The Greater Women’s Business Council LACE (Ladies Achieving Continuous Excellence) Awards is a black-tie event that celebrates, recognizes and awards both corporate partners and women business enterprises (WBEs) that made major contributions to the mission of GWBC.
LACE Awards are given to companies or individuals for their outstanding contributions in supporting women-owned businesses through mentoring, coaching, world-class supplier diversity initiatives and providing procurement opportunities. The 2024 LACE Awards took place on Friday, November 1, at the Georgia Aquarium.
Tammy Cohen, an industry pioneer and expert in identity and employment screening, founded InfoMart over 30 years ago. Deemed the “Queen of Screen,” she’s been a force behind industry-leading innovations. She was most recently the first-to-market with a fully compliant sanctions search, as well as a suite of identity services that modernizes talent onboarding.
Tammy revolutionized the screening industry when she stepped into the field, developing the first client-facing application and a due diligence criminal search that has since become standard for all background screening companies.
Cohen has received national awards and honors for her business and civic involvement, including Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Top 25 Women-Owned Firms in Atlanta, Enterprising Women Magazine’s Enterprising Women of the Year award, the YWCA of Northwest Georgia’s Kathryn Woods Racial Justice Award, and a commendation in the 152nd Congressional Record.
Connect with Tammy on LinkedIn.
This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.
TRANSCRIPT
Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for GWBC Radio’s Open for Business. Now, here’s your host.
Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, broadcasting live from the Georgia Aquarium at GWBC’s 2024 LACE Awards, talking to one of the winners, and one of the probably most passionate people I’ve ever met when it comes to business and the business community, Tammy Cohen with InfoMart. Welcome.
Tammy Cohen: Thank you. Thank you.
Lee Kantor: Well, we’re here at this GWBC event, let’s first get the elevator pitch for InfoMart so we get that documented. So, first, tell us about that and then we’ll talk about GWBC and why it’s so important to the business community.
Tammy Cohen: Okay. So, InfoMart is a global background screening company. We serve customers globally doing criminal employment verifications. Call us at infomart-usa.com.
Lee Kantor: And then, the reason we’re all here tonight is to celebrate all of these ladies achieving excellence. What compelled you initially to become part of the GWBC community, and what has kind of surprised you from being, you know, with it for so long?
Tammy Cohen: So, I actually didn’t join for years because my business at that point was ten plus million over, and I’m like why would I want to join? But I had customers that’s like, “No. I need you to join because I need that spend.” So, I joined and never realized what I was missing out on. And it’s not just about building your business, and I think that’s what surprises me, it’s what you learn to go out and build your business is what you take away from here.
Lee Kantor: Now, I’ve been fortunate to interview hundreds of WBEs over the years, and what keeps coming back is the community and the collaboration, and the sisterhood of women talking to women in a safe place, getting to know each other, and those conversations can happen anywhere. I have somebody recently talked about meeting someone in the Uber line that now they’re doing business across the country. It’s just that type of collaboration can happen, which you don’t see a lot in other kind of organizations.
Tammy Cohen: You really don’t. And that’s what’s so unique is that you can meet somebody and you’re immediately looking at how can we do business, who do I know to connect you with. And then, that person will remember, and it might be five or ten years later, but you get a connection somehow. It’s very connected. And even though it’s a regional type of organization, the national events and the way you keep connecting, it becomes very much a community as nationally.
Lee Kantor: Right, it’s those six degrees of separation, they really come to life. And a lot of times you do get the referrals from those weak ties, right? Not your best friend, but the person who kind of knows you a little bit, that’s where the business kind of takes up.
Tammy Cohen: Oh, I can’t tell you how many emails I get that’s just an introduction from somebody who ends up being a great account. And it’s all just somebody said, “Hey, I want to introduce you to my friend Tammy Cohen. This is what she does.” So, we’re very much a community that supports each other.
Lee Kantor: Now, GWBC is obviously the certifying agency here in Georgia and the Carolinas, what would you say to the women-owned business owners that are out there that think, “Oh. I don’t have to do this, I have enough business,” or “It seems too hard to go through the process”? Because I would imagine there’s so many more women-owned business owners that would benefit from being part of the community, and like you said, maybe not for the reason they think. They may think this is a way to just drive revenue, but it’s a lot more than that.
Tammy Cohen: I think what I didn’t realize was, you know, the opportunity for matchmakers, and that’s basically where you go to an event and then a day you sit with ten different corporations, get to pitch your business, you might take a company away, you might not. But what you take away is the ability to pitch under great stress, and you can’t get that anyplace else. And then, you have the community of where you get to know each other. And the fee is not that much relative to what you take away. But, you know, it’s like any organization, if you don’t jump in and get involved, you’re not going to take anything away.
Lee Kantor: Right. This isn’t one of those places where you just write a check and then wait by the phone at home. You got to kind of lean in, and you got to do the work, and you got to volunteer, and you got to put yourself out there.
Tammy Cohen: You just have to show up, show up on the virtual meetings, put your camera on, contribute a couple of things in the running chat. So, it’s easy to actually get engaged. You just have to take the effort to do it.
Lee Kantor: Well, Tammy, if somebody wants to learn more about InfoMart, one more time the website.
Tammy Cohen: backgroundscreening.com.
Lee Kantor: All right. Well, Tammy, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.
Tammy Cohen: Thank you.
Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor, back in a few at the GWBC 2024 LACE Awards.
