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Nathan Nordstrom With Hand and Stone

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Nathan Nordstrom
Franchise Marketing Radio
Nathan Nordstrom With Hand and Stone
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Brought To You By SeoSamba . . . Comprehensive, High Performing Marketing Solutions For Mature And Emerging Franchise Brands . . . To Supercharge Your Franchise Marketing, Go To seosamba.com.

Nathan NordstromNathan Nordstrom joined Hand & Stone Massage and Facial Spa in February 2018 and currently oversees the management of massage services including therapist training, and the introduction of new massage services and protocols.

He also serves as a liaison for Hand & Stone to professional massage and spa associations for the nationwide franchise of over 350 locations.

Connect with Nathan on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • An interstate compact application to massage therapy

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:07] Welcome to Franchise Marketing Radio, brought to you by SEO Samba Comprehensive, high performing marketing solutions for mature and emerging franchise brands to supercharge your franchise marketing. Go to SEOSamba.com that’s SEOsamba.com.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:32] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Franchise Marketing Radio, and this is going to be a fun one today on the show, we have Nathan Nordstrom with hand and stone massage and facial spa. Welcome, Nathan.

Nathan Nordstrom: [00:00:43] Well, thank you so much, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about hand in stone. How are you serving, folks?

Nathan Nordstrom: [00:00:50] Wonderful. Hannah Stone is the second largest franchise massage therapy spa group. We go out and we try and bring massage therapy, which has always been considered a high end service to the standard population, making sure that everyone can afford to get good stress reduction and get their bodies feeling good and being able to go through a regular day without the aches and pains of life.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:15] Now what’s the back story? Did it start out always to be a franchise or did it start as kind of a mom and pop and just organically grew?

Nathan Nordstrom: [00:01:23] Well, John Marco was the original starter, and John was a physical therapist who realized the benefits of massage therapy and really trying to get massage therapists organized and structured. He did open his own spa and quickly decided that he knew that there were other people who wanted to really invest in this ability to expand the success of what massage therapy can bring to people. And so, yes, it did become a franchise fairly early and and spread over the years. And now we’re right at about five hundred in North America, including Canada.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:57] Now has the pandemic and just the kind of the the lay of the land in terms of the economy and attracting talent. Has that impacted your industry and your business?

Nathan Nordstrom: [00:02:11] Of pandemic definitely impacted everyone. But as a massage therapist, when you have to have a hands on service, we can’t digitally give a massage. And so being able to transition was quite difficult. We were very successful in the ability to connect with governing bodies and make sure that we could get in to talk with them and connect with them to demonstrate how successfully we how successful we were being with making sure to wear masks and sanitation and being able to do all the things we could to make sure that a session at a Hammond St. Spa would be completely safe for the general person. Other things that kind of have obviously been challenges is trying to find employees in general, but specifically for licensed massage therapists, that’s been a continuous issue that we continue to strive and focus on.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:05] So do you have any strategies that seem to be working in regards to attracting talent?

Nathan Nordstrom: [00:03:10] Oh, that’s part of our secret sauce, I think. No, we actually do. We’ve got several things that we connect with. We do connect with the massage therapy schools that are out there, many of them massage therapy schools have been limited, especially currently with COVID with education. And so that’s become more of a challenge. But we really want to make sure that everyone knows that working at hand in stone is going to be supportive of the massage therapist as a massage therapist myself. One of the big pieces that Shannon Stone has that’s a unique from other portions is that we have employees as massage therapists. So instead of being a independent contractor, we want to make sure that they’re taken care of not only for their taxes, but for other aspects as well. And we have great owners who are really supportive of the massage therapists to give them an appropriate pay with appropriate benefits and bonuses and other options that they have and are very excited to see the massage therapist be successful in our spouse.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:09] Now you mentioned that licensing is a component of massage. How does that impact the business in regards to a massage therapist? What if they have to like, say they’re in near different areas and they do. They need a new license for a different area? Like how does that work?

Nathan Nordstrom: [00:04:26] Yeah. So licensing is definitely one of those challenges myself I’ve been in. I’ve had six different massage therapy licenses in six different states, and that’s because when I find a job that I need to move for, I would have to get a massage therapy license in that state wherever I move at. And that has been quite a challenge over the years when we have a successful massage therapists say in New York and they decide to move to Florida, then they have to then get a massage therapy license when they get to Florida. And this is one of those restrictions that. As massage therapist, we look at it as a challenge, but we also look at it as a benefit, having a license to practice limits us and elevates the profession of massage therapy so that we’re not looked at as something inappropriate. We want to make sure that we’re elevating the profession, but in that process, there are better ways and we’re working on many of those to make a massage therapist like myself. Or a lot of times the military spouses or someone who does a lot of traveling for their family for work would be able to assess their practice no matter where they went.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:39] Now is that a component of this interstate compact?

Nathan Nordstrom: [00:05:43] Correct. The interstate compact is something that came up in the last year, and actually it’s been in the process for a little bit longer than that. But it has been supported by the military as a military spouses support because I have several students who I taught in massage school years ago who are related to or connected with a military home. And so they want to support this ability to have a interstate compact. So what that would mean is the massage therapy board in Oregon or Ohio or Kentucky or wherever else they might be, they would. We’d create a compact which would allow someone to work from who has a license in one state to work in multiple other states. For example, this is more known in the nursing field where if you have a license to practice in one state, you can practice in hospitals, in other states, and it’s something that is being very looked at as as a really good model for massage therapy as we do have a lot more transient aspect to make sure that we’re able to help people no matter where they are or when it is.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:50] Now is this something that the therapists are are clamoring for?

Nathan Nordstrom: [00:06:55] Um, the therapists who are claiming for it are clamoring for it loud. The ones who aren’t clamoring for it aren’t ones who probably move very often, don’t really have a lot of concern about this. There are some who don’t move a lot who are actually looking at as they get up closer to retirement age, the ability to work part time in one state. And then, for example, during the summer, they might go up to an Oregon or Washington state, but in the winter, when it gets cold, being able to go down to California. Same thing on the East Coast. New York during the summer is beautiful and away from the heat of Florida and then in the winter being able to go down to Florida. So this is something that many massage therapists do. And so currently they have to have multiple licenses and maintain those licenses to practice in multiple states.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:48] Now how is it like as my understanding of the interstate compact, that it doesn’t mean every state’s like in if if a handful are in that, it kind of grows organically among the states who who are interested in it?

Nathan Nordstrom: [00:08:03] Correct. So the first thing that they’re actually doing is they’re putting together the interstate compact language and they have a committee that’s coming together and that’s working together on this to make sure that the language is usable and appropriate for the majority of states. Not every state will be able to participate because of their certain models that they have. But what will end up happening is then after the language has been created, it will then go state by state for the different state licensing boards to implement into their into their governing bodies and making sure that they can participate in this process. I know that they’ve got several that are clamoring for it, several states that really are excited about this option. And so they’re striving to work quickly so that they can get it into these first few states. But as those states start accepting it, then it’ll be able to be presented through the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards, which is one of the groups that is connecting with this and be able to present to all the state licensing boards so that they can have an opportunity to enter into this process as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:06] And then and if that’s the case and you mentioned like I live in one state and half the I live in another state, then I would just need one license and then I’d be able to practice in both states

Nathan Nordstrom: [00:09:16] As long as both are in the compact. That is correct, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:09:19] So they all everybody recognizes each other’s licensing.

Nathan Nordstrom: [00:09:23] And that’s part of the joys of having one language that they’re putting together independent of a state licensing board. They’re striving to create the language so that as everyone accepts it as it is, then it won’t be well. But you have to have this here and you have to have that there. It’ll just be the compact itself. So because it’s standing independent, it will create that uniform acceptance across the

Lee Kantor: [00:09:45] Country now because of the size of hand. And stone is is something that you have, you know, kind of influence over or you have encouraging certain kind of parts of the licensing.

Nathan Nordstrom: [00:09:58] Um, so I’m my history has been all in massage therapy, and so I’ve been the leadership in the American Massage Therapy Association, the National Certification Board of Therapeutic Massage and Body Works. I’ve been on the executive boards and teams, the president of AMP and others. And so being able to connect it that way has given me a lot more insight in kind of who’s in what and working with what. I have requested an ability to look at the language after the committee has completed it. They’ve been more than willing to participate and say, yes, we want to know the major contributors in the industry’s feedback and really want to make sure that as we look at it, we feel confident with it as well. And so I do get a little bit of connection in that direction. I don’t know several of the people on the committee as well. And so that’s it’s really exciting to see this kind of moving forward because massage therapy will be able to move forward and really change and be more successful. One of the things that I’ve seen so regularly as a massage therapist who does move from one state to another because the application of licensure takes three plus months, sometimes they can’t just sit around for three months and wait for their license, so they get up and end up getting another job and then exit the profession because they’re finding other things because they’re being distracted by other things instead of the profession that they loved and wanted to stay engaged in.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:24] And I would imagine with the aging of the population, this is something that more and more people are want and are going to take advantage of. And you need more of them, not less of them, right?

Nathan Nordstrom: [00:11:33] And it is not only the senior population that we would be looking at because we have a lot of people. We’re starting to see an uptick in the students who are graduating from high school and then they want to get a trade school degree. They want to take a six month or nine month course to become a licensed massage therapist and then they want to go to college and and extend their education. Well, in most cases, if you graduate from high school, get your degree. If you’re going out of state now, you can’t practice in that other state and unless you get your license in that other state. So this would be another benefit for for the massage therapists who are coming out of high school or those really young massage therapists because more likely, you’re going to be traveling and moving from two multiple different states. And so this gives us more ability to connect with people, really develop not only the massage professionals who are already in the field to maintain their practice and really even decide, Hey, you know what, instead of retiring, I want to be part time. I’m I’m a 60 or 70 year old person who only wants to do three or four massages a week. Well, Hannah Stone loves this model, and we’re always willing to engage people who are willing to work with their clients successfully and work with our brand because we love great quality massage therapists, no matter where they are in their professional career.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:52] Now are your franchisees typically massage therapists?

Nathan Nordstrom: [00:12:57] They aren’t we actually have a small percentage of massage therapists who are franchisees. A lot of the challenge that I, as a massage therapist see is when I look at the business side of massage therapy education, there is little to no business training. And so a lot of the massage therapists end up being a practicing massage therapist instead of really a business managing massage therapist. We’ve seen many different companies who are starting to build business education for massage therapists. But in that practice, a lot of the times the people that we see buying into a franchise are people who either a love receiving massage, they just know that it has helped them. The second one is people who have had great business experience in the past and have decided that maybe the business that they had wasn’t as supportive to health and wellness. And so they want to create a business that really aids and supports people in health and wellness and strengthening their own practice as as society, building and creating health. So I love to see when we do get a massage therapist or a spouse of a massage therapist who comes and buys in, but it’s not a normal thing, a regular thing that we see now.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:17] Can you talk a little bit about how Hindon stone encourages in the local market, maybe to partner with an existing spa that’s there and then transform it into a hand in stone?

Nathan Nordstrom: [00:14:30] Yeah, so this is something that we haven’t done a lot of a lot of the challenge that we have had in the past. Does that hand in stone has several unique aspects about it in what a hand in stone style looks like. Most of the time when you think of a hand in stone, you think of the hot stone massage, which is our signature service. And one of the best tools that we have for that is in a hand in stone build out. You actually have a sink in each of the rooms. Now this allows for sanitation and cleanliness and and for the ability to wash those stones in that room instead of having to pick them up and carrying them around the spa, which can cause not only problems with the massage therapists with having to carry things, but also causes more, more fuss around the spa. And so we kind of looked at that, and that was kind of one of the big challenges. And so just recently, we’ve actually done a large expansion of if there is a spa that has closed in the local environment, you can go in and look at the facility, see the floorplan and be able to implement the standards of hand in stone into the rooms that you can.

Nathan Nordstrom: [00:15:40] For example, if some of the rooms are more able to have plumbing, then great. We would expect that you would have plumbing in some of those rooms, and that’s where you would do hot stones. However, you may not need all of the rooms to have plumbing. And so the rebuild out is a lot less expensive. It’s a lot more inviting, and a lot of those spores that were there already had customer base that were coming to them. And so being able to come into a market that already knows massage therapy may not have a connection with our brand, but be able to gain an understanding of what the benefits of hot stones massage is for the client is really helpful, and it really opens up a lot more excitement when we show the quality and customer service that we have connected with for each of our customers.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:30] Yeah, I would imagine that, and it lowers the risk in the minds of these folks because there’s already, like you said, an existing facility, existing base of clients, and now you’re kind of up leveling it to hand in stone. That seems like a win win.

Nathan Nordstrom: [00:16:46] Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:47] So what does growth look like going into next year?

Nathan Nordstrom: [00:16:52] Oh, you know, it’s it’s funny. When COVID hit, we were really concerned about our growth and development, and we were roughly at about one new spa a week before COVID and then the year of COVID. We still had 20 spots that opened and we started expanding. So this year, we’re definitely going to be quite a bit over that. And next year we’re planning 2022 to hopefully be right back to where we were pre-COVID. We’re striving and we continually have new investors who want to come in and open up their spas, and we’re excited to connect with them and give them an opportunity when things are slim and when they’re going to get more attention because we have less bars opening to be able to really engage them and develop a new spa in the developing world of hand in stone.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:41] Now are you penetrating new markets or are these existing markets just expanding within the markets they already are in?

Nathan Nordstrom: [00:17:48] Yes, both. We do have. We have a larger percentage of our stores on the East Coast from Florida, all the way up to New York and around. We have a big chunk in Texas, but the West Coast has actually shown what we’ve got several new, including Boise, Idaho. And so we’re getting into these other markets that are more spread out as the West Coast is being able to see new places. And even kind of in the Midwest, we’re seeing a good pull of new places that are opening up.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:20] Now are you targeting certain regions right now or is this kind of a free for all, wherever anybody has an interest, you’re, you know, in the market and the real estate makes sense.

Nathan Nordstrom: [00:18:30] I am excited to say that it’s not my expertize is the massage therapist training. I can see kind of where they’re at. And in the planning of that, I usually see it about after they start opening. So I’m not positive on how they’re going about that. I think they’re doing a great job of allowing the natural growth to happen, but they’re definitely working on kind of seeing the new markets that are needed and kind of figuring out where is going to be most beneficial for them. On more of the the real estate side, my side is kind of the hands on practice with the licensed massage therapist.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:08] Now any advice for emerging franchises on how to kind of get that escape velocity that they need in order to be successful?

Nathan Nordstrom: [00:19:18] You know, it’s been said so many times know your customer and know what they need in our industry as massage therapists. It is very focused towards kind of knowing their pains, knowing their dysfunction, knowing what’s going on in their body and being able to connect with your service providers as the owner being able to say, Hey, you know what? I have 10 massage therapists. I’ve got 15 massage therapists. Do you know what those massage therapists focus are what their skill set is? Because if you can maximize the skill set of your employees to really make the client have the best possible experience, they’re going to refer and they’re going to come back and then you’re going to need to expand because you’re going to have the number of clients really pounded down the door so that you can really expand to another market as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:13] Now how do you kind of as the owner of a franchise, how do you kind of keep the the client seeing the value of the brand rather than the value of an individual massage therapist? Because that seems to me would be tricky because it’s so personal and intimate in terms of the relationship, how do you kind of transfer the relationship to hand in stone and not, you know, build a massage therapist?

Nathan Nordstrom: [00:20:41] So you’ve got two major aspects one hand in stone, right? My job itself is continuing education for massage therapists. So hand in stone franchise, we want to make sure that each of the massage therapists, they come in to a hand in stone spa that they have access to understanding the best quality tools that we provide, the ability to really expand their practice and feel confident and comfortable. So when the as a franchisee, they’re looking at how to make that massage therapist really grow and thrive in their profession, really connecting with the hand and stone model and connecting with our continued education to really get them excited about what they’re doing is kind of a symbiotic relationship where it’s not just, OK, I’m investing in my employee, but I’m investing in my employee using the tool that is hand in stone because they’re providing great quality education with the massage therapists and getting them excited about new things. For example, next year, we’re actually looking at doing a showcase that goes across the country, which is a conference. For just the massage therapist and getting them excited about getting connected with each other in the local region, but really investing in the brand and feeling confident with what Hannan stone values are for the massage therapist and why we’re so successful with having massage therapists. Want to come back to and stone?

Lee Kantor: [00:22:07] Yeah, that’s an interesting. I interviewed the HR person a while ago and he said something to me that really struck me, he said. A lot of people are afraid that what if you train them and then they leave and he goes, Isn’t it worse if you don’t train them and they stay right?

Nathan Nordstrom: [00:22:26] Right, and that’s one of my my favorite pieces is that when I create a course for massage therapists, we’re continuing education. There’s there’s two major things. One is the quality of the tools that we’re providing, so we bring in some of the top brands. I’m going to use Theragun as a specific tool, and Theragun is one of those tools that is a percussive therapy device. And we don’t just say, OK, use the Theragun and have fun. We actually do the science, the concept behind. And we talk about the value of being in a hand in stone spa and the reasons why in a hammerstone spa. This is so successful and why Hanlan Stone supports the tool and being able to say yes, a massage therapist after we trained them. They might they might say, you know what? Ok? Six months later, I don’t want to work here anymore. However, they’re going to know the benefits of working at a hand in stone with that tool. So when they’re using a similar tool or the same tool at another place, they’re not going to see all the benefits that they had at a hand on stone. And so being able to connect that consciously in the training at the very beginning is something that we really want to focus on and make sure that the massage therapist says I got to go back to a hand in stone, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:23:41] And that probably attracts the right therapist to the brand. And it also is probably a better overall experience for the customer. So it’s a win win. It helps you attract the right folks, and it gives that kind of consistent quality that you’re looking for

Nathan Nordstrom: [00:23:56] And even the customer when it comes down to it, you want to have the right customer coming into any franchise that you’re looking at. And we all know that there are some bad apples not only in in the training or the employee side of things. There’s hopefully very few, but on the other side, there’s bad apples of customers. And so you want to make sure that you can give them the best quality experience and expect the best quality response from them. Because when the customer gets done, they should say, You know what? That was a great massage. I can’t argue with it. I may not have liked this or that. Or gosh, the the calming music was annoying to me, but you can’t please everyone every time, and so you can give them the best possible response response and let them know, Oh, I’m sorry that you didn’t like the music. We can definitely turn that down in the treatment room so that you don’t have to listen to it. And so really opportunities to make the customer know that we respect them and want them to have the best experience is always beneficial, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:24:56] Well, congratulations on all the success. If somebody wants to learn more about hand, some what’s the website?

Nathan Nordstrom: [00:25:02] It is hand and stone is the best direction to get a hold of us.

Lee Kantor: [00:25:07] Good stuff. Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Nathan Nordstrom: [00:25:12] Appreciate it, Lee. Thank you so much.

Lee Kantor: [00:25:14] All right, this is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Franchise Marketing Radio.

Elizabeth Carter With Elizabeth L. Carter, Esq., LLC

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Chicago Business Radio
Chicago Business Radio
Elizabeth Carter With Elizabeth L. Carter, Esq., LLC
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Firmspace-sponsor-banner

Elizabeth Carter, Esq., is a crowdfunding securities attorney who represents investment companies, small businesses, nonprofits, cooperatives, and other social enterprises with the legal strategy and compliance of raising capital from both accredited and non-accredited investors.

Her most recent work includes assisting a driver-owned ride-share cooperative with its $1.07 million crowdfunding debt offer to both accredited and non-accredited investors through Regulation Crowdfunding.

She is currently Of Counsel to Cutting Edge Counsel, a community capital securities law firm where she further provides securities legal services to businesses, funds, and cooperatives, including the provision of securities legal services to a cooperatively-owned investment fund that conducted a $2 million crowdfunding offer to accredited investors through SEC Rule 506(c).

Similarly in this role, she assisted a consumer cooperative with the amendment of its by-laws and articles of incorporation in order to prepare for its upcoming capital raise from non-member investors.

Elizabeth’s prior work includes the legal representation of entrepreneurs, property owners, small businesses, nonprofits and government agencies in various community economic development initiatives including drafting a joint venture agreement on behalf of a minority-owned redevelopment entity in order to promote inclusionary development; serving as general counsel to a limited-equity housing cooperative with over two hundred affordable housing units for seniors, and persons of low income; assisting a community development nonprofit with the selling of real estate for the development of affordable housing; representing a government agency with property tax lien issues in order to assist in the removal of blighted properties; reviewing, drafting, and negotiating commercial real estate contracts on behalf of a small businesses; and helping to prevent a tax lien foreclosure on behalf of a low-income property owner through the negotiation and drafting of a third-party investor real estate agreement.

She also served as Special Counsel in the Department of Economic and Housing Development of the City of Newark where she was lead counsel on a $8.1 mill affordable housing cooperative project and authored the City’s amended tax abatement ordinance which provides tax incentives for inclusionary development by women, racial minorities, and cooperatives.

Elizabeth also founded and served as Lead Counsel & Executive Director of the Urban Cooperative Enterprise Legal Center, Inc. (@ucelc), a 501c3 nonprofit organization with a mission to create and support cooperative enterprises within marginalized communities in order to promote local sustainability.

Currently, Elizabeth is on the Board of Directors of the Co-op Ed Center, and serves on a number of Advisory Boards including the Advisory Boards of Seaway, A Division of Self-Help Federal Credit Union; National Public Housing Museum; and the Lawndale Christian Community Development Corporation of Chicago.

She also serves as Director of Community Planning and Economic Development of the 20th Ward Ald. Jeanette Taylor’s office in Chicago, IL and is a Visiting Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law.

Elizabeth graduated from the University of Michigan with honors, double majoring in African American studies + political.

Follow Elizabeth on Facebook and LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • A legal fund to support Black-owned small businesses
  • How legal fund help support businesses
  • How businesses and individuals contribute to the fund with a tax-deductible contribution

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 Firm Space, 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 Chicago Business Radio. I’m your host, Max Cantor, and we have a great show for you all today. But first, as a reminder, our show is sponsored by firm space without firm space. We couldn’t be sharing these important stories that we do. So let’s jump right in. On today’s show, we have the managing attorney of Elizabeth L. Carter, Esq., LLC. Please welcome to the show, Elizabeth L. Carter. Welcome to the show, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth L. Carter: [00:00:50] Thank you. Thank you for having me. Lovely intro.

Max Kantor: [00:00:52] Oh, thank you. I’m excited to have you on. So let’s jump right into things. How are you serving, folks?

Elizabeth L. Carter: [00:00:58] Oh, well, yeah, that’s a good question. A loaded question. But I’ll say today, and at this moment, I, as you mentioned, I manage a law practice called Elizabeth L. Carter Esq. LLC, which is a crowdfunding securities law firm with the intent of providing legal strategy and compliance surrounding the offer of security. So if you’re a business owner that looking to raise capital from investors, I will help with the legal strategy around that, as well as making sure that it’s legal and compliant with both federal and state law and my firm specifically focus on underrepresented founders. So or businesses to nonprofit so namely black owned Afro-Latin own because of the limited and insufficient resources for these businesses, including legal. So I want it to be accessible to the community that otherwise wouldn’t be served.

Max Kantor: [00:01:46] Definitely. Now you talk about raising capital or crowd funding. I know all about crowdfunding, like for Kickstarter. What’s the type of crowdfunding that you’re specifically doing?

Elizabeth L. Carter: [00:01:57] Yeah. So Kickstarter is what you would call rewards based crowdfunding and go fund me. That’s what you would call a donation base. And then the type of crowdfunding that I’m specifically referencing, especially when it comes to the legal strategy. The law part of it are called investment crowdfunding, so rewards is similar to donation and that donation service the easiest donation is Hey, I have a business. Can you all just support me and you get nothing in return? You just helping it, helping me out? You want to see this project come off the ground and you all want to see a great asset in the community. Help me out and donate rewards is similar, except that rewards is saying, hey, in exchange, there is a small token of appreciation, so to speak, right? But you have to be careful because some states have found what they would deem as a rewards crowdfunding and actual investment crowdfunding offer and the states. The regular regulations there or the securities office there will harp down and say, Hey, actually, you’re selling a security. And so what makes the security rewards different is that although the rewards are saying you get something in return, it’s not so expensive or so valuable to be deemed as a security. So a security is any time someone’s giving you money with an expectation over time and passively give you money. So it’s a difference max that you and I decide to go on business together. We’re co officers. I don’t know. Maybe you’re the CEO, I’m the CFO or something. We’re both working actively in the business, but we have money in the business as well. In other words, we invest it, but that’s different from a security because we’re actively involved in the company. However, if Max, you have a company, you say, Hey, Elizabeth, I’m raising funds, can you help me out? And in return, you get a share of the profits, you get a share of the company’s ownership.

Elizabeth L. Carter: [00:03:39] And I don’t do anything else but just give you money, and I walk away and live my life and I rely on your expertize that’s called a security. So the SEC, which is the Securities Exchange Commission, the federal agency, as well as the state or state relevant ones there they call it, I don’t know, Illinois Securities Office or something. And what they do is they want to protect my step, that passive investor, they want to make sure that max and this example that you’re going to do the right thing and make sure that you’re not defrauding Elizabeth when she’s giving your money because she doesn’t know what’s going on because she’s passive, right? So that’s the difference. So when the rewards come into play, what happened in that particular example that I mentioned earlier is that I think it was a motorcycle that they were raising funds or funds for and say, Hey, if you give me money in exchange, we’ll give you a motorcycle, right? Once you develop them it to manufacture these motorcycles. The state security regulators said, Hey, that’s actually a very valuable asset to see the return because they gave you four thousand and in return they received a motorcycle that was worth five thousand. So they actually received something on top of that money that they gave you. So those nuances are very important because people just don’t know, and they can be engaging in something that gets them in trouble unless they have a lawyer or a securities lawyer, someone that’s competent in capital raising that can help guide them there.

Max Kantor: [00:04:56] Yeah, for sure. And you explain that beautifully. Very well said. And. I got to tell you, you said that if we went into business together and I’d be the CEO and you’d be the CFO. No, no, no, I would not be the CEO. No way. Not after that explanation. Not me. So, but hearing you explain everything, I’m curious how do investors get their money back?

Elizabeth L. Carter: [00:05:17] Well, it could honestly, any investments rescue, which is which is always sort of the general, OK, time Typekit your money here. There’s a risk you can lose it all. However, you or whoever’s raising the funds should actually go more specific and say, Well, why is it particularly risky to invest? I don’t know in the cannabis business and in a state like, I don’t know, let’s see New Jersey, New Jersey that has to legalize cannabis. Yet as far as regulation, well, it’s really risky because you may have a lot of fee fees and criminal penalties, and all your money can be lost because a state may say that wasn’t a valid contract. So so these things need to be disclosed. And so the idea, though, is that it should be written down on paper and your investment documents, how this founder or this business owner is going to return your money. They should do the analysis. They should hire a financial adviser or accountant. You can do some projections, especially if they’re a startup with no revenue, right or even if they have some revenue. There’s there’s calculations, there’s formulas to kind of predict what the outcome financially would be. And and so you should do that now. Some, especially in crowdfunding, I should say, especially, I think even the VC world venture capital, there isn’t a lot of that due diligence happening in terms of literally calculations in numbers. Sometimes I think in the venture capital world, they do have a lot of resources and software to kind of predict these things, but it’s almost like going to the doctors and the doctor, the medical doctor.

Elizabeth L. Carter: [00:06:48] He’s practiced, I don’t know, 40 years. He can look at a lump on your phone for him and say, Oh, I know exactly what that is versus a new doctor. I have to go back research. Do some look into the books? Is it a mole? Is it this? And so that’s sort of the venture capital investor versus the crowdfunding invested. The venture capital investor is more of an expert because this is what they do. They have again, they have courses for it, right? You go to you’re your financial advisor, whereas the crowd fund investors, your neighbor, it’s your friend, it’s your customer who isn’t necessarily an investor by trade but want to support you. And so you want to make sure you disclosing everything in layman’s terms that they can understand because they may not understand how they’re getting their money back. So part of this, you doing your work, putting it down and doing your your due diligence and say, this is how I project and how I predict. And then you can also say, Listen, I don’t know. I don’t know how I’m going to give it back. So long as you say that and the investor is OK with that, then you’re fine. As far as legally, you’re fine because you’re disclosing that fact. You know what I mean? You’re disclosing? Well, I don’t know exactly, but I can tell you that I’m going to work hard and people believe in you. And so long as you say I do, I mean, of course, you’re going to put in better words. But basically the gist is saying, I haven’t done the numbers and you will see it because there’s nothing in your disclosure documents that show that you got the numbers right.

Elizabeth L. Carter: [00:08:03] And so you’ll see a lot of that, too. In these documents, they may say well up on the discretion of the manager or the CEO, and that doesn’t tell the investor anything. It doesn’t tell you if you’re going to get dividends next month or on a quarterly basis or a year, just says whenever the CEO deems it worthy or deems it feasible to do that. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but it doesn’t give you a lot of insight. So all that long way of saying it really just depends on what the business owner has, what kind of homework they have done, and what kind of financial analysis they’ve done themselves to say, OK, this is how I’m going to return money. In addition to the financial returns, going back to the risk factors like going back to the cannabis example. Part of that is even if you had a small business model and you know exactly going to make a million dollars next year and you laid it all out financially or in the mathematically and everything is on point a, it’s not guaranteed because of a prediction, but also the idea that it’s an illegal enterprise that none of that matters, right? And so that’s also something to consider. What are some other non-financial risks that can actually make affect the investment so that the investor may or may not receive their funds may lose all their investment, right?

Max Kantor: [00:09:12] So, yeah, definitely. So I’m I want to know, how does your legal fund help support these businesses that come to you? Because as we were talking, you know, there’s all these complex laws regulations. It’s difficult. It’s hard, especially if you’re a small business. There’s a lot of stuff you might not know. So how does your legal fund help support these people who come to you?

Elizabeth L. Carter: [00:09:35] Yes, I’m glad you brought that up. So I’m super excited about this fund because it solves a problem even within a solution. So let me explain what I mean. Crowdfunding was designed to be a solution for a problem, and the capital raising will, in other words, before the Jobs Act of 2012, which is what instituted and made legal, this raising capital from nationally from both accredited investors so accredited, meaning you make over 200 K a year over one million dollars a net worth as an individual. And then as well as nine accredited investors, those basically the 90 percent of the country, right? Those who don’t make that much and don’t have that network that. Accidents were allowed, and then the amendment in 2015 allowed for non-accredited investors to get involved on a national scale. In general, advertising so you can just publicly advertise these things, of course there’s restrictions we have to go into that, but it changed the game a bit in terms of investing, whereas before that was really relegated to wealthy individual people that, you know, because it was much more costly to try to reach out to a noncredit investor that you don’t know than it was for a credit, invest that you do know. And so crowdfunding was designed to democratize capital raising to say, Hey, small business is a do not have the type of funds or the type of revenue to pay hundreds of thousand dollars a year to register their business with the SEC like like IPO or public companies do now, right? So one, it helps with that.

Elizabeth L. Carter: [00:11:04] So there’s exemptions where that is do not have to register so long. They follow these particular rules, right? Then the other side is OK. In addition to that, it opened up the floodgates in terms of where they can get their money from now. They can literally reach out to their customers and reach out to their supporters and members and followers on Instagram to say, Hey, I’m raising funds. You want to support as little as as much as you want five dollars, one hundred dollars, so it makes it more accessible. However, there’s still a cost to raising capital so that business owner, it looks easier now and it is easier, I should say. But there’s still that compliance or that we just got on talking about right there. So those drafting those documents, the investment documents, the risk factors, making sure that you’re laying out all the particulars so that you can say that you’re not misrepresenting any investor, what your business can do, right, that costs and that’s the legal compliance, let alone the accounting that comes with it, let alone the marketing that comes with it. So there’s this upfront pre-seed cost that that is there, that a lot of lot many founders, particularly black and letting founders just do not have because of generational wealth just didn’t pass down the same way. So friends and family is what I’m speaking about his friends and family around.

Elizabeth L. Carter: [00:12:12] It’s a term of art within a capital raising space that basically means historically was you can literally go to your grandfather, you’re your heir to the throne. You can say, Hey, I need five k one hundred k for my idea. Please, Grandma, give it to me. Oh, here you go. Right? We have an extra cash to give it and invest in our grandson, our son or daughter. And usually a son, a white male right. And usually in that in back in the day. And so now moving forward in the modern age, it’s still they still use that now the the friends and family may not be literally your friends and family, but they’re your network. There’s their wealthy, other wealthy Silicon Valley investors or people that are around you in that space, but underrepresented, marginalized and people of color just do not have that same network. And so even within the community, they can’t pool that much amount of capital together in order to even even raise the crowd funding. So I say that’s to say my fund is designed to help offset those costs, particularly the legal costs, by subsidizing and calling on our community collectively and say, Hey, this public is my friends. Let’s help these black owned businesses to raise capital sustainably and legally, because otherwise people just go in without their legal legal shell and put themselves at risk.

Max Kantor: [00:13:23] So how much money are you looking to raise through the fund?

Elizabeth L. Carter: [00:13:28] As much as possible, so I can give you an example of how much it costs legal, just legal, so on average, I mean. So there’s regulation crowdfunding, which is probably the the most accessible and the one that that has the least amount you can raise in a year. Right now, it’s up to five million to go through a Portal Regulation crowdfunding portal to do so that on average costs about twenty thousand legally to do and competent counsel. So what I did is I was engaging in this practice. I decided I knew that I couldn’t compare my firm to sort of the typical securities law firms, especially where I have a mission to be accessible to those who just don’t have that type of funding for the most part, right? And so I decided to do my own analysis of my own sort of internal pricing and say, OK, what will it cost my firm to do this and so on? Or for that particular offer, the chief is about around 10 K, right? So you think 10K per founder, we have over 50 applicants, so we really won’t need to raise as much as possible knowing that we probably won’t raise the entire book. But I think as much as as much as we can, we’ll definitely do a whole lot to help subsidize and subsidize can be hard. It can be take a thousand dollars whatever we can do to help the founders sustainably do so. Yeah, because we also do other things that partner with other organizations like the nonprofit that I have as a fiscal sponsor. Again, if you’re if anyone’s interested in donating, you also can get a tax deduction. But that particular nonprofit, we’ve done work in the past where they subsidize literally half the cost of whatever the client needed right to do their work. So I’ve done that already. The fun is just doing it and going more deeper into it and try to help many more as possible.

Max Kantor: [00:15:14] So to help as many as possible and to raise as much money as possible, how can local businesses or and or the community help? How can our listeners help you in the fund?

Elizabeth L. Carter: [00:15:25] Yes, I’m really just share the so you go to the website WW w e l c e Ask.com Legal Fund. All one word. Share that for a while we have we were featured in Black Newscom Black Enterprise. Com Share that article firmwide. We have a press release. You can contact me at info at ELCA to get that and really spread that around. And then also, of course, donating, right? Like I said, you can donate directly to the law firm through that website, or you can donate through our fiscal sponsors, which are typically for large and I say, larger, more than twenty five dollars, right, that they’re they’re willing to accept on behalf of the fund. And there you can receive a tax deduction or deductible ability on your donation. So really just sharing far and wide and I’ve had people do that and really have great feedback. Even this podcast, you guys just illustrating and showing you on your website helps a lot. And then, of course, the money, right? You just donate the cash. They’ll be very helpful.

Max Kantor: [00:16:27] Well, what you’re doing is super important and it’s super valuable to the community. And I have to ask you and you’re probably this answer. There’s so many different ways you can answer it, but what for you is the most rewarding part of this fund?

Elizabeth L. Carter: [00:16:42] Oh, I’ve had I love the application process. Part of the application process was for them to send a video to just explain who they are. Illustrate and show I wanted the people to see a real face around, like, what does this business owner looks like? What I mean? We had investment funds. People who are interested create investment funds. We have, you know, someone who invented something called a dental wig and she has a patent like these are very investable, but businesses that that anyone would want to invest in. These are businesses that are viable, that have great plans. So one of them, I’ve seen them work. I’ve been I’ve been in touch with them before, so I’m seeing them from afar that they’re raising funds of their own. And so that’s the most rewarding is seeing how hard people work, seeing how valuable their ideas are and their businesses are, and being able to contribute and support them. The best way that I can do not only the legal but bringing on my community and the community abroad to say we all need to support you and just backing them. Because one thing one of my motivation is for even becoming a crowdfunding securities lawyer, whereas before I was more of a broader development lawyer. Real estate development. But one reason why I decided to be sort of in the finance business for a securities world was I will see so many talented entrepreneurs and they will reach a plateau. And that plateau was they actually needed capital to grow and to sustain, and they didn’t have it. And so this is really the most rewarding part of seeing that the need is there and to illustrate to the rest of the world the need is really there and that we need the support and the resources. And so just sharing that and just sharing the burden, I so to speak that it’s not just on one person or one firm or one fund, but all of us can be part of the solution.

Max Kantor: [00:18:24] Definitely. It’s so awesome hearing you talk about it and all the stories. I’m sure you’re going to have and that you have had already as your fund continues to grow and all the businesses that you help now and in the future, it’s really exciting work that you’re doing. And before we wrap up, what was that website again for people if they want to donate to your fund?

Elizabeth L. Carter: [00:18:44] Oh yeah. So w w w dot e l c e s q slash legal fund. All one word word l a l f you and b gotcha.

Max Kantor: [00:18:59] Well, Elizabeth, thank you so much for being on the show today. You’re really doing important work and we appreciate all you do for the community.

Elizabeth L. Carter: [00:19:06] Thank you so much, man. I really appreciate you having me on,

Max Kantor: [00:19:08] Of course, and thanks to all of you for listening. Once again, this episode was sponsored by firm SpaceX, and we will see you next time.

Intro: [00:19:17] 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.

Tom Irby With TIrbo Executive Coaching

by

TomIrby
Coach The Coach
Tom Irby With TIrbo Executive Coaching
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TomIrbyWith 35+ years of experience in ownership/C-level executive, sales, operations leadership, and business coaching, Tom Irby have a proven track record of pioneering the road to recovery for businesses who are experiencing challenging cash situations and detrimental business trends; his passion is to assist in the creation of goals and establish a clear, concise plan, then make it happen.

Tom has made a meaningful impact in many forms throughout his professional career including leading financial turnarounds, cultural shifts, navigating business sale conversations, and the cultivation of personal and group excellence through business and life coaching.

Notably, Tom served as the President, CEO for AcuScribe Court Reporters from 2007 – 2014 and navigated a substantial global recession in 2009 by restructuring debt, reducing costs, growing marketing initiatives and the geographic base of the business, and increasing the amount of services offered to the client base. After the recovery from the financial crisis Tom sold AcuScribe Court Reporters to Veritext Legal Solutions, the largest court reporting firm in the world, in late 2014 as their first office in the state of Texas.

Out of the 35 years as a business professional, 17 years were spent coaching, mentoring, and leading 50+ business owners across an array of industries – from startups to companies valued over $30m – with tangible success and a passion garnered from his unique personal experience, resilience in overcoming failures, and the lessons learned along the way. Through a combination of several decades of experience along with being a knowledgeable Traction/EOS facilitator, building a culture of accountability and transparency has shown to produce consistent results.

Other notable ventures include the successful sale of Austin Payfones, Inc. in 1999, the responsibility at Silicon Services Consortium of driving sales growth from $1m to $10m in 3 years, and the effort in taking a PC startup, CompuAdd, and growing it to $500+m over a nine year period.

Tom has a wife, two sons and resides in the outskirts of Austin, Texas. He is a family-man, avid outdoorsman, and a sports fanatic – servant leadership comes naturally to Tom, however, his life experience has allowed him to develop an innate ability to analyze a situation, dive into the details, and provide realistic solutions to challenging problems whether with loved ones or the businesses he serves.

Connect with Tom on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Owner focused coaching
  • Strategic planning for leadership teams
  • Importance of a clear person vision
  • Importance of laser focus on accountabilities and Org road map
  • Importance of building an A+ leadership team

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Speaker1: [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 good one today on the show, we have Tom Irby with tirbo executive coaching. Welcome, Tom.

Tom Irby: [00:00:43] Hey, Lee, how are you today?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] I am doing great, I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about Turbo. How are you serving, folks?

Tom Irby: [00:00:51] Well, I’m kind of real active kind of in the Central Texas area, specifically Austin. Real involved with a lot of smaller to medium sized businesses.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:03] And how are you defining small to medium size? Everybody seems to have a different definition of that.

Tom Irby: [00:01:09] I know it’s a great question. And and you know, quite honestly, it’s all over the map for me. But if I had to narrow it down, I’d say that it’s really kind of in the net one million to 50 million range, and I really do enjoy startups as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:23] So sometimes you work with folks that maybe don’t have any clients at all or they just have a good idea.

Tom Irby: [00:01:30] You know, it’s not at that stage. I typically like to work with people that already have something on the ground, having to have a product or have a service they’ve launched a pre-launch is not really my focus.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:43] So once they’ve launched and got some traction and maybe have hit a roadblock or two, then you come in to help them guide them through that.

Tom Irby: [00:01:51] That’s right. That’s right. That’s where I really kind of feel like I can add the most value.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:56] Now, having done this for a minute, have you kind of found some mistakes that folks kind of make when they hit that first roadblock or two?

Tom Irby: [00:02:05] Yeah, you you typically see a lot of different a lot of similar patterns. And you know, when somebody starts a business they have, they feel like they have to do everything at once and and they quickly get overwhelmed with all the different things to do and don’t really have a sense of priority or a clear vision of where they want to go.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:27] And then how do you kind of help them with the vision because you you would think, you know, somebody who has a business knows kind of what they want, how they want the story to end? Are you saying that sometimes maybe they get started and then it just kind of evolves into something else, or it turns into something else based on the clients they’re getting at the time?

Tom Irby: [00:02:49] Yeah. I mean, I think it’s it takes so many different forms, Leigh. It’s really hard to kind of put them into one one category, but the best way I could describe it is, you know, a lot of business owners, they feel like the harder they work, the sooner they’re going to get the result they want. But the reality is they don’t always know exactly what they want. Now some business, some people that start a business have it very well thought out and have a very solid business plan. But a lot of existing businesses, they tend to be more reactionary and less proactive. And so really getting owners to take a step back and get clear on a vision and a path and where they want to go is what I really try to do more than anything is is really get them by the neck and collar and pull them out of the day to day stuff and really kind of assess where they are now.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:44] When you’re talking about vision for most owners or at least in smaller entities, there’s kind of a that vision might bleed into both their business and their kind of personal life. How do you help them kind of separate the two? Or if that’s appropriate, or combine the two, if that’s appropriate?

Tom Irby: [00:04:05] I love this. I love this discussion. This is a discussion that gets gets me excited every time I venture into it, because really, what most business owners do, it’s like they’re on a hamster wheel. They feel like they’re so they get so focused on the business side of things. They they neglect the personal side. And so the best way to for me to describe it is to use an analogy. And so if you think in terms of a bicycle, you’ve got the front wheel and you’ve got the back wheel, the front wheel goes up to the handlebars or hands on the handlebars and it turns the wheel the direction you want it to go and the back wheel you pedal the chain in the sprockets, drive the back room and it pushes the bike wherever the front wheel is pointed. So if you take that analogy and then lay it over the top of business, the front wheel is your personal vision. And so I really try to work with owners to get clarity about what they want to do, where they want to go, what their passions are, what their special interests are, or what, what their their personal family goals look like, and then go back to the business plan, which is the back wheel and spend time to make sure you reconcile that.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:18] Now, when they become out of alignment, what are some what does that look like for folks?

Tom Irby: [00:05:26] Well, when they when they when they get out of alignment, it’s typically that either they’ve forgotten their personal vision or they never really fully bought into it or developed it. And you know, that can look like so many different things. You know, like one thing that I find pretty consistently is that it kind of feeds back into whatever their organization looks like. And more specifically, leadership, if they’ve really done a good job of building a leadership team or not, that is in. I can’t tell you how many times that really is kind of the core issue.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:02] And then when you’re working with an entrepreneur, do they have to kind of have the self-awareness and humility to no one say, Hey, I need help, but no two to even recognize that this is something that’s permeating not just themselves as an individual, but their entire leadership team.

Tom Irby: [00:06:24] Absolutely. I mean, you really kind of nailed that one. I mean, you know, for for this profession of coaching, if you don’t have somebody that has some level of humility and desire to learn and be coached, it’s just a waste of time. So, you know, it really it really does. The amount of success that I can have in an engagement really depends on how coachable the the owner is.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:55] Now, what’s your back story? How did you get involved in coaching? Is this something you’ve done your whole career or is it something that’s evolved as you’ve grown?

Tom Irby: [00:07:03] It’s completely evolved. You know, I’m really more of an entrepreneur and a business owner. I’ve I’ve been involved in several companies over the years and it was really, you know, I’ve owned a couple of companies, sold a couple companies and really, I became a member of this organization in Austin by the name of Tab, the alternative board where business owners get together with frequency and it’s facilitated. And over time, I ended up being becoming a facilitator and doing that kind of as a part time deal. And after I sold my last business, I decided, You know what? I’m going to dove head first into this coaching thing. I enjoy it so much and I enjoy working with business owners, and there’s nothing more gratifying than seeing a business owner find success, know for all the employees and all the families associated with it. So it really has been kind of an organic path for me now.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:03] What did you like about the structure of Tab?

Tom Irby: [00:08:07] So the structure of Tab? You know, if I had to, I’d go back to the personal vision piece. It’s about the individual before the business, and that’s kind of the cornerstone discussion that we have over and over again with members. If we if we do a good job understanding kind of the personal vision side and then craft the business plan, then that’s that’s a great thing. But I’ll tell you the other thing, and I don’t mean for this to be a plug about tab as much as a plug for peer to peer and boards, you know, for the importance of owners to be around other owners. The way a group of owners sits in a room and talks to each other is very different than when they sit in a room and talk with anybody else. Because in most settings owners, when they’re dealing with people, these these conversations, somebody wants something from this owner. It’s either time or money or budget or or contract. There’s always some sort of other motive, but when you go into a peer to peer board like tab and you get a room of six or seven or eight business owners from varying industries, the the honesty and the the the amount of of dialog is something that’s really, really special.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:30] Now when folks kind of do this for the first time, any advice on how to do it in a way that. Gets the most out of the experience, because to me to do this as an entrepreneur and then not only do I have to be vulnerable to a coach as an individual, that seems like a hard thing by itself. But then now I’m in front of a half a dozen to a dozen other people. How do you kind of coach your people up when they aren’t a peer to peer environment like this to lean into it? And just kind of. Let the group help.

Tom Irby: [00:10:09] Yeah, it’s an awesome question, and I’m in my mind, as you were asking the question, I was thinking of several different owners that have come through the tab experience. And I’ll tell you, some have not been successful and some have been vastly successful. And I think the way, the way, the way I try to work with them is, you know, and you know, my role is not to be the nice guy as the coach. My role is to hold them accountable in my role is to be as honest and forthright as I can. And so, you know, for me, it’s all about staying true to my role and leaning into the hard decisions. Excuse me, the hard discussions, because if I don’t lean into the hard discussions, then I’m not really kind of playing my part. And so that’s that would be my answer on how to deal with people as they’re coming into this. You know, they have to kind of be open to the idea of facing these hard discussions.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:17] And on one hand, you would think that that’s obvious because if they have it all together, they wouldn’t necessarily need or want this kind of interaction. That is, it’s uncomfortable, but it’s revealing and it’s kind of helpful. Right. But if they thought they had all the answers, they wouldn’t even, you know, entertain doing something like this.

Tom Irby: [00:11:37] Yeah, in the members that have done the best and gotten the most value are those people that really come to the board with what they don’t know. The members that get the least and have not done that well with this organization are the ones that come to the board with everything they know. So they show up and they they talk about all the stuff they know. And it’s really the ones that come to the board with what they don’t know, because if you’re if you’re sitting in a room with, you know, six, seven, eight other business owners, it’s really it’s really a valuable it’s really there’s so much knowledge and so much to gain. And so bringing an issue or a challenge or a topic or a discussion or frustration or an idea to that group of of of owners is really kind of where the value exists.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:30] Now you mentioned that it’s easy for an owner to get overwhelmed with all that is kind of required of them to lead. Is there any kind of low hanging fruit that you would recommend an owner kind of do. Maybe there’s some self-care you can recommend an owner be doing. You know, on a regular basis to help them manage that overwhelm.

Tom Irby: [00:12:56] You know, I think a lot of what I do, Leigh maybe leans into life coaching too, because it’s hard to to really remove one from the other. So. So for example, if there’s an owner that’s struggling kind of on the business side of things, in whatever respect, you know, whether it’s whether they’re just not profitable or they’re struggling with with with leadership or whatever it may be. A lot of times, you know, it’s it’s work life balance or it’s it’s, you know, they’re not as physical or fit as they need to be or they’re not taking time off or they’re not they’re not paying attention to their personal vision. You know, I keep coming back to that, but there’s there’s reason for it. You know, so if if they kind of get refreshed around, OK, this is who I am, what I’m about, and you know what? I need to work on these areas of my life outside of business as they work on those, it gives them kind of renewed excitement about what their business is. And the other thing is is to really reset and get structure around what their business plan looks like. I’m I’m really huge on on having some sort of planning system and in and visiting that system with frequency and cadence with your leadership team, and that allows you to kind of make sure that, you know, we’re working on the most important things right now that lead to this place on the horizon that we’ve identified that we want to get to.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:27] Now, are there any kind of symptoms that that suggest that you might have a problem in your organization, like from a leadership standpoint or a strategic system standpoint? Are there things that are happening that maybe you’re not seeing as a big deal, but to you as a coach? Go, Hey, that’s a big that’s a flashing yellow, if not a red, and then the owner might be just not seeing it as that.

Tom Irby: [00:14:52] Yeah, definitely. So I’m I’m a big analogy, guy, so I apologize. I keep I keep jumping into analogies. But one of the things I like to think about is all businesses. Basically, if you think in terms of a wide road that has guardrails on either side of the road, all businesses kind of try to navigate as close to the middle of that road as possible, but they all have a tendency to kind of swerve and they’ll hit one guardrail and hit another and they’ll be one or two tires off the road with frequency. And so when I notice businesses and business owners really kind of hitting the rails and having wheels off the road per say, that tells me that they don’t really have a good system in place, a planning system or they they don’t have clear accountabilities in the organization. So that’s where I’ll go back and say, let’s really kind of reassess, what are your goals? What do they look like? What’s the plan to get there? Who’s accountable for what and try to narrow that road a little bit and narrow those guardrails a little bit, so they’re not swerving quite so broadly back and forth. So that’s kind of how I notice if somebody’s in trouble.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:03] Now, in my experience, I would prefer systems over goals because the system to me is like a machine that’s going to give me an outcome that I desire. Whereas a goal, there might be lots of ways to hit that goal, some of which might be productive in the long term, and some are not. How do you help your coaches kind of build the systems they need in order to be successful?

Tom Irby: [00:16:32] I really encourage. I’m a big attraction guy, I don’t know if you’re familiar with traction in iOS. Sure. And I’m a big traction guy and I really advocate it and and I work with with a bunch of the organizations I’m involved with in their yearly and quarterly and leadership teams. But to me, that’s really kind of the best system I’ve seen. And if they don’t have, if they don’t have traction, they have something similar. It’s really just it’s really just trying to encourage them to stay true to the system and, you know, and really try to get everybody operating off the same playbook. And if you’re familiar with traction, which sounds like you are, you know, the the thing that that I love most about it. One of the things I love most about it, it really tries to break your world and break everything into 90 day worlds. You know, don’t think in terms of these long goals that are so often the distance. You can’t see how to get there. You really got to break it into smaller pieces and manage those along the way to get to that point.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:39] Now, can you share a story of maybe one of the clients you work with? Obviously don’t name their name of the company, but explain like the challenge that they had when they came to you and what you did to help them overcome and maybe get to a new level.

Tom Irby: [00:17:53] You know, this is this is this is fun for me. If you could see me right now, you’d see the big smile on my face. So I literally just got off the phone with this client and I’m going to make reference to it. So maybe a decade ago, I started working with this fellow and he’s a he’s a CPA and he was just kind of starting off and he was maybe a year or so into the business and he’d taken on a partner and this partner. I forget if it was a 30 or 40 percent partner, but the partner was, you know, didn’t really participate, didn’t do the heavy lifting, didn’t put in the hours and my client was putting in all the hours doing all the work and and and then we started working together. And so I really started leaning into this issue of a partner having all the good and not really doing any of the heavy lifting. And over time, my client started getting irritated with me, and so he started referring to me as freaking Tom. And so at first it was it was. He was a little upset how hard I was leaning into this discussion, and over time, it’s kind of become a funny thing. And now he calls me freakin Tom all the time. But but so but the net net is, you know, he he had a partner that really didn’t deserve that amount of equity and didn’t earn that amount of equity. He’s since navigated through that. He now owns the company fully. We worked all the way through that. It’s led to explosive growth, explosive profit and explosive wealth for him. And to this day, he still calls me Freak and Tom.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:30] Good stuff now, is there any industry that you typically work in, or is this pretty much industry agnostic, your work?

Tom Irby: [00:19:38] I’m very industry agnostic. I I’ve I’ve worked and owned businesses in different industries. To me, 70, 80 percent of businesses, the same. You know, it’s that 20 or 30 percent is kind of domain. And, you know, I can typically navigate around that. So really, it’s more around kind of the size of the business and really the, you know, the the desire for the owner to to learn and be coached.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:10] Now do you find your work touches like more operations or sales or leadership or all of the above

Tom Irby: [00:20:19] All the above? I kind of like it all, you know, and it’s almost it’s kind of a blessing and a curse, all at the same time. But I I would say that I’ve spent the early part of my career really in the sales and revenue driving revenue side of the world, and that’s really where my deepest passion is. But I’ve also spent a lot of time operationally, and it really it really is important for me to kind of see the whole picture in in order to see the whole picture, I need to understand a little bit in each each area.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:51] And in today’s world where talent is, it seems like there’s a talent shortage in terms of a scarcity of leaders that want to do the hard things that you mentioned earlier. Is there any recommendation on how to build that kind of. Super leader team. And like you mentioned, how to maybe free up somebody’s future if they’re not, you know, they might have the title, but they’re not doing the work of the leader that you need.

Tom Irby: [00:21:24] Yeah, I mean, that’s a great problem, I mean, it’s a great question. I mean, it’s obviously it’s a big problem out there, but you know, I think the the one thing that that I see over and over again in this, this is not just leaders, it’s really kind of all employees, but leaders certainly fall into, you know, I like to think of of the development of a of an employee kind of in a three legged stool. The first is kind of the recruiting process. You know, if you really do a good job recruiting the right person, then that’s kind of one of the legs. The second leg is the on boarding where you really are very clear about, OK, this is what you’re going to do and how it’s going to look and what we’re going to talk about and when we’re going to talk about it in the third leg is really the ongoing management of that person. And so if you really do all three of those things, it leads to longer retention and better, better employees. And I think that fits into the leadership piece as well. You know, so you’ve got to invest in them. You’ve got to find the right people. You’ve got to spend time with them. You’ve got to invest. And the other thing is, if they’re not a good fit, then you’re not doing anybody any favors keeping them around. Don’t don’t really allow things to linger too long way.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:37] And then that top of that funnel of choosing the right person is critical. I mean, it’s it’s a lot easier to coach up the right person than it is to coach up the wrong person.

Tom Irby: [00:22:48] No doubt.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:50] Now, if somebody wants to learn more about you and your practice and get on your calendar or maybe work with somebody on your team, what is the best way to do that? What’s the website?

Tom Irby: [00:23:01] Well, the best thing to do is to reach out to me, either via email or phone. You can also go through the The Tab Austin website, but my email is Urbi at gmail.com.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:17] And if they want to connect with you on LinkedIn. Tom Irby, is that the best way?

Tom Irby: [00:23:22] That’s right.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:23] Good stuff, Tom Wolfe. Congratulations on all the success you’re doing. Important work and we appreciate you.

Tom Irby: [00:23:28] Thank you, Lee, for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:30] All right, this is Lee Kantor. We’ll sail next time on Coach the Coach radio.

Jan Barnett With Another Broken Egg Cafe of America

by

JanBarnett
Franchise Marketing Radio
Jan Barnett With Another Broken Egg Cafe of America
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Brought To You By SeoSamba . . . Comprehensive, High Performing Marketing Solutions For Mature And Emerging Franchise Brands . . . To Supercharge Your Franchise Marketing, Go To seosamba.com.

AnotherBrokenEggCafeofAmerica

JanBarnettIf there were a restaurant marketing Hall of Fame, Jan would be in it. She has survived with flying colors over 35 years in a tough, competitive and ever-changing category.

Most recently Jan served as Vice President of Marketing for The Egg & I Restaurants where she was instrumental in growing the brand from 30 restaurants to over 115 restaurants in less than 5 years.

Prior to joining The Egg & I, Jan served as president of Integer QSR, the third largest field-marketing agency for McDonald’s in the U.S.

Prior to joining Integer QSR, Jan was a partner and vice president for Foote, Cone & Belding where she worked on the Taco Bell account during the launch of its successful 59/79/99¢ value campaign and the rollout of its late night and 24-hour initiatives.

Follow Another Broken Egg Cafe on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Restaurant of the future after COVID-19
  • The drivers of change for restaurants in a “new normal”
  • the future of brunch
  • Role of off-premise in our future
  • Difference of emerging growth brands from other brands

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:07] Welcome to Franchise Marketing Radio, brought to you by SEO Samba Comprehensive, high performing marketing solutions for mature and emerging franchise brands to supercharge your franchise marketing. Go to SEOSamba.com that’s SEOsamba.com.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:31] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Franchise Marketing Radio, and this is going to be a fun one today on the show, we have Jan Barnett with another broken egg cafe of America. Welcome, Jan.

Jan Barnett: [00:00:42] Hi Lee, how are you doing?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:43] I am doing great. I’m so excited to learn about another broken egg. Please tell the listeners who aren’t familiar about your concept.

Jan Barnett: [00:00:52] Absolutely. So we are a breakfast and brunch daytime only cafe concept with approximately 80 units from coast to coast and literally just serving breakfast, brunch and lunch. And we also have a full bar as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:12] Oh wow. Can you share a little bit about the history? Did it start out as kind of a mom and pop and then just organically grew into a franchise? Or did it start as a franchise? It was built to be a franchise all along?

Jan Barnett: [00:01:24] Great. Great question. Actually, we started in Mandeville. Louisiana, twenty five years ago, next month, and it was never meant to be a franchise, it was the Broken Egg Cafe and the franchise, or I’m sorry, the founder Ron Green would just get so many inquiries from people about when are you going to open another one? So he thought, Well, maybe let’s give this a shot. So he opened his first franchised location in Destin, Florida, and he called it another broken egg. So the rest is history.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:00] And then from there, just kind of the people who were going there to eat, they were like, Hey, you know, in my town, because Destin is kind of a touristy place. They were like, in my town, there’s none of these like this. So then let me open it. Is that kind of did growth come from that?

Jan Barnett: [00:02:16] Yeah, you’re spot on, right? That’s kind of one of our best kept secrets. Or maybe not is building flagship locations and seasonal parts of the country where we do see a lot of tourism and then we get inquiries about bringing the brand to their home town and we’re franchise dominant. So certainly, we’re looking for franchisees around the country. So those folks that are willing to franchise and open in their. Markets, we are happy to assist with that, but a lot of folks do first try the brand in many of our seasonal locations.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:51] So now how did kind of the pandemic impact your restaurant? Some restaurants were able to kind of pivot pretty good into a, you know, either curbside or or some sort of a delivery. And others struggled a little bit. How did your restaurant do?

Jan Barnett: [00:03:11] Well, actually, we did pretty well. We were only able to keep five of our locations, so five, let’s call it out of seventy five at that point coming into April 20 20 open. And that was strictly with takeout and delivery only which we did not do prior to COVID. I mean, brunch is certainly an exponential day part. So it was all about coming into the cafe for your Benedict and your Bloody Mary. So clearly we had to move quick to get in to off premise and why we kept the five locations open that we did to test various initiatives. So coming into mid-June is when we started to reopen all the cafes and some various form of capacity. Some could do dine in, majority were just takeout. However, by the time we got into September, October of 2020, our premise was generating so much incremental business we were comping. Uh, twenty nineteen and really, we have been positively comping since October of twenty twenty, comping twenty nineteen. So great learnings. Would we do it again? Heck, no, who would butt out of bed came good for sure because we would have never contemplated off premise without COVID.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:28] So then moving forward, that’s going to be part of the playbook.

Jan Barnett: [00:04:33] Absolutely, I mean, off premise is going to remain a big part of our presence, a dominant factor in our marketing, and in fact, we’re even expanding our off premise support to include catering. We’ll be launching Easy Cater next month to capitalize on that holiday catering time period. And then we’ve been dabbling in alcohol to go. So many of the states allowed alcohol to go during COVID, and many of them are continuing to allow it. So we are going to launch that nationally, not only alcohol kits, but individual cocktails to go as well. So yeah, it’s going to be a big part of our marketing moving forward.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:15] Now is there any change in the size of future restaurants or is or is it always going to, you know, because you’re going to experience it is such a critical part of the brand.

Jan Barnett: [00:05:28] That’s a great question, Lee, and at one point we even dialoged do we look at a smaller footprint? However, what we’re seeing is our premise is not cannibalizing. In in cafe dining at all. So, no, at this point, we are not planning to downsize the cafes and in fact, our business is growing so much. And as you look at our premise contributing a quarter of a million, some degrees more than that per average cafe. I mean, what does that do actually to the size of the kitchens? And do you need to have a second line at some point, also just to the size of the bar area or the host and area where we’re actually having to stage to go order? We kind of look like a Chinese restaurant of sorts as we’re starting to figure this out in terms of how to manage all the off premise orders, which are just significant and growing.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:20] Now it sounds like you’re really you’re almost disrupting kind of the future of brunch, are you? What kind of innovations are you kind of building around the concept of brunch?

Jan Barnett: [00:06:32] You know, right now we’re really focused on technology, and I know many restaurants are as well, but we looked at technology pre-COVID as more security, so firewalls and chip readers and as we moved into Culbert, it moved into QR code Table-tennis. I mean, we’ve always used it for training and then we have CDs, but we really hadn’t focused technology on sales. Building loyalty frequency drivers, that’s where we’re going to focus now in a big way. Actually, we’re launching with wisely coming up here Real Soon, which is an amazing firm that’s allowing us now to really deep dove into our guest database and learn more about our guests and how to almost mark it one to one to our guests. Be the dine end user exclusively and off premise user cocktail purchaser, seasonal selections preferences. So that’s where we’re really taking the brand into the future is learning what the guest wants and then providing them with the right message, the right product at the right time. It’s going to be game changing. Honestly, for us

Lee Kantor: [00:07:43] Now, as the chief marketing officer, is your work primarily on building the brand of another broken egg café or is it kind of helping also in the area of identifying and attracting franchisees?

Jan Barnett: [00:07:57] Great question. And actually, I work in both. So certainly driving same store sales is a big part of my job, but also system wide sales and increasing the footprint of the brand actually lifts all boats because as we build more locations, it drives incremental awareness across the country and additional trial for all of our franchisees. So that’s a big part of what I do as well is franchise development.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:27] Marketing now has the ideal franchisee changed, you know, pre and post pandemic or is it kind of a similar person?

Jan Barnett: [00:08:39] You know, that’s another great question coming out of COVID, which literally we’re just now doing right, if you’re thinking about it, I think prospective franchisees clearly were skittish moving in to restaurant ownership. Suddenly, it started in April, continued through a lot of last year into 2020. We’re starting to see that prospective franchisee emerge and start to show interest again in the restaurant industry and specifically in our brand. And yes, it is changing. What we used to see was more and we still love this is the local restaurateur that’s wanting to open one of our cafes in their individual market. But now what we’re starting to see more and more are the multi-unit franchise organizations wanting to expand their portfolio. They’ve seen the growth pre-COVID in breakfast, which was one of the only growing day parts in the restaurant industry for quite some time prior to COVID. And then brunch is coming out of COVID in a huge way. So that’s where we’re starting to gain the interest of those multi-unit franchisees that might have a five guys or a jack in the box or other brands, but don’t have breakfast in their portfolio. So we’re starting to hear from more and more of them.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:01] And in certain markets, are you seeing kind of an opportunity from a real estate standpoint to for those folks to say, OK, this is a good spot for brunch?

Jan Barnett: [00:10:13] Most definitely, and we have very specific criteria that we look for and those sites are becoming more available. I mean, the unfortunate part of COVID as we’ve seen a lot of closures, restaurant closures around the country. So yeah, that is opening up opportunities for us and for our franchisees to get in and get that prime real estate. We’re only open seven hours a day, but we still want to be in that a spot to generate the sales that we need to generate to drive the strong ROI. And we’re seeing our sales just explode, which is really helping our ROI. But yeah, absolutely. The occupancy costs are improving to some degree coming out of COVID.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:58] Now are you seeing an opportunity since you are only open a few hours a day to use the facility as a ghost kitchen for other other things later in the day?

Jan Barnett: [00:11:08] Actually, that is not something yet, and it never say never because I said never to off premise and clearly ate those words. But what Ghost Kitchen we’re not planning to do that right now are concept tracks, franchisees and employees that like to be done at two o’clock in the afternoon, and they can make the same money in a seven hour shift that they would in an evening or dinner shift where they’re away from their family late at night. We’re just not looking to use our facilities beyond what we’re doing currently today. Now, maybe ask me a year from now and would we reconsider that? But today? No, I mean, it’s been very successful for us and we do more than a seven hour a day, then some of the family dining competitors do in 24 hours.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:51] Wow. Now are you seeing because of this, I guess the talent challenge that a lot of folks are having? Are you having that same challenge or is it because you have such a limited hour that it’s attracting certain people that that works perfectly into their life, right?

Jan Barnett: [00:12:11] Perhaps we’re seeing less of a challenge than others? Hard to say. I mean, we have this has been the most challenging staffing season ever. I mean, it really started back May, June. We’re just now starting to tell upright. So five to six months of staffing, increased hourly rates, everything that you’re hearing across the restaurant industry, we have certainly not been immune to. But I can’t tell you that we’ve survived better than anyone else because of our hours of operation which people do like. But there are some people that can’t be at work by 7:00 a.m., either, for the most part. Now we’re back upside, right? From a staffing perspective

Lee Kantor: [00:12:55] Now for getting back to the ideal franchise, you mentioned that a lot of kind of I call them professional franchisees are kind of adding your concept to a portfolio of already existing kind of food service. Are you finding that there’s an increase in that classic franchisee of that retired exec or displaced executive that wants to get more control of their own kind of financial future? Is that are you seeing kind of an influx of that because of the, you know, because of the pandemic, a lot of layoffs and people resigning?

Jan Barnett: [00:13:31] Right. And we certainly saw that in the Great Recession, you know, coming out of that. Yes and no, I I think we’re still early coming out of COVID for that individual to be looking to invest because of the risk or perceived risk, if you will. To invest there. Your entire livelihood into a restaurant brand versus the multi unit, which understands risk and they’ve been through other. Bad times before, certainly nothing like this, but they know coming out of it. That we will come out of it, so I think we’re seeing now because you had asked what the changes that we’re seeing, we’re seeing more multi unit than we are the mom and pop. I think that as we move into twenty twenty two will change and we’ll start to see that mom and pop come back in to the pipeline from a franchising perspective, but we might still be just a slight bit premature.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:32] So is the idea of franchisee then having some kind of restaurant experience preferred? Or can it be, you know, this person that just, Hey, I had a corporate job and I want to control my destiny? Is that is that it must have? Or is that a nice to have the restaurant experience?

Jan Barnett: [00:14:51] It’s a nice to have. Most definitely, not everyone of our franchisees have had restaurant experience and in fact, some of our best, most successful, I should say, franchisees didn’t have restaurant experience. So I mean, we really our kitchens are such that we’ve created them so that Bubba can work and we don’t have peers in our kitchen. So we’ve tried to simplify that but still create an awesome menu. And so, yeah, I think. We’ve got a combination of both that can be successful in this brand.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:27] Now how how important is kind of menu innovation like are you always kind of pushing that and, you know, creating more seasonal and, you know, localized kind of versions of the meals?

Jan Barnett: [00:15:42] Yes, many innovations at the top of our strategy plan, for sure. Majority of first time users coming into the brand site the menu as the reason for coming in and then our visit frequency is significant, like three point seven times per month. So offering variety to those frequent users is also important. And seasonal. So we have three different three seasonal menus per year, plus a holiday menu. So yes, that is very important. And then we also do the same from a cocktail perspective. So not only entree, but cocktails are very important to us as well. Like I said, we have full bar. So that gives us a lot of leverage, we’re not just bloody marys and mimosas. Mm hmm. So we’re pushing a lot now. Margarita, it’s just amazing. We used to buy tequila by the bottle. Now we buy it by the case. Our brunch blueberry margarita is just like, wow flying off the shelves. So it’s been interesting to see the evolution cocktail over the years now going into the brunch category.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:46] Now for you as a marketer, what is more rewarding, seeing that kind of the individual restaurant sales increasing or, you know, seeing the new franchisee numbers increasing?

Jan Barnett: [00:17:01] Oh, wow. No one’s ever asked me, I, you know, I would say it’s a combination of both. Because we won’t generate increased franchise sales without same store sales growth. And happy franchisees. So really, driving the same store sales numbers is critically important to overall success. And I’m equally rewarded by both. Yeah, I love seeing us grow the footprint, which we’ve been doing exponentially now for the past several years. So that’s also rewarding, but I also love seeing our existing franchisees be so successful. So both.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:40] Now any advice for the marketing folks that emerging franchises. Any advice for them to attract new franchisees? Anything you’ve learned over the years, that is a kind of go to that helps kind of get a the escape velocity that a new franchisee or new franchise would need to, you know, kind of get that critical mass, right?

Jan Barnett: [00:18:05] Well, I think number one is obviously success and experience and having a proven concept, which I realize takes a little bit of time to do. But the other and critically important thing to us as having happy franchisees, existing franchisees, they sell the brand. I don’t I mean, it’s really prospective franchisees are calling or visiting our cafes and speaking directly to our franchisees, and our satisfaction ratings are off the charts. They love the brand. They love the support they get. They love the menu. So to me, that is one of your most important success criteria is keep your franchisees happy. Grow your brand. Grow your sales. Never get complacent. Never say enough is enough. Ellen, listen, always listen. Our franchisees there, they’re obviously working the cafes. We’re sitting in a corporate office. So listen, learn and then lead.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:09] Good stuff. Well, Jan, thank you so much for sharing your story today. If somebody wants to learn more about the opportunity or another, a broken egg, another broken egg near them, what’s the website?

Jan Barnett: [00:19:20] Another broken egg?

Lee Kantor: [00:19:22] Good stuff. Well, thank you again for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Jan Barnett: [00:19:27] Thank you so much for having me, Lee. I appreciate it.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:30] All right, this is Lee Kantor. We’ll see, y’all next time on Franchise Marketing Radio.

Caroline Rash With CRVAS

by

CRVAS
High Velocity Radio
Caroline Rash With CRVAS
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Charlie Rash began freelancing as a consultant and virtual assistant in 2016 and soon CRVAS was founded as a boutique consulting agency specializing in identifying business needs and implementing operational services.

CarolineRashAs CRVAS quickly grew, Charlie brought his wife Caroline on board as the President of CRVAS to help meet the increasing demand.

As entrepreneurs themselves, Charlie and Caroline understand the balancing act of running and maintaining business operations, which is why CRVAS was created to help business owners lighten their load.

Follow CRVAS on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Challenges in working remotely as a company
  • Challenges in working remotely from your clients
  • How do you maintain a work/life balance
  • Challenges in running a business with spouse

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 good one today on the show we have Caroline Rash with CRVAS. Welcome, Caroline.

Caroline Rash: [00:00:23] Hey, how are you doing today?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:24] I am doing great. I’m so excited to learn about your business. Tell us about service. How you serving, folks?

Caroline Rash: [00:00:30] Yeah, absolutely. So my husband started this company a little over five years ago and I joined him, and it’s just kind of snowballed ever since he started just doing like virtual assisting for people all across the world. I think he had clients in Europe and in the United States. And then I joined in and we just started growing our team, and now our company largely does what I kind of I like to joke with like consultants. Plus, like we consult with businesses, we see what they need and then we implement what they need. So we kind of make a plan and implement it and just help businesses who are at sort of a turning point and just need help to move forward.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:10] So now this kind of business, there’s a lot of competition, I would imagine, for folks all over the world that are competing for your team for these kind of projects. How did your husband get that escape velocity to even just get the building business going at first?

Caroline Rash: [00:01:27] Yeah, absolutely. We really emphasize relationships, and I think that’s just kind of been our key is we’re very personal and typically when we get a client, it’s because we’ve had some really good conversations right off the bat. And it’s just a lot different than some companies who kind of do a slightly more scattershot approach just to find anybody that they can, you know, like we really try to get to know people and get to know the pain points in their business and build those relationships. And I feel like that’s kind of what makes us stand out.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:58] Now what are some of the activities that clients hire you to help them with?

Caroline Rash: [00:02:04] Well, we do, you know, smaller tasks for sure, like email management and scheduling and that kind of more assistant type tasks. And we pride ourselves on how we do that, for sure. But we also do larger scale things. If you need your business to run more efficiently, if you need to figure out a program that’s going to help your business run better or just systems and operations that kind of like larger scale tasks we offer as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:32] And then you mentioned that you get to know your clients, can you talk about what that initial conversation or that discovery period where you’re trying to kind of see where you can fit in and help? What does that conversation look like at the beginning?

Caroline Rash: [00:02:46] Well, it really is just asking a lot of questions right off the bat. We really need to understand you and your business and what you need before we’re going to even make any kind of pitch to work with you because we want to make sure we’re the right people for you. So that’s kind of the key is just getting to know you and any kind of issues you might be having before we even try to jump in and help you.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:12] Now, for some of your clients, is this the first time they’ve worked with someone virtually in this manner? Or is this somebody that or your clients, typically people who have had a lot of these people come and go in their career?

Caroline Rash: [00:03:25] It kind of depends. We have some clients that are really small businesses who are just now branching out into getting outside help with their business. So it is very new for them and we have to, you know, kind of be like, OK, well, this is how we do a Zoom meeting kind of kind of conversations. But we also have larger scale clients who are very tech savvy and tech oriented where it’s just another Tuesday for them. And we they hand us a spreadsheet they’ve already built. They want us to implement it, that kind of thing. So it just kind of depends on the scale of the client.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:00] Now, do you have any advice for folks that are hiring a virtual assistant, maybe for the first time? Or just what is a good process to work together? Well, what would be like if you were going to draw up your ideal client? What would you kind of say? These are the do’s and don’ts on how to work with us?

Caroline Rash: [00:04:18] I would say, excuse me, I would say communication as far as regular meetings. One of the things we really recommend with our clients is especially if you’re in a growth phase is having what we call stand ups. So like every day or once or twice a week, having just like a quick 10 minute meeting to touch base because you’re not seeing each other in person at the office like it used to be in the past. So setting up those regular like Google Meet or Zoom meetings or anything like that, we definitely recommend that. And we also just really recommend not making assumptions. You know, a client might make an assumption that we’re doing something, and if we’re not communicating well, we might not be. We might just need to make sure that we’re all on the same page about what the next steps are and what needs to happen. So communication and not making assumptions are the two biggest things I recommend.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:17] Now, how do you kind of help the client and the person doing the work really get crystal clear on what is the deliverable and what is the outcome they desire? Because a lot of times people think like, Oh yeah, I want this to happen, and then the person hears that, but they’re not exactly sure what that means. And then, you know, it’s it’s that kind of miscommunication, I guess you were referring to. But how do you help them kind of get clear on what they each mean in a safe way that they all feel comfortable doing that?

Caroline Rash: [00:05:51] One hundred percent. I think it’s kind of a therapy thing that I’ve learned in the past in my life, but I try to implement it with my clients as well as kind of repeating back to you what I thought you said. So if you tell me that this is what you’re hoping for, this is what you’re aiming for. I want to repeat that back to you and be like, Hey, so I heard you say that this is what you’re wanting. And so this is how I’m thinking I’m going to bring that about. And I think that’s just like a helpful communication tool because they might go, No, that’s not really what I was hoping for. You know, it kind of opens up the floor to make sure everything is super clear.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:27] Right. That this is what I’ve worked with virtual assistants throughout my career, and this happens more times than I’d like it to happen, but it’s I think that that going back and forth and really being kind of granular at first to understand, OK, this is what I’m trying to accomplish. Kind of the big picture and then how you do this is less important to me as long as I’m getting this result at the end. But then you don’t want a month ago buy and go, Well, where’s my result? And then, you know, this person’s off in left field and they didn’t, you know, come close to what I was trying to get. So it’s a regular check ins, the regular kind of deliverable. So that is something delivered so I can see. Yeah, that’s right. Or that’s not right. And then do you do that as an organization? Is there like because I’m working with a virtual assistant? I would imagine as an organization, I’m hiring you and you’re hiring the assistant, right?

Caroline Rash: [00:07:24] Yeah. So we work in teams. So when we have a client, we kind of assess their needs and we assess who on our team has the the the strongest capability to handle that particular client. We really appreciate our our contractors and their skill sets. And so we say, OK, so-and-so over here would fit really well with this client. And then they they have a team, so they they make sure that they’re all communicating. But I might not necessarily be privy to every detail of what they’re doing, but I have a trusted member on my team who is making sure all of that communication is happening.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:04] And then you’re the person. If there’s an issue, I go to you and then you work with the assistant.

Caroline Rash: [00:08:10] Yes, absolutely.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:11] And then and I would imagine in growing this business is a chicken and the egg thing where you need to have assistance at the ready, but you’ve got to keep them busy. So how do you kind of work from that end of the continuum and in kind of attracting and keeping assistance?

Caroline Rash: [00:08:29] I will tell you that has been for sure one of our biggest challenges. We find ourselves facing the problem of needing more bodies all the time, and it’s a problem. But it’s also great because it means our business is thriving. So it’s something we’re thankful for, but it’s definitely a challenge. So we pretty much right now just have like running, hiring and we have somebody on our team who is great at like the hiring process and interviewing and making sure we always have candidates that are kind of in our back pocket that if we if we take on a really big client, we can make sure we have enough people at the ready for that.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:07] And then I guess your your assistants are your clients and your clients or your clients. Everybody’s a client, but you got to make sure everybody is happy, right? That’s part of the challenges of running a business like this.

Caroline Rash: [00:09:21] Yeah, it is. And that’s kind of it’s definitely a challenge. So we we don’t have those water cooler moments like you would get in a standard office setting. So we have to work really hard on building that culture and building those relationships is extra difficult virtually. So we make sure we have like regular check ins with our people too on our team, not just our clients externally. So that’s definitely a big part of what me and my husband do on any given day.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:56] Now, culture in an organization is something that, whether you are mindful about it or not, is going to happen. What are some of the values and key components of the culture at service?

Caroline Rash: [00:10:08] Well, we really want our team to know that we would not ask them to work more than a standard 40 hour week if they choose to. That’s they actually have to get that time approved because like, we really want to make sure people are being careful with their, you know, their mental health and like their family life. If anybody says, Hey, I’m going to take a day to go do something on, my team texted me was like, Hey, my coffeemaker broke, and I really want to go to this nice store to go get a new one. Can I take the day off tomorrow? I was like, Please, do we all need coffee? Like, we really value that sort of personal time and just sometimes you just need a day. So we try to really offer that to our team and make sure everybody feels rested and ready to go.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:58] Now what’s been the most rewarding part of this adventure? You know, you have an entrepreneur started something from nothing. Now the spouse is involved. Now you have kind of a family business and now you have workers and clients all over the place. What’s been the most rewarding part of the adventure for you?

Caroline Rash: [00:11:16] I think for me, it really has been our team. We have been so blessed with the people on our team. We there are people on our team I cannot imagine doing this with. It’s just the collaboration, the laughter, like the the ability to just relate to each other and work towards a common goal has been just such a gift and we are so thankful for that.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:41] Now you’re able to help your clients kind of gain more time. But you’re also able to help your teammates kind of gain a lifestyle that fits into their world and without leaving the house. What is a good assistant look like for you? What type of qualities are you looking for in an assistant for service?

Caroline Rash: [00:12:02] I think the main qualities are just like being creative and having critical thinking skills, like being able to take a problem and really look at it from all angles and make a solution without kind of having to be babysat throughout the process. It’s like somebody who I can trust to meet challenges head on and handle them is somebody that I would really value having on our team.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:29] So not just the person that’s like, Oh, give me a checklist and I’m going down the checklist. I’m not thinking, I’m just doing these 10 things you told me to do. You’re you want someone that maybe is another level higher of thinking and processing and project managing

Caroline Rash: [00:12:45] A hundred percent whenever somebody from my team says, Hey, I have thought about how we could do this better, I’m thrilled. That’s ideal for us.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:54] Amen to that. I mean, I think we’re all looking for that type of engagement and caring enough to think outside of the ten point checklist.

Caroline Rash: [00:13:04] Certainly, certainly.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:05] And so what’s next for you? What are you? What is kind of your growth plan look like, you know, through the remainder of this year and moving forward?

Caroline Rash: [00:13:15] Well, right now, one of our things is we’re really trying to emphasize our like our current clients, like we want to really make sure that they’re happy and get all systems go on them so that we get into a great rhythm because we’ve been growing really fast. So we want to make sure we’re in a good rhythm with our current clients, but we’re always looking for more. So we have a lot of networking ahead of us and a lot of just connections to be made, and we hope to keep growing at the rate we have been and that would be obviously ideal for us.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:50] Now are your clients like what kind of what is the what do they look like? Are they professional services or are they solopreneurs? Or are they creatives or are they coaches? Like what is? Is there a kind of a typical client or is it it can be anybody?

Caroline Rash: [00:14:06] Really, what I like to say is that it’s anybody who’s sort of at a crossroads. So if you have your own business and you want to grow it, but you’re not really sure what the next steps are or you don’t have time or for you if you have a business idea, but you don’t know how to get it off the ground, work for you. It’s really if you even if you’re just a freelancer and you just need help, it’s just if you are at a crossroads and something has to be done in order for you to meet your personal goals. That’s when we come in.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:35] And then so like if I have an idea for a business and I come to you and say, Hey, you know, I don’t know how to make a website or I don’t know how to make a landing page, or I don’t know how to, you know, put an email campaign like that’s something you can help me with. Or is it is it that kind of tactical or strategic as well of, you know, I’d like to do something in this industry and then you can help me kind of strategize like where to or is it all of the above?

Caroline Rash: [00:15:05] I want to say all of the above, really, it’s it’s if you I don’t know if you have a problem that we personally like, nobody on our team knows how to solve. Specifically, we are going to work our tails off to find somebody who can do that and bring them on. So if there’s like a particular tech program that you’re wanting to implement and none of us have used it before, we will find somebody who who can, you know, like we’re going to, we’re going to meet those needs as best as we can within our team. But I would also say the strategy part is is definitely something that we do. We want to sit down and and talk to you and think, like how? How can we how can we grow this? How can we what are steps we could take today that will start impacting tomorrow for you? So that’s that’s definitely something that we offer as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:57] And then as part of the team right now, like if I wanted help with social media or kind of website stuff, you have a team, you know creatively that can execute that. That’s kind of the basic day to day stuff you’re doing.

Caroline Rash: [00:16:12] Yeah, absolutely. I have like when you say that, like social media, I can think of somebody on my team right now who I would set up a meeting with you for at the moment. So it’s we definitely have a great pool of people to pull from, but there’s always going to be challenges. Come up that we’re not certain how to handle and we will make sure that it gets handled regardless.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:33] Good stuff. Well, congratulations on all the success. If somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team. What’s the website?

Caroline Rash: [00:16:42] It’s W w w dot service and that is spelled CRV as

Lee Kantor: [00:16:47] C r Venus. Caroline, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Caroline Rash: [00:16:54] Well, thank you so much for your time.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:56] All right, this is Lee Kantor. We’ll sail next time on high velocity radio.

Jeff Garrison With Results On Purpose

by

Coachthecoach-08-08
Coach The Coach
Jeff Garrison With Results On Purpose
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ResultsOnPurpose

JeffGarrisonFollowing an early career in insurance operations, Jeff Garrison started a recruiting firm serving the property and casualty insurance industry. He built a profitable firm which he sold in 2008.

Like any other business, a profitable recruiting firm is built on great people led well combined with solid marketing and business development. Jeff invested a lot of time, energy, and money with coaches and industry gurus to build these aspects of his firm. He took everything he learned to develop Sales Habitudes, a sales training, and coaching platform.

Recognizing that the most effective thing to help small and medium-sized businesses grow was to develop leadership teams, Jeff develop Results On Purpose, a business coaching and leadership team development program for entrepreneurs.

Jeff now spends over 120 days a year on the road working with business owners and their leadership teams from coast to coast.

Jeff has also been married to the same woman for over 30 years, has five kids, and has a “hobby ranch” where he lives in Southern Iowa raising grass fed beef.

He is a graduate of both Knox College in Galesburg, Il, and Drake Law School in Des Moines, IA.

Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn and Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Some consistent patterns holding the business back when starting to work with an owner and their leadership team
  • Growth patterns of every team

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: [00:00:32] 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 Jeff Garrison with results on purpose. Welcome, Jeff.

Jeff Garrison: [00:00:42] Hi, welcome. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:44] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about results on purpose. How are you serving, folks?

Jeff Garrison: [00:00:48] Well, results on purpose is a system of teaching leadership teams, owners and leadership teams how to plan and execute and build culture and do performance coaching. Now all wrapped into one, so they learn the system and then we have ongoing coaching to help them do that. And, you know, every client doubles, triples their business and more.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:22] Now I’m sure the name of the firm wasn’t created by accident. Can you share why you chose the words results number one and on purpose number two? I would imagine in your work you’ve seen some folks get some results and not exactly know why.

Jeff Garrison: [00:01:42] Yeah. You know, we can grow our businesses. We can achieve some of our goals. But often we’re we’re working way too hard to get it done. And you know, that sometimes has the accidental part. But we chose results in the name because that’s what we focus on. There are so many folks that are busy. They believe that the things that they do, the activities that they have in their job, that that is their job. But really, every job exists from the receptionist on up to the CEO to achieve a certain result. And often we don’t know what result our company expects from us. So we start with that and then we’re, you know, we measure it, we hold people accountable and that’s the on purpose part.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:41] Now, how did you come to this because it sounds I mean, it sounds obvious when you say it, but I just know too many people that I’ve seen too many things to to have seen what you’ve said is actually 100 percent true that people are just doing things and they’re not really kind of. They just had did it yesterday. So that’s why they’re doing it again today. And they kind of maybe have lost focus of what their original result was that they were even after.

Jeff Garrison: [00:03:12] Yeah, and it’s throughout the company, and I’ll give you a really recent example, I had a client give me a call last week because he had hired a person in a front line position and calling to say, You know, I’m not sure it’s working out. We’re having some issues. She’s not showing enough initiative was kind of the global phrase he used and. And so I asked my client if he had shared with her exactly what result he wanted from her. Why does her job exists and what does it look like for her to be getting that result? And you know, the answer is, well, he kind of skipped that part. Well, go back and do that. And then, you know, let me know how that changes things. And it was really simple. And, you know, I did get feedback that things are great. And so, you know, it’s just that idea. We don’t we think about positions. We don’t think about why they exist. We don’t think about what the companies really trying to achieve and put that into action. We’re just doing stuff now.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:31] When you start working with a new client, is this something that you look at the business holistically as a whole and then get granular to each and every kind of process and person in the team?

Jeff Garrison: [00:04:43] I work with the owners and their leadership teams and then teach them how to push this stuff down to their direct reports and so on. So the implementation and and teaching starts with those what are typically four or five people and it and they have to figure out themselves what results they own as the, say, the finance leader or the sales and marketing leader or or the operations leader. And and when we talk about owning results, we’re really talking about very high level. If you can’t explain what result you own for your company in a sentence, then you’re getting too detailed.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:31] And then so there are some activities you go through with the leadership to kind of really hone in on maybe the things they own, maybe the things that they shouldn’t be owning and and then kind of helping them move around the pieces on the chessboard.

Jeff Garrison: [00:05:46] Exactly. We essentially build an ownership chart. We identify what needs to be owned in a company, what results need to be done and figure out who needs to own those things we can’t have. We can’t expect results and not have somebody in charge of seeing that we get them. It doesn’t mean that they do everything. It’s just that, you know, somebody makes sure it’s happening. And you know, when those things are clear and we put measurements around it, you know, that starts to help smoke out what the problems are with getting the results that they want in it. It may be processed it. It may be just defining what we need. It may be that the people who are responsible for getting those results really aren’t the right people for that. They’re not wired or they haven’t been trained, or they may not have the tools to get the results that you want. So when we do this, it smokes out a lot of other problems that the company needs to fix.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:58] So now what is kind of the engagement look like with you? What’s the first let’s start at the beginning? Like, what’s the pain that the client is having? Do they even recognize that they’re kind of a little out of whack? Or is it something that something is specifically happening like, Oh, sales are down? Let me call Jeff, or I can’t. I can’t keep any of my employees. Let me call Jeff.

Jeff Garrison: [00:07:20] It’s, you know, thus far, my business has been 100 percent referral. And what’s happening is they’re looking at somebody they know and seeing what’s happening in their business and they start talking about it. And then they’re referred to me. And usually they they may not have something specific. They just know that their business is not clicking on all cylinders or that they’re feeling stuck. They haven’t progressed like they thought they would or for owners. A lot of times it’s they’re stuck in the weeds and they’ve got, you know, little personal freedom. They don’t have the freedom that they thought they would have when they became an entrepreneur and started a business. So more often, it’s not that they know that something specific is wrong. They just know that things aren’t right.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:18] Now is today’s world where there’s a lot of kind of remote work and you’re you’re not kind of in close contact with folks as much as you had been in the past, and a lot of people are working kind of in an island, really, you know, they’re they’re connected to the company, but they’re not seeing it in the in the frequency they used to. And they they’re not having kind of these accidental collisions that they might have had in the past is to me that you would need to be so clear on expectations and the results you’re after. Or else something can really get off the rails pretty quickly with a miscommunication and not being caught. And then, you know, days turn to weeks like it can turn into a bad outcome if you don’t get this right, and it would seem like your kind of methodology fits perfectly with today’s hybrid remote working world.

Jeff Garrison: [00:09:08] Yeah, it does. And and for me personally, I have not stopped seeing all of my clients in person. I work with the leadership teams all together for full days and in state in person, but in helping them deal with remote workers. It’s, you know, with remote workers that leaders often have this question What are they doing? What are they doing with their time and when results aren’t exactly what they want or things aren’t timely, they start getting stuff into their head, you know, are they working? What are they doing? And what we’re finding is that just there’s a misalignment in expectations. A lot of time and leaders can easily jump to conclusions that aren’t accurate. And so when we go back and we make things really clear for everybody or help them to make things really clear here, the results that we want, here’s what it looks like when you’re getting those results. Here’s what we might measure. You know, where’s the proof? And if if that’s good, everything’s good, we don’t worry about all these silly details.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:29] So now is there any advice you could share with the listener right now? Is there something they could be doing like today with their team? Some easy thing to implement, maybe a baby step in this process, or at least open their mind to thinking in this manner?

Jeff Garrison: [00:10:45] Well, to start with, I would say for everybody, just talk more with your leadership team and on down. You know, we often don’t appreciate as business owners that the people working for us don’t know what’s in our head. You know, we what our vision is, where we’re trying to go. What we want to accomplish. And how we want to impact our communities in the world and and what’s in it for the people helping us do that. And you know, that’s where I tell people to start is, you know, really think about what your business is trying to accomplish, the impact that it’s going to have and how does that affect your employees? And be sharing that with them all the time and then start, you know, communicate what part they play in getting that done. And some people won’t be excited about that. And you probably ought to find a way to get them out of the way or out of the company and replace them with people who are excited about what you’re trying to do. It’s, you know, when everybody’s excited about what, you know, the bigger picture and when they appreciate their role in that, that is simple enough to make things a lot better for you. It kind of releases people’s initiative and motivation, all moving towards a single goal. So now when you’re working, it’s not. It’s kind of it sounds complicated. It’s not. It doesn’t have to be perfect the first time you just start talking and repeating, you know where you’re heading.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:35] Well, I think when you reframe things and focus on results and you start drilling down and say, OK, everybody, no matter what they’re doing, there’s an expectation of a result to just kind of just define, even at people who might not think that their work has maybe a measurable result. Is there some, some jobs or job functions where it’s more difficult than others to really say, OK, the result of your position is this like you’re like some administrative roles? Is there a way to kind of put measurements on those?

Jeff Garrison: [00:13:12] You can probably, yeah, you can get creative about those things. But, you know, some things are it’s OK for them to not be quantitative. They can be qualitative. I’ll give you an example. I use a lot to illustrate this idea. You have probably called the customer service department for your cell phone carrier at some time. And you know that person, they may have answered your questions or solve your problem, but at the end of the call, you didn’t feel great about the call. When I share this, I usually get head nods from people. Yeah, I’ve experienced something like that. And but that person who helped you, if their supervisor was standing right there and ask, how did the call go? They’d probably say, great. I answered their questions. I solved their problem. I’m going to the next one. And they think that solving your problem was the result that the company wants. And really, if the company were to define it well, what they want is a great relationship with their customers. So how they solved your problem might not have been great. They might have gotten it done, but they did not enhance the relationship that you had. And so that’s just a misunderstanding of what the result they have. And that thing that right there is not quantitative, it’s it’s qualitative, but even sharing that with the person. It’ll change the way they talk to people on the phone. You know, they might be a little bit more personable when they’re thinking, I’m trying to make this person love our company, that that kind of thing. On the flip side, you’ve probably had these kind of phone calls where you didn’t get your problem solved, but actually you enjoyed the conversation with the person that was trying to help you. So, you know, does that make sense?

Lee Kantor: [00:15:19] Yeah. Well, that’s I mean, I think that I’m just trying to give a frame for the listener to think about their own business and how there are some things that you can count and then some things that maybe you shouldn’t be counting and you’ve got to kind of define what it is the result, the outcome, what outcome are you trying at the end of the day, do you desire? And then being clear on that and communicating that to everybody involved and that way you can. Somehow measure that and that, and that’s where I guess it gets tricky for business owners, where when it is subjective, like you said, the employee thinks, you know, high five, I killed it and then the customer’s angry and the owner’s like, what happened? I thought we just we did good. And you know, it’s just not being clear on on what it is that is truly important.

Jeff Garrison: [00:16:14] Yeah. Yeah, and you asked for your question was about a baby step, and I know that that’s not necessarily a baby step and you know, the long term steps, so to speak of this is when you’re when you’re doing this. It does smoke out the people who can’t get it, you know, they’re just not wired the way they need to be for the the role or they don’t care. They they need to be coached either up or out of the organization. And this is sort of a long term thing, and this is where our coaching comes in to help leadership teams define these things for themselves, you know, get it right, communicate it well and then do the performance coaching with those folks to make this stuff true for their company.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:12] Right. And I think at the heart of it, that’s what you’re really trying to do is make sure that the leadership and the whole team is aligned and they’re all kind of have the same vision of what could be and should be. And then the sooner you identify the folks that aren’t a right fit and replace them with people that are, that’s probably where in the growth really can happen rapidly.

Jeff Garrison: [00:17:33] Yes. Yeah, that’s that’s a big part of it. And that’s sort of the everyday operational culture building side that we work on. That’s sort of in the business stuff. There’s also the on the business stuff, and that’s really about the leadership team hitting their own goals, those things they need to achieve to keep moving the the business forward. And you know that that’s a different thing and we do help them set the long term goals. What’s the big picture and then chunk those down into really 90 day sprints that we call deliverables. We don’t call them goals because goals implies that, you know, maybe you’ll get it done. Maybe you won’t. We’re trying to. But a deliverable is something that as a leader, you deliver and we get our clients into this rhythm where every quarter as a leadership team, they might have four or five deliverables and they they have to get it done. Or we lose what’s called compounding effort. You know, that opportunity to finish and make a new investment and deliverables and get that compounding over time. But at the end of a few years, if you’re operating this way, your leadership team might have gotten, say, 30 or 40 significant things done on your business. And that really accelerates the growth of the business when they’re that focused and getting things done. And that process itself will also smoke out those leaders that are able to plan and execute and those that are not and often those that can’t wind up volunteering to move to a different role off the leadership team or leaving the company because they know they’re not getting it done now in the business and on the business aspects of what we do.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:41] Now, when you say deliverable, what’s an example of a deliverable is that like a sales number or is that an activity? Like what is how is a deliverable defined?

Jeff Garrison: [00:19:51] It is anything that needs to get done. You know, working on the business, for example, where a lot of companies start is they don’t have their key processes documented. So, you know, a deliverable might be to document, you know, a customer service process or a product development process or something to get it done and get everybody following that process. It might be, you know, maybe we need a technology upgrade. So how far can we get in the next 90 days on that thing? It’s whatever the business needs. It might be exploring a market could be buying a new piece of equipment. You know, I have a a client in in Washington, D.C. It’s just one that comes to mind was redesigning the manufacturing floor for greater efficiency. So in 90 days, they want to have their study done and know where they need to be moving equipment and supplies to move faster.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:16] But it’s things that can be that you control, rather than things that you might not be able to control, like a sales goal like.

Jeff Garrison: [00:21:24] Right? Yes. Yes. And sales goals selling should be part. It should be an indoor business thing, part of the everyday activity that those people who own the business development results do. So, you know, that’s that’s more about managing their own personal results in the company and not so much in on the business thing that’s in the business.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:54] Right. So you want to control what you can control and create tight processes so that you’re getting the you’re achieving the goals that you have set forth. But the process is more important than the goal because the process is the engine that drives that. Yes. Now do you work in certain industries or niches or is this something that is kind of industry agnostic?

Jeff Garrison: [00:22:17] It is definitely industry agnostic. Again, it’s since it’s been by referral. From the beginning, I’ve gotten a chance to work in a variety of manufacturing and service businesses, financial businesses. It’s kind of all over the board. The thing is, is obviously different industries have their nuances and there’s there’s things you need to know and do to succeed in that industry. But in the end, most of your success boils down to the time tested blocking and tackling business things that you do and getting the right people in place to do them. So if we can help with those things that the last say, 20 percent of the equation becomes pretty clear to owners and their industry specific stuff.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:27] Well, congratulations on all the success. It’s a great story, and it sounds like you’re doing really good work. If somebody wants to learn more and get a hold of you or somebody on your team, what is the website?

Jeff Garrison: [00:23:40] It is results on purpose.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:44] Well, Jeff, thank you again for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Jeff Garrison: [00:23:49] Thank you very much, Leigh. I enjoyed the conversation.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:52] All right, this is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Coach the Coach radio.

 

Nicole Reina With Mindset Coaching for Heroes

by

Coach The Coach
Coach The Coach
Nicole Reina With Mindset Coaching for Heroes
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NicoleReinaNicole Reina is an orally deaf individual with just 2% hearing, relying solely on hearing aids and lip-reading to communicate.

A survivor, Nicole overcame years of emotional and physical abuse from both at home and school that eventually manifested into mental stress while in early college. Using several tools and programming techniques to help heal her mind, she later successfully transformed her life and overcame all odds.

Early on, Nicole achieved remarkable milestones. Among other degrees, she earned her MBA from FIU in Corporate Finance and International Business in 2018.

In 2017, Nicole and her husband John built an award-winning traditional commercial cleaning business called Amaze Clean Janitorial.In less than four years this company became one of the largest family-owned commercial companies on the East Coast with operations from NC to Florida.

As a result of her success, Nicole was introduced to the Law of Attraction in 2020 and was hooked. In early 2021, she became a certified practitioner.

As a mother of two beautiful daughters, Nicole developed a passion for helping parents of challenged children see the role they play in a whole new light. Challenged children live in a constant state of frustration, which can have a negative impact on the parent’s well-being on an unconscious level.

Through her coaching, Nicole works to raise the level of consciousness of the parents through confidential discussions and workshops, which enables them to co-create a healthier and more productive life for their children.

Through Nicole’s remarkable insight on the Law of Attraction and how it affects daily lives, she helps bring joy to those who struggle with finding it.

Additionally, Nicole has mentored countless business professionals and provides consultant services, training workshops and speaking engagements to companies seeking to improve their Diversity and Inclusion awareness.

Earlier this year, she joined the John Maxwell Team and became a certified Speaker, Coach, and Trainer with the dream of Changing the World by impacting the limiting perceptions of challenged individuals that exist in society today.

During her spare time, Nicole loves to spend quality time with her husband John and her two remarkable daughters, Natalie and Catalina. She is an aspiring author with her first book in the making.

Her hobbies include reading, writing, drawing, meditating, and bringing inspiration to others. She currently resides in Tega Cay, SC.

Connect with Nicole on Facebook and LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Law of Attraction and How It Pertains To Business And Personal Life
  • The Law of Attraction to Work in favor
  • Steps To See An Immediate Impact On Personal and Business Endeavors

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 B.R. Ambassador 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 Nicole Reina with mindset coaching for heroes. Welcome to call.

Nicole Reina: [00:00:45] Hi, thank you so much for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:47] Before we get too far into things, can you tell us about your practice? How do you serve folks? How how do you do your coaching?

Nicole Reina: [00:00:55] Oh, how do I do my coaching? So let me first off by introducing myself as a hearing impaired individual, so I really do appreciate you allowing me to the I could repeat yourself, but basically my my coaching I’ve done I I passionately help parents or children with disability. I work with them to help raise the level of consciousness through understanding the children’s frustration that they go through on a daily basis. Because when you’re dealing with a disability, a lot of times you think fluctuation, it affects the vibration that you are under, and the children really have no other way to express themselves, and they usually go to the potion that they love. And my aim is to keep the pilot that it is never about them. It is always about what the children are going through. So it is my desire to help them understand this process. So then when the children does have some kind of an output based on what they’re going through now, the parents have a deeper understanding of what triggered it and it never about the parent. Did they call it about what the child goes? Do that kind of the basis of my, of my coaching?

Lee Kantor: [00:02:03] Now is there some suggestions you have for parents that can that they can help their kids right now?

Nicole Reina: [00:02:10] Absolutely. I think breathing is the number one most important thing that we could ever do, because what happens when you breathe and you interrupt the thought process that’s happening in the mind? So any emotion is a manifestation of a thought that you keep thinking. So if the parent is visually witnessing, for example, a child that is going through a moment of frustration or an episode, so to speak, it would really help if they have some kind of a breathing technique. My favorite one is what I call the breathing technique and what that is. Did you take you count your breath going in and you count it up to four second and then you hold it for four seconds? And then when you pull it out, you push it out for four seconds and then you hold it for four seconds. So you do that process for about three minutes. And what happened? Did it interrupt the train of thought and a way to do a vibration? So you’re able to prevent the emotion from manifesting that coming from the negatively acting from what you’re seeing a lot of times the society that we live, then we react in the moment based on what it’s already created. And if we can learn just to step back and be more of an observer instead of taking things personally and the breathing of what helps to interrupt any of those negative thoughts that might be coming from defensiveness. So that would be my number one recommendation is to really find a breathing technique in the moment that helps you to combat the negative emotion.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:39] Now in your life, did you have a mentor or a coach to help you kind of gain this insight and knowledge?

Nicole Reina: [00:03:46] You know what, I think my coach Adidas and the the spiritual guide, I found them just resulting from the pandemic when I learned how to meditate and found a meditation that I’m able to get the inside. Now, when I was growing up to answer the question, I honestly felt alone because a disabled individual is in a whole different world. So when I was born, I was diagnosed with being deaf, mute, mentally handicapped and indictment for the rest of my life. So my story began when I was about four years old. My stepfather, my mom, remarried when I was three. He taught me. He sent me to speech therapy, and he believed that I was going to be an individual that could speak. And he wanted to make sure that I was given the opportunity to be able to hear, which is why they gave me hearing aids and then to speak, which is why they sent me to speech therapy. I went my whole life basically with the ambition that I would become a self doctor-patient individual that can overcome the handicap. And one thing that I really appreciate the most is that in my household, I was never perceived as a disabled individual. I was always treated the same as everyone in my household. I went to a mainstream school. I was really the only deaf child that was in the school, and I would just sit in the front of the class. I learned how to read lips. So I think through that encouragement of myself and really pushing myself to overcome, and I got to be, quote unquote like, normal like everyone else.

Nicole Reina: [00:05:22] It kind of what allowed me to overcome the disability portion. Now, when the pandemic hit, there was a lot of trauma that would be surfaced. And that I found what triggers that really affected me in the way that I was thinking and perceiving how others thought of me. And I believe I spend my entire life, so to speak, looking outside to please others. And I basically forgot how to go inside and to work on myself and really understand what were the triggers emotionally. Because for a very long time, I was not aware of my emotions. They just kind of happen. Whenever the triggers were, I would get frustrated or maybe upset or, you know, one of those triggers one at that moment. So to answer your question, I think that mentorship for me, I never really found anyone that could understand because it depended upon it very different to be in the world of the disabled. It’s a different perspective, and I found that it was hard to investigate and to let everyone know exactly what it was later on during the pandemic. However, when I started a spiritual journey and meditate and I was able to connect on a spiritual level, I was able to find mentors right now. That helping me with my own mindset, that gives me clarity. Not very much appreciated.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:45] Now, when you work with your clients, how what is the the issues they want help with the most?

Nicole Reina: [00:06:55] Right now, the biggest issue is understanding where you are and working on the self-love. I find that in the world that we live in, there are a lot of negative emotional triggers that make them basically prevent people from really living the life that they really want. A lot of the parents that I come across have sacrificed so much to make sure that their children are always, you know, taken care of most of the parents that I come across. They really dedicate all of their time to making sure that the child is what the what I’m looking for like, basically making sure that they’re comfortable, making sure that they don’t get frustrated, making sure that their environment is conducive to whatever their ability is. And unfortunately, when they put so much attention on the disability, they basically make it worse. And what I try to teach the parent is that if they can just see the potential and always focus on the potential and not really focus on what is it really helped. I think that having the hope, the hope that the child is going to be able to sufficiently take care of themselves independently, you know, whatever that looks like, if they can always keep that first and foremost in their mind and ensure that they they understand that whatever happened is nothing about them. It’s always about the children. And if they can separate that emotion from that, it really, really makes a difference because the self-love part is what really affect them. So, for example, a child to go to the pan, I remember with my mom, for example, I couldn’t I couldn’t get my information across the way.

Nicole Reina: [00:08:31] It was coming across and my mom was misunderstanding me. And unfortunately, the communication barrier that it did break with the people, with the unique ability to. And I got frustrated and then sometimes I would even raise my voice so I would practically yell or whatever it was because the energy keep building up. And unfortunately, what happened is the thought that that my mom is going through that for a while. Oh, did I do something wrong? How could I change how I speak? So, you know, Nicole didn’t yell at me, You know, what am I doing wrong? And how am I attracting the kind of behavior? And if that kind of intricate thinking that keeps propelling the energy that there and the conclusion of that it just becomes a very challenging way to live because in all, in all honesty, we all deserve to be happy and we all deserve to find joy. And you can find the joy if you understand that the situation that you end and temporary and find the love inside and really, really dig deep to understand what the child is going through, it’s really all about perception and understanding exactly what the child is really going through because it had nothing to do with them. So I think that the self-love piece is the one that comes up really repeatedly in my session because again, they, for whatever reason, they feel that the child, maybe they don’t love them as much or, you know, they think they have to change in order for the child to improve.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:53] When you’re working with your clients, are you working typically only with the parent or or the child individually or both?

Nicole Reina: [00:10:01] It’s usually with the parent. Now I do work with the children if the added level of the communication, if they’re able to communicate in a higher level of consciousness. So it all depends on where the child is in the life at the moment. Typically, the parent would be the first one that I work with because it’s a journey where the parent both changed your mindset and felt seeing things differently with the same situation that keep popping up. And then what happened there? The pattern felt the way another child, I think, felt improving, and at that point, I can do the coaching with the children. The awareness is raised to a different level.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:38] Can you share a story about a success where you helped a parent with their children or child get to a new level?

Nicole Reina: [00:10:48] Yes, I would love to, actually. Just recently I had a client of mine that was going through a lot. She started her own business, but in the middle of starting her own business, she was going through a divorce. And the reason why she was going through a divorce was because the father or the husband was an emotionally abusive individual. So she was trying to separate from that and creating a new business. And then on top of that, had a child with autism that was also deaf and had cataracts totally blind. When he was a newborn, he had Cadillac and had to have surgery to have them removed. So she was dealing with a disabled child and then also another sibling that was perfectly healthy. So she hurt if she was when the when she decided to get a divorce. Obviously, it was a toxic relationship and she needed to get a divorce in order to protect the environment of what is. However, her insecurities of herself and wanting to start a business and constantly thinking that she wasn’t good enough and that she worried her children because of the default, didn’t love her anymore and the child. But the unique ability to want that affected her the most because the communication is a bit different. So she worried that she was not creating the life that would give him the security that she felt like he needed. So once I spoke with her and she saw that myself, I am, I have to put that feeling.

Nicole Reina: [00:12:17] So I am considered profoundly deaf. So when I shared with her my story and then I explained to her about the perception of the child, and I let her know that when it comes to divorce and it comes to other situations that are really not her fault, it’s just the environment that she’s in and the decision making. While it does have an impact on the child, I firmly believe that the child still love the parents both way because the child is not really the one that’s involved in the situation. It’s more of the mom and the dad that’s involved in that. So when she learned to remove the fear that the child was even thinking anything of her, what she saw was that she was able to open up her heart and able to make better decisions and not react not to what the child looked like after she would have a situation for the child, for example, that that a fluctuating event when everything was said and done, he would go to her to her and she would cry it out, and she would be it would affect her. And if he would wake up the next morning, still afraid of what would happen if he created that vibration that carried with both. So then the crowd started having more and more episodes. The children are very, very attuned to energy. They can feel it. So whenever the parent acts around them had that negative energy swept off after a few started with me and I was able to change her mindset and to change her perception.

Nicole Reina: [00:13:42] And it did take a few sessions because he had to break the pattern that were already created from youth and youth of whatever her parents were from a child herself. So after a few sessions, she was able to focus on the love and realize that this is temporary and what her child is going through had nothing to do with her as she needed to make sure that she knew that she was a wonderful mom. That no matter what happened, no matter the situation, that the boy started to be distressed, whatever mistakes that she made, it really had nothing to do with how is she doing everything that she can the best of her ability and the country doing the best that she can, that all she can do? And then I found that right after the fact he was so up in the beginning of the session to be very down and depressive symptoms. But then after a few seconds, he come down very excited, very happy, and the conversation would focus more on the success of her child rather than the frustration that she had been going to. So her focus shifted into what was going right in her life instead of what was going wrong. And I think that is the most profound thing that anyone can do, because when you focus on what’s going right, that’s what you create more of.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:54] Wow, what an amazing and moving story. Thank you so much for sharing that.

Nicole Reina: [00:14:59] Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:00] Now, if somebody wants to learn more about your practice and get on your calendar and maybe have a conversation with you, what is the website?

Nicole Reina: [00:15:08] My website is I am Nicole Raynox. And they can go on to the website and select Contact Me the button on the website to be able to get onto my calendar. I can also be reached by email, which is Nicole at. I am Nicole Vanderkam, and I believe that the best way to contact me, actually if you are able to find the email. But that would be the place to go to learn more.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:34] Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. Nicole. And that website, one more time is I am and I see only R e I and a dot com. Nicole Rayner, you’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Nicole Reina: [00:15:51] Oh, thank you so much and I really appreciate you having me. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:55] All right, this is Lee Kantor Willis Hill, next time on Coach the Coach radio.

Mackey McNeill With MACKEY

by

MackeyMcNeill
Coach The Coach
Mackey McNeill With MACKEY
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MackeyMcNeillMackey McNeill is the Founder of MACKEY, a Cincinnati-based firm offering family-owned businesses an invaluable and innovative combination of coaching and CFO-level financial expertise to help them stop settling for profits and learn to prosper.

Mackey is the author of several books including the award-winning, The Prosperity Playbook. She has been quoted as a financial expert in major media including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Money, and USA Today.

Mackey holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree with honors from the University of Georgia and is a CPA/PFS (certified public accountant/personal finance specialist).

Her affiliations include the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), bcorporation.net, The Goering Center for Family and Private Business, Small Giants Community and Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce.

Connect with Mackey on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • The Standard Playbook – Work Hard, Grow Sales and The Bottom Line Will Follow Doesn’t Work
  • Why Settle For Profits, When You Can Prosper
  • The 5 New Paradigms to Assimilate
  • The 3 Freedoms of Prosperity, Money freedom, Time freedom an and Freedom from Worry

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: [00:00:32] 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 Mackey McNeill with Mackie. Welcome.

Mackey McNeill: [00:00:42] Thanks, Lee. It’s great to be here with you.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about your practice. How are you serving, folks?

Mackey McNeill: [00:00:50] Well, I help people prosper. I help them achieve the three freedoms of prosperity. Money, freedom, time, freedom and freedom from worry.

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

Mackey McNeill: [00:01:05] Well, I sort of wandered in from the perspective. I started as a CPA and I, my clients are primarily business owners, and I noticed how much they struggled to really generate a decent return on the investment risk and effort they were putting into their business. So I started iterating and trying new things and seeing what helped and and discarding what didn’t. And over the course of years, I developed a whole system for helping people make more money, keep more money and grow their money. So it’s been a wonderful, lifelong journey that I’ve enjoyed and had a great. Many have worked with thousands of business owners at this point, and it just continues to grow, so I’m excited now.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:53] Do you find that because of your background as an accountant, that you have maybe a better understanding of the numbers part of the business where a lot of entrepreneurs have the passion and maybe have a great idea, but they don’t really have a good handle on the financial aspect of their business.

Mackey McNeill: [00:02:14] Well, that’s exactly it. What I learned early on when I was working with business owners is they often went into business because they were passionate about something, but they didn’t really understand business and they certainly didn’t understand how to make the numbers work for them. They tend to to work hard and try to focus on selling more. And they assumed that they would make money that way. And you know, it would be nice if it work that way. And when you start out, really, let’s face it, you don’t have any customers, so you have to focus on sell, sell, sell. But at some point you have to get a little more sophisticated about, OK, I’ve got revenue coming in. How do I maximize that? So there’s something left over at the end of the day that makes it worthwhile for me to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:57] So now what does that look like? So what frustration are your entrepreneurs or your clients? Are they just just feel like they’re banging their head against the wall? They think there’s there’s got to be more to this. This can’t be what I signed up for. Like what is kind of the frustration where they’re like, I better call Mackie.

Mackey McNeill: [00:03:14] Well, I think there’s several. One, there’s really kind of three drivers that people reach out to us. One is that they’re trying to make a generational transition and if they’re making a generational transition, you know, basically the next generation is buying out the current generation. And so there’s a lot of money that’s got to go from that into new places into somebody else’s pocket. So that becomes a financial challenge for the business. And so to help them build a business in such a way that they can, the business can afford this transition is one way that we get involved. Sometimes we have clients who come to us because they have done everything they know how to do and they’re kind of at their wit’s end. That’s not my favorite client because basically it’s like, you know, a fire hose and we’re putting out fires and it’s an emergency. But you know, it’s always great to see what when they turn around. But it is very nerve wracking when we first get started. And the third kind of client that tends to work with us is people who really are at a point where they’re ready to scale to the next level. You know, there are places in our business where we we’ve developed a sort of level of competence and confidence that we can get to say two million in sales. But for some reason, we’re sort of stuck here. And, you know, it’s often that there may be structural processes and systems, and we’re just not really have the the bandwidth yet underneath us. We don’t have the right structures to get to four million or five million or where they were wherever they’re trying to go. Or maybe they’re at 10 million and they’re having struggles getting to 15 million. So they’re really working on some issue of scale that they’re being having a hard time getting past and usually with the financial tools that we’ve developed in all three of those cases, it helps business owners see their businesses from a different perspective so they can make new choices and really drive the business forward.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:06] Now, a lot of business folks think profit is really the objective, but in your model, prosperity is what you should be aiming at. Can you explain why that is? Why are you put prosperity ahead of profits?

Mackey McNeill: [00:05:23] Well, when you say I put it ahead, I would say that if you settle for profits, you’re selling yourself short. So, you know, and here’s why is that? I define prosperity as the ability to have money, freedom, time, freedom and freedom from worry. So, you know, you can produce profits by working yourself 60 70 hours a week, and a lot of entrepreneurs go about it that way. But maybe you’d like to have some time freedom too, and maybe you’d like to worry a little less along the way. To me, that combination of having the money that you need, having the time that you’d like to have and being free of worry, it’s really gives us a ground to live better lives, not just to have more money. There’s only so far that you can go with more money. We want to have a good. We want people to have a good life to.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:14] Now, when you’re having that kind of conversation with folks, are you telling them or are they hearing that maybe less as more? Maybe I shouldn’t work so hard. Maybe I should focus more on other things that I’m valuing. So it’s almost like a mindset shift in terms of I always thought the objective was to just keep growing and getting bigger and making more money. And what I’m hearing you say is that maybe you should shift that kind of mindset.

Mackey McNeill: [00:06:44] Well, I I expect everyone that we work with to make more money. Don’t get me wrong. Absolutely. In fact, I would say if they’re not making more money, then we aren’t doing our job and. And so I know that all of our current clients are doing that because otherwise I would be firing ourselves. We would be firing ourselves, you know? So the number one job definitely is to make more money that’s not beyond, that’s not on the table and not improve their profits. But what along the way, we want them to build their team so that they, I call it, stop being a fulcrum where everything has to go through you and rather build a wheel. So build your team so that the team begins to create some energy and to help you build the business and help you grow the business. We use a set of metrics. We teach the people the key management team in the business how to use those metrics so that they can begin to create some energy to drive the business forward as well. So it’s not only the owner that’s doing that, and really that’s where the time freedom comes in and the freedom from worry comes from. I have enough. I have enough information coming to me. We put together a set of reports that are, you know, I’d say, beyond financials, but are also much easier to read than a set of financial statements so owners can very quickly get their finger on the pulse of where their business is. And they don’t have to worry Am I going to make payroll tomorrow? Am I going to be able to scale this business to do? I have the cash flow of working capital to do what I want to do. They have that confidence so they can go about doing the things that they need to do to grow the business free of worry and building their team to help them along the way.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:23] Now what attracted you to the family owned businesses? What about them was kind of, Hey, this I can really make a difference for these folks.

Mackey McNeill: [00:08:35] Well, I think there were too early on I ran into, I’m always a person who I run into a challenge that I can’t solve. It just drives me nuts and I had a business owner that I was working with and he had was a there were, I think, four siblings. This was a second generation business. So the parents had left and the four siblings were running it and they were slowly dying. I mean, the business was dying. The margins were, you know, kind of crushing it on. And I said, you know, you’re really going to have to make some changes here and this business and everybody, all the four there were all brothers. All the four brothers received an equal salary regardless of what they did. And I said, you know, if we’d started paying people based on the marketplace salaries that they should earn based on their jobs, first of all, you would you would have more money. The company would have some profits because we didn’t have any money to plow back, end or kind of reinvent the business. And he said, I just can’t do that. And I said, Well, you’re going to have to choose, I think between whether you keep all your brothers employed at this level or whether you have your business. And he just couldn’t hear that and he went out of business. So everybody lost their job. And to me, it was like, this didn’t make any sense. This was, you know, any family there always the dynamics of things that you think you can or can’t do, the sacred cows, which makes it just all the more challenging because everything is not a business decision. Sometimes it’s a family decision.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:11] Now I’ve been in doing the work that I do. I’ve been involved in shows that focus on family business, and this was completely an eye opening experience for me to understand, like you were saying, that they run. They look like businesses, but they run completely different because a lot of things are in play that a typical business isn’t have to deal with, like holidays or dinner or or, like you said, one sibling doing more than the other. It’s a fascinating, fascinating world.

Mackey McNeill: [00:10:45] It is. It is. And you know, as as time progressed, my daughter eventually joined me in my business, so it became a family business. So then I had the look in my look in the mirror and say, Well, I’ve got these challenges. And so I became even more committed to family businesses. And, you know, I think that the additional dynamics just make it more interesting. And and it is a it’s a I think something like 98 percent of all businesses in the United States are family businesses. People think of it family business as a minor niche, but it’s really a huge niche. And the truth is that I always say that even if you are the only owner in the business, you have a family business because at the end of the day, I guarantee you’re going to go home and you’re going to talk to your spouse about your business and you’re going to tell them your woes and their and how your family does is very much going to depend on how your business does. So the business and family is very much related to each other. No way around it.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:44] Now, when it comes to this kind of talent shortage challenges that are happening now, do family businesses have an even more challenging time because of the fact that if your last name isn’t the last name of the leadership and you’re kind of middle management and aspire to be more, you see kind of a ceiling ahead of you, whereas in a traditional business, maybe you don’t see that.

Mackey McNeill: [00:12:13] I think that all depends on the culture and the business, and I think family businesses can have a culture that allows people to have upward mobility. You know, I know many family businesses that have, for example, strong profit sharing plans that are that are not just retirement plans, but also cash bonus plans that employees can participate in all employees or a certain set of employees. So there are ways to structure the business to give the non-family members a vision of how they can make a great impact. I know another family business that I talked to the the CEO and there are a lot of family members in the business and he’s not family. But he said, I’m very attracted to this business because the family makes it stable. It’s a stable business and he loves manufacturing and he loves working in this industry. But he’d found it to be a situation where the businesses that he worked with in the past were constantly sold to a larger competitor and everything was disrupted. And he said, I want to work for something that’s going to stay. You know, it’s going to stay a family business. I know that my boss is going to be the same boss tomorrow. So there’s advantages and disadvantages. But a lot of the turnover that’s happening, I think very much is related to the culture inside of the business. I think employees and business owners will do much better if they begin to open their books, teach their employees how they make money and invite them into the conversation. You know, it is the days of telling people what they’re going to do and micromanaging or over, and this is the time for engaging and building community in your business.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:51] Now, in the in the Mackey playbook, can you share a little bit about how an engagement with you looks like? Are you kind of just saying, OK, this is I know you’ve written books and you have a lot of strategies and experience and working with a variety of folks. But what does it look like? An engagement with Mackey and her team?

Mackey McNeill: [00:14:12] Well, that’s what it looks like is we have we start every engagement with a whiteboard session, so we, you know, our job is to help a business owner get where they want to go. So the whiteboard is just to say, where do you want to be? Where do you want to be the next three to five years? Where what is epic for you? What would be over the Moon that you can’t imagine it being any better? We want to know that, and then we want to look and see, do we think we can help you get there? And if so, we’ll prepare our proposal and our system that we’ve developed over the years has a whole cadence to it. In other words, there’s an annual planning process, the strategic planning process, the monthly reviews are all set in, so we understand the services that we’re going to deliver. So we give them give them a price based on the size of their company basically, and how many key employees and key people that we’re going to be working with because we’re bringing the whole team along. So we’ll put together a proposal. They’ll know exactly what they’re going to spend with us, and every contract comes with the 90 day out. So for the first 90 days, well, we’re going to work with you. And if I always say 90 days, you may not be able to see new profit showing up. Yet that’s a pretty short time frame, but you’ll know that you’re on the right track or not. And rarely do we have someone leave after 90 days, but I do like them having that out so their one year contracts with a 90 day out. And and, you know, if we’re not, if it turns out we’re not a good fit, then we bless them and send them on their way. But most of the time they are a good fit and they continue in. Almost all of our clients renew year after year because they continue to grow and evolve and and we grow and evolve with them.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:52] Well, your background in accounting is accounting part of the services you deliver? Or is that kind of is this primarily coaching and advising?

Mackey McNeill: [00:16:01] Well, I would say that the reason that most coaches cannot be successful in helping people take, you know, actually drive different financial results is because the accounting is lousy. So we have a team of accountants that are internal to our and but we have a set of coaches and they are very different people. A lot of accountants try to become coaches, and I certainly started that way. But most accountants are not cut out to be coaches, let’s face it. But we but the I would say of the business owners I’ve worked with, less than one in 10 have a set of books that’s really usable for decision making. So the first one of the first things we do is a financial systems analysis and we look at where are the places that the financial systems are not up to par that need to be fixed because if we don’t have good information, then we spend all of our time talking about the fact that the numbers are wrong. We don’t want to talk about the numbers being wrong. We want the numbers to be right so we can see where we’re going and see if the decisions that we’re making are producing the results that we want. And if not, what do we change so that we get the results that we’re looking for? So we have to have critical data. So we have a team that’s a great team. They says all they do is work with our clients to help them get their books in order and put their information sets together so that we can. The coaches can take that over and help them drive their business forward.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:27] And then is there kind of a minimum size you work with? Is it like $10 million businesses or is it one hundred employee businesses now?

Mackey McNeill: [00:17:35] Well, I say for a people get real caught up on sales, but you know, in a professional service environment, say a million dollar professional services firm is actually a fairly good sized firm. A million dollar manufacturing firm would be a micro firm, but I think the smallest business we’ve ever worked with is probably about a half a million dollar professional services firm, but I’ve worked with clients as large as 50 million. So but I’d say our average client is somewhere in the two to six million range when we start working with them. And then there’s outliers from there

Lee Kantor: [00:18:10] And then it’s industry agnostic. I would imagine it’s like a family business typically, but industry agnostic.

Mackey McNeill: [00:18:18] That is true. We’re industry agnostic. We have manufacturing clients and construction clients and service clients. And kind of if there are a few places, I won’t go. But we again, we pride ourselves on the customers that we’re working with. The clients that we’re working with are going to make more money. They’re going to put money in their pocket from engaging us. So if we don’t feel like we can do that, we will walk away. I mean, that’s because we hang our hat on that and our clients tell their friends so we can’t afford to be wrong.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:53] Now is there a story you can share of challenge you had? And maybe it’s maybe it’s the most rewarding in terms of the impact that you made with this firm that you were working with? Can you share something that may be their challenge that they were having? Then they engage with your you and your team, and then they got to a new level.

Mackey McNeill: [00:19:13] Well, I’ll tell you what, I’ll tell you a story of a client that we’ve worked with, say, over about 10 years, they actually just made an exit from their business. But when we first started working with them, they were a very large player in their region and they had really done a great job of growing sales again. They were in that playbook of, you know, work hard, grow sales and the bottom line will follow. But the bottom line wasn’t following. And as it does, it often doesn’t. You know, that’s a good start up playbook, but it’s not a good scale up playbook. So they were struggling with their bottom line, and we came in and helped them put together a set of metrics and began to talk to him about how to really measure the right things in their business so they could achieve the bottom line results that they wanted. And over the next four years, they went on to 10x their their bottom line, and they eventually just took over all of that work. And then we did. The next thing we did was we worked with the owners to do financial plans for them personally, and then eventually they decided that they were ready to make some sort of exit.

Mackey McNeill: [00:20:19] So we helped them identify, Well, how am I going to exit? Am I going to sell to my employees? Am I going to sell to a competitor or am I going to sell to an upstream person? Am I going to sell to private equity? What are my options and what? What’s the best marketplace? And then we help them decide on what a broker to purchase to represent them. And we worked with them through all the negotiations on the financial end, and they sold the business for a good five million over what I really expected they would get because they had such strong culture and their earnings were so strong, you know, they could have probably I mean, they would have walked away with a decent amount of money if they hadn’t done that work to build their profits. But by having a company that was so strong and had such good systems and had had the bottom line to this, they were they were moved into a consolidation where, you know, there are four or five companies that are consolidating in that industry. So they would have consolidators are paying a pretty good price even if you don’t have earnings. But if you’ve got earnings, you can get even more so.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:27] So having kind of this CFO level partner as part of your team, I would imagine it’s attractive to a lot of folks. If somebody wants to learn more about you and your practice and your team, what is the website?

Mackey McNeill: [00:21:43] Our website is McCain advisors. That’s GMAC, KFYI Advisors, Advisors, SARS. And we have. There’s also, if you want to just learn more about us, there’s a ton of free resources. We offer free classes on a lot of our how to write malware. There are several classes coming online about how to get ready for twenty twenty one. And we’d love to to see people join us and and take a taste.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:14] Good stuff. Well, congratulations on all of the success you’re doing, important work that we appreciate you.

Mackey McNeill: [00:22:20] Thanks, Lee. It’s great to be on with you. I appreciate your time today.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:23] All right, this is Lee Kantor. We’ll see all next time on Coach the Coach radio.

Brian Catania With Better Business Bureau

by

Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Brian Catania With Better Business Bureau
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BCataniaBrian Catania is the President & CEO of the Better Business Bureau serving Metro Atlanta, Athens & NE Georgia.

Brian is responsible for effectively conducting the affairs of the Better Business Bureau, including providing strategic solutions to drive growth, reduce expenses and improve the end-user experience.

He promotes and maintains a positive relationship between businesses, consumers, and the community and ensures BBB’s businesses meet the rigorous standards of BBB Accreditation. He began his role with BBB in 2018.

Before his current role, Brian worked for AT&T for 18 years. His roles included Strategy & Business Development, Sales & Marketing, Big Data, Program Management, Merger Integration, and Human Resources.

Before AT&T, Brian spent time at several smaller enterprises. During that time, Brian had responsibilities ranging from Sales to Project Management to Human Resources.

Brian holds his MBA from Kennesaw State University and his undergraduate BA degree in Telecommunications from Purdue University. He also has his Six Sigma Green Belt. He continues to grow his capabilities with certifications in Model Thinking from the University of Michigan and Data Scientist Toolbox from Johns Hopkins University.

Brian and his wife Marta are co-owners of My Total Health, a mobile application dedicated to improving the lives of everyone through better nutrition, fitness, and lifestyle choices.

He has done a TEDx talk on the importance of health. He is an Advisory Committee member for the Personal Connected Health Alliance (PCHA).

Brian lives in Atlanta with his wife and three children.

Follow Better Business Bureau on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • About Better Business Bureau
  • 2021 Best Places to Work

About Our Sponsor

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Follow OnPay on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: [00:00:24] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio, and this is going to be a good one, but before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor on pay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Brian Catania with the Better Business Bureau. Welcome, Brian.

Brian Catania: [00:00:42] Welcome, thanks for having me, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:44] Well, before we get too far into things for the two people out there, I’m sure everybody’s heard of the Better Business Bureau, but maybe they don’t understand exactly how you serve the community and the business community. Do you mind giving us kind of the elevator pitch?

Brian Catania: [00:00:56] I would love to. Better Business Bureau has been in metropolitan Atlanta and North Georgia for over 100 years. And one of the things we do is we want to help set standards for ethical behavior and compliance in the marketplace. We really want to be able to help consumers find businesses and charities they can trust. So a real driving force behind who and what we are is being that leader in advancing marketplace trust. I know you hear me say the word trust repeatedly. That’s really who in what we’re all about is is trying to promote that, that consumer trust in businesses and asking those businesses to abide by a set of standards that that give them that authenticity to be able to, you know, be recognized in the business community. So that’s that’s a little bit about who we are.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:45] Now, can you tell us a little bit about the history? Did the organization start out as a national organization or was it always kind of local? And then it just expanded to markets around the country?

Brian Catania: [00:01:55] It’s a little bit of the latter. It started kind of locally almost 127 years ago and without getting too boring. Samuel Dubs, the actual CEO of Coca-Cola, was the first to really get this kicked off a long time ago. And when it started 100 plus years ago, Lee, it was really focused on marketing. It was focused on truth and advertising and making sure that folks were advertising in an ethical and honest manner. And what’s happened is, over the course of the last hundred years that’s evolved and morphed into what you see today with the BBB is a broader focus than just marketing its its evaluations of charities and making sure that people who are donating their hard earned money are donating to charities that can be trusted. The same thing with our business community. It’s making sure that consumers have a place to go where they can understand that BBB is helping them evaluate those businesses to be dealing with only the best of the best. So it’s really morphed over the last hundred years, starting with just a real laser like focus on advertising to a much broader evaluation of business in general and those organizations who can really be trusted and supported in the marketplace.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:09] Now, like you mentioned earlier, you use the word trust, and that’s an important component of what you offer both your business and consumer people who use the service. Do you have a take on kind of what how the layperson perceives business? Because at the heart of what we do at Business RadioX is we try to be the voice of business, and our mission is to help tell these stories because we feel that business gets kind of a bad rap and and that they get kind of villainized and they get seen by a lot of folks as these evil exploiters who are greedy. And in my experience, the vast, vast majority of business owners aren’t that way, and I don’t want to be Pollyanna and think everybody is that way. But I know there are some bad eggs there, but by and large, business is a to me a way net positive in a community.

Brian Catania: [00:04:01] I really agree with you, Lee. I think you’ve got two two factions of consumers. You’ve got the altruistic, the folks that really are just going to trust anybody and they’re going to feel good about the business as they deal with until you give them a reason to feel bad about you. And then you’ve got the much more conservative kind of pessimistic consumer who’s probably a little bit more of what you were talking about, which is no matter what you do, they’re always going to be looking for the angle that business is taking on you. How are you looking to work me over? How are you looking to shortchange me? I agree with you haven’t spent quite a bit of time evaluating businesses and understanding who they are. I would say 95 percent of them are honest. They’re ethical. They genuinely want to do right by consumers. You pointed it perfectly. I mean, there are going to be those five percent who sometimes give us a bad name, and that’s the group that we’re really trying to not necessarily focus on. We always want to promote and recognize the champions of good, good behavior and practices. But at the same time, we do want to try and protect consumers from the dangers that lurk.

Brian Catania: [00:05:09] The scam artists, the, you know, the con, the con men that are out there trying to, you know, trying to swindle you. So I’m with you. I genuinely believe 95 percent of businesses are doing their best. They’re trying to make things right. A big part of our business is mediation. We we try to look for Win-Win Solutions, and that’s where we really get perspective on the nature of business and consumers. That mediation process tells us so much about who a business is and it also who are consumers, you know, because we really we. Strive for win win and probably again, 90 percent of the time. Both the consumer and the business who are mediating with us want the same thing. They want to get to the best outcome that they think is fair and almost always we come to positive resolution. But even during those mediation phases, we always have those consumers and businesses that just don’t play nice. And that’s where we hope that as the BBB, we can kind of help facilitate that experience to to end a little more positively.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:10] So now let’s talk a little bit about how each of your constituents kind of engages with you. Can you talk about how a business can kind of raise their hand and get accredited and become part of the Better Business Bureau?

Brian Catania: [00:06:24] Sure. Businesses have the opportunity to they can either come and self nominate so they they approach us or we we do call on businesses to ask them if they would have interest in being part of the Better Business Bureau. And if they do, we put them through a vetting process. So we have a set of eight standards that we ask all all businesses to abide by. You know, can you be trusted? Are you transparent with your behavior with consumers? A lot of different things. But we, you know, if a business shows interest in being accredited with the Better Business Bureau, we vet them on those different standards of trust. And if they meet all those standards, then they become accredited and then they can advertise that BBB seal on their website, on their truck, on their, you know, their door or their window. They, you know, in advertising, they can advertise that their BBB accredited as long as they’ve gone through that process of making sure that they meet all the standards that we ask them to meet. And then periodically, you know, once a year, once every other year, we’ll revamp them just to make sure that they continue to abide by those standards. We don’t want to let them lay dormant. All of a sudden, we find out that we’ve got accredited businesses out there who aren’t abiding by other standards or are out there scamming consumers. So it’s it sounds intimidating and almost overwhelming, but we’ve really streamlined it so that a business can be vetted in in probably, you know, two hours if they’re if they’re interested. And we’re lucky because we have a lot of businesses that want to be vetted, we probably we accredit about 200 businesses a month. We currently got about 7500 businesses in the North Georgia market accredited, so it’s a great opportunity for consumers to be able to leverage those businesses.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:10] And speaking of consumers, how does the better Business Bureau help consumers? Maybe if there is an issue or just the different services you kind of afford to the consumer?

Brian Catania: [00:08:23] Yes, the two, most obviously are. Number one, we have our website, BBB, where consumers can come and visit and they can search for businesses. You know, they can search by name or type of business. They can request quotes from businesses and they can request quotes from accredited businesses or not accredited businesses alike. But the first place where we really try to help consumers is through our website, where they can come and find businesses that they can trust. The second gets to gets to where you were going and talking about, which is, you know, if that consumer has a dispute with the business, they’ve worked with the business and they’re just they have a disagreement that they’re not able to work out between themselves. They can file a dispute with Better Business Bureau and then we get involved in trying to help facilitate that experience. And that experience can kind of take two different, two different paths with accredited businesses. They have agreed when they become accredited to work in good faith with BBB and consumers to resolve all issues. So we get back to the mediation. A lot of our better business bureau representatives are certified mediators in the state of Georgia, so they can make recommendations based on those standards of mediation set forth in the Georgia code. So when we make a recommendation, we like to believe that it takes into account everybody’s side. It’s not in favor of business and it’s not in favor of consumer. It’s a genuinely neutral mediation where we try to help both sides facilitate a solution. We also do mediations and disputes with non-accredited businesses, and while they’re not required to abide by our standards because they’re not accredited, we find that most of the time, like we talked about earlier, they want to do the right thing.

Brian Catania: [00:10:07] They want to be good businesses, so they typically work with us pretty closely. We are not an enforcement agency, so so we do not pass judgments. We do not pass penalty. We really attempt to help consumers and businesses mediate these these issues before they have to get to that phase and before they have to seek, you know, help from the FTC or from attorneys. We really try to help them avoid that because we know that can be costly and really time, you know, a massive time commitment. So those are our two main factions. But we we really. Are expanding heavily, we do a lot in educationally. We do a lot in community outreach where we try to help communities at large. We’ve really tried to take diversity, equity and inclusion as a matter of who and what we are being that we’re in the cradle of civil rights. We’ve really tried to promote small business, minority owned business diversification and helping support them with grants and with programs to help entrepreneurs of of color or female owned businesses. So we’re really trying to expand our footprint and presence in this North Georgia market where we’re more than just accreditation and disputes. We’re education where grant writing, where support for startups and entrepreneurs. So we’re really excited about what we’ve been able to do, but also what we have planned for the coming years.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:33] So now along those lines, how would a company that kind of meets those criteria get involved with some of that education or that help with grants?

Brian Catania: [00:11:43] Well, certainly they can approach us and ask for that help. But we also have a team that’s dedicated to going out into the community and reaching out to those accredited businesses and soliciting their feedback and, you know, surveying them for what they want and what they need and what they’d like to be involved with. We’ve got business profiles on all of our accredited businesses where they can they can express interest in different programs and services that we offer. So a lot of times when you know, a new grant program supported by American Express or Visa comes out focusing on African-American business owners. We, you know, we typically work with those larger partners. We can look at our business profiles and say, OK, we have businesses that have identified as minority owned businesses. We can help facilitate that experience. And really, in a lot of ways, you know, probably 75 percent of our businesses are small businesses, which means they’re 10 or fewer employees. A lot of times they just don’t have the bandwidth or resources to go out and search for all these things. So a big part of what we do is we try to facilitate that experience and take the partnerships we have with these larger organizations who want to help small businesses. And we act as almost a broker to facilitate that. And the more we know about our accredited businesses and even our non accredited businesses, we can help sort of alert them to these opportunities and position these things in front of them.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:06] So Brian, what’s your back story? How did you get involved with the Better Business Bureau?

Brian Catania: [00:13:11] Well, I’ve known about Better Business Bureau for, you know, most of my adult life. I came from AT&T, where I worked for about 20 years, and I was lucky enough to do a lot of different things with them. You know, I did a little bit of human resources, finance, technology, sales and marketing, mergers and acquisitions. And, you know, I loved AT&T. It was a great time, a wonderful, wonderful organization. But I really got to the point where, you know, I wanted to do something that was a little bit more mission focused, and I had never worked with nonprofit organizations before. So I started kind of dipping my toe into the water of what was out there and Better Business Bureau was a perfect opportunity. It allowed me to leverage my background with business and organizational effectiveness, with my, you know, with my want of being able to give back and being able to be a little bit more mission focused in the work we were doing. It was just a perfect marriage. It allowed me to use what I believe are my skills and really marry them up with an organization who I believe has such incredible, you know, incredible goodwill and interest in the community. We talk about businesses and consumers, but we do tons of work with partners and it’s just it’s such amazing work that the BBB is doing. And it really, you know, when I first had the opportunity to talk with the board about it, it just it tugged on my heartstrings immediately. So it was just something that the more I learned about it, the more I knew it was going to be situated perfectly for what I was hoping for.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:46] Well, under your leadership that the BBB for North Georgia was recognized as a best place to work, why was it important for you to, you know, go after that award?

Brian Catania: [00:14:58] You know, it’s probably the most important thing that we’ve been recognized with since I’ve been here. I just I’m a believer that that we are who we are based on the people we have. You know, and to be recognized by by the Atlanta Business Chronicle is one of the best places to work in Georgia. It’s just hopefully it’s a testimony to what our employees believe is a great place to work. I think all the reasons I came to BBB is very similar in nature to why a lot of our our team comes to work for BBB. They believe in the mission and vision, and I believe that’s a lot of the reason why, you know, when ABC came out and solicited organizations for this, I believe our employees responded in force to say, Oh yeah, we’ve got a great organization. You know, I could bore you to death with with how we’re competitive and pay and benefits, and we got flexible scheduling. We love to train and develop our team. We really. But I think if you were to ask me what’s what sets BBB apart as an employer versus, you know, lots of other, you know, the thousands of other employers in North Georgia, I would say it’s our ability to offer Work-Life Balance, you know, beyond the mission and vision.

Brian Catania: [00:16:16] I think people want and need work life balance. They need some semblance of, you know, personal. I don’t want a company to just think about me as an employee. I want them to think about me as a person and what I have outside of business, and I genuinely believe that’s what we do. We give our employees work life balance where I think it’s meaningful to them. They know that they pretty much come to work at 8:00 and they leave at 5:00. Most of the time, I don’t believe they take work home with them. When they go home, they’ve got the ability to focus on their family or friends or just their personal selves. Rarely, if ever, do we work on weekends. Occasionally, we’ll do a couple of things, but we really try to be incredibly respectful of our team in that we we make sure we prioritize their personal lives just as much as we ask them to give to our organization from a work balance.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:08] So what do you need more of? How can we help? Do you need more talent? Do you need more businesses to sign up to be accredited? You need more consumers to hit your website. What do you need?

Brian Catania: [00:17:19] Probably a little of all of that. You know, luckily, we have wonderful talent, we have great talent when we do have openings. Periodically we grow and we bring on some new heads. People who have interest, we’d love to hear from them. They can go to our website bbc.co.uk, and we’ve got a place for them to search for careers. We’ve got opportunities in marketing. We’ve got opportunities and consumer experience, you know, finance, lots of operational impact, lots of opportunities. So we always are looking for for the best and the brightest. And we love to believe that we have a great place to give them to grow and develop. But same thing with businesses. You know, one of the things we want to do is we want to we want to expand our footprint. We believe the more businesses that we can get accredited, the more we can help consumers have opportunities to find trustworthy businesses. And at the same time, we can give businesses access to consumers. You know, we often find that the consumers that come to our site are what we could call trustworthy consumers. You know, there are people that act ethically and responsibly, and they don’t try to take advantage of the system and they don’t try to play businesses. So we could use a lot of everything. We could always use more accredited businesses to expand that footprint and give more consumers opportunities. You know, Metro Atlanta is obviously one of our hotbeds, but we deal a lot in banks and Monroe County with Athens. We go up north into Dahlonega and 4Syte County, and we want to continue to expand that footprint out there.

Brian Catania: [00:18:54] A lot of our more rural partners in northeast and northwest Georgia, where we don’t have quite the impression or quite the footprint, and we need to be better about that. So certainly businesses in those areas, we would love to have them and community partnerships, you know, we want to we want to develop partnerships with with a lot more, you know, Atlanta and North Georgia businesses. We recently secured a really wonderful opportunity with Mercedes Benz Stadium and the Atlanta Falcons. We’re going to host our annual meeting of accredited businesses at the new stadium. And if you’ve never been there, what a remarkable experience. I mean, it is such a cool place. Rich McKay, the CEO and president of the Atlanta Falcons, has been cool enough to say that he’ll do our keynote, but it’s relationships like that. The more relationships we can build like that, the more we can expand our footprint and the more that we can give back to our businesses. Again, I mentioned a lot of our businesses are small businesses. They rely on BBB for marketing. So the bigger impression we can make in North Georgia, the more impact that’s going to have on those small businesses who are accredited with us. So lots and lots of opportunities for businesses, consumers, the community at large to engage with us and for us to engage with them so that we can really give back to all those that trident of engagement.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:17] Well, if somebody wants to learn more, where should they go?

Brian Catania: [00:20:21] Bwbwbwbwb, Dawg. That’s the best place we geolocation. So depending on where you where you come to us from, we’ll put you in touch with your closest BBB. So folks in North Atlantic, North Georgia, when they go to Billboard, they’ll be immediately geolocated to their BBB, which is probably going to be the better business bureau serving Metro Atlanta, Athens and Northeast Georgia. That’s always the best way for them to get in touch with us, and from there they can find lots of contact information if they want to report a dispute, if they want to seek accreditation, if they want to get a quote from a local business, they can do all that. They can learn more about our Student of Integrity program that recognizes high school seniors for their their leadership opportunities and their ethical actions and behaviors. They can learn so much on Lee that again, that’s always the first ingestion point is Göteborg spend a minute or two seeing all the things that BBB does. We like to say we’re not your grandfather’s BBB. There is so much more to us than than there was 50 years ago. And I hope people get the opportunity to take the time to go out there and see that and figure out who and what we are.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:32] Well, congratulations on all the success and thank you so much for doing what you do and sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Brian Catania: [00:21:39] Thank you, Lee, and I appreciate you having me on your program is wonderful. I love the fact that even something as simple as your open where you talk about how most businesses are, are good businesses at nature, at such a wonderful sentiment. And I love to hear guys like you that have a real positive influence being able to promote the goodness between businesses and consumers. So thank you for everything you’re doing. And again, thank you for having us on to spend a couple of minutes talking about Better Business Bureau.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:06] All right, this is Lee Kantor. We’ll sale next time on that land that business radio.

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