From Humble Beginnings to $40M: Empowering Women Entrepreneurs Through Peer Leadership

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program. The accelerated degree program for working professionals looking to advance their career and enhance their leadership skills. And now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: 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, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we wouldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on the show, we have the founder and CEO at BrainTrust, Sherry Deutschmann. Welcome.

Sherry Deutschmann: Thankfully. It’s a pleasure to be with you today.

Lee Kantor: Well, I am excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about BrainTrust. How are you serving folks?

Sherry Deutschmann: Well, BrainTrust is a peer organization for women founders. It’s similar to EO and to the Women’s Presidents organization, except it meets the woman founder where she is and her business cycle. And it’s it’s, uh, dedicated to seeing that more women have a chance to build a financial independence, wealth, and then the influence that comes from having a successful business. So we’re already in Nashville and in Charlotte and are excited to be coming to Atlanta.

Lee Kantor: So what was the genesis of the idea? You know, what’s the origin story?

Sherry Deutschmann: Well, I am I was a single mom and, uh, had only a high school education. I grew up in the mountains of North Carolina, and I was cleaning toilets. I was really, literally cleaned gas station bathrooms and cleaned house for the wealthy families who had homes on on Beech Mountain. And that’s how I made a living until I moved to Nashville, Tennessee, thinking I was going to be a star, which is a lot harder than you might think. So after I moved to Nashville with no, no, really, no way to really make ends meet, I ended, I started a career in sales and grew that company for another, for another business owner, to about 15 million in revenue, and then got discouraged with the way they ran their business and decided to start my own, competing with them. And so I grew that company to 40 million in annual recurring revenue with no debt. And that path to entrepreneurship changed my life forever. It gave me influence. I was featured in the New York Times for how I ran my business, which was very unique. It led me to be invited to address Congress on why the minimum wage, actually the business case for why the minimum wage should be higher. And then that led me to be named a white House champion of change by President Obama. And so that successful business gave me a megaphone, and I’ve used it. And so now, you know, turning my experience and selling that company to private equity in 2016 to now making sure that more women have a chance to to do what I did. It’s the most meaningful work of my life.

Lee Kantor: Now here in Atlanta, we worked with a lot of women organizations, and I was shocked to know. And then maybe you can tell me if this is still accurate, that it not very many women led businesses turn into million dollar businesses, that that’s a rarity. Is that still true?

Sherry Deutschmann: It is true, sadly. I think only about 2% of women owned businesses has ever reached a million in revenue. But Lee, only only 7% of men reach that threshold. So it’s it’s a pretty, pretty big deal for anybody to get it to $1 million.

Lee Kantor: So now what is your vision of this organization like? Why did you choose to form it in the manner that you have? Because, you know, like you mentioned, there are some other people in the space. There’s other kind of networking, there’s other incubators, there’s other other things that do some of what you do, what makes kind of brain trust kind of a unique spot.

Sherry Deutschmann: It it was designed by a woman founder for women founders, seeing the unique situation that we find ourselves in. So we are not just running companies, we are running the kids to daycare and to soccer practice. We’re running households and our businesses. And so the the makeup has to be very different for us. Um, and from my experience in EO, um, I’m still a member of EO, the entrepreneurs organization, and found it to be really powerful in helping me build a $40 million business. But you can’t join those organizations. That organization until you get to a million in revenue. And that left about 14 million women out in the cold. And there was no organization out there that was really, um. Getting rid of the fluff when it comes to women’s organizations. So when I say, you know, we don’t have fluff, our members are required to every month in their small group meetings, they’re required to report to each other out loud their revenue last month. So it’s kind of a antihbs policy, uh, to let everybody know that we’re here to build powerful, successful businesses. And we have to, um, be honest about where our company really is at that point. And so for a member to apply, She has to attach her PNL because we want to know exactly where she is, so that we can best know how to help her get to $1 million, or to 10 million, or to 100 million.

Lee Kantor: Now, is it a focus on any specific industry? Because there’s a lot of tech groups out here in Atlanta, or is this industry agnostic?

Sherry Deutschmann: It is industry agnostic. And Lee, you pointed out something really important. There are a lot of organizations, especially on the on the tech side for founders and women specifically. But we believe that a woman who owns a nail salon, that her business is just as vital as someone building a big tech business. And so if we can help her get her business from maybe 200,000 a month to 700,000 a month, that’s game changing for her family. And so our members are some are our lawyers. We have a plastic surgeon, a couple of physicians, women who are building tech businesses, women who are builders, architects, um, on big health care companies. So it’s just any type of business, uh, that a woman is in that is a legally, legally established entity. That is, um, where the woman founder is herself, very driven and dedicated to the process.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned, uh, they have to come with financials. Is there a minimum amount of financials to be shown in order to play, or is it, you know, as long as you’ve gone, if you’re serious enough to kind of put financials together, then, you know, we’re going to kind of let you in.

Sherry Deutschmann: Well, no, we’re we have four tiers of membership. Um, at the heart, it is what we call the vault. So we call our groups and the process vault because it’s a safe place that holds, uh, valuable, uh, information. But, um, for vault membership, you have to be more than $100,000 in revenue. And then once you surpass a million, you go into a key club vault with only with women. Over a million in revenue. And then we have a virtual offering for a woman anywhere in the world who wants to join. And she has to be at least half a million. But then there were so many women that came to us that are desperately trying to get to that 100,000 threshold, that want to be part of the community and to get some of the the workshops and the other events that we provide. So we have insider status for them. Um, and that has proven to be very valuable to them as well.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you walk us through what’s it look like when you attend one of your events? What can we expect?

Sherry Deutschmann: Well, the so there are the main focus of brain trust are these small groups that we call vaults. They’re just seven women to a group. And you meet once a month in total Potentiality, and each of you shares the three most critical things going on in your business right now. And then the other women ask questions to get to a true understanding of the problem itself, and not just the symptoms. Um, and then each of the other women shares her experience related to that particular problem. So, um, there’s no advice given. It’s strictly speaking, from experience. Uh, and that that meeting is a four hour meeting, um, where they bring their problems and their opportunities to the table. So it could be something like my salespeople aren’t performing. I don’t know what to do. And then the questions might be, well, what is the pay structure and what kind of training did they have and what are their quotas? And then the women sharing their experience around either being a salesperson and what worked for them, incentivizing them to sell, or from a woman who has multiple salespeople. Um, and being able to talk about the the structure that she has for them. Or it could be that one of the women has, um, an employee who’s been stealing and, uh, talks to the other members about how to address that legally and then compassionately. So it’s just any problem that the woman is facing in her business she brings to that table. And what is said there around that table stays there. They cannot share it with, um, a partner or spouse. It stays right there in the in the safety of that group.

Lee Kantor: And the, the the, um, the vaults are not for selling to each other. That’s not part of there’s this isn’t a Leeds club. This is something where I’m just looking, you know, to get other people’s insights into what I’m going through.

Sherry Deutschmann: Yeah. In fact, we, um, the women can do business with each other. But we, you know, put some strong parameters around that too. Um, so this is not for networking. In fact, we have an informational session once a quarter to invite women to come and hear what the program is and how it works. And it’s and we state then it’s very critical for them to know this is not a networking organization. It’s also not a support group. Um, it’s not a place to just come and complain about your problems. It’s a place for you to be very vulnerable and real about your problems and help each other overcome them.

Lee Kantor: Now you’re in several locations. You’re coming to Atlanta. Is there a benefit of having multiple locations, like do the people in Atlanta get access to the the women in the other markets, or is each kind of market its own entity?

Sherry Deutschmann: No. Uh, we have a a technology that connects all the women to one another. In fact, uh, Lee A month ago yesterday, one of our members in North Carolina reached out to me and said, hey, I need to borrow $80,000. I need it for just 21 days. I’ll pay 5% interest, but I’m just as a bridge to a bigger loan that she was getting from the state of North Carolina. And so I just encouraged her to post it on our member portal. By the next morning at noon, she had the money from another member who’s in New York who, um, read her post and said, oh, I can I can jump in and help. So that’s the third time that’s happened, which has been remarkable. But you are connected to all the women in all of the network. And so the more members we have, the greater the brain trust. You know, the the larger the group of the pool of lived experiences to help a woman with that particular problem that she’s facing.

Lee Kantor: Now, what if one of the members needs kind of more mentorship. Is there a way to get more mentorship, or does it just happen kind of organically in the flow of each of the vault meetings?

Sherry Deutschmann: No. Occasionally, um, in fact, quite often a woman will encounter a problem that the other women in her group don’t have specific experience around. And so in that case, they let us at corporate know that. And we handpick a group of members to meet with her virtually, uh, members that we know have experience in that particular area. Um, and then they have a one hour virtual meeting to help her with that problem. But we also have subject matter experts, um, in the form of champions, uh, sponsors, we call them champions that will come into the individual groups to help, uh, by sharing their particular expertise around a topic. And, uh, that is, you know, free to the to the women members and can be very valuable to them.

Lee Kantor: Now, how do you find the kind of person you put as boots on the ground in a given market? It’s hard to grow a network like you’re doing and create community in the manner you hope to.

Sherry Deutschmann: Yeah, I think it is. Uh, the members themselves who tell women in other cities about us and in this particular situation in, in Atlanta, um, the e.y. Ernst and Young, um, has a really powerful network of women who’ve who’ve been honored by E.y. In the past for their companies. And I was a recipient. And another woman in Atlanta who had won that same award came to me and said, Atlanta needs this so desperately. If you come to Atlanta, I will help you get this off the ground. And then she started making introductions, and those people introduced me to more. And, uh, I think we’re going to have quite a Uh, extraordinary start there.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to see how this progresses because Atlanta’s economy is so diverse. There’s so many, um, people doing business in a variety of ways. There’s so much opportunity, I think, for women to really come together and help each other get to new levels. Um, I’m excited for you.

Sherry Deutschmann: Yeah. You know, there was a situation a few years ago where we were very careful with the curation of these groups. And one of the members there who has a patent on a product in multiple countries and, uh, has a serious potential to be a billionaire, told me later that she was a little upset when I put someone in her group that built charcuterie boards, and she said she was thinking, what in the world can I learn from her? Only to find out by the second meeting that that other woman had been in, uh, in working in PE and in private equity for years and had extraordinary connections for her, but also experiencing the fundraising side that this woman didn’t have but desperately needed. So we’re careful about the curation, and yet we ask a woman to have an open mind because, um, this process works with the diversity around the table. And when I say diversity, I mean in every potential way. Um, diverse. Um, from it, from the type of business to the age of the founder to ethnicity, um, the grade, the greater the diversity, the more likely it is that a solution to a problem will arise that you would not have considered.

Lee Kantor: Now in the vault are there? Once they get to a certain size, do you create a second one? Like how how does it kind of expand because you mentioned competition. Like do you allow competitors in in a given vault?

Sherry Deutschmann: No, a competitor competitors cannot be in the same vault. And that that is true just for our in-person groups. There’s just seven to a group. So in Nashville we have 30 some groups, um, five already in Charlotte. Um, and but there might be other ways that a woman, um, has a conflict. And so we’re careful about the curation. And once we determine the seven women that we think should go in a group, we send the bios of all seven to each other, and then they can say, well, no, she isn’t in conflict with me, but her husband owns a competing business. And so no, she can’t be in my group or sometimes, and especially in Nashville, Nashville’s a little big town. And so there have been times when a woman said, well, her business doesn’t compete with me, but she’s dating my ex-husband, so she can’t be in my group. So we have to take things like that into consideration.

Lee Kantor: Well, you’re just trying to make them human and not just kind of cookie cutter.

Sherry Deutschmann: Right? Exactly. And but in our virtual groups, our virtual groups, um, are all affinity based. So if you are a fashion retailer, you would you would have the option of being only with other fashion retailers, knowing that you’re not in the same geographical space and that you would have the same jargon, likely, you know, the same problems. And so your ability to help each other grow and then get to scale quicker is greater because you’re all in the same industry. So for the virtual groups, they have that option.

Lee Kantor: So once you’re a member, then you have access to all the groups. And then you could decide which ones are appropriate for you.

Sherry Deutschmann: Yes. So once you get to 100,000, you can get out of the insider bucket and move into the vault bucket. And then once you hit a million, um, at our annual, we have a big annual celebration that’s coming up April 1st. We honor the woman who grew her revenue by the greatest dollar amount. By the greatest percentage. The woman who added the most jobs. The woman who had the most profit. And then we also, uh, award all the women that hit the million dollar mark. Um, she gets a beautiful little 14 carat gold pendant with a key on it, and then she moves over into a different group of women. Just over a million in in Nashville. We have 60 women in that category, and they’ve grown from, um, 1 million to 10 million and some now at 20 and 30 million. Um, and so it’s at the point now where we’re attracting women who are already at 20, 30 and 40 million who say, oh, I like the differences here with brain trust. And that’s the peer organization that I want to be a part of.

Lee Kantor: So, um, we talked about how you’re you have boots on the ground here in Atlanta, and I guess you’re in the process of forming some of those groups right now.

Sherry Deutschmann: We are. Well, we’ll have our first informational sessions, which we call the lowdown. We have the first ones in Atlanta, um, this month on the 26th and 27th at three different locations. So we invite women to come to hear what we are and what we’re not. Um, how the process works. Uh, there’s a Q&A session, and then from that point, we send applications, um, and then start the, the interview process and the vetting process entirely.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more and have a more substantive conversation with somebody on the team, is there a website they can go to, uh, you know, to put their name in the hat and to get information, maybe attend the event and things like that.

Sherry Deutschmann: Yeah, it’s our, our, our Braintrust org is the website, but they’re also welcome to email me directly at Sherry d e r r y at our Braintrust org, and I will respond personally.

Lee Kantor: And then, um, on the socials. It’s our brain trust on all the socials.

Sherry Deutschmann: Yes.

Lee Kantor: And same with LinkedIn.

Sherry Deutschmann: Yes.

Lee Kantor: All right. Well, Sherry, I am so excited for you. Um, I think it’s so important, uh, what you’re doing. It’s just really a gift to the city. And thank you for thinking of Atlanta. Uh, coming here for with, uh, something like this. This is a wonderful community, and I hope everyone out there checks it out at our braintrust. Sherry, thank you again for sharing your story. You’re doing such important work, and we appreciate you.

Sherry Deutschmann: Thank you. Lee, it’s been an honor to be with you.

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