From Combat to Corporate Landlines, Celebrating Women of Color Business Owners

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios, it’s time for Women In Motion. Brought to you by WBEC-West. Join forces. Succeed together. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Women In Motion and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, WBEC-West. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Women In Motion, we have Wendi O. Brown with iSupportYou. Welcome.

Wendi O. Brown: Thank you. Thank you for having me here.

Lee Kantor: I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about iSupportYou. How are you serving folks?

Wendi O. Brown: So, I am Founder and CEO of iSupportYou, which is a strategic consulting firm that focuses on handling a risk that normally C-suite executives are not able to identify. So, what I do is I help them prevent certain scenarios that can damage their business. I also prepare that, hey, sometimes things happen. I help them to prepare for catastrophes. And then, unfortunately, sometimes you’re just in the mix and things are going bad, I help mitigate those losses.

Wendi O. Brown: And so, I’m just an expert at doing risk management. And I have this based on my over 20 years in the military. So, I retired as a lieutenant colonel, and I wanted to take all the knowledge that I have used serving throughout the world and help Fortune 500 companies.

Lee Kantor: So, are these leaders of these Fortune 500 companies open to the idea of kind of proactively preventing risks that may or may not come down the pipe?

Wendi O. Brown: They are. Because with my background, I have done risk management in combat as well as peacetime. So, I’m not just bringing you theory. I’m bringing you real life military precision expertise so that these Fortune 500 companies can prevent catastrophic incidents from happening.

Lee Kantor: So, what are some of these kind of risks or challenges that a leader may not even be aware is a risk or a challenge?

Wendi O. Brown: So, what I do, I call them corporate landmines. So, in the military, particularly the army, we deal with battlefield landmines. And so, I have taken that scenario and has transformed it to corporate landmines. So, sometimes you think a business venture is a great idea, let’s just say that comes from the CEO, “We have this great idea. We can do it.” And the whole C-suite, you might have one or two that are a little apprehensive, nobody wants to go up against the CEO, so everybody’s thinking, “Yes. We can do this. We can do this.”

Wendi O. Brown: And, unfortunately, when you feel peer pressure to go along, that devil’s advocate is removed from the boardroom. That’s where I come at. So, I play that devil’s advocate without worrying about am I accepted in the friendship, am I in the clique or anything like that. I am there to be brutally honest. And if you don’t like me, okay, you won’t rehire me again. But at least I was honest with you.

Wendi O. Brown: So, I deal with corporate landmines of saying “Look, you can do Venture A but these are the pros and the cons. This is the risks that you’re taking.” I am brutally honest. So that that CEO can then decide, “Well, maybe it’s not such a great idea or let’s see how we can reduce the risk.” So, I needed to be that devil’s advocate so that the C-suite, they could still get along, go out for drinks, have a good time. And if something goes wrong, they can always point their finger at me.

Lee Kantor: It becomes Wendi is the bad person here. I’m the good guy. I was on your side. It’s not my fault.

Wendi O. Brown: Exactly.

Lee Kantor: Now, this service seems extremely useful. I don’t know how self-aware these leaders are that they would think that this is a good idea to have at least not a room full of yes men, that I want some contrarian point of view. But when you’re going into a meeting or a challenge, say, they say, “Okay. We want to merge with Company A over here. I love it. I’ve been using their services. And we’re going to acquire them.” And then, you go in there and then you can kind of pick holes at that and say, “Look, okay, that’s a great idea. They do this well, but they do this bad, or they’re having this kind of turnover. Or if you want to buy that, this one might be better because they don’t have those issues.” Is that kind of how it works?

Wendi O. Brown: Yes. So, what I would do is several courses of action. And I would do pros and cons of each one along with rating based on what’s important to the company and let them see the data for themselves. Now, of course, many times decisions can still be made a little bit off of emotion, because if you fall in love with something, you just fall in love with it. My thing is, although I’m not the decision maker, my goal is to give you all the data that you need so you understand what you’re walking into.

Wendi O. Brown: In addition to that – and this has happened in the military – even if the top person does something that you don’t agree with, a good navigator will say, “Okay. They made a decision they shouldn’t have made. I’ve already told them. I’m not going to tell it anymore. I’m not going to beat a dead horse.” Then, you start getting contingency operations and plan for when things go wrong. You don’t have to broadcast it’s going to go wrong. You just know through your experience and the data it’s going to go wrong. So, that’s where you get into mitigating the risk. So, you don’t mitigate the risk while you’re in it. I mean, you don’t learn how to mitigate the risk while you’re in it. You figure out how to mitigate it before, so that when it happens, you’re ready.

Lee Kantor: And then, again, to get a little granular on the types of corporate landmines you’re helping them with, is it like buying a new software? Is it merging and acquiring? What’s an example of a landmine that you can help them with?

Wendi O. Brown: Sure. Many times it’s been the type of processes that are in place. Dealing with this is the way we’ve always done it, that, I mean, boy, if I had a dollar every time I heard that, I’d be a billionaire. You know, this is the way we’ve always done it. So, people are little resistance to change. And so, you have to like walk them through sometimes a little slowly until they understand, “Oh, wait a minute. This may be a change.” But I show how it benefits them.

Wendi O. Brown: And in addition to that, I still know how to do it like if there’s a business venture. Yes, we have financial numbers, and people can do financial numbers kind of sometimes make things look the way they want to look. But then I get into the research and the analysis of it to show these are your pros, these are your cons. Even if you do this and things go wrong, I do have a plan, and I may briefly go over the plan. But looking at the different options, to me it’s clear what is right. However, if they still choose to do what I don’t think is the right decision, I have a plan in place.

Wendi O. Brown: So, it’s with the business ventures. It’s with new products, new services, the current operation. And of course, people get a little nervous when the current operation changes because immediately people think my job is going away. No. It may evolve to something that’s more productive for you as well as the company.

Wendi O. Brown: So, I’m able to address all of it because I obtain the data, I do the analysis, and then I prepare a plan for prevention, then also prepare for if we do go into it and then worst case scenario. And I’ve been doing this with the military, and believe or not, that’s how the military does it. So, I’ve been doing it for so long. I’m used to working for generals. I’m used to working at four star commands, which is the highest number of command you can work at. I’ve worked at the Pentagon, obviously, doing nationwide security missions. I’ve worked at the U.S.-European Command, obviously, overlooking the security of Europe. I’ve worked at the U.S.-Africa Command overlooking the security of the Continent of Africa, mainly focusing on West Africa. And then, now, my client is the U.S. Cybersecurity Command. So, we have the election coming up, so you have to really do some what if scenarios.

Wendi O. Brown: So, I’ve been doing this for over 20 years to where it’s become second nature to me. And I really enjoy it because I enjoy the impact that it makes. And, first, sometimes clients may think I don’t need this person, but then when you do that big save like, “Oh, my God. Thank you so much.” Then, you just start winning people over.

Lee Kantor: Now, who typically hires you? Is it the CEO? Is it somebody on the board? Do you work with private equity firms or VCs? Who is your buyer?

Wendi O. Brown: So, my target audience is C-suite executives. I’ve also had executive partners of Fortune 500 companies contact me as well. I am on LinkedIn. With social media, it’s easy to get in contact with folks. But I am on LinkedIn, that’s where I am mostly recognized. But C-suite executives, that’s my main target audience. However, still HR or if there’s a department dealing with operations, they want to learn how to do things better. Because I can do things at an extremely high level dealing with the C-suite executives overseeing an organization. Or if it’s just a department, I can also do it and scale down because I have experience doing both.

Lee Kantor: And you also wrote a book, do you want to talk about that?

Wendi O. Brown: Yes. So, I have a positive attitude, and people, they meet me, they go, “You’re such an upbeat, happy person, how did you make it through the military?” Because the military can be brutal, and yet it may not show on my face. So, I was asked this a few years before I retired, and I said, “You know what? I’m going to write down ten main principles I did to make it to where a lieutenant colonel plus having jobs throughout the world.” And I came up with ten principles, and then I just started expanding on it, people were more interested, so I decided to write a book on it.

Wendi O. Brown: And my book, I started writing it maybe about two or three years ago. And I’ve done several versions of the book, because when I am revising the book, I write it based off of pretty much what I’m going through. So, I didn’t finish it until I actually was fully retired and out of the military. And I’m so glad I did that, because when I look at the first versions, I was a bit angry. I didn’t realize I was still in the fight, I was still in the battle dealing with competition, and big bureaucracy, and just all of the above. But after I retired, I kind of slowed down a little bit, take a step back, and was able to put it in language that’s a little bit more user friendly.

Wendi O. Brown: So, the name of the book is called Leadership Confidence vs. Confidence: Do You Know The Difference? Because it’s a big difference. Everyone knows what confidence is, feeling assured, being resilient, and so forth. But leadership confidence, according to how I have described it in my book, is when you actually excel under pressure. A lot of people break under pressure. But if you have leadership confidence, you excel.

Wendi O. Brown: My biggest wins in the military is when my back was up against the wall, it was sink or swim, and I always end up swimming breaststroke, and not just traditional breaststroke. And I didn’t realize it until I started reflecting right before I was about to retire. I’m like, I do really well under pressure. I actually do better under pressure. So, if I had a job that didn’t have any pressure or any problems and I kind of just hmm, hmm, just going about the day, I would lose my mind. I will become extremely bored.

Wendi O. Brown: I love the battle of we got to win. I love the the notion of we got to get this mission done. High profile, time sensitive assignments, that’s where I have excelled. And like I said, I discovered this kind of reflecting back, but I realized that’s when I’m a badass, when I’m under the pressure. So, leadership confidence, that’s when you actually excel and thrive during adversity. And I’ve done it during one of the most prominent multibillion dollar industry being in the U.S. Military. And so, now, I’ve taken it to a mainstream in the civilian world for Fortune 500 companies. So, very excited about this part of my life.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there any advice for the listener on how to rise up during those trying times? Is there some kind of go-to things that a listener that’s actionable for them today if they have a challenge in front of them today?

Wendi O. Brown: Sure. The one thing is plan during peacetime. I’m going to put it in a military perspective. People know America, we do war from time to time. We’re in combat from time to time. But we don’t figure out combat while we’re in it. We do it during peacetime. So, I would say when you’re feeling your best, whatever that may be, then start writing out what to do if things go wrong, because at this point you’re able to think clear.

Wendi O. Brown: So, write down the plan if something goes wrong, whatever that something is. You can do this professionally as well as personally, what to do if something goes wrong with my business, something goes wrong with my career, something just goes wrong with things at work. Start during peacetime where everything is going fine on what you would do, so that when you’re under pressure and you can’t think, you get out your book.

Wendi O. Brown: So, in the military, we have a thing called an SOP, Standard Operating Procedure, and I think other companies have that too. Have that down before you need it. And when I worked in Joint Operations Centers, I did that in Europe and for Africa, we had this document called CCIR, and it was Commander’s Critical Incident Responses. Meaning when things go wrong, what do you do? Because when things go wrong, pressure can get to you and you may go, “Oh, God. What do I do?” It happens all the time and it’s human. Regardless of your educational level or anything, that does happen. When you have your CCIR, guess what? You go I do this, I do that. You don’t even have to think. You just read and execute.

Wendi O. Brown: But we built those documents during peacetime and everything is going well. We pass it around, make sure everybody is going this makes sense. And we may even rehearse it so that if and when, not so much if, when you need it, you are ready to execute off of it. And you don’t have to think about it and you don’t have to brainstorm. The answer is right in front of you. So, get your plan together on how to handle something catastrophic during peacetime before you need it.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. It’s something that a military person told me that’s part of our business today is they said, two is one, one is none. Build redundancy so that when you have that moment when things aren’t going your way, that you have a backup already built-in and you have as much redundancy as possible so that you’re not kind of caught without.

Wendi O. Brown: Exactly. That’s exactly right. When you have two plans, that means you at least got one, because one may not work or you just can’t think right, at least the other one will. And if you only got one plan and things go wrong, you’re just going to panic. So, we have things called contingency operations, so everybody goes “We’re going with plan A.” Well, I think it’s a quote by Mike Tyson, everybody has a plan until you get punched in the face. Because you’re like, “What do I do now?”

Wendi O. Brown: So, contingency operations, contingency operations and all they are, are just plan B, plan C, plan D for when plan A doesn’t work. That’s really the secret. It’s not about being super sonic smart. It’s not about having a high IQ. It’s about preparation. And you prepare when you’re at your best, so that when all hell breaks loose, you get that document out, this is what I need to do, this is what I need to do, this is who I need to contact, this is what needs to happen.

Wendi O. Brown: And having responded to some of those situations because of what was going on in the world, let me tell you, you read that document like it is the gospel. Like, “Okay. This is what I do. This is what I do. This is who I have to call. This is what I need to document.” And after all is said and done, because the type of jobs I’ve had, I had to send them up to the Office of Secretary of Defense, I had to send them to various positions in the Pentagon. And you come back thumbs up, thank you. But that wouldn’t happen if I weren’t prepared for catastrophic events.

Lee Kantor: Right. And that’s what I think a lot of people think they’re going to wing it or it looks easy because these people are winging it. And they’re not winging it. They prepared for this moment for months or years. And so, when the moment occurs, they’re ready. They don’t have that indecision anymore. They have a plan. They know they’re going to go to the book. They know the first step. They’re not having to figure it out.

Wendi O. Brown: That’s exactly right. Nobody’s winging it. No one is winging it. No one is just this psychic person that knows what to do when things go wrong. Wrong answer. It is preparation. It’s training. In the military, obviously, we do a lot of training. People want to know how come we spend so much on Department of Defense? We do a lot of training because once things kick off, you know you’re in it, and you need to know what you’re doing. And it’s not time to go, “Let me read. What did it say back in such and such?” No. You need to have already have done this. So, when you see people doing well and the more natural that it looks like they’re doing it, that’s the more prepared they’ve been. They’ve been doing it over and over and over to where they can do it in their sleep.

Lee Kantor: Right. But that’s where I think a lot of the lay people think that, “Oh. They’re making it look so easy. The didn’t prepare that. They’re just naturally good at it.” And it’s the opposite. They’ve prepared so much that’s why it looks easy.

Wendi O. Brown: Exactly. Those are perfect words, Lee. You took the words right out of my mouth. That’s exactly why it happens. And so, people sometimes have a misinterpretation of what it takes to really be great as if you’re born with it. Yeah, there might be some innate ability, but you got to work at it. To be ready for pressure, you have to work at it. Even with me saying I do well under pressure, it’s because I’ve been under pressure. And then being an officer, you’re going to be held accountable if things go wrong. Even if it’s not your fault, you’re still held accountable.

Wendi O. Brown: You need just one or two rear end chewing out by someone at Bellevue, you learn to become prepared real quick. You’re like, “Nuh-uh. I’m not going through that again.” And that was, of course, during my junior years as an officer. But now I got it, and so like I said, I just prepare, practice, prepare, prevention, and then when things happen, I’m ready. You still have that adrenaline running. And to me that’s good, I like it when my adrenaline is running. I’m like, “I’m ready. Let’s do this.”

Lee Kantor: Now, Wendi, why was it important for you to become part of WBEC-West?

Wendi O. Brown: The reason I did it is because I love being around like-minded women, women that are ambitious, women that want to live their best life professionally and personally. And having joined this organization, let me tell you, I have met women of all walks of life. Most come from challenging backgrounds to where, you know, they started the business because maybe things didn’t work out at work, they were let go. And I tell you, when you get around ambitious women, it becomes contagious. You can’t sit on a call and become depressed because it’s just too much momentum, too much positivity, optimistic, leadership confidence, and they don’t let you fall. The support is phenomenal.

Wendi O. Brown: There’s been times I’ve been in different workshops or different cohorts, and I get on the line because it’s after dealing with the client all day and you’re feeling just regular, average, a little bit under the weather. By the time I get off the call, I am fired up. You hear about other ladies’ success stories and it really is the ultimate motivator to do well because it’s surrounded by winners. And I don’t mean people that always win, but they tell you their journey of how they worked hard and how they were strategic to win.

Wendi O. Brown: So, this organization is absolutely priceless, and I recommend it to all women that either have a business or even want to start a business. This is the best organization to join.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you have any advice for maybe folks that are coming out of the military and transitioning to kind of civilian life and working with organizations? Is there something that you would recommend that they do to ease that transition?

Wendi O. Brown: Yes. First of all, recognize that it’s not always mission first. You start dealing with Fortune 500 company, it’s about their money. And that was quite the transition for me. I’m like, but this may not be the best way to do it. And because I’m so mission-driven, I had to take some time to realize, Wendi, their mission is more money. And so, while you may think a certain plan is more efficient and effective, another plan may make the company more money and the money wins.

Wendi O. Brown: And so, those that are coming out of the military, especially if you’re used to being in charge of people and of missions, you’ve got to adapt to that, because sometimes it’s not about getting the job done as it is how much money can we make, how much is my stock price going to go up. You’ve now got to consider that. That’s now the top priority.

Wendi O. Brown: So, still maintain your military bearing and the things that you have learned throughout the military. But transfer it to how can your clients make money off of this. Not just getting the job done, I mean, although you do need to get the job done, but money is the priority and you need to adjust your thinking.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you have any upcoming events? I know the book is out there, but are there any talks or anything else you’re doing?

Wendi O. Brown: So, on Sunday, June 16th, I’m going to be at Barnes and Noble in Northern Virginia, I think it’s the one in Alexandria, Virginia, doing a book signing. I’ll have more information of that on my website. I have two websites actually, but on this one www.warriorwendi.com. I’ll have the address on that starting – I think they’re going to post it tomorrow. I think it’s actually going to be tomorrow. So, again, www.warriorwendi.com, I’ll have the exact location of the Barnes and Noble. So, I’m doing a book signing of the Leadership Confidence vs. Confidence in Alexandria, Virginia. So, if you can come, I would love for you to come and support my book.

Lee Kantor: And then, if somebody wants to learn more about iSupportYou, you’re available for consulting and you’re available for speaking and training and things like that?

Wendi O. Brown: Yes. And so, my website for the iSupportYou is www.isupportyoullc.com. So, you do need to add on the llc.com. So, that’s www.isupportyoullc.com.

Lee Kantor: Well, Wendi, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Wendi O. Brown: Oh, thanks for having me. It was a pleasure to be here.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Women In Motion.