Empowering Communities: The Role of Investigative Services and Global Talent in Local Business Growth

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

Joshua Kornitsky: Welcome back to Cherokee Business Radio. This is Joshua Kornitsky professional EOS implementer and your host on today’s exciting episode. Today’s episode is brought to you in part by the Community Partner program, the Business RadioX Main Street Warriors defending capitalism, promoting small business, and supporting our local community. For more information, go to Main Street Warriors and a special note of thanks to our title sponsor for the Cherokee chapter of Main Street Warriors Diesel David, Inc.. Please go to Diesel Com to learn more. Well, welcome back. We’ve got some great guests in the studio with us today and I’m really excited to get started. So my first guest is Sheila McPhilamy with Complete Investigations and Security. Good morning Sheila. How are you?

Sheila McPhilamy: Good morning. Doing great.

Joshua Kornitsky: I’m so happy to have you here. I appreciate you being patient with me. I’ve got a little bit of a sore throat, so I’m sipping on some tea today, so I’ll try not to to stress my voice too much. Well, tell us a little bit about Complete Investigations and Security. What is it you do and who do you help?

Sheila McPhilamy: So we are a private detective and security agency. We’re located up on the Marietta Square. We’ve been in business for 13 years now. We do criminal insurance fraud and domestic cases.

Joshua Kornitsky: Wow. That’s a crazy avenue for you to find yourselves in. How did you get here?

Sheila McPhilamy: I had people ask me that all the time. It. There’s nothing in particular, to be honest with you. Um, I worked for a company doing some video editing. And, uh, it actually was a lot of undercover. Audio files.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay.

Sheila McPhilamy: Um, in in reviewing those files, um, there were a lot of comments made about, you know, hey, you’d make a great investigator. It wasn’t something I’d ever thought about doing, uh, before, but that kind of, I guess if I was going to say something sparked it, then that’s what sparked it and started going down the path and getting all of my training and, uh, opened my company, uh, 13 years ago.

Joshua Kornitsky: Wow. And you’ve actually, from what you shared with me, you’ve had some pretty interesting experiences as far as, as a company, you’ve not exactly been out of the spotlight.

Sheila McPhilamy: Uh, we’ve done, uh, we’ve been in a book. We’ve done, uh, some TV shows and documentaries and things like that where we’ve worked on cases.

Joshua Kornitsky: That’s, that’s going to, of what I promise. I won’t ask any of the details about any of the cases, but certainly having that that opportunity and that exposure must have been kind of a departure from the day to day for you.

Sheila McPhilamy: It is, but it made it fun. Sure. Yeah.

Joshua Kornitsky: So let’s dive in a little bit and talk more about it. So you had said that you’re doing all types of normal, all types of investigations. And, and I know from our discussion with it how unusual is it to be a woman in this space.

Sheila McPhilamy: Very unusual. There there are a few out there, but they usually don’t last very long. Um, it it truly is pretty much a man’s world. Um, so it’s having to navigate that and people automatically, you know, assuming when you answer the phone that you’re the receptionist and not not the actual owner and investigator.

Joshua Kornitsky: So there’s a lot you have to overcome with that. But I gather from 13 years in business, you’ve you’ve more than proven that, that it’s a space that you are excelling in. Hope so. Must be so. So what are some of the common things people assume you spend your time on that may or may not be correct?

Sheila McPhilamy: Hmm. Well, people automatically make an assumption because TV shows, you know, they kind of portray. If you’re a private investigator, you investigate cheating spouses. And, uh, you know that we do do that. Uh, but that’s not the main part of our business. We handle a lot of criminal cases. So, um, we deal with some pretty heavy stuff.

Joshua Kornitsky: So let’s talk about that a little bit, because obviously you’re doing investigations, you say into criminal matters. Who are you? Who are you investigating for?

Sheila McPhilamy: It can be an attorney’s office or it can be an individual. So a lot of times families will come to us. Um, maybe there’s there’s been a something criminal that has occurred, and they come to us because they feel like they’re not getting answers. And it’s not because police aren’t doing their job, it’s just that sometimes agencies are overwhelmed. Um, and, uh, families, you know, they need closure. And so they’ll come to us. Uh, we have attorneys that come to us as well. Um, so. Yeah.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay, so so you’re doing that type of work for families, for attorneys, and, and when you’re doing that type of work, you’re functioning in a capacity where you’ve got to learn as much information as you can. I gather right. So when it comes to things like questioning people, and this is of particular interest to me. What are some of the things? And again, not looking for any secrets out of your universe. What are some of the things that you have to do when you engage with people in order to get them to open up?

Sheila McPhilamy: So it really depends on the case. Um, you know, it’s not a, um, one, one tool is going to work for everyone and every, every situation that you’re in. It may be that we just go directly to them for an interview, you know, as a witness or something like that, or it may be something where we have to come to them, you know, pretending to be someone else. And of course, there are guidelines that we have to follow, just like, you know, police have got investigators have guidelines they have to follow. Right. Um, but, uh, we just really have to base it on the case and what what we’re trying to retrieve. And it’s not always the same type of person that is, is going out to talk to them or calling them on the phone. We may base whoever’s going out based on who we think is going to be able to get more information.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay.

Sheila McPhilamy: So depending depending on the case.

Joshua Kornitsky: So you’re going to find the right, uh, individual to, to slot in the right tool for the job as it were. Okay. And and again not I, I I’ll stop saying I’m not trying to ask anything confidential. Do you have a fairly good number of tools to choose from in that regard, that you’re able to find different folks to come in. Okay. Um, so when it comes to your your team and your staff, are you in the lead of everything or do you have other folks that are able to go out and lead investigations as well?

Sheila McPhilamy: So I oversee everything. Okay. Um, it’s, you know, it’s my company. So I want to make sure that everything’s done correctly. So, um, I do oversee it. They do have some flexibility in what they do because, you know, they are trained as well. Uh, sure. But, yeah. So I oversee the end product, and then they’ll come to me if they have any questions.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay. And I assume they check in along the way. Make sure everything stays on track. Correct. Okay. So with the types of investigations, we talked a little bit about the criminal stuff. Um, we don’t need to talk about the spousal stuff because everybody’s got a TV. And most of that I’m sure is wrong, in any event. But let’s talk a little bit about the accident stuff. And I feel like if a defense attorney is asking for you to investigate, there’s a reason, right? And in what? Again, no one’s maligning the police. What might that reason be? Why do the defense attorneys reach out to get a third party?

Sheila McPhilamy: Yeah. So they there. They may come out because, um, where there’s a case where there may possibly be video footage that was not retrieved or couldn’t have been retrieved at the time. So we’ll go out and try to do that. Um, we will try to come up with more witnesses, because it may be that someone talked to the next door neighbor when the event occurred, but they didn’t talk to someone who was two doors down. And that person, two doors down, had video. Their child was outside playing when it happened, so they were outside. So you never know. Um, we do a lot of we’ll take measurements, uh, photographs, uh, document anything that is still there from the incident that occurred. Uh, so it’s we can retrieve a lot of information that the attorney may not have had prior.

Joshua Kornitsky: And just out of curiosity, because I’ve got a technical background to to a small degree. How much have things like home cameras and doorbell cameras and things like that? Has that been a factor in as as you’ve grown as an organization? Do those factor in?

Sheila McPhilamy: Oh, yes. It’s huge. Uh, you do have to get the video pretty quickly. So, um, you know, you can’t you can’t call an attorney, can’t call me two months down the road and say, hey, you know, we had this incident occurred that we need the video for because most of the time it’s gone by then. Um, sometimes you get lucky. Somebody, you know took a video on their cell phone, and and you can retrieve it there, but, uh, yeah. So it’s the advancement with with phones, with ring cameras and things like that. Those are huge.

Joshua Kornitsky: Yeah. It’s funny, I read somewhere that if Bigfoot or the aliens were around half a billion or, billion. Excuse me? 4 billion people walk around with a cell phone. Somebody would have captured it by now. Yes. And I can’t imagine how many things that you see that get captured by those types of cameras. Um, you also had shared with me that you do missing persons. We do. And hopefully there’s, uh, there’s some happy stories there. In addition, what I assume are some less than happy stories. Uh, without giving away anybody’s information, or are there any happy stories you can share with us?

Sheila McPhilamy: We we work a lot with helping locate, uh, missing teenagers. If, uh, a child is met someone online. Um, sometimes they end up in a different state. Um, and we will have to go out and retrieve them. Bring them back. Those. Those are good stories. When we’re able to get a happy ending from that. Sure. Um, I had a situation where a woman, her mom, had been missing for 40 years. Wow. She went missing in California, and we ended up locating her in Florida. And so that was a feel good moment. So you do have those and those are great.

Joshua Kornitsky: That’s awesome. And I imagine that, uh, with some of the other things you see, it probably is a little bit of, of a lightning to your mood. Yes.

Sheila McPhilamy: Definitely.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay. Well, I mean, it’s really incredible to me the, the, the breadth and the depth of, of what you’re able to do, who you’re able to help. And it’s not just the attorneys, it’s also the individuals. And when it comes to individuals, they can reach out to you. What’s the best way for them to get Ahold of you?

Sheila McPhilamy: They can give me a call on my cell, which is actually the office number. I don’t have an office number. It’s just call me on my cell. Send me a text. Uh, that number is (404) 379-1125. And then they can also locate us on the web at Complete Investigations net. And then we’re also on all the social media platforms under complete investigation.

Joshua Kornitsky: That’s wonderful. And we’ll also have all of that information shared on our site. And I appreciate you sharing with us what you’ve shared. But I want to ask you about one more thing that you had told me about, which was your nonprofit.

Sheila McPhilamy: Yes, I have a nonprofit. It’s called Serving to Protect. And a lot of the times where children go missing. It’s there’s a lot involved as far as getting them back to the parent. Um, they there may be costs for hotel rooms, for air travel, for travel to the location. Uh, so, um, the nonprofit helps cover some of those costs. Uh.

Joshua Kornitsky: Yeah. Okay. So is that something that that anybody can reach out and make a donation for?

Sheila McPhilamy: They can. If you go to complete investigations and go to the page for serving to protect, uh, there should be a link there where they can make a payment.

Joshua Kornitsky: That’s fantastic. Well, Sheila, I can’t thank you enough for coming on and sharing your experience. And and, uh, the incredibly real true life as opposed to, as seen on TV version of of what you do with your investigation and with your investigators. And thank you so much for being here. I hope you have time to stick around. But once again, this has been Sheila McPhilamy with Complete Investigations and Security. Thank you.

Sheila McPhilamy: Thank you so much.

Joshua Kornitsky: Thank you. And my next guest is Pablo Gonzalez. Pablo is one of the founders of a company called Global Talent Direct. Good morning. Pablo, how are you?

Pablo Gonzalez : Hey, Josh. I’m good. Thank you so much for having me.

Joshua Kornitsky: Thank you so much for being here today. We really appreciate it. So let me start by asking you what do you do?

Pablo Gonzalez : Yeah. So Global Talent Direct is a company, uh, that was founded, um, with the goal of helping business owners, uh, use global talent for local impact. Uh, and that’s our mission statement. Um, Essentially, we’re not just, you know, people always going into the. People are always going into thinking, oh, you’re taking American jobs this and what have you. Um, when in reality, you’re you’re not only giving someone. A job, uh, overseas, but you’re helping a business owner stateside become profitable faster, um, by being able to find someone who has their masters ten years of experience asking 1300 bucks a month.

Joshua Kornitsky: Wow. So what types of roles do you help fill?

Pablo Gonzalez : Yeah. So we we, uh, right now have a solid baseline of customer service reps. Uh, executive assistants, those I, I would say are our most popular offerings. Um, but then we also have marketing, uh, any accounting and finance, um, operations salespeople. It’s it’s really we’re also working on finding a legal assistance and paralegals as well. Um, but it’s really anything that can be done remote where the founder did not get into their business, their nonprofit, their the organization to be doing these things? Sure. And be able to actually remove one of those hats.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay, well, that sounds like it makes a pretty big impact in in in more than one place, right? Yeah. So so let’s back up a little bit. Tell me a little bit about your background. How did where did you start that you ended up here.

Pablo Gonzalez : Yeah. So, uh, I’ll keep it short because it can be I can’t take that detour, but, uh, I’m a Air Force veteran as an explosive detection dog handler. Uh, for six years. Um, and when I separated, my wife asked me to do something where she could get some sleep at night.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, first, thank you for your service.

Pablo Gonzalez : Thank you, thank you. So, uh, I still wanted to, uh, you know, make an impact on on my community, uh, wherever it is, and society as a whole. So I went into, uh, into business consulting. I found that a small.

Joshua Kornitsky: Business.

Pablo Gonzalez : Profession. Yeah, I found that small business owners and just business owners in general always have a really amazing story as to what got them there. And they’re they’re the ones helping the economy. Uh, get back to where it needs to be. Um, and I, I found during those years of business consulting that the main problem was always, I wish I could afford more help. You know, I need it. I can’t, I can’t get it. Um. That would be great. And payroll. And, you know, nowadays you’re having some college kids coming out expecting $95,000 salaries with no experience. Um, so it’s it’s it’s really helpful to to the business owner that thinks there are several years away. Sure. And even the serial entrepreneurs that, uh, want to scale and sell, scale and sell.

Joshua Kornitsky: So it really helps them sort of be able to do things that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to touch.

Pablo Gonzalez : Precisely.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay. And where do you make the connections with folks? Uh, obviously we’ll talk about where you find your customers, but where do you find the talent?

Pablo Gonzalez : Yeah. So we have them really all over the world. Uh, specifically where the cost of living is going to make the most sense for the business owner. Uh, in the sense of ROI. So it depends. We have most of Latin America, Asia, um, uh, Middle East. Uh, Trinidad and Tobago. I mean, really any with Jamaica, even anywhere where the cost of living is going to just make that the most sense.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay. And do you specifically bring, uh, bring to market talent that may be multilingual and not that that’s a focus, but.

Pablo Gonzalez : Yeah, no, absolutely. All of the candidates speak, uh, speak English are very fluent in it, not just in English, but we also test for fluency in their specific field. Oh that’s great. Obviously, you know, I speak fluent Spanish. I’m Colombian. Um, but I couldn’t tell you how to take a computer apart and put it together. Okay. Um, so we test specifically, like bookkeepers, knowing those financial terms and such things.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay. And. And how would you say that you’ve got a specific vertical that you’re helping, or as far as the clients that you’re looking for, what? What’s a good fit other than somebody who’s too busy?

Pablo Gonzalez : Yeah. No. So that’s the cool part about this is, is when I was in business, consulting was almost a little restrictive. Um, where the medical came into play. And, uh, you have to get all of this information to their first born, and even then, they might still get denied. Um, whereas now it can be an individual that thinks they’re too busy. It can be a business owner that needs to, that wants to spend a few more hours with their family a week. Um, and it can be serial entrepreneurs that are, uh, just buying, scaling and selling, um, and wanting to help the, the local community.

Joshua Kornitsky: So can I ask you a tough question?

Pablo Gonzalez : I would hope so.

Joshua Kornitsky: Tough question. Aren’t these taking American jobs?

Pablo Gonzalez : Yeah. Um, that’s that’s really that comes in a lot. Uh, I think I mentioned a little bit earlier and it’s it’s tough because you can’t find an American with ten years of experience. Uh, and their degree and looking for 1300 bucks a month. Um. That’s true. And, you know, these aren’t just cost savings. They’re competitive. Competitive advantages that fuel, uh, local job creation. So that’s where our mission statement comes in. Um, it’s it’s when you have that money you’re able to donate to your causes. You’re able to hire more stateside. Um, one of our niches that we’ve actually found is blue collar. Um, which might sound ironic because obviously there’s a lot of hands on. Sure, sure. Um, but they where they find the most ROI in filling their back office with these remote roles so that they can focus on the big picture and strategy.

Joshua Kornitsky: So they’re not just temporary roles. It’s not just I need somebody to help me out for the week. They’ll they’ll actually permanently take the position.

Pablo Gonzalez : Yes. So we actually prefer that, uh, it’s we’re direct hires. Um, so we were able to place them and integrate them with your team. We have, uh, standard operating procedures that we’re able to provide for people who, uh, might have. Well, are going to have. The question is, how do I integrate a remote person with my physical team? Um, and we found ways to do it that make it have the least friction possible, uh, with having the business owners not really have to worry about, uh, several other things other than I just made an amazing hire for a fraction of the cost.

Joshua Kornitsky: Wow. So that really does make a pretty strong impact. Now, I know you are also involved in a number of other organizations. Uh, first, can you tell me a little bit about the Cobb chamber?

Pablo Gonzalez : Yeah, I love the Cobb chamber. So ever since I separated from the Air Force, uh, and moved back here, uh, to Georgia, I’ve been involved with them. Only this last year on the steering committee, uh, for the young professionals. Um, but it’s a an amazing Cobb County, as you guys are aware, is an amazing county. Um, and the chamber specifically does a lot of good, uh, for, for the local community. Um, one of my favorite events is the top golf tournament. Uh, it’s a fundraiser for, uh, Children’s of Atlanta.

Joshua Kornitsky: Sure. Yeah. The children’s healthcare is is, uh. If I ever have the money, it’s where it’s going to go, for sure. But you also are involved with savvy. Would you tell us tell us what it stands for?

Pablo Gonzalez : Yeah, absolutely. Uh, so as a veteran myself, it’s it stands for a strategic alliance for veteran integration, and it’s a nonprofit that helps veterans reintegrate into society, um, through a specific course. So it’s resources for all veterans, but specifically, it builds out a track for someone who’s either a year from separation or post separation, um, if they want to go entrepreneurship route, if they want to go into corporate, if they want to go back to school, get their benefits squared away. I mean, free Coursera membership, it’s um, it’s a lot of resources. And, uh, Taps does a lot for us, which is the transition assistance program that is mandated in the military. But, uh, there’s just so much that it misses.

Joshua Kornitsky: So do you function as an advisor for some of the men and women that are in that window of getting ready to transition out or having just transitioned.

Pablo Gonzalez : Out, not to them directly? Uh, I help with the programs. Um, so, uh, outreach, um, resource gathering, uh, just being able to get the organization, uh, as, as successful as possible and be able to reach as many veterans as we can.

Joshua Kornitsky: And I assume that’s a nonprofit as well. Yes, yes. If people wanted to make a donation there, how would they go about doing that?

Pablo Gonzalez : Yeah, absolutely. So just on the website and you can look up Strategic Alliance for Veteran Integration or Savvy. And it actually has at the very top make a donation.

Joshua Kornitsky: Oh fantastic. Okay. So let me circle back to to Global Talent Direct because I want to make sure that we give due diligence and the amount of time there. So what, if anything, uh, should I have asked that? I haven’t asked that. That you want to communicate about how you help your clients and how you help the people that you employ? What if someone’s listening right now and and forwards this, uh, when we publish out to somebody in a different country, how do they reach you? What are the types of things that you’re looking for?

Pablo Gonzalez : Yeah. So if it’s if it’s talent, uh, what we’re looking for is meant to senior level experience. It makes the transition a lot easier for actually placing these individuals with having their own setup already and proven experience working remotely. Um, if it’s companies and organizations and nonprofits, then we’re actually able to, uh, we have social global talent direct on all socials. Um, and you can actually, uh, send me a text or a phone call at six seven 8 or 8 00542. And then there’s also the admin email on our website, Global Direct. Com.

Joshua Kornitsky: Oh, fantastic. And we’ll have all of that shared on our site as we will for for Sheela and complete investigations and security as well. Um, I can’t thank you enough, Pablo Sheila, for for sharing your experience and your stories and your knowledge with us. Um, it’s been great to have you here in the studio. We try to make it interesting. We try to make sure we ask the right questions. Thank you both for being here. This is Joshua Kornitsky professional iOS implementer and your host today on Cherokee Business Radio.