Life and Business Strategist Regina Gulbinas

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Stone Payton: [00:00:15] Welcome to the High Velocity Radio Show, where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast, Regina Gulbinas. How are you?

Regina Gulbinas: [00:00:31] Well, I’m very excited to be here. Thank you for having me.

Stone Payton: [00:00:34] We are delighted to have you on the program. I’ve got a lot of questions. I think the first place may be the best place to start would be if you could share with us mission, purpose. What are you really out there trying to do for folks?

Regina Gulbinas: [00:00:50] A great question. So I’ve spent the last 20 years helping the companies reorganize back to profitability. And most of the 17 years of the last 20 has been hyper focused on that. So this has been an amazing journey When you can walk into a company that’s millions upside down, they’re about to go out of business and you get to participate in saving, not just restoring the company, but employees get to keep their jobs, marriages get to stay intact because we know financial cash brings a lot of cash into marriages and things like that. So this has been an incredible mission to walk with people and help them restore their lives, restore their businesses and continue to rise up, be profitable. And that actually affects other people that they’re employing and their families. So this has been a huge part of my mission just serving, supporting and serving CEOs, entrepreneurs, small business owners, and the last three years of the 20, I just felt God calling me into the online space. And I’ve shifted a lot of my focus to helping female entrepreneurs versus executives, CEOs in creating just businesses that they’re obsessed with lives, that they’re obsessed with just the life of business strategies. But to have the ability to leave your fingerprint on someone else’s timeline, that’s really how I see what I do.

Stone Payton: [00:02:07] Are you finding that businesses often fail or come close to failure for some of the same reasons? Do you see some of the same things over and over again?

Regina Gulbinas: [00:02:17] You know, believe it or not, it’s pretty much all of the same reasons. Yes, absolutely.

Stone Payton: [00:02:22] So what are what are some of the the ones that you typically see, some that may be when we have the benefit of listening to this conversation, we can say, okay, we’ll try to avoid those.

Regina Gulbinas: [00:02:33] You know, for small business owners and small, I would say maybe like under 15 or $20 annually, something like that for a small business owner. A lot of it is two main reasons. Number one, the needs of the company outgrow the knowledge base of the CEO because as long as long as your company continues to scale, you need additional information to run and support the infrastructure and the cash flow of the company. And in that case, I’ve noticed CEOs and small business owners are not often quick enough to catch that sweet spot and say, okay, the company needs outgrowing my knowledge. I need to bring additional support on board with an outside perspective to support the growth. So the moment the company needs begins to outgrow the knowledge base of the CEO. As the company grows, the gap between what the CEO knows and what the needs of the company are. When the gap becomes too high, they start to slide back and go into negative. Because if you don’t have enough information, you can only take your business so far and the needs of the company just grow. And the second thing, a lot of it is lack of infrastructure. A lot of businesses have lack of infrastructure. They don’t have the correct employees on staff. They don’t have the finances to hire the right people that can actually see the bigger picture. So the two main reasons that I mean, I’ve done over 100 corporations through reorganization. So the two main reasons are the needs of the company outgrow the knowledge base of the CEO and the CEO doesn’t get support fast enough and the lack of infrastructure within the company.

Stone Payton: [00:04:07] So tell us a little bit more about your backstory. How did you get into this line of work?

Regina Gulbinas: [00:04:16] You know, this is one that most people don’t believe. I don’t have formal training and education. School was not my thing. Struggle through high school. Every teacher said, very intelligent, very smart. Doesn’t show up to class. I just didn’t. School wasn’t my thing. Bottom line. Got a two year degree just to get my parents off the back of my back. You. I went to college because everybody was doing it. And like in fashion merchandizing, I don’t even know. I just took the cheapest, easiest thing I could do. I just. I was hungry for life. I knew that God made me for something impact driven. And I was very restless until I found that. And at the age of 24, I got hired in a company as an accounts payable clerk who was going who was at the tail end of a Chapter 11 reorganization. And the moment I walked in before I knew what they were doing, you know, like when you get that feeling, you’re like, okay, I know I’m supposed to be here, but I don’t know why. I knew I was supposed to be there, not necessarily in the company, but I was supposed to be there in that moment. And then I realized that they’re going through reorganization. And the gentleman who was reorganizing them, I realized I understand why. And I worked with him for 17 years as his right hand. And I just naturally understand people and money. It’s not of in numbers. There is a big difference between numbers and money. People confuse. They think it’s the same thing. Numbers and money are very different thing. And I naturally have gifts and abilities to understand people, to speak to people, to negotiate with people, to lead people, to navigate people and do the same thing with money.

Regina Gulbinas: [00:05:49] And businesses are, I mean, the two main components every business consists of. I don’t care where in the planet you are, what you sell, what are the two main components in any business, people and money. But from a very young age, I knew that I had got to just put something in me. I knew I wasn’t meant to just be an employee to five. Nothing wrong with that. I just knew I was supposed to. There is an impact. There is a fingerprint. I’m supposed to leave on the timeline that I’m here, that I get to be here, and then by mistake, bumped into the world of corporate turnaround. And I came alive. I knew I’m supposed to be there, but it was a very hard journey. It’s not like I bumped into and I said, I belong here. And it was easy. I’m 24 years old. Nobody cares what I say when it comes to reorganizing companies. No formal training, no education. And I fought for my spot. I fought for my voice. I worked extremely hard to prove myself to every single CEO that I that I came in contact with, that I am not only qualified, I’m much more qualified than anybody who can go to school for this because I have something I have something that you can’t just learn in school. Basic like mechanics, you know what I mean? And it was just the perfect fit. It was the perfect fit for me.

Stone Payton: [00:07:05] Well, I fully anticipated a conversation about numbers and money, but you’ve also mentioned every bit as many times people speak to people relationships that side of this, because this is an important aspect of this work, isn’t it?

Regina Gulbinas: [00:07:22] Absolutely. I believe that the money is in the relationship. The money is in the relationship while we focus on making money, which is important. You’re running a business. There’s nothing wrong with that. You should be aware of your numbers. Profitability, margins. Which clients to keep. Which clients to let go. But I’ve also seen some extraordinary things happen when we take care of the relationships. I have worked with big construction companies where clients will literally pay more money for per contract for whatever they can get, like a home built or a high rise built for less just because of the relationship of my client and the safety that my client provides in the transaction. They know they can hand off the product, they can hand up the the the construction aspect of it like a GC to a sub. They can hand it off and not have to worry about. People will literally pay more money for a peace of mind. I have seen people be able to charge more because the high quality of service that they provide. And again, when the client can hand off a project to you and walk away, not to have to worry and babysit their suppliers, they’re going to get done. Is it going to get done on time? People will pay more money for that. Same with the employees. Employees will work better if they feel like they’re part of the family. They’re part of the they’re not just an employee. So I think we often forget how much money is in the relationships. I’ve negotiated insane things for clients who were just filing bankruptcy and suppliers don’t want to really touch. They cut people off on credit. When people file bankruptcy and I completely understand, a lot of people don’t know that actually bankruptcy works.

Regina Gulbinas: [00:08:55] Just because you filed, you still have to pay, especially for new products. When has the file 100% of the dollar. So and that scares them. A lot of suppliers are scared. I’m going to cut you off. I’ve negotiated deliveries of like steel and material and all of these things after people have filed because I’ve maintained such a good, honorable, respectful relationship between supplier and client prior to that. And because of that, we didn’t have to shut up, shut production, for example, again, relationship. You know, I always tell my clients my like no people’s even personal know their birthday. I mean, how simple is it to keep a calendar of people that are like the key players in your business? The key players in your business are not necessarily in your business. Keep certain things that are important to the people, that are key players to your profitability, even if their customers are suppliers. These little things I have seen miracles be pulled off because I maintain these relationships for clients, for suppliers, for for my clients, for their vendors, for their suppliers, so and so for employees. The money is in the relationship. And I think it’s very important not to underestimate how much more money we can make, provided that the relationships are taken care of. If you take care of those relationships, I’ve seen those relationships take care of my clients when it was the hardest thing and nobody else would give them benefit of the doubt. And the people who really took care of really came through because we needed them. Otherwise, if there is no supplies, if there is no production, clients want their deposits back. It opens a chain of of bad reaction for for many pieces of the puzzle.

Stone Payton: [00:10:37] As we’re having this conversation, your eyes light up. There’s so much energy and enthusiasm and passion in your voice. I know our our listeners are picking that up over the airwaves. At this point in your career, what are you finding the most rewarding? What are you enjoying the most about the work?

Regina Gulbinas: [00:10:57] You know what? Interestingly enough, the most I enjoy is when I see the transformation in the CEO that I’ve worked with, because your profitability is nothing more than the byproduct of your decision making abilities. That’s it. The numbers in your balance sheet, the numbers are European, your penal, are simply a reflection of the decisions you make, the decisions you make on a daily basis as a CEO. So when I talk to the CEO, when I give him the lessons, when I teach them, lead them, navigate them, inspire them, and I see the shift in their behavior and they see that it impacts their entire life, their business, their marriages, their relationships with clients, the relationships with people. That, to me, is the ultimate win, because money is one thing. I mean, I love the hustle, I love business. I thrive on it like I am a strategist, that God made me a strategist. My mind is like a puzzle and it goes a million miles an hour. But to watch when you have helped somebody, you have changed to help them change the perspective of how they make their most important decisions in their life. Once you see the shift in their eyes, their eyes light up and you see that it’s impacting literally every aspect of their life, because if they can decide better in their company, they will decide better in their personal relationships, they will decide better when it comes to other things outside the company.

Regina Gulbinas: [00:12:13] Once you see that shift and you actually realize that what you’ve done is allowed somebody to change so much and have supported somebody in so much change that you have now impacted not just their life, but perhaps their bloodline for generations to follow. Because if they know better, if they do better, they will teach better in their family. They will lead their household better. What does that mean? Their children are watching. They will do better and their children. So I think a lot of times when we work with people in mentorship and things like that, we think we’re working for the moment like we’re here now. I don’t see it that way. If I can help a company or if I can help a woman build an incredible business and everything in her life changes and she takes it home and her kids now do better and they learn better. I’ve now impacted multiple generations. I mean, how massive is that? If you really think about it.

Stone Payton: [00:13:07] It’s incredible. Now, are you finding that you are drawn to kind of gravitating toward a certain type of business or industry?

Regina Gulbinas: [00:13:18] No, I don’t care. What industry Do I care who you are. I care who you are. So the clients that are just looking for a short fix not going to touch that clients where there is bad behavior manipulation, kind of not follow through with people that they work with, things like that. Not going to touch that integrity is really, really high for me. But no, I don’t care what industry. Money is money. People are people. It’s all the same thing, processes or processes. I care more about who I work with versus what they’re selling. I don’t care about that. That’s easy. That’s business. But I care. I look at who are you as a human being?

Stone Payton: [00:13:56] How do you get the new clients? Is it all referral at this point, or do you do some kind of proactive marketing to get out there and educate and inform and draw people to you?

Regina Gulbinas: [00:14:07] Referral. But I work mostly with online companies, so I do like online organic advertising. I’ve been here for three and a half years on line of position myself offline. Old clients still come back, ask for support. People refer me interviews just like this. A lot of people hear me and reach out. Just very organic.

Stone Payton: [00:14:25] So one of the things, as you might imagine that I found really, really attractive and smiled early in the conversation, you used a phrase that included fingerprint on the timeline because we’re all about producing better results and less time here at High Velocity Radio. Speak to that a little bit more and maybe talk about a little bit about what the the work looks like, especially in the early stages when you first start working with a company.

Regina Gulbinas: [00:14:52] Their work in the early stages is to, number one, see where the company is at. Because before I can change the behavior, before I can change the decision making process, I want to know where the company is at, what what’s impacting them. What are the numbers? If the numbers if you’re bleeding all over the place, so then do we. We have to plug the holes before we do anything else. Right. Because the business needs to continue. So first, I will it’s always able to want to look at the numbers. The numbers always tell me the how, the how the CEO makes the decisions. I don’t need the CEO to tell me a single thing. I can look at the numbers and know if there is a pattern. If there is, if there is, if there seasonal, if there this, if there that, if they’re short selling themselves, if they’re under charging, if they’re not paying careful attention. I don’t mean to talk to the CEO or the piano on the balance sheet will tell me everything I need to know how the CEO operates in their mindset. Everything. The numbers tell a story. The numbers really, really tell a story. It’s not just the numbers. I don’t look at the numbers. I look at the story. I don’t see just the numbers on paper. I see someone else’s decisions.

Regina Gulbinas: [00:15:53] So I look at the numbers first. I talk to the CEO. I’m highly intuitive. I just I kind of pick up on people who they are, how they operate. I want to know how they move, how they run their operations. So I observe a lot, I observe a lot, and then we just go to work and we start at the most critical to the least critical. What’s the first thing? Like I said, if they’re bleeding margins, if they’re bleeding in labor on the floor, if they’re just if they have clients that have terms, I’ll pay you when I feel like we need to fire some clients. Do we need to negotiate the terms? So I guess it depends on what’s happening in the company at the moment, but the numbers are a big chunk of it at the beginning, but the numbers are just the story. And then I don’t live by the numbers in a company. I live by the global operation. So when I first walk in, I want to know if there is a critical environment, if there is a critical environment, we have more time to put certain things in place. Maybe we have more time to plug some holes. We have time. So to make some additional decisions, if it’s a critical environment, what’s the low hanging fruit? Let’s get you guys into the safe waters.

Regina Gulbinas: [00:16:57] Let’s make sure you can stand up strong. And then we go on fixing things and making it more of a more of a just a tight ship to run. Because a lot of the times people bleed hours, people bleed and just unnecessarily cost and things like that. So a lot of shoring up. But again, ultimately it’s the decision making process of the CEO. And the CEO tells me a lot even through a conversation. And a lot of people will let people have terms on whatever they want. They will under charge, they will this, they will build that. So it’s a matter of shoring everything up, because what I’ve noticed often just by shoring up, you will end up more money to your bottom line with no changes, with zero changes outside of the current infrastructure, meaning with no additional from outside, but just shoring up within, looking at the cost, looking at the labor, looking at a decision making process, looking at the payment terms, looking at the time versus how much looking. Just by cleaning up inside, you can get a lot of work done and sometimes it’s even shuffling the right people into the right place because very often people have wrong people in the wrong position. They’re great people. They’re just not for that job. So sometimes you’ve got to shuffle people around.

Stone Payton: [00:18:10] Okay, let’s make sure that our listeners can reach out, connect with you, have a conversation with you or someone on your team. I want them to be able to tap into your work, whatever you think is appropriate. Website, LinkedIn, email. Let’s make sure that we can get them connected with you.

Regina Gulbinas: [00:18:27] Absolutely. Thank you. So I’m on LinkedIn, not very active on LinkedIn, but if you send me a message and link that, I definitely get it. Facebook Social media is the way to get in touch with people right now. Regina Gilbert News.com But people don’t necessarily contact me through the website, so people are welcome to check out the website of great testimonials there. But LinkedIn or Facebook is a perfect way to get in touch with me or my email is simple. Nicole Vena said gmail.com.

Stone Payton: [00:18:52] Well, Regina, it has been an absolute delight having you on the program this afternoon. Thank you for sharing your insight and your perspective. And I got to say, your energy with us this afternoon. You’re doing such important work, impacting so many lives. And we we sure appreciate you.

Regina Gulbinas: [00:19:11] Thank you. It’s it’s been a pleasure and honor. Thank you so much for having me.

Stone Payton: [00:19:14] My pleasure. All right. Until next time, this is Stone Payton for our guest today, Regina Gubbins and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you in the fast lane.