot, so that’s really exciting for us as well. So seeing members grow from being a member and who they’re meeting within the club is really rewarding.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:51] So who is a good candidate to be a member? Like what type of person is a good fit to be a gathering spot member?

Regan Bercher: [00:10:59] Yeah. I mean, one of the biggest things about the gathering spot is we’re looking for people who are coming from all different walks of life, so it’s not one type of person. We have a really dynamic, diverse membership of people coming from everywhere. So that’s what we’re looking for. Our membership ranges from twenty six to our oldest member is 90 years old, Ambassador Andrew Young. So super wide range of members and we really our membership team actually works to keep a balance of members coming from different industries. If we’re noticing one industry is lagging, we’ll make intentional efforts to build that industry up or if we’re overpopulated one, then we’re not going to be looking at those applications as closely. But the biggest thing is it’s not just about what you do, it’s about who you are as a person. In our application process, we ask things like what animates you outside of your work and what does community mean to you? That’s what we’re looking for.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:48] So is it primarily business leaders or are there some junior folks there as well?

Regan Bercher: [00:11:54] Everyone, so we’ve got people from really every level we find that some of those business leaders, a lot of times they’re looking to meet some of the younger new industry folks so that they can have those creative ideas coming from them as well. So we try to keep that balance as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:11] So you mentioned the expansion with physical locations, virtual locations. What else is on the horizon for the gathering spot? Mm-hmm.

Regan Bercher: [00:12:19] Yeah, so we’re L.A. is going to be opening in the next couple of months, so we should be opening that soon. Our team is growing really quickly as well and we’re entering into our sixth year. So here in Atlanta, we’ve been open for six years. We’re going to continue to bring amazing programing, bring members together, and we’re actually looking at announcing a few more cities next year as well. So continuing to grow there as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:45] So what do you need more of? How can we help?

Regan Bercher: [00:12:48] Yeah, I would say anyone who’s interested in being a member of the gathering spot, you can apply on our website. The Gathering Spot Dot Club, we have all of our membership information listed there. And anyone who’s looking for connecting and growing in the city, that’s this is your place.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:07] And then if they’re in other cities, they should also check you out as well, because even if there’s not a in real life location, there could be a virtual one there.

Regan Bercher: [00:13:17] Absolutely, yes. And any of our eight connected cities?

Lee Kantor: [00:13:21] Well, congratulations on all the success. Thank you for sharing your story today.

Regan Bercher: [00:13:26] Yes. Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure, Leigh.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:30] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

 

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Author and Storyteller Jennifer Irwin

by

Adressthecolorofthemoon
BRX National
Author and Storyteller Jennifer Irwin
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JenniferIrwinA native New Yorker and captivating storyteller with a flair for embellishment, Jennifer Irwin currently resides in Los Angeles with two cars, a dog, and her boyfriend.

After earning her BA in Cinema from Denison University, she worked in advertising and marketing, raised three boys, anhigh d ultimately became a certified Pilates instructor.

Jennifer’s short stories have appeared in numerous literary publications including California’s Emerging Writers, An Anthology of Fiction. A Dress the Color of the Sky has been optioned for a feature film.

Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • About A Dress the Color of the Moon
  • Connection with readers

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 high velocity radio

Lee Kantor: [00:00:14] Lee Kantor hear another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is going to be a fun one today. On the show we have Jennifer Irwin, author of the new book A Dress The Color of the Moon. Welcome, Jennifer.

Jennifer Irwin: [00:00:27] Hi, thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:29] Well, I’m excited to learn about your book, and I’m also curious about life as an author. So before we get too far into things, tell us a little bit about the book. How did the idea come about for you?

Jennifer Irwin: [00:00:42] It’s a standalone sequel to my debut novel, which won seven awards and has been optioned for a movie. And basically, it’s the story of a woman who is checking into rehab for sex addiction and goes back and forth in time to learn her story and what happened in her life and how she ended up where she is. There’s a cast of characters in rehab, so in a dress color of the Moon, I bring those characters. So she’s just checking out of rehab. She has all of her tools that she learned there. And I bring a few of the characters to Los Angeles, and there’s this sort of trials and tribulations of some of them. Make it some of them not don’t how they put their pieces of their lives back together, rebuilding relationships that have been broken, trust that has been broken. And it’s a very it’s a very interesting insight into how people handle the recovery process and and what it looks like.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:46] Now on this show, we’ve interviewed a lot of authors, most of which have been nonfiction authors. Is there kind of a different kind of methodology when it comes to writing a fiction book? You know, I know in nonfiction they outline they have some points they want to get across, but in fiction there has to be kind of a story arc. There has to be kind of sympathetic characters. There has to be a hero. There has to be some, you know, redemption. Maybe there has to certain kind of elements of story you have to take place that aren’t necessarily true in a nonfiction book.

Jennifer Irwin: [00:02:21] Yeah, I mean, I did a lot of research, and my work falls in the category of biographical fiction. It does read like a biography and feels a lot like a biography when you read it. But I did want to create a realistic therapeutic environment and what the process looks like, so I did have to do a lot of research. But other than that, I do follow the the fiction format with character arcs and heroes. I do. My writing is character driven. And so I really work on character development, even flipping characters, flipping there from being likable to unlikable and vice versa. But I’m what they call a panther, so I write without really having it all plotted out. I just sort of let the story unfold as I do the work.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:21] So you have an idea for how the story begins, and then you just start writing and then let it just kind of evolve as it goes.

Jennifer Irwin: [00:03:28] Yeah, yeah. And the first draft is pretty disastrous, and you just take it from there and keep working on it and working and tweaking it and fine tuning it until it’s it’s ready to go.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:42] So how do you know when you have kind of a characters or a story that’s resonating and clicking?

Jennifer Irwin: [00:03:50] I think it’s just for me, it’s really a gut feeling where I just because I’ve been doing this now for a while, and I and I have a better idea of what works and where I’m at, and it typically takes seven drafts to complete a novel. And I really that’s that’s sort of the rule of thumb, and it actually is pretty true. It just I try to look at everything with a small I take a small section and work on it and then continue just doing that. And there’s just a moment where you, you know, it’s ready to go. And and then what I typically do is I go, I send them out to beta readers. I have some readers that like to take a look at my work and let me know how it’s how it’s resonating with them, and I’ll get some feedback and then send it over to my agent.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:42] Now, how do you kind of prevent the story from spiraling where like, you’re going down this one rabbit hole and then you like, how do you remember? Oh, I got to bring these other characters back in? Or I’ll, you know, it’s been a while since we’ve talked about these guys.

Jennifer Irwin: [00:04:56] Yeah, that’s that’s definitely tough. And I typically write a more difficult. Restructure and address the color of the Moon goes not not only back and forth in time, but it goes from first person to third person. So I when it comes to that, I sometimes I count on my beta readers, but I also have a writing app that I use that helps you focus on where you are and what what’s happening with each character, and you can keep track of it that way. I’m just starting to use this app. It’s it’s pretty complex and it’s been a lot for me to get to figure it out. But once you get into it and figure out how it all works, it’s been. It’s been made. It a lot easier for me, but I guess it’s just for me. I just I’m really close to these characters and it’s kind of hard to just not have them keep coming back. And when you’re writing the story, because I of the way, especially with the dress, the color of the Moon, I have them all gathering at the very end for a funeral of someone from the previous book that committed suicide. So I go into the different things and experiences of each of those people and how their lives intertwine after rehab. I don’t know. I just, I guess somehow I just try to keep it on track and and if I miss something, typically a beta reader will let me know. Believe me, they’re good.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:28] Do you do you kind of track each each character, like with index cards like some writers, you know, kind of follow the path of character by character, maybe a different color card for each character to make sure that they have a true arc and that they are kind of growing. Like, how do you keep track? Is there any tools you use or you mentioned the software? Or is it just your memory that, hey, let me let me just kind of search for that. I haven’t mentioned this name in a while.

Jennifer Irwin: [00:06:59] I use a software,

Lee Kantor: [00:07:01] So software is the tool.

Jennifer Irwin: [00:07:03] Yeah, it’s a writing software that basically keeps track of all that for you, and you can even get deep into the characters, interview your characters, keep track of your characters and it. It’s a it’s a very it’s a it’s an app that a lot of writers use and it’s very it keeps everything really, really organized for you. I’m not the three by five card thing is just a little too archaic for me.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:33] Now let’s talk a little bit about the business of being an author. Was this something that you kind of accidentally fell into, or is this something that you’ve been kind of, you know, aiming your career towards all along?

Jennifer Irwin: [00:07:48] Um, I it’s not it’s definitely not something I accidentally came into, I worked in advertising and I. Was always working on telling a story through ads and through television commercials, and then worked in another industry where I was launching products for corporations like McDonald’s and Burger King, where they bring a lot of people to a conference and have staging and set design and sort of like a Broadway show that happens for the salespeople to launch products. I worked in that industry for a while and I just after I got divorced, I really wanted to get into my life and my childhood and things that happened. And why did I choose this person? And I’ve been teaching Pilates for many years while I was raising my boys and was writing at night and I had written a screenplay in college that got me into this arts program, and I sort of springboard of that screenplay. Along with some of the experiences that I had gone through with my marriage and divorce and and my childhood and kind of created this, the story that has resonated with a lot of people and surprisingly more men than I could ever imagine have posted reviews, which has been kind of a nice surprise, actually.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:15] So now you write the book. This is just on your own. This is like you don’t sell the book. Before you write the book, you write the book and then you use the book as a way to get an agent and then to sell it. Is that how it works?

Jennifer Irwin: [00:09:27] Yeah. So the way that the first book happened was at the time I was querying agents and I ended up selling the film rights to the book or optioning the film rights to the book before I published it. So it can typically take years to get a book published after you sign with an agent. And so the film option put a bit of sense of urgency on me getting the book out to market. And so basically because at the time, I thought this producer was going to be moving really fast and getting this film, getting the film made, which she ended up not doing. But I ended up publishing Indy and jumping into the business of being my own book marketing guru. I guess you might say so.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:26] That’s where all those advertising and marketing years were now paying off, huh?

Jennifer Irwin: [00:10:30] All right. So I basically taught myself how to build a social media platform, how to market on social media, how to run Amazon ads, what the Amazon algorithm is. And I also. Used myself as a writer and as someone that has written about addiction and recovery and divorce and childhood trauma and a lot of experiences, many people either know someone that have gone through or have gone through themselves and use these personal experiences to share about myself, not just as a writer, but as a person, and so created a platform of followers that have has grown exponentially and helped me sell books. Basically, I used I mostly use Twitter and Instagram and Facebook. I’m also on LinkedIn, but I run. I run promotions every quarter for my first book through a variety of different programs, and I discount the Kindle edition for that. And then when I’m not running the 99 cent Kindle edition promotions, I run consistently every week, run 10 to 12 ads on Amazon, and there’s a complex way that you run the ads and get them in the right categories and book titles. Yes, I mean, it’s a hustle. It’s it’s a lot easier if you sign with a big publisher. But even right now, I mean, like you said, you mostly promote nonfiction authors. Those books can get to market a little faster. Memoirs of celebrities obviously do really well, but the days of big publishers spending a lot of money on a on on releasing a book or those are those days are gone. That’s not happening much anymore unless it’s a super big, you know, celebrity or famous person is sending their memoirs to market.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:35] So how did you get in front of the producer to option the film rights? How did that come about?

Jennifer Irwin: [00:12:42] So it was someone that I had sent the manuscript to to get some feedback before I was pitching it to agents and that the reader had. Was so moved by the story that I received a text message, they wanted to purchase the film rights and it’s basically it was. It’s a billionaire who has not been in the film industry, but her daughter graduated from the USC Master’s Film School of Cinematic Arts and was, you know, as involved in the film business. And she was very moved by the story and and said she wanted to make the movie.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:28] So that was just again the hustle and the doing kind of the grind of the work and then opportunity kind of just clicked and it found you and you found it.

Jennifer Irwin: [00:13:39] Yeah. And yeah, that was that was really lucky. And then on top of that. I my book won seven awards, which which also got me, so the different awards programs promote your book for you and get your book out there to to to their their platforms so that that was very, very helpful. I, the book community on social media is very, very powerful. There are some very powerful book bloggers. Many of the bigger ones are on the big. Five publishing companies send books out to them. I can’t really touch those ones. The ones that have massive amounts of followers typically don’t look at India authors. I mean, there is a stigma still for authors that publish small press like mine, which we do not. We can’t really have our books at Barnes and Noble because there isn’t a publisher paying Barnes and Noble to put our books on the shelves. So when we we do a book signing at a Barnes Noble, that’s great. But our books end up in the back in a box. Nobody’s they’re not put on the shelf because Barnes Noble doesn’t have financial motivation to put the book on the shelf.

Jennifer Irwin: [00:14:57] So, I mean, there’s a lot of roadblocks as an indie author, but at the same time, my royalties are mine. I’m not sharing them with anyone, you know, so that that in itself and you end up being able to manage your own career and decide where you want to wear, how you want your career to go as a writer? And the other thing is, it’s a little difficult is like, for example, Reese’s Book Club and Hello Sunshine are snatching up film rights to books left and right. But you will. You just won’t see them reading or promoting an indie published book, ever. So in the game of life, it’s who you know, sometimes as well, you know, so you don’t have the connections. Your book’s not going to get into those big influencers hands unless unless, like, what happened to me, you get it in someone’s hands who happens to be to have deep pockets and be able to make a movie regardless of whether they have any connections in the movie business. So, you know, it does happen. It’s just it’s not that easy.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:03] So it sounds like if you want to pursue being an author as a career or even a hustle side hustle, you’ve got to build a community. You have to kind of use your network and expand your network and hustle and grind, and there’s no shortcuts here. But again, the bottom line good work gets found, right? I mean, yeah. You know, if you’re doing good work, someone’s going to pay attention to it.

Jennifer Irwin: [00:16:29] Yeah, no. And it’s true. And honestly, there there’s a lot of courses on how to do book advertising, how to run ads for your book, and a lot of indie authors are making a really good living on their books. The more books you write, the more followers you have, the more readers you have. And without even wanting to. As a social media person, I’ve I now have businesses reaching out to me for sponsored posts and offering me products, and I’m an ambassador for Rent the runway, so I’m wearing their clothes and and getting perks from them. So there’s just a lot of things that happened because I was hustling on social media that I didn’t expect to have happen. You know, there’s a whole stigma that writers are like introverts and sitting with their head in the sand. But the bottom line is, even if you publish with a big five, they want to know you’re going to do the work and get your book out there and do your own marketing as well. They don’t want someone that isn’t going to be helping get there. Spread the word about their work. And I, you know, I I believe in what I do. I believe in my writing. I believe in my stories, and I just keep hustling and don’t give up. And there’s been a lot of highs and lows, just like there is when you’re launching a product, you’re going to have, you’re going to hit roadblocks, but you just you can’t give up. You just have to keep going, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:18:05] And ultimately, you’re in control. You’re betting on yourself.

Jennifer Irwin: [00:18:08] Right, exactly. You’re betting on yourself. And and also when you publish with the Big Five and you have an agent, a lot of your royalties go to your agent and the rest goes to your publisher. A lot of these. And honestly, when I look at, I take a lot of writing courses where a Big Five published author will talk about their their story and how they got where they are. And while there, while I’m taking the class, I’ll look their book up on Amazon and my book will have far more reviews, a higher rating than their book. And it’s because, number one, my writing’s good. My books are good. Readers speak for me. They rate the book, and I can’t make up my my rating on Amazon that’s done by the readers. And and I have a lot of reviews, and when a reader is compelled to write a review, that’s a really big deal because I mean, I can honestly tell you, I’ve sold a lot more books than there are reviews, obviously. But getting reviews is a big deal because that means someone was so moved. Either they hated your book or they loved your book, but they wanted to write a review, and that’s a really, really big deal to have a solid amount of reviews on Amazon.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:22] Well, Jennifer, congratulations on all the success. If somebody wants to learn more about address the color of the Moon or your other book, or just hang out with you and your community, is there a website?

Jennifer Irwin: [00:19:34] Yeah. Jennifer Irwin, author and all my social media is at. Jen Irwin, Author.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:41] All right, Jennifer, thank you again for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Jennifer Irwin: [00:19:46] Oh, thank you so much, Leigh. I appreciate you having me on your show.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:50] All right, this is Lee Kantor. We will see you next time on high velocity radio.

 

Lou Sandoval With SupplyHive

by

LouSandoval
Chicago Business Radio
Lou Sandoval With SupplyHive
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SupplyHive

LouSandovalLou Sandoval is the President and CEO of SupplyHive™, a B2B software technology company based in Chicago. Previously, he held senior leadership positions at Brunswick Corporation, a global consumer goods company based in the Chicago area. Lou has served on the Wintrust Bank Board of Directors since 2015 and brings more than 30 years of professional experience in business development, mergers and acquisitions, and leading strategic growth initiatives.

Lou has worked with Fortune 100 companies to lead technology-driven organizational transformation in consumer engagement with health care, business services, durable consumer products, and industrial products. He has a B.S in Biochemistry from DePaul University and completed the Executive Education Program at the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University.

Having grown up in South Chicago, Lou has walked the past least traveled. Sandoval has been one of the few Latinos in the marine industry, financial services industry and now the Technology sector. His diverse personal and business background gives him a unique vantage point that he has leveraged to bring value to the markets he has sought to impact.

Aside from the Wintrust board, Lou serves on the advisory board of two early-stage startups in satellite communications and marine technology and has held leadership positions on the Boy Scouts of America Board of Directors. He is on the board of directors of the Chicago Yacht Club, where he also served as the commodore and chair of the board.

Lou lives on Chicago’s South Side with his wife and two daughters. In his spare time, Sandoval is a competitive Offshore sailor, He is the first Latino inducted into the Lake Michigan Sailing Federation Hall of Fame- having won the storied Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac nine times.

Follow SupplyHive on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • History of SupplyHiveTM
  • Importance of diversity and inclusion for company
  • The benefits of supplier diversity
  • The trends and challenges with supply performance management

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Chicago, Illinois, it’s time for Chicago Business Radio brought to you by FirmSpace, your private sanctuary for productivity and growth. To learn more, go to Firmspace.com. Now here’s your host.

Max Kantor: [00:00:21] Hey everybody, and welcome to another episode of Chicago Business Radio. I’m your host, Max Kantor. And before we get started, I want to give a shout out to our sponsor for today’s show. So special. Thank you to firm SpaceX for sponsoring today’s episode because without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories that we do, and I have a great guest today. Very interesting guest. He is the president and CEO of SupplyHive, so please welcome to the show, Lou Sandoval. Welcome to the show, Lou.

Lou Sandoval: [00:00:51] Hi Max, how are you? Glad to be here. Thank you for having me on the show.

Max Kantor: [00:00:55] Thank you for being here. I’m excited to kind of talk to you and learn all about supply, hive and what you guys are doing so to jump right in. What was the genesis of the idea of supply hive? How did you guys come about?

Lou Sandoval: [00:01:09] You know what the. So the company was founded in 2018 by our founder, Michael Equiano. Mike’s a serial entrepreneur like much like myself, you know, and he’s done a couple of successful exits in the supplier diversity space, the procurement space. So his last exit was then, you know, for a company named CVM that was sold to a private equity firm and then later sold again. So, you know, he’s really steeped in knowledge and and I think really the genesis for supply was sort of like to kind of create sort of like a moodies for procurement for suppliers, you know, sort of a rating system that gives a little more information on on the different suppliers that a buyer or a company has. And just a way to improve the relationships using performance data.

Max Kantor: [00:02:02] So what a supply hive do exactly for its clients, you know?

Lou Sandoval: [00:02:07] You know, simply put, I mean, if you kind of look down our website to like where where we’re a B2B cloud based supplier performance management platform, you know, what we really do is we provide visibility to performance data at scale for procurement teams, at companies and their suppliers. You know, by doing this, we enable growth and improve the operating efficiency for those for those companies and then obviously for the suppliers. So really kind of we used we leverage the data that that they exchange within each other and they procure this data through surveys and just, you know, ratings of each other. So the supplier rates, the company, the company rates the supplier and they use the information from that to develop an action plan on how to make them better.

Max Kantor: [00:02:53] What pains were suppliers having that supply hive solves?

Lou Sandoval: [00:02:59] Well, you know, it’s interesting because there isn’t. The pains are specific to a lot of the the procurement to pay and source the pay suites that are out there. The ERP is a very large legacy systems. They’re there in every major Fortune 100 company. The challenge with those systems is often the implementation that we’ll call it at. The grassroots level leaves much to be desired, and employees end up finding ways to work around the systems, and it ends up being very static data. So one of the things that has come out of the pandemic is obviously, you know, you know, the real big need to digitally transform any spaces because one person is tougher to come by skilled personnel, but one more importantly to, you know, the more that we can do across different platforms, especially with people working remotely working from home, different locations and globally, the more we can do in a cloud based type system, the better off it is. And the ability to do it at scale is even better. So if if there if I had to summarize it into two big endpoints, one is the stat the static capability of the existing systems and to the inability for those systems to operate dynamically and at scale.

Max Kantor: [00:04:15] Yeah, for sure. And you were talking a little bit about, you know, the the wide range of of companies. I think you mentioned companies that are working from home, companies that are in the office. So how to supply Hive integrate into your clients business? And is it a challenge or difficult to do that with every business being so, so different?

Lou Sandoval: [00:04:35] No, it’s really simple because you know what what they do is they’re able to kind of. So we have some drop down features that they can kind of customize their KPIs. So their key performance indicators and depending on what what is what the specific company is looking to to identify and their suppliers, they can take those those ratings and then drive them across all suppliers. And that might be. So for example, that might be their their hard line suppliers or Tier one suppliers. And then their Tier two suppliers are the the ones that are focused more around services. And that’s really where they’re able to do that at scale, you know, really kind of helps them gather the data they need to work more efficiently to improve the return on investment of the spending. The average fortune one hundred company spends a large portion of their gross revenue goes right back out the door in through their procurement arm. And so that’s why it’s so important, because it’s so tied to the revenue that comes into the company.

Max Kantor: [00:05:37] Do you have an ideal client or serve a certain industry? Or are you industry agnostic?

Lou Sandoval: [00:05:42] We’re very industry agnostic and really, at the end of the day, what we’re really focusing on four key verticals. We’re focusing on consumer products right now health care and biotech financial services in manufacturing. And two of those are really huge categories, obviously consumer products and manufacturing. But we’ve really kind of found some some stickiness in some of those those companies, you know, we currently have have. Some great relationships, some of our clients we boast to have Abbott, McDonald’s, Fox, Centene, First Energy, Mars, Facebook Pay safe, you know, are some of the many customers that we have so really kind of spread out, we’re industry agnostic, really focused on the deliverables, and we’re really keen on being a trusted partner to those companies.

Max Kantor: [00:06:30] And now how does supply Hive help your clients identify minority suppliers?

Lou Sandoval: [00:06:35] Well, here’s the beautiful thing. We don’t help them identify minority suppliers, but what we do is help by using data. We level the playing field because they don’t think about it this way. If we if you’re a large supplier, let’s just say you’re a big three. You know, every every one of the Fortune 100 have has the following suppliers somewhere in their top 50 Microsoft. They have a large law firm. They have probably a large consulting firm and Accenture and e.y a Deloitte, but some of that of that sort. So think about it, if you’re a diverse consulting firm, say you’re an MBA or an MWI consulting firm, you know you don’t have the resources to build those, those those relationships and invest in those relationships that say, an Accenture or a Deloitte or one of those larger firms who I might. But you know, often what happens is that that precludes the ability, you know, by not looking at it objectively through performance data. It precludes their ability to grow as a supplier. So by look, by focusing on the data, you actually level the playing field, you increase the the depth of the relationship because out of that, you know, the surveys that we do with the different suppliers, large and small, they they’re able to get an action plan on how they can improve. So think of who benefits from that. You know, the the large companies, obviously, they can do a lot of that. The small companies now get a clear path to how they can actually improve the spend with them and improve their growth with the large company.

Max Kantor: [00:08:06] So we obviously can’t talk about supply without mentioning kind of the havoc that COVID 19 created when it comes to the supply chain. So my question for you is simple how to supply hive help.

Lou Sandoval: [00:08:18] Well, you know, again, going back to the need for digital transformation, you know, and nowhere was that more evident in than needing the ability to kind of look at suppliers really across the entire dashboard and looking at where they’re strong in where they’re weakened and how to make the weak ones stronger, how to make the mid performers stronger. And then for those that are that are big performers, you know, you’re able to identify things that might be it might be areas where you might not have considered the risk, you know, cybersecurity risk, you know, there’s different things that you can do. I mean, our platform kind of you could measure on a variety of different things there and really got to break down how to make those companies stronger and better. So on the back end of the pandemic, it really kind of helps give that that insight regardless of where you’re at in the world, regardless of where the company focuses out of it really in a digitally transformative way.

Max Kantor: [00:09:17] What are some trends in supply chain that you see in 2022 and maybe even beyond?

Lou Sandoval: [00:09:23] Well, really, the move towards digital transformation is one that’s huge. You know, it used to be that the procurement department was the unsung heroes in a company. You know, those are the guys that always negotiated the best contracts for with vendors and the like. And and they often didn’t get the, you know, we’ll say the since they were often on the other side of the balance sheet, they don’t often get the notoriety that the revenue side gets that the sales team might get right. So what this is really kind of done is the, you know, the pandemic is done and more so the move towards procurement technology is really kind of, you know, highlighted the the importance of that procurement department in one leveling the playing field for diverse suppliers. But to, you know, leveling the playing field for large and small suppliers across the across the across the company’s platform. So it really that it’s really kind of been important for those companies to to get those insights, which allows them to really kind of make changes on the fly.

Max Kantor: [00:10:26] Earlier, you mentioned some of the companies that have worked with you guys like McDonald’s, Mars, Facebook. Can you share a success story where Supply Hive took a client to a new level?

Lou Sandoval: [00:10:39] I’ll take this anonymously while I’ll share two with you. One is anonymous in the we’ll call it in the consumer products category, so I won’t name specifics. But you know, this is a company that they wanted to evaluate pesticides across their entire supplier network. So they use our our our system to be able to kind of look at all the different suppliers and measure the amount of pesticides that were going into that. This kind of this is the data that went into sustainability, which is another trend when you look at the ESG measurements that companies are looking to have, that they’re having to report out in their proxy statements. So some of the data that we measure the AI supplier diversity sustainability in, like in the case of this company, helps them in those particular areas. Another area that you know, we’ve seen some growth is for another large. We’ll call it food company. We’ll just say and we went in through their vendor management office, then they helped us, then they had us help them in their supplier diversity department. And then they, you know, on the one year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, you know, they had made some big proclamations in, you know, in twenty twenty. And on the one year anniversary of that, those proclamations, they said, Listen, we’ve got to start putting our money where our mouth is. So let’s measure DTI through our entire supplier network. And so they’re using the supply platform to do just that. They have asked all of their suppliers to sign a pledge and then they’re meeting them all where they’re at. And the beautiful thing about that is it isn’t a kind of a make wrong, but what they’re really finding is they’re giving them the resources, the tools to help them raise their game and get to a level that basically improves the supplier universe for all of them.

Max Kantor: [00:12:21] So, Lou, it sounds like Supply Hive is doing amazing work for the companies that you serve, but what do you need more of? Is it clients, talent partners? How can we help?

Lou Sandoval: [00:12:32] Well, a little bit of both. You know, I would say if there’s two key things clients so introductions and we’re working with a lot of different groups right now and introductions to companies that can use our platform. So that’s one. And then a collaborative partners is another one where we’re kind of working on some collaborative partnerships and and we’ll call them competition deals that will help us expand our platform, expand our use case and more importantly, improve the offering and deepen the offering to the companies that we serve and companies that we plan on. So those are two key areas. We just went through a little bit of a hiring spree on our techs on the tech side of our business because of course, deepening the talent pool, deepening the product capabilities are. So, you know, that’s kind of what one of our short term goals, but a long term goal is to continue to add logos accounts at new new customers.

Max Kantor: [00:13:27] Speaking of long term goals, what’s next for supply hive?

Lou Sandoval: [00:13:31] Well, right now we’re going to where we’re going to really kind of focus on on growing our portfolio to to hit 50 anywhere between 30 to 50 companies in the year twenty twenty two. And then that’ll probably set us up for a series, a race. You know, we just completed a seed round in in twenty twenty one that we finished up the third quarter. So, you know, going in, you know, I’ll say almost a year from now, we’ll be kind of in the midst of a series and no, after we hit all of our metrics. And that, I think, is going to position us for a major explosion in size of company.

Max Kantor: [00:14:07] And if our listeners want to learn more about supply hive, where can they learn more online?

Lou Sandoval: [00:14:13] They could go to supply Hive our website and learn more about that. We’re about to roll out a brand new website here in the next four weeks so that we’re very proud of that and also go to LinkedIn. Any of our social media channels LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, you know, we kind of cross posts. A lot of things are LinkedIn site has a lot of information on it as well. And you know, one of the cool things that was that most recently, we were named by one of the larger consulting firms, Gartner. We were named as one of their cool vendors of of twenty twenty one. So there’s going to be some additional information that comes out of that here in the weeks to come. So they had some very glowing things to say about our technology in the platform and how we utilize tech and automation, and I think that was a big feather in the supply cap.

Max Kantor: [00:15:05] That’s awesome. Well, congratulations on that. And Lou, thank you again for being a guest today on Chicago Business Radio.

Lou Sandoval: [00:15:11] All right. Thank you very much, Max, and I appreciate your hospitality.

Max Kantor: [00:15:16] It is not a problem at all, and thanks to you for listening to another great episode of Chicago Business Radio. I’m max cantor and we’ll see you next time.

Intro: [00:15:26] This episode is Chicago Business Radio has been brought to you by firm SpaceX, your private sanctuary for productivity and growth. To learn more, go to Firme Space.com.

 

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