Business RadioX ®

  • Home
  • Business RadioX ® Communities
    • Southeast
      • Alabama
        • Birmingham
      • Florida
        • Orlando
        • Pensacola
        • South Florida
        • Tampa
        • Tallahassee
      • Georgia
        • Atlanta
        • Cherokee
        • Forsyth
        • Greater Perimeter
        • Gwinnett
        • North Fulton
        • North Georgia
        • Northeast Georgia
        • Rome
        • Savannah
      • Louisiana
        • New Orleans
      • North Carolina
        • Charlotte
        • Raleigh
      • Tennessee
        • Chattanooga
        • Nashville
      • Virginia
        • Richmond
    • South Central
      • Arkansas
        • Northwest Arkansas
    • Midwest
      • Illinois
        • Chicago
      • Michigan
        • Detroit
      • Minnesota
        • Minneapolis St. Paul
      • Missouri
        • St. Louis
      • Ohio
        • Cleveland
        • Columbus
        • Dayton
    • Southwest
      • Arizona
        • Phoenix
        • Tucson
        • Valley
      • Texas
        • Austin
        • Dallas
        • Houston
    • West
      • California
        • Bay Area
        • LA
        • Pasadena
      • Colorado
        • Denver
      • Hawaii
        • Oahu
  • FAQs
  • About Us
    • Our Mission
    • Our Audience
    • Why It Works
    • What People Are Saying
    • BRX in the News
  • Resources
    • BRX Pro Tips
    • B2B Marketing: The 4Rs
    • High Velocity Selling Habits
    • Why Most B2B Media Strategies Fail
    • 9 Reasons To Sponsor A Business RadioX ® Show
  • Partner With Us
  • Veteran Business RadioX ®

Search Results for: kids care

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer: The Daily Practice That Changes Everything

February 16, 2026 by angishields

HBR-Dr-Cynthia-Bentzen-Mercer-Feature
Houston Business Radio
Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer: The Daily Practice That Changes Everything
Loading
00:00 /
RSS Feed
Share
Link
Embed

Download file

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer is a USA Today bestselling author, international speaker, executive coach, and the founder of Bentzen Performance Partners. With more than 30 years of C-suite experience, she guides leaders and organizations through high-impact transformation by blending strategic clarity with deep human insight.

At the heart of her work is the belief that people—not just plans—drive results. Cynthia’s signature frameworks like the Human Capital Investment Strategy, Now-Near-Next Career Pathing, and the 7-Minute Pivot help leaders align purpose with performance, unlock untapped potential, and build sustainable momentum in both career and culture.

A respected voice in leadership and growth, Cynthia brings real-world wisdom, authenticity, and empathy to every conversation—whether she’s advising Fortune 500 executives, speaking on international stages, or mentoring emerging leaders. Her most cherished titles remain mom, sister, CeCe (grandmother), and guide to those committed to intentional growth and legacy leadership.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drcynthiabentzenmercer/

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. It is my pleasure to introduce you to my guest today, Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer , a USA today best selling author, international speaker, and executive coach with more than 30 years of C-suite experience helping leaders and organizations unlock human potential. She’s the founder and CEO of Bentzen Performance Partners, creator of Human Capital Investment strategy. We’re going to talk a little bit more about that then now near next career framework and the seven minute pivot, a powerful daily practice that helps professionals move from stuck to strategic. Cynthia works at the intersection of strategy and soul, helping leaders reclaim purpose, elevate performance, and intentionally shape the careers and cultures they want. Cynthia. Welcome to the show.

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Trisha. It’s so exciting to be here. Thank you for having me.

Trisha Stetzel: I’m very excited to have you on. So tell us just a little bit more about Dr. Cynthia.

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Oh, yes. Well, um, you summed it up nicely in that, in that lovely introduction. I would say in addition to that, I have two grown children, um, three grandchildren and a fourth grandchild on the way. So, um, in rounding out that, which is all things Cynthia, you know, there’s there’s the part of me that is also a mom and a CC and, um, those are some of the most important jobs that I have.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that I always love to know what we want the grandchildren to call us. So CC is right in the top five that I’ve heard. I love.

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : That.

Trisha Stetzel: Beautiful. Yeah. Wonderful. Well, I’d love to dive right in. In your introduction, I talked a little bit about strategy and soul. So what does it mean for leaders who feel misaligned or even burned out when you talk about strategy and soul?

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Yeah. You know, in studying leaders and and I’ve done the most of the study I’ve done is women leaders. Um, but I but this absolutely generalizes to men as well, is that we can have a vision for our career, our future, what it is that we want to do. Um, but sometimes there’s a disconnect or misalignment to your to the point of your question to does it really align with my sense of purpose? Does it really align with my core value system? And I find that when I’m coaching women and men, um, they think they know their own personal mission, vision and values. Um, but until they put pen to paper, they don’t actually know, you know. They think that they sort of have this intuition around it. It’s an exercise. And, um, those become your non-negotiables. So then you can bump up career transitions, progressions, etc. against how does this fit in with my sense of purpose, my sense of values, my mission. Um, and those can evolve and change, right? As we grow and mature and have different experiences. Um, but it gives us our true north. And and to me, it’s it’s always a both and proposition.

Trisha Stetzel: Um, I love that. So when we think about potential and permission, especially with women, where do you see the biggest gap in the way our minds work when it comes to potential and permission?

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : It’s such an important question. You know what we know from data and evidence from the studies that that we did with my thought partner as part of my first book, now near next and and many other studies that preceded our work, is that statistically, women, um, one tend to wait to be invited us to expect that this myth of put your head down, work hard, and wait to get tapped is the is the right path, um, versus leaning into our potential. Right. And again, and there’s of course, the study around women C ten requirements for a job and feel that they have to tick all ten boxes. Men tick three of the boxes and they’re like, hey, fake it till you make it. Um, by the way, not an indictment of the man listening. In fact, my advice always is we need to steal a page out of our incredible male counterparts playbook, because it’s not about waiting for permission. It’s about self-advocating. It’s about not leaving your agency in the hands of or lap of someone else. Um, and it’s leaning into the possibilities in your potential. Not necessarily the confidence that you’ve accomplished everything. And that’s a leap for a lot of people. Women and people of color in particular.

Trisha Stetzel: Um, yeah. It’s as you’re talking through that. I’m even thinking about Cynthia, the idea of the people we surround ourselves with. So how important is it that we allow the right people in our room?

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Yeah, well. Hugely important. What’s the phrase? If you, um, you’ll you’ll never saw with the Eagles if you hang out with turkeys or something like that. Um, I used to tell my kids that, um, you know, it’s a couple of things. I actually, we actually covered this in now near next about. There’s people that give you energy. There’s people that, um, maybe are pretty neutral. And then there’s those that suck energy, right? Um, so who you surround yourself has lots of layers. Number one is surround yourself with people that are pouring into you. Right. And it’s not a one way street. You’re pouring into them as well. Um, but with positivity and affirmation. Um, not people that are sucking the life out of the room. Uh, now, sometimes those are relatives or people we have to spend some time with, and I, you know, that’s a different conversation. But that’s when boundaries become important. I think the other thing is sponsorship and allyship and advocacy don’t always just happen organically. It happens when we again use our agency to seek people out that can can say our name in rooms that we’re not in. But people are not mind readers, you know. Trisha, if if if I have an aspiration to do something really amazing and don’t tell anybody, no one’s going to know that. But if I happen to tell you, like, hey, I’d like to do something that I’ve seen you do someday, and I’d love to get your advice. Two months from now, you may be in a room where somebody is looking for that exact competency and you’re like, you know what? I just talked to a gal that’s looking for that exact thing. Let’s let’s line that up. So, yes, surround yourself with people that give a give you positive energy and that are going to say your name and rooms you’re not in.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm. Oh that’s so important. Thank you for bringing that out. Uh that a lot of us who advocate for each other out listening for not only opportunities for ourselves, but for those that are closest to us and that we spend time with. It’s so important. Um, let’s talk just for a minute about now. Near next. I know people have heard you say it a couple of times in our conversation already. So tell us a little more.

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Yeah. So now you’re next. Um, my first book with coauthor Kimberly Roth came out in March of 24, and it was really, um, dedicated for women, high professional, high achieving, ambitious, overextended women. And in a nutshell, the through line is start working on your future today. Do your day job with excellence, but identify your next whatever that is for you, and start working on it today. And it doesn’t have to be massive steps. It can be tiny incremental shifts or pivots to get you moving there. Um, the brief backstory is when I set out to write this book, I was in a CEO position in a large organization. This was kind of something I was doing in the margins in researching and studying. Women around the globe learned that to a person, these high functioning, ambitious, very successful women, not one of them was intentional in their career journey. Um, and so many women aren’t and don’t have the luck. Serendipity. Right place, right time that the women we studied had. And so it became so clear to me that you have to start working on your next right now, not after the kids go off to school or graduate or the significant other gets their perfect job. And it saved the day for me when my position was eliminated two and a half years ago during a CEO change. Change of control. Had it not been for the research I had done and drinking my own champagne, I started journeying with the reader and building what was to be my next. I thought 3 to 5 years from now, when my job was eliminated, I was like, okay, well, I can either go find another C-suite job, which sounds exhausting as a single woman, empty nester, or I can accelerate this plan that I’d already been working toward. I would have never had had that option had I not been following this framework of in the now. Identify your next.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that and I love that. Drink your own champagne. I’ve never heard that before. I’m just going to say Cynthia coined that.

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Yeah. Fair enough.

Trisha Stetzel: I love it. I think that’s fantastic. So is now a good time to talk a little bit about the seven minute pivot?

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Yeah. It’s a it’s a perfect segue because here’s here’s what we learned from. And again for the for the man listening. Let me just say this. If you’re if you have a sister, a wife, a a girlfriend, a mom, a daughter, a female coworker, please don’t tune this part out. This is this is for you as well. Um, and all of the all of the concepts of now near next work equally well for men. It just happens that they tend to be better at it Naturally. Mhm. Right. So they absolutely work but they just tend to lean into their agency more than women. Um the very first thing we heard is when we talked to women and we were on stages promoting the book and talking about the research is they’d say, listen, Cynthia, I love it. It makes all the sense in the world. I don’t have time, right? I don’t have time because whether you have children or you don’t have children, we pour into someone our church, our community or sandwich generation. We’re caring for aging parents, our community, somebody, you know, we’re leaning into. And so where the seven minute pivot evolved is this everyone has seven minutes a day, it’s more than five, it’s less than ten. And when you take seven minutes and remove all distractions, put a timer on so that it’s limited to the seven minutes. Put a timer on. Get out a piece of paper and a pen.

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Because we know neurologically this really connects with that frontal lobe and starts to get us thinking in that creative head space and creates clarity and focus. And ask yourself a prompt, what is standing in the way of my next? That could be the prompt. And for that seven minutes, you’re journaling about that. But here’s the thing. You ask yourself why three times? Because most of us will go, I don’t have time. Okay, end of end of seven minutes. I still have six minutes and 55 seconds left. Right. Um. Why? Well, because of this. This and this why? And so you get underneath the thing. That’s underneath the thing. And then the beauty in the seven minute pivot is at the end. You choose one small incremental thing, just one baby step to move you slightly forward so you don’t have to make massive changes. But you’re saying, I’m going to make that phone call. I’m going to update my LinkedIn profile. I’m going to set this new boundary, whatever that one small thing is. You do that every day for a year. That’s 2555 minutes. Imagine how far off course a plane would go with just that tiny incremental shift over time. It ends up 300 miles in a different direction altogether. That’s what can happen for us in the steps that we can absorb. For those of us that are overextended, busy doing life.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, life. I’m thinking about my calendar right now. Cynthia. I think I can find seven minutes. I’m just.

Speaker4: Yeah, I think I yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: I know what a wonderful piece of advice, especially for those very busy professionals out there. It just takes seven minutes to start that direction. And we see how that played out with you. So thank you for sharing that story. That’s so important. I think for people who are listening today, I know that folks are already ready to connect with you to find out more. What is the best way for folks to reach out or to connect with you? Cynthia.

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Yeah, so all the socials I’m Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer , which is a unique spelling and so I’m sure it’ll be in the show notes. Um, my website is easier. It’s Dr. hyphen com and you can connect with me there for a free coaching session. You can look up books, and I have a lot of free resources for the person listening that wants to audit how they’re doing on their own intentionality. There’s a free audit quiz, um, for the gentleman that’s listening that says, how can it be a better ally? There’s an allyship quiz. Um, so lots of free resources available and I’d love to connect.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that. Thank you so much, Cynthia. And by the way, her first name is spelled c y n t h I a, just in case you’re looking for that website. And of course, it’ll be in the show notes so you can point and click if you happen to be sitting right in front of your computer. Not driving. Not driving.

Speaker4: That’s right. Yes.

Trisha Stetzel: Um, why don’t we, since we’re on the topic of high achieving leaders and people who are busy professionals and, uh, love to pour into others, what predictable patterns do you see when high achieving leaders feel restless or even stuck?

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Yeah. So it’s it’s a couple of different things. Um, again, there are some interesting dynamics from a gender perspective. Um, men for the most part tend to speak up. Um, put me in. Coach, is there something else? I really want this, you know, this is what this is the path I’m looking for. This is the next promotion I’d like to see. Um, which I love. I love that, you know, that they’re putting their agency for the most part, into the universe. Um, women tend to grow silently, restless, frustrated, stuck or stagnant and begin their search and take their ball and go elsewhere. And here’s why. And this is something leaders need to be very much aware of. We long have thought if if there’s a new position that opens up or a promotion, what have you, that if a person doesn’t raise their hand that well, they’re just not very ambitious, not necessarily the case. Women overindex on performance. We have been conditioned for the most part, but our heads down work hard and wait to get tapped. We expect that our performance and our work speaks for itself. So when the new position comes up, I’m expecting Trisha to come say, hey Cynthia, you’ve been working really hard and done all this amazing things.

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : There’s this position Trisha’s expecting. Cynthia’s going to raise her hand and say, hey, what about me? And so we miss Opportunities, right? Which is why then we sort of silently take our ball and go elsewhere. So I think the the cautionary tale is twofold. Number one, all people should put their agency and their aspirations into the put their aspirations farther into the universe and be responsible for their own agency. Number one. Number two, as leaders of people ask those questions, what are your aspirational goals? What’s your aspirational next? How can I help get you there? What barriers do you see are standing in your way? You know, worst thing that could happen is somebody has a desire for something that you don’t see being a good fit podcast for another day, but there’s ways to address that and help align them better to their natural gifts and talents. Um, the worst thing you can do is not raise the question, not show a sense of investment, and then lose that talent to the competition.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, those are some great pieces of advice where we need to step forward and say, these are the things that I’m interested in. And as managers or leaders, we need to ask, what is it that you want to do next? So those are what I would consider things that are out there in the universe. What about what’s in between our ears? There’s a whole lot of mindset work, I think that goes that comes behind what we’re talking about today. So how do we shift the way we’re thinking or the way that we’ve always thought into these other spaces where we’re actually standing up and saying, hey, me?

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Yeah, well, so much of it is, um, what I refer to more as impostor phenomenon, right? I I’ve decided I don’t believe it’s a syndrome. Um, I don’t think it’s a clinical diagnosis. And I think it’s something that we can all overcome. I think it’s a phenomenon that, um, many of us have. I am still, you know, not, um, someone that that has has overcome all, all areas of of the phenomenon as it creeps in from time to time. So this is another excellent use of the seven minute pivot. And it is using it for purposes of your highlight reel. So you don’t put down in seven. Your prompt is not what are all the reasons I don’t think that I can do X. What are all the reasons that I it is what are all of the times when I have demonstrated getting through hard stuff, right? So you kind of do a highlight reel, um, and get yourself in the place of I can I’m worthy, I’m capable. Look at all the times I’ve done hard things well and succeeded. And what’s one small thing I can do today to continue to move forward in that positive direction? Um, the other thing and highlight reels I think work great.

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : I think you can do those at the end of a day, you know, when you’ve had that day where you’re like, oh, that that one thing didn’t go well. If you’re like me, you beat yourself up about you can have 20 things go well. But that one thing that didn’t go well, it’s like all night long, you know, I’m replaying the fact that I called somebody by the wrong name or whatever it was. Um, what’s really happened with the client? And it was, you know, I stood over it. Um, but the reality is, it’s it’s to flip that thinking to what are all of the things I can be proud of, that I’ve done successfully, and put your energy and motion into that. Um, and how do I keep that momentum? So, yeah, there’s, there’s so much about our own self limiting beliefs and moving past that, I think oftentimes has to do with just reminding ourselves of how incredibly brilliant we really are.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm. Yeah. And I think as women we beat ourselves up a lot over this small things. And you know the reality is we’re all human and things.

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Yeah. You have to embrace grace, right? At the end of the day, you have to embrace grace and and over guilt.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely.

Trisha Stetzel: And surround yourself with the right people, as you mentioned. Have the right people in the room that support you when you find yourself in that spot. Right.

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : That’s exactly right.

Trisha Stetzel: I’d love to shift to something new, if that’s okay with you. I’ve heard that you might be dropping a new book called Capital Investment Strategy. Can we talk about that?

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Yes, yes. So human capital investment strategy. And here’s how it links to the first part of the conversation. When when I was writing and then promoting now near next, one of the things that always would start with is, look, this is not a finger wagging at men. This is, you know, not about society, culture, etc.. Let’s just let’s just agree that there are things that hold women back that are systemic, that are somewhat out of our control. Now near next is about what we can control. What kept bugging me, having having spent over 30 years in human resources was. But there are things organizationally that are not only impacting individuals, but they’re impacting organizations in a negative way. And it’s this we use very arbitrary, um, criteria for selection and promotion that date back to the industrial revolution that are not predictive of future performance, age, years of experience, job titles, even even schools. You know what kind of pedigree somebody has when we use all of these non productive right. Non predictive measures of trying to figure out what future performance will look like. We narrow the pool, narrow the pool nor the pool to respectfully what often ends up being middle aged white men because we say you have to have 15 years of experience at this job level in this industry and this type of company, etc., right? We’re shrinking it down.

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : What human capital investment strategy the through line is this. Invest in your human capital both as an individual. My human capital is mine to invest in my talent, my skill, my knowledge. And as leaders in and organizations, invest in the portfolio of human capital that chooses to come bring their gifts and talents to work every day with the same rigor and intentionality that you’re investing in your financial capital. And in doing so, find more predictive measures. Build around talent, teach skill and knowledge that is the true competitive advantage. And then what we will see is this melting pot of a portfolio of the highest performers up doing their best work that they love doing because it’s their gift and they’re wired to do it. And organizations thriving. Um, it I scratch my head sometimes because in some ways it seems so blindingly obvious. And yet organization after organization continue to fall back into what I frankly find is a really lazy way of bringing people into their company and how they manage people instead of the human capital.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. Human capital investment strategy is dropping on February 3rd. Where might the listeners find this beautiful new piece of work of yours?

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Yes. So I’d love for you to buy it. Uh, pick it up in preorder and pre-sale. You can do one of two things. You can go to Amazon. It’s available for presale right now on Amazon. If you go to Amazon and then you want to email me at Hello at Cynthia Benson. Com, which again will be in the show notes and just say purchased on Amazon. I’m going to email you $728 in free content to hold you over for the few weeks until you have the book in hand. Or you can go to my website at. Com and you can order the book right there, and you will automatically receive $728 in free content to hold you over until the book arrives in your hands.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s wonderful. Thank you so much, Cynthia. This has been so fun. I have one more question for you. So for those listeners listening today who have this, this thing inside of them, that they know that there’s something more, there’s something more for them out there, but they’re not sure where to begin, where what’s their very first step? What should they do?

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : The very first step. I’m going to give you a framework. I’ll go through it swiftly. It’s aces. So that’s how you remembered. If you’re driving, remember aces. We all have aces and spaces. So think about when you finish a day or a week and you reflect and you’re like, gosh, that was an amazing day. That was such a good day at work or whatever it was you were doing. So the way you find your natural talent is it’s affirming. It feels good when I’m doing it. We can all do lots of things we don’t love doing, but it feels good. I love hosting a podcast. It’s fun to do. That’s affirming, right? It’s consistent. It’s always something you do and you do it well. It’s spontaneous. Actually, I think the E comes next. You do it with excellence, meaning you do it better than most. It comes easy for you, and it isn’t because you took a lot of classes or went to school for it. It’s just sort of part of your DNA and it’s spontaneous. You can’t help yourself. You’re the person that walks into a busy room and thinks, you know, if they put a stanchion there and added a person there, this whole thing would be so much more organized, right? Versus the person that walks in and just becomes part of the chaos. So when you think about that, when you think about what are my aces, what are the things that feel so affirming consistently? I do with excellence, and I do spontaneously start to mind map that start to journal about that. And then how do you monetize that? That becomes how you start to isolate your next, then start working on your future today. You don’t have to quit your job and go do that, you know, become a writer or a, you know, movie star. Tomorrow you start working on your future today. Baby steps.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that aces. Aces, aces. Everyone who’s listening remember aces. And you can always come back and grab the show notes for what the acronym stood for. Cynthia, this has been so much fun today. I really appreciate your time. You have given us so much gold. I don’t know how I can ever repay you.

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Oh, you are so kind. And I, my little uninvited guest is in the background barking, so hopefully you don’t hear that. It has been amazing. Thank you for this time. You are such a wonderful host and interviewer.

Trisha Stetzel: Thank you so much, Dr. Cynthia, it’s been my pleasure to have you. All right, guys, that’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in this conversation that Cynthia and I had, please share it with a fellow entrepreneur, a veteran or a Houston leader ready to grow. And be sure to follow, rate, and review the show. Of course, it helps us reach more bold business minds just like yours and your business. Your leadership and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.

The Power of Perspective: Shifting Mindsets for Better Leadership Conversations

February 9, 2026 by angishields

HVR-Focus-Forward-Feature
High Velocity Radio
The Power of Perspective: Shifting Mindsets for Better Leadership Conversations
Loading
00:00 /
RSS Feed
Share
Link
Embed

Download file

In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Joshua Kornitsky interviews leadership coach and author Kirsten Ross Vogel. Kirsten shares her journey from a 35-year HR career and personal adversity to coaching leaders, especially in EOS and family businesses. She discusses overcoming internal barriers like fear and guilt, the importance of clear communication, and navigating difficult conversations. Kirsten emphasizes the human side of leadership, normalizing vulnerability and conflict, and offers practical strategies for building trust and objectivity within organizations. She also highlights her resources for leaders seeking to improve their communication and leadership effectiveness.

Focus-Forward-Logo-2023

KRVHSKirsten Ross Vogel coaches leaders to build high performing teams and eliminate the friction that can happen while scaling….or working with family.

Gain from the knowledge & proven strategies she’s shared with thousands of leaders for more than 30 years working with passionate leaders in privately held companies, family businesses and non-profits.

You are closer than you realize to the business and team of your dreams!

Tired of feeling that you’ll never get your employees to do what you need? Frustrated with employee bickering and backstabbing and all the customer complaints? Today is your chance to transform that forever.

Kirsten Ross Vogel, is known to many as the “Drama Free Queen”.

She’s the Author of “Defeat Team Drama Now” and “From People Problems to Productivity” and has been featured as an expert for media such as: NBC Nightly News, Fox 2 News, National Public Radio and for publications such as Entrepreneur Magazine, Working Mother Magazine and Crains.

Kirsten shares simple, actionable leadership, communication & selection strategies that help leaders generate a clear direction, defeat employee drama and focus their teams on productivity and great service.

Rosemary Batanjski, Business Owner Says: “I had a difficult time with staff compliance and expectations. By implementing Kirsten’s strategies I got my team on board and working well together. Customer service has improved dramatically and our profits are up!”

And, according to Gino Wickman, top selling author of Get a Grip and Traction, “Finding a great coach is a difficult task but Kirsten is one of those great ones.”

For more than 30 years Kirsten has helped leaders generate focused, motivated, teams that work well and produce more.

Proud owner of Focus Forward Coaching, a leading coaching and culture correction firm, she launched her business more than 16 years ago and generated success as a single mom to two young boys.

Kirsten is the undisputed expert on how to move from Resigned, Resentful and Overwhelmed to Focused, Engaged and Empowered.

The Impact Academy 

LinkedIn

Episode Highlights

  • Transition from a career in human resources to leadership coaching.
  • Personal experiences influencing coaching philosophy, including overcoming an abusive marriage.
  • Importance of clear communication in leadership and overcoming internal barriers.
  • The role of fear and guilt in leadership and how to navigate difficult conversations.
  • The significance of normalizing feelings of fear and uncertainty among leaders.
  • Focus on working with EOS businesses, family-owned companies, and privately held businesses.
  • Challenges unique to family businesses, including communication and relationship dynamics.
  • The importance of objectivity in feedback and communication.
  • The role of language in shaping interactions and perceptions in leadership.
  • The value of conflict in leadership dynamics and the need for healthy disagreement.

About Your Host

BRX-HS-JKJoshua Kornitsky is a fourth-generation entrepreneur with deep roots in technology and a track record of solving real business problems. Now, as a Professional EOS Implementer, he helps leadership teams align, create clarity, and build accountability.

He grew up in the world of small business, cut his teeth in technology and leadership, and built a path around solving complex problems with simple, effective tools. Joshua brings a practical approach to leadership, growth, and getting things done.

As a host on Cherokee Business Radio, Joshua brings his curiosity and coaching mindset to the mic, drawing out the stories, struggles, and strategies of local business leaders. It’s not just about interviews—it’s about helping the business community learn from each other, grow stronger together, and keep moving forward.

Connect with Joshua on LinkedIn.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.
Joshua Kornitsky: Welcome back to High Velocity Radio. My name is Joshua Kornitsky. I’m a professional implementer of iOS and your host here today I am joined by a friend and an incredible guest, Kirsten Ross Vogel. She’s a leadership team coach and an author who has worked with individuals and organizations navigating growth, complexity, and change. Her work really focuses on helping leaders communicate clearly, build credibility, and create meaningful impact. Kirsten brings a thoughtful, grounded perspective shaped by deep experience in leadership development and coaching, and she’s really known for her her blend of practical insight and human centered leadership. She’s worked with EOS, with EOS implementers, and with our community since literally the beginning of EOS. So welcome, Kirsten. I’m deeply honored to have you here, I really am.
Kirsten Ross Vogel: Thanks so much for having me. And I love that we’re getting to do this today. I know we got I got to see you in Detroit. It’s been a little over a year ago now, so.
Joshua Kornitsky: It’s good to see how the time flies for sure. Um, well, let’s begin at the beginning. Would you share your origin story? Tell us where what brought you to the world that you now function in and, and maybe even a little bit of the ancient lore of EOS.
Kirsten Ross Vogel: Oh, goodness. Okay. Um, well, so my story is maybe a little outside of what you normally expect with someone starting a business, but, um, so my background team and resources, master’s degree, senior certified human resource professional over 35 years. I hesitate to say, but, um, you started.
Joshua Kornitsky: At age three?
Kirsten Ross Vogel: Yeah, exactly, exactly. But, uh, this business actually was born out of my need to get out of an abusive marriage, um, over 25 years ago. And so I, you know, I’d always had an entrepreneurial spirit. I had been working for others for a period in human resources. But as part of the kind of the trajectory of that difficult marriage, um, I was not working, and I needed to. I had two small boys, and I knew I needed to get out. And so during that period, I checked with some of my trusted advisors and said, what is it that you see in me that I might not be seeing in myself? And over the course of that first week of exploring with trusted advisors, I had several people tell me I should be a coach. Now, keep in mind this is the early 2000, so coaching wasn’t well known at that point and I had not heard of it. So I had to hit Google, right? Uh, but once I did that and saw the descriptions of what coaches did. I realized that I had been accidentally coaching people my whole life. Um, to date myself even more. Um, you know, Ann Landers, if anyone knows.
Joshua Kornitsky: I know who she was.
Kirsten Ross Vogel: Um, they used to call me the Ann Landers of the high school, because people would come to me with their issues and their problems and their communication snafus, and I would help encourage and motivate, etc.. And so, um, anyway, when I saw the description, I knew that this was that thing I’d been yearning for. Um, I knew it was my purpose. And so, uh, I took a coaching class, read a book Co-active coaching, and took on a couple of just freebie clients to test the waters they made transformation. And that was it. I created my website, you know, the name focus for coaching, created my website and launched my business. And I was able to file for divorce about six months or so later.
Joshua Kornitsky: Wow. So it really did begin your life anew.
Kirsten Ross Vogel: It really did. And so that’s what I mean. Like, it’s probably not the optimal time, um, to start a business. I was definitely kind of beaten down. And, you know, again, it’s been a number of years, so a lot of healing has happened. But it was great because it, you know, it gave me the opportunity to be there for my two boys and, um, you know, and make a living to support us and provided the flexibility that I needed to help them heal and help myself heal.
Joshua Kornitsky: Well. And I know one of the things, obviously, with that human resources background, you you have a different perspective than most people will when looking at, uh, what I would describe as as human related challenges. Right. But communication is really your strength. How how did that skill, how did the communication skill evolve to impact on the HR side of things? And and really, I guess that’s the birth of your coaching, right. Because you’re bridging gaps.
Kirsten Ross Vogel: Yes, absolutely. And, you know, the underlying issue and kind of everything with human dynamics is our communication. And it starts with, you know, it’s not just how we’re communicating to others, but also what are we communicating to ourselves. And that’s really kind of at its core, our mindset. And so, um, it was really born out of continuing, you know, and from human resources, a human resource perspective. Um, you know, I can tell someone, you know, have a progressive discipline process or a good attendance policy. But the problem is, many leaders are have barriers to actually utilizing those tools. They’re good tools to have. But so the coaching is how do you communicate clear expectations. How do you, um, have correction conversations with employees? And one of the big stop gaps for leaders in, uh, engaging in those conversations is they have fear and guilt. And so the internal barriers that they have are stopping them from doing the things that they need to do. So the coaching really is helping people maneuver through their own fears and guilts of engaging in what they find to be uncomfortable conversations. And, um, so what they’re telling themselves internally, which also creates our nonverbals, um, and how to strategize about really engaging in whether it’s, you know, a huge negotiation that you’re going to into or just having a conversation with an employee. How do we show up as leaders, feeling fully empowered? Because we’re we’re leading with our strengths, we’re focused on our intentions, and we realize that we’re not ultimately responsible for the reactions that others have about the conversation as long as we’re showing up well.
Joshua Kornitsky: So I think you’re bringing to light, uh, an assumption I had made. Right? Which means lots of people make, because my assumption was that the bridge you were building was. Hey, executive. Hey, VP. Hey, director, let me help you learn the skills you need in order to do these things. But it sounds like you’re starting at a much more foundational level of. Let’s make sure you understand that what you think you are alone in feeling is pretty normal, is. I ask that as a question, right?
Kirsten Ross Vogel: Yeah. Yes. And sometimes that’s part of it. We can normalize it. So now, you know, I certainly don’t want my clients to or anyone listening. Don’t beat yourself up about the things that, you know, stand in the way of you showing up. Well. Et cetera. In conversations or allowing yourself to avoid difficult or uncomfortable conversations. Um, I say that people often create, um, reasons that excuses that feel like valid reasons, but really aren’t. But yes, it’s so normal. The number of times that I have worked with a high level leader and to overcome their people pleasing, um, you know, who would thunk? Who would have thunk, right?
Joshua Kornitsky: Well, and it really is kind of eye opening for you to share that because, you know, the, the veneer, the the outward facing appearance is all confidence and confidence in Polish. Right? And it’s somewhat, um, really humanizing to understand that behind the veneer, there might be a little bit of sweat and some knocking knees, all.
Kirsten Ross Vogel: Kinds of stuff.
Joshua Kornitsky: Yeah. And you’re telling me that’s normal?
Kirsten Ross Vogel: Yeah. I mean, and I don’t even think the goal is to remove that. The goal is to have that, not stop us. And so I, you know, we can’t shut down our brain in those uncertainties and, and, you know, but we work the muscle and we get more and more confident in going and having what we find to be uncomfortable conversations. But yet my work is definitely a combination of teaching strategies. Um, either, you know, HR kinds of things or strategies I’ve created over the decades, um, or I’m a bookaholic, you know, information coming out of that. But then to me, the coaching piece is, is all the internal barriers. So we need to bust those, um, so they can utilize the strategies that I’m teaching.
Joshua Kornitsky: I think that that’s a really insightful, uh, footnote to something that’s a much bigger deal. Uh, and I say that because, truthfully, it’s sort of an eye opener for me because I think, like a lot of people, we assume at some level magical confidence comes. Right. That that when I am leading XYZ organization or this many people that I, I know how to do that and it doesn’t make me sweat and it doesn’t bother me. And I think that it does help anybody that hears this to know that that not only is it normal, but there are other techniques, there’s tools, there’s resources that you can help them understand better how to cope with. And somebody long, probably before books were even written, said something to the effect of, you know, courage isn’t the absence of fear. It’s it’s understanding the fear and doing it anyway. Right. Is acknowledging that I’m afraid and doing it anyhow.
Kirsten Ross Vogel: Yes. And don’t waste energy beating yourself up for something that is normal that so many people go through. It’s just don’t be stopped. Now, I don’t know if this is folklore, um, but I believe it to be true. Um, Barbra Streisand, who we all, you know, well, I think everyone still knows. Maybe certain people who are much younger might not know her, but, like, you know, um, the Queen, uh, on huge stages. Well, I’ve heard that she actually has huge stage fright and would become physically ill before going out on stage.
Joshua Kornitsky: Wow.
Kirsten Ross Vogel: So what are some of the things that separate her from those who don’t get on big stages. Is that not that she didn’t have the fear that she overcame it and she just did it anyway.
Joshua Kornitsky: That’s, uh, we’ll have to look more into that one.
Kirsten Ross Vogel: Yeah.
Joshua Kornitsky: The one don’t know. The one that I know for sure, because I’ve heard it from his own mouth in interviews, is that Harrison Ford is, like, painfully shy, despite the fact that he always plays these very up front characters. If you see him in an interview, he’s uncomfortable as can be.
Kirsten Ross Vogel: Yeah. And I think it was one of the Backstreet Boys or something. Again, I don’t follow the boy bands, but like one of, you know, one of them was also very, you know, had a lot of stage fright and anxiety, etc..
Joshua Kornitsky: So and I guess they worked through it with folks like you. That’s fantastic. So let me ask at a high level, Kirsten, what types of groups and organizations and people do you typically work with?
Kirsten Ross Vogel: Um, I work largely with, uh, businesses running on iOS. Uh, so part of my story is. Yeah, is, uh, I’ve actually known Gino Wickman since before it was iOS, and worked with a number of the clients in the book traction. One of my first clients was actually in that book, and that’s how I met him originally was because the client said, we’re working with this guy, and we that’s all he was back then, you know this guy. So we need you to know and understand his process. But, uh, so, uh, you know, through that, that’s kind of the start of my business was, you know, Gino.
Joshua Kornitsky: That’s great.
Kirsten Ross Vogel: Starting to refer me business. Um, and other EOS implementers now. But, um, I love working, um, in and around the nooks and crannies of EOS running businesses, but really, any privately held, uh, business and a lot of family businesses, uh, anywhere where leaders are having difficulty, there’s just clunkiness issues, barriers to executing on what they’re trying to make happen in their business. And, uh, the people side of that can just add an extra complexity. And certainly in family business, uh, the relationship slash communications slash discomfort in conversations and decisions that can ignite. So I do a lot of work with family businesses. You know, Uncle Charlie’s wreaking havoc in the. Sure. And you don’t know what to do about it. Uh, visionaries. Integrators really having a lot of friction. Um, yeah. So that’s that’s how I work with.
Joshua Kornitsky: Well, and leaving names out of it. I even brought you, uh, asked you to talk with one of my clients in a family business because, um, let’s just say the the dynamics of every family business, in my experience, are wildly different. Uh, and they were having a fairly common problem. And their problem was it’s hard to draw a line between doing right by the business and doing right by your family. I think is a good way to sum that issue up. And and is that a common? Is that a common engagement for you where where people are sort of torn?
Kirsten Ross Vogel: Absolutely. And, you know, sometimes it’s I know what the right things are to do, but I just am too afraid to do it. I mean, we’re going to get back to that fear thing again. Um, you know, have those conversations and, uh, make some difficult decisions, prepare for the, the discussions that need to happen, etc.. But yeah, lots of family business. You know, there’s more at stake, uh, you know.
Joshua Kornitsky: Because.
Kirsten Ross Vogel: You want to still have things Thanksgiving together.
Joshua Kornitsky: Right in, in in the words of, of one of my family clients. Yeah, I know, I, I might need to fire the this person or that person, but when the sun comes up the next day, it’s still my brother or my sister or my cousin. Right. And and that doesn’t change. Even if it’s for the best. For the business.
Kirsten Ross Vogel: Yes. You know, I can share just a recent example of a family business that I’ve been working with. And, um, it was a little unique one because it was actually a son owned the business and the father was working there. But, um, you know, in this scenario, initially, the person I was coaching was taking lots of things personally versus being objective. So I had to coach around, um, building objectivity and how they were perceiving circumstances. And thank goodness that we did that work, because ultimately, um, some shifts happened in the business and they had to make some difficult decisions. And, you know, I don’t want to go into the specifics too much, but thank goodness that the family was able to be objective and realize they were business decisions that were difficult and they didn’t need to impact the family relationships.
Joshua Kornitsky: Well, and you hit a great word there, right? Because it’s in you’ve got to treat it as an objective situation, not an emotional situation. And and without asking you to to share anything private of any of your clients, what’s, what’s an example maybe of of that type of a Transformation. How do you what I know that the ultimate answer and I say this all the time is it depends. But in a in a scenario you can think of, what are some of the ways that you might 1 or 2 of the ways you could help them change that perspective, to not take it personally, because I would say that’s the biggest bucket I encounter is where where legitimate iOS centered, uh, constructive feedback is, is not heard as feedback is not heard as constructive. Um, it’s an attack. Um, and it’s not ever meant to be an attack.
Kirsten Ross Vogel: Right. So, um, so in coaching clients who are worried about someone perceiving it as an attack, the difficult conversation that I keep referring to, um, one of the things I coach around is making sure that, um, we don’t take responsibility for someone else’s response to the conversation, so I can’t dictate whether or not someone’s going to take it personally when I’m being objective. The only thing I can do is lean on my good intentions for the business. Now, of course, yes, there’s more at stake, and we want, and we hope that someone in our family can can see it as objective and not personal or consequences or punitive or any of that. So all we can do is, um, focus on how we’re communicating in terms of though, if I’m working on with the person who is taking things personally, it is a shift. Tell yourself a different story, um, about the the information that you’re taking in and see it as fact based, um, how it’s it’s really a mindset thing. And the story we tell ourselves is, is what I’ll say, um, about what we’re hearing. Um, and so I’m trying to think of a way to um, so in those scenarios, uh, yeah. The person communicating don’t be stopped by the, the fear of how someone might react if they have a tendency to take things personally, just know like that’s on them, that’s their emotions to modulate and deal with and and all of that. But if you can stay up on this sturdy platform as you communicate, uh, versus getting defensive, etc., when someone’s taking it personally, um, you’re leaving the door open for hopefully more constructive communication going forward. Um, but so.
Joshua Kornitsky: I mean, thank you that, that I think that says a lot and, and the logical question and I’m a word geek. I can’t help it. My mom’s librarian retired.
Kirsten Ross Vogel: Yeah.
Joshua Kornitsky: Uh, how important is language and the right language in those types of dialogs?
Kirsten Ross Vogel: 100%. I mean, I was just helping someone prepare for a big negotiation, and we so I when I’m coaching, like, I love humans, they’re they’re hilarious. And so we got laughing though because the words that he was planning on using worse, you know, would have ignited so much, probably defensiveness and frustration and the person he was about to communicate with. Um, we need to focus on the words were, again, words we’re communicating out, but also internally, you know, I’ll share about if I have time. A very quick story about this was a number of years ago, but I was working with a client who, um, had a really difficult job because she was, um, she was working with children who had very high physical and mental challenges and often had to work with the schools to try to get these children resources. And she came to me and said, it’s an injustice. It’s an injustice. She was, in her mind, dealing with injustices multiple times a week. Most of us will not deal with an injustice over a lifetime, sure, but when you’re using that word internally, how are you showing up to those conversations? You’re in battle. You have your gear on. You’re defensive. You’re pushing. And so the fix was for her to shift the words that she was saying. I pointed that out. That’s a huge, huge word. What if you could come from a different perspective that they just have limited resources, that they want to help these kids just as much as you do? They want to lock arms with you. And, you know, so you’re to find creative solutions to getting these resources. By the next week, she had already had dramatically improved interactions with all the schools that she had dealt with in that previous week, just because she was showing up better. And the good news is that’s within our control.
Joshua Kornitsky: Absolutely. Well, and I think the what you just put your finger on that again, I think is is incredibly helpful for, for anyone that that takes the time to listen to you express this to them, is that reframing of the internal monologue really is critical because, as you said, your body language if Injustice. Using your example is such a strong word. You have to physically manifest if that’s what you think it is in here. Your body language is going to be, I imagine, pretty aggressive.
Kirsten Ross Vogel: And what does that ignite in the other person you’re talking to? They also have to protect. Right. And now we’re not really communicating. Yeah. Yeah. We’re both through our swords in the sand and you know and we’re both stuck. We’re not actually having a conversation.
Joshua Kornitsky: So do you ever do any type of and this is my term. But like de-escalation of those situations because I’ve seen organizations grind to a stop at the leadership team level. Shockingly. Right. Because A wants this and B wants that. And you know, there’s no they I use the terminology bridge all the time and there’s no bridge between them because one of them usually sometimes both of them have no interest in building it.
Kirsten Ross Vogel: Yep. I have done several situations like that just in the last year. Yes, absolutely.
Joshua Kornitsky: So there is hope is what you’re really saying?
Kirsten Ross Vogel: 100%. There is. Yes. Um, and it’s either, um, you know, the best way for me to work on that help with that is to meet individually with those who are stuck. Again, I’m the kind of the puppet masters behind the scenes, like helping them different perspectives strategize about how to show up different ways to communicate. A lot of times that can fix it. If not, I will facilitate. Um, in in over 30 plus years of facilitating, I’ve never lost control of a conversation. So I can say with confidence that they will reach a resolution in whatever topic we choose. Um, and that’ll be a real life topic that they’ve been stuck on. But also I will communication coach along the way and have them make commitments for how they’ll communicate in the future.
Joshua Kornitsky: A lot of what you’re sharing Resonates with me as an EOS implementer because, uh, at the risk of of making a connection, whether it’s there or not is so much of it is that that openness and honesty that’s that’s critical to EOS. And forgive me, I just came back from doing three different annuals. It all goes back to the Lencioni trust pyramid and vulnerability based trust, but it really is. If if there’s no trust, there’s not going to be healthy conflict and.
Kirsten Ross Vogel: 100%.
Joshua Kornitsky: And is conflict. Let me ask you this so that people can hear it from someone other than than Patrick Lencioni and myself. Is conflict always a bad thing?
Kirsten Ross Vogel: No. If you’re not having conflict, you know, when you think about the integrator visionary, how many times have we all seen a visionary integrator getting along swimmingly? No. Getting along swimmingly. Guess what’s happening? Either that business is going in too many directions too quickly, or moving way too slow. They should both be uncomfortable because they need to be moving through the discomfort and negotiating to the middle ground of visionary and integrator. So we’re not moving as quickly as the visionary wants to go. We’re not moving as slowly as the integrator wants to go. Um, and so that middle ground is perfection. And so yeah, if you’re not having disagreements people are silent. And that’s also not good.
Joshua Kornitsky: That that resonates with me in particular, coming out of the annual season and the fact that, um, I will run into a visionary integrator duo where the the integrator has given up, meaning that that the visionaries, irrespective of gender, the visionaries forcefulness. Because let’s face it, it was that forcefulness that pushed that organization into being correct. But sometimes the integrators just give up. And I always try to suggest that. What you know, you know, if you don’t believe that’s the right path. Go to that vto go to that blueprint. Right. And if the blueprint says we all agreed not to do this, then your answer is that’s the hill you got to die on.
Kirsten Ross Vogel: Right? And the problem is that some time, you know, the the sometimes that visionary often that visionary is in the CEO seat and, or they’re the business owner. And so they have like on paper a lot of power and from experience a lot of power. But if you’re going to fully implement, uh, EOS, they have to give away some of that power to that integrator, because ultimately that integrator is a very important part of the equation. And if you’re still doing what you were doing in the visionary seat, right. The integrator. Yeah, the integrators got that deciding vote. They’re the ones that are operationalizing and bringing reality into the decision making equation. Like you have to give them power.
Joshua Kornitsky: So I want to ask how and I’ll, I want to be sensitive to your time, but I want to ask this question because it it it is born from what we were just discussing, iOS or not, iOS always helps, right? But iOS or not, is there an inherent power dynamic when you have an owner dealing with anybody who’s not an owner?
Kirsten Ross Vogel: Well, not inherent, but it’s a leadership skill that they like a muscle. They may need to work because, you know, in lots of privately held businesses, I mean, my favorite place to play is like the crazy entrepreneurs that are so passionate about either the business, you know, the service or the whatever they’re selling, whatever they’re selling, they’re passionate about that. And they muscled their way through the beginning, um, and maybe hired some family members to, you know, minimize that gap, you know, and because that’s who they trust and we love one another and all of that. Uh, but so there’s a way that you lead, though, when it’s when you’re just muscling your way through, uh, the communication can be clunky. You can move in a lot of directions, but as you get bigger, you have to transform how you’re leading. And so some will do that, but most need some help.
Joshua Kornitsky: And that’s a perfect place for me to ask Kirsten, how do people get Ahold of you?
Kirsten Ross Vogel: Um, well, I would love to hear from people who listen to this podcast. And, uh, you can go to my website, Focus Forward Coaching. Com is my website where you can find, um, you know, if you want to grab do a little virtual coffee, you can grab a spot on my calendar. Um, that’s probably the best way. I’m on LinkedIn, too. Is Kirsten Ross Vogel. Uh, I do also have, um, my Impact Academy, which is, uh, a place where I have, you know, over the decades. I have lots of, you know, video, audio, PDF downloads, etc.. And so, uh, if you want to just go in there and access all of that, you can go to defeat the drama.
Joshua Kornitsky: Which is also, I think, the name of your book, isn’t it?
Kirsten Ross Vogel: Oh, one of my books is Defeat Team Drama. Now and then, the other ones. From people problems to productivity. The health professional’s guide to leading well.
Joshua Kornitsky: Yeah, and those are both on Amazon if anyone wants to buy them. Yep. Fantastic. Well, I can tell you that I certainly learned a couple of things today because it being in the US implementer means you have to exist outside of an organization. You, no matter how much you care about them, no matter how much you want their success, you are not part of that team on a day in, day out basis. And while I have my own background and experience, knowing that I can now move forward, telling the leadership teams that I’m working with that what they’re feeling is normal and that there’s some help and some hope. That’s a big deal. So thank you. That was a that was a pretty invaluable piece of information that I hope everybody takes to heart. Um, it’s been an absolute joy chatting with you. Thank you so much. Um, let me just remind everybody that today my guest is Kirsten Ross Vogel. She’s a leadership coach and author who works with individuals and organizations. You heard how she navigates growth, complexity, and most importantly, leadership and communication. Uh, I think that anybody who runs into a problem in a family business and a non-family business, uh, that that has a communication roadblock should reach out. Kirsten, I can’t thank you enough for your time.
Kirsten Ross Vogel: Well, thank you so much for having me.
Joshua Kornitsky: It’s been an absolute pleasure. Thank you for joining us here on High Velocity Radio. I’m Joshua Kornitsky professional EOS implementer and your host. We’ll see you next time. Thank you.

Crafting Your Business Narrative: The Key to Unlocking Growth and Attracting Capital

February 9, 2026 by angishields

HVR-Lafayette-and-Oak-Feature
High Velocity Radio
Crafting Your Business Narrative: The Key to Unlocking Growth and Attracting Capital
Loading
00:00 /
RSS Feed
Share
Link
Embed

Download file

In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Joshua Kornitsky talks with Abhi Golhar and Gillian Rabin  from Lafayette and Oak about scaling businesses from $5 million to $50 million in revenue. They discuss the importance of having the right leadership, a compelling business narrative, and tailored capital strategies. The conversation covers common misconceptions about growth, the pitfalls of sudden funding, and the need for honest self-assessment. Lafayette and Oak’s approach emphasizes building strong teams, clarifying goals, and crafting stories that attract investment, guiding business owners through sustainable growth and successful exits.

LafayatteOakBlack

Abhi-HeadshotAs the founder of Lafayette & Oak and Managing Partner of Meridian 84, Abhi Golhar brings deep experience guiding businesses through growth, transition, and transformation.

His journey, from wins to wipeouts, has shaped a leadership style grounded in resilience, strategic precision, and a relentless pursuit of excellence. Abhi believes big breakthroughs begin with self-doubt and that with the right structure and strategy, any challenge can become a launchpad. He doesn’t just teach growth, he builds it. And he helps others do the same.

Connect with Abhi on LinkedIn.

GillianRabinHeadshot21Gillian Rabin is a valedictorian graduate of Oglethorpe University, holding dual B.A.s in Rhetoric & Communications and Theatre.

Gillian has driven growth for a global network of Executive MBAs, nurtured partnerships across PE, VC, and corporate landscapes, and orchestrated branding campaigns with measurable impact.

As an award-winning filmmaker, she brings a compelling narrative edge; bridging storytelling and capital to help Lafayette & Oak connect exceptional businesses with the investment and clarity they need to scale.

Connect with Gillian on LinkedIn.

About Your Host

BRX-HS-JKJoshua Kornitsky is a fourth-generation entrepreneur with deep roots in technology and a track record of solving real business problems. Now, as a Professional EOS Implementer, he helps leadership teams align, create clarity, and build accountability.

He grew up in the world of small business, cut his teeth in technology and leadership, and built a path around solving complex problems with simple, effective tools. Joshua brings a practical approach to leadership, growth, and getting things done.

As a host on Cherokee Business Radio, Joshua brings his curiosity and coaching mindset to the mic, drawing out the stories, struggles, and strategies of local business leaders. It’s not just about interviews—it’s about helping the business community learn from each other, grow stronger together, and keep moving forward.

Connect with Joshua on LinkedIn.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.
Joshua Kornitsky: Welcome back to High Velocity Radio. My name is Joshua Kornitsky. I’m a professional implementer of the entrepreneurial operating system and your host here today, I have with me two wonderful guests that I’m grateful to have. With me in studio are Abhi Golhar of really a global presence, and I’ve also got Gillian Rabin here with me from Lafayette and Oak. And we’re going to talk a lot about what makes business run and grow and scale. Welcome, guys.
Gillian Rabin: Thank you so much.
Joshua Kornitsky: It’s nice to have you. I’m not even going to run through the introduction. We’re just going to jump right in and have a discussion.
Joshua Kornitsky: Because at the end of the day, what started our dialog earlier before we ever hit record was the simple idea of of, uh, be asked the question, what makes a business go from 5 to 50 million? And I said, mostly wishful thinking. Um, no. The reality of of what gets a business to grow isn’t an easily answered question, but the reality of it is it takes organization. It takes the right people in the right seats. It takes a plan. But it also takes Jillian, somebody who understands and can translate the the business’s story to the market.
Gillian Rabin: Yes.
Joshua Kornitsky: Right. And folks that that understand why investing in this organization, investing in this company might be a good thing for them.
Joshua Kornitsky: So let’s talk. How do we get there? We’re here’s here’s our company. We sell $5 million worth of widgets a year.
Abhi Golhar : Three things.
Joshua Kornitsky: Okay.
Abhi Golhar : People, do you need the right operator, CEO, C-suite people.
Joshua Kornitsky: Okay.
Abhi Golhar : The second the narrative and the third capital.
Joshua Kornitsky: Okay.
Abhi Golhar : And it’s not capital in the traditional sense of private equity. Or I’m going to go to Bank of America and get a loan for $5 million. It’s very unlikely that will that will happen. But it’s those three things.
Joshua Kornitsky: Well, I want to I want to take that apart a piece at a time. Right. And I don’t want to necessarily go in order, because the first question I want to have is, okay, so here’s your $5 million widget company. Here’s $5 million wherever the source is from. What does an average company do with a sudden influx of financing? And I’m asking I don’t know what what happens when you hand a $5 million loan, regardless of of the details of it? Here’s 5 million in funding. What happens to a company that that has no plan?
Gillian Rabin: Well, they have to make a plan. Um, and I think you start with that story. A plan is as arbitrary until there’s a through line to that plan, and that through line comes through with a compelling narrative. And it has to not just be a story. Anyone can can write a compelling story, but does it make sense for what you’re doing and what you’re selling and why you’re selling? And I think in today’s world, you have so many. We’re constantly there’s an onslaught of compelling narratives that are always trying to grab our attention. And so it’s figuring out who your audience is and really capturing what it is that you’re doing, why it is that you’re selling, what you’re selling, and who you are. Because a lot of people do gravitate towards a mission that is relatable, that is a human centric mission. Um, and finding those gaps in the market and kind of capitalizing on those. So why does your product, why would someone need a widget right now? And it’s kind of figuring that out.
Joshua Kornitsky: So how do you how do you learn to build that narrative.
Gillian Rabin: Through trial and error. I mean, you have to. I think I think it’s it’s getting the right people to help you. Like Lafayette and Oak. But if you have. But if you’re just doing it on your own, I think it’s brainstorm sessions and refining. It’s testing and refining. It’s like a B marketing, right? But having operators that have experience in that is incredibly helpful.
Joshua Kornitsky: Well, so you mentioned Lafayette and Oak, I mentioned Lafayette. No. Tell us a little bit about Lafayette Oak. What what what role do they fulfill in the market?
Abhi Golhar : Yeah, actually, to your to your initial point, if you just get an influx of $5 million and you don’t have a plan around it, you fail.
Joshua Kornitsky: And that’s to my experience. Yeah. That’s it. It is. It is money from heaven, which is great, but money from heaven in the hands of people who don’t know. No negative implication, who simply aren’t accustomed to getting that type of an influx in cash, can make decisions that they believe are that are in the best interest of the organization.
Abhi Golhar : It’s like winning the lottery, 99% of the time.
Joshua Kornitsky: 17 new trucks?
Abhi Golhar : Yeah. No you don’t. Right. And even if you did. Even if you got them one, you’re probably not buying them, right? Number two, you probably don’t have the right accounting firm to help you really benefit from the tax strategy behind it. And then you don’t have the people to run it. And now you’re behind with payroll. No. So if you if if you happen to have $5 million in cash tomorrow, just don’t spend.
Gillian Rabin: And all of your assets immediately depreciate.
Joshua Kornitsky: So so what you’re saying is there needs to be a strategy.
Gillian Rabin: I think there might need to be a strategy.
Joshua Kornitsky: Okay. And is that where Lafayette comes into play?
Abhi Golhar : Yeah. So Lafayette and Oak is centered around the idea that you’re a business owner and you’re looking at the field and you’re looking out there and you’re you’re listening to podcasts and radio shows and and you’re swiping up on TikTok and Instagram like I do every morning. And everybody is telling you to either do one of two things. Number one, grow your business. Or number two, sell your business.
Joshua Kornitsky: Sure. Private equity.
Abhi Golhar : Yay!
Joshua Kornitsky: Yay! We can all cash out.
Abhi Golhar : Okay. Yes and no. Right. The the way that we can get there. But the way that private equity typically works is they’ll say, well, we’ll establish a baseline valuation for your business, and then here’s 50% in cash. And now the other 50%. Well, it’s going to be an earnout. It’s going to be a seller note it’s going to be some kind of rollover equity. And now you’re mine for five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten years until you die. And oh, by the way, you have so many more metrics that you have to meet. Enter the world of private equity and really hard teeth. Right? Yeah. So Lafayette is centered around centered around this idea that you’re a business owner, you’re looking at the field and you’ve got these two options. Maybe, maybe take the road that nobody’s really talking about. Maybe before you grow your business, you laid the foundation of the right corporate infrastructure, which then will attract the right capital, which then also informs the right inorganic and organic growth strategies. More often than not, people talk about and think about organic growth, marketing, sales. What investments do we have to make in people? Strategy, execution ops. Right. That’s the stuff that’s that organically will drive the value of a business forward and upward. But the other thing that also drives this valuation is inorganic growth, also known as hey, let’s go find our competitors and let’s go buy them. The problem in the world of today is private credit, private equity. Those those sources of funds are not available, readily available if you don’t know one, how to build your narrative. And number two, using that narrative to craft a compelling enough acquisition. Holdco with portico stories to then attract private equity private credit fund to say we’ll do a little bit of debt with follow on equity. And what does that structure look like? For me, the business owner.
Joshua Kornitsky: I can understand how confusing this is for the generically the the average business owner.
Abhi Golhar : It’s already getting confusing, right.
Joshua Kornitsky: Because, well, these are not unless they’ve got a background in finance or they’ve been in M&A or banking, everything you’ve just said is going to hit them like 100 pounds on the head.
Gillian Rabin: People are pausing and googling as they should.
Joshua Kornitsky: Yeah, well, and that’s the reality of it. But is it a fair I don’t want to lead the witness. Is it a fair statement to ask a fair question to ask that we’ve reached the point that, yes, of course, with grit and determination you can grow and sell your business. You can, but if you want to maximize that value, have we reached the point that we have to have assistance?
Abhi Golhar : If you don’t, assistance will be provided for you, and typically that assistance is not going to have your best interest in mind.
Joshua Kornitsky: I see what you’re saying.
Abhi Golhar : Enter the world of business brokering, right?
Joshua Kornitsky: And I’ve talked with enough business brokers to know that. And one of them in particular, uh, espoused a concept that stuck with me. Right. That the buyer has a team as the seller. If you don’t have a team, you’re you’re largely missing the opportunity to maximize what you’re going to receive.
Gillian Rabin: Absolutely.
Joshua Kornitsky: So it sounds like.
Gillian Rabin: It’s like if you were in, like on a sports team, like let’s say that you were a soccer team and there was only one coach, and the coach was on your rival team. But the coach is supposed to be coaching both of.
Joshua Kornitsky: Those teams.
Gillian Rabin: But for whatever reason, the other team keeps winning. It’s you have to have people who are on, who are in your corner and who are looking out for your best interest.
Joshua Kornitsky: So what are the types of things that people need to be aware of? What do they need to watch for? What are what are what are the types of team members that that say Lafayette know helps them? Obviously, we talked about crafting a narrative and I suspect that happens. Does that happen closer to the beginning so that we have we we know our story before we go looking, or does that happen further down the road when we’ve gotten financials in order, or does it happen at the same time?
Gillian Rabin: It depends on when the people come and ask for assistance. I think each each operator is different. Um, but.
Abhi Golhar : Yeah, so it depends. As Jillian mentioned, it’s sometimes it’s the narrative first because I really want to be able to feel your heart.
Joshua Kornitsky: Sure.
Abhi Golhar : And if and if we can and if we know we can tell a compelling story around it, then great. We can see that we could we could check out the financials, even a business that. So there are four stages to any business startup growth, maturity. Decline. Four stages. I don’t care if you’re a fortune 500 company or you’re just a fledgling startup. Startup growth. Maturity. Decline. There are narratives inside of each of these stages, but they’re also a very specific way PNL should look inside of these stages. Startups, for example, you’ll have 30, 40, 50% year over year growth. A company in growth stage. Probably not going to see that, right? You’re probably going to see you. I mean, you see this, right? 510 maybe maybe 10% mature company, 3 to 4% a year. And then if you’re a company on decline because you just failed to think, you failed to realize that AI is a thing, just like, you know, you probably also thought that the internet was just a fad in 2000. It still is. It still is, I believe al Gore, he invented the internet. I’m still in his camp.
Joshua Kornitsky: You never know what will happen. That’s all I’m gonna say.
Abhi Golhar : But to your point, it’s. Listen, you do you have a sustainable the question everybody should be asking themselves if they’re listening, Do you have? Do you have a sustainable business model? Has your have your financials grown from over the last three years? You take a look at 20, 22, 23, 24 and now you’re to date 2025. What are you projecting for 2026? Are you increasing in sales? Are you decreasing sales? What’s happening? Do you have the appetite to go out and acquire symbiotic companies or companies that will provide symbiotic relationship to yours? If you’re an HVAC company, can you go buy a plumbing company? Everybody’s talking about plumbing companies these days.
Joshua Kornitsky: I have several clients in in that space.
Abhi Golhar : Yeah, Cody Sanchez says go buy a laundromat. Great, right. But should you just run off and buy a laundromat? Unlikely. Unless you. Unless you have the right self-talk. And to your point, where do you start? Start by analyzing the thoughts that you have in your head about what you believe this journey of business means to you.
Joshua Kornitsky: So, as I mentioned earlier, talking about EOS, EOS is based first and foremost on on core values. And I’m going to drive a somewhat tenuous line to narrative from core values. But in my brain, those are deeply connected, because the story of the core values of of your organization is the story of who your organization is. So maybe the line’s not so tenuous, but when when I look at it through my lens, if I don’t understand who they are and what they do, more importantly, if they don’t understand who they are and what they do, um, often companies are still trying to be all things to all people. And when you find yourself in that situation as the organization, I always stress the need to, to focus, to, to bring, to do less, better rather than more poorly. And, and in the question that occurs to me naturally as we’re talking is, okay, so Abby, you said that. What if you look at your financials for three years? The first question I have is, okay, so I just looked at my financials. And you know, two out of the three are crap. Does that mean I don’t have any any chance in talking to you guys that I’m just shit out of luck till I get my stuff together? Or is there value in reaching out?
Abhi Golhar : So I still believe there’s value in reaching out. We’ll give you a starting point.
Joshua Kornitsky: Okay.
Abhi Golhar : Both from a financial perspective and also from a narrative perspective and what the narrative needs to be. So the next time you reach out, after you’re fixed, after you’ve fixed your stuff.
Joshua Kornitsky: Right.
Abhi Golhar : It could be a more productive conversation. But Lafayette will step in when, let’s say you’ve got a productive company, you’re between ten, 15, 20, $30 million in revenue and you’re looking at acquiring a competitor or 2 or 3. The banks have turned you down because they don’t believe you can do it. And what you really need is backing by somebody that has the assets, that has the capital markets access that you don’t have.
Joshua Kornitsky: And I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but it sounds like you’re at the that Lafayette is willing to at least look at less conventional approaches. I don’t I don’t want to say that we’re talking about subprime or anything like that. But if if a traditional a traditional bank is going to make a loan, if they look at it, it adds up and and they’re going to make enough money for them to consider it. And that’s the end of their discussion. If they’re not going to make enough money, if they think it’s too risky because a table somewhere tells them that it is. That’s it. Deal’s dead. But is that a fair, a fair, broad generality about Lafayette? No, that that they’re that they have the the broader perspective.
Abhi Golhar : We are bringing New York capital to Main Street.
Joshua Kornitsky: Okay. So yes.
Abhi Golhar : The answer is yes.
Joshua Kornitsky: Okay. I push you on it only because I believe that there’s a there there are brilliant ideas right now that suffer from lack of exposure, which ultimately translates to to lack of either guidance or funding, and knowing that there may be an avenue or an opportunity. And we’re not talking about, you know, Jim and Mary in the garage who are trying to build the next robot. We’re talking about technologies and approaches and products and things that are already underway and in, in production that may have other approaches. Uh, and to me, I like that because I think that that that level of creativity is what has has been largely snuffed out by traditional finance.
Gillian Rabin: And I was just going to I was going to jump in with, uh, the statistic that I read recently talking about traditional banks, they’re now funding only 23% of leveraged buyouts. Um, and so you have private credit that funds 77% of that. And I think that speaks to this kind of wave of the creativity and like the nontraditional sense of, of, of these loans and, and the credit financing.
Abhi Golhar : So yeah. And to that point, if you’re a business and you’re thinking about how do I get the capital markets access, you’ve got to do it a couple different ways. One move to New York, right. And spend two years humping it in meetings, daily meetings with investment bankers.
Gillian Rabin: That’s quite the narrative.
Speaker6: Which is quite.
Abhi Golhar : The right, literally. And fingers crossed, hoping somebody will take a chance. And if they do take a chance, it’s going to cost you for two, three, $400,000 in an upfront retainer just to go get them. All right. So that’s the that’s.
Speaker6: The problem number one.
Joshua Kornitsky: I was part of a of a startup that went through that. And and the reason I’m sitting here right now is because I did not get it. We you know, we didn’t get the money because no matter how well put together we were, there was always somebody who had it at the next level, who had every duck in in its proper row, who had their narrative, who could tell their story. And lo and behold, the dollars went there.
Abhi Golhar : Yeah. The question you need to be asking yourself is, are you the prettiest girl at the bar? And and that’s what I know.
Joshua Kornitsky: I’m not.
Abhi Golhar : I mean.
Joshua Kornitsky: I’ve accepted this.
Abhi Golhar : I have to, um. If you’re the prettiest girl at the bar, you are going to get approached. And that approach is exactly what we’re saying, right? We are aligning operators, capital and narrative. These are the three things that are universally, uh, not accepted. It’s not the right word, but they’re universally required. If you want that level of access outside of just paying for it. And if you do pay for it, you don’t even know if the guy or the gal is going to be successful.
Joshua Kornitsky: Understood.
Abhi Golhar : And that’s a risk that you run.
Joshua Kornitsky: Excuse me.
Abhi Golhar : Or if, you know, gives you a glimpse into a potential future. And we can run that roll up strategy with you and potentially for you using assets that we can back you with.
Joshua Kornitsky: Well. And so now you you touched on the next area I wanted to talk about which is the operators. Right. We’ve been talking about the financial side of things. Um, when you engage with someone and let’s just assume that that they’ve I don’t want to call it a barrier or a hurdle, but but simply, they are the right organization to align with with they they are in the right place in their market. They’ve achieved a level of success that they have opportunities ahead of them. Um, they don’t always have the right operators. So what happens? Again, the answer is always going to be it depends. Speaking in generalities. How do you help?
Gillian Rabin: First we listen. Um, and I think for me, the thing that drives me, the thing that I’m really passionate about, is obviously helping people, but understanding how to help them. I love people’s stories, and I’m a fervent believer that the more you speak, the less you learn. And so I first wanted fully understand where you’ve been, why you chose this route, how you became successful to the point where you are now and what is driving you to grow. And I want to know about your kids, and I want to know about your dog who might be sick. And I want to know all the things that go on into your life, because they do affect your business.
Joshua Kornitsky: Absolutely.
Gillian Rabin: And so once I, once Lafayette and Oak has that understanding, that’s kind of the jumping off point for how we can create that compelling narrative, because where you are right now may not be where you want to be. And so it’s understanding the past, the present, combining that into how that helps push you forward to the future. Um, so.
Joshua Kornitsky: That speaks to me, and I understand that completely because I, I want to ask rather than tell, how often do they do the operators you talk to know the answer to where they want to be. Truly. I want to be at X number. Okay. But is that is that it? Is it just $20 million? You can drop dead and everything’s fine.
Abhi Golhar : I mean, we right. Yeah. There’s a tax strategy for that, actually.
Joshua Kornitsky: I can.
Abhi Golhar : In.
Joshua Kornitsky: The Hitchhiker’s Guide you can spend a year dead for legal purposes, but.
Abhi Golhar : And then. And then vote. Yeah. Um, that’s too politically charged. Too soon, maybe too soon. Um, we’re too late. Or.
Joshua Kornitsky: Sadly, I fear you’re right.
Abhi Golhar : Uh, so. Okay. You you have to know. What the hell is the question?
Joshua Kornitsky: The question is regarding, uh, if you don’t have the right operator.
Abhi Golhar : Oh, okay. So you look at yourself and see if this is what you even want for your future. And if you don’t want this for your future, then fire yourself and bring somebody else on, and it gives you the ability to say, hey, I can actually step into something that I wanted to do this entire time, but I’ve been forced to do or I’ve had to do because nobody else needed or should have or could have done it. And that’s just taking a moment in time and a breath to see it.
Joshua Kornitsky: So I want to push you on that one, because I would tell you in, in my personal experience in working with business owners, that is the right answer. Let’s go with 50% of the time, but less than 10% of the the operators are willing to admit or take that step. How do you help them with that? How do you help them understand that that uh, I’m going to segue, but it’s related. There’s a wonderful titled book that I’m not a huge fan of, but it’s a great title called, uh, what Got You Here won’t get you there. And I’m going to. Are you familiar with the book? So to summarize for anyone that doesn’t know is by being a belligerent jerk. You pushed your company this far, but you can’t get to the next level by continuing to be a belligerent jerk, because you’re now doing business where you are no longer the biggest fish in the pond. The pond just got a lot bigger, and you’re a lot smaller now. And that strategy doesn’t work here. And I tie that back to that same level of understanding of, hey, I you know, it’s usually I’m the savior. I’m, I’m, I’m sales, I’m customer service. I’ve done all of it. And we’ve gotten to $10 million. How can I possibly step away until the heart attack? And then they find. But.
Abhi Golhar : Right. Well, to that point, if you want to exit, ten out of ten business owners will have an exit event in their lifetime.
Joshua Kornitsky: Planned or unplanned.
Abhi Golhar : Correct.
Joshua Kornitsky: Okay.
Abhi Golhar : That’s 100% success rate. Sure. Right. Um, ten out of ten people on this planet will die. Yeah.
Gillian Rabin: Also 10% exit rate.
Abhi Golhar : Yeah. Planned or unplanned, maybe, I don’t know. That’s a darker hole. Um, but if you want an exit in your business, if you want a succession, a proper succession plan with somebody stepping up and saying, I want to run this, and you want to spend time with your spouse at the end of the day, and you’ve given 25, 30 years. The single biggest challenge that you will have is removing yourself from the business. If you want, your value drops, man. So if you’re doing $1 million a year in EBITDA and you’re the only person running the business, there’s no way on God’s green earth that you’re going to get five to 6 to 7 times EBITDA in valuation. It’s one at best, and you might get a little bit of cash for it. So if you’re listening to this and you’re the only person in your business and you don’t have iOS, or if you don’t have have an operating system, you don’t have people wake up and smell the roses, your valuation is going to suck. And the reality that you’ll eventually face is going to be from some business owner. Excuse me? Some business broker that you don’t know who’s glorified real estate agent saying your business is worth X because you’re still running it, right?
Joshua Kornitsky: And and everything you’re saying resonates with me because unfortunately, I’ve I’ve lived it and borne witness to it because when you have a single point of failure in any system, yeah, that system doesn’t have a lot of value. Um, so when we can get them to see the wisdom in that and plan the transition out, now you’ve got a vacuum. So how how do you help them as an organization. Do you find other key executives? Do you? Do you have a pool of resources that you’re able to bring to bear?
Gillian Rabin: Mhm.
Abhi Golhar : It’s a combination of a couple of things. Um, one it’s I need to understand your mental baggage before we start moving forward because now it’s a completely new relationship. Right. If you’re starting, if you, if you just had a breakup and you’re starting to date somebody new, you’re not going to, uh, you’re not going to move that baggage from your previous relationship into the new one. Right? And if you did, you’d get caught flat footed and have a very tough conversation with with your with your new significant other. Right. Um, I’ve done that. Sucked hard conversations. Right. So that’s that’s the first piece. The second piece is. Yes. If we’re looking at an acquisition strategy, we may not even need to find people, because if we’re acquiring other businesses, we’re inheriting people. Now, the question is, do we have the right culture fit and what is the integration risk? What is the narrative that these now 2 or 3 companies that are banding together for a size significantly larger, sizable valuation. What what is the is are these companies disparate in nature? Do we have what financial challenges do we have? What cultural people challenges, integration ops challenges are the right people in the right seats? And if they’re not, we got to move things around. And then this is really where you come in where it’s I need to get into the minds of all these folks to say, well, are you are you even right for this? Right.
Gillian Rabin: And I think it comes down to something that people are inherently not great at, and it’s not a practice skill. I think enough both in business and in personal life. Um, and that’s just self-reflection, honest to God self-reflection. And by God, I just mean yourself. Like, are you lying to yourself? Um, you know, it’s a real, uh, look at what are your strengths and what are your weaknesses? Genuinely, where do you thrive best? Where do you fall short? And how can you either work on those short, like the shortcomings and try to improve those things? Or where can you find other people who can bolster those shortcomings? So you can just focus on the things that you’re really good at, because that’s an okay thing too. Sorry.
Joshua Kornitsky: No, no, that’s hugely insightful. My question is, is, is that something you’re able to help organizations navigate? Well, that’s that’s that’s an arranged marriage in some cases or at least partially arranged marriage where you’re bringing folks in who who did not sign up to suddenly be part of the widget company over here? Sure. Because they make grommets over here and they never thought grommets and widgets would go together.
Gillian Rabin: And that’s where the narrative becomes incredibly important. But you can’t start a narrative until the the person you’re crafting a narrative with about them is honest with themselves. And so it’s it’s about getting the honesty from people. And and I think to your question earlier about, you know, can you actually make people see that they want to fire themselves? Sometimes I think it’s just helping them get to where the reality is, and then they they end up coming to that conclusion on their own.
Joshua Kornitsky: There’s a spiritual level to this, and I don’t say that with any humor. Right. Because you have to that that level of honesty, that level of of self-determination and self qualification or disqualification is more than most people to bring to work.
Gillian Rabin: Absolutely. I mean.
Joshua Kornitsky: It’s not there.
Gillian Rabin: And human beings, we are we are creatures of adaptation. And like you were saying earlier, being this belligerent, like kind of, you know, hard headed guy who just kept pushing, everybody might have gotten you to a certain level, but now you’re in a new environment, right? And so are you going to adapt or are you going to continue on where you’re not seeing the same return that you were in the previous environment? And that is ultimately up to you. But, um, you’ll, you know, see different outcomes from those decisions.
Abhi Golhar : So to your point, are we going to marry a salmon farm and a plumbing company? No, we’re not going to do that. That’s that’s right. But but but that’s like kind of crazy, right. Like we’re not sure. But if we have the narrative and the story and we all agree as company A as, I don’t know, what is this.
Gillian Rabin: Good mood juice.
Abhi Golhar : Good mood juice. Plumbing. Co. Right.
Gillian Rabin: Oof! Oh my.
Abhi Golhar : Gosh. Okay. Maybe.
Gillian Rabin: What a horrendous name.
Joshua Kornitsky: Abc plumbing.
Gillian Rabin: Abc plumbing.
Abhi Golhar : Abc plumbing. If we all agree that ABC plumbing is ready to take on acquisitions and they’ve done well financially and they’re just looking for this leg up. What is what is the next five years look like? Are we doing a plumbing roll up? Are we doing a home services roll up two completely different things, right? Plumbing versus plumbing, HVAC, roofing, landscaping, etc. and if that’s the case, then we need to strategically start looking at companies, slash competitors, slash whatever in whichever region. So let’s get super specific on region. Let’s get super specific on what we’re looking for. And then also the culture of the organization we want to go by. If the culture of the organization we’re going to go by is rotten from day one by I don’t want you, I do not care how profitable you are.
Joshua Kornitsky: How do you assess that.
Abhi Golhar : 30, 60, 90 days?
Joshua Kornitsky: Okay. Boots on the ground. Yep.
Abhi Golhar : Observing every time. Every single time.
Joshua Kornitsky: Do you use any tools like culture index or predictive? You know, any of that type of stuff as well?
Abhi Golhar : Yes. Personality tests, I mean, I don’t have a subscription to Culture Index, but as long as I have a pretty good understanding of what your shadow behaviors are like, genetics does a really good one.
Joshua Kornitsky: Huge fan.
Abhi Golhar : Yeah, I did one. I always do one with all the all my business partners and it’s like, hey, here are these shadow behaviors, right? He’s short and he wants to be tall. All right. As a result, he’s you know, he’s he’s always pain in the ass around people. Um, but that blend shows them and shows me how I can what I need to do for them, what they need to do for me, and how we can just be better together. So it helps coach us. And what I’m really looking for is how do I how do I respond to my shadow behaviors. And then how will I respond to theirs? How do I create a a gap in time if we’re in a high stress, stressful situation or high whatever pressured situation? Sure. Are we going to take a minute and make it feel like a second, or are we going to take a minute and and really have it feel like an hour? So we give it room to breathe like like a perfect, um, like you would never, ever, ever drink. A 2018 Napa cab from Dariush like a Darius. Two Napa cab from 2018. That particular vintage. You would never drink that tight. Like you would never drink that the day it was bottled. Never, never. You’re gonna wait, like, five years on that. Okay, but but, like.
Gillian Rabin: I’m going with them.
Abhi Golhar : Yeah, well, I’m so fresh.
Joshua Kornitsky: Wine. Not good.
Gillian Rabin: Remember, this is one of his shadows.
Abhi Golhar : Yeah, exactly. I’m backpedaling. Um, but what you want to do instead is you want to decant it? Sure. You want. You want to let the air hit it, right? You want to violently pour it into the decanter and let the oxygen create the complexity, which is that 2018 Napa cab from Dariush. The Darius two, if you’re listening, it’s a really good bottle of wine.
Gillian Rabin: If you’re listening.
Joshua Kornitsky: You can sponsor.
Abhi Golhar : Bottle.
Joshua Kornitsky: I’ve had one bottle in Texas many years ago. When we’re done, I have to now look to see what? What it was just so I can find out.
Abhi Golhar : Yes. I want to jump into collecting wine because I realized, like, I bought two bottles and they’re like $350 a bottle. Now, I opened both of them, drank them. Whatever. Right. Great celebrations. $900 a bottle. I’m like, you’ve got to be kidding. The inflation on these things is so great. Anyway, I digress. Yeah.
Joshua Kornitsky: Um, well, and I want to I want to take an aside here just because I don’t, I do my best to never assume that everybody’s following along on every point in talking about genetics, talking about culture index. The the analysis of personality and profile has become a really, really, I want to say succinct, but it’s the wrong word. It’s become a much better informed science than what a lot of people know as disc analysis or predictive index from the late 80s and the early 90s. And what I’ll share with you, because I actually I happen to be very fortunate to know the top genetics trainer in the southeast, a guy named Kelvin Redd. If you don’t know him, I’ll introduce you to him. He’s been a guest on the show. Okay. Um. And I’ve had the opportunity to work directly with him. And what I learned more than anything else. And that I want to share for anybody listening, is that these tests do not say that Gillian is terrible when it comes to attention to detail. Randomly speaking, what it says is that her natural state may be less attention to detail. She is more than capable of having 100% attention detail. It will simply take more of her energy to do that.
Gillian Rabin: Mhm.
Joshua Kornitsky: That’s the piece. I think a lot of people misunderstand that. You’re not just red or yellow or green or this number or that number. None of these tell you anything other than the trend of the individuals. But having that insight and as Abby was saying, having the ability to see how it interacts or meshes or doesn’t mesh. That’s where we get insight in. Going back to our bigger point of when two cultures get together, whether willing or not willing, because in this case, I’m referring to to the leadership or the staff rather than ownership. Ownership knows what’s happening, but the staff suddenly finds out that there’s somebody with their title at this other company. And, you know, the default behavior is panic. It’s not, oh, I’m sure we’ll work together. Well.
Gillian Rabin: For sure.
Abhi Golhar : And a lot of this too is discussed well in advance of closing. Right. Like, hey, this is going to be a great marriage. Here’s the here are the optics. Here’s here’s the messaging for the team. And then the seller of company of company B that we go acquire. That seller may sit on the board of advisors or something like that. There may be a mentor or coach depending on what stage of life they’re in. If we’re working with a 45 year old who wants to buy, competitors and competitors are 75, 80 years old, right? You know, like the older gentleman or the older lady, like they’re they’ll want to step out and they’ll want to do so with the right tax incentives and the right quality of life and the right team and the right whatever, when they normally wouldn’t have that. And so going back to this entire idea of operator first, then understanding the narrative and then understanding the capital stack gives us two very clarifying, uh, words. We can track clarity and confidence. Does this give us the clarity to do what we need to do? Right? That’s number one, right? Number two, the confidence. Do we have the confidence in the teams to actually execute this this plan that we’ve built? Do we have the confidence in ourselves to execute this plan that I want. Enter the momentum matrix. If you have low clarity and low confidence, you’re in this state of paralysis. If you have high clarity and low confidence, you’re you’re wavering. You’re like, man, I don’t really know what to do. But I’m like super clear that I should be trading crypto, right? Great. I just I just don’t know how to do it. Like that’s high clarity. Low confidence. Um, you can have low clarity. High confidence. You can be the guy that goes to the gym, talks smack about the guy that’s benching 400 pounds. And, you know, I’ll just talk smack to this guy and then leave strategy. Yeah.
Joshua Kornitsky: And results every time.
Abhi Golhar : Yeah. And then leave and then like, I’ll just like build a nice pump going, like doing 5 pound dumbbells for like three sets of ten reps and then leave. Right. Sure. That’s that’s low clarity. High confidence. Right. Walking in with a big ego. The state of momentum though is when you have high clarity and high confidence. The trick is to realize that some of the best teams on the planet will fall out of the state of momentum of this zone, of momentum. The question is, how do you are you equipped enough to catch yourself? A great example of this is Lululemon. Lululemon. Over the last many years, they captured the yoga market, right? Sure. The yoga trend trend. But yoga market. Now they have such a massive issue with leadership that nobody wants to buy Lulu right now. They’re like, you guys need to get your shit together. Right? Right. So they’ve lost momentum and they’ve catered to almost anything and everybody. To your original point, and when Steve Jobs left Apple the very first time, same thing happened. Sure. Sorry. I’m hitting the table when I’m not supposed to hit the table. But but this is what happened, right? Apple was selling, what, 18, 19 different products. And then Steve came back. He was he was hired back to Apple the second time. And then he took it down to three. So this, this this this idea that you have, you can build momentum for yourself Inside your companies. And when you have the right operator, you can develop the right story. The unlock is access to capital markets.
Joshua Kornitsky: The missing piece.
Abhi Golhar : The missing piece. And Lafayette and Oak will help you get all these ducks in a row, if you will, to then see the maximum potential value of your business in five years.
Joshua Kornitsky: So again, asterisks. Sure. It depends. What what is the average length of engagement? Because it sounds like there’s an awful lot of work that has to happen. And it’s clearly, clearly highly tailored to the individual organizations that you’re working with. What does an engagement look like? It’s got to be a lot longer than longer than a day.
Abhi Golhar : You know why? Five years.
Joshua Kornitsky: Because I presume it takes at least half of that. Just to answer the first part of the question.
Abhi Golhar : Well, yeah, that’s that’s part of it.
Joshua Kornitsky: I mean, in Fullness.
Abhi Golhar : Yes, but from a tax strategy perspective, five years you don’t want to sell. Like if you’re listening to this and you’re wondering, okay, why is Abby droning on and on and on and saying five years like five times? It’s because the 1202 tax treatment that you get by holding on to your rollover equity or by holding on to your business once you elect to do a shsps, which is called a qualified small business stock, if you hold on to that for a period of five years, you can get, I believe. Don’t quote me on this ChatGPT it. Okay, okay. You can you can get up to ten times your basis in the company tax free, both federal and state, which is nuts.
Joshua Kornitsky: Five years. It is.
Abhi Golhar : Five years.
Gillian Rabin: It is.
Abhi Golhar : It is because we’re going to come in and take an equity piece not in your company but at the holding Co.
Joshua Kornitsky: Right.
Abhi Golhar : And we’re going to go do all this. We’re going to identify the narrative. You could talk continue to talk about that. But we’ll identify the right operators. We’ll will identify the right narrative. We have the ability to find the right team members should you need them. We have the ability to find acquisition targets should you need them.
Joshua Kornitsky: And in that piece we didn’t touch on. And that’s actually a huge, huge question for me. Right. Because that is um, many well managed organization strategy is that acquisition of whether it’s competition or collaboration or expansion, but they don’t know where to begin with that because that’s not the market. Um, broadly speaking, has gotten so convoluted from the BS of of potential investment potential buyers who have largely evaporated, you know, the the people willing to throw $1 million at an idea just aren’t around very much anymore. I have lots of ideas, but I haven’t found any of the millions they were throwing. Um, but the reality is, is, is that if you’re looking. A dear friend of mine was trying to buy, a business in the trades. He was in the trades. Previously. He was looking to buy one. He could not find another company that would take him seriously till he sat down with financials with them, because they’ve all had so many door knockers that that have expressed a level of interest that was never real. So if if that facilitation is available through Lafayette Nohc of knowing legitimate, for lack of a better term opportunities or or target acquisitions, that’s that’s a big offering.
Abhi Golhar : Yeah. So yes, the answer to your question comment is yes. Um, we have all gotten starry eyed with the idea that we’ve been sold by we’ve been sold to by Cody Sanchez, by Walker Deibel by, um, just just to name a few. By by Alex Hormozi. Um, well, Alex does something a little different, uh, by, um, Roland Frazier. And there’s one other guy, uh, Jeremy Harber. All these guys say you can buy business for no money down, and all you got to do is knock on thousands and thousands and thousands of business doors. You know where else this has been prevalent in real estate?
Joshua Kornitsky: Yes.
Abhi Golhar : Yuck.
Joshua Kornitsky: Yes.
Abhi Golhar : So now every business owner has, has, has just eyes glazed over the fact that I’m going to get five offers to buy my business, no money down. They’re going to have no financials and they’re just going to be like, okay, here’s another, here’s another cesspool of degenerates that that’s going to sit here and want to buy my company. But it’s the way in which you craft your Loi, your letter of intent, the way in which you communicate from day one, your presence, your value, your authority needs to show up well before you do. It’s literally that simple. Right.
Joshua Kornitsky: And it’s a herald having having all your goodness called before you walk through the door. Right.
Abhi Golhar : That’s something that I learned from Jillian. One of the things that I learned from her in I don’t have any acting background. I don’t really have a whole lot of a storytelling background, but I learned that because for the total number of times we’ve spent, whether it’s on the phone or happy hours or whatever, I’ve always taken away that if you have a compelling story, that’s what you need to share. Nobody gives a shit about who you are. They care about the story. They care about your the mission and why they should care. And if that’s the core pillar content, if that’s the core pillar of that’s going to drive a acquisition strategy. That’s the only thing that you need to focus on. And you don’t need Lafayette and Oak for that. You don’t need Lafayette and Oak to go set your finances right. Go find an accountant. Right. There are plenty of them. You don’t need Leno. Uh, you don’t need Leno. If you spent enough time with ChatGPT in a narrative, you don’t need Leno in the beginning. If you want a polished narrative from somebody that makes movies and films, then yes.
Joshua Kornitsky: Right.
Abhi Golhar : Hi, Gillian.
Gillian Rabin: Right.
Abhi Golhar : And then if you if after that, you’ve found businesses to buy and the SBA seven loan isn’t working anymore because their max limit is $5 million and you’re getting tossed around like everybody else. And if you want to play with the elites, then give me a buzz. Give Gillian a buzz.
Joshua Kornitsky: It it sounds and I don’t mean this in the in the legal sense, it sounds like a partnership. It sounds like it’s collaboration. It sounds like in order to really get everything you want to get out of either scaling or exiting.
Abhi Golhar : Yeah.
Joshua Kornitsky: Working with or collaborating with Lafayette is going to help you get there because yes, you can. You can do it. Look, you can absolutely bake the cake for your wedding all by yourself.
Gillian Rabin: There are so many recipes online.
Joshua Kornitsky: I mean, they are all online and you can watch them there to learn how to frost it. That’s right. You can. And I’m sure that the love that you put into that wedding cake will translate onto the plate. But if your intent is to have it look fantastic and flawless.
Gillian Rabin: Or if your intent is to have it look fantastic and flawless without putting in hours and hours of learning labor on your end too. So you can better enjoy the experience of the wedding itself.
Abhi Golhar : Yeah. So we’re in New York every month, right? The only reason that I feel I’ve been able to get access to this world and offer it is, um, I’m a kindred spirit. I did national radio on Wall Street for a decade, talking to 3 million people a day live and prerecorded two different shows, and it was that was my entry point. I’ve interviewed almost every every every banker, every investment banker, PE, private credit, etc. and I can talk the talk, kind of walk the walk.
Joshua Kornitsky: Sure.
Abhi Golhar : And every one of them will tell you Main Street business. They don’t understand the vocabulary. How do you know? How do you know to play the game if you don’t know the game exists? That’s exactly what we’re dealing with here. Farmers have the exact same same situation. 2024. Over 400,000 farmers closed their doors and walked away. They left and we’re doing nothing about it. They just don’t have a platform. They don’t have a framework.
Joshua Kornitsky: And they broadly speaking, they and this is where we started. They don’t know what they don’t know. Right, right. And and unfortunately and I don’t want to use names here because it’s not for me to call out what I think. It’s just the reality is there are people who profit from misleading and people who can, people who do profit from, um, laying out and telling a narrative and a story of fast reaches, you know, done easy. And if nothing else, from the five years that we’ve been talking about is the five years tells me that it once again turns out that good things take time. And it’s hard work. And I know, lo and behold, that’s a giant shock to everybody. But the reality is, is that the promise of fast money is pretty much always bullshit. It just.
Gillian Rabin: Is.
Joshua Kornitsky: Other than a scratch off ticket. And even then, the if you want to know when billionaires will get taxed, look at the guy in Arkansas that won $1.8 billion on a single single ticket. Guess who got taxed? That guy got taxed. Yeah.
Gillian Rabin: Yeah, yeah. And I mean, to your point about like, narratives that that kind of skew away from the truth, I would just say that that I don’t even want to call it a narrative. I just call that propaganda. Like, you’re you’re you’re misleading people and it’s a lie, and lies can be beautifully told, so beautifully told. But unfortunately, Unfortunately, lies are, uh, are not reality. And it’s not going to give you the thing that you want. Um, and.
Joshua Kornitsky: Yeah, but it leads to that walking away.
Gillian Rabin: It does it does lead to that.
Joshua Kornitsky: Because you feel led to believe that. Look, it’s it’s a, it’s a, it’s $1 million business. Um, but, you know, because we followed these three bullet points that we, we heard this one influencer talk about, it should be a $7 million business.
Gillian Rabin: That’s right.
Joshua Kornitsky: And as my father rest in peace in the car business my father used to tell him, the book says it’s worth that won’t shake the book. And when the money falls out, sell it.
Gillian Rabin: Right.
Joshua Kornitsky: That’s that’s just not how reality is. But unfortunately, it goes back to what we were talking about. Where you’ve got polluted water now?
Gillian Rabin: Yes.
Joshua Kornitsky: And and when you’ve got things that are, that are at the very least obfuscated where, where it’s difficult to tell truth from fiction, you need to collaborate with someone who ultimately has your interests at heart. Right. Because when when you’re in the boat together. It sure helps when everybody is bailing water.
Gillian Rabin: Absolutely. That’s right. I had a professor in college once say, uh, he was a technical theater professor, so we would always build all of the sets. And he would say, you can have it good, and you can have it fast, but it will not be cheap. You can have it fast and you can have it cheap, but you will not be good. You have to pick two. Yes. And so I think to the point of the five years. Yeah. Good. Fast and cheap. Um, and to the point of the five years. Yes. You have the tax, the wonderful tax benefit, but you also have the time and you have and time is such a valuable asset. Um, yeah.
Joshua Kornitsky: One of my fellow implementers, and I wish I could tell you who, but it was at a conference, made the statement that our only inventory is time. That’s it. And and from that insight, I have moved forward in my own life. Understanding how and where I use my time is is dramatically important. And if I’m in the position where I own a business and I’m looking to grow or I’m looking to exit, you have to put the value on that time to understand that if you invest it wisely, you’ll you’ll likely benefit much more than if you just rush to the wonderful sign on the side of the road that says we buy businesses written in marker. I don’t know who their market is, but I love those.
Gillian Rabin: I love them.
Joshua Kornitsky: We buy houses.
Gillian Rabin: For. Have you ever called one? Have you ever called one of those signs?
Joshua Kornitsky: I have.
Gillian Rabin: Not. I sure have. I, I just love a little.
Joshua Kornitsky: Rabbit singles in your area as well, because I’ve seen that sign.
Gillian Rabin: No, but there was a sign. I saw there was a sign that was like, uh, it was like fly fish number. And I was like, absolutely. And I called that man, and he was like, hello? And I was like, hi, I saw your sign that said Fly Fish. And he was like, yeah. And I was like, what are you are you giving me the fish? Or are you teaching me how to fly fish? Like what’s the he was like, well, I’ll take you out on the boat and we’ll teach you how to fly fish right now. And I was like, all right, and I, I loved it like, I was like, how many know I did not go?
Abhi Golhar : I’m like the both of us. Immediate concern. Whoa. Gee.
Gillian Rabin: No, I didn’t go, but I was I was very my curiosity was insatiable. I had to I had to know how many people call. Like, what? Have you taken people out on your boat already? Like, what’s this? Return on a on a marker sign?
Abhi Golhar : Have they come back alive?
Gillian Rabin: Right? Have they come back alive? Are they the bait for the fish?
Joshua Kornitsky: I was going to say. Or did the fish eat extra?
Abhi Golhar : Right, exactly. But just so much depth to this story.
Gillian Rabin: But everybody has a different narrative, you know what I mean?
Joshua Kornitsky: Uh, I can’t wait for that movie.
Gillian Rabin: Yes, it’s gonna be called Fly Fish. Um.
Joshua Kornitsky: Nice. Yeah. Somebody already made one called signs, right? Yeah.
Abhi Golhar : Exactly. Uh, yeah. The jaws of death.
Joshua Kornitsky: So let me ask this question. And this is a question that I ask a lot of my guests, and I feel like we’ve touched on this, but I want to ask this specifically from from both of you, what are the common misconceptions? What are what are the assumptions everybody makes about whether it’s scalability, whether it’s telling their story, whether it is their ability to sell. What are the things that people assume that may or may not always be the case? Because common wisdom can kill you.
Abhi Golhar : Yeah.
Gillian Rabin: I think that if you are not invested, fully invested, then nobody else will be. So I think that’s for me, that is a common misconception that people are like, I have this idea and I, you know, they build up a business, you know, and then they want to scale it, but they don’t they don’t.
Joshua Kornitsky: Want.
Gillian Rabin: To be in the boat. Right? They don’t want to be bailing the wall, the water, um, or they want to be the only person bailing the water. I think it’s it’s back to what we were talking about before, about self-reflection and understanding. So, yeah, if you’re not invested, then who else will be? If you don’t understand why you are invested, then who else will be?
Abhi Golhar : Yeah, I would say to add to that, um, I can do this myself. Common misconception. I can put off thinking about succession planning. Another five years. Another one. I don’t need a capital strategy. I have my banker. That’s one my spouse will understand. That’s another. Um. My kids will always be there to run my business afterwards. That’s another one. Um, my team gets it. That’s another one. Um, my, I can I can scale any time that I want. That’s another one. Uh, I can read as many books on Amazon.com or on Kindle, or I can order whatever. And the knowledge is readily available. That’s another one. Um, I can go to New York and go get the go get the capital. That’s another one. Yeah. That’s easy. Right? That’s obviously.
Joshua Kornitsky: Right. Just knock on the door.
Abhi Golhar : Knock on the door.
Joshua Kornitsky: Hello. That may be the longest, but best answer. Right. Because those are all misconceptions. And and if it was easy, you would do it, everybody would be doing it.
Abhi Golhar : Yeah. Go do it. Go do it. Please. Right. You know, if you really wanted this, you could have it right now. You just have to invest the time. Five, ten, 15 years, build up the network, do all the things. Or there’s a bit of a simpler path. Give us a shout.
Joshua Kornitsky: I, I often encounter in the world that I work in that that I can do it myself mindset. And I always ask them some form of the question of simply. So when you have the unfortunate circumstance where, say, a previous client has decided to file suit against you. Do you immediately enroll in law school?
Gillian Rabin: Yes.
Joshua Kornitsky: You know, is is that your your strategy is no problem. Give me about five and a half, six years and let me pass the bar, and I’ll take care of this. Or do you call your lawyer? You know, if suddenly you’ll be.
Abhi Golhar : Your retainer.
Joshua Kornitsky: Right? If the IRS has a problem, do you? And they call your your controller or your CFO? Do you say, well, all right, hang on. First I got to take the four CPA tests, which my daughter is in the process of. So I had to throw that out there.
Abhi Golhar : Nice.
Joshua Kornitsky: One down, three to go.
Gillian Rabin: Shout out daughter.
Abhi Golhar : Yes.
Joshua Kornitsky: Um, and and the reality is, is no. Because you can’t do everything. And most successful business owners at some point do bonk their head against that wall and realize, okay, the best way to solve this is, is using Jillian’s triangle. You can have it fast, you can do it great. And you can save money, but you can’t have all three.
Gillian Rabin: Not all three at the same time.
Joshua Kornitsky: There was a book written in the 60s about data processing called The Mythical Man Month. And in it, and this is, uh, or the myth of the man month.
Abhi Golhar : Myth of the man month.
Joshua Kornitsky: Myth of the man month. And I’ll send it to you. I don’t even know if it’s in print, but I do have a copy. Ah, uh, within it. And understand this is literally talking about punch cards for data processing. He, the author, posits the concept that his term management must understand that you cannot hire nine pregnant women to get the baby here in a month.
Abhi Golhar : Warren Buffett said this. No, no, I don’t think he credited it.
Joshua Kornitsky: It just has stuck with me forever because.
Abhi Golhar : It’s so good.
Joshua Kornitsky: To every business I’ve ever worked with, because money can solve a lot of problems. And if you are in the, uh, the, the side of the finances where money is just a mechanism of keeping score, you’re very used to solving your problems with money, but money can’t solve every problem. Sometimes you have to put in those five years, sometimes you have to put in that time and your creativity. You have to care. You can’t fake that in us. We teach them that if you don’t care, they don’t care.
Gillian Rabin: Right.
Joshua Kornitsky: And that is so transparent. When you turn around and you look at the example you gave earlier of Steve Jobs, and you look at the way that he drove and inspired people. Nobody says he was nice. Yeah, a lot of people say he didn’t smell that well, but.
Gillian Rabin: Bathing wasn’t a priority. Not writing. The company.
Joshua Kornitsky: Was. But he he drove allegiance and he drove loyalty. And he actually drove creativity and passion because he knew the story. He wrote the story and was smart enough to hire the the people around him that helped, uh, massage that story so that it was much more effective than he was capable of of of espousing it.
Gillian Rabin: Well, and just like we were talking earlier about Steve Jobs and how when he was hired back, it went from 19 products to three. I think it’s a similar thing to people and your energy. So are you going to be the person that you know 19 like you people, you’re known for doing 19 different things? Uh, or are you going to be the person that’s known for doing three things really well. And that, I think, is.
Joshua Kornitsky: And that that multitasking mask is not effective no matter what you believe.
Gillian Rabin: And it can work for a short term, but eventually it, um, it’s tough. It exhausts you.
Joshua Kornitsky: Juggling chainsaws is never a good idea.
Gillian Rabin: Not for a long period of time. Maybe for the fly fishing guy.
Abhi Golhar : Yeah, maybe.
Joshua Kornitsky: I mean, he’s he’s a special skill.
Gillian Rabin: Yeah.
Joshua Kornitsky: So parting thoughts. What what should people who’ve taken the time invested the time to listen to this, that now understand that Lafayette Noack has a lot that they offer and that that collaboration is expressed over time and that there’s a lot to be gained. What what should they take away from from our time today? Tell us the story.
Gillian Rabin: The story. If you are ready to scale and you are ready to reflect on where you are now, where you were before, and where you want to go, give us a call and we can help you create a compelling narrative and help you help match you to the right capital in a timely manner. And five years is a timely manner, and we do so with a lot of care. Like I genuinely, we’re not people that just want an influx of of companies and we want to to truly be there, to truly see you, to truly understand so we can actually help you. Because for me, for Abbey, for everybody at Lafayette and Oak, we just want to see growth like truly developmental growth for the individual and for the business.
Joshua Kornitsky: I think that’s a very compelling story. And as we touched on in our dialog today, there’s a lot of spirituality. There’s a lot of heart that’s part of this dialog because in many cases, people’s businesses predate their their marriages or their children And in many ways, having walked this walk myself, my business felt like my child because I gave it life. I did it, I helped it grow.
Gillian Rabin: It’s an extension of who you are, your your time, your sweat, your blood, your tears, and your ideas.
Abhi Golhar : When I was in college forever ago, 2002 to 2006, I was at the center of a of a joint FBI Department of Justice investigation for mortgage fraud. I was working with.
Joshua Kornitsky: Say, at the center.
Abhi Golhar : Yeah. Exactly that. And until I realized that they weren’t after me because I ended up being a victim of mortgage fraud. They were after my mentor. Um, I was one of 54 victims. Um, I had purchased somehow, uh, four properties, inner city Detroit. I was $1 million in debt. And by the by the end of it.
Joshua Kornitsky: Right.
Abhi Golhar : I had filed for chapter seven bankruptcy. Discharged in 2008. I had four foreclosures on my record because the Bank of America wouldn’t take them over. And I was in a corner.
Joshua Kornitsky: Right.
Abhi Golhar : And when this investigation finished, I had only one person I had I had only one person that I can count on. That was me to redraw the lines of what I thought success would be. And then a month later, I turned 21. If you’re listening and you have this sense of wonder, you have this sense of man, I’m in a tough spot. You have the sense of, I know I’ve got to do this, but it’s not a priority right now, like working out or eating organic. I would encourage you to spend the next couple of hours or a couple of days and, and really sit with your thoughts and see what bubbles up, because Even though I was in a really tough spot. Looking back, I wouldn’t have changed a damn thing. And I encourage you to do the same thing.
Joshua Kornitsky: That’s hard work.
Abhi Golhar : Yeah, it’s hard work.
Gillian Rabin: It’s reflection.
Joshua Kornitsky: And to your point earlier, Jillian, you do have to kind of sit with yourself to get there. Yeah. Um, I think it’s great guidance coming into the new year. It’s, uh, I’m not a big believer in, in, uh, New Year’s resolutions, but the reality is every day gives you the opportunity to start over. You don’t have to wait for any particular day on a calendar. Mhm. Um, thank you both.
Gillian Rabin: Thank you.
Joshua Kornitsky: Uh, so today my, my guests have been, uh, Abhi Golhar and Jillian Rabin. Um, both from Lafayette Oak, as it turns out. Um, follow them on social media. Yeah, we’ll get those links published. Uh, make sure that you, watch the videos. I know, Jillian, you’ve done some work in motion pictures. Sure have. And Abby, you’ve done some work everywhere. The momentum matrix. Do you have a book?
Abhi Golhar : I’m working on that. Okay. My agent says I need a book. So now I’m working on a book. And by me working on a book, I mean, ChatGPT working on a book.
Joshua Kornitsky: Well, that’s okay. Just talk to it and it’ll talk to you.
Abhi Golhar : And it’s a great conversation in the shower at 6 a.m.. Absolutely perfect.
Joshua Kornitsky: And when that book comes out, I’d love to have you back. And anything that we can do here to help promote you guys and the work you’re doing, I think it’s fantastic.
Abhi Golhar : Hey, thanks for having us on.
Joshua Kornitsky: Thank you. Um, this is Joshua Kornitsky professional EOS implementer and your host here on High Velocity Radio. Please join us next time. Thank you.

Robert McKnight: The Human Side of Commercial Insurance & Community Impact

February 9, 2026 by angishields

HBR-INSURICA-Feature
Houston Business Radio
Robert McKnight: The Human Side of Commercial Insurance & Community Impact
Loading
00:00 /
RSS Feed
Share
Link
Embed

Download file

INSURICAColorBar3-RobertMcKnight

Bobby-McKnightRobert McKnight is a seasoned commercial insurance specialist with nearly a decade of experience serving the real estate and construction industries.

An Arizona native and graduate of the University of Arizona, Robert began his career in commercial real estate before transitioning to land acquisition consulting. A pivotal career shift led him into insurance, where he quickly found his niche advising clients on risk in dynamic and high-growth sectors.

Currently with INSURICA, Robert has worked for global leaders Marsh and Willis, and now thrives in a team-driven culture focused on delivering tailored insurance solutions. He specializes in commercial real estate and construction risk, helping clients navigate complex exposures with clarity and confidence.

Beyond business, Robert is committed to community impact. He served with the Scottsdale Saguaros from 2018–2023, helping raise over $1 million annually for children’s charities. He now serves on the board of Save the Family, a nonprofit focused on ending family homelessness through housing, career support, and accountability-driven programming.

Robert lives in Phoenix with his wife Kelly and their two children, Brady and Blake.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-mcknight-5078397b/
Website: https://insurica.com/

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. It is my pleasure to introduce you to my guest today, Robert McKnight, client executive with INSURICA in Phoenix, where he specializes in commercial real estate and construction risk insurance. An Arizona native and University of Arizona grad, Bob has spent nearly a decade in the commercial insurance industry, earning experience with global firms like Marsh and Willis before joining INSURICA, where he’s known for his relationship driven approach and sharp understanding of sales psychology. Yes, we’re going to talk more about that outside of the office. Robert is deeply committed to his community. He spent five years with the Scottsdale Saguaros, helping raise over $1 million a year for local children’s charities. And today he serves on the board of Save the Family, supporting families on their path out of homelessness. He’s a husband, a dad and a believer in giving back to the place he calls home. Robert, welcome to the show.Robert McKnight: Thanks so much for having me, Trisha.
Trisha Stetzel: Super excited about our conversation today. But before we dive into any technical work stuff, tell us more about Robert.
Robert McKnight: Yeah, well, you hit it pretty good. I feel like I should hire you to kind of do my intro and meetings, quite frankly. But yeah. So a husband, uh, to a beautiful wife that I don’t deserve. But I’m not giving her back. Um, uh, two crazy children and a three year old and a one year old boy. And then, um, you know, Monday through Friday, you can hear me talking to real estate owners about the crazy world of commercial insurance and what’s new and what’s not new. Um, and then in my free time, I like to stay active and fit. And then also, I know we’ll get into it at some point. Um, talk about giving back to the community, which I now do through Save the Family. So a lot of great things to, um, help families in Maricopa County, which is the county we live in here in Phoenix, um, overcome homelessness and poverty and reach for self-sufficiency.
Trisha Stetzel: So that’s beautiful. Thank you for giving back. It’s so important. You know, I, I have a motto. It’s not well written, but if I go out into the community and I expect people to buy from me, then I should be giving back to that same community, right? Um, yeah. Share that in common. Yeah.
Robert McKnight: No, it’s so true. So true. Yeah. It’s even one thing. I’ve, um. You know, I’ve only been on the board with Save the Family since January of this year. But even one thing, I’ve talked to the leadership team and, you know, because it’s it’s constantly looking for different ways to funnel income because as a as a board member, right? I don’t get paid for that. That’s all. You know, quasi volunteer. I’m happy to do that. Just like my time with the Scottsdale Swirls all volunteer. But it’s it’s funny because, you know, we have clients, for instance. Um, and I actually have an event tomorrow, even though we’re, we’re seeing a ton of rain in Phoenix, so we’ll see how it goes. But, you know, when they became a client of our agency, they’re like, hey, just letting you know, part of a requirement for all of our vendors, including our insurance brokers, is that you buy a foursome to our golf tournament every year. And it’s like, it’s like, okay, so we know that going in. And so one thing I’ve really pushed back on with Save the Family is like, we’ve got to get that same methodology going on with all of our vendors. Like they they own and manage, you know, over 170 rental units. So in Arizona, just like in Houston, you know, HVAC is a big thing, especially in the summertime. So it’s like all those people coming out to service your units and whatnot, um, or restoration services. It’s like you’re giving them thousands of dollars, or you’re buying new cars every year. You’re giving dealerships thousands of dollars. You know, it’s it’s okay to go to those vendors and ask for some money back to your organization. So it’s like a quid pro quo.
Trisha Stetzel: It is. Absolutely. And, you know, we’re all there for the same reason, which is to serve the community. Uh, some in some cases not asking for money because we’re volunteering, but in other cases using vendors who also need to get paid. Right. We understand that we all want to be profitable. Whatever profitable means to you doesn’t always have to be monetary. And having those partnerships is truly important. And there are vendors out there who want to, uh, play that game, right, uh, and be a part of something bigger than just themselves. I love that, um, I’d like to circle back. I was okay to talk about work for a minute. Uh, when I introduced you talked about or I said something about sales psychology and even building rapport with anyone. What does that actually look like? I know you’re in the insurance business. You have to go talk to people all the time. Yeah. So tell me more about that. Sales psychology and building rapport with anyone.
Robert McKnight: Yeah. So I think it’s from our previous conversation, which I think you and I really intertwined with. Well, which is a lot of times and as you’re mentioning, whether it’s virtually like this, since, you know, the 2020 days of Covid, when it used to be kind of all in person before then, I remember, you know, hopping on my first virtual meeting and the camera turned on and I saw my face and it freaked me out. And now, like, look how far we’ve come in five years, because it used to be all in person, right? This used to not really be a thing. And but it’s funny because I’m meeting with a ton of people, but for the most part, um, when you’re having that first meeting, whether it’s virtual or in person, it’s it’s a complete stranger a lot of the times. Right? You don’t know them from Adam, and that’s totally okay. And that’s how business gets done a lot of the times. But sales people in general, and myself included, because no one’s perfect, we’re all still like, on a path to getting better, right? Our are terrible at to a certain extent of talking about themselves way too much, talking about their product and offering, and not taking the appropriate amount of time to get to know the person that they’re talking to.
Robert McKnight: And so the one thing that we spoke about that I think rings so true, when I first heard it, I was like, man, I am so bad at that. And I’m working every day to get better is the one upping method. Um, and one upmanship is a lot of times what it’s called. And so when you’re sitting across from a buyer or a decision maker and you see a placard on their wall or a picture with, you know, a bunch of boys, and it’s their sons and their wife, maybe. And it’s like, it’s like, oh, what was that, Joe? And it’s like, oh, well, I was just in Cabo last week, you know, doing like deep sea fishing with my with my family. And before they could even finish their sentence, the salesperson’s like, oh my gosh, I was just in Cabo for my bachelor party two weeks ago, and we did this. And you’re completely Ruining a chance to do a deep dive and get more into their story and learn more about the their why behind that story and their why behind their family and how they came to have a family and their their sons names and so many, so many more things that you can identify about them in their story that can help you just build rapport, that take it from a stranger to someone having somewhat of a relationship by the time that meeting is over.
Robert McKnight: So that’s one thing I, I really, really try to do is, um, is much as I can resist, um, talking about myself and then starting questions with what and how, which is usually going to lead to an open ended question. It’s not going to lead to a yes or no answer, and making sure that if there’s a 60 minute meeting on the books, I’m trying to talk maybe 15 minutes of it and have them talking for 45 minutes of it, regardless if we’re hitting an insurance. Because, you know, in our business, um, the sales cycle can sometimes be, you know, 18 months to three years because it’s a business to business, and it’s usually a multi-million dollar decision that they’re making annually. So they’re not going to move at the drop of a hat. Right. And so it’s it’s three four meetings sometimes stretched over a year or year and a half before you’re even making solid, solid movement on an opportunity. So building rapport is nothing to to glance over in my mind.
Trisha Stetzel: So yeah, absolutely. It’s so important, this relationship building. I know I think you used the same example in the conversation that we had before, and I said, tell me more. Right. And it’s hard to resist, I think, because we want to have that connection with someone. So we want to say, hey, you and I, we’re similar. Let’s have this conversation instead of really digging into what’s important to them. I love that such great advice on knowing what those triggers are and saying, okay, be quiet and open and using those open ended questions and starting your, uh, questions with those who? What? When? Where? Why? How so important? Absolutely. So how do you balance then? You talked about having several conversations and building rapport. It’s huge. It’s huge in my business. And in your business, how do you balance that? Building rapport, being personable with also being prepared when you’re sitting down with someone to talk about your product.
Robert McKnight: Yeah. And that’s that’s a great, great question. So building rapport I think comes from the meeting and doing some research on the individual that you’re sitting down with. Right. Like very, very similar to this having like a prep call even internally with your team to find out as much as you can about the organization or the individual you’re meeting with. And then, you know, my thing with people taking meetings with insurance professionals is one, you know, we’re we’re helping guide them towards a necessity. People have to buy insurance. A lot of people think of it as kind of a necessary evil. And fortunately I don’t I don’t see it as that. But I guess where where I’m going with that is anyone that takes a meeting with you, knowing that they currently have a broker in place, I think is feeling some sort of pain. Now, where they are on the pain scale is like on a 1 to 10. It’s very similar to going to the doctor’s office, like are you a three? Are you a six? Are you a nine? Which is like excruciating pain, right? So but still a firm believer that pain has to override the fear of change in order for change to occur, right? So it’s understanding the premium they’re paying, the losses that they’ve suffered maybe over like a five year period.
Robert McKnight: And then I know another thing that we were probably going to talk about. So I apologize for potentially jumping ahead. But is owning the idea because of what’s going on in commercial insurance is there’s really kind of been a bit of an infusion specifically in property insurance. And as it relates to commercial real estate, an infusion of capital into the reinsurance market, which is reinsurance is actually insurance for insurance carriers because the property insurance market, as far as losses go, the losses haven’t really dissipated at all. And so what it tells me is there’s a ton of huge infusion of capital coming in. Right. And basically watering down the losses. And people are getting double digit rate decreases currently on their property insurance. But at the end of the day, Tricia, if you pay travelers like the red umbrella, it’s a household name. That’s why I bring up that company. If you pay them $1 million a year in insurance and you have a goose egg of losses at the end of the year, travelers is going to give you like a nice pat on the back, maybe a hug from your underwriter and they’re going to go on their merry way. You’re not getting a dollar of that back, right.
Robert McKnight: And so where I’ve where I’ve been successful and where I’ve had a lot of changing the conversation with my insureds and clients is showing them an alternative risk transfer, a captive self-insurance on training wheels showing clients that, based off of how they’ve performed over the last five years, if they were in a model that I brought to them a self-insurance and training wheels model, because there’s still a stop loss in place. If a loss ever got too bad, there’s a carrier to come in and grab the bag, if you will. Um, they can get up to 30 to 50% of their premium back in some cases as a dividend back to their organization. So and you’re talking about real money. It’s not it’s not an if it’s a when it’s like when your losses perform like they performed in the past, you can get up to 50% of your premium back. So it’s a it’s a conversation that’s captivating to a lot of insurers, a lot of clients. Um, sometimes it’s a little window dressing. People are like, oh, it’s too good to be true. There is some risk involved. Like there isn’t any program like that where there’s an offering like that. But, um, it’s certainly great conversations to have.
Trisha Stetzel: So wow. So I’m learning so many things. I didn’t know there was insurance for insurance. Uh, so thank you for sharing that. And it sounds like that’s a big differentiator for you. And working under the, um, or in or with in Surekha. Um, what are other reasons why? So that’s a fantastic program and I love that. What are some other differentiators besides you, Robert? Because you love building rapport. And I think that the human behind the name is so important. What other differentiators does Nsereko have from other companies that people might be using or thinking about using right now?
Robert McKnight: You know, it’s funny. It’s funny you bring that up because there are, um, you know, working at two of the largest publicly traded firms in in Marsh and Willis. If you look at like the rankings and there’s a ton of mergers and acquisitions within the insurance space. But Marsh, I think is still number one and Willis is probably top five. Um, you know, companies like that. And I’m not a big fan of, of blackballing my competition. So I’m going to keep it very light. But companies like that are a big fan of data and analytics and the power of the data and the analytics. And I’m telling you from working at both of those companies, I’ve seen the data and analytics fall flat on their face in front of clients, you know. And so there isn’t a lot of solutions to be had there. So what I like about INSURICA is it’s all about client first principles, sitting down, meeting with your client, listening to your client, understanding their risks through what we call a risk assessment, which is once again asking a bunch of open ended questions and basically scoring them throughout that questionnaire, usually doing it with a colleague. So there’s a second set of ears and eyes and understanding the client’s reaction. And then coming to them with a plan based off of those questions answered, um, with basically whether it’s for their worker’s comp, whether it’s for their property.
Robert McKnight: Sometimes there’s large fleets involved with 18 wheelers driving across the country on a daily basis and a bunch of Dot regulations and whatnot. So, um, I think INSURICA holds themselves to a standard of of, you know, sometimes salespeople can get a bad rap. And to a certain extent, what I love about Eureka is where a bunch of salespeople that do what we say we’re going to do, which is a lot less common than people think it is, quite frankly. Um, and then another thing, personally for me, how I kind of build my brand outside of, you know, being a busy dad and a lot of activities outside the office is my best ability. Is my availability, right? Is when your clients I, I joke with my in-laws actually quite a bit. You know, when they’ll be visiting for a holiday or something like that and they’ll say, hey, you know, Rob, what’s your what’s your week look like? And I say, well, hey, here’s all the meetings I have on my calendar currently. And I go, But Joe wasn’t planning on his truck getting in the crash on Monday or, or, uh, or the ABC worker falling off a ladder or this person certainly wasn’t planning on their building catching on fire on a Thursday. So it’s like there’s everything you have planned for the week, and then there’s all the stuff that pop up in the world of insurance, right?
Trisha Stetzel: So yeah, absolutely. Thank you for sharing that. And I know people are already interested in having a conversation with you, Robert. What’s the best way for folks to connect with you.
Robert McKnight: Yeah. So best way is through my direct line, which is (480) 881-6236. And then my email, which is Robert McKnight at ins u r com.
Trisha Stetzel: Perfect. Thank you. As you guys know, I’ll put that in the show notes so you can find Robert’s phone number and his email address. If you’re sitting in front of your computer, you can just point and click to get in touch with him. All right. Robert. Um, you’ve been in commercial insurance for nearly a decade. So two part question what’s changed the most and what hasn’t changed at all?
Robert McKnight: What’s changed the most and what hasn’t changed at all? So I would say once again, I would say getting into the alternative risk transfers and the captive insurance, I think that’s changed the most, that’s evolved the most. Now, having said that, um, the biggest Wedge you might want to call it when you’re meeting with an insured. Unlike creating an opportunity for yourself is when you’re going out and meeting with an insured or potential new client, and you tell them about a brand new idea, and it’s the first time they’re hearing about the idea. And then a constant question you’re going to get after a presentation like that is like, wow, that’s really interesting, Robert. How long has that existed for? And you tell them that it’s existed for ten or 15 or 20 plus years. And it’s like, well, I’ve had a broker for 15 or 20 plus years that does exactly what you do. And I’ve never heard of anything that you’re talking about. So it starts to create a little bit of doubt and a little bit of pain. Like I said, that’s like, do I what? You know, I don’t know what I don’t know to a certain extent if I’m the client at that moment. And so it’s creating a wedge for me, which is great. Um, what hasn’t changed and quite frankly, is like the the worst ones that we see on, on times like that that I just described is the 30 year very stale relationship. Um, and, and the the constant of blocking other brokers. And I get it. Relationships are very important. It’s not a good thing to hire a broker and then change brokers every like 2 to 3 years.
Robert McKnight: That’s not it. But having said that, having a broker relationship and something as serious as insurance, which is responsible for protecting the company after a loss and pre-loss, quite frankly, based off of fishing trips and trips to the casino. Also, isn’t it so giving you a perfect example of it, of a potential client obviously going to keep their name out of this, but, um, that we’re we’re going through this process with currently, we missed out on getting their insurance a couple of years ago. And I talked to their CFO a couple months ago, and they had their renewal in August. And during their renewal in August, they barely talked about their cyber insurance policy at all. And last month I touched base with her, and she wants to meet in the middle of December to talk about potentially making a switch. But basically what happened a month ago was they had an uncovered cyber loss for about $900,000, and it was because they were underinsured in that specific cyber category. And so my point being is it’s a 30 year relationship where the renewal meetings have turned into like, hey, Linda. Hey, Joe. It’s like, how are your kids doing? How’s everything going? It’s like, totally get that. It’s great to have a relationship. It’s great to build rapport. We talked about the importance of rapport, but there’s also business to be done. At the end of the day. We also have a fiduciary duty to our clients to put their business in the best place forward. So going forward, I should say so hopefully that I know I said a lot there. Hopefully that answers the question no.
Trisha Stetzel: And what a great example. Thank you for for sharing that. It really brings it to life when we can share examples like that. So speaking of building rapport and relationships, we did touch on the work that you’re doing with Save the Family when we opened up. I’d like to know your point of view on the The importance of not only being a professional and having a business and working in that space, but giving back. Yeah, because you always have. And what drives you to do that? And why is it so important?
Robert McKnight: Yeah. Um, I just think it’s I think it’s so important. Um, I trying to figure out what what drives me is really like my why in life, which is really just trying to put my, my family and my, my wife and my children. You know, it’s the same thing. You can talk about life insurance to a certain extent. Like if I go if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, are they taken care of? Like, do I have to look, look on hopefully from hopefully from heaven. You know, if I made the right decisions in life that they’re in there in a good place moving forward. And so when anyone is driving around and if you’re around a a big city like Houston or Phoenix, you know, you see homeless everywhere, right? And sometimes the worst part for me is when you see a family that’s homeless, because those, those those children, you know, those parents might have made some decisions. And I’m not trying to be judgmental here, but the children certainly had nothing to do with creating that homeless nature. And so that really pulls on my heartstrings. And so what I love about Save the Family is the organization isn’t called Save the family isn’t called Save the Parents. It’s called Save the Family. So there’s usually children involved in that. And so in the last year actually, because we had a board meeting this week, Save the Family has helped 780 families, um, overcome poverty and homelessness and start to achieve self-sufficiency. So that’s getting them into, um, you know, rental programs or rental housing with some down payment assistance, helping them build up their resumes, helping them get, uh, vehicles, jobs, financial assistance, you name it. So whatever supportive services they need.
Robert McKnight: Because if you look at what Save the Family is doing, as opposed to maybe like the government funding, which is, you know, through the Department of Economic Security, someone can come get their their Snap funding or their welfare checks, and then they basically have free reign on the rest of their day. We’ll save the family. It’s a real, real big. And what I love about it is it’s not just like a blank check, and we’re just going to keep funding, and we don’t know what these people are doing all day. There’s real accountability. And so the case managers on at least a monthly basis, and a lot of times case managers are meeting with the families at least twice a month, are going to the family’s home and quite frankly, checking on the home when they should be at work and things of that nature. Because Save the Family still owns the owns the rental property, so they’re able to access the home and making sure there’s no drug paraphernalia or alcohol. The children are safe, which is obviously protecting the children’s of the utmost importance. So I love what they’re doing for the community. Um, I love that, you know, unfortunately, there’s a lot of organizations out there that are, you know, if you if you give them $100,000 check or you made $100,000 donation, you know, sometimes 25 grand of that, it’s actually going to the families. So I love that there’s a great split as far as what’s really going to the families when it comes to save the family, because that’s, that’s, um, far too uncommon, quite frankly. Um, and yeah, I just I love what they’re doing for the community that I grew up in.
Trisha Stetzel: So yeah, I love that. So I’d like to tie your and we talked a little bit about this at the beginning, your sales psychology to these nonprofit organizations and why or your thoughts on why it’s important to look at them as a business, although they’re a nonprofit. So how do you bring that sales psychology into a nonprofit organization like Save the Family?
Robert McKnight: Yeah. So it’s not it’s not really I mean, there’s there’s really no like, business opportunity for me there on on save family and that and that’s by, by no means a priority at all. That’s that’s totally me being a connector. Um, quite frankly have our gala coming up in March, so I spent a good amount. I block out some time on my calendar every week to make cold calls, literally fundraising for the gala. Um, and then yesterday, actually through a great contact I had at, um, we give her a little shout out on here, if that’s okay. Um, but, uh, Jane Demilio from Valley, uh, Toyota dealers, was a great supporter of the Scottsdale Saguaros and still is for the last ten plus years. Um, you know, basically giving away a car or a cash check through, like a raffle through the for the Scottsdale Swirls. I was able to actually connect her, uh, yesterday over lunch with the development team that saved the family. So basically trying to connect dots, basically just trying to take my my whole connection pool and trying to reroute them to, to save the family as much as I can. Um, because I love I love what the organization is doing and I want to help it however I can with it. You know, with the time I have, I don’t have all the time in the world, but the leftover time I do have in my day. I like to spend, you know, giving back.
Speaker4: So I love that. And for clarity.
Trisha Stetzel: Not about you doing business with them, but how important it is to run a nonprofit like a business.
Robert McKnight: Oh, yeah. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, we talked about, you know, in the board meeting the other day that CEO, um, you know, Rob and Julian, you know, talking about a lot of the challenges that even those businesses face, like there’s a a war and talent and you’re always you’re not always getting what you pay for. Um, same thing in the development space. It’s so important to have the right, um, development team, which is led by Rose Meyer and Misha Davis, who are an absolute dream team now. But before that, you know, in two years they had gone through like 3 or 4 chief development officers. And it just wasn’t wasn’t the right wasn’t the right fit. Constantly. Constantly. Constantly. So that that position has to be filled with extremely competent people, which they have now, which is so important because, um, if you’re not able to fundraise in those roles, you should not be in those roles, quite frankly.
Trisha Stetzel: So yeah, absolutely. Well, and oftentimes these organizations are started by people who just have a gift for giving and don’t really understand that raising money is part of the business of that nonprofit, and if they don’t have the money, they can’t serve the community that they want to serve. And I think that’s so important. And I know that you bring a lot of talent and connections. You talked about that, and it’s so important to have people like that serving inside of these organizations. So thank you for everything that you’re doing for that organization and all of your clients. Some great stories today. So as we get to the back end of our conversation, I have one last question for you and for the business owners who are listening today, sales professionals or even those community community leaders, what’s one small, consistent action they can start this week to build stronger relationships and a stronger community around them?
Robert McKnight: Yeah. So I would say more towards the sales professionals out there that might might just be getting started or might be like Robert McKnight ten years ago, who was completely lost. And and it’s that, you know, it starts off with a joke, but then there’s going to be a serious point, I promise. So I don’t condone any drug use, but the worst drug that a salesperson can take is what I call hopium. So not opium. Hopium. So I’m sitting around at my desk. I should be making calls. I should be making connections. I should be at association association meetings. But instead I’m refreshing my LinkedIn 15 times a day. Just thinking that a prospect or a huge fortune 500 company is going to LinkedIn, message me and say, Robert, can you please do my insurance? Never going to happen, Tricia. Never going to happen for anyone.
Speaker4: Confused.
Robert McKnight: Robert I know, I know, this is never going to happen. I’m sorry. And so my point with that is don’t get high on hopium be honest with yourself. No one knows your sales pipeline or your sales funnel better than you. You know, your bosses might. There might be smoke and mirrors based off of what you’re putting in Salesforce and whatnot. So be honest with yourself. Be honest with where you are in your business. Be honest with what you need to do and then implement the right discipline to make it happen. Um, it’s not sales. Salespeople are built because we were not meant for rocket science. It’s not that hard to succeed, but it does take discipline to do the right things day in and day out.
Speaker5: So I love that. I think that’s fantastic.
Trisha Stetzel: And I know there are people listening who know me, like, just pick up the phone. You can’t wait for it to ring.
Speaker5: You gotta go.
Robert McKnight: Yeah, yeah. No, just it’s gonna. Yeah, I’m sure it’s gonna ring and it’s going to be Nordstrom’s or or Nvidia. They’re going to say, yeah, please do my insurance. It’s like, I’m still waiting for that call. I’m still waiting.
Trisha Stetzel: Well, and you said some things that I think are really brilliant pieces of advice as well is get to know them, you know, where do they love to vacation. Did they go fishing in Cabo? Learn more about that. What are their children’s names? Like so much around, just getting to know them is so important. And it’s brilliant what you do in your business and even for the community. Robert, thank you so much for joining me today. It’s been my pleasure to host you.
Robert McKnight: Oh, thank you for the time. Hope we can do it again one day.
Trisha Stetzel: So really I would love that. Yeah. How about 2026 Robert comes back and we’re going to talk. Yeah I love that. All right Robert thank you so much again. And you guys it’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in this conversation that I had with Robert, please share it with a fellow entrepreneur, veteran or Houston leader ready to grow. And be sure to follow, rate and review the show. It helps us reach more bold business minds just like yours. And of course, your business, your leadership and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.

Hormones, Habits, and Happiness: A Journey to Holistic Well-Being with Amy Lenius

February 9, 2026 by Jacob Lapera

High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Hormones, Habits, and Happiness: A Journey to Holistic Well-Being with Amy Lenius
Loading
00:00 /
RSS Feed
Share
Link
Embed

Download file

On this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee interviews Amy Lenius, Director of Group Coaching at Next Level University. Amy shares her personal journey overcoming health challenges, her transition from massage therapy to coaching, and her holistic approach to personal development. She discusses the importance of sustainable habits, consistency, and finding the right coach. Amy offers practical advice for listeners on building lasting change, emphasizes the value of self-awareness, and highlights how small, adaptable steps can lead to meaningful growth in health, business, and life.

Amy Lenius is the Director of Group Coaching at Next Level University, Professional Speaker, Event Coordinator, MC, and Next Level Certified Personal Development Coach

She helps people (mostly women) redefine success in a way that feels deeply aligned through clarity, self-belief, emotional resilience, self-worth, and sustainable daily habits

Over the last eight years, she has spoken on stages at events dedicated to health, healing, and personal development. She currently serves as the MC and speaker for Next Level Live each year and has been featured on over 100 podcasts

Her coaching work is rooted in a whole-person approach, addressing not just mindset, but also health, relationships, purpose, and identity. She specializes in guiding women to reconnect with themselves, honor their cyclical nature, discover what success and fulfillment truly mean to them, and live in a way that reflects their values and vision.

Connect with Amy on Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Amy Linnaeus’s personal journey and health challenges, particularly with endometriosis.
  • Transition from massage therapy to public speaking and coaching.
  • Overview of Next Level University and its holistic approach to personal development.
  • Coaching philosophy emphasizing habit-based strategies and sustainable growth.
  • Importance of finding the right coach and evaluating coaching relationships.
  • The role of consistency and small, manageable actions in achieving personal goals.
  • Addressing internal barriers such as self-worth and clarity in clients.
  • The significance of adaptability in creating sustainable fitness and wellness habits.
  • The interconnectedness of various life areas (health, work, relationships) in personal success.
  • Encouragement for listeners to take actionable steps toward their goals and connect with Amy for support.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is gonna be a good one. Today on the show, we have the director of Group Coaching at Next Level University, Professional Speaker, Event coordinator, MC, and Next Level Certified Personal Development and Success Coach from Next Level University. Amy Lenius. Welcome.

Amy Lenius: Hi. Thank you. I’m so excited to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, I am excited to learn what you’re up to. Well, let’s just start at next level University. How are you serving folks over there?

Amy Lenius: Oh yeah. So Next Level University is a company that I partnered with I think going on four years ago now. So it was founded almost nine years ago by Kevin Palmieri and Allen Lazarus. They were deeply invested in creating a space of holistic self-improvement for the sake of success. Now you won’t hear us talk about holistic self-improvement as much in those words anymore, because no one knows what the heck we’re talking about. So we have just switched it to personal development, but we deeply do believe that there is a next level in health, wealth, quality of life and love for everyone out there and how all of them are integrated together. Even though I think we like to think those things are separate sometimes. And so what we do is we have a platform where there’s a daily podcast that the guys do. We have group coaching. We have one on one coaching. We offer high level business coaching through Allen, our CEO. We have free book clubs, free masterclasses every month. We have a lot going on and like you said, we have group coaching as well, which is one of my favorite things that we get to do because that’s something the three of us get to do together. And so it has been probably one of the best and most aligned partnerships I’ve ever been a part of. And like I said four years ago and still going strong for me and it’s been great.

Lee Kantor: So what’s your backstory? How’d you get involved in this line of work?

Amy Lenius: It’s it’s quite a lot, actually. So it’s funny, I actually grew up very sick. So I grew up with a female condition called endometriosis. And that’s where my journey really started. I grew up very sick with that, and in my early 20s, I myself was in school for anatomy and physiology and wanted to have this different experience with my health. And so I started taking on different ideas, different ideologies, stepping away from modern medicine and seeing where I could take my health. And I ended up over years getting better and better and better from a condition that I was told I would never be pain free from, and maybe even never have kids. I was able to have two beautiful boys. And so it started with started with resiliency. It started with taking my own empowered stance on bodily body autonomy, bodily health. And then it I couldn’t help but bring it into my practice as well. And so I started bringing in these conversations with the women I had on the table. I was a massage therapist at the time, and I had a practice based around pre and post-natal care for women, pelvic balancing for women. And I started speaking into their lives, and then I started getting into the natural wellness space and into those rooms, and I started speaking in those rooms. And then I got to speak on stages and give beautiful presentations. My my favorite was my keynote, Holistic Healing for Your Hormones.

Amy Lenius: And so I got to just really be involved in the women’s health space and created my own group coaching program from there, and became a client of Next Level University. Along the way, Allen was helping me with my business. Kevin was helping me with the podcast I had myself at the time, and then I sent that presentation, that keynote speech to Allen because he’s a fellow public speaker. And I said, hey, I I would love some feedback on this from someone who also does this. And he had some really great feedback for me. And he said, you know what? We would love for you to come and emcee our live event that we do once a year. And that was four years ago this spring. And so it was, like I said, just this different space. It was me saying a bunch of aligned yeses, kind of yes, and figure it out. But to be asked to come speak in the personal development space and to help throw a personal development event was very different from where I had started within public speaking and things. And so it kind of just said yes, figured it out and loved everything that they were doing. Like I said, I was already a client, but to move into being in a partnership with them was fascinating and it’s been really fun.

Lee Kantor: So how did you go from being a massage therapist to a public speaker? What was kind of the impetus to make that transition? Because there are so many massage therapists out there that it doesn’t even occur to them to go that route.

Amy Lenius: Yeah, it started because of mostly my healing journey. So it was a combination of I have this background in anatomy and physiology. I know other women struggle with their hormones. And so I had this very specific message that I wanted women to hear. And I think when we have a specific message on our heart that we know people need to hear, it gives us the boost and it decreases that fear of public speaking. No one likes to public speak. On average, people typically fear death less than they fear public speaking. But, um, it really started when because, like I said, the natural wellness space. So when I started taking control of my health, I was going into naturopathic practices and things and started getting control of my internal environment. And then someone brought to my attention, well, what about your external environment? What about endocrine disruptors? Stress, you know, persons, places, things, all sorts of different things that really affect our health and within the company that I found really aligned, and supportive products like essential oils, like different herbs, like natural cleaning products and things. That’s where I started to hit that next level of my health and that next level of healing. And I started sharing my story within that community and at those company events. And so it just kind of snowballed from there.

Lee Kantor: Now, in your coaching practice, were you kind of coming up with your own methodology or were you, um, kind of getting certified from a variety of different coaching methodologies and philosophies?

Amy Lenius: Um, all of the above, actually. So I’m a forever learner. I love to learn. I love studying psychology and and the human nervous system and people in general, and again, anatomy and physiology and things as well. Stress reduction, very, very female focused. And so I have a lot of studying hours under my belt and different certifications and things. And then from that, and from my own experience, I did create my own group coaching program that was called the Peaceful Period Project, where I just took women through everything they needed to know about their hormones and how. Yes, pain is common, but it’s not normal. And we went through that whole process. And now with Next Level University, I get to bring all of that in, which is such a blessing and a gift because like I said, this company was founded by two just healthy masculines and I don’t think they expected to have someone come in and be this more female face, but that’s what it’s grown into, and I can’t help but bring everything from that into this. And I’ve been more than supported and celebrated in doing so. So even now, with my clients and on podcasts like we’re talking about right now, I can’t help but bring it in to make sure they’re aware that they are these cyclical beings. So even if we’re talking about personal growth and success with their version of success is and how we’re building that, it always comes in. So they do find they go really well together.

Lee Kantor: Now, for folks out there that are listening that maybe haven’t gone through coaching, how do you recommend them vetting and kind of finding the right, uh, coach or coaching practice that works for them?

Amy Lenius: Oh, absolutely. You want to be so discerning when you are stepping into the space and looking for guidance, mentorship and coaching. What a great question, Lee. I am deeply passionate about this because I think nowadays you can go on the internet and see anybody spouting anything. You can rent cars to look successful. You can. There’s so much you can do. So make sure you’re very discerning about who you are, giving your time, energy and money to, and start with the process of do you think this person shares similar values to you? Have they created? What you can see is a genuine and authentic lifestyle that you yourself would like to have. Do they have the relationship that you would like to have? Do they have the parenting styles that you would like to have, the fitness styles that you would like to have. Again, there’s so many different kinds of coaches and mentors. What is it you’re specifically looking for? Make sure you find someone who is ahead of you in that area, but also someone who resonates with the lifestyle that you want to lead. And we want to make sure that they are speaking to you in your language. So yes, they you want them to be affirming and validating, but not so much that you’re not getting challenged because the reason you’re not succeeding in the thing that you want to be successful in isn’t because you already believe what you believe or do what you’re doing.

Amy Lenius: It’s because there’s something missing. There’s a belief that’s not there or there that’s holding you back. There’s actions that need to be taken. And so a good coach is also going to help you unearth those. They’re going to help you with the habits and the tangible things you need to do every day to get to that goal. But they’re also going to work with the human along the way the identity, the core wounds, the core aspirations, how they go together. There is I mean, I could talk about this forever. There’s so much that needs to go in to genuinely speaking into someone’s life. And it is an important, an important role to take and to not take it lightly. And it is such a privilege to be able to speak into people’s lives. But you have to make sure you’re doing it right. And one of the simplest examples I can give is if you’re talking to someone with high self-belief, the same way you’re talking to someone who has low self-belief, or vice versa. You are doing damage either way, and so you need to be able to discern that as a coach, as someone who speaks into people’s lives and so give people a chance. If you’re called to work with someone, do, but always feel safe in knowing that you are an empowered individual who can always step away if it doesn’t feel right.

Lee Kantor: So what are kind of the non-negotiables or the true North’s that are part of your program? What are kind of those foundational elements that your program brings to bear?

Amy Lenius: So the coaching that we do at Nextlevel University now is very much habit based. We believe in the compound effect. We believe that we can reverse engineer your goals into small, sustainable daily habits. So we have a lot of how to’s. How is this going to work within your current lifestyle? Because everyone is an individual, we have people that we work with who are high level business owners. And we also have, you know, stay at home moms who are also just looking for holistic success, personal development support, and maybe to bring in 3 to $500 a month in something that brings them passion and purpose. And so there’s a wide spectrum there. And again, you can’t talk to one the same way you talk to the other. So it’s very customized what we do. But the through line is the same. We’re going to make sure you’re dialed in with habits, making sure we’re measuring what is most important to be measured so that we can see where things are working and where we can can something and bring in something new. But along with all these tangible externals, we’re always touching in on internals. We’re making sure we’re assessing identities. Do your core beliefs and core values even align with the goals that you currently have, because if they don’t, you’re going to find a way to go off the rails. What is your core wound? What is your attachment style if you’re looking for relationship support? Because again, we believe in holistic success. So everything affects everything else is what holistic means. So whether you’re struggling with your health, it’s going to affect your work and how you parent. If you’re struggling at work, it’s absolutely going to come home and affect how you’re in your relationships at home as well. And so helping people understand that it’s all integrated and we can get even just 1% better regularly through aligned action and habits.

Lee Kantor: So is there anything right now a listener could do that’s actionable based on your philosophy, where they would see some something?

Amy Lenius: I would look at your ability to be consistent. We see that a lot. People struggle to be consistent with the things that they want to do. And so if you’re struggling to be consistent, even though you’ve been called to do this thing, you want to do it. You’ve tried, you’ve started, you’ve stopped. If you are unable to be consistent at something, it’s genuinely because you’re not setting yourself up for success. You just haven’t found the version of that thing that you want to do that is sustainable and realistic in your lifestyle as it is right now. You need to have humility to start small so that you can expand into it, as your capacity for the thing grows, as it finds a home in your day to day life. And so what is your level of belief in that thing? Do you believe it’s possible? Do you believe it’s possible for you? Do you believe it’s going to be worth it to work through the hard things that are going to get in your way on some of the days that you’re trying to do this thing? Do you have humility? Self actuate accuracy? Is it sustainable? If you are trying to work out for an hour a day and you’ve never been able to consistently do that, drop it, drop the time and then build into that. Start with ten minutes if you have to. It’s important. More important to build it into the identity first than it is to keep pushing yourself into an hour and then having that start stop, start stop, start, stop.

Amy Lenius: We never want to be the person who has to go from 0 to 100 all the time. We want to build from 0 to 1, from 1 to 2, and then we want to make sure that there’s grace, there’s adaptability within this habit, within this thing you want to do, because life goes off the rails regularly. If you have any kind of variables in your life, like children and pets and a busy schedule and a job, then sometimes we need to adapt those habits. And so how can you have an adaptive version of the habits where you can give it 30%, even if that’s all you have to give to it, and you still get the check of the box dopamine hit and the hey, I did the thing I said I was going to do, even though it wasn’t at 100%. And that’s okay. And then you need to be able to pull in grit. Some days it sucks. Some days you need to have an f my feeling moment and just get it done, check the box, and then you are going to be able to build into someone who has the identity of I do the things I say I’m going to do because I set myself up consistently, successfully to be able to consistently do them.

Lee Kantor: Is there a story you can share that, um, maybe with a client? Obviously don’t name their name, but maybe share the challenge they had when they started working with you and how you were able to help them get to a new level or the next level in this case?

Amy Lenius: Mm, absolutely. I’ll actually just use myself with the framework that we just talked about. So because I grew up so sick, I had this underlying belief that my body is a broken piece of garbage to something that. So I had this thing that my body was a broken piece of garbage. And every time I tried to build into a fitness regiment, my inflammation would kick up. I would overdo it and then have to take a bunch of days off to recover and then try again. And I was going from 0 to 100 all the time. And then I was coaching with Alan one day, our CEO, and he said, okay, I know you want to move your body. I know you are looking to be more physically healthy. How can we make that happen? He said. What about going to the gym every day? And I said, my guy. Absolutely not. I do not believe it is possible for me to get to a gym every day. One I don’t even have a gym around me. I live in a teeny tiny town on a dirt road. We don’t have a gym. I’d have to go to the next town over. So right there, there’s a huge barrier to entry. And he said, okay, what about if you started lifting weights for an hour every day? I said again, Alan, an hour every day lifting weights. I don’t believe that I could sustain that every day. I’m a homeschooling mom of children. I have my career here.

Amy Lenius: We have so much going on. And so we just kept going back and forth until I had belief in the thing that I was going to be able to do. And what we settled on was, I am going to move my body for a half hour every day in a way that feels aligned to me, because I’m not going to feel like lifting weights every day, and I’m not going to feel like just going for a walk every day. Like I said, I do live very cyclically with my hormones as I help other women do, and so that matters when it comes to fitness for women as well. And so it gave me a measurable amount so I could measure the half hour. But I had freedom within that to do what I felt like doing that day. As long as I was moving my body for 30 minutes. So there was the belief part we needed to find what belief I had in my possibility, in my potential, and then to be able to be humble in that. I could have easily just tried to impress Alan and be like, yeah, absolutely. I can lift weights for an hour every day. I would have done it for three days and then hated my life and then blamed either the weights or myself. So I had to have humility there for some self actual accuracy. There it is. And then we just built it up in a sustainable way. It was, okay, we’re gonna do it for half hour and we’re gonna see how long we can go to do that, and then we’ll build it up and then we’ll build it up if you choose.

Amy Lenius: If not, I’d stay at the half hour whatever feels best to you. And then I had to have adaptability. And so some days going for little walks with my kids had to be the thing that I did that day. Sometimes it was mobility. I have been sick and I have lied on the floor and just done long form stretches just to keep the streak going. That’s another hack. Track count your days that you do something because as that builds, it gets really hard to break the streak. Oh my gosh, am I going to break a 50 day streak just because I don’t feel like it today? No. Absolutely not. So that’s a little neuroscience hack for your brain. And then some days, yeah, I had to get real gritty about it because I have very busy days where things go off the rails regularly. I live a very gratefully full life. And so implementing these kinds of practices have allowed me to now work out for a half hour every day. Now I’m up to 40 minutes every day, and I’m lifting weights regularly for over 1200 days. And I know that because I keep track. And so these small, sustainable things, if you give yourself the grace of time, do build into something really amazing.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you have kind of an ideal client profile? Is there an avatar for the perfect client for you? You mentioned women a lot.

Amy Lenius: Absolutely. I personally love I love working with women, but I do have a couple men on my coaching roster right now, and that’s been really, really fun, I love it. We’re building out their their businesses, creating habits for them, you know, helping them show up. And they came to me because they also knew they needed the identity work along the way. And that’s where I really thrive. And so I do have what I believe is an ideal client, and that is someone with humility, with coachability and with work ethic. Because at the end of the day, you have to get the things done that you say you’re going to do to reach the goal. Again, you don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to reach the goal. But if you want to reach the goals, there are things that need to be done and there. It’s important to be able to have someone speak into your life and tell you how to do that. Now, are we going to have trial and error days where we set a goal, We set a habit and we realize, oh my gosh, okay, after a few days of getting zero on this thing, that just means we’re not in a sustainable place yet. It doesn’t mean you’re wrong, doesn’t mean the habits wrong yet. We just need to adjust and to pivot. And so yeah, work ethic, coachability humility. And I mean, we attract a lot of people with high self-belief. So that high self-efficacy, they really believe that they can, with enough time, energy and effort, achieve external results. But they have a lot of low self-worth. We attract a lot of those people, so we get to build up their self-worth along the way, and I love that work as well.

Lee Kantor: So what’s kind of the struggle or pain these people are having right before they call you? Is there something happening that’s a trigger for them to say, you know what, I should call Amy and her team.

Amy Lenius: Typically, it’s a lack of clarity. They just need help with the how to’s.

Lee Kantor: And but how does that show up? Like what is what’s the thing that’s happening where they’re like, hey, I have to make a change. Like, what is the thing that’s tangible that they can see and feel so they know, hey, if this is happening to me, I should be open to making some sort of a change.

Amy Lenius: Yeah. So they have a vision and they don’t know how to how to get it. So they’re struggling with doing all of these things that keep them busy. They’re doing a lot of busy work, but nothing’s moving the needle. They’re not seeing success in the thing that they want to see success in. So they don’t know how to leverage that 20% that moves 80% of the needle. It’s it is it’s clarity. People are so bombarded with the busyness of the world and other people’s opinions. We have so much access to information nowadays that we actually don’t know what’s right for us and how to be discerning. And so people come in because they’re overwhelmed with not knowing what to do specifically to reach their goal. Like I said, they’re looking for clarity. And clarity creates certainty. Certainty creates action. And so they’re looking for just those tangible steps typically. And then it’s really dependent on what their goal is. So if they have podcasting goals, they go to Kev. If they have high level business goals, they go to Alan. If they have goals, but they know something inside them is getting in the way. They typically come to me and so they know that, hey, I want this success, but I’m tripping myself up along the way because I can’t hold boundaries with anybody. I can’t keep a promise to myself for the life of me. I struggle to invest in myself. I don’t believe it’s possible for me. I have feelings of being unlovable or unwanted. There’s so many nuances in that. But they come to me for more of honoring the human along the success journey.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team. Is there a website? Is there a best way to connect?

Amy Lenius: Yeah, absolutely. So there is a website next level Universe.com. And if you have any questions or just want someone to talk to you, you can always reach out to me. It’s just amillennial on Facebook or Instagram and you’re going to get me in my DMs. We are entering a time where AI and all sorts of things can happen in a message, and that is something that we’re dedicated to sticking to is human to human connection. So if you message me on those platforms, you will be getting me. Not AI, not my assistant. It is going to be me. And I’m happy to answer any questions that you have.

Lee Kantor: Now we’ve been talking about next level university, but the website is next level universe.

Amy Lenius: Com um.

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

Amy Lenius: Thank you. Thank you so much for the great questions I enjoyed it.

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

Tagged With: Amy Lenius, Next Level University

Change That Actually Sticks: Bridging Technology, Process, and People with Anne Kimsey

February 4, 2026 by angishields

CBR-Anne-Kimsey-Feature
Cherokee Business Radio
Change That Actually Sticks: Bridging Technology, Process, and People with Anne Kimsey
Loading
00:00 /
RSS Feed
Share
Link
Embed

Download file

Brought to you by Diesel David and Main Street Warriors

CherokeeSponsorImageDieselDavidMSW

In this episode of Cherokee Business Radio, host Joshua Kornitsky sits down with Anne Kimsey, Founder and CEO of New Path Points, to explore why organizational change often fails—and what leaders can do to make it succeed. Anne shares insights from her career across finance, Six Sigma, consulting, and product management, explaining how real change happens when people—not just technology and processes—are prioritized. They discuss common pitfalls in large-scale transformations, the cost of ignoring change management, and practical strategies leaders can use to drive adoption and reduce wasted investment.

NPPFullLogo

AKHeadshotAnne Kimsey is the founder of New Path Points, a consulting firm that helps companies navigate complex transitions, specifically system rollouts and post-M&A integrations.

Anne specializes in change management at the intersection of people, process, and technology. She’s the person organizations call when Go Live is around the corner and things aren’t ready. With a background in change and product management, Six Sigma, customer experience, and operations, Anne brings clarity, structure, and execution discipline to projects that are stuck, stalled, or spiraling.

From rescuing $2M rollouts to achieving 90% adoption in 60 days, she brings practical calm to high-stakes moments.

Connect with Anne on LinkedIn.

Episode Highlights

  • People Over Process: Anne explains why even the best technology and processes fail if employees don’t adopt them, and why an “okay plan with buy-in” outperforms a perfect plan nobody uses.
  • The Hidden Cost of Poor Change Management: Organizations can waste 40–60% of transformation budgets when they ignore the human side of change and focus only on technology and timelines.
  • Why Change Fails (and How to Fix It): Anne outlines key red flags—leadership misalignment, unrealistic deadlines, and “we’ll figure it out” planning—that signal a change initiative is headed for trouble.
  • Building Trust During Transformation: She shares real-world examples of how listening to frontline employees and acting quickly on feedback builds trust, increases engagement, and improves implementation success.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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. I am Joshua Kornitsky professional implementer of the entrepreneurial operating system known as EOS. And your host here today, I am excited to share with you that in this week of time between Christmas and New Year’s, I managed to secure myself a really incredible guest and I can’t wait to introduce everybody to her. But first, I want to remind everybody that 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, please 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 check them out at diesel. David. Well, as I said, I was really, really thrilled to be able to get such an incredible guest. I am joined in studio today by Anne Kimsey. Anne is the founder and CEO of New Path Points, and what she does is she works with organizations that are navigating meaningful change, particularly where technology process and people intersect. Her work focuses really on helping leaders think through what change actually looks like once it reaches the people doing the work. And we’re going to explore how organizations prepare for change in ways that create clarity instead of disruption.
Anne Kimsey: Sounds great.
Joshua Kornitsky: Welcome, Anne. I’m so happy to have you here. Thank you for taking time out of your schedule for me today.
Anne Kimsey: Absolutely happy to be here.
Joshua Kornitsky: It’s wonderful to have you. So if you would, Let’s begin at the beginning. Tell us your origin story. Tell us how how you came to be someone who’s focused on change management.
Anne Kimsey: Absolutely. So my background is absolutely varied, which I come to find. That’s how people land in change management for the most part. So I’m not your you know, I’ve been sitting here for three decades in change management. I started off as actually a staff accountant. Okay. Then I went into finance and then I went into sales compensation. So, you know, it’s your journey always is interesting where it starts out. Right. And, um, so with that then I moved actually where I really see a lot of the change came in at is I had an opportunity through I have three kids. And so I after my third kid, I was like, hey, I’m ready for a change. Like put me somewhere else in the organization. And I got the opportunity when I was at McKesson to join Six Sigma.
Joshua Kornitsky: Oh, wow.
Anne Kimsey: And so being and I became a Six Sigma black belt and little work. Little work. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. There was. That test was hard.
Joshua Kornitsky: I can’t even imagine.
Anne Kimsey: We, um. So there we were, as we were, you know, focused on projects. One of the things we did was change management, because you can’t just roll out, you can’t roll out these new processes and whatnot without change. So I really got into change there, but not full time. So even after that, I went on and I went did sales enablement, sales operations, customer experience. So I was focused on customer implementations, customer support. Then I actually ventured over into product management.
Joshua Kornitsky: So because you were bored?
Anne Kimsey: Because absolutely, I was like, hey, there’s a there’s a challenge, let’s go do it. And with that customer implementation and customer support and product management, there is so much change management that’s needed there because you’re trying to drive adoption.
Joshua Kornitsky: You’re you’re touching on areas that I’ve had mild experience in and some deep experience. I just one of those is a full time, uh, mindset. So I can’t imagine you must have a very holistic view.
Anne Kimsey: Exactly. And so I think that’s what helps me. So as I as I went on from product management, then I was fortunate. I got into a consulting company that I worked at for a few years, and we ended up with some cool change management gigs that I was able to get in and lead. And when I got in there, it was like, wow, I’m home. This is like what I really enjoy.
Joshua Kornitsky: That’s awesome.
Anne Kimsey: I think the reason I really enjoy it so much is because I love relationships. I thrive off of relationships. Um, it’s it’s my superpower. And so when I, when we when I go in and when I started that with change management, I was like, this is fantastic. This is what I want to do. This is where I want to be. And so that’s that’s how I landed here.
Joshua Kornitsky: It’s a great story. And as you mentioned, uh, pretty big firms that you were working with. Not not small fries. Yes. Um, how do you really describe the role that you try to fill for your clients? Because you talked about technology, you talked about relationships, you talked about people. Are you bridging those? How does that work exactly?
Anne Kimsey: So definitely bridging that gap. And so even I saw that back in the days when I was doing Six Sigma and, and all those other roles that I’ve done, I was always recognizing that there was a gap there between what the the tech team was doing versus the business side of the equation versus getting it out. I mean, ultimately, in any business, we have an end user, we have a customer that we have to get to. And it was bridging all those pieces together. And one of the things that we would talk about in Six Sigma is you could have the best plan, the best process, the best everything. But if the people do not change with it, then your plan is not good. So we would talk about we would be like, hey, I’d rather have a okay plan, right? With people adoption, I will have a much higher success rate than a super duper awesome plan and very little people adoption.
Joshua Kornitsky: In the universe that I live in. As an EOS implementer, that’s the difference between success and failure. Absolutely right. If the leadership teams all in, but nobody outside of the leadership team knows there’s been a change. Nothing actually changes.
Anne Kimsey: Exactly.
Joshua Kornitsky: We’re using new terms. We’re calling it something different. Yeah, but at the end of the day, it makes very little of the impact. And and it sounds like not just a bridge, but it sounds like there’s that you’re assisting at a strategic level.
Anne Kimsey: Absolutely.
Joshua Kornitsky: Because it’s one thing to talk about change management down on the ground. We are moving from system A to system B, but I know from my own experience and you know much better than I do, you know, back it up when when we’re changing from this ERP or CRM to to this one. When does that when should that planning start?
Anne Kimsey: Absolutely. Yeah. So I mean that that’s one of those things I will say most of the time I get brought in when they’re about to go live. We’ve gotten brought in before. We’re like, hey, we’re going live next week. We need a change management plan. We’re like, sure, you know, yeah, um, can we move that off a little bit? Sure. Or a lot of times I get brought in after it doesn’t go well. So we’ve implemented it. No one’s using it. Don’t know why. Um, I’ve been lucky a couple of times where they’ve actually brought us in early and they said, hey, we’re thinking about it, we’re doing it. We’re going to be there. It’s about a few months off that is perfect, where we can actually plan way ahead of time and talk through those strategies and talk through everything that’s needed.
Joshua Kornitsky: And is part of that planning process. When when you are in the have the opportunity to be involved Strategically before the ship is already hitting the water, so to say. Um, you know, does that involve budgetary planning as well?
Anne Kimsey: Yes, absolutely. And so from a budget perspective, I’ll say, just in general, we talk about or I talk about that folks will spend millions of dollars. I mean, if you’re a small.
Joshua Kornitsky: Yeah, you’re a small.
Anne Kimsey: Fry. Maybe, maybe not millions of dollars, but the experiences I’ve been in millions of dollars, they should take at least 10% of that. I would even say 5% of that to focus on change management, to focus on that people side.
Joshua Kornitsky: Well, and what have you seen when it even when you weren’t involved at the strategic level, what happens to those budgets?
Anne Kimsey: Oh yeah. From that perspective. Well, what do you mean from those budgets? You mean like if they don’t do it or which part?
Joshua Kornitsky: Well, so in my experience and with what I’ve seen, um, all the best laid plans without having expert consultation, there tends to be a lot of waste. And that’s what I’m really asking. Because if, if, whether it’s $50,000 being allocated for the transition or $15 million being advocated for the transition, if you don’t have a plan, isn’t waste almost built in?
Anne Kimsey: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. So yeah, I’ve talked about this before is that you’ll see you can see 4,060% of the budget wasted.
Joshua Kornitsky: How do you prevent that? That’s crazy.
Anne Kimsey: Exactly. And so that prevention is is making sure that we focus on the people side of change, that human side of change. Because like we were just talking about is you can have all the best laid plans. You can have the best tech in the world, right? And if people don’t adopt it, they don’t take it, they don’t use it. You’re gonna have waste. What’s crazy to me, though, is that that’s not that number. That 40 to 60% is not a new number. I mean, there’s 75% failures, AI, there’s 90% failures. These stats have been around for decades. If you go look, you go look in the 80s, the 90s, you see these same stats and I’m like, we are in 2025 and 2026 and here we are. We’re still talking about failure. It’s like why are we not focusing there? One of the things I’ve seen in my personal, in my personal space where I’ve been at is a lot of the change is driven by leadership and is driven by a date. We need to get.
Joshua Kornitsky: By this.
Anne Kimsey: By June 1st. No, no holds barred. Just gotta go. Don’t care. You people go make it happen. And then and then middle management is sitting there going, oh, I got to make this happen. How do I make this happen? And then it ends up just being like that, that waterfall kind of thing of like it all goes down. And that’s another area where I see a gap between leadership and, and management and the front line of getting there.
Joshua Kornitsky: So when when that happens, things go sideways.
Anne Kimsey: Yes.
Joshua Kornitsky: And, and can you share a story in your experience where, where something like that happened and you were able to make an impact.
Anne Kimsey: Absolutely. Um, well, I definitely have a few stories. So it’s like.
Joshua Kornitsky: Picking your choice of of the one that will resonate the most because, um, you know, I’m sure particularly at some of the dollar amounts you’re talking about, some of these organizations are whatever comes after massive. But just to put it in context, give us give us some idea without obviously giving away information that we can’t share.
Anne Kimsey: Exactly. Yeah. So I think there’s um, like like I said before, a few times where I’ve been in is where they’ve tried to roll it out a few times. Right.
Joshua Kornitsky: Oh, multiple false starts.
Anne Kimsey: Multiple false.
Joshua Kornitsky: Starts. Okay.
Anne Kimsey: Type of thing of where I’ve seen those things happen. And so where when I go in, I step in and I’m like, hey, what’s happening? What’s going on? Why did it why why did we have a false start? Why did we not get where we were going? What is what is going on? Um, and so do that root cause discovery. Get in there. Understand that 99% of the time it’s people. It’s people related.
Joshua Kornitsky: And so I’m only laughing because it’s true.
Anne Kimsey: You know it’s true. And so they’ll sit there and go, hey, we you know, again, SAP, Salesforce, NetSuite, HubSpot, all those kind of things. They’ll go in and they’ll say, but, but they have to use it. So they have to use the tool. So there is no change management that needs to happen because they have to adopt it. I was like, people don’t have to really do anything right. People find workarounds, they find this. So that’s what what I find is like, is change being done to me or is change being done for me?
Joshua Kornitsky: That’s a great mindset because that’s the difference.
Anne Kimsey: It is. And so that’s where I’ve gone in. And so in this case where they’ve had some false starts and missteps, whatever I go in and I’m like, hey, people feel like it’s being done to them. How can it be that they’re it’s done for them? Or they’re like, hey, we rolled this out and they’re doing this, but this process, this feature, this whatever doesn’t work for me. It doesn’t do the job. So that’s why I’m having to do a workaround. I’m not. And so people take it the wrong way and that oh, they’re just resisting. And so they created a workaround. They created a workaround because it literally does not make sense for them. So that so and again that’s where that root cause discovery goes. And then we’re going into that next piece of like hey how can we drive. How can we drive this so that folks understand it. So how can we get that alignment and buy in. So then I uncover those. Go back to senior leadership, because I mentioned earlier is that there’s a gap between senior leadership in the front line. So how do we get that buy in then next we’re driving execution. So we’re saying hey how do we take all this and align it with what they need? Talking to the tech teams, talking to the frontline teams, talking to the managers and pulling this all together that it actually makes sense.
Joshua Kornitsky: Well, in in between the lines, something that you you both didn’t say but you also said without saying is with you in in that role where you’re able to bridge that gap. Let’s be direct. Often if you are 3 or 4 tiers down in the leadership team and you are tasked with this responsibility, you’re going to say whatever needs to be said, you’re going to find an explanation as retrospectively as as to why something was wrong that you signed off on as right. You sort of eliminate all of that buffer because you’re not trying to see why your a, you are being transparent because this is what it takes to get it done. Absolutely. And I know that that sounds silly, but we’ve both seen that where somewhere in the management stack somebody is the roadblock because either they don’t get it and they’re embarrassed, or they do get it and they’re threatened and self-preservation, it’s that fight or flight that that comes in where they’re like, well, gosh, if if I tell leadership, I don’t get it. Now, six months in after I’ve signed 11 things saying yes, you know, having you in that mix takes that worry out of it because you’re not trying to make yourself look good. You’re trying to get the job accomplished.
Anne Kimsey: It’s amazing what people will open up when when I walk in the door, or me and my team walk in the door, that they’ll actually tell us a lot of stuff. And when we go share it back with leadership, they’re like.
Joshua Kornitsky: No one told us. Absolutely, I, I was invisible for 15 years of my career when I was early stage in technology, where I was under desks fixing things in it, and it turns out it is invisible. So people say and do things in front of you, and you hear and observe, and you have the intelligence of when you open your mouth and you don’t. But it’s incredible what people will share when you just ask them.
Anne Kimsey: Exactly. When you ask them and you’re.
Joshua Kornitsky: And they’re not threatened.
Anne Kimsey: And they’re not threatened. That’s what I was about to say. When you have that very human element I am here, I am here to help.
Joshua Kornitsky: And coming from the outside, it has to let them breathe a little bit. Because you’re not the division manager, you’re not the regional VP. You’re just here to get this done.
Anne Kimsey: Yeah. And they want to be valued and heard. And so a piece to that of what you just said was good, because that goes into another piece that we found in another engagement that I was in. It was.
Joshua Kornitsky: Please.
Anne Kimsey: We, we walked in and you know, again, it was like, hey, we’re trying to we’re trying actually it was an acquisition.
Joshua Kornitsky: Okay.
Anne Kimsey: And so it was for a plant. And they were moving them from a old ERP paper, pencil kind of thing to SAP. And it was one of those.
Joshua Kornitsky: That’s a massive shift.
Anne Kimsey: Massive. And they were like, they just have to do it. I was like, whoa, whoa, hold up a second. And so, you know, as a leader was like, we don’t need no change management. And we got brought in by other folks. That said, I think you do need it. But anyway, so we get there and we’re talking to everybody and they’re like, you know, we’ve been through this three times already. We’re like, I’m sorry. What? We’ve been through it three times. What do you mean you’ve been through it three times already. They’re like, oh, we’ve been acquired three times. Oh shoot, this is this or this is our third time. And we were also trying to move to SAP before and we’re like, no one told us this brand new information. We’re like, wow, there’s a lot in there for these folks so that they’ve gone through it.
Joshua Kornitsky: Right.
Anne Kimsey: And a lot of these folks have worked at this plant since it started for I think it was like 25 years. And so there’s, you know, they were connected to it because they were like, hey.
Joshua Kornitsky: They’re personally invested.
Anne Kimsey: Personally.
Joshua Kornitsky: I opened the doors.
Anne Kimsey: So we got in there and we started hearing all kinds of stuff, like we talked to everybody and how upset they were and how they felt like it was just getting jammed down their throat. And no one was listening. No one was hearing them and everything. So we were like, okay, but so that’s the one piece of, hey, let me listen to you. But we got to act on it. So that’s a piece too, is you got to look at all what you heard and say. What can we act on quickly to make a difference? So these folks that spent an hour or two hours, whatever it is of their time, right with you to tell you all these things, all these things that they were probably maybe like, oh, I hope there’s no repercussions for can we act on it? And we did. We went back to leadership and we said, here, look at all these different things that they’re saying that there’s they’re little things like, let’s have a town hall, let’s address these issues. Let’s do some nice things for for you guys. That right there, we did that like one week after we had all those stakeholder meetings.
Joshua Kornitsky: Sure.
Anne Kimsey: Huge difference. Because then what that did is they went hey wow. They made a change.
Joshua Kornitsky: They see the buy in from leadership or ownership or management reflecting their concerns.
Anne Kimsey: Exactly. And then what that did is it made them open up to us even more. Right. So then when we went in to do process mapping to talk about the system changes, to talk about their jobs, to talk about what they were doing, they opened up even more. Oh, you need to know this, and you need to know that. And let me tell you about Joe Bob over there. And let me tell you about Sally over here. And let me tell you about all these things. We were able to find out so much information because we created so much trust with just in a week or two of being on site.
Joshua Kornitsky: It’s amazing. And it’s one of the core values I live by, of just simply doing what you say, right? That that you collect that feedback and you actually act on it shows a level of credibility because, you know, the the suggestion box, like you would see in an old editorial cartoon, usually drops down to a trash can, because while we want your feedback, we don’t really care. And I’m not saying that’s a universal, but it is a trope that exists for a reason. Um, because people typically aren’t as open and I see this daily aren’t as open to constructive feedback as they are to positive feedback.
Anne Kimsey: Exactly.
Joshua Kornitsky: Um, and I, I have a next step question that I want to ask, but I have to ask this because of the organizational state of my own brain.
Anne Kimsey: Mhm.
Joshua Kornitsky: In an ideal engagement, would those interviews and those stakeholder meetings happen prior to implementation.
Anne Kimsey: Oh gosh.
Joshua Kornitsky: Yes. Okay. I had to ask because because that’s the difference that, that uh, I find myself saying this a lot these days, that when you don’t know what you don’t know that right? There is an enormous differentiator in how success will will arrive or if success will arrive, if you take the time to talk to the people being impacted ahead of time.
Anne Kimsey: Mhm.
Joshua Kornitsky: Imagine having a heads up.
Anne Kimsey: Yeah. And we had a project. It’s not a long story. No, please. Well, we were in the company, and we were actually doing 4 or 5 projects where we’re. Four of them were after the fact. One of them was like way before the fact. It’s like we’re thinking about this, right? And when we told the team, we’re like, hey, we need to get out to those impacted and talk to them about this or like, but we don’t have a full fledged plan yet. We’re like, exactly right. This is perfect. We get out there and we build the plan with them and they’ll feel so much more, you know, collaborated with and involved and invested. We had a lot of pushback on that, but we were able to push through it and get and them go, okay, fine, fine. We’ll talk to these folks. We did. And the buy in we got was huge. That’s don’t get me wrong, we had a ton of issues because they were like, what are y’all thinking? Why are you doing this? Holy cow. This is going to be huge. This is going to be horrible. This is the worst idea ever. I mean, that’s where we started with, right? But we’re like, well, let’s work with you. How can we make it a better idea? How can we go from worse to better? Not not great. But how can.
Joshua Kornitsky: Right? Well, then I’m all about the incremental step. Because if you’re not familiar with. I will get you a copy of the book The Gap and the gain. Aha. It’s it’s about those baby steps. That’s that’s how you cross the whole planet.
Anne Kimsey: Exactly.
Joshua Kornitsky: Um, so this begs me to ask this question of of what are some of the red flags? How do you know when something is, uh, you know, you’ve got red yellow or red yellow green. Right. And when we transition from green to yellow, it’s most people are speeding up. But when we get to red, you know, when, when things are flashing and blinking and you’re smelling smoke, what are some of the things people can look for ahead of time to say, hey, pump the brakes for a minute.
Anne Kimsey: Absolutely. So I want to like the first thing that came to my mind was like, when it’s focused on a date, only a date, but sometimes you can’t get past that. I mean, and I think that’s I think one of the things, as I would say, and I’ll get into the other things that I see as red flags is don’t try to push too, too much back on the date, unless you have real concrete reason that you can go to senior leadership with why to move the date. Otherwise than that, figure it out, right? Figure out how you’re going to get to that date. But with that, one of the big, big things I see is, um, leadership is the leadership piece. They look aligned in meetings. So we do these fancy presentations, and we get there and we talk and we go to the meetings and we have all this good conversation, and then we all leave. And within a few days or a week, we start seeing action that wasn’t really reflective of what we talked about in the meeting. Right. And we’re like, oh, whoa, wait a minute. What happened? Because this leader went this way, this leader went this way. And those teams and then how it went down to those teams went differently. Sure. So it’s like we’re we seem aligned here, but we’re really not aligned. You got to bring that back. You gotta bring that back.
Joshua Kornitsky: Same page, same language. Gotta be.
Anne Kimsey: Exactly. And then, um, obviously when teams say they’re too busy. That’s another big, big red flag. And then what I’ve seen too is when I walk in, they’re like, these teams are so busy, you really can’t take much of their time. That’s a red flag for me as a change manager going in to go, okay, you want me to come help you? But I can’t spend time with the team.
Joshua Kornitsky: But we’re so busy, we can’t have help.
Anne Kimsey: Exactly.
Joshua Kornitsky: This is. This is the most common defense I have when I tell people I’m an EOS implementer. Oh, man, we’d love to do is we just don’t have the time, like, oh, when do you think that’s going to improve? Yeah. When your business turns down.
Anne Kimsey: Yeah. And so that’s where it’s like getting in and start, you know, helping them and seeing it. But um, the other thing is this is this is actually near and dear to my heart because it’s most recent is the plans phase. And it’s like, we’ll figure it out.
Joshua Kornitsky: Oh, sure. Seat of the pants.
Anne Kimsey: Oh, my. Let’s let’s not figure it out. Let’s not do that because it’s like, hey, we’re going to roll it out to 200 people, a hundred different sites. It’s fine. We will. It’ll happen. These guys are used to doing this stuff all the time. I know, but this is different. This isn’t, like, the same as that other thing. So let’s just. How about we not figure it out? But a thing I want to talk about in that situation is the let’s figure it out. Because I had a I’ve or I’ve had, but I’ve had a situation recently where I pushed and I pushed and I said, no, you can’t just figure it out. No, we need a plan. We got to think about this. And they looked at me and they said, and you’re just you’re thinking about this too much. It’s really not going to be that hard. And I said, okay, you know what? I’m just doing harm here. And I don’t want them just to like, give me the straight arm and say, go away. So I said, okay, fine. Can we at least do this? Can we do this level at least have a plan at this level.
Joshua Kornitsky: Right.
Anne Kimsey: And be able to get it out there and go from there. They’re like, yes, that’s okay. Luckily it was a migrated implementation. So they were going to do, you know, like a few sites one month if he writes another month. And I said, let’s see how it goes the first month.
Joshua Kornitsky: And how did it go? The first month.
Anne Kimsey: A lot of issues.
Joshua Kornitsky: But we were going to just figure that out. And that doesn’t equate to any money loss does it?
Anne Kimsey: So I was like, okay, let’s do that. And then after, you know, it came through, I was like, oh, can we actually talk about a more detailed plan for the next months? And they were like, yeah, that’s probably a good idea. Yeah.
Joshua Kornitsky: I’m at a different time in my life when when technology was the core of everything that I did. Uh, I will simply say that computer downtime has actual tangible cost. And whether it’s a small business and it’s a point of sale system, or in the case that I was working at a fortune 500 company and we knocked, uh, with a loss of power, we had knocked a quarter of the country out. You know, that was roughly a half million dollars an hour, and that’s not easily Recoverable, and it does an awful lot of damage to your customers because while they are empathetic. Oh, there’s a storm. Oh, there’s an outage. They still want their thing.
Anne Kimsey: Exactly.
Joshua Kornitsky: You know, whatever it is they were waiting on, they they still have the expectation that that’s not their problem. That’s your problem.
Anne Kimsey: Exactly.
Joshua Kornitsky: And and I think that that that that leads me to, to want to talk about the idea of, of, well, I guess who who reaches out to you because anybody that’s hearing this, anybody that we share this with, um, and I say this with full respect to every level in, in the organization, there are plenty of people who have no authority that understand what you’re sharing. Um, and there are people with Ivy League degrees who believe they will figure it out. So who typically reaches out to you?
Anne Kimsey: So who typically reaches out to me versus who should reach out to me? Right.
Joshua Kornitsky: Okay. I’ll let you interpret that.
Anne Kimsey: So who should reach out to me? I would love if if the if the technology people would reach out. Right. Your CTO, your VP of it, that type of stuff. Because they’re the ones in the case of implementations. Right? They’re the ones that are leading that charge. They’re the ones that are over it. However, tech people don’t necessarily. And there are some out there get me wrong, I’ve got some good a good allies, but there are many of them are like, no, we don’t need change management. We’re just rolling out a system, right? So who typically ends up reaching out is more of my ops folks. So my.
Joshua Kornitsky: The impact we’re we’re we’re the thud lands.
Anne Kimsey: The transformation leader. Those kind of those kind of folks are the ones that actually reach out. And again, it’s either they see it coming or it’s happened and they’re like, we need to we need to right the train kind of thing and and get that on track. Um, so but definitely I mean, I want people to reach out, like you mentioned earlier before, you actually do orientation or and definitely a week not not a, not a week before, but months before that’s going to happen. Like let’s talk and have some to your point strategy discussion. Because this is this is not just pure execution. There’s strategy here that we need to think about of how we’re going to do this.
Joshua Kornitsky: I had the opportunity to be involved earlier in my career in the construction of of four new buildings for an organization that had multiple. And when I tell you that the architects and the planners were involved before a shovel went in the dirt by about two years and and because when you’re building several hundred square feet, 100,000ft² of a facility, you know, you can’t just figure it out. The roof has to be level, the walls have to be the same height. And that’s what it draws in my mind. A comparison to you’re an architect in in a lot of ways, and helping people understand the impact earlier will make an enormous impact on the outcome.
Anne Kimsey: It will. It will.
Joshua Kornitsky: For sure. So something you mentioned earlier that I wanted to swing back around on, and in the example you gave, you were talking about, oh, this is the the third or fourth time we’ve done this right. People get tired of it.
Anne Kimsey: They do.
Joshua Kornitsky: And I don’t know what you call that. I just call that tired. Yes. And and even in the world of of what I do, you know everyone. Oh, it’s the leadership flavor of the month. You know, um, what you’re doing is stuff that’s that impacts in a very, very different way. But don’t people get that change fatigue?
Anne Kimsey: Yeah. That’s what I was going to say.
Joshua Kornitsky: And well you had told it to me earlier, so, uh, so, so how do you deal with that.
Anne Kimsey: So with that change fatigue, we, you know, and part of it is, is like, is it? I mean, it can be changed fatigue, but it’s also like, to your point, the flavor of the month. We’ve done this three times before. This is spelled. Why is it going to work this time? Um, I think one of the things is, is actually recognizing the company you’re going into. So I’ve had where I’ve walked in and I’ve walked into companies, like I mentioned, where they’ve been there 20 years. Right. They’ve seen it. They felt it, they’ve done it. They’ve seen the failures they go through. You have to manage that type of change. Fatigue one way versus I go into a company and the average ten years is 3 to 5 years, right. So that they they still feel it because they’re like, oh.
Joshua Kornitsky: But it’s a different thing.
Anne Kimsey: It’s a different thing because their their change fatigue is like I’ve been at other companies where they’ve tried to do it. I don’t know if you’re going to be successful here, whereas the first one, they’ve been there for 20 years, they’re like, I’ve seen this. I’ve seen it happen. Like, how are you going to do it differently? So you really have to recognize the environment you’re going into, the tenure of the employees you’re going into. Have they been successful doing what they’re doing? Because I’ve walked into that too. Like we’re making money hand over foot. Why are you even coming in? Like, what we’re doing is working. Why would you change that? That’s one thing versus going into, wow, we need some change, but I don’t know how you’re going to make it happen.
Joshua Kornitsky: Well, in visionary, leadership requires somebody to be looking two years down the road that says, hey, you know, our systems are great now, but if we hit our goal of X million, you know, this CRM, this ERP won’t do it. And to scale ahead of time because even in my own experience, scaling after the fact, you’re trying to build the airplane while you’re flying and it’s and when you can you don’t want to be in that position. Yeah.
Anne Kimsey: But going back to what you were saying is like, how do you do it? I think there’s there’s two angles to it. Okay. One angle is, is you got to be transparent. You got to be authentic. You got to be like, you’re right. This is why these things didn’t go well. And as a as a change management person walking in, I need to do my due diligence and finding out why they didn’t work, because I need to be able to address that with the folks of. It didn’t work because of these reasons. And we’re not going to repeat those same mistakes, right? That’s one piece. And to talk.
Joshua Kornitsky: That’s huge.
Anne Kimsey: You know how we’re going to do things differently. What that plan is going to look like. The other piece that and I say this to people all the time, I was like, it’s it, it probably isn’t going to go great. So don’t just assume that we’re here. We are gonna have problems, right? It’s how we respond to those problems that’s important. And a story that I tell folks is a few years and Fortnite. Fortnite is the game, right? My kids, I have boys and big gamers, and I guess it was probably a few years ago at this point where they were really big into playing Fortnite, but I it went down often because I would walk in and I’d be like, what’s going on? Oh, the game’s down. I was like, and that product management person that I have in my heart, I was like, wow, that’s that’s really bad.
Joshua Kornitsky: World’s most popular game can’t stay running.
Anne Kimsey: And he and my kid was like, oh no, it’s not a big deal. I was like, it’s not a big deal. The game went down. He’s like, oh, they’ll have it back up five minutes, ten minutes, 30 minutes. At the most. They were like, yeah, it goes down, but it comes back up. And I was like, I like how that hit me was a wow. They created this following this loyalty, this this trust, this credibility that, hey, we’re going to have glitches, we’re going to have issues, but we’re going to respond to it and we’re going to get it working again.
Joshua Kornitsky: Clear expectations.
Anne Kimsey: That’s what I tell the people when I go in, especially as I’m like, hey, I get it. Guess what? When we go live on this new technology, we’re going to have issues, right? We’re going to have performance issues, something we’re going to miss, something we’re going to forget about something, something something’s going to happen. And that’s okay. It’s how we respond to it that’s important. I said, so don’t think this is going to be all great. And unicorns and rainbows. We’re going to have problems, but we’re going to make it better.
Joshua Kornitsky: And even if it’s something that you or the organization has done a dozen times before, write a migration across the country three a month that doesn’t take into account an AWS failure or a Google Cloud failure, or CrowdStrike issue where or Cloudflare where these. Now this infrastructure exists that is invisible to everybody except technology. And you know, when AWS goes down, we learn just how many eggs are in the basket, even though it’s just one region. Yeah. Um, and those are things that, that you can have a contingency for. But, you know, you can also have a contingency where you wear belt, suspenders and a and a strap. At a certain point, you can’t plan for everything. And, and accepting and acknowledging on the front end that transparency you mentioned of saying, hey, there’s going to be glitches, there’s going to be Gonna be problems. That’s what we’ll figure out. Not the plan. The plan isn’t to be figured out. It’s the workaround. When. When the nightmare shows up on the doorstep.
Anne Kimsey: I’m a risk mitigation person. I’m a I’m a plan a b c I.
Joshua Kornitsky: I worked with with a guy a long time ago who used to say it’s the difference between risk and risky. Yeah, there’s risk behavior. There’s risky behavior. Risky behavior is not something we want to get involved with.
Anne Kimsey: Exactly, I love it.
Joshua Kornitsky: Um, so what’s next? We’re we’re. Where do we go from here as far as, uh, new path points. What are you hoping to to, um, make available? How are you going to educate or teach or train? How what do you have going on?
Anne Kimsey: Yeah. So from that perspective, um, like I’ve mentioned, I have worked with a lot of very large, um, large clients. Right? Big SAP migrations, Salesforce migrations. I really love working with, like, the middle ground folks, you know, people that have 50 to 500 employees.
Joshua Kornitsky: Because I know that space.
Anne Kimsey: I look at that and say, like when I’ve been at the the mckesson’s of the world and, you know, looking at my past, I would always be like, wow, if I could get with some smaller companies and really help them, like at the ground up, so that they can avoid all these mistakes that I see at a large company, that would be fantastic. So that 50 to 500 person kind of company is where I would love to be, because I love working at that level and helping them meet their strategic goals and get their, um, to do that. Things I like to do is workshops. Okay. So, you know, so as leadership is looking at that, they’re like, hey, we’ve got a lot to change company coming. We need to either implement something, we roll out something, think about something. And it doesn’t have to be just systems. It can be processes too, right? We’ve done things just on just processes rolling out and looking at that. So that would be a place of doing workshops, going in with the leadership team or, you know, with a contact.
Joshua Kornitsky: So. So if an organization’s interested and we’ll share all of your contact info, um, they can reach out to you and you can come in and I’m going to use a word that may make you cringe, but even generically to discuss either change management or process planning or mapping so that you’re able to help them at a very high level to understand it. And then if they’re interested, I’m sure you can work more detailed delivery.
Anne Kimsey: We can do that. The other thing is like that diagnostic kind of going into their scoping that on understanding those diagnostics to say, I, I want to everybody likes to charge for everything like every hour of time. I’m kind of the person of like, I really want to come in and help you. And I really want to understand is like, is it a right relationship between the two of us? So if it means spending lots of hours together to figure it out, I am okay with doing that because I want to make sure it’s a right fit for both of us. And if it makes sense.
Joshua Kornitsky: Well, and it certainly sounds like you’re going to tailor whatever you’re going to do to what their needs are, not a one size fits all. But but the other piece that because you’re talking about a size wise this this 50 to 500 a group that I spend a lot of time with, um, I want to remind anybody here in this that that we that there was old but established understanding that an shared of 40 to 60% of the transformational budgets get wasted. If a portion of that went into preplanning the transition, you would still come out ahead based on the average loss for the transition. And I want to share that ahead of time, because I, I wouldn’t ask you what you charge because it’s going to be deeply, deeply differing depending on the organization. But if you’re wondering how anyone hearing this is wondering how they would pay for it, it’s built in, right, that the the savings alone is going to more than cover whatever the cost is, and they’re still going to come out ahead in all likelihood.
Anne Kimsey: Yeah.
Joshua Kornitsky: Um, I can’t think of a reason that it wouldn’t make sense, other than. We’ll figure it out.
Anne Kimsey: Exactly.
Joshua Kornitsky: And and if that’s your mindset, you know, the the reality is, as a business owner, that will work for you to a point. The question is, is can you afford for it not to work for you when it’s the most critical processes or systems in your business?
Anne Kimsey: Exactly. Yeah. Let’s avoid those migraine headaches.
Joshua Kornitsky: Right. And and and would you rather be right or would you rather have the transition work?
Anne Kimsey: Exactly. So I appreciate that.
Joshua Kornitsky: Um, what’s the best way for people to get in touch with you? As I said, we’ll publish all your links, but a website, phone, mail, phone or email that you share.
Anne Kimsey: Yeah. So email is an at newpath. Com obviously you can find me on LinkedIn. So Anne Kimsey out there and message me there. Um, are the best ways to get in touch with me.
Joshua Kornitsky: And it certainly sounds like you’re willing to chat with folks to, to help them better understand their needs.
Anne Kimsey: I love it. I think gets me more excited.
Joshua Kornitsky: I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed this, because I can see a place with some of the folks I work with, uh, that that perhaps they can get on board with you early. Yeah. Uh, and, and I also can, can say that to any businesses that are listening to this, that the phone call is not going to hurt you. Um, really, all you’re going to do is gain. Yeah. So at the very least, you’re going to gain knowledge, because I can tell you, I wrote three things down I’m going to ask him about.
Anne Kimsey: So thank.
Joshua Kornitsky: You. Um, thank you again for joining us. My guest today is Ann Kinsey. Kinsey. Pardon me. I got a screw up at least one name a week. And Kimsey, founder and CEO of Newpath points and works with organizations navigating meaningful change, particularly where technology process and people intersect. Her work focuses on helping leaders think through what change actually looks like once it reaches the people doing the work. It’s been really interesting, really insightful. I appreciate your time today.
Anne Kimsey: Thank you so much. Thanks for.
Joshua Kornitsky: Having me. My pleasure. And I do want to remind everybody that 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, please go to Mainstreet Warriors. And a special note of thanks to our title sponsor for the Cherokee chapter of Main Street Warriors. Diesel. David. Ink. Please go check them out at diesel. David. Comm. Well, we’ve reached the end of another wonderful episode. My name is Joshua Kornitsky. I am your host. As well as being a professional implementer of the iOS operating system, and it’s been a joy to have you. We look forward to seeing you next time.

From Networking Anxiety to Relationship Mastery: Transforming Your Business Approach

February 4, 2026 by angishields

SIP-Mike-Brunnick-Feature
Scaling in Public
From Networking Anxiety to Relationship Mastery: Transforming Your Business Approach
Loading
00:00 /
RSS Feed
Share
Link
Embed

Download file

In this episode of Scaling in Public, Lee Kantor and Stone Payton are joined by coach Mike Brunnick to discuss strategies for scaling Business RadioX® by partnering with coaching organizations and certifying agencies. They emphasize refining their ideal client profile—service-oriented coaches, consultants, and executives seeking authority and meaningful connections. The conversation explores overcoming traditional networking challenges, leveraging in-studio experiences, and experimenting with hybrid and roadshow models for expansion. The episode highlights the importance of clear messaging, authentic relationship-building, and value alignment in growing a business network.

Mike-BrunnickWith over 35 years of leadership experience, Mike Brunnick has led teams in the military, government, nonprofit, and private sectors. In his 25 years in the B2B technology space, Mike led global teams in the fields of training, services, products, sales, and customer success.

As such, he has a unique perspective on how the parts of a go-to-market (GTM) team work together, and how they impact the customer experience.

As a sales trainer and Focal Point certified business coach, Mike helps his clients get themselves, their businesses, and their revenue “unstuck”. He specializes in teaching leaders how to set and achieve goals.

Mike has a BS from Holy Cross and has earned a Bronze Star with Combat “V” for valor as a Platoon Leader in the Marines during Operation Desert Storm.

Connect with Mike on LinkedIn.

Episode Highlights

  • Strategies for scaling Business RadioX® networks
  • Building relationships with coaching organizations and certifying agencies
  • Defining and refining the ideal client profile
  • Importance of value alignment with clients
  • Tactical steps for business growth and relationship building
  • Challenges of traditional networking versus creating a platform for engagement
  • The significance of emotional connection in business interactions
  • Exploring hybrid approaches to replicate in-person experiences virtually
  • Articulating customer problems effectively to attract ideal clients
  • Continuous learning and collaboration in business growth strategies

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from our flagship studio in Atlanta, Georgia. This is scaling in public. The next 100 Business RadioX markets, featuring founders Lee Kantor and Stone Payton, along with some of America’s top coaches, helping them grow the network with real strategy, real lessons, and real accountability all shared in public. To learn more about the proven system that turns podcast interviews into a perpetual prospecting pipeline through generosity, not gimmicks, go to Burks Intercom and download the free Business RadioX playbook. Now here’s your host.

Stone Payton: Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of Scaling in Public. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast this session’s coach, Mike Brunnick. Good afternoon sir.

Mike Brunnick: Hi Stone. Good afternoon to you. Hi, Lee.

Lee Kantor: Hey. Excited to be talking to you.

Mike Brunnick: I am delighted to be here today. Thank you all for inviting me to participate in this, uh, this exercise that we’re doing. This is, uh, this is going to be fun. All right, you want to just jump right in?

Stone Payton: Absolutely.

Mike Brunnick: Yeah, absolutely. I got the ball here. Um, so, uh, I know that you had a great session with my dear friend Maggie last week, and I think there was a couple of things that you committed to do. One action each, uh, that you were going to take as a result of, uh, of your time with Maggie last week. And I’ll start with you, Stone. Do you remember what it was that you, uh, committed to do after last week’s session?

Stone Payton: Well, I feel like Lee and I both walked away with this idea that we’re going to scale much more powerfully, much more efficiently. If we can work with systems organizations that have our ideal client profile there within their domain, that we can serve with this thing of ours. And so the overarching walk away, um, activity set of actions is around getting very, um, tactical around how do we build those relationships with those systems ourselves? You know, eat a little bit of our own cooking and, and, and then what can we do to persuade them and sent them to take a swing at this thing and team up with us so that we can help them help their people. And so as a as a tactical subset of that, one of the things I’ve been putting a great deal of thought into is what can we do to to lower the perceived risk or fear or whatever the right word is so that they really do want to, you know, they want to take a shot with us. So that’s that’s where my head has, has been. Uh, what about you, Lee?

Lee Kantor: Uh, the main insight I took from the conversation with Maggie was how to to to have Business RadioX be a recommended add on, um, for any new coach in a system, uh, like when they join, like, similar. I think we discussed that on how SiriusXM is included into a purchase of a new car, how they can experience the value that Business RadioX delivers during their launch. Um, you know, when they get started, uh, at a new whatever coaching group they’re with or if it’s a certifying agency, if if it’s one of those platforms, whatever it is, if we can include they get, uh, some Business RadioX at the start as they launch. She said I think the quote she said is, I wish that I knew about this when I started, and that really resonated with us. And we said, okay, how do we make that happen? And I think that to your point, that’s what we’ve been really trying to, um, kind of put into play, like how can we persuade a coaching organization to embed Business RadioX as just part of their launch?

Mike Brunnick: Yeah, that’s that’s great. And so it sounded like you, uh, you left, uh, last session with Maggie with some great things to to think about. Uh, were there any actions that you guys, uh, committed to take or that you feel like you should take? Um, obviously thinking about something is is really important, but, uh, what what comes after that? What’s the what’s do you think the the action is that, uh, manifest that into the world.

Lee Kantor: Um, an action that I took upon leaving that conversation was to put together kind of a strategic action plan in order to execute, to your point. And, um, I gave it a lot of thought and, uh, and Stone and I talked about this a lot on how. Okay, so now what do we have to do to make that happen? So we can identify different coaching organizations? And what our superpower is, is that we, um, have this tool at our disposal that allows us to meet and build relationships with coaches. So we felt that we should deploy that. And then, um, our strategy moving forward is going to be okay. Let’s identify some coaches in organizations and see if we can build a relationship with them. That’s strong enough that they can champion our offering to the coaching organization that they are aligned with. And if we can do that, that we feel gives us the best chance to get buy in from the organization because one of their people that is trusted will have experienced it and got a positive result, and then they would they would be that much more inclined to at least pilot the program. So the action that has been taken so far is to kind of go through that process and identify different organizations, and then we have a plan to start meeting some of the coaches within them, so we can find that champion so that we can move forward and get a pilot going. But we have not done that part yet, but we have the steps leading up to it. Stone.

Stone Payton: Uh, yeah. Except we have sort of kind of done that part. I’m a sales guy, Mike. So the first thing I did was, uh, get on the phone with Maggie and say, let’s talk this through some. You suggested that you wish you had had this when you began. We may have a unique opportunity here in your market to kind of help you get a jump start on exactly what we’re talking about. So the most tactical, practical thing I did before I shot off across the pond for a couple of weeks to play was set up that call. So, so so I made it real real for me.

Mike Brunnick: Yeah. That’s great. Um, and we can make some progress on that today. Um, you know, one of the, uh, one of the first things we do after identifying the ideal customer profile, uh, is sit down and do a brainstorming session on, uh, so now that we know what that person looks like, uh, where do I find them? Uh, if you’re, uh, if you’re looking for something, you’re looking for the, I don’t know, the elusive booby bird or whatever it is you got to say. Where do they go? Well, they live in banana trees. I’m going to go find a banana tree. So, um, you guys worked with Todd a couple of sessions ago to define your ideal customer profile. You started some some work last week with Maggie talking about some different ways that you could meet people that match that profile. Uh, what are some other places or what are some of the organizations that you guys were just talking about, that idea of getting into an organization. What are some of those organizations that you could go to and, uh, try to have it included, like SiriusXM?

Lee Kantor: Um, well, some of them are obviously the coaching organizations, the different coaching franchises that are out there. The others are the certifying agencies that certify coaches in a in a variety of specialties. So those were kind of the low hanging fruit for us was, um, existing coaching organizations that are are already have a pile of coaches within them and certifying agencies that, uh, work on certifying coaches in a variety of specialties.

Mike Brunnick: Right on. What else? What else? Stone. What are some other places we could get to your ideal client? Where do they? Where’s their banana tree? Where do they hang out?

Stone Payton: Well, that is something I really haven’t thought about. As much as it sounds to me like I should have, I think. I think we may have a more expanded, uh, definition of coaches in that anyone who is providing specialized expertise and knowledge in a specific domain. So to me that extends to the, uh, the, the, the outfits that certify and educate the, um, the, the, uh, the fractional exec, the fractional CFO, the fractional VP of sales, the people who certify and educate the, um, what was what was the the other group lead? The, um, well, I’m drawing a blank right now, but the anyone who is actually doing some sort of consulting coaching, maybe in the financial services arena, if they’re if they’re bringing specialized expertise and experience to a specific domain and they feel like they need to get credentialed, or they do need to get credentialed to be successful in the marketplace, we’d like to work with those credentialing organizations so that the challenge so many of those people have, as as I’m sure you can imagine, is just, um, is is access.

Stone Payton: You know, the more we refine our ideal client, I don’t think it’s that person that’s looking for the next, you know, Jim Jamie lead generator thingy or even the next, uh, coffee conversation. I think what they’re looking for is access and authority with, uh, people that are next at the next level, you know, they’re looking to punch a little bit above their weight or, or to at least get to, to fight in a class that they feel like they belong, you know, so a little more of a strategic I think we’re refining our, our picture of this person as someone who’s who has a more strategic yearning, and they don’t want to play down here at this level anymore, and they don’t know how. They can’t get the lunch. They can’t get the meeting. They can’t get the coffee. They can’t get that immediate, that initial substantive conversation with the person that they really want to work with. And so they’re going to networking meetings and all, you know, they’re doing all that jazz. Is that accurate, do you think?

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I think that, um, as we go through these different coaching sessions, it’s really helped us refine who that person is. Maybe, um, you know, a few weeks ago, we would have thought that ideal person is someone that just wants a more elegant way to network. And now I think that if we if push came to shove, if we had to choose between somebody who wants an easier time networking versus somebody who wants to, um, get get a meeting with somebody who isn’t returning their call, that person is a better fit for us, rather than just somebody who’s looking for a more transactional. Oh, this is the latest, easiest way to network or, um, you know it. I think that person is looks at what we do to Transactionally and the person who, like Stone says, wants to punch at a higher weight class. They view our solution as more strategic and that is a better fit for us.

Mike Brunnick: Yeah, that and that’s fantastic progress. Uh, and I hope you’ll take a moment and celebrate, uh, that progress, because it really is um, I’ve had the opportunity to, to lead sales organizations, uh, at about six different spots. Uh, in my, in my life, I’ve got experience in government and nonprofit and startups and big companies like Hewlett Packard. And, uh, I’ve been around a little bit, um, and I don’t think I’ve ever been at a place where they felt like they spent too much time thinking about their ideal client. Uh, it is a valuable exercise that when people get done with they say, well, that was worth it. Well, we should have done that earlier. Maybe, but but I don’t I don’t regret how much time I spent on it. So so kudos to you both for, for doing all of that sort of mental work. Um, and there’s always refinement to be done. Uh, and, and I’d love for you to be able to articulate pretty quickly what those, uh, those elements are that really make up your ideal client. You’ve got sort of a, an occupational, uh, set of criteria. Right? Somebody that’s in professional services, they’re a coach or a fractional exec or all those things. It sounded from your conversation with Maggie that you also had a set of, uh, what I’ll call value based criteria. Uh, the people that you want to do business with are the people who think like you do, people who approach the world in a certain way. Uh, did I did I hear that right?

Lee Kantor: Well, it good, sir.

Stone Payton: Well, it’s accurate for me. Maybe even more accurate is that they feel like I do. And maybe the ideal combination is they they feel like I do in terms of they want to genuinely serve. They want to support and celebrate other people doing great work. I would actually enjoy if they think a little differently, like if they feel that way, but they think about it differently and come at it through a different lens. But yeah, this, uh, this looking for people with, uh, what I would consider, what I would characterize as a consistent a value system that is consistent with ours. Absolutely. That that also is an eye opening exercise and realization for me in our time with Maggie.

Mike Brunnick: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I heard that your system, uh, really works, and you guys truly believe the passion just bleeds through when you guys talk about your system. Um, but you’re also really clear that it has to be somebody who’s not transactional, Somebody who’s not saying, hey, you know, I want to interview so that you can become a client of mine, right? I think, um, I think you said last week, Stone that, uh, it, uh, this this process lets you be nice, I think, is the way you described it. Yeah. Um, and, Lee, you talked about somebody with a with a heart of service, um, which is really, uh, just beautiful to say. Um, so when we talk about where do these people hang out, how do I find them? It’s not just a place, right? You could go to a a conference with a bunch of coaches that got certified by the same agency or an industry event, and you could meet 20 of these people. Um, but if you’ve got a clear idea in your mind, not just their occupational situation, but how do I suss out the value? How do I know that these people are truly going to be successful, uh, if they became a Business RadioX partner. So what are some of the ways you think you could suss out whether or not this is going to work for them? Not just because it’s important to you, but because they really need that heart of service to work.

Lee Kantor: Stone, you want to take this?

Stone Payton: Uh, yeah. And I am shooting in the dark a little bit, so this is incredibly valuable for me.

Mike Brunnick: So it’s a hard question.

Stone Payton: Uh, it is a hard question, but it does have my wheels turning a little bit. And I think maybe one of the things to look for. I don’t quite know how to pull it off, but if we could identify people in a community that are already walking, talking, thinking a little bit like what we’re talking like, you can see that. And maybe they’re not the most popular person or in the in the community or the or the most widely recognized, but maybe they are the ones that are clearly over and over investing in other people. Um, first and foremost, working on other people’s problems. Um, if we can find that person and like you. To your point, I guess they could be in any organization just about. If they’re. But if we can see evidence of them leaning in and supporting other people, that’s the right mindset, that’s the right value system. And then and then if you if you layer that on top of and oh, by the way, I’ve got this business and I need to be playing at a higher level.

Lee Kantor: Um, yeah, I think, I mean, we used to call it the, the social mayor of the community, the person who, you know, um, they, they know everybody, but it’s really the person who aspires to be the social mayor. Like, we help a person become the person everybody wants to know, instead of the person who’s out there trying to meet everybody. You know, there’s a difference there. Yeah, yeah. When our when our person goes into, um, a networking or any type of group, they’re not saying, hey, uh, this is what I do. What do you do? They’re saying, hey, I host this show. Do you know anybody that’s interesting I should interview. And when they go and approach those kind of relationships with that kind of statement, people are just more open to wanting to talk to them and to give them names of people and to introduce them to people, because it’s it comes with that heart of service. They’re trying to help promote someone else. They’re not even mentioning what they do.

Mike Brunnick: And I think that’s I think that’s a pretty a pretty solid answer right there. Um, you know, Maggie’s idea of getting with some of these networks or these organizations is a beautiful idea. Um, and now you’ve got to decide. All right, what do I do once I get in the door? Um, who is it I’m looking for and how do I find them. So that’s a that’s an important piece of it that you just named. I also heard something last week, and I was listening to the recording of your session with Maggie, and I wanted to read it back to you and see if you heard it and if I, if I’m perceiving that rightly. Um, but, Lee, you said that, you know, you got into this, this business that you’re in this, this, uh, thing that you do, uh, because you’re an introvert, uh, and because you didn’t want to be out trying to sell, uh, you liked the idea of people coming in in an intimate setting, having a conversation that felt really personal. Uh, and then seeing if that was a good way to to have business develop from there. Did I did I hear that right, that that you sort of got into this because it matched the way that you wanted to approach your business?

Lee Kantor: Right. So I, I did all the stuff that most people do. I joined, like, um, in Atlanta, there was a group called Power Corps that was, um, formed by somebody who was a former BNI person. So they spun off their own BNI type, you know, closed networking. And I was with them for many years, and I worked my way up. I up to a leadership position. I was a coach. I was doing all the stuff that you do when you’re a member of those groups. But as an introvert, I would create a lot of anxiety for me. And it was a lot of stress. You know, doing a seven minute presentation was stressful for me, and I was always like, there has to be another way to do this that is just more suited for the way that I like to do things. So when I created Business RadioX, that allowed me to change my positioning as I was there at the time, I was a copywriter, so I was writing advertising copy. So then I became the host of Atlanta Business Radio And then I partnered with somebody that was more of an extrovert who liked to network, and I convinced her to go to all these things.

Lee Kantor: But instead of saying that she’s Amy with Aflac, she was Amy, the co-host of Atlanta Business Radio. So she would bring in a bunch of people into the studio every week. Three people have three different businesses. Um, and then we would interview them. And at the end, a lot of these business people were like, wow, that was fantastic. How do I get a show like Amy? And then they’d ask me, and then I would sell them a show. And I liked that a lot better because now these people were coming to me. I wasn’t asking anybody for anything. I was just being the producer and co-host of the show. Amy was building her network and meeting people for her that was helping her grow her, um, Aflac business. So it was a win for her. And then some of those people ended up being hosts of shows. I mean, that’s how I met Stone. Stone was a guest because Amy invited her. Him because he had just written a book. I mean, everybody I knew came through the studio. I didn’t have to leave the studio. And I was meeting hundreds of people a year just by doing what I was doing.

Mike Brunnick: So what I love about that is that you found, if I can say it, a solution to a problem. The problem was, was that you knew that you needed to to network. You knew that you needed to meet people. But the traditional way of networking didn’t work for you, didn’t make you happy, or you weren’t successful at it because, uh, you know, you know, just weren’t in the right place. Um, and go ahead, please.

Stone Payton: I’m just going to say, clearly, I’m not an introvert at all. What I discovered, uh, which the interview that I did around the book with Lee and Amy was so different from all the other interview experiences I had. I saw something there, and what I’ve come to realize now is what I what I saw. There was a way to replicate a luxury that I had had almost my entire career leading up to that. I was in the training and consulting arena, but I stepped in at 26 years old into my uncle’s company, and I already had the access and the authority that they had spent the previous 20 years building. So I was already playing in the big leagues without having to do all that other, you know, that networking BNI type stuff. And so I when I met Lee and saw, I couldn’t figure out how he was making money at first, but once he described how he’s helping people and making money, I said, this is it. This is this is how I can, um, enjoy the, the, the same sense and authority and, um, and, um, and the positioning that I want in the marketing place by being the guy who has the show or ultimately the the studio I can serve, I can build those relationships. I can have those substantive conversations far more quickly. And so it’s interesting to me that a that almost an extreme introvert and fairly extroverted guy, uh, found a way both of us to capitalize on this platform and this methodology.

Mike Brunnick: Yeah. And that’s, that’s a that’s a great origin story. And as I said, what’s fun about it is it was the solution to a problem.

Stone Payton: Amen.

Mike Brunnick: So one of the building blocks, uh, and stone, you’ve done sales for a long time. Um, but one of the building blocks for a good sales program or good sales and marketing process is, as you’ve done already, define your ideal customer and then decide where those people hang out. And as Maggie worked with you on, can you articulate the The value of your solution. Uh, but one of the other key building blocks is can you articulate the problem that your product solves? Right. You’re selling calamine lotion, and it says right on the outside of it that it’s good for poison ivy and poison oak and poison sumac, but it’s not for sunburn, right? It it tells you what problem it solves. Uh, if you’re designing, uh, a utility truck, you have an idea that you got people that want to be able to move, you know, trash cans, but not lumber. Uh, they want to be able to move, uh, you know, eight kids home from a soccer practice, but not 15, right? So you’re deciding what problems your product solves. Uh, and so I would love to see if y’all can articulate what problems you’d be solving for someone who we talked about the ideal customer who’s in the right sort of occupation. They had the right aspirations and they had the right values. So I got that person. Now, what problems is that person having? Stone, you want to try that first?

Stone Payton: Yeah. And I’m going to go from what I saw when I was fired from that first dream job in the consulting arena. I share it with you, and rightly so, by the way. Uh, and when I went out on my old on my own, it was a little chilly out there, but I still had the benefit of some of that background and experience. Uh, and then that kind of got into the business of helping other people who were selling training and consulting. And what I found there, they by default or by necessity, they were playing what I call small ball like they were. They were getting like small training, consulting gigs, low fees, speaking engagements, all of that. And um, and they weren’t, they weren’t even they weren’t in the room. They weren’t at the table with people and organizations that could really use their services and could pay them handsomely and would happily do so over and over again. They weren’t even getting to they weren’t getting to swim at that end of the pool. Uh, and just a few of the things that I shared with them back in those days from my days in the big leagues, were was helpful enough that I could make a comfortable living. Uh, so some so more directly, those problems, I think a lot of people who have a great deal to offer in the professional services arena are not having genuinely substantive conversations and real relationships, predictably and fast enough with the vice president of blah, blah blah, or the senior director of the people who can make that decision and who feel a lot of the pain and bear a lot of the responsibility, uh, for for failure to meet objectives in that domain in their organizations.

Stone Payton: They’re never getting they’re never getting the chance. They’re not even getting an at bat. You know, they’re down here in the lower levels. And there are a few things that I was able to share with people years and years ago. But, um, that’s a problem. If that’s a problem, and I believe that it is, without a doubt, 100% incontrovertibly, I will tell you this thing will solve it. Um, so I if I’m right about the problem, this is the solution. Um, I just got to get a lot better at succinctly articulating that problem. But I’ve seen that is a rampant virus in the in the more common core ranks of trainers, consultants, speakers, fractional execs, consultants that most of them are living, you know, a $35,000 a year, just $70,000 a year income work their butt off nightmare thinking that, you know, trying to achieve some escape velocity and getting to, you know, they’re looking for their break, if you will. Yeah, I think maybe still.

Mike Brunnick: I think that’s great. So that’s sort of a problem. Set number one. Um, and in some respects it echoes a little bit of what you the problem you solved, uh, you met with Lee and his, uh, his partner, and you thought, wait a minute. This might be able to solve my problem.

Stone Payton: Yes, yes.

Mike Brunnick: But, Lee. Lee, I’ll turn to you because you started this to solve your problem. Um, can you, um, can you think of your problem in respect to now your ideal client profile?

Lee Kantor: Right. So I was I was trying, um, to meet people. I wanted people to meet me. Let’s put it that way. I didn’t want to meet people. And and that’s a I mean, that’s I don’t know. Maybe it’s obnoxious, but that’s how I felt that, um, I’m worth meeting. And, um, how do I get people to come to me instead of me going to them? And so that’s how I was looking at it. So how do I build a machine that has people entering my office sit around my table thanking me to allow them to come here and talk to me? And that’s what I built. And that and that’s Stone alluded to it earlier. People are fighting for a seat at the table. That’s I mean, in their head. They think that’s all they need. If they can unlock a seat at a table, then it’s game on. Now I’m going to take over the world. In my mind, I’m like, I want to own the table and invite people to it. And I prefer that positioning and I prefer doing it that way. You know, I don’t I want to be the place I’m going to solve the problem. For the person that is frustrated that no one’s returning their call, but they’ll show up on your show. They might not return your call they don’t want. They’re not really right now. Interested in a demo or have a coffee or have lunch. But if you invite them on a show to tell their story, what what makes them special, they’ll come to you and they’ll sit there for half an hour and you’ll talk to them. You’ll meet them, you’ll build a rapport with them. You’ll build a relationship with them. Then I believe if you do that 100 times a year, a bunch of them are going to then have maybe listen to your demo, and then they’ll have coffee with you or lunch or beer with you. So if you do it in my order, I find you. You’re going to have a better success to get to the conversation you wanted to have, but you’re doing it prematurely.

Mike Brunnick: Yeah. So that that’s exactly problem set number two. Right. So what problem might your ideal customer be having? Stone, you’ve talked about the fact that they want to play at a higher level. They want to reach that escape velocity. Uh, Lee, I think, you know, we can get to a place where you can articulate the problem that you solved for yourself is exactly the problem that this, uh, this model that you’re offering to people solves for them. You’re looking in a room of, uh, coaches or consultants and saying, oh, about 75% of these guys love going out and putting their plaid jacket on and slapping people on the back and shaking hands and being the president of their local BNI. But there’s another group of them in here that, uh, want to develop their business. They want to be successful, they want to have great conversations. They want to serve people, but they’re not comfortable trying to get people to call them back. They’re not comfortable doing all this networking. And so your solution may well be solving a problem for them that is identical to the problem that it solved for you. Uh, it would be attractive for them for all the reasons that it was attractive for you. Does that make sense?

Lee Kantor: Yeah, absolutely.

Stone Payton: It does to me. And it makes sense to me that it would be attractive for the organization that sold them the franchise or trained them or credentialed them if they if if they were somehow involved in them accessing this solution to me, that that mothership organization, everybody in the equation wins. It seems like to me, if we can pull this off.

Mike Brunnick: Well, that’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. So, um, uh, when I used to teach sales training classes, uh, and sometimes now when I teach new, new coaches, how to go through the sales process? Um, I, I try to simplify it as much as I can by saying, look, you’ve got two jobs in a sales cycle. The first one is to get the person to tell you their problem, do good discovery, ask good questions, find out what it is they want. Where are they? Where would they like to be? Uh, so you’re identifying problems, and then your next job is to describe the solution. I sell a widget, and the widget fits into this shape hole. Uh, I sell a roof rack that goes on top of a car. So I’m looking for people that don’t have enough space inside the car. Uh, so you describe your solution, and then you and that other person get to decide, is there a match between the problem you’re having and the the solution that, uh, that you’ve got. Right. So they’ve got a problem, you’ve got a solution. And if they match, Uh, it’s a pretty easy conversation. You’re not selling anything. Uh, and if it doesn’t match.

Lee Kantor: That’s that’s exactly how we see things also. And the first part that you described, part one that just happens during the interview.

Mike Brunnick: Right.

Lee Kantor: That what our system is different than what you’re saying is that this isn’t one long, continuous conversation. We’re just breaking it up into chunks. Your part one happens during the interview. Part two might happen a few days later. Later after, you know, immediately after the interview, a week later, whatever. But it’s going to happen again because they’re going to be open to hearing that instead of somebody just forcing all all three of those aspects in one conversation.

Mike Brunnick: Yeah. And I think that’s exactly right. Um, if you think about trying to find your next 90 studio partners, Uh, you know, one of the ways to get there is to get some number of folks in as guests on the platform. Uh, and in addition to that, uh, I guess the question is we talked about going out to some of these groups when you go out to those groups. Uh, are you ready to succinctly articulate the business problem? Um, and it sounds like you are. You guys have described it to me, uh, maybe a bit longer than you’d want to, uh, in, uh, in something that you’ve got a background in, uh, in copywriting. So, you know that, uh, you sit down to write a, an advertising tagline or a slogan or a, you know, is the IRS chasing you for your debt? You know, call me. You know, you got to tell people what problem you’re solving and, uh, and tell them how you can help them. Uh, so, um, does that, does that feel like, um, uh, a worthy exercise to, to really sit down and say, can I say that clearer? Can I say that shorter? Can I say that in a way that everybody I meet knows exactly what problems I solve? Does that sound like a worthy exercise? Does it sound?

Lee Kantor: Yeah, absolutely.

Mike Brunnick: I mean.

Lee Kantor: We have to get our language better and more clear. Number one, that’s so important. We really have to make sure that we’re coming up with something compelling that is going to get a person to say, you know, where have you been all my life? Um, that we have to get better at that. And also I would love because, I mean, we do. Owning a network like this gives us a lot of opportunity to we can interview whoever we want. Like tomorrow, like you mentioned. Like, if we wanted to meet firemen, we can make a firemen show tomorrow and start inviting firemen on the show.

Mike Brunnick: Yeah.

Lee Kantor: And in a short period of time, we would meet dozens of firemen. That that has never been a challenge for us. The challenge has been in our specific situation is how do we turn those people into a sales conversation? So we have to do a better job of once we meet them. Because, I mean, we’ve interviewed coaches for years and we have a database of thousands of coaches. So how do we move some of those coaches and open their mind to the possibility of how they might benefit from our offering? So how do we how do we meet a coach and then, um, incent them to either want to learn more about us specifically and or in, um, introduce us to somebody they might be coaching that might benefit from, from what we offer, you know, how do we make every coaching conversation and a business opportunity for us? We have not done a great job from from that standpoint.

Mike Brunnick: Got it. Stone.

Stone Payton: Amen. We have not we have absolutely not done done a good job with that. It’s um, it’s it’s a little bit of, um, we’re a little bit spoiled because in any given local market, I can sort of like here I have there’s a studio a mile down the road. I’m at the house right now with this fake background thing, but a mile down the road is a real studio, and I can invite people around the community, and I can cast a wide net and have the mayor and the fire chief, but also the fractional exec and the consultant and the coach and everybody. And I can just sort of cherry pick the ones I really want to have a substantive conversation with and then build out that studio to be incredibly successful. We have not, to date translated that well baked, extremely efficient thing that works. It always works. It never doesn’t work in any given local market. Lee and I haven’t translated that into the machine that works as a mothership, trying to get more people to consider doing that around the country that we have. There’s a gap there for sure.

Mike Brunnick: Right? Uh, so does it feel, uh, natural? Right. Because you want this to be part of a natural conversation. You said on a couple of occasions you don’t want this to feel transactional. Um, so I’m genuinely asking if it feels natural within your, your value set and the mood you’re trying to set to ask guests, past guests, current guests, uh, who do you know that is trying to take their business to the next level, but would rather people come to them than having to go out into the world and go to them? Do you know anybody that finds that that is in that situation, that is trying to grow their business or trying to get to the next level, but doesn’t want to spend all of their days out, you know, shaking hands and asking people for business. Uh, would rather have a platform that would come to them. Does that feel like a natural question to ask? Uh, your current and potentially past guests that you have.

Stone Payton: It does to me because, again, all of those people we’ve had some interaction with, they are the people who will take our call if if we got a divorce and I sold office furniture tomorrow, they would all take my call and have a conversation with me about selling office furniture. And even if the ones that couldn’t buy the office furniture because they’re their in-law sells office furniture, they’d still try to help me sell office furniture. So yeah, it feels perfectly organic and natural. It’s one of the luxuries of being in this, in this business I absolutely feels natural.

Mike Brunnick: Yeah. Lee. You agree?

Lee Kantor: Uh, for me, it doesn’t feel as natural. It feels the person that the challenge that I see, especially if we do this virtually in other markets when it happens in the studio. To me, why it works in a studio is it’s a visceral experience where face to face, we’re shaking hands, you know, at the end we take a picture, we’re all together. We have this shared emotional experience when it’s virtual, just the separation, uh, being on camera, it’s easy for the person to just be ready to move on to their next thing. Uh, you know, where they’re there. We don’t have their undivided attention. Right in the studio. We have their undivided attention. Um, so virtually, it’s harder for them to get the feeling that you feel in the studio. It’s hard to replicate that virtually. We haven’t figured out how to replicate that virtually. Um, and because of that, they’re coming in onto onto a zoom call with the expectation of, I’m going to be interviewed and I’m going to be gone. They’re not under the expectation of, oh, this might be an opportunity for me to learn about a business that might help me, like they’re there to do a thing that they’ve been prepared to do, because they do this multiple times a week. Um, so they’re it’s a different emotionally. They’re in a different place, and mentally they’re in a different place. So for me, it’s more clunky to move them from that to, oh, by the way, we have this thing that you might benefit from learning more about.

Mike Brunnick: Yeah. Um, but but you feel it would be more natural to have that conversation if they were, in fact, in the studio.

Lee Kantor: Right. But the thing is, that’s not helping me get somebody in another state to do this. So that’s why we have a, you know, ten people around the studio in different markets, in different suburbs of Atlanta, because they all came through a studio at some point, and they got to experience that firsthand. And that’s why they said, hey, that works in Atlanta. Maybe it’ll work out here in my suburb because they felt it. They they lived it in person. Um, it’s just more difficult to get somebody that is we meet virtually that never really kind of gets that, that feeling that you get, um, when you get the feeling in person, they connect the dots a lot faster. They’re like, wow, if I had this and I can bring people here, that’s I can see how that would be helpful. Where if we’re all virtual, it’s like, what’s that thing you say, Stone? It’s like you’re going out on a rowboat trying to sell outboard motors, you know, like, you know, trust me, this will be better. Um, but I’m not gonna. We’re not doing the thing that I’m telling you that you should do.

Mike Brunnick: Yeah. That’s, um. That’s. First of all, that’s a great analogy. Um, and I’m a I’m a big fan of analogies. Um, but, um, but, uh, second of all, I understand so is is one of the right questions to ask. And I know we’re getting a little long on time here, so maybe as a homework question is one of the right questions to ask. Um, sort of part A, is there a way to replicate that emotional, visceral experience, uh, remotely? Um, is it something that can only happen in person? So that’s sort of point A or question part A, question part B would be if the answer to part A is no, what are the ways that we could Go places and do an in-studio experience. Set up shop in a city and get folks to come in locally. Get them to feel that so that they would say, hey, you guys are only here for, you know, a couple of weeks doing a couple of radio shows in Cincinnati or north of Boston where I live. Um, and you guys are going to pack up your tent and get on the road again after that. Maybe I could, um, I could take over as the satellite here when you guys are gone. Um, so that’s sort of two questions. If there is no way I don’t know the answer. If there’s no way to replicate the emotional, visceral attachment that grows from an in-studio experience. Um, but but give that some thought. Uh, if there is no way, then part B is is there a way to then take that emotional experience on the road?

Lee Kantor: Yeah. I mean, we we’ve kind of struggled with this. So, um, we’ve done kind of road shows in, uh, where we showed up and we call it Radio Day, and we’ll, we’ll partner with, like, a chamber of commerce and they’ll invite ten, you know, business people, and we’ll sit there and just bang out a bunch of interviews. Um, so we’ve done that. We the hard part, for me at least, is that the person we’re looking to partner with is kind of a needle in a haystack, and it just that’s who we’re trying to identify. Um, so it just takes kind of it’s a numbers game, you know, you got to find the right person. And, you know, if we do, uh, one of these road shows and go to a city in another market that’s nearby and we show up and do ten interviews, we’re having to hope that one of those ten are going to be somebody that either is the right person or knows the right person, and we just haven’t had a lot of luck, um, in finding that. Um, but to your point of like, say, somebody like you, if we said, okay, Mike, um, let’s we’ll show you how to do this, you try it for a little bit that, I mean, that probably has a higher probability of success for us.

Mike Brunnick: Okay.

Lee Kantor: Um, I don’t know, Stone. What do you think?

Stone Payton: I don’t either, but I think we’re asking the right questions. Um, because doing the. I mean, if we got the math down and we knew that every time we did radio Day, we’d find somebody or every other time we did Radio Day or Radio Week or whatever.

Lee Kantor: We would travel, that would be a no brainer. We’d be.

Stone Payton: It would be a no brainer, especially at this point in our careers, because we can travel and stuff. Um, so that actually could be fun. So and it may not even be an either or, but also what you’re touching on Lee is if we can get the conversation to a certain point with someone who meets that profile and make it where you know they’re going to win no matter what. Right. If they are kind of coordinating, organizing, largely running Radio Day, you know, under the Business RadioX banner in a Boston, in a San Diego. And then we’re we’re supporting that with all of our technology and methodology and infrastructure and all brand equity and all that. Um, then, you know, maybe we don’t have to, you know, maybe we don’t have to bet on one day, you know, it might be three days. You know, like what? You may have a higher, uh, return, uh, opportunity for return. That’s an interesting.

Lee Kantor: Concept. I mean, we’re up for experimentation, so I mean this to me. I love that you’re doing this, and you’re really challenging us. And then, um, and these are important questions that we have to figure out in order to scale. I mean, these are the things that we have to be doing experiments in the areas that you’ve described. So thank you, um, for kind of pushing us in this direction. Thank you.

Mike Brunnick: Yeah, yeah, I’m happy to. I, um, I love what you guys are doing. I love the model. Um, I love the, the the the values behind it. Um, it’s, uh, it’s really exciting, and I, I, um, I’m I’m dying to help you, uh, succeed here. Um, so, um. Yeah, I was I was pushing in part because, um, the way my brain works as a, as a former, uh, sales guy and sales leader, every time I hear somebody say, got a thing that they’re trying to get more people to take advantage of, especially if it’s a a thing I believe in, like I do with you. Um, my mind’s immediately thinking, ah, how do we solve this problem? Um, or how do I help you guys solve this problem? So I’m excited to have been here today to be, uh, you know, my little part in this, uh, this bucket brigade, um, you know, sales is a big topic, and it goes all the way from, you know, messaging to to marketing to, uh, you know, a numbers game to how do I handle objections and how do I build rapport and how do I ask good questions and all of the things that come along with it? It’s a it’s a big topic. So today we just got a chance to talk about some of those, those building blocks. Um, and the new one today was articulation of the customer’s business problem. So, uh, given all of that, um, you know, Stone, is there anything from today that you’re taking away that you think, ah, here’s my, uh, here’s my action item, here’s what I’m going to commit to do or think about. Uh, as a result of today’s session.

Stone Payton: So about three pages of chicken scratch here. I underlined and circled and starred this this word succinctly under succinctly articulate. I think we’ve got something to chew on, right? Uh, in terms of articulating the problem, that’s a that’s a different lens of view for me is getting really, uh, talking a lot more about the problem at this stage than the, than the solution. And so that was very helpful to me. And then more recently in the conversation, this idea of solving this, you know, rowboat motorboat challenge that we seem to have or that we perceive that that we have. And seeing if we can’t find that, um, that that alternative to just make that a simple, easy, organic. Well, yeah. Here’s how we go about developing a new market. We find we find a person, we give them the infrastructure, we give them the tools, we coach them on what to do. We’re right there with them. And in doing so, either they or someone they they connect us with, uh, or more than one someone is a viable candidate to have a more, um, a more substantive conversation with going forward. So incredibly valuable. So yes, lots of notes.

Mike Brunnick: Great. And Lee, how about you?

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I’m with Stone on this. I think that we have to get better and tighten our messaging around the problem and the solution and the value. All of those things need to be super self-explanatory, and that the right person you know does respond with where you’ve been all my life. Um, and it’s less we they just have to kind of understand what we do because it’s not obvious. You know, when you look at what we do and, and how you experience it, it isn’t obvious how you can benefit from it. And maybe we have to make it more obvious, or at least kind of give them a quick way to understand why it could work for them. So that was a big takeaway for me. And to Stone’s point, you know, we just have to get better at giving people in different markets, the tools to do this and give them a way to taste it, you know. Uh, so they can try it on before they commit to anything. And this creates some win win way of making that happen, I think could, um, speed up our growth. But before we wrap up, I want to make sure that people know how to get Ahold of you. Can you share your website or the best way to connect with you?

Mike Brunnick: Yeah, absolutely. Um, so, uh, my website is, is awfully easy because it’s, uh, it just starts with my name. Um, so I am, uh, Mike Brunnock, but my website is Mike brunnock.com. Uh, so, uh, if they’re looking for me, they can find me again at Mike Brunnock. That’s br unique.

Stone Payton: Well, Mike, it has been an absolute delight having you join us, giving us some, some counsel, some things that we are definitely going to take to heart and put some real time and energy in. Thank you so much for joining us, man.

Mike Brunnick: Yeah, it was it was my pleasure. And, uh, I really look forward to to seeing where you guys go next because I’m, uh, I’m now emotionally invested in the journey. So this was this was my pleasure. Pleasure, guys.

Stone Payton: Thank you man.

Speaker1: Thanks for listening to Scaling in Public the next Business RadioX 100 markets. Are you ready to enjoy a steady stream of discovery calls? And finally, stop being a best kept secret? It’s time to step out of the shadows and watch your coaching business grow. Let’s fill your calendar ten discovery calls in a month, guaranteed. Go to Birr to download the free Business RadioX playbook.

 

Flipping the Script: How Hive is Changing the Game for House Renovations

February 2, 2026 by Jacob Lapera

Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Flipping the Script: How Hive is Changing the Game for House Renovations
Loading
00:00 /
RSS Feed
Share
Link
Embed

Download file

In this episode of Atlanta Business Radio, Lee interviews Ari Milrud, co-founder and CEO of Hive—a contractor marketplace tailored for real estate investors and house flippers in Atlanta. Ari shares his journey from high school entrepreneur to startup founder, discusses the challenges flippers face finding reliable contractors, and explains Hive’s rigorous vetting process. The conversation covers building trust in the contractor community, Hive’s multilingual approach, and the importance of credibility. Ari invites listeners to connect and learn more about Hive’s mission to streamline real estate renovations through technology and transparency.

Ari Milrud is a student entrepreneur based in Atlanta. He is the co-founder of Hive, a real estate technology platform that connects investors with vetted contractors through a transparent bidding and rating system.

He has hands-on experience in wholesaling and off-market investing, which inspired him to build tools that solve real problems investors face in renovation and execution.

Hive recently earned second place at Georgia Tech’s Startup Exchange Genesis program, validating its mission to bring trust, efficiency, and accessibility to real estate renovations.

Connect with Ari on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Identification of a market gap for a contractor marketplace tailored to real estate flippers.
  • Challenges faced by house flippers in finding reliable contractors and estimating renovation costs.
  • Description of Hive’s business model as a two-sided marketplace connecting flippers with vetted contractors.
  • Vetting process for contractors, including verification of licenses, insurance, and references.
  • Importance of having a stable network of contractors before purchasing properties.
  • Insights into building Hive as a non-technical founder and the significance of co-founder relationships.
  • Discussion on the entrepreneurial ecosystem and support programs for young entrepreneurs.
  • Challenges in recruiting contractors and addressing language barriers for Spanish-speaking contractors.
  • Strategies for building credibility and trust with contractors in the technology platform space.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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 gonna be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on the show, we have Ari Milrud. He is the co-founder and CEO with Hive. Welcome.

Speaker3: Hey, Lee, how are you doing?

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

Speaker3: Yeah. So hive or hive site is the website name. Hive is a contractor marketplace that we’ve been building for real estate investors, specifically fix and flippers in the Atlanta area. This is our first market that we’re going after. And when it comes to contractor marketplaces, oftentimes people think about ones like formerly known as Angie’s List, now Angie and Thumbtack, but those are built for homeowners, and we’re just trying to build a tool that’s great for fix and flippers and all real estate investors.

Lee Kantor: So what’s the backstory? How did like, where did you realize this was a problem and you could solve it?

Speaker3: So I’m still in high school. I’m a senior in high school, but I got into real estate. I got interested in real estate when I was a freshman in high school, and I kind of picked up on on real estate wholesaling, which is a low barrier to entry way of getting into real estate. It’s pretty saturated now. But, um, that’s when I first found an interest in real estate. And then last spring that just interest carried on and I wanted to get into my first flip. Flipping my first house. And and I came across this problem when I started talking to contractors in person for the first time, walking properties with them, learning the pricing. And I just found that there’s a big gap in what it costs them versus what they charge people who they think sometimes don’t know or don’t speak construction. Because let’s be honest, in the first two minutes of speaking with you, they’ll know exactly how much construction knowledge you have. So oftentimes I see even experienced flippers get maybe taken advantage of. And it’s just a super relationship based industry. And that’s when I first that’s just when it first really hit me and I didn’t I looked for a tool that could solve this problem, or I could just post a deal and have contractors bid on the work. And there wasn’t one. And I’m like, I’m only going to be this young with this low responsibility again, so I might as well just go for it. Try to make it.

Lee Kantor: So educate our listeners on how this works. So like, what if somebody says, okay, I’m going to flip a house. What does that mean? And what does that entail typically.

Speaker3: So you’ll look for a deal which already in Atlanta that’s pretty hard to find a good deal. But yeah, you’ll look for like a distressed property. That’s usually the route people go distressed property and and find, you know, a contractor for it. You’ll you’ll purchase.

Lee Kantor: But are you. So first you’re like first you have to find the property that is in your mind undervalued. And you know that if you fix it up, you can make money selling it, right.

Speaker3: You’re looking for an RV after repair value that that leaves you enough margin for you to make, uh, you know, your buck.

Lee Kantor: And then is there a rule of thumb when it comes to that? Are you looking for something that I can double or triple like? Is there a number that you’re kind of aiming at when you see a property for?

Speaker3: For fix and flippers, the typical number tends to be around. I think it’s 25% of the the RV is what they’re looking to make.

Lee Kantor: Um, so you got a quadruple. So you. So if you buy a house for 100 grand, you want to sell for 400 grand.

Speaker3: Um, I mean, I mean, it differs like, every, every flipper goes for their own margin. Like, there are people who are pretty greedy when it comes to it. And that’s why they they lowball on a lot of deals. Um, but, you know, like, let’s say you’re selling a house for 400,000, um, or that’s where it’ll sell for after you’re, you’re a lot of flippers will aim for that. You know that 25%. They’ll aim to make close to 100, 100 grand on that.

Lee Kantor: Um, is that what they want to pay for the property or or.

Speaker3: That’s what they want to. That’s what they want to make on the on the.

Lee Kantor: That’s what they want to make on the deal.

Speaker3: Yeah. So so paying for the property, um, what they pay for the property ultimately is, is decided from how much, you know, renovation work it needs so that that those numbers.

Lee Kantor: Okay. So that’s where the contractors come in.

Speaker3: Right, right.

Lee Kantor: And so you. If you don’t have a stable of contractors you can trust and can give you kind of predictable pricing, then that could blow up your deal in a blink.

Speaker3: Exactly, exactly. It’s everything after the purchase. And it’s it’s actually doing the work and getting the the the renovation.

Lee Kantor: So do you have to have that? Do you have to have that kind of in your pocket before you even buy the property, like you have to, or else you’re taking a big risk that you’re going to be able to get, um, contractors at a price that you think is reasonable.

Speaker3: Right? Exactly. And you can walk the property with contractors before, um.

Lee Kantor: Is that what you recommend?

Speaker3: Um, I mean, I’m not I’m not a super experienced flipper. Um, as I was gonna do my, my first flip last spring, and then we were. And then this is where I kind of found the problem that we’re now trying to solve. But, um, um, I won’t go ahead and, like, recommend. Hey, do this this way. Um, there’s so many ways to.

Lee Kantor: Right. But if you have Contractors that are going to give you. Okay. In order to, you know, get the house in a shape that you can get that 100 grand from, it’s going to cost you X, and you got to be able to trust that it really is going to be X. And it isn’t two x.

Speaker3: Right? Right. It is. It is definitely risky. You could run into problems in the renovation that you didn’t see before that, uh, when you were first looking at the deal, maybe under the, uh, floorboards or something that, you know, right.

Lee Kantor: All of a sudden there’s asbestos and now it’s game over. Like, now you’re just you’re going to lose money or you got to sit on it for longer.

Speaker3: Exactly. So yeah, it’s a big risk. And, uh, especially since here in Atlanta, there’s a lot of newer flippers since it’s just becoming more and more popular. Um, they don’t have all those, you know, connections to, like, a stable, uh, source of of contractors that super experienced, uh, flippers would have now that they’ve been in the game for so long. Um, so, you know, what you’ll do is you’ll probably when you’re looking at a deal, you go on Google and you search up contractors near me. You’ll click the first couple that have a bunch of fake Google reviews, and you’ll kind of just trust that and then, um, trust that they’re giving you a good price and then trust. Even if you’re getting three different quotes you still have, there’s still a lot of trust and a lot of risk involved.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. I mean, look, I’ve never flipped a house, but I’ve worked with kind of contractors over the years in my own house. And I know that every time you hire one, it’s an adventure because, you know, sometimes they don’t show up. Sometimes, you know, they get another job that pays a dollar more. So now you’re not a priority. Like it’s a very kind of dicey world. And if you don’t have people you can trust, it becomes adds a layer of risk.

Speaker3: Right. And that’s the same problem that we’ve heard, uh, that has been echoed to us this entire journey of creating this platform. Um, that just the problems that people run into with contractors. It’s it gives me a headache just listening, listening to it.

Lee Kantor: But yeah. So so you say, okay, I can see there’s an opportunity here. So if we can create a two sided marketplace on one side is not homeowners, it’s not people that just want, you know, a new light switch or, you know, a ceiling fan. These are people who want to flip a house. So they’re a different kind of customer, and they’re going to hire a different type of contractor.

Speaker3: Exactly. Yeah. Very different type of consumer on on our platform. Um, it’s not smaller jobs like you said. Um, these jobs are upwards of $50,000. And the main thing is that these are going to be returning customers because.

Lee Kantor: Right, if you’ve got a good one and you can keep them busy, they’re, you know, that’s kind of a repeat business built in.

Speaker3: Right? Exactly. Yeah. There’s only so many um, you know, if you’re a homeowner, you own one home. There’s only so many times you can fix one roof, right? Uh, yeah. And then also the, the, the other thing with homeowners that when it comes to contractors wanting to work with them, is, you know, there’s a lot of delays with flippers who’ve done it maybe once or twice before. They kind of know how it works. Now, the the order of things. And, you know, they don’t need to check with a spouse on if this color is good or not.

Lee Kantor: Right. It’s a different they’re doing things that look the same, but they’re not the same.

Speaker3: Exactly.

Lee Kantor: So now okay. So you say okay there’s an opportunity here. So I got to get both sides of this marketplace going. If I, if I make this platform successful. Right, I got to have people that are going to hire contractors and I got to have contractors that are going to be good. So how do you kind of vet the contractors and and do you do any vetting on the other side of the, uh, the flippers.

Speaker3: Right. So yeah, that’s one of the main things because, um.

Lee Kantor: Because Uber, Uber checks me, you know, I get rated too. So, you know, both sides got to be I.

Speaker3: Yeah. And I was I was about to bring up Uber because um, you know, let’s be honest here, if Uber had come out today and you need to go somewhere and, um, this platform just came out and this person has zero ratings or reviews and this is a new platform. You’ve never heard of this. You’re most likely not going to get in the stranger’s car. Um, so since we’re a new platform, we want to build credibility. So this, this, you know, first round of contractors that were, uh, manually were manually vetting each one, uh, making sure that, you know, we don’t run into major problems and they have, uh, experience of reliable and quality work. Uh, and to do that, we check, um, another thing I’ll add here is that, um, flippers tend to work with unlicensed, sometimes work with unlicensed contractors just so that they can get a good price and, and grow their margin. Uh, and that’s one thing, you know, we found out more into the idea phase when just like, talking with contractors. So we had to, um, kind of adjust uh, for, for that. And so the way we vet contractors is it’s like. It’s like an application they, they put in all their basic information. What types of work. What type of work they do, uh, their timelines for like basic stuff. And then we ask, are they licensed? And if they’re not licensed, then we’ll ask for their general liability insurance, uh, and then their surety bond information if they have that, um, and we kind of look at everything together and we at the very end, we ask for at least, uh, at least two references on and then the project information of projects they’ve done with those references. Uh, and then I’ll go I’ll call those those references, ask them questions. Um, and then we’ll, we’ll, we’ll that’ll create their initial score on the platform, which we have ratings for each contractor out of ten from, from 1 to 10. Um, and those references kind of help come up with that initial score. Um, and. Yeah, that’s that’s how we’ve been vetting contractors.

Lee Kantor: Now, how do you vet the flippers to make sure they’ll pay on time? You know, all that stuff to.

Speaker3: The flippers were just asking for for, you know, um, projects they’ve done in the past. Um, but it is kind of a more of a trusting flippers because some of our, uh, the, the customers were going for are newer flippers because they don’t have these, these relationships yet with great contractors that they use every time. Um, so on that part, it’s gonna, it’s gonna be more of a trusting thing, just kind of making sure they’re, they’re, they’re good people. And a lot of flippers were initially gonna have be posting jobs, these flippers that I’ve worked with in the past or that I already know just from being real estate these past couple years. Um, and so that’s kind of where we’re at with that. But yeah.

Lee Kantor: So, um, how did you kind of take it from the idea stage to, um, you know, the platform stage? Are you a Technologists. Do you know how to code?

Speaker3: So I’m I’m a non-technical, uh, founder and but my co-founder, Louis, um, Louis singer, he goes to Mount Vernon, uh, school in Sandy Springs. Um, he, he had some coding background. And when I was looking for a co-founder to work on this with, um, I didn’t want to just, you know, grab the the know it all guy who could build the whole thing in a week and and, you know.

Lee Kantor: So you didn’t want to go to Fiverr and just say, hey, build me this thing, right?

Speaker3: Totally could have done that. Um, but I wanted to find someone who was young like me. Uh, obviously ambitious. Uh, humble is another very key thing. Like, I want to make sure they they’re not just gonna, um, make it all theirs and then take the idea and run with it or anything like that. I want to make sure it’s humble, willing to grow, and then, yeah, the most important thing is willing to grow at the same rate that I am. Um, and I feel like Louis was just had all those attributes And, um, and he had some coding experience. He built a website for, um, I think it was Furman University and then the startup museum of Atlanta a couple years ago. Um, and then, yeah, he worked on another startup before, but it didn’t really go that far. Um, so that’s where I kind of found my coding, my, my coding expertise.

Lee Kantor: And did you know him before?

Speaker3: He’s like in the same he’s a year younger than me, but he’s in the kind of the same social circle. So I’ve I’ve knew his name, but I’ve never actually known him. And then I reached out to him, um, in the summer and we got to working on, on hive.

Lee Kantor: So, um, in your peer group, are there other entrepreneurs that are doing stuff like this?

Speaker3: Uh, and do you mean peer group in.

Lee Kantor: In other high schools, you know, friends of yours, or are there other kind of budding aspiring entrepreneurs like you?

Speaker3: Um, I mean, there’s, uh, Every now and then. Maybe you’ll see one from a different school or something. But it is hard to find kids who are like, building, like super ambitious, like projects like this. Um, but I do see, like, some entrepreneurial kids in my school, and, um, and I love to see, like, them going after their own thing, like, there’s, uh, these two kids in my school who are working on, um, this, uh, service based business where they connect high schoolers, uh, with, uh, local businesses and give them internships. And that’s something I love to see. So I do recognize it, um, when it’s there.

Lee Kantor: And is there any kind of, um, place for you to gather and meet and interact? Is there any kind of group or, uh, that you’re a member of that kind of encourages that?

Speaker3: Um, not really. For, for high school, we kind of had to expand to, to college to find the group of builders that we were looking for. We we ended up joining a program at Georgia Tech, um, last semester in the in fall and through atdc. Um, no, it’s not that one. It’s, uh, startup exchange, uh, the Genesis program at Georgia Tech. Um, and that was like a 5 or 6 week program where it’s just, um, all it’s like all Georgia Tech kids who, uh, just came together and went through like this, the idea phase and all this. And, um, and then it ended with a demo day at the Startup Exchange Summit in, um, in, in at Georgia Tech, uh, where the fellowship teams pitched. And then the Genesis teams did their demos and there was a competition. We actually ended up winning second place, which was really cool. Um, and that’s where that’s where we found some, some really cool people who are building really cool things.

Lee Kantor: And then that was, was that the first time you felt like, okay, this is something that could become real, like or did you feel that beforehand?

Speaker3: Um, felt it more beforehand. We just wanted to be. We wanted to be more involved in an environment where this is like the norm we’re building. We’re building cool projects. Is is is normal. Like, everyone’s doing something, right. Um, and I feel like I couldn’t really find that in, in a high school setting. Um, but at Georgia Tech, that was everyone was doing something really right.

Lee Kantor: If you get into that world, that’s that’s normal, right? Everybody has been in the startup, has their own startup, you know, worked on one internal. They’ve done it five times by the time they graduate.

Speaker3: Everywhere there it’s everywhere there. Um, big ecosystem there. Prize picks went through there. Um, the founder of reptile just did a talk there that we, that we went to and listened to him big, big names from there.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. There’s no shortage of entrepreneurs in that area around Georgia Tech, that’s for sure. Um, so what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Speaker3: Um, just follow the journey for now. I mean, we’re we’re we’re we’re building our founding group of contractors. We’re vetting them. We’re we’re having a ton of fun with it. Um, but.

Lee Kantor: So you need more contractors, and you need more flippers to know about hive.

Speaker3: Yeah, yeah. For now, it’s it’s contractors. Um, mainly because a lot of the contractors that we speak with over the phone and stuff, it’s, um, they, they, they often they get calls from, like, lead gen companies and marketing companies trying to help them with get more leads, or so when we call them initially like they think it’s that and they’re immediately like, no, we’re not interested. Or what we’ll run into is, um, a lot of primarily Spanish speaking contractors. So one of the things we want to do with hive is make it completely like multilingual so that we can allow for these, um, these, contractors who don’t speak that much English to still get business. Um, so, like if we run into someone who’s Spanish speaking, I’ll have to break out a, like, a script in Spanish to explain what hive is. Um, and but for the main part, it’s, you know, contractors that aren’t super open to, like, new technology or they know Angie’s List, um, or they know thumbtack and they don’t want to be charged for leads. And we have to explain, hey, we’re not charging for leads. Um, you just go on here, you select what types of jobs you’re looking for, and then when the flippers start posting jobs, we’ll notify you. Um, and even then, there’s some who are like, oh, no, I’m okay. And it’s just like, kind of blows my mind. Like, we’re not charging any of you at all just for the sake or right now for the sake of, you know, growing the website and, uh, you know, so.

Lee Kantor: Well, it just shows you how much distrust there is in the kind of internet stuff. So that’s why you got to really be super buttoned up when it comes to credibility because they’re looking for a reason to say no, they’re not looking for a reason to say yes.

Speaker3: Right, exactly.

Lee Kantor: Um, so if somebody wants to learn more and connect, what’s the website? What’s the best way to kind of get them on your radar?

Speaker3: Um, yeah, the website is hive site. Um, and if anyone wants to reach out to me for any questions or anything like my, my email is reactive site, um, or you can find me on LinkedIn. It’s just my name. Um, and yeah, I’d love for people to follow the journey. I think we’re building something really cool, and then we’re going to grow it all throughout the southeast and hopefully eventually nationwide.

Lee Kantor: Cool. Well, congratulations on all the success, man. You’re you’re doing a hard thing.

Speaker3: Yeah I appreciate it. Thank you. Lee.

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

Tagged With: Ari Milrud, Hive

Dr. Kevin Dyson: From NFL Legend to Transformational Educator

February 2, 2026 by angishields

HBR-Kevin-Dyson-Feature
Houston Business Radio
Dr. Kevin Dyson: From NFL Legend to Transformational Educator
Loading
00:00 /
RSS Feed
Share
Link
Embed

Download file

 

Kevin-Dyson-logo

Kevin-DysonDr. Kevin Dyson is the Founder of the Music City Academy and a former NFL wide receiver best known for the iconic “Music City Miracle” and being “One Yard Short” in Super Bowl XXXIV.

After his football career, he transitioned into education, serving nearly 20 years in public education, including as Principal of Centennial High School and Grassland Middle School in Tennessee.

Dr. Dyson holds multiple advanced degrees, including a Doctorate in Educational Leadership, and is passionate about mentoring youth and developing future leaders. He is also the author of Qualified, So I Am Justified: Redefining Success, and continues to impact communities as a speaker, leadership consultant, and advocate for student success.

Today, he blends his experiences as an athlete, educator, and executive to inspire individuals to overcome challenges, lead with purpose, and pursue their own definitions of success.

Connect with Dr. Dyson on LinkedIn.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. So excited to introduce my next guest. Today’s guest is Dr. Kevin Dyson, a former first round NFL draft pick, educator, author, and now CEO of Music City Academy in Franklin, Tennessee. You may know Kevin from some of his most iconic moments in NFL history the Music City Miracle and the famous one yard shot play in Super Bowl 34. But what many don’t know is after the NFL, Kevin spent nearly two decades transforming schools as a teacher, a coach, and later as a principal at both Grassland Middle School and Centennial High School. Guided by his values instilled by his single mother, Kevin earned two master’s degrees and a Dr.ate in educational leadership, and today he leads Music City Academy with a mission to grow strong students and even stronger leaders. He is also the author of Qualified So I Am Justified, a leadership consultant and an in-demand keynote speaker known for turning his life experiences into lessons on resilience, purpose and character. Please welcome Dr. Kevin Dyson, educator, leader, and a man redefining what it means to succeed on and off the field. Dr. K.D., welcome to the show.

Dr. Kevin Dyson: Well thank you. You know, I gotta have you do all my intros, I appreciate that.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that I spend a lot of time on these to make, you know, make it feel good, because we don’t often introduce ourselves with that kind of, um, umph, if you will. Right. So you’re welcome. And I’m so glad you’re on the show today. Um, how about you start with just telling us a little bit more about you, Kevin?

Dr. Kevin Dyson: Well, I’ll start with, as you mentioned, someone in the intro, um, I’m the oldest of of a single mother. Um, and part of that, her trying to keep us in line was, uh, sports. So sports had always been an important part of my life. But she had one rule, and it was to maintain a 3.0 or be average or better. And, you know, like most kids and I’m the oldest, I challenge that. And she took sport away from me. It was basketball, which was my first love was basketball. And those are the kind of values that my mom was trying to instill. I think she wanted us to understand that yes, it’s okay to have dreams, but you can’t skip steps to attain those dreams. And I jokingly talk about, you know, this is in the 80s when this conversation was happening and this was pre-Internet, and my mom literally came home one day after the almost like day after two days after I professed that I was going to the NBA to buy her house, she came home with the statistical probability of me making it in all the major professional sports in the US. And you know those numbers like one and 2,000,001. It’s crazy, right? It’s like less than 1%. And I look back on that now and I recognize it wasn’t to, you know, destroy my dreams of making the professional NBA make the professional basketball. It was more to give me a sense of priority and something to attain without skipping the necessary steps.

Dr. Kevin Dyson: And so that’s always kind of been in me. Uh, like you said, I played in NFL. I moved to education, um, kind of really like a lot of players have retired from the NFL trying to figure out what your next identity. What’s that transition for so much of your life? Sport dictated your next move, and I just happened to fall in love with learning, which I never had before as a kid. I loved how I was able to have an impact on kids, even if it was a short term, but some I found it’s been long term from now. I’ve been in education a little over 20 years that you talked about, and so that impact is far greater than anything you can really do in life when you have those intimate conversations that you have with with young people along the way and you hope they listen. Uh, even your own kids. Right. And so that is, you know, why I have lasted as long as I have in education and moved up the ranks that way. It just became somewhat of my calling, if you will. And now I’m embarking on a new challenge where I want to expand that that that brand, if you will, that influence that inspiration. By starting my own charter school out in the greater Nashville area.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, I love that. So it started with mom pushing you in the right direction and telling you that you had to have good grades, and it really I see that throughout all of the all of the things that I talked about in introducing you, but even through the conversations that we’ve had. So thank you for learning those lessons. Thank you, mom, for teaching those lessons and then bringing those back to the students. So, um, what do you think is one leadership lesson from football that translates perfectly to the classroom or even the boardroom?

Dr. Kevin Dyson: Wow, that’s pretty profound. I love that one. You know, what’s interesting is a lot of principals, especially in the county I was at or former athletes, and I think that’s not by chance. I think there’s a deliberate, um, action for that. I think because of sport, the ability to collaborate, the ability to stick through the ability to meet goals. But I also think there’s a toughness that comes through being in hard times of sports, a resilience. And I think you have to have a set of resilience. You have to have a sense of resiliency. Um, in education and I mean, uh, in my time that I have been in education, I’ve been through, what, two pandemics, um, been through multiple not me physically been through a school shooting, but across the country and that climate in the world and how that is and that. And when you see those things, that trickles on down to everybody, not just the people that are affected by it. And we were affected by it here, like 15, 20 minutes from the school I was working at, at a at a school that was affected by that a year or two ago. And so all those things, when you’re having to rally people around, calm people down, be a shoulder, be a support, but also lead through those. I think there’s a level that you learn from sport, not how to not to get rattled, not to waver, to be a steady presence and lead.

Dr. Kevin Dyson: I think that’s why a lot of a lot of leaders or a lot of superintendents, like for their leaders and buildings to be at former athletes. Um, and I think that’s one of the things I’ve been most appreciative of is opportunity to express some of that leadership skills that, you know, you used as the captain of the football team, the captain of the soccer team, basketball, whatever it might have been. And, you know, there’s a level of responsibility comes to that because the guys that are not captains are watching you and it’s similar. You know, you know, when you’re leading a school or leading a corporation, the people that are you’re in care of are responsible for your subordinates, whatever. They’re watching you. And um, and I’ve, I’ve always kind of kept that in mind and taken it to heart. And if they’re watching me, I want to be able to say I’m willing to do whatever you’re doing. I’ll get my my hands just as dirty as you if I have to. So that’s what I think. I have learned the most from my time as an athlete to my time as an educator, and more specifically as a as a leader of a school, just just having a sense of resiliency and stick to itiveness and just keep pushing through.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, I love that. So tell me what your students have taught you about leadership?

Dr. Kevin Dyson: Patience. No, seriously. You know, um, you have your own kids and there’s a level of patience that you, you almost have with them because they’re yours, right? Um, but there’s a different level of patience when people are raised in different homes and they come collectively together and you’re trying to come to a common goal or common goals, whether it be academic achievement, test scores, attendance, whatever those goals are. And you’re trying to mold young minds and things of that nature. Uh, you have to be patient, I think. You have to understand and get a level of understanding from, uh, just how people are. Uh, not everybody sees the world as you see it. You gotta recognize that and try to see the world from other people’s lenses. And I think that’s been one of my greatest assets as a leader, is being able to be compassionate to all people. Um, and appreciate all walks of life and just being able to be a soundboard, listen and just pay attention. And when you pay attention, you be able to have a sense of patience to work through some things. You can change the narrative of whatever that is bad, good or indifferent. You can kind of change that narrative if you just listen and be patient sometimes. Uh, sometimes I can be too patient. Sometimes I can be too laid back, and I understand that about myself. Um, but I am a I try to see things from all angles and not rush to Two decisions. Not rush to making a move. Drastic move just to make it. Um, and I sometimes be perceived as, um, laid back, but, um, man, just dealing when you’re dealing with teenagers because hormones changing, girlfriend changing, social media changing, you just got to learn to be patient and work through those things.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. So much has changed since the 80s, hasn’t it?

Dr. Kevin Dyson: Just a little bit.

Trisha Stetzel: So much. So much. Well, and this this conversation we’re having really speaks to not just your leadership, but also your purpose and your character. And I think it, uh, really rounds out who you are as a leader. So can we talk a little bit about your book qualified? So I am justified. You redefine success. Um, how has your own definition of success changed across your life? Chapters.

Dr. Kevin Dyson: Man, that’s that’s kind of what the book was alluding to. Um, when I first retired from the NFL. I knew doors would open for me. Of course I wanted to coach, but when I settled in on secondary education and I was coaching from a high school perspective, I knew doors would open for me. But I also knew I wanted them to remain open. So I wanted to go back to school and get qualified because I didn’t know what I was doing other than I knew football. I didn’t know education. And so I was justified for the opportunities that came. And that’s kind of how the book kind of started. And within that, though, I’ve learned a lot of things about myself from an emotional standpoint. I, you know, I think I cared a lot about a lot more about what people, how they viewed me. Um, if I was disappointing people, you know, I was the first receiver taken in the 98 NFL draft ahead of one of the greatest to ever do it, Randy Moss. And so much of my identity was from myself, other people. I believe people thought this. And whether they did or didn’t, I believe to be true. Um, that I was always chasing his shadows. And then I have injuries and I could never play catch up. I could never catch his shadow because I’d have a setback after setback after setback that eventually led to me retiring early, and I had a hard time dealing with that internally.

Dr. Kevin Dyson: Externally, people didn’t know, but internally I felt like I’ve let a lot of people down. I let my teammates down, let my family down, even myself, because I didn’t amass the career that I had envisioned for myself. And I had some moments, as you mentioned, with the miracle and the one yard short and and things of that nature. But I also wanted that extensive career to, to validate me being picked 16th overall. And so through that in the book, it just kind of transformed to I had to reinvent myself. I had to humble myself and start, start fresh, find a new passion and then delve into that and get better at whatever that is. And that’s what I hope I’ve been able to do. I think I still got lots to learn about leadership, and sometimes I have the crutch of good people around me to support me, and I leverage that. And I can do better with being more assertive on my end. But, um, but I’ve I’ve learned through this process, though, man, reinvention is hard. There’s a process. And if you’re not willing, if you don’t take the time to allow it to, to develop and and transpire like it’s supposed to, a lot of guys lose that sense of purpose real, real fast.

Dr. Kevin Dyson: And that’s when a lot of things happen. And I’ve been pretty fortunate that I found a new passion. I found a new purpose. And and, um, it’s continued to grow and it’s leading me down this journey of starting my own school, um, 50 years old. And if you told my 30 year old self when I retired from NFL that when I turned 50, I’d be here starting my own school, I’d have thought she was crazy. I really thought I was just going to teach and coach and maybe be an athletic director for for 20 years and retire and and just go golf or and do random things here and there like I do. You know, I do radio, I do TV, I’ve done a lot of different things, uh, speak and all that stuff. And, uh, but now I’m here and I’ve had the opportunity to lead some schools and, and of course, with the people around me, I’ve had some success doing so. And now I’m here and I’m taking this new challenge. And I’m hoping the lessons that I’ve learned over the last 20 years longer than that, really in the last 50 years of life, um, and being able to and implement some of that into school and hopefully this school lasts for years even beyond me. So we’ll see.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that. Okay, so before we dive into I want to talk about Music City Academy. Uh, but I know people are already interested in connecting with you, Kevin. So what is the best way for folks to find you?

Dr. Kevin Dyson: Oh, well, so social media wise, Katie Dyson 87. That’s usually my tagline on everything. Um, of course I’m on LinkedIn. You can just search for my name there. And, um, as far as, like, this website’s, of course, Kevin Dyson. Com, that’s my personal website. Um, got the book and things like that and a little bit bio, a little bit more about me. And then, um, Music City Academy, and that’s the course. I love people to kind of go in there and see what we have going on. We’re still building it up a little better, but because we’re still new, um, and we haven’t even started yet, but, uh, people want to go there and find ways to support the school, be a part of the process. Reach out to me that you can go to either my website, Kevin Dyson. Com, or Music City Academy.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that. Okay, so what vision drove you to build the Academy and what makes the model of Music City Academy different?

Dr. Kevin Dyson: Wow. Uh, well, what drove me, um, was some stuff we’ve been talking about. You know, I’ve been a principal. I’ve been in education 20 years. And what I’ve seen in education is a lot of good people that want to do right by kids want to teach kids and they have passions for the content and the things that they are teaching. But a lot of times we are set by a set of rules or bylaws. Be in public settings, right that you have to do. You have to pass by. So you you almost become almost become cookie cutter in a way, because there’s certain things that you have to do every year. So the inspiration was, I wanted to do something, have an opportunity to do something a little different. And I wanted to take what I, for me, my personality would would have been the type of school that would engage me. You know, I did decent enough in school. I had like I said, my mom made sure we maintained a three or better. I, I was just just under 3.4 GPA and I and I say that because I was pretty good. Yeah. But really I didn’t I didn’t extend myself, you know, I played the, the game where if I had chemistry, I made sure I had home EQ or or art or something to balance it out, you know, to make sure I was going to get my B average. And I didn’t do any advanced classes because I just didn’t I didn’t think I was smart.

Dr. Kevin Dyson: And I just when I realized when you talk about intelligence, a lot of it is just stick to itiveness and motivation. And I learned that, of course, in my 40s. But so that was kind of what led to this journey of this school. And I’m taking a unifying power of sports and helping young student athletes find their academic passions to the lens of sports and turn that to excellence. And aside for that, I love competition. You want to build sports teams, and you want to build schools that kids want to come play ball with, but also get an academic experience that that’s a little bit different. And within the school, we’re going to emphasize the the totality of a person, the holistic view of a kid, the mind, body and soul if you will, and have resources within the school to make sure we’re matching that. Start today with some intentional time for kids to to really, uh, get ready for school, whether it be exercise, their advisory, their team, period, um, things of that nature to really just set them up for success in the day. You know, research says if you either meditate, exercise or take time like read or something to yourself before starting your day, you’re more likely to be productive. And I’ve kind of taken that sense and that model. And it’s true. If you if you probably do it yourself, you get up, you go for your run, you read your book, you have your morning coffee, you go to the gym.

Dr. Kevin Dyson: It sets you up for success for the rest of your day. And if you don’t do those things you recognize, you’re like, why am I sluggish today? What’s going on? It’s because your your routine is off. You didn’t get up and get your your blood flowing. Get your mind right. And so I’m just taking that that research and turning it into a purpose in education, um, and trying to do something a little bit different, encouraging teachers to use movement, um, to not just sit desk you encouraging them to use movement as part of their instruction. Uh, so kids are not just sitting and getting, I think, kinesthetically and and things of that nature. Uh, we all learn a little bit different. Um, I have learned this over the years of myself. I if I’d have known this when I was younger, I might have helped me out. But I’m not necessarily a sit and get guy. I could do it more now that I’m older and I recognize it. Um, but as a kid, I probably would have done a lot better had they incorporate movement. That’s football, basketball, soccer, baseball. What other sports have I done in my life? When you learn plays or things like what are you doing? You’re moving and and it’s easy for me even now, I can learn plays instantly because I know the movement of it.

Dr. Kevin Dyson: And so that’s the gist of it. It’s just you just really taking the holistic view of a kid using unified power of sports and turn it into a purpose in it. And oh, and I guess I should mention failed to mention we’re talking about our career pathways. Career technical education will make some partnerships and maybe do some dual enrollment, some internships, some job shouting, job shadowing in the world of sports with Nashville has become kind of a Mecca for some professional sports teams. Plenty of colleges and universities, let alone the the rec leagues, opportunities for kids to delve into different professions within the world of sports. As a kid, the only thing I knew was professional basketball or professional sports. But professional basketball was the dream. I didn’t know the the wide variety of opportunities in the world of sports that I delve into now do sports talk radio. I’ve done TV analysis. I understand some of the things behind the scenes from camera work, journalism, uh, sports marketing, uh, sports, uh. Uh. Uh, what’s it called? Uh, social media marketing. There’s so many opportunities for kids to be in the world of sports. If you have a passion for sports, uh, that you can leverage that into a life post-secondary. And that’s kind of why I chose to go this path. It’s just, I think, to do something different from the typical, um, educational sense and provide what I’m passionate about, which is now learning and, of course, sports.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Oh my gosh, you’re like turning the world of education upside down. I love this I think it’s fantastic what you’re bringing. Um, you mentioned that you’d been on a trip and you’re building relationships before we started our conversation today. And I’d love to know what relationships are you trying to build? Are there people out there listening right now, or people that they know that you need to connect with? Who are they?

Dr. Kevin Dyson: Uh, anybody that has a heart for kids, that’s on the broad sense, right? I think if you want to narrow it down, um, just if you very hard for kids. And you want to see them succeed. Um, in in the world of and I’m gonna say sports, but just in the world in general, I think I would love to connect with you, uh, we, you know, to do with your vision, it obviously it costs money. And and there’s going to be a time and place once we get the, the, the land or the building and things like that, you want to build it out, provide, uh, an awesome experience for kids from hopefully be open August 2027 and beyond. Um, and I would love to connect with people. If you have a heart for kids, if your heart for sports and or a combination of both or, you know, and what I found just talking to families is, uh, I had a young I had a lady tell me she’s, um, probably in her 50s. And she said, man, sports saved her son’s life. And and I can say something similar, you know, being, like I said, raised in a home, just my mother and seeing her grind and doing all those things. Sport was what kept me around. My motivation was to be able to provide for her, provide a home for her, and lessen her burden. And sport has always been a catalyst, and there’s so many lessons that you get from the world of sports and competition that that can be used later in life. And so anybody that just has a heart for kids, heart for sport, and want to see something come together between the two and look, reach out to me, like you said, for my websites and and things of that nature. I’d love to talk and connect so much.

Trisha Stetzel: Reinvention. I think we’ve we’ve had so much shift and change from the beginning of the story to where you are today. Today, um, how do you and I know you’ve written about that, right? The reinvention. You talked a little bit about it earlier, but how are you personally navigating all of this reinvention for yourself? And what would you suggest to others who feel like they’re ready for that?

Dr. Kevin Dyson: Wow. So I did a keynote, um, a year ago. And I was just talking about not being afraid to chase your dreams or chase whatever’s aching at you and letting go of. And it was, you know, acronym. And it was lead with grit. And the L is letting go of those things that that stop you from progressing to your destiny. And so many of us, we are scared to make that move because we’re comfortable or we don’t know what the what ifs are, the challenges along the way. And some of us are getting older. We don’t want to embark on those new challenges, even though our passion leads us in different ways. And so I think one of the whole things is one, you humbling yourself. And I think that’s first you gotta if you want to start over, you gotta hump yourself and say, I’m gonna start over and it’s not going to be easy. Two is let go of those things that stop you from even trying to, which is like letting go of the fear, letting go of the the naysayers, the the negative talk, the the the fear you have on yourself to go ahead and pursue your your purpose. You know, one of the things taglines I have on some of the shirts that I have on my website is you have you have the power to pursue your purpose.

Dr. Kevin Dyson: And I think we forget that sometimes because we let outside influences, you know, distract us. They, they, they give us alternate routes and, and things like that. And we forget. We we control our own destiny. We control our own, our own purpose. And you just have to go out there and realize you have the power to change it and and do it. And it starts with humbling yourself and realize you got a long ways to learn. And, you know, I go back to my first time in a classroom, my first time teaching I would have never thought I’d be in at this point, would have two master’s degrees or Dr.ate, and let alone starting my own school. And I had to reinvent myself. And I’ve had former teammates and friends that wanted to get something a little more substantial or getting the coaching. And one of the things that they asked me, what did I do? You know, how did I get where I was at? And simply put, man, I humble myself and started over. I had to start somewhere. I mean, and I didn’t know necessarily what my passions were back then, you know, I made it into fail and that was my passion, was sport. I wanted to play in the professional league was basketball, but football. And when you’re done. I was 30 years old and it’s like, okay, now what? And traditionally most guys, because you’ve been playing ball, you go into coaching.

Dr. Kevin Dyson: And I like most I sort that out. But it wasn’t in the plans for me. And when I got in, I started teaching kids and coaching kids. I was like, I kind of like this now there are some things I wish I would have done as a player set myself up for when I did retire from an entrepreneurial standpoint. But even still, those are not necessarily my passions. Those are kind of hobbies that help you create passive income and all the different things that come with that. It’s not necessarily my passion, though. Um, so having something that gives you a purpose and passion that’s crucial for anybody with reinvention. We all want to have a sense of purpose. And I think that is your ultimate answer is yeah. Humbling yourself. But does it give you a sense of purpose? Is what you’re doing give you a sense of purpose? If it doesn’t, then you’re not doing what you’re called to do. And I think that’s the ultimate dream is why we’re here on earth, to have our sense of purpose. And I know a lot of times money rules the world. And we we equate our purpose with how much we make. But that’s not always the case.

Speaker4: Mhm. That’s beautiful.

Trisha Stetzel: Thank you. Passion and purpose and I, I well I have one more question for you. Absolutely. Finish up today. How important is it for all of us to surround ourselves with the right people, as students, as leaders, as grown ups? How important is that man?

Dr. Kevin Dyson: You you you’re speaking my brain lesson. I one thing I have learned on this side of my journey is I and I mentioned it earlier, I didn’t leverage those that network those relationships as a as a college kid, meeting up boosters and people that shook and made the world go round. Right? Um, from a college perspective, all the alumni, things like that. And I think one thing I’ve learned as an educator is building on relationships inside the building and outside the building are crucial. You need you need partners. You know, um, one thing about me, I’ve been humble enough to know I’m not the smartest man in the room, and I never profess to be. And I’ve been fortunate enough to surround myself with people that are intelligent in other ways. You know, I have my skill sets, right? But I always compliment my my skill deficit with those that have those skills. And I think sometimes, again, it goes back to being humbled and knowing yourself. I think a lot of times people feel like I have to have all the answers as opposed to leveraging the network, leveraging your relationships with people, and utilizing their skill sets to compliment yours or your weaknesses or your your shortcomings and and working on those to become strengths, but leveraging those that are good at those sort of things. Like, I know people that are really good in organization and communication, like leverage that there’s people that are that are really smart in, in budgeting and finance and operations leverage that, you know, and just, you know, your skill sets and what your value is and bring that to the table.

Dr. Kevin Dyson: And, you know, if I can tell my younger self and what I try to tell my own kids and the kids that come in contact with man is if you make a contact, leverage that. And I still struggle with it. I need to get better at it, but send somebody a kind email, send them a Christmas card or a note. Um, make sure you stay in contact people. You just never know where that conversation is going to lead you to. And I’ve had people before come to me say, coach, and this is when I was coach. And so, you know, I’m Dr. Dyson, but, uh, coach, I did what you said. I sent an email that man, and they. The guy remembered that when I when I came in for internship. And now he’s working for this company. And so it’s just that simple because he remembered this kid reach back out to him with a purpose. And he was like, I appreciate that because so many kids come and go and don’t even appreciate the time they had. Now he leveraged it and he has a job now. So that’s that’s the ultimate thing, man. It’s just leverage your relationships and and network and just be genuinely kind to people.

Trisha Stetzel: Beautiful. Thank you so much for your time today Kevin. This has been such a wonderful conversation. Uh, throw out your contact information one more time where people can connect with you.

Dr. Kevin Dyson: Absolutely. Um, Katie Dyson, 87. That’s my tag on social media. And you can find me at Kevin Dyson. Com simply put. And then music city. Music city miracle. Music city academy. I’m so used to call it Mister Miracle. That’s it. Music City Academy plays off of that, of course, but it’s actually Music City Academy, so you can catch. You can find me there. Got it.

Trisha Stetzel: Thank you so much, Dr.. Kevin Dyson, CEO of Music City Academy. It’s been my pleasure to host you today.

Dr. Kevin Dyson: Thank you so much. I appreciate your time.

Trisha Stetzel: All right, guys, that’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in this conversation that Kevin and I had, please share it with a fellow entrepreneur, veteran or Houston leader ready to grow. And as always, please rate, review and follow the show. It helps us reach more bold business minds just like yours and your business. Your leadership and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • …
  • 162
  • Next Page »

Business RadioX ® Network


 

Our Most Recent Episode

CONNECT WITH US

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Our Mission

We help local business leaders get the word out about the important work they’re doing to serve their market, their community, and their profession.

We support and celebrate business by sharing positive business stories that traditional media ignores. Some media leans left. Some media leans right. We lean business.

Sponsor a Show

Build Relationships and Grow Your Business. Click here for more details.

Partner With Us

Discover More Here

Terms and Conditions
Privacy Policy

Connect with us

Want to keep up with the latest in pro-business news across the network? Follow us on social media for the latest stories!
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Business RadioX® Headquarters
1000 Abernathy Rd. NE
Building 400, Suite L-10
Sandy Springs, GA 30328

© 2026 Business RadioX ® · Rainmaker Platform

BRXStudioCoversLA

Wait! Don’t Miss an Episode of LA Business Radio

BRXStudioCoversDENVER

Wait! Don’t Miss an Episode of Denver Business Radio

BRXStudioCoversPENSACOLA

Wait! Don’t Miss an Episode of Pensacola Business Radio

BRXStudioCoversBIRMINGHAM

Wait! Don’t Miss an Episode of Birmingham Business Radio

BRXStudioCoversTALLAHASSEE

Wait! Don’t Miss an Episode of Tallahassee Business Radio

BRXStudioCoversRALEIGH

Wait! Don’t Miss an Episode of Raleigh Business Radio

BRXStudioCoversRICHMONDNoWhite

Wait! Don’t Miss an Episode of Richmond Business Radio

BRXStudioCoversNASHVILLENoWhite

Wait! Don’t Miss an Episode of Nashville Business Radio

BRXStudioCoversDETROIT

Wait! Don’t Miss an Episode of Detroit Business Radio

BRXStudioCoversSTLOUIS

Wait! Don’t Miss an Episode of St. Louis Business Radio

BRXStudioCoversCOLUMBUS-small

Wait! Don’t Miss an Episode of Columbus Business Radio

Coachthecoach-08-08

Wait! Don’t Miss an Episode of Coach the Coach

BRXStudioCoversBAYAREA

Wait! Don’t Miss an Episode of Bay Area Business Radio

BRXStudioCoversCHICAGO

Wait! Don’t Miss an Episode of Chicago Business Radio

Wait! Don’t Miss an Episode of Atlanta Business Radio