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GWBC Radio: Kenzie Biggins with Worxbee

April 22, 2020 by angishields

GWBC Radio

GWBC Radio: Kenzie Biggins with Worxbee

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Kenzie Biggins is the Founder of Worxbee. Approachable and participative, Kenzie is known for orchestrating people and processes to transform cultures and generate high performance. She has established herself as a results-driven leader, accomplished in talent attraction and development, operational team management, and enhancing the customer experience in diverse nonprofit, small businesses, and corporate environments.

Throughout her career, Kenzie has demonstrated solid conceptual and analytical thinking combined with a strong P&L orientation and is adept in problem-solving and leading consequential projects to create and sustain trusted relationships at all levels. She has infused these skills into Worxbee, creating an innovative solution for business leaders who value a partner that understands their executive-level needs and are seeking assistance to make their life easier.

Worxbee’s purpose is to help businesses thrive virtually with three product offerings: Worxbee Support, Worxbee Community, and Worxbee Strategy. Worxbee Support is a place for businesses to find the highly skilled administrative support they need for long-term one on one support or short-term project-based work. Worxbee Community is a place to connect, collaborate, and share as well as provide educational resources for the professional development and growth of Executive Assistants and Admins. Worxbee Strategy provides consulting, strategies, action plans, and resources for working virtually.

Follow Worxbee on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for GWBC Radio, conversations to grow your business. Now, here’s your host, Roz Lewis.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:25] Hey, everybody. This is Lee Kantor in for Roz Lewis today. And this is going to be a fantastic GWBC Radio episode. We have with us today Kenzie Biggins with Worxbee. Welcome, Kenzie.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:00:38] Thank you, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:40] Before we get too far into things, tell us about Worxbee. How are you serving folks?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:00:45] Yes. So, we are a virtual executive assistant solutions company, and we have traditionally serviced people by providing ongoing one-on-one executive assistant support. But as most people are right now, we’re doing a slight pivot to expand their offerings to different needs.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:01] So, now, are you seeing people having some trouble adjusting to this kind of virtual world that you’ve probably been doing for the whole history of Worxbee?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:01:13] We’re seeing lots of trouble for people adjusting to this new world. It’s interesting to us because we have done a lot around building our culture and community online and maintaining, creating relationships online. And there’s a lot of people who never had to think about building or supporting their team in that way. So, we’re getting lots of questions everyday about best ways to interact and maintain that sense of community.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:36] So, do you have any tips for some of these businesses that are kind of making this adjustment?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:01:42] Yes, we have tons of tips. But my top three are [1], looking at core hours. So, a lot of times, when you’re in an office from 9:00 to 5:00 every day, you’re not working straight through that entire time. You’re having breaks to talk with people at the watercooler, celebrate birthdays, grab coffee. So, we find with people at home, they don’t know what to do to fill their time. And especially for younger folks, our millennials are getting very overwhelmed by the idea of how do I look busy and keep busy from 9:00 to 5:00 every day.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:02:13] So, to take that pressure off of everyone, especially for folks with children at home, we say core hours are a great idea, and it’s really about the idea of people being available to each other during a set amount of time each day, and knowing where your team is, knowing what times you can schedule calls. So, we’re saying 10:00 to noon, and then 1:00 to 3:00 would be a great time to have core hours.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:02:34] Also, don’t lose sight of your culture. Just because you’re not in the office together doesn’t mean that you can’t still have fun culture activities. So, when you’re doing conference calls, instead of just starting a conference call, think about an icebreaker that you can do with your team. Think about ways for people to share good news or what they’re excited about.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:02:53] And then, of course, we’re doing more check-ins than we did before. We’ve always done a large amount of check-ins, but now work very purposeful about each week, making sure that someone makes direct contact with every single one of our team members to make sure that they’re okay, especially our team members who live alone.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:09] So, how do you balance kind of using technology that is an always-on kind of tool for a lot of people to, like you mentioned, kind of delegating certain times? But how do you protect, like, the worker from going, “I really got to get this done. And, now, it’s 11:00 at night. I’m still working on things like that”? Like because there’s one side of the management side, being respectful of boundaries and time. But then, there’s also the worker that might not take enough self-care, maybe, and then just keep working and working and working?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:03:49] Right. So, a couple of things. One, obviously, everybody is on video together, right? But you’ve got dog running around, you got kids running around. Make it very comfortable for your team members as far as calm as you are. Like we, basically, children are welcome on our calls. We have one team member, her daughter, who is 4, shows up to every single call. I think she thinks our calls are really about her and what she has going on that day, which is hilariously adorable. But make it very comfortable for your team.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:04:18] But, also, a big piece of it is reduce the number of meetings that you’re having every day. So, as a team, we have two management calls per week. And then, there’s like two one-on-one calls that fall in there. Everybody, as a group per the week, has no more than four hours’ worth of call for the entire week. And part of that being an office environment, I feel like there’s this obligation to have meetings but that does not work when you’re virtual. And that’s how you get people working until 11:00 p.m. at night because they spend their entire day on Zoom calls. And we really have to break that up in a virtual environment because, [1], it just doesn’t make sense; [2], it’s overwhelming; and [3], people still have work to get done. Like the Zoom chat, the other video platforms that people are using, they’re fun, they’re great, they’re a great way to keep your team engaged and interactive, but you can’t do it all day, every day. Then, nothing gets done.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:13] Now, there’s a phrase that I hear bandied about called the new economy. What does that mean to you? And can you share a little bit about your thoughts about this new economy that we’re seeing?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:05:26] Yeah. I have some business owners talking about the idea, things getting back to the way that they were. But we are at Worxbee have been talking a lot about the new economy and the fact that things are going to be changed forever. And the prime example I use for this is thinking about people going to school to get a degree in education. Getting a degree in education used to mean going into a classroom, observing the classes, putting together lesson plans, be taught in person. So, we can all bet that going forward, that won’t be what education degree looks like anymore. There’s been a lot of conversations around virtual learning and how to make it work.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:05:59] You even wonder what snow days will look like going forward for school children if they know that they can continue school work online, and they don’t have to have that disruption going on in the school year. So, just in thinking about it, just in a simple context of something that’s been going on for decades of going to school every day and how that’s going to change in the future, we have to look at our businesses to say, how are we meeting the new economy? Because people, at least, for the next—even getting past the point of having therapeutics and a vaccine, it’s going to take a while for people to return to any type of old habits if they return to them.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:06:38] So, how do you offer more delivery services? How do you offer easier points of access to your service? I think, it’s going to be extremely important for all business owners, especially the women-business enterprises out there, to start thinking about how are they changing to meet the needs of the new economy and the habits of the new economy.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:58] And for some of these folks, it might be something pretty dramatic. But for others, it just might be adding different services, right?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:07:07] Yes, definitely. So, we’re actually in the process of adding different services, as I mentioned earlier. So, now, we’re going to be offering project-based work. So, still access to high level executive assistant support versus having to have a long-term relationship and engagement, you may say, “I need help with a research project,” or “I need help taking in a bit that’s normally an in-person meeting to a virtual meeting.” We’re going to be providing those short term services, which is going to be a great need, especially considering half of our clients are small businesses. So, we need to be able to meet them where they are as far as them dealing with the new economy and helping them overcome some of the challenges that they’re having.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:07:48] And then, the other part that we are building it as a company is community. So, the same way we have built out a community for our executive offices, we have started offering that for all companies that want to get their executive assistants an additional way to receive training and engagement that doesn’t fall on their plate because leaders have a lot on their plate right now.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:10] Now, do you have any thoughts about the people maybe in the health care or wellness industry? I had a call interview recently with somebody in health care that they’ve had to pivot to more telemedicine and do kind of online services. And I’ve had fitness people that have had to adjust where people used to go into their gym or their fitness center, and now they’re doing online classes. Do you have any thoughts about those folks about how they can leverage some of this technology or maybe some of your services to help them?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:08:42] Yeah. So, I think it’s an interesting place to be. And as far as something that’s so dependent on someone being in person, and that’s what you’ve been selling the whole time, I think it’s how you continue to connect with people in that space. So, versus before, you were depending on them walking in the door, I think it’s going to require a lot more outreach, especially for folks who have gyms, people who are training. How do you create enough outreach, so people feel like they can continue to connect with you? And then also, how do you remind people about self-care and how to take care of themselves?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:09:17] One of the challenges you mentioned, the idea of people working until 11:00 p.m. one are the challenges of working from home is that there’s nothing to cut it off. You’re not leaving an office and going to a gym to cut it off. You’re not walking into a doctor to take care of your health. So, I think it’s how does a conversation continue around how that changes. So, you blog, it could be video, it can be a call to your clients to say, “Are you working out? And what does it look like?” But challenging people on how they’re taking care of themselves will be extremely important.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:52] Now, to change gears a little bit but not necessarily, a lot of work nowadays is being done via maybe video call. And for some people who have never done a video call before, do you have any tips when it comes to how to best present yourself? Like you talked about, right now, it’s kind of acceptable to have kids running around or dogs barking. People are kind of giving a lot of grace to that; whereas maybe before that was not businesslike enough, but everybody kind of understands. But are there any tips like from a lighting or background standpoint or where’s the best place to do the call that you can share?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:10:30] So, my mom and I had this conversation a couple of weeks ago because she, of course, like everybody else, has transferred from doing lots of things in person to online. So, my number one tip is a black T-shirt and a necklace will get you a really long way. It looks really professional and polished, but you’re not up trying to think for hours of what to put on for the video. It’s very simple. It’s very clean.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:10:53] Also, I keep a light on my desk that I shine towards me. So, one of the challenges of being on video is if you have a lot of lighting going on behind you from a window, it can cause your light to go in and out as you’re talking to people. So, just desk light will work. Shine it toward you, so you’re always lit and people can see you. And then, I’m a big believer in that you do need to see the people you’re talking to. So, always having video on and encouraging your team to keep video on, which part of encouraging them to keep video on is part of making it okay for a kid to pop up in the background or to run by.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:11:34] But there’s a lot to be said for when think about when you’re in office with somebody, the social cue that you take from someone, that you’re not going to get if you’re just talking to them via Zoom but without a video. So, keeping those videos on is extremely helpful. But just lighting and keep it super simple. You don’t need to come with some brand new fancy outfit every day. People are very forgiving right now. Like I said, a black T-shirt and a necklace are always the way to go.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:04] Now, you mentioned earlier the importance of communication and staying connected. How important is a group like GWBC for you in order to stay connected with the members there and the leadership there? And any advice for women business owners out there that aren’t familiar with GWBC that maybe that they could be leveraging that?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:12:27] Yeah. So, it’s important to have someone that you can talk to that understand what you’re going through. And I mean, I love my team dearly, but in the same breath, I don’t want to startle them with some of the things going on as far as trying to navigate the TPP, or some of the other loans and grants going on out there, or thinking about next steps. You need people who are in your shoes that you can talk to.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:12:51] And GWBC gives me that. I have a community of other female entrepreneurs within GWBC that I know that I can reach out to. I also love the different newsletters and emails they’re coming out. I mean, I feel like it’s a moving target right now as far as the information going on and the updates out there. But to have a trusted resource that I know that I can go to and that they’re going to put out information that’s meaningful to me as a woman business owner right now to help me make it to the other side is extremely important. So, those would be my two big things I’m very thankful for GWBC for.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:26] So, now, talk about your business specifically. Who your exact target market is and what it’s like? Like how do you onboard a new client?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:13:36] Yeah. So, our focus are really— I say we serve two clients. We serve the executive assistant and we serve the executive they support because we want to help them thrive together. And more importantly, right now, we want to help them really thrive in a virtual environment. So, one, for the executive assistant, we help connect them to clients. But like I said, we also have that community piece that we’re rolling out. So, for companies, for the independent executive assistant, trying to figure out how to stay connected and engage, a place where they can get training, a place where they can connect with their peers if they have a question, and they’re trying to navigate this virtual phase themselves, we provide that.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:14:18] And then, on the executive side, it’s really about connecting them to the resources of support that they need. So, through those two access points, when you look at project-based work, it’s really about knowing what they need, and then connecting them to the right EA who could take care of it for them immediately. So, there is a very short term relationship there. But then, for that ongoing support, that full-service, virtual executive support where you are paired with someone for years, I mean, we have clients who’ve been with us for multiple years, it’s about finding the right pairing for you. So, we actually start those relationships by presenting candidates to the client for them to interview and select the best EA to support their needs. And a lot of ways, we kind of function like an executive search firm to find them the best support that they need and help them build that long-term relationship.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:12] And so, you’re kind of being a matchmaker to try and make sure that the fit is good.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:15:18] Yes, yes. And I mean, a lot of it goes in to how does the client like to communicate, what is expectations around work be done for them, what are their top administrative needs. That all makes it impact on the final selection of who we’re helping pair them with. And then, it’s also the idea of we want to make sure that we’re truly offering the best talent. So, we have executive assistants who had 10+ years experience, which is key to really getting that high-level support that executives and leaders need to succeed.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:51] And then, do you have assistants that are good in certain industries, like maybe they come from a medical background or maybe they had worked previously for manufacturing, so they bring some specialized knowledge also to the table?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:16:07] Yes, we say every EA kind of has a secret sauce of something they have experience in the past or they bring that special skill set with them. We have EAs that have worked in hospitals. We have EAs that have worked specifically at tech startups. So, it really runs the full gamut. The great thing about a really good, true executive assistant that you can drop them into almost any situation because they’re an executive, right? So, I would say to an executive assistant is an executive who is chosen to be a servant leader. So, from that perspective and the skill set, like a great COO can drop into almost any organization because there is a basic skill set of being a great COO. That’s how we look at our executive assistants. They are great executives who are coming in from a servant perspective, which means that they’re also willing to research your industry if they haven’t directly worked there.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:01] Now, what do you need more of right now? Are you looking for a more virtual assistants? Are you looking for more clients?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:17:08] I mean, I am a small business in a pandemic, we’re always looking for more clients. So, as we prepare to launch our new website, which we’ll have additional information about our project-based work, we would love to see more clients there, and we would love to be able to support more executive assistants to our community. So, always looking for more access because as we bring in more clients, especially through our project-based work, we’re able to support more EAs across the country. And that’s really what it’s all about. Part of the reason I started this company is, how could we connect EAs who were impacted by the Great Recession to connect them to more work and a sustainable income to support their families and their households. So, that’s always going to be one of our top goals. How do we continue to connect our EAs to the resources to sustain their household?

Lee Kantor: [00:18:03] Now, what is the pain that a client might be having right now where Worxbee is the right solution?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:18:09] Yeah. The top pain that we’re seeing right now are people trying to take traditional business services where it’s always been in person and move it to virtual. So, I mean, luckily, for some reason, I had the vision to say back in February that we need to start helping all of our clients move their in-person meetings to virtual meetings and start thinking about what that looks like and help them start that process. So, it’s what we’ve been working on since then, but it’s what we’re getting the most questions about from people who are not clients, how do they move those items virtual?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:18:45] And then, we’re also getting lots of questions about how they engage their team virtually, which an EA can also help with as far as that outreach and making sure that team members know what’s going on. I mean, part of the benefit of our executive assistants is that they are all virtual, and they’re very used to working in a virtual environment. So, they just have a lot of knowledge to offer. I’ve been telling our team since February, “You guys are the experts in this area, and you have a lot to share to help businesses through this time.”

Lee Kantor: [00:19:14] Now, if somebody wanted to learn more, what’s the website?

Kenzie Biggins: [00:19:17] Yes. Our website is worxbee.com.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:22] Good stuff. Well, thank you, Kenzie, for sharing your story. You’re doing important work, and you shared some great tips and wisdom for our listeners.

Kenzie Biggins: [00:19:31] Thank you, Lee. Have a great day.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:33] All right, this is Lee Kantor. We will see you all next time on GWBC Radio.

About Your Host

Roz Lewis is President & CEO – Greater Women’s Business Council (GWBC®), a regional partner organization of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) and a member of the WBENC Board of Directors.

Previous career roles at Delta Air Lines included Flight Attendant, In-Flight Supervisor and Program Manager, Corporate Supplier Diversity.

During her career she has received numerous awards and accolades. Most notable: Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 2018 Diversity & Inclusion award; 2017 inducted into the WBE Hall of Fame by the American Institute of Diversity and Commerce and 2010 – Women Out Front Award from Georgia Tech University.

She has written and been featured in articles on GWBC® and supplier diversity for Forbes Magazine SE, Minority Business Enterprise, The Atlanta Tribune, WE- USA, Minorities and Women in Business magazines. Her quotes are published in The Girls Guide to Building a Million Dollar Business book by Susan Wilson Solovic and Guide Coaching by Ellen M. Dotts, Monique A. Honaman and Stacy L. Sollenberger. Recently, she appeared on Atlanta Business Chronicle’s BIZ on 11Alive, WXIA to talk about the importance of mentoring for women.

In 2010, Lewis was invited to the White House for Council on Women and Girls Entrepreneur Conference for the announcement of the Small Business Administration (SBA) new Women Owned Small Business Rule approved by Congress. In 2014, she was invited to the White House to participate in sessions on small business priorities and the Affordable Care Act.

Roz Lewis received her BS degree from Florida International University, Miami, FL and has the following training/certifications: Certified Purchasing Managers (CPM); Certified Professional in Supplier Diversity (CPSD), Institute for Supply Management (ISM)of Supplier Diversity and Procurement: Diversity Leadership Academy of Atlanta (DLAA), Negotiations, Supply Management Strategies and Analytical Purchasing.

Connect with Roz on LinkedIn.

About GWBC

The Greater Women’s Business Council (GWBC®) is at the forefront of redefining women business enterprises (WBEs). An increasing focus on supplier diversity means major corporations are viewing our WBEs as innovative, flexible and competitive solutions. The number of women-owned businesses is rising to reflect an increasingly diverse consumer base of women making a majority of buying decision for herself, her family and her business.

GWBC^® has partnered with dozens of major companies who are committed to providing a sustainable foundation through our guiding principles to bring education, training and the standardization of national certification to women businesses in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

GWBC Radio: Donna Brin with bFIVE40

April 20, 2020 by angishields

GWBC Radio

GWBC Radio: Donna Brin with bFIVE40

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Donna Brin is the Founder of bFIVE40, an award-winning large format printer and full-service fabricator, specializing in custom graphics, swag, and apparel made with recycled materials for modern brands.

With 30 years combined experience in design and fabrication, bFIVE40 brings modern brands custom product solutions for advertising and promotion with certified reporting to quantify ecological impact.

Connect with Donna on LinkedIn and follow bFIVE40 on Facebook.

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for GWBC Radio, conversations to grow your business. Now, here’s your host, Roz Lewis.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:25] Hey, Lee Kantor here, in for Roz today. This is another episode of GWBC Radio. And this is gonna be a good one. We have with us today Donna Brin. And she is with a company called bFIVE40. Welcome, Donna.

Donna Brin: [00:00:40] Hello, Lee. Thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:42] Well, tell us about bFIVE40. How are you serving folks?

Donna Brin: [00:00:46] Well, bFIVE40 is a large format digital print, cut, and saw operation. And we’re located right in South Carolina in a little town called Little River, which is very close by to Myrtle Beach. And we produce custom products. And we make them with fiber from recycled plastic water bottles. So, things like signage, tents, banners, directional graphics. We also do custom apparel. So, corporate polos and athletic gear. We even do youth sports uniforms. But everything is made with recycled fibers.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:23] Now, when you say you do everything, you’re not kidding, because not only do you do things like shirts and stuff, but you could make something like a gigantic object for a company, can’t you?

Donna Brin: [00:01:35] Yes, we can make something for a gigantic object for our company, as a matter of fact.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:43] Now, what is some of the kind of the craziest things you’ve been asked to make?

Donna Brin: [00:01:49] It’s so funny that you go down this direction. So, we’ve had a really terrific experience with a company called Beaches Go Green, and we made a 100-foot octopus, part of an octopus garden that was showcased in Jacksonville Beach, Florida during the holiday to get out the message about the importance of sustainability and keeping our oceans clean. And this octopus was made with recycled fabric, stretched fabric that went over the structure. And we’re gonna display during this holiday event, which is super cool.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:30] Well, the reason I went down this path was because I want business people to understand too, just because you think you sell one thing doesn’t mean that’s the only thing you might be doing. And talk about how your company evolved because you didn’t always start making 100-foot octopuses. Octopi? I don’t know.

Donna Brin: [00:02:51] Oh, boy, was it a terrific experience. Our platform is really built on sustainability and making a difference. And having the operation in sewing and digital prints, it gives us a lot of flexibility to create. And I think that’s the backbone of our business is the ability to customize. And people always ask me how we got started. And we’re very much driven by the state of our environment. Billions of plastic water bottles went up in our oceans and rivers every year, billions. And now, we’re doing something about it. I have young kids. And so, that’s a big driver for us. We love to fish and get out on the water. And that’s why we want to protect it.

Donna Brin: [00:03:37] So, this incredible platform that we built here in the south area, we’ve got so many great local fabric mills, and it gives us easy access to terrific substrates to use in many different ways. And then, the textile industry is very much anchored here. And so, it gives us great access to local talent. And so, we really just began small with one product and inflatable punching bag that is called Bonk Fit. And it’s inflatable that has a fabric covering that digitally printed with some stock designs. And then, we went and expanded into custom designs. We can upload a photo and create anything you want. But we began with that product in 2014 and got into Wal-Mart, and Amazon, at Bed, Bath and Beyond. And that was the beginning of it.

Donna Brin: [00:04:42] And then, we started getting calls from creative agencies, advertising agencies, marketing companies asking if we could brand the inflatable and create something that could be used in promotion. And Captain Morgan, we wound up doing a bar crawl with them with our product. We did some inflatables customized for Ferdinand the Bull. It will be released for 20th Century Fox. We said, “Ha! I think we have something here. I think we need to expand into promotional products.” And that’s where we started branching out about three years ago, opened our own production facility, invested in dye sublimation and latex printing technology, hired a sewing staff, and then started working on a lot of the event-driven products like the tent, and the banners, and the flag, and custom swag, and apparel, and anything that goes along with having an event at the corporate level.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:45] And this is a great example of how when you started, maybe you didn’t see all the things it could be, but you saw one thing pretty clearly and were able to execute very well. But then, your customers kind of told you what to do next, right? Like this wasn’t something that one day, you were thinking, “I’m going to have this empire building all these ginormous things with people’s brands on it.” The customer kind of helped direct that.

Donna Brin: [00:06:10] That’s exactly right. Partnerships are so vital too. We’ve got a great relationship with Unifi, the world’s leading provider of recycled fibers. They’re located right here in Greensboro, North Carolina. And so, through this partnership, we are a brand that uses their fibers in a lot of the products that we produce. So, they feed us with leads and recommendations. And that was how the octopus folks found us. And it was a terrific collaboration that really helped to get out the message about sustainability. And really the end of the day, that’s what we’re all about. And it’s just a terrific win/win situation all the way around.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:59] So, now, how are you handling this kind of COVID-19 crisis we’re going through now? How is it impacting your business?

Donna Brin: [00:07:07] Yeah. Well, it’s crazy. I cannot even believe. Sometimes, I feel like we’re just kind of trapped in a bad dream. It doesn’t feel real at times. A good portion of our business is event-driven, as I mentioned. And so, the major corporations that we work with, they do brand activations, and they host events, and some of the youth team, youth sports teams that we work with, some are travel baseball, and cheer and gymnastic competitions. All of those events are things that we—we work with these companies to create products for these events.

Donna Brin: [00:07:52] And so, all of our projects went on hold or got canceled altogether just like that when it started. And so, we really had to shift gears very quickly to keep our employees working. And so, it’s kind of like, well, you got to pivot and not panic. And so, we need to capitalize on the assets that we have, which is digital print and selling. And our greatest strength is definitely, by far and away, the custom products, focus our ability to produce pretty much anything involving those technologies on demand. So, we set out to capitalize on that.

Donna Brin: [00:08:39] So, we know what our customers want. We’ve got clients that have manufacturing plants that have shut down. When they go back online, workers need to stay healthy. So, we ramped up to produce non-medical grade protective facemasks. And then, another avenue that we’re going down is for our corporate clients, they have a lot of workforce now remote working from home. So, we’re producing custom swag packages, branded apparel items, and dropshipping them to their employees all over the world to help them feel appreciated and connected to the brand, and they look better in a company polo on Zoom anyway.

Donna Brin: [00:09:24] So, then the last thing that we’re doing is it’s a whole new virtual world for events. So, think of like trade shows that are now hosting events online and creating that amazing virtual experience. Even Music concerts, you’re seeing like a lot of pop stars doing concerts right from their basement or from their home studios. And our ability to print on demand and create these custom products like conservative wear, apparel, tees, and hoodies, and that sort of thing, we can offer the ability to kind of humanize the virtual experience and offer a physical product to purchase during the virtual show. So, it’s pretty cool. No inventory risk and definitely elevates the experience for a customer.

Donna Brin: [00:10:16] And I mean, you’ve got to shift years, right? I mean, we’ve got to figure out how to make it work and how to thrive in a very difficult time, and add value, give your customers value. And that’s what we’ve set out to do, and we’re doing it successfully.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:37] That’s great advice. And that’s what I’m hearing from a lot of business people. They just kind of say, “Okay, what assets do I have? What can I control? And then, let me see if I can find a market for this new stuff that I can do that maybe wasn’t front burner stuff before. But now, it’s front burner stuff because that might be the only burner that’s working right now. So, then, I got to just go boldly forward with this.” So-

Donna Brin: [00:11:05] That’s right.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:05] That’s one of, I think, the strengths of entrepreneurs and business owners, especially here in America, where we’re pretty innovative, and we’re pretty good problem solvers, and you put a crisis in front of us, and we’re going to just try to figure out a way to make it work. I mean, that’s what we do.

Donna Brin: [00:11:26] That’s right. I can’t agree with you more. Having a strong network around you to support and help you to carry out and execute is also vital too. And I feel very blessed that we’ve got a good team, and we’ve developed good relationships and partnerships in our area here in the south. And that really helps your ability to be able to continue with a successful platform and find ways to thrive in a time that’s just so difficult for a lot of people to navigate.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:08] Right. Like there’s an old saying about a treat. “Like the best time to plant an oak tree was 20 years ago. But the second best time is today.” That says the same with your network, and your ecosystem, and your relationships. It would have been great 10 years ago to have a mailing list and a real robust network that you can really lean on. But if you don’t, today’s a nice day to start if you haven’t already because you’re going to need that ecosystem to help you kind of survive some of these challenges. And it’s great to have the other smart people to lean on, and to help, and to collaborate with.

Donna Brin: [00:12:49] That’s right. There is a silver lining too. As difficult as this time is, we are forging relationships in areas that we weren’t necessarily focused on right out of the gate. And and that’s really exciting. We’ve done business with a lot of big brands. We’ve worked with Hasbro, and Walmart, and Google, and Beattie Energy. But it’s the automakers that are making a really big strive in sustainability. And those are relationships that are relatively new for us that we’ve, now, been able to establish and work with. And it’s really exciting. It’s a good fit. And this type of crisis has really just allowed us to branch out and explore in ways that I wouldn’t necessarily thought of.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:48] So, now, can you talk about like why you joined the GWBC, and why it’s been important to you and your business?

Donna Brin: [00:13:59] Yeah. I mean, that would be a very long continuation of this phone call because GWBC has been so instrumental in our growth and our ability to expand our platform. Roz is amazing. I feel so blessed to be part of this network. The events that they hold, the one-on-one session, the entree into being able to sit down with corporate, and the pitch competitions that they hold. And it’s just it’s such a amazing platform for women to have a voice, to show what they can do and really make a difference. And I am just so elated. It’s such a tremendous opportunity to be part of. This is my second year, and I couldn’t be more happy. There’s just so many great opportunities to take advantage of.

Donna Brin: [00:15:12] I’m part of the Voice Committee. There’s about seven or eight of us now on the committee. And we’re all about expanding the voice of women entrepreneurs and really creating an opportunity for those new to WBENC and GWBC to find the resources within the organization, and keep them here, and help them to grow, and to encourage them to take advantage of all the different networking opportunities and [indiscernible]. And I’m so happy to be part of that panel. I work with just a great group of ladies and it’s just been a tremendous opportunity. So, yeah. GWBC is very important to us at bFIVE40. It’s just an awesome, awesome platform now.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:16] And it goes back to what you said earlier, having that strong network to lean on, this is another resource for you and for business owners out there, especially women business owners, to kind of collaborate, to get advice from, support from, and to grow your business with. So, I mean, it has kind of the best of all worlds inside the organization. So, it’s a treat for us to be helping them to get the word out about the important work that’s being done through the organization and through its members.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:47] Now, tell me, the name bFIVE40, not only is it a catchy name, but it’s also lowercase B, capital F-I-V-E, and then the number 40. Is there any significance to that? Is there kind of a story behind it?

Donna Brin: [00:17:03] Yes, yes. So, bFIVE40, there are 360 degrees in a circle, but a circle is a flat, two-dimensional shape. So, 540 degrees, an object breaks the plane and becomes 3D. So, at bFIVE40, we change the way people see brands by adding depths. And this is the kind of depth that our world needs to see. So, that is the meaning behind our company name. We’re all about advocating change, being deep, and doing something different.

Donna Brin: [00:17:41] And for the corporate customers that we work with, one significant way that we stand out from our competition is our strong reporting. So, with all the recycled goods that we produce, we provide impact reporting, actual eco facts to quantify the green investment. So, like the number of bottles, [indiscernible] motorway, the reduction in greenhouse gasses, water and energy consumption reduction, it’s all about providing this type of certified reporting that enables the Fortune 50 companies and beyond to share with their shareholders to be able to demonstrate their support of sustainability and making a difference in this world because we’ve got 2 billion plastic water bottles going into the ocean every year, and we need to do something about it. And this is our way of giving back, and being deep, and being intentional. And that reporting is one way that really sets us apart.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:00] Now, some companies promise to take you to the next level. You promise to take your clients to the next dimension. So, you add another dimension. So, that’s kudos to you.

Donna Brin: [00:19:11] Lee, I’m going to grab that. I love the way you just said that. That is right on. That’s it right on. To another dimension.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:21] Well, if somebody wanted to learn more and have more substantive conversation with you or maybe a GWBC member wants to kind of network with you and get some advice, is there a website for the company? A way to connect with you?

Donna Brin: [00:19:35] Yes. So, you can find bFIVE40 at www.bFIVE40.com. bFIVE40.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:48] Good stuff, Donna. Thank you so much for sharing your story today.

Donna Brin: [00:19:52] Right Lee. Well, I really appreciate you, and this radio program, and Roz Lewis. And thank you very much. And stay healthy and safe.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:01] All right. This is Lee Kantor for GWBC Radio. We will see you all next time.

About Your Host

Previous career roles at Delta Air Lines included Flight Attendant, In-Flight Supervisor and Program Manager, Corporate Supplier Diversity.

Connect with Roz on LinkedIn.

About GWBC

Customer Experience Radio Welcomes: Katie Cyphers with Academics Plus and Ashley Stamoulis with Suthingirl

April 16, 2020 by angishields

Customer Experience Radio

Customer Experience Radio Welcomes: Katie Cyphers with Academics Plus and Ashley Stamoulis with Suthingirl

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Katie Cyphers is the owner of Academics Plus. Located in the Buckhead community of Atlanta, Academics Plus is an education group focused on understanding each child’s learning profile in order to help parents identify the best school environment and ensure their child has the necessary foundations to grow & thrive.

Katie has trademarked the phrase, Learning Checkup™, to help parents understand that all children’s learning should be assessed in the same manner as they would assess their wellness. This unique model ensures families are equipped to make the best school selection, whether they are relocating or a local Atlanta resident. Academics Plus has gained a great reputation for ensuring that all children are able to reach their greatest potential.

Katie Cyphers attended the University of Tennessee, where she obtained a M.S.Ed. in Theory and Practice in Teacher Education and a B.S. in Special Education. Katie’s dedication to her alma mater has remained apparent with her position on the University of Tennessee Dean’s Board of Advisors for the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences. Katie is a member of the Rotary Club of Buckhead and was awarded the Vocational Service Award.

She has served two terms on the National Board of Directors for the Learning Disabilities Association of America and currently sits on the board for the Learning Disabilities Association of Georgia. Katie is a Professional Member of the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA) and is also a member of the Secondary Schools Admission Test Board (SSATB), International Dyslexia Association (IDA), the American Psychological Association (APA), the Shepherd Center Society, and Women’s Community Bible Study.

Katie recently received the UT Alumni Promise Award, which recognizes an alumnus under the age of 40 that has made extensive marks early in their careers, both civically and professionally. In addition, Katie received the Outstanding Community Advocate award from the Department of Theory and Practice in Teacher Education.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn and follow Academics Plus on Facebook and Twitter.

Born under moss-draped live oaks in Savannah and raised on a low country island surrounded by azaleas and saltwater marshes, Ashley Stamoulis grew up at the heels of three generations of colorful, charismatic entrepreneurs.

A diploma from the University of Georgia in hand, she answered the siren’s call of the big city and moved to Atlanta to pursue a Masters of Communications and embark upon an adventure in public relations, working with some of Atlanta’s most recognizable brands. Her next leap was Ashley Sparks Communications, a marketing and events company serving clients across the country.

Three kids and two decades later, Ashley came full circle to her family roots, promoting southern makers and entrepreneurs through SUTHINGIRL, one of the South’s most celebrated lifestyle brands, and the SUTHINGIRL Box, a seasonal selection of southern style featuring today’s top southern makers and brands.

Follow SUTHINGIRL on Facebook and Instagram.

Transcript

Intro: [00:00:01] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, it’s time for Customer Experience Radio, brought to you by Heineck & Company, real estate advisors specialized in corporate relocation. Now, here’s your host, Jill Heineck.

Jill Heineck: [00:00:19] Welcome, everyone, to this very special edition of Customer Experience Radio. I’m your host, Jill Jill Heineck. I’m a business owner, real estate advisor, and customer experience enthusiast. Today, we are airing live from my home. What an insane time we’re living in. It just seems so surreal. As most of you know, I run a boutique real estate group specializing in corporate relocation. And trust me when I tell you, practicing responsible social distancing while listing and showing homes to relocating families has been just the challenge needed to take our customer experience strategies up a little bit of a notch here. So, think about it, the ultimate customer-facing job helping people make giant investments, now, we’re doing this virtually. So, many of us are having to get creative and, perhaps, unconventional to meet our customers and clients where they are at home but still with needs and requirements. And here is where we are poised to exceed expectations.

Jill Heineck: [00:01:21] So, I am so excited to have Katie Cyphers on with us this morning remotely, of course, as hers will be the first company in education showcased here on the show. Her company, Academics Plus, is based here in the Buckhead community, consults with families to help parents identify the best school environment for their children across the Atlanta Metro area. Her service is invaluable to companies attracting talent, as well as the families themselves. We also have actually Ashley Stamoulis, mom of three and three different schools and a former client of Katie’s who will be able to give us some insight with her experience working with Katie and her team. She’s also the owner of Suthingirl, which provides corporate welcome boxes and gifts. So, welcome to both of you, and thank you for being here.

Katie Ciphers: [00:02:04] Thank you for having us.

Ashley Stamoulis: [00:02:06] Thank you.

Jill Heineck: [00:02:06] So, Katie, let’s start with you. Tell us a little bit about yourself and the company and how you got here.

Katie Ciphers: [00:02:12] Yeah, absolutely. Academics Plus started out as a learning center, but we’ve really been around for over a decade serving families and helping parents find the best school fit for their children. We, now, are really specialists as a result in helping families to relocate to the Atlanta area. I’m thinking right now, I think if I’m in my own virtual world over here with my dog next to me, and we’re having to really transition, and I love how you started the show by saying that families are having just—you’re FaceTiming as you’re showing properties et cetera. We’re all transitioning. So, Academics Plus is an education group that specializes in school search and in helping parents to make the best educational decision for their children.

Katie Ciphers: [00:02:56] I met Ashley years ago whenever she had a child that we were helping to serve in our learning center, and I think that her family is not unique in that each of her children are very different, and they are all wonderful and have amazing attributes, but they require different learning techniques and different things to help make their learning, really, the best experiences. So, Ashley, I’m going to let you kind of jump in and tell them a little bit about how we first connected.

Ashley Stamoulis: [00:03:23] Well, I’m going to go ahead and brag and say that I was your first client or my daughter was your first client. I’m not sure if that’s completely accurate, but I like the way that sounds. I met Katie when she first purchased the business back from her mom’s former partner. It was a really cool story. But I was there with my daughter, and she’s my oldest of my three kids. And like Katie said, everybody’s got something different that they’re working on in the education arena. My kids are all at different schools. And this beautiful, precious butterfly of mine really needed some extra help. She was a preemie, and she was, at that time, at the Atlanta Speech School. And we just found that we were not reaching her potential, that we weren’t getting her where she needed to be, especially around math. Of course, I raised my hand and say it was probably 90% genetic from her mother but we came in on bended knee to Katie and just immediately felt so welcome in her environment.

Ashley Stamoulis: [00:04:24] I mean, at that point, I have to tell you, ladies, I had been everywhere. I knocked on every door in Atlanta from OT, PT, educational psychologists, all the different types of things, and current pain at the wall as you deal with that first child trying everything. And Katie’s environment, Katie’s touch, Katie’s embrace when we first walked in, I was like, “Oh, my gosh.” It’s like the angels all in the background. I mean, it felt like we are where we need to be just from that touch standpoint. I felt so embraced and like everything was gonna be okay, very clear about what her expectations were of us and what our expectations could be of her.

Ashley Stamoulis: [00:05:08] We brought her probably a six-inch three-ring binder full of all kinds of data and testing. And she did not shy away from that. We flipped through the whole thing on that first meeting. But that’s a really interesting experience when you have been a mom, which is so highly emotionally charged when you are a mom, and then you are sort of out of your depth with something. I always make the joke that I can make the best grilled cheese and pound, and I can change a diaper with my eyes closed, but I couldn’t help my child and having someone make me feel like, “Hey, that’s great. That’s no problem, because I got that. You can make that grilled cheese. You go do whatever it is that you need to do as a mom. And we’re going to take it from here.” That level of customer service, at the time, I wouldn’t even have felt that that was the right phraseology. I think that’s what it was, but it felt more like extreme professionalism and kindness sort of going [crosstalk].

Jill Heineck: [00:06:07] And she was also taking care of you. And so, you felt cared for-

Ashley Stamoulis: [00:06:10] For sure, for sure.

Jill Heineck: [00:06:10] … which are obviously takes the experience working with her to the next level.

Ashley Stamoulis: [00:06:17] That’s right. That’s right. She immediately went to the top of the Christmas card list and guest list. Like, what do you need? What do you want? What can I buy you? You want a pony? You got a pony. I mean, yeah, for sure. And you people don’t have to be that way. Nine times out of ten, When you go in, I think people who are in their sphere of how they help your child, especially we talk about children because that’s sort of what Katie does every day, they could be really good at that services they’re going to provide as far as technically, right? But not everybody has that high touch also at the same time.

Ashley Stamoulis: [00:06:52] And it’s a very unique thing. It’s like lightning in a bottle. It’s magic. And when you find somebody like that, you want to hold them by their ankles and not let go. So, here we are now. My child is a senior. She’s no longer at Katie’s care. And we’re still constantly in contact. I mean, she’s one of my best friends. And I feel so lucky. And I know that I’m not saying that everybody has to be best friends with Katie because she doesn’t have room, she’s got me, but she is so good with that. And I think, isn’t that just the test, right? The minute that her services were ever to our family, she is still a part of our life, a big part of our life. I can keep going. You better shut me up and be on the right topic.

Katie Ciphers: [00:07:38] I think that Ashley is not unique, though. And that finding the right school environment, and especially in a city like Atlanta where the options are overwhelming and there are so many different things that each child might need, and different offerings, and curriculums, and tools, and that’s not unique to just Ashley’s family or her sweet Caroline, who she did not brag on but, yes, she is headed off to school, and she got into her high school, and we hope that she could start school in the fall due to all this coronavirus, which is a new thing. Oh, we’re hoping that everyone gets to go back to normal start in the fall.

Katie Ciphers: [00:08:15] But what we realized is that Ashley is like many other families. She needs to have someone listen to her child’s unique needs. That six inch binder, she’s not the first, and she definitely would not be mom with the most paperwork. Six inches sounds like a lot. You should see the Dropbox files that we get nowadays. They can go back to preschool, these early preemie days and give us every report from the NIQU or just the report cards when a family is relocating to Atlanta. Opened up one family’s file yesterday and received all of their reading scores, their ERB results, their psychological evaluations, teachers’ report. That takes a lot of insight to go through, and you do have to do it in a careful manner.

Katie Ciphers: [00:09:01] And for us, we consider ourselves education experts because we did own a learning center before we started this school search and relocation process. And so, we really understand what children need. We take time to get to know the child. Now, we are getting to do all of that virtually. But that’s not something new for us because we’ve always helped families, whether they’re in California. We’ve had a family from China relocated to Atlanta that we’ve had to assist virtually. Jill, I know you’re an expert in relocation. And so, I’m sure that’s not new to you either. Virtual is not really new to our world.

Jill Heineck: [00:09:35] Not really. I mean, this part the consulting part is not the new part. For my piece of it is when they’ve actually spoken to you, they figured out what schools that they are going to hone in on. And then, the actual seeing the homes that are in the school districts that they’re looking at or in the vicinity of the school that they want to be near, that’s the challenge for us. Of course, we’re making those adjustments where we see fit, but what I really wanted to make sure that we talk about, Katie, for you is when you’re talking to these relocating families, specifically from China or from the other side of the country, I mean, what’s the first part of your process when you’re trying to kind of unpeel the onion, so to speak?

Katie Ciphers: [00:10:26] Absolutely. The first step of our process is really getting to know the family and their unique goals. Every family has a list of non-negotiables, and it’s really not in the beginning that people even realize they have these non-negotiables. It might be that religion is an important aspect in their school choice. It may be that they’re actually opposed to that. And then, you’re moving into the south where we do have more schools that have a faith-based orientation. And so, we want to make sure that we take everything into consideration.

Katie Ciphers: [00:10:59] I had one family that they had a child that’s an expert in my ice hockey, very good at ice hockey. I’m sorry. I’m getting a beep because, now, we’re doing this from home, and I’m going to decline that. But in ice hockey, and you have to make sure that everything is taken into consideration. We have a lot of families where they might have specific learning needs that need to be assessed, and they need a certain curriculum or certain methods, such as Orton-Gillingham, in order to make sure that the child adapts to this new learning.

Katie Ciphers: [00:11:32] And so, our first step is we can fill out a submission form that gives a list of all the students’ interests. What are their unique needs? What are their challenges? What are their families non-negotiables? What are the things that really, at the end of the day, if they think of a successful relocation, what does that look like? And so, we start by collecting that information. And then, we set at the time. We do a learning checkup on a child. And so, each child is assessed socially, and we figure out what are their reading scores, what are their math scores, and how are they processing information cognitively? This helps us to match with the right curriculum.

Jill Heineck: [00:12:12] I love that. And so, then, once you have an idea of where the child is at, are you then having a note? You’re having another consulate, obviously, with the parents, and then trying to get an idea of which direction they’re going to go in, and it’s going to be based on all those results. Plus, is there anything else, any other factors that you’re considering when you’re looking at schools for kids?

Katie Ciphers: [00:12:41] Absolutely. I think in Atlanta, especially, geography comes into play immediately. And I always try to encourage my families to really look at the map. We have a 6-foot-by-6-foot map in our office, and we’re able to put that on the wall, or we put it up on the screen, and we start with, “Okay, let’s put an X where mom is working. Let’s put an X where dad is working. Let’s put an X where child is going to be attending their activities. Let’s make sure that we really put geography into consideration.” As we all know, the first thing when people say, “I’m moving to Atlanta,” the response that they get is, “Why would you want to enter into that traffic?” So, we try to take that. And geography is the number one play.

Katie Ciphers: [00:13:25] But then, from there, it is really navigating the different school options. The next question is always, of course, is it public or private school? What are our opportunities there? And so, then, that helps to narrow the focus. By the time you have all these Xs on the board, you then really put a special pocket and mapped out a concise area where you can start your school search. And then, we look at their different hobbies, their talent, their school needs, and curriculum, and start to narrow down the process. You’ll be surprised that by being strategic, the list of school applications that our families send out are very minimal.

Katie Ciphers: [00:14:05] I’ll say that the majority of my families apply to less than three schools. In fact, I’ll say 90% of my families this year had only two schools on their list. Occasionally, we’d put a backup option. Even though Atlanta is a very competitive landscape, by being strategic and making sure that we’re always ensuring the child has the right plan in place, we don’t have to send out 50 applications or in Atlanta, do that six applications. I see a lot of parents just throwing darts and hoping they land somewhere. We don’t want to do that. We want to be strategic with our families and really take all their needs into consideration.

Jill Heineck: [00:14:44] This is exactly why I like working with you and partnering with you because that is exactly how we have to do this, particularly when you’re working with relocating families who are not from the south or not from the Atlanta Metro area, and they are literally throwing a dart at the wall to see where it lands. And so, I think starting with you, it really does help me serve the client much, much better once they have a real good feel for what the school opportunities are in those geographic areas. What I’m finding more and more, and I don’t know if you’re hearing this as well, but we’re hearing that while schools are a priority for most families relocating, they also try to put commute up there as a priority. And what we see more and more is that the commute gets pushed down, and pushed down, and pushed down. So, from a geographic perspective, it’s all about the school. And then, it seems like the parents will just work around the school. Are you seeing that?

Katie Ciphers: [00:15:47] We are seeing that. I have to admit that I enjoyed my quality of life. And I do, I am one of those blessed people to have a short commute. And so, I feel that our role is to make sure that parents truly understand what they’re signing up for. Especially, Jill, I think one of the reasons that you get so many referrals and relocation is because you make sure that the entire family is taken care of, and you’re very honest with your clients. I hear you often say, “That’s not the right client for me.” But it’s because you always want to make sure it’s the best fit and that you serve them well. And I so admire that about you.

Katie Ciphers: [00:16:25] And I think we’re in the same boat whenever parents are deciding. I had a family recently that was looking at schools that are 30 miles north here. And then, we’re looking at a bus that could take them an hour a day. And I finally said, “We have to stop and look at the timetable and look at the schedule. Do you want to be at the child’s soccer game? You’ve said that’s your favorite thing to do. You’re going to miss out on that opportunity.” And so, we do have to kind of help them to be strategic.

Katie Ciphers: [00:16:52] And we know that not every family can live in the heart of Buckhead. We would be silly to think that that was the case. But we can make sure to be strategic on where we put each person and which school we select for each child, so that it gives mom and dad a chance to be involved in their lives and to have that opportunity because, sometimes, even if it’s the best school in the world, it might not be the best fit for your family. And that’s okay.

Jill Heineck: [00:17:22] Right. No. And I so appreciate that. And which will bring me to another question regarding—and I don’t know. Since you’ve been working in this fashion for so long, you’re doing your evaluations virtually, and this has really been your model, is there anything particularly different about what you’re doing over the next, let’s say, these last three, four or five weeks? Are you changing? Have you changed the way you do things at all? Is there anything that you’ve been implementing or something different that is happening in your service as a result of us being in quarantine?

Katie Ciphers: [00:18:02] Absolutely. Jill, it’s interesting. I actually think this is the most exciting time for entrepreneurs and for businesses. I think this is a chance-

Jill Heineck: [00:18:10] Absolutely.

Katie Ciphers: [00:18:10] … for us to really shine as leaders, for us to think about what the customer truly needs. We’re in educational consulting. Mental health is something that we work with on a daily basis. We have a lot of feelings and emotion when you’re dealing with children. That’s the number one player. One thing that we have had to do, you’ve heard us start by saying we’re a learning center, but we’re also education experts in the school search process. We had a lot of families that have contacted us and say, “This homeschooling is not working for us. We need your help.” And these are families that may have just moved to Atlanta and started the school of their dreams that they loved for the first two months, but they started to transition in January. We have picked up on back on those families. And actually, I’ve been impressed by the corporations that have contacted us and say, “Will you please continue to take care of this family? They just relocated here, but they’re trying to remote work and it’s not working.”

Katie Ciphers: [00:19:03] So, we have a unique homeschool model. And so, we’re offering packages for students to receive face-to-face direct instruction. We have students as young as 5 years old logging on to Zoom each day and receiving a one-to-one live, in-your-face teacher instruction. It’s interesting how many schools, private schools – and Ashley can probably speak to this – are having a lot of the direct instruction from teachers. A lot of the public schools have not been given the go ahead to do a live call with the class because of security reasons. And I’m sure there are many things that come into play with that. But there are a lot of kids, whether they’re special needs, whether they’re regular education that are kind of left behind and are given an at-home packet. And an at-home packet does not replace a teacher.

Katie Ciphers: [00:19:50] And so, what we’re doing is giving them one-on-one instruction. So, whether it’s one hour a day or two hours a day is what most of our families are doing, and they are receiving that one-on-one instruction, and then they’re getting a report card on Friday that explains everything that happened. What’s happening on the parents’ side, if they’re actually getting their remote work done and the corporations are happy because they’re actually not hearing the kid go, “Mom, how do you spell dinosaur?” And he’s like, “If I had to spell one more word, so you can learn to use a website now.” But that’s the reality or the math problem.

Katie Ciphers: [00:20:24] We had one family that contacted us and Abby said, “The math is just not working.” And they’re in a great private school, but they went from having the regular class setting where the child could get help whenever he had a question to where it’s a Zoom and he may or may not be able to get the help that he needed. And in this case, he needed more. And so, we’re supporting that and teaching all of the math. And so, we’re all at a unique time but I’d say it’s an exciting time because if a business doesn’t change during times like this, will they be around for that next road? And I think it’s fine. And my team is excited, and they’re jumping into this areas we never would have otherwise really gone to.

Jill Heineck: [00:21:06] I absolutely love this, and this is exactly what I was kind of leaning towards because this home-schooling, the homework aspect of being in school regularly has always been a comedy hour for me and my girlfriends because a lot of them are doing fourth grade math when they get home from a full day of work because they’re helping their kid with their homework. Now, they’re working remotely, trying to be productive, and teaching school that they never actually wanted to do, and having to learn all this. So, I think having your service available, so that parents can focus on what they do and the kids can get what they need is brilliant. And I do not see that going away. Do you?

Katie Ciphers: [00:21:50] I don’t. I think that this is something we will be offering for the long haul. We built a unique model, and that we don’t just give a parent a teacher, and expect for them to oversee the teachers teaching. Everyone needs to have someone in between. And so, our model has been set up to last for the long haul. We have a relationship manager in place. And so, every student has a teacher for that specific subject. But now, the relationship manager is overseeing everything. And so, if the parent ever has a question or has an issue, they can go to the relationship manager and make sure that everything gets addressed.

Katie Ciphers: [00:22:26] And then, if we need to do any transitions, or switch, or if something’s not working, or maybe it’s an attention piece, we can make that transition. And I think that relationship manager piece is something that will never go away for us. I love the fact that my parents can call and say, “We seem to have a really hard day. I think she needed more visuals.” And instead of it being directly sent to a teacher, they send it to the relationship manager who, then, make sure that the teacher is fully equipped with everything. Okay, Sally needs to get up and move. She needs more visuals. Here’s five things that we can do. That piece is something that we want.

Katie Ciphers: [00:23:00] It’s the customer experience that you talk about so much and that we know we’re all here today for. But I don’t think that our model will change. I think we will continue to have families. And we’ve already had most of our families that signed up for the first three weeks because we were all unsure of what was going to happen. And then, of course, as soon as the call got made that schools were ended for the school year, our families continued and signed up for the school year. And we’re also getting families that are touching base about July now, which they’re saying, “We’re not sending our child to camp anymore, so we want to continue our current model because it’s working for our family.” We know that there was a little bit of a regression whenever the first started. And so, we want to keep this going. I would be surprised if there are many families who do not continue home schooling even after this happened, after the end of COVID-19.

Jill Heineck: [00:23:47] Yeah, I absolutely see there’s probably going to be a wave of this. And then. What I’m noticing in consultations with my families is that if they’ve already taken on a full-time homeschooling role and it’s working for their families, then our real estate needs are changing and that we’re not really that concerned about where a school is in terms of school district where we’re focused on really what home is going to be conducive to homeschooling, any activities that they’re involved in, and that kind of thing. So, it’s kind of an interesting dichotomy now where it used to be all driven by where the school was, and that’s where we would buy the house around the school. And now, it’s really more about where is the education experience happening? And that’s, now, our new starting point.

Jill Heineck: [00:24:35] So, I just love this. And I think just you’re pivoting and meeting the market where it is, is exactly where you need to be. And I think it’s such a need. I mean, thank God you’re here in Atlanta, but I can’t imagine how many other metro markets around the country could really use this in such a fence. I mean, I could see your growth going exponential with this because there’s just not that many specialized companies like yours around. And speaking of, I was going to ask Ashley, you’re sitting there, right?

Ashley Stamoulis: [00:25:11] I’m here, girls. I’m having the best time listening.

Jill Heineck: [00:25:16] But what I want to talk about a little bit is about the experience when a family is relocating to the area. And you talked about your corporate welcome boxes. Tell me a little bit about what your strategy is and what your service provides.

Ashley Stamoulis: [00:25:32] So, Suthingirl is all about promoting brands and artists that are in the South. I’ve been in marketing and PR for about 25 years and decided to … I think pivot is our new favorite word right now.

Jill Heineck: [00:25:32] Right.

Ashley Stamoulis: [00:25:46] So, I decided to pivot about five years ago and say, “That’s all great, but I really love that small business energy and vibe, and I’ve never lived anywhere outside of the South. And I want to use everything that I’ve learned and all that I do toward promoting businesses, and brands, and artists that are in the south.” And so, that’s what I’ve been doing the last five years now. With corporate boxes, what that means is that companies would come to me and say, “Hey, we want to give gifts to our employees,” or “We have an incentive trip coming up to somewhere fun and fabulous. And we want to give them things that are meaningful to either where we’re going, or where we are,” or “We want to send things to our clients with thank you’s or to our big donors and sponsors that are representative of our community.”

Ashley Stamoulis: [00:26:37] And so, we’ll look at where they are. If they’re in Atlanta, then we’ll try to find some really neat things that maybe they haven’t seen before and connect them with brands and special things. Maybe small pieces of art, something that they can eat, something for the home that is special, and meaningful, and not necessarily — not that there’s anything wrong with logos and branded things, but it’s different from that, right? Like it’s actual things with stories and a little bit of soul, things that you would put out in the coffee table and your significant other wouldn’t be like, “Why do we have that branded Suthingirl paperweight on the table?” It would be something a little more meaningful that you maybe would have purchased for yourself if you’d seen it out. And those are the things I think that we need, the things that connect us with other people.

Jill Heineck: [00:27:24] Especially now, right?

Katie Ciphers: [00:27:24] And that’s one of the reasons that we love using — I’m so fortunate to have Ashley not only as a friend, but also in this space with the Suthingirl box, we use them for our families. When they’re coming to Atlanta, our process begins really at the airport. We want to make sure they touch down well. Typically, the companies that are relocating them provide car service but the next point of contact is really for us that when they check into the hotel, we use our local companies like our toy store to make sure that there is a toy delivered for each child that’s specific to their needs. And then, from there we have a Suthingirl box in play that can make sure that there’s local jellies or I think, one of my favorite things is some wineglasses that’s in one of Ashley’s box, a hand-painted wineglass, and they are gorgeous. I wish I remembered the designer. We should give them a shout out.

Ashley Stamoulis: [00:28:17] Payne Baker.

Jill Heineck: [00:28:19] Yeah, [crosstalk].

Katie Ciphers: [00:28:19] Payne Baker. They are awesome.

Jill Heineck: [00:28:21] There you go.

Katie Ciphers: [00:28:23] But these are things that they want to hold on to and they’re items from the south and curated. That’s part of that customer experience. When they come in, they need to feel that they are welcome to Atlanta, really welcome. There’s a magazine inside called Good Grit, and that’s part of what we do. We don’t want to just be the education expert. We want to welcome them to a place that we call home, into a community where they’re introduced to our good friends, to my good friend, Ashley; to my friend, Jill; to my friend Melissa; to these people in this box, and it just really kind of ties everything up with a pretty bow. I love how just special these are.

Ashley Stamoulis: [00:29:02] Well, that’s what she’s done so well from the beginning.

Jill Heineck: [00:29:03] I love that. And I think-

Ashley Stamoulis: [00:29:03] Oh, sorry. Go ahead, Jill.

Jill Heineck: [00:29:05] No, no, I think I love that because that is really what we try to do when we’re working with companies. And really, it’s the initial, the transferee themselves, we just try to get all the information we can from them about their family and surprise them with something in their Airbnb, or at their hotel, or maybe at the first meeting. We have something that will, again, emote that connection to Atlanta. So, do you do any boxes that go outside of Atlanta?

Ashley Stamoulis: [00:29:39] Great question. I absolutely do. I have a subscription box for women of things that are made in the south. And so, people subscribe to that and I send them everywhere. I told Katie this, Jill, this is hilarious, when I started the business, I would have thought, “You what? I’m going to kill it in Georgia. I’m going to kill it in South Carolina. These boxes are really good, they’re going to go all over.” I was absolutely stunned at how many I said, I call it abroad. That means anywhere outside of the south. I send them to California. I send them to Wisconsin.

Ashley Stamoulis: [00:30:10] And I don’t want to be goosey, but I am. So, I’m always like, “I’m so excited to send this to you. I am just so curious. How did you connect with the south or with my brand?” And it’s so fun to hear the stories about, “Oh, I grew up in Atlanta, but then I met a guy at college, and we ended up,” or “I took my first job at a school in California,” or whatever. And the south is so much more than a place on the map. It’s in your heart. I mean, a lot of people come on vacation. Maybe they went to Charleston for their first wedding anniversary or something like that. And then, 20 years later, they just love anything that’s got a palm tree on it.

Ashley Stamoulis: [00:30:44] So, we’ve had a lot of fun connecting with people all over and sharing the sophistication of things that come out of our geographical area. We’ve got things that can compete globally with style. And I think that part of my job is to debunk that sense that people have of maybe like everything’s in a mason jar down here. It’s like, “Okay, yeah. Maybe it’s a Mason Jar, if you want it,” but when Katie’s families come in from outside the south, we really want to hit them first with just like, “You’re really going to love it here.” We can be as personal, Jill, as like if we know Jill is coming in with her family, we know the ages of the kids or what have you, then going to make sure, “We know Jill loves her wine,” “Okay, great. Well, we’re gonna make sure that Jill’s got the wine bottle.”

Katie Ciphers: [00:31:32] This is true.

Ashley Stamoulis: [00:31:32] Part of what we love to do is to really go that next level of being personalized to the extent that we can that we have that information. And Katie’s been a great partner with that. It’s a lot of fun. And I enjoy that level of customer service that we’re able to provide, getting back to the customer experience, because you want people to come back, and you want them to have that first initial box or that first initial hug like Katie gave me all those years ago when I brought my daughter into her. But then, you want to build that relationship, so they think about you for holiday gifts, or they think about you for their neighbor’s birthday, or what have you.

Jill Heineck: [00:32:15] And what I love about this is that it can be implemented. And on the sad day that I have clients that are relocating out of Atlanta for a job, we can have one of those boxes waiting for them at either their temporary spot or when they move into their new home and their new location. So, I think it is a fantastic way to keep them connected to Atlanta or to the south; and yet, surprise them abroad, so to speak.

Ashley Stamoulis: [00:32:42] That’s right. And so, we think about that a lot. Jill. Like, for instance, if you have people that are moving away or Katie has families that graduate out of needing her service, we want to make sure that something that we put in that box is going to hang around. And when they see it, they’re going to remember you, right? Like it’s not going to be—I don’t put anything in these boxes that—everybody loves a good goody bag, but as I get older, I’m just like, “Don’t give me stuff. I want nice things. I want things that serve a purpose around the house,” and that sort of thing. So, we’ve put a lot of thought into what could we put in Jill’s box for her client that every time they glance at it in the kitchen, or family room, or whatever, they’re going to be like, “Oh, that was so great. I mean, Jill gave us that. Remember how great it was that she helped us?” We want to continue to have that be your ambassador in their life. So, we do put a lot of thought into whatever that might be.

Katie Ciphers: [00:33:38] Honestly, I know Jill and I know how stressful this time can be for families when they’re coming, especially if they’re looking for homes when they’re with Jill. And with us, they’re doing evaluations and testing or talking to a psychologist because the admissions process in Atlanta is extremely competitive. And it’s not a fun time necessarily for kids or families. We wish everything were fun and sunshine. But at the same time, it’s a stressful process.

Katie Ciphers: [00:34:04] And so, I think taking a step back, and I’m especially thinking about this so much with the virtual learning and virtual work that we’re all doing and remote work, is that we just need to have a little joy. And I think that’s the extra addition. It’s not just about the education process or the home search. It’s about bringing joy back to people and helping them to really feel connected. So, it is and it’s a special thing.

Ashley Stamoulis: [00:34:04] When somebody is stressed, and I think stress naturally comes when you’ve got a child that needs an extra level of service, until you feel like you’ve gotten in the groove. I mean, once you’re with Katie, you’re no longer stressed. But when you come in her door to her business, you’re going to feel that agitation because you’ve probably been ten other places, you probably had those awful conferences where they put every single teacher in the room, and you’re like, “Oh, my God.” The minute you walk in, you know it’s not going to be, “Kelly is doing so great.”

Ashley Stamoulis: [00:34:59] And then, Jill, when they come to you and they’re like dad wants this in the house, and the mom wants this in the house, and the kids are just running everywhere, and it’s like you have to play kind of like marriage therapist and wear all the different hats, and also find them the best house. Those are the times that I kind of think that like if you can step back, like Katie said, and think about how you’re going to sprinkle in a little joy, you are really going to set yourself apart from every other service provider that they are coming into contact with because it is always appreciated but no more so is that extra level of like, “I got you, girl,” or here’s a little surfie, here’s a little happy for no other reason other than sister looked like she needed it. You know what I mean? That is really one of those things that makes it deep into the brain and they don’t forget that because it’s like everything else was just swirling around them and chaotic, and somebody came at me with a random act of kindness. That is our favorite thing to do.

Jill Heineck: [00:34:59] And that speaks to being the type of person, or the type of business person, or the human that actually is listening, paying attention, seeing where your client or customer is at, and then being able to respond to it. So, that is why it’s very important for our group to partner with companies like Katie’s and what I’m hearing like Ashley’s because you are in response to what your customer needs. And the whole underlying idea of being able to deliver great service is to understand what the customer is experiencing. And I think you’ve both in an excellent job demonstrating how you can meet your client where they’re at.

Jill Heineck: [00:36:56] And I really, really appreciate both of you taking the time to hop on a call and talk with me about this. I think our listeners really, really get a lot out of it. And what I love to do is get each of you to tell us where our listeners can find you online. And let’s start with Katie.

Katie Ciphers: [00:37:18] Absolutely. You can go to our website. Of course, we’re also on LinkedIn, Facebook, the whole shebang. But go to our website, wwww.aplusatl.com. So, it’s aplusatl.com. And from there, you can find a lot of our services, including our remote homeschooling service, our school search service, which Jill knows all too well. And there are still learning support options. We look forward to speaking with you and hopefully providing kind of the best customer experience possible.

Jill Heineck: [00:37:51] Excellent, Ashley?

Ashley Stamoulis: [00:37:53] Yes. And so, I live in the world of Suthingirl, and it is spelled just like you say it. It’s S like Sam, U-T-H-I-N, Suthin, G-I-R-L. And you can do Suthingirl.com You can do @Suthingirl on Instagram. We have a lot of fun, and we’re a great resource for people who are looking to shop the south, looking to connect with brands and artists from all over the south that are doing incredible things. And we offer a corporate gift boxes. We offer welcome boxes. We have a subscription box that comes out seasonally. That’s a lot of fun. You should definitely send one to yourself because you deserve it. And we just have a lot of fun. We’re in a really happy place that that lift other people up. And we do 20% back to non-profit across all of our products because we believe in the south, all our backyard’s touch. And we want to make sure that everybody helps everybody to be their best and to feel their best.

Jill Heineck: [00:38:57] Well, thank you guys so much. I really appreciate it. And thank you, the listeners, for listening. So proud to share this show with you as these stories prioritize the customer experience as a legitimate business strategy and reminding us that no matter the business you’re in, the customer experience is always at the heart of the business. Thanks so much and have a great week.

About Your Host

Jill Heineck is a leading authority on corporate relocations, and is highly sought after for her real estate industry acumen and business insights. As a published author, frequent panelist and keynote speaker, Jill shares her experience and perceptions with people from around the globe.

Jill is a founding partner of Keller Williams Southeast, established in 1999, and the founder and managing partner of Heineck & Co. Her real estate practice specializes in corporate relocations, individual relocations, luxury residential, and commercial properties. Jill’s analytical approach to problem-solving, along with her expert negotiation skills and sophisticated marketing, deliver superior results to her clients. Her winning strategies and tenacious client advocacy have earned her a reputation for excellence among Atlanta’s top producers.

While Jill has received many accolades throughout her career, she is most gratified by the personal testimonials and referrals she receives from her clients. Jill’s unwavering commitment to the customer experience, and her focus on the unique needs of each client, serve as the foundation of her success.

Follow Jill Heineck on LinkedIn.

Inspiring Women, Episode 20: Becoming The Authentic Leader You Envision

April 15, 2020 by John Ray

Inspiring Women with Betty Collins album cover

Inspiring Women PodCast with Betty Collins

Inspiring Women, Episode 20: Becoming The Authentic Leader You Envision

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Inspiring Women, Episode 20: Becoming The Authentic Leader You Envision

There’s almost a crying desire for leadership in our society which is genuine. In this episode of “Inspiring Women,” host Betty Collins discusses the characteristics of authentic leadership. “Inspiring Women” is presented by Brady Ware & Company.

Betty’s Show Notes

It’s everywhere; books, coaches, seminars on the why, the what, the who, and the how.

It’s really, in my mind, almost overkill. But the sad truth is, with all of that help, we are desperately looking for leadership that is authentic.

In our society, in politics, to corporate America, to education systems, within our homes, within professional organizations, authentic leadership is really tough to find.

Authentic leadership works on the principle that leaders can prove their legitimacy, their credibility, by nurturing sincere relationships with whomever they’re leading. Notice I did not say “I am the leader, follow me!” It isn’t about the title. It really is nurturing sincere relationships.

How do you do that?

An authentic leader encourages their followers to be more open. They appreciate their support in the success of the organization. When you want to be an authentic leader, it’s pretty tough. It’s a pretty high standard, and it takes a while to do.

This is something you have to be pretty intentional about. If you are a true authentic leader, you’ll have certain characteristics. You probably can’t have all 10 that I’ve come up with, but you’ve got to have some of these, or you’ve got to be working on them.

Self-awareness
Integrity
Vision
Focus On Long-term Results
Listening Skills
Speaking Carefully
Transparency
Consistency
Drawing On Experience
Sharing Success With Your Team

Betty Collins, CPA, Brady Ware & Company and Host of the “Inspiring Women” Podcast

Betty Collins is the Office Lead for Brady Ware’s Columbus office and a Shareholder in the firm. Betty joined Brady Ware & Company in 2012 through a merger with Nipps, Brown, Collins & Associates. She started her career in public accounting in 1988. Betty is co-leader of the Long Term Care service team, which helps providers of services to Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and nursing centers establish effective operational models that also maximize available funding. She consults with other small businesses, helping them prosper with advice on general operations management, cash flow optimization, and tax minimization strategies.

In addition, Betty serves on the Board of Directors for Brady Ware and Company. She leads Brady Ware’s Women’s Initiative, a program designed to empower female employees, allowing them to tap into unique resources and unleash their full potential. Betty helps her colleagues create a work/life balance while inspiring them to set and reach personal and professional goals. The Women’s Initiative promotes women-to-women business relationships for clients and holds an annual conference that supports women business owners, women leaders, and other women who want to succeed. Betty actively participates in women-oriented conferences through speaking engagements and board activity.

Betty is a member of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) and she is the President-elect for the Columbus Chapter. Brady Ware also partners with the Women’s Small Business Accelerator (WSBA), an organization designed to help female business owners develop and implement a strong business strategy through education and mentorship, and Betty participates in their mentor match program. She is passionate about WSBA because she believes in their acceleration program and matching women with the right advisors to help them achieve their business ownership goals. Betty supports the WSBA and NAWBO because these organizations deliver resources that help other women-owned and managed businesses thrive.

Betty is a graduate of Mount Vernon Nazarene College, a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and a member of the Ohio Society of Certified Public Accountants. Betty is also the Board Chairwoman for the Gahanna Area Chamber of Commerce, and she serves on the Board of the Community Improvement Corporation of Gahanna as Treasurer.

“Inspiring Women” Podcast Series

“Inspiring Women” is THE podcast that advances women toward economic, social and political achievement. The show is hosted by Betty Collins, CPA, and presented by Brady Ware and Company. Brady Ware is committed to empowering women to go their distance in the workplace and at home. Other episodes of “Inspiring Women” can be found here.

Show Transcript

[00:00:00] Becoming the authentic leader that you envision and making sure you can build that team … Authentic leaders, being an authentic leader, the 10 steps of all of it … It’s everywhere; books, coaches, seminars on the why, the what, the who, and the how. It’s really, in my mind, almost overkill, but the sad truth is, with all of that help, and with all of those things, and with all that can be thrown at you, we are desperately looking for leadership that is authentic, in all aspects. From our society, from politics, to corporate America, to education systems, within our homes, within professional organizations, authentic leadership is really tough to find.

[00:00:46] Part of it is because it’s hard to be an authentic leader. Authentic leadership works on the principle that leaders can prove their legitimacy, their credibility, by nurturing sincere relationships with whoever they’re leading. Notice I did not say I am the leader, follow me! It isn’t about the title you finally got. “Get over it. Do as I say.” It really is nurturing sincere relationships. How do you do that?

[00:01:19] The word authentic also is way overused everywhere, but an authentic leader encourages their followers to be more open. They appreciate their support in the success of the organization, so they really want to hear from them. It doesn’t just promote them as the leader, or it doesn’t just promote individuals. It’s a team performance.

[00:01:41] When you want to be an authentic leader, it’s pretty tough. It’s a pretty high standard, and it takes a while to do. You’re not going to do that because you got your MBA, or something, or you’re just getting out of college, or even if you have years of experience. This is something you have to be pretty intentional about. If you are a true authentic leader, you’ll probably have certain characteristics. You probably can’t have all 10 that I’ve come up with, but you’ve got to have some of these, or you’ve got to be working on them.

[00:02:09] Who is the person in your life, at your company, in your career, in your past, maybe in your local government? In the professional organization, when you’re thinking authentic leader, who comes to your mind immediately? And then, I have to ask this – do you think you are an authentic leader? But, probably, the real question is do others see you as that?

[00:02:34] I want to talk about how do we get there, and what does it mean to be an authentic leader? These are just some basic ideas that I came across, and read about, and looked … I think I narrowed it down to 10 because I don’t know how you could do all 10 of these but let me go through them.

[00:02:50] Self-awareness. An authentic leader reflects upon their actions and some of their decisions, and they examine; all along their career, they’re examining how they’re doing those things, so they can try to not be biased, and, again, being open. You lead with your heart. You focus on the long-term results, integrity. That could be an entire podcast. You’ve got to lead with vision. You’ve got to listen, and carefully speak. Of course, transparency and consistency. Those are some things that I think have to be there for you to get the title – authentic leader.

[00:03:30] Let’s start with the first one – self-awareness. You’re reflecting on your actions, your decisions. You’re examining your own strengths and weaknesses. Then, you put a lot of effort to overcome the fears around … The people who fear maybe those things that are not going well, and you use your strengths to maximize. Self-awareness is not obsession with every aspect of your life so it’s all perfect, and it is not constantly analyzing yourself and then asking everyone’s opinion about it. Again, it’s really reflection; examination. I don’t know that you have to do it every day, but authentic leaders don’t really hide behind their flaws. They talk about them, and they acknowledge them. A lot of times they get people around them that can maybe fill in where they are not that way.

[00:04:24] Being an authentic leader is hard work and it takes years of experience, and you’re going to fail. But everyone behaves inauthentically – is that a word? – at times, and they say things and do things they regret. So, the key is to have self-awareness; to recognize those times where you listen, and you listen to your colleagues, and wherever you’re leading as this authentic leader, who can point them out to you, and you can go, “Okay, I get that.”

[00:04:54] If you’re going to be an authentic leader, you’ve got to lead with your heart. Probably not afraid to dig deep. Those people that can go, “Let’s just get to the core of it.” They lead their team with courage. There’s a lot of empathy, because if you’re going to really lead from the heart and listen, it takes empathy. I’m not always an empathetic person. It’s a skill that I really have to work on. Being all heart also doesn’t mean you just lead with your emotions, or you feel good, therefore, that must be coming from the heart; or you feel bad, and that’s really coming from the core.

[00:05:31] Two situations. One, I had someone … We always had kind of a flex time in one of the companies that I worked with. One of those things was as long as you got your eight-hour day in, you were good. This was well before everybody now has flex time or works out of your house. We had somebody who really loved flex time, because they wanted to eat breakfast with their kids every morning and take them to school. The problem with his authentic leadership, though, was when it came 5:00, and he still had two more hours, he didn’t hesitate to go into someone’s office at 3:00, 4:00, or 5:00, and sit there and talk and even follow them to their car. He really wasn’t authentic. Liked it for himself. Didn’t let others do it.

[00:06:18] I will say, of course, I’m either very egotistical, or very insecure, but I will say this with as much humbleness as I can … The success of the women’s initiative at Brady Ware, my CEO directly said this to me from the beginning; he said, “You are a leader for this because you wear the emotions on your sleeve. Your passion is there for everybody to see, and it comes out at the very core, and that’s why the Brady Ware women’s initiative is successful.” For me to have a legacy and to pass this on to someone, I’ve got to find someone with that same thing. You lead with the heart. We’ve had some success with that. It was a very nice compliment, for sure, and I’ve tried to use that in other areas, if I have that much passion. When I don’t have that kind of, where I can lead from the heart, I kind of question should I be doing this?

[00:07:14] You’ve got to focus on long-term results, when you are an authentic leader. You don’t waste a whole lot of time worrying about maybe temporary setbacks or things that just didn’t go well. You cannot always have a stellar month. You cannot always have a stellar year. You’ve got to look long term. You know this is the right thing. It takes patience, and it takes hard work, but you can yield some rich results in the long run. So, looking forward by learning from the past generally results in good. But, again, everything can’t be stellar and huge all the time.

[00:07:50] I hope you get the correlation; I’m going to try to describe this … I ran in a 5K only one time. It was time to get my health in order, and the book I was reading at the time said, “Find the exercise you like, and you exercise.” I said, okay, I’m going to run. I’m going to be a runner. I prepped for the 5K, somewhat, and I loved more buying the shoes, and the matching gear, and being part of the big day more. It was a community thing. At the end of the day, the race was kind of tough, but I kept my focus because I did know – when I was tired – it’s like everyone else is doing this. We can get there. There is a finish line. I met the goal. I was part of the community. It’s all really good. I finished about mid-pack, which I didn’t think was bad because I was in my 50s. I wasn’t in first place. It wasn’t this big result, but it was all part of my health plan.

[00:08:51] So, instead of going, “Well, that didn’t work,” I just moved on to something that maybe did work. It led me to the next part of my physical health, which was really just getting a trainer. I lost, over four, or five months’ time, about 19 pounds, 13 inches. Now, those habits are really in place. I wasn’t about what I was going to look like, when I worked out at the gym with her, or whatever it was. So, I took that and learned from my past; didn’t get buried down in that one more thing didn’t work about weight. Instead, I said I’m going to look at this long term.

[00:09:25] I prep now; I focus; I’m more patient. If I would have just said, “No more 5ks. I’m done,” I wouldn’t have the amazing results I have right now. I didn’t waste time focusing on what I didn’t accomplish in that race. Instead, I found another way to move forward and applied that somewhat to how I lead in business. It’s okay that something didn’t work. If it doesn’t, don’t keep doing it over. I wasn’t going to keep running races that I wasn’t prepared for, but I am going to, day by day, deal with my health. So, focus on the long-term results.

[00:09:58] Integrity … Just not there today. I had a great book back in the day about President Ronald Reagan, “When Character was King,” and it was all about integrity. I would still vote for him today. That would be who I’d write in on the ballot. He was authentic to me. He wasn’t perfect, but integrity mattered to him. Of course, I’m a pretty conservative person, so, of course, I’m going to be drawn to him, but integrity was key. He just didn’t say things to say them. Generally, hat he said he meant. I kind of look that way with Barack Obama, as well. President Obama was a progressive left; he said that. He also said, “This is what I believe, and this is what I’m going to do.” There wasn’t any- What’s the word I want? There wasn’t any delusion about it. They both had different ways about their character, and integrity, because they were doing what they believed, and what they said, they meant. They were respected, yet two very, very different men.

[00:10:59] Chances are, two people can say the same thing. The one who’s listened to probably has integrity and probably has some credibility, especially with the world we have today. If you really step back and go, “I want to understand more about integrity. I’ve got to figure that out, and character, that matters in my character …” you will be a leader, far past a lot of people.

[00:11:26] You have to lead with vision. Authentic leaders lead with purpose and vision. Chances are, they’re going to add value to the people that they interact with, the team, and they’re going to help people also be part of the vision. They are not just the vision. That’s why I say- that’s only five, and I’m exhausted thinking about all the things I have to do to be the leader. We’ve got five more … We’ll finish up.

[00:11:50] Listening skills and carefully speaking. What a mess we are in today with the ability to not listen and the ability to say whatever we think, and we call that freedom. Well, I look at it as a good leader … As we are making decisions right now about a next president, a good authentic leader is a good listener. Even when they don’t like your views, or you don’t like theirs, there’s listening involved.

[00:12:22] Authentic leaders also monitor their words. They’re very careful to how they say things to the audience. Not because of political correctness, which has gone beyond, they do it because maybe they’re sensitive to the person who’s going to hear those; the impact, the actions. They’re not just messaging the right talking points. People can read right through that. Too much of today, and not just in politics, but our culture, in general, is we don’t listen, and we speak way too quickly. You want to be a better leader? People will gravitate to you, if you have listening skills and carefully speak. It’s definitely part of being that authentic leader.

[00:13:09] Transparency … Authentic leaders obviously believe in open communication and combine their directness with empathy. I hope you heard that. They combine their directness with empathy. Transparency doesn’t mean, “Well, I told you, and I spilled my guts, and now everyone knows everything.” That might be transparency. It also might be maybe a little stupidity. “What you see is what you get” – that can be dangerous. “Well, this is just who I am!” Those things are not transparency.

[00:13:37] We had somebody who, years ago, they were my client and always talked about his faith; always talked about transparency, and open, and honesty. Yet everyone knew he was having an affair with the administrative assistant. Everyone knew it. He didn’t know that everyone knew it … So, his transparency, no matter what, wasn’t there. It just wasn’t there. We really need it today. Transparency is about open communication; being direct with some empathy; and not just saying what you think needs to be said. People see who you are, most of the time, or they at least have some idea.

[00:14:18] Consistency … Consistent people in your life. I want you to be thinking, who is that, and why do you go to that person on your team? It’s because they’re consistent, and you can count on them. Well, they need the same thing from you as a leader. They’re not probably going to be allured into things and allow things that just don’t … They’re not with the plan. They’re not with the steps. They’re not with what needs to happen. Consistency is a huge important thing. Sometimes, you need to divert; sometimes, you need to take another fork in the road. I get that, but, generally, in business and when you’re leading, and you want a team to follow, you can’t live in too much ‘let’s just shoot from the hip and go over here.’ You’ve got to stay with some things, and consistency is part of that.

[00:14:57] Probably the hardest things for leaders, especially authentic, but this is one you could really just say, “I’m going to make an effort on this,” is sharing your success with your team. Everybody wants to take the credit for it. Really, when you build the team around you, and give credit, and you do it as a team, you have so much- so much more different results.

[00:15:17] Drawing on experience … I’m 56, and I have a lot to say, and I probably have a lot of good stories to tell you. It doesn’t mean, because I tell them, and I learned the hard way, it makes me authentic. But stellar leadership will absolutely share their experiences and really have compassion that you don’t experience that. Or they might have compassion for you to experience it because you need to.

[00:15:39] Rhett Ricart is a common name in Columbus. Of course, they have Ricart Ford, which is a- many years, it’s been number one in the country. It’s a huge, huge organization. He’s a great speaker, and he does a great presentation on his 13 mistakes. He takes that experience, and he throws it out there and says, “This is what I did.”

[00:16:02] One of the ones I loved, he talked about ‘Don’t teach your employees to steal.’ I’m like, wow … He said, because, you know, if you were a Ricart, you could fill up your gas tank and get your tires changed, and no one ever paid for any of that. You just ate lunch on the … All the different things you do as an owner. Then, when your employees start doing that, you’re kind of mad, because you’re like, “What are you doing?” “Well, you guys do it. You’re employees here. Okay, you’re owners, but …” He just talked very, very openly about, “These are the things I didn’t do well, and I don’t want you to do that.” He’s very authentic about it. He doesn’t talk about he was perfect the whole way and that’s why they’re number one.

[00:16:40] Authentic leadership – I’ll end with this. Your team deserves it. It’s next to impossible to do all 10 of these, but I would certainly look at the ones where you’re struggling in and make an effort to put some change there; to get your mindset differently and to really get some open, honest communication about it because your team deserves it. They need you to strive towards becoming the authentic leader. Then, one day, you’ll probably create authentic leaders around you. I’m Betty Collins. Thank you for listening today.

Peter Ryding with VIC – Your Virtual Interactive Coach

April 14, 2020 by angishields

Daring to

Peter Ryding with VIC - Your Virtual Interactive Coach

00:00 /

Welcome to Daring To, a podcast that finds out how CEOs and entrepreneurs navigate today’s business world – the conventions they’re breaking, the challenges they’ve faced and the decisions that they’ve made, and lastly, just what makes them different.

Peter Ryding, CEO of VIC – Your Virtual Interactive Coach, an online e-coaching tool for employees. In the past, Peter has been an award-winning top executive coach, turnaround executive and mentor to CEOs and their boards.

Follow VIC on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Show Transcript

Intro: [00:00:02] Welcome to Daring To, a podcast that finds out how CEOs and entrepreneurs navigate today’s business world; the conventions they’re breaking; the challenges they faced; and the decisions that they’ve made; and lastly, just what makes them different.

Rita Trehan: [00:00:19] So, welcome to Daring To. And while you’re at home, working from home during this coronavirus and you want to listen to something that isn’t corona-related, I’m delighted for this week’s podcast to have Peter Ryding on as my guest. And he has some very interesting conversations, tips, advice to share. Peter, you are a fascinating character. I tend to have fascinating characters on my show, and you are, by far and away, one of the most interesting. Started a career in engineering, and it’s kind of like going into my kind of field, right? The people field of all. I’m like, wow, how did that happen?

Rita Trehan: [00:00:58] Rescued 12 companies from bankruptcy in your career, generating over a billion dollars of shareholder value. You are acclaimed around the world. I am in awe. So, let me start off by saying that I am in awe, and it’s a pleasure to meet you virtually. And so, let’s kick off because there’s lots of questions that I’ve got. Tell me about your career. How did you go from, you know, studying engineering, working for an engineering company, and then becoming this serial entrepreneur that’s kind of like a turnaround expert? That’s kind of an interesting career history.

Peter Ryding: [00:01:31] Yes, you’re right, Rita, it is unusual. And thank you again for having me on the program. Very kind words you said about me. I was always fascinated in understanding how things work. I used to take cars apart, engines apart. In those days, you could. You didn’t need all the electronics nowadays. And I’ve always wanted to make things better. Cars faster, motorbikes faster. And so, I became an engineer. And I worked for some of the largest companies in the world initially.

Peter Ryding: [00:02:00] I worked for Exxon, SO, we called it in the UK, the biggest company in the world at the time. I worked for 3i, at the time, the biggest venture capital company in the world. I worked for Mars, one of the leading confectionery companies in the world. And I then had a crazy career move into the music industry with EMI, where on my very first meeting, these guys turned up in cut-down denim shirts, they were smoking pot in the boardroom, and I was just blown away because I didn’t think this was the way business worked, but they worked.

Rita Trehan: [00:02:33] It certainly would have been different to your days, I would say the energy companies and the traditional hierarchical companies that existed then.

Peter Ryding: [00:02:42] Overly different. I mean, out of this world.

Rita Trehan: [00:02:42] Yeah.

Peter Ryding: [00:02:42] Suddenly, what I was told is these were some of the best NR guys in the world. They had just signed up Blur, who at the time was one of the massive up and coming groups in the UK. And these were the best guys in the world at what they did. And it forced me to take a step back because I had arrogantly thought that, you know, the way you’re successful in business is to have a plan, have an agenda, everyone turns up on time, you agree actions and you go off and do stuff.

Peter Ryding: [00:03:09] And these guys did not fit into that category, but they were still the best in the world. Where that led me to go was, I just reflected on what is the common link between all these successful companies in totally different industries, and the only common feature was people. And so, at that point, I had to go within and do a bit of humility. And so, what I thought was the way to be successful in business is only one option. And I actually went away on a retreat in the middle of New Forest, a beautiful part of the country in England.

Rita Trehan: [00:03:42] Indeed, yeah.

Peter Ryding: [00:03:42] And when I was away, over four days, I discovered my identity. And that’s a very deep, almost spiritual sense. And for me, I discovered I was a pathfinder. My words, no.

Rita Trehan: [00:03:58] So, let’s talk about that. I’m going to like interrupt you there because there’s probably listeners right now going like, “Yeah, come on. You spent four days like in the New Forest, beautiful like scenery and you’ve found yourself”, like how did you find yourself? And that’s going to be really interesting because you have worked with some really, you know, high-caliber CEOs, very well-known, respected people. So, to hear someone like you say, I spent four days finding myself, how do you address the skeptics on the listeners that might be saying like, really, come on?

Peter Ryding: [00:04:32] I had a coach, a professional coach at the time. He recommended me to his coach, who was a deep clinical psychologist, a trained coach and a mentor and an ex-business person. And that person was incredible. And they led us. There were 12 of us actually, went through this process of four days. We actually spent very little time in the New Forest itself, deeply going within and asking us deep questions, which I stood out. So, I coach chief executives nowadays. And one of the questions I ask them is what they asked me at the time, who do you want to be and who must you stop being so that you can become the person you want to be? Now, you can take that sort of question at any level you want.

Rita Trehan: [00:05:22] That’s a great question.

Peter Ryding: [00:05:22] I find it to be like peeling back an onion.

Rita Trehan: [00:05:25] Yeah.

Peter Ryding: [00:05:25] You come up with an answer, and then you think about it. You think, well, actually, no, I need to go deeper than that. And I went very deep. You know, I went into this place during the four days where I was visualizing in my mind what might seem a bit weird, but visualizing being in a clearing in the middle of the night with a fire burning in the clearing. I actually looked at the edge of the trees in the woods around this clearing. You could gradually see figures emerge.

Peter Ryding: [00:05:56] And because of the setup that’s done, you realize that you’re talking to your unconscious mind and all of the figures in the forest, which were slowly emerging were people I either knew or I knew of. So, one of the things I learned in this exercise was that there were four types of people who can coach you and mentor for free, no cost whatsoever. They’re available 24/7. And I still use these people nowadays. One type of person is people that you know.

Peter Ryding: [00:06:29] So, this could be an uncle, a teacher, an ex-boss. People who you know, you respect, they’ve helped you. And any time, you can, in your mind, imagine they’re in front of you and have a conversation with them. There are also people who are dead. There are people who you used to know, but they are no longer alive. And these could be figures in the outside world. So, it could be like Nelson Mandela. Just because you’ve never met Nelson Mandela doesn’t mean that you can’t research them, understand their lives in a bit more detail.

Peter Ryding: [00:07:04] And if at some point, you think, I really should be more compassionate or more forgiving, imagine having a discussion with Nelson Mandela. Now, if you want to be tenacious and tough, imagine you’re getting advice from Winston Churchill. For me, one of the people who was boldest that I’m aware of is Alexander the Great at the age of 30 years old, he created the biggest empire the world had ever seen. So, I’ve read a lot about Alexander the Great.

Peter Ryding: [00:07:30] And when I’m wanting to be bold or forthright or courageous, I imagine Alexander the Great in front of me, and I say to him, you know, “You know everything that’s in my mind. You know, you’re in my mind, so we’ve got one and the same brain here.” But if you roleplay and you say, “Well, Alexander the Great, what would you do in this situation?” or “What would you, Nelson Mandela, do in this situation?” You will get a completely different response depending on who your imagining is sitting in the chair opposite because your mind understands the difference between compassion and being bold.

Peter Ryding: [00:08:05] And so, all of these people on the edge of the clearing that I gradually called in and I spoke to, and this was under very carefully controlled situations with a clinical psychologist there to make sure that things didn’t go wrong. And overall, as I had all these discussions, the common link that emerged between me talking to my grandfather, who I’ve been very close to but was dead, me talking to a teacher who was still alive, me talking to Alexander the Great, what emerged was two things.

Peter Ryding: [00:08:39] I was very good at helping paint pictures into the future for other people. So, when I was doing turnaround work, for example, I could go to a board of directors and help them paint a better picture into the future of their business where it’s alive and it’s thriving. I do free coaching work for disadvantaged kids. Often, they’ve been abused by parents, they’ve been maybe drug, ex-drug addicts. And I work with them, and I help them think through what is the life that they want in the future, different to now.

Peter Ryding: [00:09:18] And I would help people visualize a better future. And I would help them get there. And the words that suddenly emerge like—I mean, I cried when it happened with me. It’s very, very emotional. And I do this with other chief executives now. I take others through the same process I went through and they often cry. And suddenly, the two words that came to my mind, the pathfinder. And what that meant for me is that I help people imagine the future that they want. I help them find their path to that future. And then, I help them along the path in whatever way works for them. If there’s a business in crisis, I can grab hold of it as a chief executive and pull it into the future, rescuing it from failure.

Peter Ryding: [00:10:08] And I pull it, screaming and kicking if need be, but I will get them there. If there’s a CEO who just wants a little bit of help, maybe they’re under stress at the moment because of coronavirus, they’re having rounds with their partner at home, they’re worried about having to make many people unemployed, then I can help them with a lighter touch and as a coach. I can help as an executive chairman or a non-exec director, a strategic advisor. I’m all—you know, with people in my family, I can just be there as a father or as a husband.

Peter Ryding: [00:10:39] But what I do consistently is I help people paint a picture of the future they want and I help them find their path to it. And I help them along that path to whatever extent I want. And what’s really critical for me is that means I can live my life on purpose with a double meaning. Everything I do, I do it purposefully because I’m not just being Peter trying to drive a business forward, I am living my purpose and my identity of pathfinder, but I’m also living my life purposefully. I’m actually doing something which is meaningful for me, which is helping other people, which currently is where I think the Virtual Interactive Coach comes as well.

Rita Trehan: [00:11:28] Yeah. And we’re going to talk about virtual coach in just one second because it actually will, I think, come out as you talk about and address this question that I’m going to ask you. The concept of purpose of companies having a bigger purpose than just either making profit or contributing to whatever they do, maybe it’s a nonprofit organization, but beyond that kind of business mission, I am seeing and advising companies today that it needs to be more than rhetoric today when you talk about what your purpose is.

Rita Trehan: [00:12:02] And you’ve been very clear to say, actually, my purpose has a double-P to it. And I guess my question to you is, how important do you think that is to companies today? But, you know, we are in the throes of a coronavirus, and my own personal opinion of this is that we will see the companies that emerge the strongest from this for those that are true to their higher purpose when this is all over, but, you know, what’s your view on that? And particularly, tell us a little bit about how you’re applying that with VIC. I love the name, VIC, because that’s my brother’s shorthand name and we are kind of close on most times, but we fight a lot, too.

Rita Trehan: [00:12:42] So, obviously, it resonates with me very well. But tell us a little bit about that because it seems like something that would actually be really important at this time, where people are suddenly finding themselves remote-working, it seems to build on your purpose, but can you combine those two things together and talk a little bit about that? Like what was your double P, if you like, around VIC and the Virtual Interactive Coach? And what do you think about how companies should be thinking about their higher purpose or double purpose, if you like, as we move forward?

Peter Ryding: [00:13:18] Sure. I don’t think an organization has to have a higher purpose. However, if you look at millennials, the two things they want and the two most common reasons they leave their current employer is one, they are not being developed. They don’t feel they are growing as a person. They’re not gaining skills that they want to gain. That’s one reason. The other reason is that when they talk to their friends about the company they work for, they sort of describe it mechanically with no purpose.

Peter Ryding: [00:13:51] Whereas, if you can convey a higher purpose, you don’t have to, but it adds a lot to a business, and that I believe it adds to productivity and to profit. However, I would say there is a difference between purpose and purposefulness. So, a purpose, you could say, our purpose is to make profit and return for the shareholders. That’s perfectly legitimate. It’s not very exciting and it’s not very emotional, but you can say you have a purpose. However, purposefulness I think is where you are contributing to society.

Rita Trehan: [00:14:25] Yeah.

Peter Ryding: [00:14:25] You are doing good. And that I think is becoming a very, very hot topic. And millennials want to work for chief executives and to companies that are purposeful.

Rita Trehan: [00:14:38] Totally agree with you.

Peter Ryding: [00:14:39] Sorry, Rita.

Rita Trehan: [00:14:40] Yes, I totally agree with you, right? And I think like you have called that out with, well, your purposeful goal, which is like, you know, a bit of the 20 million people all across 20 countries is, I think, very purposeful to sort of impact the learning and the capabilities of that many people. And not just like in a particular place, but around the world. That to me seems very purposeful. And you start to see those companies that are thinking like in ways like you are thinking and your company’s thinking, is having a much wider impact on a much more global scale of solving some of the biggest problems that the world faces today, right?

Peter Ryding: [00:15:20] Yes, it’s interesting. One of the classic stories that I love is that when President Nixon went to Cape Canaveral in 1968, a year before the Apollo rocket took off, and he supposedly came across a janitor and said, “Tell me, what do you do?” And the janitor said, “I’m part of the team helping to get a man to the moon and safely home again by the end of the decade.” In other words, the mission statement, the speech that JFK gave at the beginning of the decade had been communicated so effectively, no offense to janitors, but right down to the janitor level who got it.

Peter Ryding: [00:15:54] And I believe that means that person will work that little bit harder. If you saw a bit of chewing gum in a place where it shouldn’t be, instead of saying, “It’s not worth it, I’m just going to go home”, he would make sure that that bit of chewing gum was removed. And also, I think if you were to meet him at the weekend and say, “By the way, what do you do?” He wouldn’t say, a bit embarrassed, “Oh, you know, I’m a janitor.” And so, he would say, “I’m part of the team”, and so on and so forth.

Peter Ryding: [00:16:17] So, certainly, all the employees who are part of VIC, they’re very proud to be part of VIC, A, because we’re doing good stuff and we do all sorts of stuff, which, you know, we probably don’t have time to cover now. However, they are proud of the fact that they are part of the team helping 20 million people across 20 countries achieve and celebrate more success with less stress. Now, part of that is, well, what does success mean? That’s a great discussion to have with CEOs, by the way. People have very different views what success means. Some people say, it’s being healthy. Some people say, I want a Ferrari and a villa and all sorts of other things.

Rita Trehan: [00:16:56] Some people say, they want both, right?

Peter Ryding: [00:16:58] But for us, interesting, out of the whole mission statement, celebrate is the key word. That is our corporate core value.

Rita Trehan: [00:17:09] Why was that? Why did it become a corporate core value for you, do you think?

Peter Ryding: [00:17:13] Okay. Because one of the businesses that we’re in is learning, helping people learn online and coaching people online through artificial intelligence, machine learning. That takes the cost out of a normal human coach. However, you know, no one wants to learn—no one learning is like hard work. It’s focus. It’s doing stuff. It might be taking exams. No one wants that. What you want is success. That’s what you want.

Peter Ryding: [00:17:41] And you might realize you have to learn to be successful. And a great measure of success is celebrate because if someone is genuinely celebrating, they’ve almost certainly achieved something. They’ve achieved success and they probably had to work hard. They probably have to learn to get there. But learning is a method. It’s a means. It’s not the ends. Celebration is the key performance indicator, I believe, of learning and achievement.

Rita Trehan: [00:18:09] So, how do you do that with that? I mean, how does that actually play out? You said, you know, there’s lots of things that you do as a company. And you’re right, we probably don’t have time to go into all of them, but if you were to like sort of pick one or two that really are having that kind of impact on people’s ability to be able to celebrate, to grow their capabilities, to learn new skills. Well, how do you that?

Peter Ryding: [00:18:33] So, VIC, your Virtual Interactive Coach. So, as you mentioned before, it’s called VIC for several reasons, V-I-C. First of all, to make it seem like a friendly person, we’re trying to personify coaching. We call it the coach in your pocket 24/7. It’s as if you’ve got a highly-trained, experienced coach who is also an expert in over 600 different topics. You know, how to coach, how to lead, how to sell, how to deal with conflict, how to build rapport with people.

Peter Ryding: [00:19:02] So, all of that is within the system. And VIC stands for Virtual Interactive Coach. However, it also stands for the choice we all make in the morning. So, are we going to have a positive mindset all about if it’s to be, it’s up to me, taking personal responsibility and also not blaming them, whoever they are, or waiting to be empowered instead of doing the right thing, not the easy thing? Now, that mindset, the way I tell the story, is imagine you get up in the morning and you stab your toe on the corner of the bed and you growl.

Peter Ryding: [00:19:38] And you stare at the cat and the cat runs away. You get in your car and you don’t let other people, other cars out in front of you. You’re walking through a door and there’s someone close behind you, and you don’t bother to stop and keep the door open. And don’t be surprised if you do that, when you turn up a reception and the receptionist doesn’t give you a very good look and you have a shit day because you might have consciously chosen to be angry, but you didn’t choose to be happy.

Peter Ryding: [00:20:06] Whereas, if when you stab your toe, you think, damn, that hurts, tomorrow, I’m going to make sure I walk further around the bed. And you choose to stroke the cat. And you do let a few drivers out. You do hold the door open for someone, even though they’re five seconds away. And all of a sudden, if you’re nice to the world, the world is nice to you, and you have a better day. So, a lot of within VIC is telling people about the choices they are already making day in, day out.

Peter Ryding: [00:20:36] They might not realize they are. And I do think that there are many laws of life. It’s been like gravity, you might say, I don’t believe in gravity. It doesn’t matter. If you trip over, you’re going to fall down on the floor because gravity exists. Many of the rules of life, the habits of success are truths. And if you are dishonorable and you do dishonorable things, people won’t trust you and you will not be as successful as if you did honorable things and people did trust you.

Peter Ryding: [00:21:12] So, you know, within VIC, we have a lot of what we call the deep insights to life around what makes people successful. We have a lot of practical things, like do you prioritize? Do you live the 80/20 rule? Because what most people do and what most businesses do, and this might be specific interest to your listeners now, Rita, is, what the 80/20 rule says is that 20% of the things we do delivers 80% of the results. And 80% of what we do delivers 20%.

Peter Ryding: [00:21:45] So, what do we, as humans, do? Sure enough, we as humans and as businesses, we spend 20% of our time on the 20% of things that make 80% of the difference, which means we’re spending 80% of our time on the 80% of things that make sort of all difference. Now, that’s just stupid. And yet, that’s what we do. And one of the things I do when I’m coaching a CEO or I take over a business is identify the 20% of things that are the important 20% of things that will make 80% of the difference going forward.

Peter Ryding: [00:22:18] And that’s probably different to the 20% of things that got you there. No. Yeah, then I find a way focusing 80% of my time, my energy, my passion, the resources of the company, the employees, the machinery, the systems, all of 80% of the resources on the 20% of things. That gives you a four times multiplier straight off the bat. And so, the first thing I do when I start working with a CEO or taking over a company as a turnaround is to identify what are those 20% of things. Sorry, Rita. Back to you.

Rita Trehan: [00:22:58] I was just saying, the producer and I were looking at each other as you were talking about that, the 80% at the time that we spend on like doing stuff that like is a waste of time and like looking at each other and like, you do that? Yeah, I think I might do that. Do you do that? Yeah, I think I might do that, too.

Peter Ryding: [00:23:12] But interesting as well, this isn’t just at a job level. Most of us spend 20% of our time doing the 20% of things that give us 80% of our happiness. We spend 80% of our time during the 80% of things that don’t make us happy. So, what you have to do is work out what makes you happy and find a way of spending more time, more bandwidth, more focus on those things. And when you do that, what you normally discover is that all the material things we tend to end up chasing after in life are inconsequential versus love and friendship and health and happiness. And as the Dalai Lama said, in his view, success equals happiness.

Rita Trehan: [00:23:59] Yeah. He wrote a good book about that, didn’t he?

Peter Ryding: [00:23:59] And yeah, let’s face it, he’s probably done more thinking about this than most of us. He says success equals happiness.

Rita Trehan: [00:24:07] Yeah.

Peter Ryding: [00:24:07] So, unless you’re spending 80% of your time doing things that make you happy. I’m so lucky. I love doing the job I do. I live my life on purpose virtually every day. Most of every day, I’m living my life on purpose because I know my purpose is pathfinder and I path-find most of my time. And it also gives me a true north by which when I get a tough situation and I think I’m in a dilemma now, all I have to do is say, okay, I’m a pathfinder, what is the best way of me living my life on purpose in this situation? And that gives me the answer.

Peter Ryding: [00:24:50] So, you know, this is really powerful stuff in your home life and in your career and in your business. This is really powerful stuff, Rita. As you were saying, you know, it’s all about people, but you’ve got to recognize, I am people, you are people. People isn’t just them. You have to include yourself. And most people, especially CEOs, in my experience, go through life in their careers, they treat themselves like an enemy. They should. We should all treat ourselves like our own best friend. You know, we criticize ourselves. We tell us that we failed something. And we tell ourselves things day in, day out, we would never dream of telling a real best friend.

Rita Trehan: [00:25:34] Yeah.

Peter Ryding: [00:25:34] You know, we give them a positive spin. And that’s something else about being a CEO. You have to look after yourself and you have to occasionally just sit back, reflect, take stock and say, am I treating myself like my own best friend? And if you’re not, do something about it.

Rita Trehan: [00:25:52] So, let’s talk about CEOs for a minute. And you have coined and you’ve used the word a lot on the podcast, which I think is really powerful, you used the word, do a lot, and you coined something called doit, D-O-I-T. I don’t if you say it as do it or it’s D-O-I-T. But I’ve heard you use the word, do a lot, in the podcast, which is very active about actually taking some kind of action. So, obviously, share what that is with the listeners. And then, can you give some tips to CEOs as to how they can apply that in this very situation that we are finding ourselves into today? An unprecedented situation, yes, but the reality is we’re probably going to see lots more kinds of things like this happen, not necessarily epidemics, but I think, you know, unforeseen things. Is that a concept that they can apply today, do you think? Tell us a bit more about it.

Peter Ryding: [00:26:46] Yes, it is. Though, you mentioned several things there I just like to touch upon, then I’ll come back to do it. Do it is the most powerful management insight I’ve come across in my entire career incidentally. Just going back to the, you know, what should CEOs do? Being a leader is very different to being a manager. Being a leader is typically about doing the right thing instead of doing the thing right. It’s about inspiring and getting other people to be the very best they can be. And that doesn’t mean that you have to be focusing upon you all the time. I see my role, I draw my organizational diagram upside down.

Peter Ryding: [00:27:29] I’m at the very bottom. And I’m there to serve everyone in the organization. I want them to look forward to coming into work, being the very best person that they can be. And my job is to create the environment and the atmosphere to make sure the right measures are in place, to make sure that they absolutely recommend my company as a brilliant place to work. However, to do that, something which is counterintuitive to many CEOs is, which box in the urgent and important matrix should you be in? So, I think we’re all aware of the urgent, important matrix where you have-

Rita Trehan: [00:28:05] Probably worth sharing it because I’m not sure that all of the listeners will understand that full box. So, do it. Talk a little bit about that then.

Peter Ryding: [00:28:12] Yeah, sure. So, imagine that there’s a full-box grid and at the side is urgency, low to high; and on the bottom is importance, low to high. And the question is, where should leaders operate? So, one of the boxes that you might think as where leaders should operate is called urgent and important. In my mind, that is not where leaders go. That is not where they add value. Everyone jumps in to the urgent and important. You know, customers phoned up and they say, “We’re not going to pay the bill and we’re going to go to a competitor.”

Peter Ryding: [00:28:48] And everyone responds to that sort of thing. There’s a crisis with a member of your team, they’ve had a personal tragedy or big cookouts happened, there’s an issue in the factory and you got to go down and fix it. That’s why CEOs employ good people to deal with those issues. Leaders certainly shouldn’t operate in the low urgency and low important’s box because no one should really be operating there. Sometimes, there’s some stuff that needs to happen, but broadly speaking, that is the 80% of activity that delivers subtle. Another box is where it is urgent and not important.

Peter Ryding: [00:29:28] So, this is where after people have rushed into the urgent and important box and they’ve done all that stuff, there’s then a shadow of other work which isn’t as urgent because the urgency is being dealt with. It isn’t really that important. However, it tends to be urgent and not important work. And people still go there like most to a flame because you can stamp on some files, you can feel you’re really busy even if you’re not really being productive.

Peter Ryding: [00:29:57] So, that’s not a place for leaders to go. Where leaders should operate is where it’s important and not urgent. That’s what’s called a boring box. It’s things like auditing and succession planning. It’s about culture definition. And things which most people find boring, and therefore, they don’t go there. The danger is if no one does it, if no one operates in that box, it slides to the left, into the urgent and important, then it’s a crisis, and you have to do the same things, but in a rush, you don’t do it as well.

Peter Ryding: [00:30:32] So, right now, all of the CEOs that I’m advising, we’ve accepted that plan A is in shreds, and that’s not going to happen this year. We need plan B. And so, we are now all working on what does Plan B look like after the coronavirus. And that’s important to start working on now, not just the planning because part of what we have to do is to project ourselves forward maybe to the end of the year, in nine months’ time, hopefully, when a lot of corona is gone.

Peter Ryding: [00:31:05] And we have to think when employees are reflecting, how has my leadership team, how has my company looked after me and my fellow colleagues, my family? What actions did they take? What decisions did they make? How good were they communicating? Because in nine months’ time, comes to the end of the year, people think, what am I going to do in the next year? And that’s when they think, am I going to stay or am I going to go? And if you’ve shot upon your employees and you haven’t communicated and you are seen as doing selfish things, not the right things, you haven’t been a good leader, they will probably move to a competitor.

Peter Ryding: [00:31:41] They’ll contact your other employees and say, “Why didn’t you come here? This is a much better bunch of guys.” However, if right now, just before you press the button on any action or any decision you’re about to take, just before you do that, you ask yourself the question, if our employees were watching us right now, if our customers, if our suppliers, if our shareholders were watching and listening in on this meeting right now, would they be impressed?

Peter Ryding: [00:32:10] In nine months’ time, when all of those stakeholders are going to be assessing our organization, do we want to keep doing business with them? Do we want to invest more or less money? Do we want to stay an employee? They’re going to be reflecting back upon how you, as a leader, especially as a CEO, have been acting and communicating. So, make sure, in my mind, you know, that human beings, not human doings, your employees. You need to show empathy, caring, compassion.

Peter Ryding: [00:32:39] Imagine that they are your children, your relatives, your parents. And, you know, as Gandhi said, Gandhi said it’s not good enough to stand in someone else’s shoes to understand how they feel. That isn’t good enough. You have to put their shoes on and walk for a mile in their shoes so that you feel what they’re feeling. And if you feel the fear, the scared, the wary, the anxiety, you will make more humane, I believe, better decisions than if you simply operate at an intellectual level.

Rita Trehan: [00:33:17] You know, you are playing a song that plays to my heart with all of the things that you’ve just said there, not only because you talked about Gandhi and coming from an Indian background, you know, he plays heavily in my sort of background of growing up, as being taught some things and values to try and live up to. But I do—I mean, it is music to my ears to hear you that who is also working with, like, you know, senior execs, CEOs around the world and coaching them on this kind of aspect because, you know, interestingly enough, I do think that one of the thing, the opportunities right now is for companies, and actually we’re going out with a survey to people to say like, what have we learned so far about how your companies have been reacting to this crisis?

Rita Trehan: [00:34:02] Because as you say, it’s not about the now, it’s about the future as well. And this is a real opportunity for companies to not only shape how they are today, but what that looks like tomorrow. And that doesn’t necessarily mean the same as it did yesterday or today. But really, future-looking, so like music to my ears and really good tips. So, I would urge listeners to rewind, particularly this little piece here and listen to some of the things that you said about the questions that they should be asking and the mindset that CEOs should have as they think about some of the decisions that they are making to keep their businesses going not just now, but in the future, and make them sustainable, and retain the talent that they need to help those businesses to grow in the future.

Rita Trehan: [00:34:48] Because you’re right, I think we’ll see the winners and the losers from this, not just through how people come through coronavirus, that’s for sure. Peter, your background is just like so wide and so interesting, like I mean, there’s so many avenues, paths that I could go down with you, but I’ve got to also touch on. And it’s certainly reflected in the work that you’re doing right now around learning, but you took the opportunity to take on a company which, you know, for those of us that are old enough to remember it, I like to say seasoned enough when I think about myself like that.

Rita Trehan: [00:35:22] But I do remember that good old John Cleese Video Arts that I used to use when I was a job practitioner, if you like yourself, like young HR leader trying to get people sort of workshops and training sessions on different types of capabilities. And John Cleese who is, you know, a renowned worldwide sort of actor, thought professional, you name it. He’s done so many different things. I mean, you actually took the company, Video Arts, and turned it around. I mean, you got some massive accolades from him.

Rita Trehan: [00:35:56] Tell us about that because there’s clearly that sort of entree into learning, has come through leading some large learning organizations, and that business is fundamentally transformed over the last, I don’t know, 10, 20 years. I mean, it’s so different when it was in those early days. So, I’ve got to ask you about it. Not just that John Cleese, obviously, I’m keen to know about him, but just like the whole how you’ve applied, what you’ve learned about those learning businesses and how you are putting that applicability to the business that you run today.

Peter Ryding: [00:36:30] Sure. Well, at the time, Video Arts was the biggest training resources company in the world. It had millions of customers all over the world. There was nothing like it. Unfortunately, John had received some bad advice and he invested in e-learning. And he was also advised by an accountant to stop paying high salaries to the celebrities, which was one of the appeals of his videos. So, very, very top-notch celebrities in his videos. And he followed the advice and he stopped paying celebrities for actors you’ve never heard of.

Peter Ryding: [00:37:01] And he invested in e-learning. And the e-learning is a very different art and science to making funny stories. The business got into difficulty. And so, I came in. I was always passionate about continuous learning anyway. By that stage, I discovered I was a pathfinder, and therefore, I knew I could find the path forward for John and Video Arts, which I did. And as you mentioned, I won the National Turnaround of the Year Award that year for rescuing the business.

Peter Ryding: [00:37:33] I was very lucky. I learnt an enormous amount from John. One of them is the power of telling stories. You know, since cavemen, Lascaux Caves, humans love stories. There’s an emotional element that if you can add emotional interest, people will remember what they have heard. The reason is that in caveman days, if Ug, the caveman, suddenly had a saber-toothed tiger or an exploding volcano in front of him, he needed to run. And so, our brain is evolved.

Peter Ryding: [00:38:06] But when there is a lot of emotion going on with adrenaline and it’s big daddy called cortisol, any learning that takes place in that situation is transferred to your long-term memory so that next time Ug sees a caveman, he runs straight away instead of thinking about it. So, what that means is if you can tell an emotional story, you remember it. That’s why everyone remembers where they were when they heard Princess Diana died because that clip of neurotransmitters in your mind, and it seals the memory into your head. So-

Rita Trehan: [00:38:38] I got married on that day, so I don’t think I’m forgetting that day, that’s for sure.

Peter Ryding: [00:38:45] So, just in terms of the power of telling stories, within the VIC system, actually, we have thousands of videos in there, five-minute video. Everything is in five-minute bits ultimately. And we have a lot of stories. Some of them are called e-stories, true stories, some are fascinating fables, which are we call them interesting stories to challenge your assumptions and make you think. Perhaps I could just give you a very, very short version of a story there.

Rita Trehan: [00:39:11] Yeah, I’d love that.

Peter Ryding: [00:39:14] And the story is as follows, a man goes into a florist to buy some flowers for his mother who lives 200 miles away. As he comes out, so he goes in and does the transaction and he walks out, he sees a young girl, maybe 12 years old on the step in front of the florist crying. And he says, “Hello, can I help you in any way?” And she says, “I want to buy three roses for my mother, but I’ve only got a pound, and that’s not enough.”

Peter Ryding: [00:39:43] So, he goes in, gives the shopkeeper three pounds, she takes the roses and goes out of the shop. He watches her, crosses the road, goes into a graveyard and places it on a grave. As he does so, he thinks, “You know what, I’m going to cancel this order of flowers for my mother. I’m going to drive up and I’m going to give them to her myself.” Now, I don’t know if that story was meaningful or not.

Rita Trehan: [00:40:16] Yeah, it resonates. Yeah, it certainly resonates. Right.

Peter Ryding: [00:40:19] That is a very, very short story, but he’s got emotion.

Rita Trehan: [00:40:23] Yeah.

Peter Ryding: [00:40:24] Several levels of emotion. I guarantee you, if you found that emotional, you will remember the story. I also anticipate you will want to tell someone else that same story. So, as far as we’re concerned, as a business wanting to help 20 million people around the world celebrate, if we can tell stories like that in a very short period of time and we can make an emotional connection, we can help achieve our goal of 20 million people sooner because people—you know, the theory is we can close down our marketing department because our customers and our members and other people will be spreading the word for us. And so, one of the things I learned from John is the power of emotions, and what he called a hook. So, another example of a hook is a—again, literally, this will only take about 40 seconds.

Rita Trehan: [00:41:18] I think it’s lovely to share it with the listeners because they are things that they can use, and they will remember, so please do, please do share them.

Peter Ryding: [00:41:26] So, this is another example. This isn’t what we call a fascinating fable, this is a different type. We have seven different types of videos within the system. This is different. So, here it goes, we all know the phrase, you can take a horse to water, you can’t make it drink. Have you heard of that one before?

Rita Trehan: [00:41:42] I have, yes.

Peter Ryding: [00:41:44] Okay. That is what John called the hook. Okay. You’ve heard it before. So, when I say it, it’s familiar. So, now, I’ve hooked you because you’re wondering, well, I know it, where’s Peter going to take it? Okay. So, you know the phrase, you can take a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. We all know it. We assume it’s true. However, what if you put salt in the horse’s oats. It would make it thirsty, wouldn’t it?

Rita Trehan: [00:42:10] Yeah, it would go.

Peter Ryding: [00:42:10] And therefore, it would want to drink, instead of forcing it to drink. So, the question is, in your life right now, Rita, in the minds and in the lives of your listeners, your CEOs, what is the issue? What is the right salt to put in the right horse’s oats at the right time? So, if you want a child to do homework, if you want an employee to start adopting a new computer system, if you want someone to go out with you romantically, if you want your partner to drive so that you can bring whatever you want, all you have to do is work out what is the right salt to put in the right oats at the right time. Now, I don’t know how long that took. Maybe a minute. Probably not much more than a minute. But because I put a hook in there, again, I would like to think you and your listeners will remember that story.

Rita Trehan: [00:43:06] I’m already writing down the 10 things I’m going to do. I would need to get it done. So, don’t worry, like this is multitasking at its best, yes.

Peter Ryding: [00:43:16] What John used to call gossip ability and everything we put into the VIC system, we build in gossip ability so that it’s interesting, it’s intriguing. But not only that, you feel that you have had, in some sense, not quite a revelation, but you think, wow, yes, I haven’t thought about it like that before. And because we’re all human beings, not human doings, and we’re all about relationships and reciprocal relationships, people want to share these things.

Peter Ryding: [00:43:46] And so, again, what brings me joy is because I am a pathfinder and I want to help people find a better future, by me sharing that with you, and you very kindly asking me onto your podcast and sharing it to CEOs, I am living my life on purpose of giving away some hints and tips because I think other people can now use these tips to achieve and celebrate more success with less stress. So, that makes me feel good being on your podcast.

Rita Trehan: [00:44:18] So, I mean, you have given some amazing tips and advice. And just sharing stories about your own personal journey, I think, is going to resonate so well with so many people. You know, I learned something every time I have a guest on my podcast. And I go away and I try to take at least one or two nuggets and apply them myself. So, it always shows me that you are never done learning. And there is always so much more to learn from others.

Rita Trehan: [00:44:46] So, for that, I am extremely grateful. I ask everyone, and we haven’t really got time, but I have to mention it, you know, written seven books, including one that has been acclaimed that says, and I’m in the States right now, so obviously, Houston we MAY have a problem. I understand it’s sort of a documentary cam book drama that was actually televised. And I’m sure listeners can get hold of that. It sounds fascinating. So, I would encourage people to look it up, it’s seven books.

Rita Trehan: [00:45:17] So, there’s clearly loads that people can gain and learn from your capabilities. I have one last question because as much as I would love to continue to talk to you, we have to bring it to a close, which is I always ask every guest, like what is there daring to moment? Like what is it that you have dared to do or daring to do or is your dare-to persona? Is there anything that you would share that you haven’t already that really is your daring to?

Peter Ryding: [00:45:45] Well, I think that my daring to was to set myself a genuine goal of wanting to help 20 million people across 20 countries achieve and celebrate more successful, less stress. You know, we purposely picked an outrageously big number so that it was what, you know, some advisers call a big, hairy, audacious goal, a BHAG because what it meant is previous to that, I had a goal that I wanted to help 200,000 people. I’ve done that. I passed that goal.

Peter Ryding: [00:46:18] And therefore, instead of saying, well, what about two million? Because I think I could probably argue on some ripple effect that I could get that, I just thought no, 20 million people so that it’s a really a massive goal. And what that means is I cannot do it on my own. You see, I did the 200,000 basically on my own. I can’t do 20 million on my own, which is why, you know, we’re looking for strategic partners for VIC, we’re looking for new members, we’re looking for contributors to VIC, we’re looking for champions of VIC.

Peter Ryding: [00:46:47] All have different meanings, all explained on our website, vicyourcoach.com. And any of your listeners is more than welcome to join in. So, I would suggest to all of you, set yourself an outrageously big goal that you do not know how you can achieve, however, that if you were to achieve it, you would feel personally really proud. And I still don’t know how I’m going to get to 20 million. It’s a massive goal.

Rita Trehan: [00:47:10] You will get there.

Peter Ryding: [00:47:10] You know, the journey has started. And that to me was I chose to dare to almost be arrogant enough to say, can I really help 20 million? And I can’t, but I and other people can. You know, maybe one last phrase, many of you will know this, team together, everyone achieves more.

Rita Trehan: [00:47:33] Yeah. That’s great. So, if people do want to know more about VIC, more about you, more about the company, how they can get involved, what’s the best way to get in touch with you? Website, Twitter account, LinkedIn, share some of those details with the audience.

Peter Ryding: [00:47:48] There are two websites. Vicyourcoach.com. That’s all about VIC. I know that many people can get completely free access to it for us to help people with corona, completely free access to VIC if you want to go there. Also, my personal website is peterryding.com. Ryding is with a Y. Peterryding.com. On the home page, there’s a whole load of information about webinars that I’m giving globally at the moment. You can find out a bit more about me. And also, there are tips for CEOs and the like. Or, you can just e-mail me, peter@peterryding.com, and that will come through and I’ll be delighted to respond, Rita.

Rita Trehan: [00:48:26] That’s fabulous. So, listeners, free learning materials, free opportunities to grow and develop. Why not take it up? We’re at home. We need some things to do. Grow your capabilities. It’s being offered. So, check out the website. And if you haven’t, go check out Peter’s website. He has great advice to CEOs. I’ve actually looked at it this morning, again, and seen that there’s a great sort of like very short video on coronavirus and how to deal with it, and some tips around that. So, please, if you are a leader today, don’t forget to check it out.

Rita Trehan: [00:48:55] If you want to know more about Dare, then you can check us out on www.dareworldwide.com. You can find me on Twitter @Rita_Trehan. And do look out for our survey that is coming out, which is like, what have you learned during this coronavirus crisis? We are really looking to get your opinions around the world, so maybe together, we can help you to reach your 20 million purposeful goal. Peter, thank you so much for being on the show. And I know that listeners are going to get a great amount of both personal growth and learning, but also things that they can share with others. And so, thank you very much.

Peter Ryding: [00:49:33] My pleasure. Thank you very much for having me.

Rita Trehan: [00:49:34] That’s it for now. So, see you next time.

Outro: [00:49:37] Thanks for listening. Enjoyed the conversation? Make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss out on feature episodes of Daring To. Also, check out our website, dareworldwide.com for some great resources around business and general leadership and how to bring about change. See you next time.

TMB E34: Public Dentistry Registration During COVID-19

March 27, 2020 by angishields

Tucson Business Radio

TMB E34: Public Dentistry Registration During COVID-19

00:00 /

GUESTS:

Kevin B. Earle, MBA, MPH
www.usdentaltriage.com for the patients and then
www.drivendentalmarketing.com/emergency

Mr. Earle has been working with the dental profession for much of his career. He led the Arizona Dental Association for eleven years from 2007 through 2019. He came to organized dentistry from a distinguished career in healthcare regulation, having previously served as the ExecutiveDirector of the Arizona Board of Dental Examiners, the NewJersey Board of Dentistry and the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners. He is an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Dentists, the International College of Dentists and the Pierre Fauchard Academy. He holds a BA in Public Affairs from George Washington University, an MBA from Rutgers University and an MPH from Columbia University.

In an effort to help emergency room doctors keep the focus on COVID-19 patients, Kevin has launched a special emergency response campaign for dental procedures.

Every 14 seconds someone goes into the emergency room for a dental related issue. Emergency rooms are not equipped to handle definitive dental care. With the government limiting many dentist offices to handling urgent care and some of them actually closing, people are having challenges finding a dentist to treat their dental emergency or, they simply aren’t going into the emergency rooms out of fear of contracting the coronavirus. Dentists are experts in infection control. This is why it’s so important for patients to get connected to a dentist when experiencing pain or infection. I recently launched the U.S. Dental Triage so that we can help keep people out of the emergency rooms by connecting them with dentists who can treat them.

What other precautions will dentists take to make sure the patient stays safe when visiting their office?

The dentist will ask you to call them once you arrive at the office and they will come out to the car to get you and take you directly to a pre-sterilized room. The dentist and dental assistants will be wearing gloves and masks, and you will be isolated from any other patients on the premises.

How will this also aid the healthcare workers in the dental community?

Since many dental offices are closed across the country and only able to operate for dental emergencies, we are providing a solution to that. Many patients are unable to reach their dentist offices to schedule appointments and we are able to help the
dentists with scheduling and new referrals to allow them to stay in business and provide lifesaving emergency services to people who need attention asap.

For Dentist:

Why is it important to you that a service like this exists? The coronavirus pandemic has added so much stress to the daily
lives of our fellow Americans, we can address the additional stress of finding a dentist to handle an emergency dental case.

Why is it beneficial to see a dentist as opposed to going to the emergency room?

Emergency rooms are only equipped to handle to address the symptoms – – addressing pain or infection with pain medication or
antibiotics. They aren’t staffed to handle definitive dental treatment like fillings, root canals or extractions. These are
services that can really only be addressed in a dental office.

What is considered a dental emergency?

The American Dental Association Dental recently published a statement about dental emergencies. These are conditions that “are potentially life-threatening and require immediate treatment to stop ongoing tissue bleeding [or to] alleviate severe pain or infection.” Conditions include uncontrolled bleeding; cellulitis or a diffuse soft-tissue bacterial infection with intraoral or extraoral swelling that potentially compromises the patient’s airway; or trauma involving facial bones that potentially compromises the patient’s airway. As part of the emergency guidance, the Association added urgent dental care which “focuses on the management of conditions that require immediate attention to relieve severe pain and/or risk of infection and to alleviate the burden on hospital emergency departments.”

We are available 24 hours a day and we will direct you to an available dentist that accepts your insurance and will see you right away. The dentist will then be able to do an online screening with the patient to make sure that they don’t have symptoms of coronavirus themselves, and that their symptoms comply with the American Dental Association’s list of urgent care procedures.

Rhonda Peoples, Licensed & Certified B.A.N.K. Trainer
Rhonda Peoples Sales & Leadership
Tucson, AZ 85746
520-245-6821
1-844-222-9565
rhonda@rhondapeoples.com
https://dentalvss.com
SOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook | Linkedln |

Rhonda Peoples has over 20 years’experience as a sales consultant and Director of Finance and insurance for the automotive industry. She currently owns a Sales & Leadership business that focuses on women making 6-7 figures. She is licensed and certified in the B.A.N.K. methodology for sales training. Working with business owners, entrepreneurs and sales consultants teaching them how to use the B.A.N.K. system to increase their sales in less time.

As Rhonda puts it, she is “married to the man of your dreams.” Rhonda’s husband owns a club basketball team and has been working with kids for 20+ years, teaching them life skills, love skills, and business skills through the art of basketball.

Rhonda sits on the board of directors of The Haven, a center for women of substance abuse that allows women to recover with their children how, and support 100+ Women, a charity that donates over $100,000/year to local nonprofits, She also volunteers for Downtown Tucson Partnership, Eagles Wings of Grace and Landmark Worldwide, which is a personal and professional training and development organization that has been in existence since the ’80s.

Rhonda has taken her talents to the dental industry, working with Performance Partners who have supported dental offices for
several years. Rhonda Performance Partners have created a training program that includes the B.A.N.K. methodology and comes with a risk-free guarantee of 10x investment to the dental office’s revenue.

Rhonda Peoples Sales & Leadership Training is about people getting what they want out of their life. It’s about standing in your power and getting into action and you were searching for training content that would land better with women and you found Ms. Cheri Tree’s methodology of buy ology!! I knew this content would resonate better with women in  business and I could directly influence more women with this training to reach the 6·7 figure income mark. Being taught for years that sales was a numbers game and you needed to go through the Nos to get more Yeses, this training shows you how to get more Yeses, in less time and it’s about PEOPLE. Perfect timing for where we are in today’s world.

Forty-Niner Golf & CC – Tucson’s Hidden Jewel

Decision Vision Episode 57, How Do I Secure Data for Work at Home Employees? – An Interview with Justin Daniels, Baker Donelson, and Jodi Daniels, Red Clover Advisors

March 26, 2020 by John Ray

Decision Vision

Decision Vision Episode 57, How Do I Secure Data for Work at Home Employees? - An Interview with Justin Daniels, Baker Donelson, and Jodi Daniels, Red Clover Advisors

00:00 /

Decision Vision Episode 57, How Do I Secure Data for Work at Home Employees? – An Interview with Justin Daniels, Baker Donelson, and Jodi Daniels, Red Clover Advisors

Millions of employees are now working at home because of coronavirus-related “shelter in place” directives, creating a data security problem for many employers. Justin Daniels, Baker Donelson, and Jodi Daniels, Red Clover Advisors, address this problem in the latest edition of “Decision Vision.” This series is hosted by Mike Blake and presented by Brady Ware & Company.

Justin Daniels, Baker Donelson

Justin Daniels, Baker Donelson, provides corporate advice to growth-oriented and middle market domestic and international businesses. He is also a cybersecurity thought leader who believes cybersecurity is a strategic business enterprise risk.

His corporate practice consists of representing businesses and business owners in all aspects of their growth cycle, from structuring new ventures, raising capital and advising on acquisitions and divestitures to reviewing and negotiating key vendor, franchise, employment and customer contracts.

Justin specifically advises on cyber business and legal issues that impact every aspect of a company from mergers and acquisitions, investment capital transactions and related due diligence matters, vendor and customer contracts and cyber insurance. He runs tabletop exercises to help companies practice and identity opportunities to improve their cyber incident response plan. He also has a strong background in blockchain technology as he represents one of the largest cryptocurrency mining facilities in the country. He has particular experience in helping clients navigate how the blockchain might apply to a specific use case and the potential business and legal issues arising from it.

Justin has taken a leadership role in Georgia’s cybersecurity industry. In 2017, he founded and led the inaugural Atlanta Cyber Week, where multiple organizations held 11 events that attracted more than 1,000 attendees. Atlanta Cyber Week created business opportunities between growth cyber companies and Atlanta’s middle market and Fortune 1,000 customer base while also burnishing the reputation of Atlanta’s regional cybersecurity ecosystem. At the end of Atlanta Cyber Week 2017, he gave a Ted Talk entitled “Why You Hold the Key to Cybersecurity.” In March 2015, he traveled with Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and a 36-member delegation on a Georgia cybersecurity mission to the state of Israel to promote the Atlanta regional cybersecurity ecosystem. He has also given presentations about Atlanta’s cybersecurity ecosystem and U.S. privacy laws as part of his travels to London and Manchester surrounding the InfoSec cybersecurity conference in 2016 and 2017.

You can connect with Justin on LinkedIn, or email him directly.

Jodi Daniels, Red Clover Advisors

Jodi Daniels is the Founder and CEO of Red Clover Advisors. She is a Certified Informational Privacy Professional (CIPP/US) with more than 20 years of experience helping a range of businesses from solopreneurs to multi-national companies in privacy, marketing, strategy, and finance roles. During her corporate career, she proved a valuable asset to companies like Deloitte, The Home Depot, Cox Enterprises, Bank of America where she most recently served as the privacy partner for Digital Banking and Digital Marketing. Ms. Daniels started her privacy career by creating the comprehensive privacy program at Cox Automotive. She launched an online advertising network for Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book.

Since launching in 2017, Red Clover Advisors has helped hundreds of companies create privacy programs, achieve GDPR, CCPA, and US privacy law compliance, and establish a secure online data strategy their customers can count on. Jodi makes privacy easy to understand by breaking it down into measurable steps using plain language her clients can relate to. She passionately supports the idea that privacy is more than just compliance and concern over fines. It’s a human right we all deserve. She has made it her mission to help businesses build trust and transparency with this core value at its foundation.

Jodi holds a Masters of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. She lives in Atlanta, GA with her husband, two little girls, and a big fluffy dog named Basil.

You can connect with Jodi on LinkedIn, or email her directly.

Michael Blake, Brady Ware & Company

**Mike Blake, Host of “Decision Vision”**

Michael Blake is Host of the “Decision Vision” podcast series and a Director of Brady Ware & Company. Mike specializes in the valuation of intellectual property-driven firms, such as software firms, aerospace firms and professional services firms, most frequently in the capacity as a transaction advisor, helping clients obtain great outcomes from complex transaction opportunities. He is also a specialist in the appraisal of intellectual properties as stand-alone assets, such as software, trade secrets, and patents.

Mike has been a full-time business appraiser for 13 years with public accounting firms, boutique business appraisal firms, and an owner of his own firm. Prior to that, he spent 8 years in venture capital and investment banking, including transactions in the U.S., Israel, Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.

Brady Ware & Company

Brady Ware & Company is a regional full-service accounting and advisory firm which helps businesses and entrepreneurs make visions a reality. Brady Ware services clients nationally from its offices in Alpharetta, GA; Columbus and Dayton, OH; and Richmond, IN. The firm is growth minded, committed to the regions in which they operate, and most importantly, they make significant investments in their people and service offerings to meet the changing financial needs of those they are privileged to serve. The firm is dedicated to providing results that make a difference for its clients.

Decision Vision Podcast Series

“Decision Vision” is a podcast covering topics and issues facing small business owners and connecting them with solutions from leading experts. This series is presented by Brady Ware & Company. If you are a decision maker for a small business, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us at decisionvision@bradyware.com and make sure to listen to every Thursday to the “Decision Vision” podcast. Past episodes of “Decision Vision” can be found here. “Decision Vision” is produced and broadcast by the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX®.

Visit Brady Ware & Company on social media:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/brady-ware/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bradywareCPAs/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BradyWare

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradywarecompany/

Show Transcript

Mike Blake: [00:00:00] Welcome to Decision Vision, a podcast giving you, the listener, clear vision to make great decisions. In each episode, we discuss the processes of decision making on a different topic from a business owner’s or executive’s perspective. We aren’t necessarily telling you what to do, but we can put you in a position to make an informed decision on your own and understand when you might need help along the way.

Mike Blake: [00:00:19] My name is Mike Blake, and I’m your host for today’s program. I’m a Director at Brady Ware & Company, a full-service accounting firm based in Dayton, Ohio, with offices in Dayton; Columbus, Ohio; Richmond, Indiana; and Alpharetta, Georgia. Brady Ware is sponsoring this podcast, which is being recorded in Atlanta per social distancing protocols. If you like this podcast, please subscribe to your favorite podcast aggregator and please consider leaving or review the podcast as well.

Mike Blake: [00:00:44] This is a first in a sub-series of topics regarding how to address the coronavirus crisis. And I think we’re gonna have a few of these podcasts that we’re going to record before everything is said and done. But this is our initial attempt at this, and we’ll see how it goes. But I think that it should go pretty well. And specifically, we’re going to talk about data security.

Mike Blake: [00:01:07] Now, in episode 15, we had Charles Hoff come on to talk generally about data security practices and procedures. But now, we are faced with an unprecedented data security challenge. We’ve all been basically told to take our balls, and go home, and don’t come back until somebody else gives us the all clear. Now, for a lot of us, like myself, this is a good thing. It means that we don’t have to not be working at all. We can work from home, but it does present some novel challenges that, frankly, I don’t think a lot of us ever thought we would ever wind up having to face – certainly not on the scale. And as we always do for our podcasts, I bring in the best experts that I can find for this because I don’t know anything about this. All I know is to ask a few questions and we’ll let the experts talk.

Mike Blake: [00:01:59] So, joining us today are Justin and Jodi Daniels. Justin is a partner with Baker Donelson, which is the 64th largest firm in the US, giving their clients access to a team of more than 700 attorneys and public policy advisors, representing more than 30 practice areas, all seamlessly connected across 21 offices to serve virtually any legal and policy needs. Baker Donelson provides their clients a global network of global counsel and other professionals and to help their clients take advantage of global opportunities in more than 90 countries spanning six continents.

Mike Blake: [00:02:30] Justin’s corporate practice consists of representing middle-market and emerging growth businesses and business owners in all aspects of their growth cycle from structuring new ventures, raising capital, and advising on acquisitions and divestitures, to reviewing and negotiating key vendor franchise employment and customer contracts. Justin specifically advises businesses on cyber business and legal issues that pertain to mergers and acquisitions, investment capital transactions, and related due diligence matters, vendor customer contracts, information security plans, and cyber insurance. His representation of one of the largest crypto mining facilities in the country has provided him with a strong background in blockchain technology. This experience has been especially relevant in helping clients navigate how the blockchain might apply to a specific use case and the potential business and legal issues arising from it. He is also co-founder of Baker Donelson’s Cybersecurity Accelerator.

Mike Blake: [00:03:22] Jodi Daniels as founder and CEO of Red Clover Advisors. Since launching in 2017, Red Clover Advisors has helped hundreds of companies create privacy programs, achieve GDPR, CCPA, and US privacy law compliance -if you want to know what those are, again, go back and listen to Episode 15 – and establish a secure online data strategy their customers can count on. Jodi makes privacy easy to understand by breaking it down into measurable steps using plain language her clients can relate to. She passionately supports the idea that privacy is more than just compliance and concern over fines, it’s a human right we all deserve. She’s made it her mission to help businesses build trust and transparency with this core value at its foundation.

Mike Blake: [00:04:05] Jodi is a certified informational privacy professional with more than 20 years of experience, helping a range of businesses from solopreneurs to multinational companies in privacy, marketing, strategy and finance roles. During her corporate career, she proved a valuable asset to companies like Deloitte, the Home Depot, Cox Enterprises, Bank of America, where she most recently served as a privacy partner for digital banking and digital marketing. Ms. Daniels studied her privacy career by training at the Comprehensive Privacy Program with Cox Automotive. She launched an online advertising network for Auto Trader and Bluebook, Justin and Jodi Daniels, welcome to the program.

Jodi Daniels: [00:04:43] Hi. I’m glad to be here.

Mike Blake: [00:04:45] So, with all that said, you guys know a thing or two, you know a thing or two about security. Before we get started, I just kind of want to dive in to kind of a high level. When everything started hitting the fan about two weeks ago, what were your first thoughts in terms of how this is going to impact and really just sort of change the game in terms of business, privacy, and data security?

Justin Daniels: [00:05:14] So, thanks, Mike. Let me take that one. So, the biggest thing that we identified is pretty much overnight, companies, as you said, told their workforce, “Take your ball, and go home, and work remotely.” So, now, when you take a whole lot of companies who may not have had a significant part of their workforce work remotely and introduce them into this whole new concept of working remotely, a lot of the security challenges that companies were struggling to deal with, just in the workplace, now take on an added focus now that you’ve got all these people who are unfamiliar working at home, who now have to go and work at home and connect remotely to the company server, and all of the potential mischief and mayhem that can present for our trusty cyber criminals who are always out there.

Mike Blake: [00:06:10] So, let me ask this. I’m already going off the script, but I know you can handle it. Do you think as soon as this started happening, cyber criminals around the world, and crime syndicates, and so forth, and even state-sponsored are sort of rubbing their hands in anticipation because of the vulnerabilities here?

Justin Daniels: [00:06:27] I have three words for you. They think of this as target-rich environment. Absolutely, because any kind of dislocation like that, just like you’re advising your clients to think strategically about new ways to do business, a pandemic like this for a cyber-criminals says, “Wow, look at all this dislocation and people working remotely, this is just a great opportunity to commit different and varied types of crimes.” And as we get into this, I’ll share with you some of the things that we’re already seeing, which are cyber threats that are very specific to coronavirus when it comes to phishing and other kinds of things, but absolutely.

Mike Blake: [00:07:08] So, now, everybody has gone home. And for, at least, in many cases, they’re working on their personal device in some respect. And they may have been before, but certainly more of them are now. What sort of issues does using your personal device to telework present?

Jodi Daniels: [00:07:25] Sure. And so, you have the teleworking piece, but you also have, a lot of people like us, you have children doing distance learning and virtual learning. And so, it’s very similar scenarios. But you have probably no VPN, maybe the home Wi-Fi doesn’t have a password, or the password is password, or my pet’s name, something very simple that’s really easy to crack. So, if I don’t have a good password or no password, that’s sort of the first line of defense on the Wi-Fi or router. And then, I might not have a VPN, a virtual private network. That’s often been sort of saved for some of the more sophisticated or bigger companies. And again, just an aside, if I was a company and sent everyone home because that’s what we needed to do, I didn’t think about a VPN and how I set that up.

Jodi Daniels: [00:08:15] A lot of people who are now potentially exposing company data fairly easily, the Wi-Fi might be one kind of wall that’s a bad actor has to make it through. A VPN would be a second wall that they’d have to make it through. You also have company information now on a personal device, which presents two interesting things. You have the security challenge. You actually also have a privacy challenge because the privacy laws haven’t gone away. And now, you’ve just exposed further where that personal information is. And you have others in the home who might be seeing it. And maybe someone comes along and, oops, accidentally sends that email that you had and draft that had all this information on it or shared information that they didn’t anticipate doing or a variety of things kind of like that.

Mike Blake: [00:09:10] So, you talk about the Wi-Fi piece. And I wanted to divert into that because I think that’s really important. When I think of Wi-Fi security, I think of going on airport Wi-Fi, Starbucks, whatever. Obviously, a vulnerability. And as you mentioned, that’s a target rich environment because if I’m a hacker, I know there’s 20 people in there that are using them, that are using Wi-Fi. Chances are there’s one computer in there, at least, that’s not secured properly. In a residential environment, what is the crime case there? Have you heard of criminals literally just like is parking outside somebody’s home, or a group of homes, or maybe a multi residential property, and just scanning for open networks and seeing if they can hack in?

Jodi Daniels: [00:09:58] Yeah. Well, if you actually think back to some of the stories you’ve seen on the children’s baby monitors that had Wi-Fi on them and how people were able to hack in. And sort of a nanny cam, people would call. The same idea is true. Those are on Wi-Fi networks. So, you have a couple different things. You have people from around the world who can break into those Wi-Fi networks that don’t necessarily … You know, there’s backdoors into all of this. Certainly, people could park outside my house. My neighbors can break in. We all don’t exactly know who our neighbors are all the time. So, you’re certainly exposing yourself. And the way the digital system works, I don’t necessarily have to be in range to be able to still break in, just like with those nanny cams years ago or ring devices. We’ve seen the developers of certain different Wi-Fi-enabled devices be able to break in and see whatever they want to see on those exposed devices.

Mike Blake: [00:10:53] So, are there any new threats that are being posed by mass teleworking, or do kind of the distribution or the composition of the threats change? Well, I guess what is the threat? How does the threat landscape change now that we’re in this mass remote working environment?

Justin Daniels: [00:11:14] So, Mike, I think the way that it changes is the type of phishing scams that you had before where they try to get to you through work, they’re now going to try to get to you as a remote worker. And let me break this down for you a little bit. So, you’re going to start to get emails that are very specific to coronavirus. And someone shared with me one that said, “Hey, this is from the CDC.com,” or I’m sorry, .gov.org. And the fact that they added on the “.org,” that’s what made it a phishing type of e-mail. So, now think about instead of phishing people at work, you’re now going to phish people at home, and they’d be distracted because they have kids, or trying to get work done, they have a million things on their mind.

Justin Daniels: [00:11:56] Well, let me take a step further for you. And it’s a concept called Identity Access Management. And what that really is, is have companies – because they so quickly get their remote workforce working remotely – did they really think about, “Well, how do I have to limit the access of my employees?” Like, for example, with what you do, Mike, it might be that your company says, ‘You know what? Mike gets access to the network, but there’s probably no reason for him to get access to invoicing or cash management,” because that’s not really your role. But I think what you’re going to find with a lot of these other companies who are just quickly trying to get their employees working remotely, they didn’t think about how to limit the employees’ access to the company network.

Justin Daniels: [00:12:43] So, now, if I phish remotely on someone, not only may I get through their e-mail, I may get access to the entire company network because the company didn’t think through, “Well, maybe I need to limit their access.” And now, they can get to the invoicing, they can get the wiring, they can get this sensitive company IP. So, it’s really a cascading effect because it’s not just the remote working, it’s how did you setup identity access management? How are you putting in layers of defense to help your people who are working remotely? Because just the phish e-mail is just the first step in getting access to a network that they may not have limited appropriately for the different workers because you put several thousand people working remotely, a lot of companies may not have thought about this.

Mike Blake: [00:13:29] I think that’s a really interesting point that you bring up. So, I want to drill back into that. So much of cyber security still relies on the focus of the individual user. And that distraction I face, I have a nine year old that we’re homeschooling now. My wife has her own business. Our situation is not that dissimilar to yours. And it’s different. Even though I work from home a lot, it’s still different. And I have to change my work hours and so forth to make sure I can concentrate. But all it does, and because the nature of cyber threats, all it does is, it takes one wrong clicked email when you’re not 100% focused, and the whole house of cards can come down, right?

Justin Daniels: [00:13:29] That’s it. That’s it.

Mike Blake: [00:14:17] And so, I think a key bullet point, if you’re a remote worker and you’re listening to this podcast or if you’re a manager, one of the things to think about, aside from policies, and software, and hardware – and we will get into that – is also just maintaining concentration and focus because not only are we in a target rich environment but, realistically, for a lot of people, we’re in an environment that encourages mistakes. Sorry. Go ahead.

Jodi Daniels: [00:14:49] I just want to add. I think this environment, also, it’s emotionally charged. People are tired. They’re stressed. We’re all at home hoping we don’t get this disease. We might know others who do. And there’ll also be a fair amount of personal information that might come through our personal emails like, “Please donate to this cause here,” or like the one that Justin just said, “Let’s get more information on the virus here.” And so, when your defenses are down because you’re tired, and you’re trying to do 14 things at the same time, there’s going to be a multitude of different ways of how these actors are going to try and get at you.

Mike Blake: [00:15:33] So, let’s start at the heart of this from the infrastructure-wise. I think we’ll kind of start there and work our way out. Employees are now going to be accessing their servers remotely through the internet, through their home access. It maybe cable. It maybe fibr for some case. It maybe through their mobile device. How does that change the security equation? And how should companies be reacting or addressing that to minimize the security exposure at the infrastructure level?

Justin Daniels: [00:16:09] So, Mike, let’s talk about that. So, when you log on to your network with your business, I suspect you may have something, as Jodi alluded to, what’s called a virtual private network. So, let’s talk a little bit in general business terms what that is. So, that is software that you can put on your computer that creates a secure link between you and your company network using your home internet. But here’s the thing with VPN that’s interesting, is IT infrastructure wasn’t built so that everybody would be connecting via virtual private network.

Justin Daniels: [00:16:54] So, one of the things that companies may face is, one, they may not have sufficient licenses to put everyone on a VPN. But second, and probably just as important, is their network may not have the capacities to sustain the load of almost all of your workforce being remote. So, you may need to put in policies and procedures that say only certain employees have access during certain times because if everybody goes at the same time and is using it at the same time, you’re likely to have a disruption to your network or worse, it could go down. And then, you compound the problem.

Justin Daniels: [00:17:30] So, that’s just from an IT perspective, in addition to the security, because security is part and parcel of how do I keep stuff running because if it’s not secure, and we have a breach, then things don’t really run. But in general, how are you thinking about your IT infrastructure? And I think a lot of people did this because they had to get it done to keep working without thinking through, we’re gonna do this for an indefinite period of time. How do I make sure my IT infrastructure has the capacity to take care of all these people and also do it in a reasonably secure fashion?

Mike Blake: [00:18:05] So, you bring up virtual private network. I want to touch on that too because some people may have virtual private networks already, they may have purchased one because they’re concerned about the abolition of net neutrality. Some people have them because they want to be able to access Star Trek Discovery on Netflix. So, they spoof it into thinking they’re an international subscriber. So, it has been a consumer use case for VPN. Is that the same thing? And if I already have a VPN, does that mean that I’m using that to access those corporate documents or are we talking about two different animals?

Jodi Daniels: [00:18:45] I don’t know that it’s necessarily different. I think if you’re going to use any software on your personal computer to access the company network, your company and their IT professionals should be involved in that because I think one of the things you and I talked about was, should you use your own devices? And I think the answer to that is my company issued me a computer, but that may not be a realistic choice under this time pressure for everyone. So, my answer to you is you might be able to do it, but it’s not something where a company should said, “Hey, Mike, go off in whatever VPN you might have. Just go and use it.” It needs to be more of a concerted, “we’ve engaged with professionals and this is the type of VPN we want you to use. We’re going to give it to you because even though you’re letting employees have their own access, you want to have some level of control.”

Justin Daniels: [00:19:35] And we haven’t even talked about our iPhones. And that’s a whole nother area. And remember, a VPN just deals with the connection from you connecting to your server. It doesn’t really deal with any PII or other sensitive information that may now reside on your phone or your computer, and how that might impact the ransomware attack.

Mike Blake: [00:19:56] Yeah. And we’re definitely going to get to that. So, we’re kind of moving from that access in on out. The licensing issue you bring up is interesting. We phased out at the firm that I used to work for, when we had the Snowmageddon back, I want to say 2014, I think that sort of was. And of course, we’re all home. Once we finally got home, we’re home for about three days while the ice melted. And a lot of us couldn’t get on because we didn’t have enough licenses. We had to start rationing license. Then, we scrambled. But we never foresaw a scenario where 300 people, all of a sudden, would need remote access. And ironically, I think that’s actually made a lot of Atlanta companies better prepared for this, because we had sort of a dress rehearsal back and forth team to do just that.

Mike Blake: [00:20:52] Let me ask this. I know this is an area that you deal with a lot. So, I think your answer is going to be great. And that is, what are the cyber liability policy implications of moving to this mass remote working? When insurers wrote that policy, they thought there’s only a certain amount of remote and a certain amount of onsite. Now, that whole thing’s been disrupted. Are people’s policies being blown up if there is a breach? Are companies still covered?

Justin Daniels: [00:21:23] So, I think the answer to that question, Mike, is you really have to look at your individual policy, because if I’ve learned anything when I’ve been involved in the cyber insurance game is that there is no uniform policy out there like you have with commercial general liability or some of the other more well established type of policies. And so, I think what you’re going to have to do is take a look at the exclusions in your policy because it’s one of the hardest contracts that I have to read. And I hesitate to give you an answer that’s definitive because it’s really policy-dependent.

Justin Daniels: [00:21:58] But what I will say is companies should really be looking at whether or not they have specific, they call it social engineered emails in their coverage because a lot of companies may not realize that they’re not covered for the kinds of increase in what I expect of phishing scams to be, and they may want to look at their insurance and say, “Well, how am I covered for this?” because you probably know this, we’re in kind of the season where insurance is being renewed. And so, this is now a great time to bring up the issue of, “Hey, what is my coverage for socially engineered emails? And what is covered? What isn’t covered? Can I increase my defenses, so that I can get bigger coverage? What is excluded now that I’m more of a remote workforce?

Justin Daniels: [00:22:48] These are questions that should be brought up now because I know we are now in the season for people getting renewals on their insurance, and premiums might be changing on that kind of stuff. But now is the time to be asking those questions to the insurers because you know what, when you talked about Snowmageddon, you bring up a larger point. A lot of companies who really don’t have or never practice their business continuity plan, they’re now having to build it in flight.

Justin Daniels: [00:23:16] And so, an additional challenge is this teleworking issue is a big one. I think we’re going to see a rise in cyber breaches, but they’re going to have to figure that along with furloughing employees. What if my employee, do I have to test them for the COVID? If they test positive, what do I do? So, now, you’ve got this teleworking issue sitting alongside all those other issues as a business. And it’s a capacity issue. How many of these issues can you deal with in mid-flight if you don’t have a plan and you’ve never practiced it? And that’s why I think you’re going to see such a rise in breaches because people are going to discount this one for some of these more immediate ones until this one becomes a huge problem.

Mike Blake: [00:23:57] Yeah, I think a key bullet point. And I appreciate you can’t answer this blanket. I mean, you sound like you have command of everybody’s insurance policy.

Justin Daniels: [00:24:06] Yeah.

Mike Blake: [00:24:06] But it does sound like it is definitely worth your while at a minimum to pull your policy out and see how this changing environment may alter the coverage. So, let’s move then sort of away from the infrastructure then to the individual device access. We’ll get to mobile in a second but I want to ask a question about computers first because I think they’re slightly different. And my question is this, I guess, broadly, what would best practices be for companies in terms of monitoring, policing, developing standards, I guess, around the actual hardware that employees are using to telework?

Jodi Daniels: [00:24:59] Well so, I think that starts with a few different things. There’s certainly software that companies can use to manage and monitor what’s happening. There’s data loss prevention software, there’s monitoring software, there’s VPN monitoring software, there’s noodles of software to actually manage the ins and outs of data on a network. At the same time, you really have to have some policies in place that inform the employee what is actually being monitored. And that’s really important depending on the country you’re in. So, if you’re outside the US, there’s some stricter policies in place, especially if you’re in GDP, what you can and can’t be monitoring, and what you have to disclose to me. If I’m here in the United States, there are still some issues. So, you kind of need to factor in the HR component combined with an information security policy.

Jodi Daniels: [00:25:56] So, while there’s an IT team who can identify the right software depending on the type of information and the number of employees to be able to monitor and determine where is traffic coming in and out of, what’s being downloaded, there’s capabilities to restrict what’s being downloaded, or shared, or forwarded. There’s a lot that you can do. And again, it’s very dependent on the company and the type of data. You do have to factor in the human element and the notice requirements, so that employees understand what is happening to them, to not have it be such a huge surprise.

Mike Blake: [00:26:37] Now, the question I think that follows from that naturally is, where’s that software going to reside? Of course, many people, not everybody, but many people do own their own computers. And so, they could use that to access whatever it is they need access or do. Is that the right answer is BYOD? And now, WYOD, just work on your own device. Is that presenting additional challenges? And if so, maybe, should a company consider them, at least, giving employees the option to use company issued equipment, so that maybe the company has more power over this, or maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree? Is that a way to think about this?

Jodi Daniels: [00:27:31] I think it’s a great question. So, BYOD, WWOD, pick your flavor of acronym, they all do present big issues. And again, a policy piece is something I’ve helped a number of companies on, which is, what is the policy? Because it does make it a little bit harder if I have my own device, depending on the tools that I’m using, you may or may not be able to see what I’m doing on that device. So, in some policies, the company has the right to take a look at it at any time. I have the right to be able to wipe it at any time. And I know we’re gonna get into mobile, but that’s really quite similar for mobile because a lot of times, I’m putting my company email on mobile, I might access my apps on mobile. It’s really very similar of what power does the company have to be able to come in and kind of audit, if you will, be able to test and control when it needs to, and it reserves the right to be able to do so.

Jodi Daniels: [00:28:29] At the same time, because there’s so much in the cloud these days, if I’m using Google Docs or I’m using Exchange, there are still some monitoring tools that can be connected to those cloud servers. So, let’s say I’m sending an email, and I’m trying to forward it to a personal email, there is some capabilities to be able to limit that. You can put in certain … you can’t forward it to G-mails, and Yahoo!’s, and things like that. I’ve seen companies do that. So, it’s a little bit dependent on the type of software I’m using, but it is definitely still possible.

Mike Blake: [00:29:06] So, let me bring up a specific case that I think if I were in a decision making capacity – I guess I semi am – that would concern me if I’m allowing all my employees to use their personal devices, particularly if they’re not necessarily particularly conscientious about their own security is, who knows what is on the employees computer, right? And whether it’s free apps, whether they’ve downloaded pornography, whatever they’ve done with their computer, we know that there’s malware and other things that piggyback off of other content that may be basically cohabitating with company data in some respect, right? So, if we’re going to ask employees to use their own equipment, is that an additional risk? And is that one that the company can reasonably manage absent issuing everybody a company-issued laptop that then the company can lock down, and restrict use, and downloads, and all that good stuff?

Justin Daniels: [00:30:15] So, Mike, I think to address that question, what I would say is I am going use a term I learned from the US Secret Services, it’s really about concentric rings of defense. And what I mean by that is you’re absolutely right, who knows what employees have downloaded? And if you’re a company who’s not in the position to configure a hundred computers or whatnot and just disseminate them out, you’re kind of in a spot where you’re going down BYOD. But as I alluded to before, I think you have to go at this with a sense of you’re going to assume that some fish e-mail is going to make it through. They only have to be right once. So, you do security, I think, you train people up the best that you can, but you do it under the assumption that some e-mail or something is going to get clicked on because that’s just the law of averages.

Justin Daniels: [00:31:06] But the other things that you can do, and I alluded to it before, is are you making sure that your employees have the least amount of access necessary to do their work? Meaning that even if you phish someone, maybe it’s the administrative assistant to the CEO, that they don’t have access to billing and invoicing. The access that a criminal would get is very limited. So, then, what you’re adding in are these other layers of defense that make it harder for a criminal to get around, to get to your wire instructions or get to other information that they’re seeking to get to because you just don’t give people carte blanch access to the network.

Justin Daniels: [00:31:46] And are you using – and you’ve probably heard of this – two factor authentication? Maybe you have instances where if you want access to certain parts of the network, there has to be a higher level of authentication than is required, so that people get access to invoicing, billing, financial statements, things of that nature. So, there are other things that you can implement to institute all these different layers of defense among the different assets that you’re identifying as being the most important for your organization.

Justin Daniels: [00:32:15] And that’s a lot of what I’ve been doing lately for clients is I’ve been helping them issue spot across a whole different swath of areas that are impacting their business. And when we start talking about teleworking, I start to ask these questions. When they say, “Oh, well, they just have access to the network,” then that’s where you’re creating the opportunities to help clients identify these issues, and then start to implement this defense and depth, which, really, it’s a factor of the technology that you’re using, we talked about; pop processes and procedures, Jodi alluded to that; and also, it’s educating your workforce about what to look for in phishing. It’s really doing all three of those things and doing it in layers of defense.

Jodi Daniels: [00:32:58] All right. So, let’s then move out to the mobile device. And I appreciate that that’s similar to the more conventional work device, but I think they’re a little bit different in that mobile devices are more likely to have been issued by someone’s employment. At a minimum, they’re probably picking up the tab for the access, which I think, then, gives the company certain rights that they may not have with respect to a true BYOD. So, how does the equation now change for mobile devices? Or let me ask this. iPhone or Apple has gotten a lot of publicity for their security. Even the government can’t crack it, et cetera. So, I don’t know if that’s true or that’s a sort of an urban legend like roving bands of surgeons that steal kidneys, but that’s certainly the reputation. Does the security equation change with mobile devices? And if mobile devices do, in fact, offer superior security, is there a case to be made that maybe you want to try to work off a mobile devices as much as possible?

Justin Daniels: [00:34:12] So, Mike, I’m going to answer the first part of that. So, when I was in Israel on a mission for cyber, even the Israelis said the iPhone is a much better platform for security. And one of the big reasons why is everything with Apple is internal to Apple with the apps and everything else. With Android and some of the other users system environments, other developers can come, and create things, and put them onto their systems. So, those are potential areas of weakness as opposed to Apple that’s very much self-contained. It is very difficult to breach Apple’s security, as we know from the San Bernardino issue and whatnot. So, Jodi and I happen to have the iPhones. So, one thing people should be doing is you can have a passcode that’s six digits long instead of four. People should implement that. It’s another layer of security.

Justin Daniels: [00:35:09] As for the other parts of your question, with mobile devices, I know that you can install software from a company perspective on devices that you give people that allows you to monitor the software or monitor the machine, what’s coming on to it, but also more importantly, what if somebody just loses it or something happens? It allows you to wipe their machine immediately. And having some of that software, particularly on devices that the company has issued, can really be the difference between a large breach and keeping something on a low boil because you’re able to get to your machine or your phone and just wipe it.

Justin Daniels: [00:35:43] So, that’s where, to me, mobile devices have some other security that might be if the companies issued all the phones, and they don’t have it on there, they might want to consider pushing apps out to their users, so they can now monitor the phone, the ISPs. And it shouldn’t be an issue if those are phone issued by the company, you just probably want to check some of your policies and employee handbook, so that people are made aware of you, and you put it on the computer or the phone that says, “Hey, look, anything you do on this, we can monitor.”

Jodi Daniels: [00:36:15] I’d add two interesting things. So, on the Apple side, one important distinction is a lot of people, they might use Slack or other chat channels, but if they use the iMessage, iMessage, so Apple to Apple is what’s encrypted. But if I’m Apple to Android, I’m not encrypted. So, kind of an interesting differentiation on that. And then, if I’m a company who didn’t issue devices, and now everyone’s remote, and I have all these mobile devices, another avenue to, at least, be able to protect the data without … there are going to be some companies who don’t want to say, “I’m going to wipe all the data on your personal device.” That’s just not going to be the culture. For that company, the six digit passcode is going to be really important one. You can also have two factor authentication on the different company-focused apps, and tools, and suites, and things along those lines too. Again, it’s another added layer to Justin’s concentric methodology.

Mike Blake: [00:37:15] And what do you think about biometric authentication? That’s getting more and more common. Android is headed for a while. Apple is catching up. Windows, hello. I’m a big fan of it. And I also use KeyLemon for Apple devices. Are you a big fan of biometric authentication as well, or do you think it’s overkill?

Jodi Daniels: [00:37:36] I think it depends on the type of data that your company has. I think it’s just all relative to the type. Again, what kind of information and the volume of information that the employee has? Maybe it’s appropriate for some employees, not for other employees. And bring it to the privacy side, biometrics is a very sensitive area. So, for anyone who has employees really actually anywhere in Europe, for sure, it’s a sensitive data field under GDPR. That requires special notice and consent. And then, for States, here in the United States, biometric, also, there’s a variety of hoops you have to go through. So, can absolutely still do it. Just have to make sure you follow the laws where you’ve notified, you’ve asked for consent, I get what I’m doing. And to me, it’s just a matter of, does it make sense? Is it the right method for what I’m using?

Mike Blake: [00:38:30] So, you mentioned privacy. That’s a good segue to the next question I wanted to ask, which is, does this new work regime create loopholes that have not been foreseen in privacy protection and ownership protocols? Are there companies that, therefore, might be tempted to collect data that they wouldn’t necessarily be in a position to collect before? Is that an issue? And then, what are best practices to kind of safeguard against that?

Jodi Daniels: [00:39:05] So, from an employee standpoint … And there’s a difference, I think, between us and the rest of the world. The rest of the world generally has stricter privacy regulations than what we have here in the US. And in the US, we’re very sectoral. Every industry is going to have its own privacy laws. But if I had any level of a remote workforce, I likely was already monitoring something – IP addresses, where are people accessing my network from, and things along like that. If I have more of them, I probably just have more data points. If a company is going to start analyzing it and using it in some other fashion, then I think that does tie into the loopholes that you’ve just described.

Jodi Daniels: [00:39:50] I personally haven’t heard of any company yet trying to do that. I think everyone is just in a little bit of survival mode trying to keep their business afloat as best as they can. So, it’s quite possible, but I haven’t heard of that yet. It would, though, go to the same theme that we’ve been talking about, which it brings it back to policy. Whatever it is that a company is doing, whether it’s on your customers or for your employees, you need to have a policy that informs them of what it is that you’re doing. And in some countries, the individual rights might be a little bit greater and the notice might be a little bit greater, but it is a fundamental privacy baseline to inform of what it is that companies are doing.

Justin Daniels: [00:40:37] Mike, I want to add one other point alongside of what Jodi is saying is. If I’m a company, and if it’s the difference between my sales going down by 80% and collecting and using data to market to people, I think you know what a lot of companies are likely to decide to do, particularly small or medium sized companies that may not have the cash reserves to withstand this. So, I think you’re going to have a lot of companies making some pretty tough decisions. Well, we got these privacy laws and these other things. Well, I need to sell this because I need to generate revenue. And I think that’s also going to create some issues.

Mike Blake: [00:41:13] Yeah. And that answer segues in a question that I’ve got to ask. And it’s an unfair question, but I’m going to ask it anyway.

Justin Daniels: [00:41:20] Okay.

Mike Blake: [00:41:20] And the question is this, is that I think more companies are in this position than are going to admit. One day, everybody is in the office. The next day, everybody isn’t. Most companies probably are just not compliant as they need to be day one. I mean, I think that’s a fact of life. How do you manage that? Is the best practice to cause all of your operations until you get compliant? Do you just sort of roll that, and do the best you can, and hope that you don’t get unlucky, and you kind of make it until you do get to the point where you want to be? That’s a real kind of brass tacks decision. How do you think about that? I got to imagine your clients are raising that issue with you.

Jodi Daniels: [00:42:10] Yeah, we each have some thoughts. I think we’re going to both take a stab. I think that the reality is business needs to go on, especially in the environment that we’re in right now. And for any of the privacy laws and security requirements, it’s impossible to be perfectly 100% secure and 100% compliant. Companies should do the best that they can. And for some, it’s just starting out, and they know the five things they need to do. They have a list and they’re going to dedicate to working towards as many of them as they can. For others, they’re farther down the path, and they’re going to try and maintain where it is that they are.

Jodi Daniels: [00:42:50] So, generally, I don’t think it’s the best idea to just stop all business and wait for sort of your perfect compliance secure program because it’s moving. The security challenges are continuously changing. It’s doing the best that you can. Everyone can pretty simply educate a workforce of what they should be on the lookout for. There’s some practical items that they can do pretty simply. And there’s some more complicated things that they can work towards. And this is probably not the first time we’re going to have this. So, planning for the next iteration, I think, is going to be incredibly important. And Justin, I’m sure you have some thoughts too.

Justin Daniels: [00:43:34] So, Mike, I’ve already had that some pretty tough discussions with people, particularly around potentially violating one law or having a potential lawsuit. And I’ve had to give some tough advice because you’re put in a position where the uncertainty of a lawsuit versus maybe violating some other law, I’m going to violate the law, kind of know what that might look like because you’re just trying to make some tough business decisions. When it comes to the security and the privacy, it’s like every other risk in your business. You need to manage it.

Justin Daniels: [00:44:07] And what Jodi and I have tried to articulate in our discussion today are some of the real commonsense things that you can do that don’t cost tons of money, don’t take an overwhelming amount of effort to start to manage this because you and I both know there’s no way people are going to wait to be perfectly compliant. That’s not what they’re gonna do. But what they can do is, is if they do none of the things we’ve talked about and have these issues, if you have a data breach on top of what the environment is now, I think most companies, you’re done.

Justin Daniels: [00:44:40] And so, what can companies be doing to do some commonsense things that don’t cost the sun and the moon to address this? And that’s really the approach that Jodi and I have taken with our clients and customers on how to manage this amongst all the other things that people are trying to manage, because you know what businesses are focused on. How do I trim expenses and how do I generate new revenue? And within all of that, how do I manage these risks, which are very real when you have a remote workforce from a security and privacy standpoint?

Mike Blake: [00:45:12] So, Jodi and Justin, this has been a great conversation. I’ve learned a lot. I think our listeners are going to learn a lot as well. They probably will have more questions. How can they contact you for more information?

Jodi Daniels: [00:45:26] Sure. So, for me, a couple of different ways. My website is redcloveradvisors.com. You can also find me on LinkedIn, Red Clover Advisors or personally, Jodi Daniels. Real simply, email is just jodi@redcloveradvisors.com.

Justin Daniels: [00:45:45] As for me, my email is jdaniels@bakerdonelson.com. And you can also find me on LinkedIn because Jodi and I post on these topics very regularly for more information. And I also have been advising companies just generally on strategically issue spotting. And so, if companies need help with that as this is important but not the only point. I’ll be honest, Mike, that’s been the bulk of my advisory services lately is helping companies strategically implement a business continuity plan in mid air because they either haven’t had one or the one they have doesn’t really relate to something this significant.

Mike Blake: [00:46:33] Well, thanks so much. That’s going to wrap it up for today’s program. I’d like to thank Jodi Daniels of Red Clover and Justin Daniels of Baker Donelson so much for joining us and sharing their expertise with us today. We’ll be exploring a new topic each week. So, please tune in, so that when you’re faced with your next executive decision, you have clear vision when making it. If you enjoy these podcast, please consider leaving a review with your favorite podcast aggregator. It helps people find us, so that we can help them. Once again, this is Mike Blake. Our sponsor is Brady Ware & Company. And this has been the Decision Vision Podcast.

Inspiring Women, Episode 19: Stop Networking and Start Connecting (An Interview with Frank Agin)

March 10, 2020 by John Ray

Inspiring Women PodCast with Betty Collins

Inspiring Women, Episode 19: Stop Networking and Start Connecting (An Interview with Frank Agin)

00:00 /

Stop Networking and Start Connecting

In this edition of “Inspiring Women,” host Betty Collins encourages connecting (knowing people more) over networking (knowing more people). The show also includes an interview with master networker Frank Agin.

Betty’s Show Notes

Networking is about knowing more people. Something amazing happens when you network and connection happens. That is the moment of success because . . .connecting is about knowing people more.

What is your goal when you network? When you make connections?

Most connected people are often the most successful. Statistics support that statement. When you invest in your relationships — professional and personal — it can pay you back in dividends throughout the course of your career. The key word was “Investment”. That means you are going to give or put forth effort and resources FIRST, then ROI.

Who is the goal for you in networking and connections?

The what determines the who. Most importantly – figure out who matters. Sometimes you have to network with many to find the few solid connections. Think about the relationships you have right now that started with a person you met one year ago, five years ago, 20 years ago. How you network to make true connections is key.

Frank Agin, the President and Owner of AmSpirit, is just simply the best at networking and connecting. I have learned so much from him over the past 19 plus years. The number one thing I learned? Networking is more about connecting and engagement than to “know” everyone or be known. I am so thankful to have him as a guest on this podcast.

Are you networking, or are you connecting. There is a difference—make sure you know.

Frank Agin, AmSpirit Business Connections

Frank Agin is the founder and president of AmSpirit Business Connections, where he works to empower entrepreneurs, sales representatives and professionals around the country to become more successful through networking. In addition, he is a sought after speaker and consultant to companies and organizations on topics related to professional networking and business relationship development.

Frank has written numerous articles on professional networking and is the author of several books, some of which include Foundational Networking: Building Know, Like and Trust to Create a Lifetime of Extraordinary Success, The Champion: Finding the Most Valuable Person In Your Network, and Chase Greatness: Life Lessons Revealed Through Sports. He is also the host of the weekly Networking Rx podcast, which provides insights and advice for becoming more successful through networking as well as the host of the daily micro podcast Networking Rx Minute, which provides short messages of inspiration and recommended action.

Frank has a law degree and MBA from the Ohio State University, a B.A. in Economics and Management from Beloit College, and continues his professional development through a variety of programs and sources.

For further information on Frank or to be in touch, go to his website.

Betty Collins, CPA, Brady Ware & Company and Host of the “Inspiring Women” Podcast

“Inspiring Women” Podcast Series

Show Transcript

Betty Collins: [00:00:00] Today, we’re going to talk about a topic called networking, right? Well, I’m going to say stop networking and make connections. What does that mean? Well, networking is really about knowing more people, and connecting is knowing people more. I’m going to just say that again – networking is about knowing more people and connecting is about knowing people more. You need to think about that as we talk today.

Betty Collins: [00:00:29] Networking, some people think bigger is better. How many friends, how many likes, how many business cards, what’s your contacts like? For some businesses, that’s not the worst. You want volume; you want a ton of followers, especially when you’re really transactional. Networking is not always easy for people. It can be pretty awkward and, sometimes, just draining. You’re in entertainment mode way too much. Networking is- it’s often associated with just selling; so, if you don’t think you can sell, you don’t think you can network.

Betty Collins: [00:01:03] There truly is power in having a strong network, especially when you’re in business, and you’re in the marketplace. Something really amazing happens, when you network and connection happens. This is the moment of success because true connections- when you really connect with someone, you’re going to make up a community.

Betty Collins: [00:01:25] When you think of your community that you live in, or maybe the camaraderie of your office place, or maybe the associations we’re in, the ones that are the best are kind of like Mayberry; everybody gets along; everyone is in it together; they want success; there’s relationships; there’s mutual trust; there’s respect, which all has to be earned, but that’s the kind of network, and it becomes an actual connection. When I say stop networking and making connections, that’s kind of what I’m trying to get you to think about.

Betty Collins: [00:02:01] You have to really look at what is the goal for you in networking connections. Is it name recognition? Are you trying to just generate revenue? You get into hanging with the big dogs because you’re a little pup, right? How about you want introductions to certain people, or maybe you want to be at the table? There’s nothing wrong with any of those things, but you have to go, “What is the goal?” Because you could be consumed, out in the marketplace, networking all day long.

Betty Collins: [00:02:32] It’s shown that most people that are connected are generally more successful … Not bigger networks. People who are connected are often more successful. When you invest in your relationships, whether they’re professional or personal, it usually can pay a pretty big dividend back throughout the course of your career, but you have to realize what I just said – investment. That means you have to put the effort; you have to probably give first; and then, you’re going to get some return on that giving.

Betty Collins: [00:03:04] One of the missed goals, when you’re thinking about what is the goal of connecting and networking, is you can develop and improve your skill sets, when you do that, and you’re out in the marketplace, and you’re seeing how other people do things, or challenged by something you just didn’t think about.

Betty Collins: [00:03:23] Another goal, when you’re out networking, and connecting, and making those connections, is you’ve got to probably stay on the top of those latest trends, whether it’s in the market, or in your industry. I was recently at an event where they talked about the different aspects of Columbus and what was going on in the Columbus market. Of course, within probably a couple days, we were announced that we were the number-one place in the country …

Betty Collins: [00:03:48] I was able to just take a few of those tidbits, when I was out talking with people or trying to have conversations with clients. They looked at me like, “How did you know this?” Maybe it was something they didn’t know. Just like when I was at the marketing event, and I didn’t know that.

Betty Collins: [00:04:05] I think another missed goal, when you’re thinking about this whole thing of networking connection, is it keeps a pulse on the job market because you never know when you’re going to need that. I always go back to- I love this one guy who was in … He was a payroll rep for ADP, years, and years ago. He was like a lifer, because he had been there three or four years. I completely relied just on him. One day, he leaves. Now, I had nobody to really … I had no other relationships. I didn’t have any- I was not on the pulse of those connections. So, keeping the pulse on the job market, I look at that as, too, the [contact] market, when you’re trying to connect with people, but most certainly, you meet prospectives, and mentors, and partners.

Betty Collins: [00:04:48] The other thing we miss in goals, sometimes, with networking, and connecting, is your clients can gain access to your network, and then that gives them some necessary resources that will definitely foster a long relationship with them. Again, you have to go, what is the goal? Do you have one? If you don’t, you probably need to really rethink that. What am I doing? As we end the decade, and you go into 2020, what is the goal going to be for me in networking, so that I can make connections?

Betty Collins: [00:05:22] Then, after you determine that – it’s not like it’s a hard exercise, right? – who is the goal for you in networking? Who is the goal that you want to actually have connections with? Of course, the what determines the who, right? So, most importantly, but you have to figure out who matters in your network. I have a fairly large network. It’s always funny when I get happy birthday on LinkedIn. I’m like, “Now, who is this, and why did I accept this relationship? I don’t even know who they are.” You have to figure out, though, who matters in your relationship.

Betty Collins: [00:05:54] I always use this example – if you are servicing small clients, then why are you meeting with bankers who service large clients? Who is important? Who is going to meet your goals with you? Chances are, that probably isn’t, except that you could say, “I met with this big banker,” or “I know this big banker that everyone knows and wants to know.”

Betty Collins: [00:06:16] Now, there are times that you have to network before you find some really solid connections. You might have to meet a lot of people before you do. Think about, now, the relationships you have right now that started with a person, and now you don’t even know that person that connected you. I have plenty of those in my life, where it’s like, man, if I wouldn’t have met so-and-so, I wouldn’t know so-and-so, who introduced me to so-and-so.”

Betty Collins: [00:06:39] So, I don’t want to minimize the fact of liking everybody and connecting with a ton of people because you never know where that’s going to lead you, but it still has to go back … Who is the goal that you are trying to make a real connection with and have community? Also, when you’re thinking about your goal of who that is, it’s not just an external relationship, who your audience should be. I would tell you, very clearly, you need to internally make sure, in your organization …

Betty Collins: [00:07:07] I work for a organization that has 150 people, and I have four offices. I can’t just know the person sitting next to me. I’ve got to know more people in my company, especially as I’m navigating through … Because one day, I just might need people to be helping me with something, or I might want to be growing, and all the sudden, I only know this person.

Betty Collins: [00:07:28] It’s simple things about taking advantage of lunches with those internal people. Welcoming the new people. You might welcome a new person much more than someone else. It’s easier to kind of be with who you know, but you never know who that person is going to be and how they’re going to fit into the mix; into your outside and inside place.

Betty Collins: [00:07:47] I would accept and be part of office invites. It’s interesting when you’re linked to your peers. That’s one way I do with Brady Ware. I’m a link to a lot of the different offices, and then I kind of see what they’re involved with, in Atlanta, or Richmond, Indiana. When you’re thinking about networking and setting connections, you really need to think about the internal ones, not just the external. Maybe you work for five people. It’s a little bit easier. When you work for 150, it’s kind of different.

Betty Collins: [00:08:17] So, how … We talked about what is the goal, and who is the goal, and you’re defining those things. Now, it’s how do you network? How do you make those true connections? I could go to lunch three times a day, year round. Well, I don’t need lunch three times a day … You have to make it well worth your time, because, in my industry, client service is really important in my industry, making sure that the bigger I become with that, I have to really watch how much time I’m out having lunches, versus really making connections. It really comes down to I could eat lunch anywhere, but the connection part is what’s important.

Betty Collins: [00:08:54] I would suggest to you to really look at your calendar. I do it three weeks out, to go, “Why am I meeting with this person? Why is this calendar invite here? Should I even be taking the time to do that? Maybe it’s a better relationship for someone else around me than me,” and you try to do some of that.

Betty Collins: [00:09:12] The other thing is when you’re at an event, you need to look around and determine is this who I want to be around? If you’re at an event where you really don’t fit in; you’re not comfortable; you’re kind of out of the loop; or this isn’t my client; this isn’t my sweet spot; this is not connected to my industry, then you just went to another event that was really cool.

Betty Collins: [00:09:34] So, I just went to an event recently that was very interesting. It was on a Friday, and they made it very clear in the invitation, “Please be casual. This is really going to be just a time of getting to know some people in our network.” What they made sure happened was … First, there was a whole slew of professionals that they use. But the other part they did was the location was awesome. It was at the Italian Club – I think is what it was called – downtown. Cool place. Very cool. The food was easy, but phenomenal. You were carbed out on a Friday afternoon. There was no ‘fold the napkin, use the right fork’ situation. There were no suits on in the room.

Betty Collins: [00:10:14] The greatest thing they did was they brought clients that would really benefit the professionals. Then, they brought professionals that would really benefit the clients. It was really a lunch that was worth going to because there was such connection and there was such synergy. The room was filled with who you wanted to be with. That’s a really important thing, when you’re looking at events, and as you’re signing up to go.

Betty Collins: [00:10:43] I’ve been in public accounting since 1988, so I’ve been in the marketplace a long time, but I didn’t start networking till 2000; 12 years later. I was really good inside. I was really good with running … My firm, at that time, was small. I was good with just being behind my computer, talking with people that I already knew. Then, I became a shareholder. “Oh, you need to go get business.” Oh? I have no clue … Most of you who know me would think, “Oh, well, that would be simple for you. That would be easy for you.” No. There’s very few people, I think, in the marketplace that just love the idea of, “I’m going to go out and get new clients today and make relationships. I’m going to close the deal,” and the art of the deal, and all those things. That’s not usually the comfort level of people.

Betty Collins: [00:11:28] So I did join a group called AmSpirit Business Connections. It was the first time I had to tell people who I was, and what I did, and what I liked, and it was very nerve-wracking. I just was like, “Oh, my goodness!” I had to really think through that, “30-second commercial,” let alone just demonstrate to a group of people that I could take care of their clients. Never had to do that before. Never was out there. Don’t wait 12 years into your career to do that.

Betty Collins: [00:11:56] It took me a few years, too, to be comfortable. It wasn’t all success from day one. I still connect with people from that group. I’m not currently in AmSpirit Business Connections, but Frank Agin, the president and owner of AmSpirit, is just simply the best at networking that I’ve known. I’ve learned a lot from him over the last 19-20 years. The number-one thing I learned is more about connecting engagement than “knowing” everyone or to be known. It was really about be engaging and work on your relationship, not get to know everyone as much as you can.

Betty Collins: [00:12:35] I kind of went to the next level, when I joined a local chamber in Gahanna; became very involved. Then, I also got involved with NAWBO. Those two places were places where it became definitely connections. I was connected to it. This became relationships. Gahanna is my community, where I live, so there was a little bit more ownership there. It just really got me out.

Betty Collins: [00:13:00] In that organization, people started asking me to speak or be on panels, which was something I was just terrified of. But that really helped me become connected, and networking, and connected with people. So, it was really kind of a gift, even though, at the time, it was like, “Oh, my goodness!” The more I networked that led to actual connection, I began having, finally, success in the marketplace; in building my business, and connecting my clients to the right people. And just, then, at the end of the day, having a different kind of impact.

Betty Collins: [00:13:32] What were the lessons I learned over that timeframe? Again, I go back to if you serve small clients, why are you networking with bankers who serve large ones? You follow up. You thank the person you met that you really want to have a connection with. If you don’t have more than one meeting, you’re probably not going to make … It’s not probably going to be a connection, as much as it’s just going to be, “I networked today.” If you got somebody’s business card, and met him once, would you …? If you got my business card and met me once, would you say, “I’m going to be … I’m going to do accounting with her”? Probably not.

Betty Collins: [00:14:08] Then, I really learned to quit focusing on the sale aspect. You always know when you’re selling too much because people immediately retreat. If you’re perceptive at all, you kind of see it. Then, some connections, you know what? They’re just not meant to be. It’s okay. I’ve gone to some things, where I’m like, “Oh, my gosh, that was awful.” Even when they emailed me back and said, “Can I have an appointment?” sometimes you ignore them, and you delete them. I just know enough, now, who I am going to spend time with and who I’m going to really make a connection with.

Betty Collins: [00:14:41] Tips, to me, that take networking to connection levels, where you’re really making some connections? You’ve got to be yourself. You’ve got to be fairly open. Let me rephrase that – you’ve got to connect … You’ve got to be yourself, and open, but do not be telling your life story the first time you meet somebody. Be infectious, when you’re personable, which is really spreading your influence in a pretty rapid manner, and people are drawn to you. That kind of takes time to develop. If you’re too infectious- again, if you’re too personal, if you’re too much in selling, all those things backfire on you.

Betty Collins: [00:15:19] Be inquisitive. It’s not all about you. Here’s the typical question – “So, who do you work for?” or, “Hey, what do you do?” You could say, “How do you like working for your company?” and, “Well, tell me a little bit more about your company.” Of course, if they say, “I don’t like working there,” then you probably need to move on. “How did you get in this position? What drew you to this field?” Think about a different way to ask some questions, where it’s a little more inquisitive, and it really reflects on them. You could even take it a step further and ask them some advice in their industry; see what they’re made of on their feet like that.

Betty Collins: [00:15:54] Be generous when you’re out there. When I meet someone that I pretty, pretty connect with really well, and I could see a future in that relationship, I try to be generous, and like give them tickets to events. How many events do you have in your life, where you’re trying to get rid of a ticket? I did this with NAWBO lunch. I mean, guests are $20. When there’s a really good event, I try to take a couple people for 20 bucks, and they get to be in a roomful of 100 women. They may not even know who NAWBO is, let alone think they can afford that, or maybe they can’t afford it. You take them. You be generous in that, and they’ll be grateful. They’ll give something back to you, probably; or it’s just another way to make connection with them.

Betty Collins: [00:16:37] I would tell you that speaking, being on panels, or getting people in speaking gigs, or getting them on panels only when they have something really good to say, and they can say it well. Do not recommend somebody that cannot get out there and do it. Trust me, it’s never, never good because the reflection is on you when they really get on front of the stage, and they’re horrible; or they’re on a panel, and they don’t stick to a two-minute response time. But it is a good way to network. That is a way to make connection, where you’re placing people in the right place.

Betty Collins: [00:17:11] Then, think people. Get over positions. Sometimes, it’s, “I want to know the CEO of that company.” Maybe you need to know the children of the CEO in the company, because if you’re the same age as that person, guess what? They could be retiring a lot sooner than you maybe, or not be there as long. Sometimes, getting some younger people in your network, where you’re helping them, and they love your knowledge, and they love what they’re getting from you. They kind of think you’re a big dog, right? If you help them with certain steps in their career, or in their business that has lasting impact, you’re going to have some different generations behind you, as well. It’s a great way to go, plus, it gives you a little energy; gives you a little step, versus hanging out with the old people like us, right?

Betty Collins: [00:17:59] You help them because you know what to do. They have to want the help, but it could end up being a lifetime relationship for you, for sure. As I get older, my clients are selling, so if I don’t have some younger client behind me, to some degree, or younger people surrounding me, or younger connections who are starting to retire, your network could easily shrink pretty quickly. So, think position, yeah, but, really, I would think the person. Think the people.

Betty Collins: [00:18:26] This is one … You all know somebody like this. Stop treating the schmoozing like your busines-card contest collection. Start over with some new goals and think about quality over quantity. I look at that person and think they really are into, “I’ve got this collection of business cards, and I know everyone in town.” And then, you talk to that person in town, and they’re like, “Who are you talking about?” Name droppers; people who are totally about the collection – those are people you probably don’t want to connect with. If you are that person, you need to probably really go back to the who, the what, and say, “Let’s set some new goals with quality over quantity.”

Betty Collins: [00:19:11] Networking or connecting? Networking that leads to good connection … There is a difference, and you need to make sure you know that. You’re either green and growing, or you are ripe and you’re rotting. There is a difference. When you’re out there in the marketplace trying to make connections, and trying to grow, and trying to be different, you have to think differently. Knowing what to do and doing it are not the same thing. So, I would challenge you, today, to change your mindset on networking or connecting.

Betty Collins: [00:00:00] I hope you enjoyed the podcast today on “Stop Networking, Start Connecting.” I did this podcast because I could network and be out and about all day long but have no fruits from it; no results that I like. When I talk about the connection piece, I’m really talking about it’s got to … Networking is not a bad thing. It’s not like you stop that, obviously, but it’s got to make a connection that goes into a relationship.

Betty Collins: [00:00:30] There’s no one who can talk about this better than Frank Agin, who is the president and founder of AmSpirit Business Connections. Over my career, for sure, and through my business journey, Frank has been very influential in my networking and connection abilities. He’s simply the best at it. His organization and all the connections that have led to relationships have been there. So, I welcome you today, Frank, and thank you for taking the time to spend with me today. First, why don’t you just tell about you, the organization – that 30-second commercial thing that we talk about.

Frank Agin: [00:01:03] Sure.

Betty Collins: [00:01:04] It can go longer. It can go longer.

Frank Agin: [00:01:05] Yeah, I used to be an attorney, and I got into a networking organization … I’ll make the long story really short. I got into a networking organization; liked it so much, I bought it. I haven’t practiced law since 2004; it’s been a long time. What we do at AmSpirit Business Connections is we help entrepreneurs, sales reps, and professionals get more referrals through networking. It’s a for-profit membership-based type organization, where they come together with other like-minded individuals on a consistent basis to go through a consistent meeting program to learn about each other, and establish relationships, and exchange referrals.

Betty Collins: [00:01:47] I know I’ve benefited greatly from it. I can remember my first meeting, going back to those days, and I just thought, “I’ve never had to tell anyone a thing about myself, let alone ask anything.” Most people would think that Betty Collins could do this in her sleep; she’s personable, and on and on. It was a huge challenge for me. But, all the sudden, business development became this top, top thing that I had to do. So, it really, truly helped me through those times. I have some of my younger generation now in AmSpirit from Brady Ware, and they’re really enjoying it, for sure. I talk about stop networking and start connecting, but I want you to tell me what you think all that means. Tell me the difference between networking, connection, and leading to relationships.

Frank Agin: [00:02:34] Networking gets a bad rap. It does. People kind of think of networking as the aluminum-siding sales guy, used-car salesmen, or … We’re picking on men here. Perfect show for it, right? It gets a bad rap because people think of it so much as sales. They really kind of align those two. I look at networking this way – networking is a verb. It’s an action. Networking is really about getting out there and being amongst other people. From that, you make connections. People that you learn their names, they learn you, but really, the end game to it all is establishing relationships.

Frank Agin: [00:03:14] We do business with those that we know, we like, and we trust. All things being equal, we do business with those sorts of people. All things being unequal, and the example I always use is insurance … I pay too much … Well, I could pay less for my car insurance. I know I could. I just know I could, but I really like my auto-insurance guy. He’ll go to bat for me. He will do things. I can speak to lots of professionals in my life that I have this relationship with them. I can get it cheaper, but I wouldn’t have the relationship. There’s something about that relationship that just kind of pulls us together. So, it’s really about the relationships.

Betty Collins: [00:03:55] Sure, sure. I have had this same scenario. From the very first AmSpirit group I was in, my car-insurance guy has been there, and my house … I’ve never had a reason to change, and it was just because there was a relationship that was forged. I don’t have a reason to go look for 10 bucks a month or call an 800 number. Generally, who is the successful networker/connector? Who is that? What do they look like?

Frank Agin: [00:04:27] I don’t know about actual look. It’s more actions, and it’s really people who are focused on trying to help others, providing value to the world, providing value to others. In their mind, they ask … We all ask this question- the question we ask when we meet somebody new is, “What’s in it for me?” That’s very primitive. That’s a very primitive question to ask: “Okay, I’ve met this person. What’s in it for me?” Because we’re in a survival mode.

Frank Agin: [00:04:55] But the person who’s successful in networking is able to push beyond that question and ask the second question. The second question is, “What can I do for this person? What can I do for the person I’m meeting?” If you stop and think about it, everybody I encounter, probably about two percent will benefit me. Two percent can be a member of my organization, or a franchisee, or client, however you want to look at it. But 100 percent, I can help somehow, some way. The successful networkers, they’re kind of driven by that. I can tell, when I talk to somebody, it doesn’t take long to find out, by the questions they ask, where their mind is. If it’s constantly, “Hey, what’s in it for me? What’s in it for me?” I know they’re not a good networker. Doesn’t mean they’re a bad person, just that they’re not operating at that networking level.

Betty Collins: [00:05:42] Right. Well, I know that was probably the thing I learned the most is you … Especially when you’re saying, “What am I going to do for this person?” That’s the mindset you have to be in. It can be simple things, such as inviting them to events, or getting them on a panel, or getting them a speaking gig, or any of those type of things. It’s not necessarily leading to business, but you’re helping them get there. It’s not getting me any business because I got someone on a panel. But you just never know where that will lead to, because it’s truly helping them to connect where they need to be, or a place that they could really help your client, and that’s valuable to the client.

Frank Agin: [00:06:23] Right.

Betty Collins: [00:06:23] I just recently had somebody who … I said, “Who’s your …” They’re frustrated all the time with the bank, and I said, “Well, who’s your banker?” They go, “We love the teller.”.

Frank Agin: [00:06:35] Yeah, that’s the problem.

Betty Collins: [00:06:37] I said, “Who’s your banker? You want loans, and you want lines of credit, and you want these things, and you don’t have a banker.” So, I got them connected to a banker, and they have just been so grateful. I didn’t get anything out of that … You’re right in the terms of ‘but it helped my client.’ It definitely helped them. So, what are those common mistakes in networking …? I have those moments where I dread going to networking things because I know who’s going to be there, and I don’t want to deal with that.

Frank Agin: [00:07:07] Right.

Betty Collins: [00:07:07] Help the audience understand – this is probably what you shouldn’t do when you’re trying to network, and connect, and making that relationship really work.

Frank Agin: [00:07:17] Well, I think some of the common mistakes that people run into and probably the reason that keeps people away from networking events is they go in with the mindset of, “Okay, what am I going to try and get out of this?” What I always say … I call it my cloak of invincibility; when I walk into a networking event, I am there to help people. I’m a superhero. I’m here to help. If you don’t want my help, that’s okay, but very few people are going to reject somebody who’s trying to help them.

Frank Agin: [00:07:45] People get stuck with small talk; don’t know how to make small talk because they’re always so worried about what they have to say. What I tell people is, “Don’t worry about what you have to say. Get them talking. Allow them to talk; explore where they’re coming from.” Then you can just relax and let it come to you. I think people have, with respect to networking, they just- they think it’s got to work according to some preordained schedule, and you just don’t know. You know, in your life, there are things that have come out of the woodwork that you set in motion years ago. I hear that’s a common theme. “I ran into this person at a wedding 10 years ago. Now, they’re finally a client.” That happens.

Betty Collins: [00:08:30] Well, I know I was appreciative for some of those things that I learned early on, when I realy had to get into the business-development world. Now, I’m kind of in a world where I want to have impact more. I say the word ‘legacy’ probably too much because I’m 56 but having connections and relationships where you can really have some impact is huge. It’s not even just about building my business at this point. That’s why it’s so important to just stop the networking thing. Utilize that as a venue to make real connections that end up in lasting relationships. So, wrap it up for me. What is the takeaway, today, to the audience, that you would love to communicate to them?

Frank Agin: [00:09:13] You need to find ways to help other people. One of my many sayings … My kids will roll their eyes if they hear this. One of my many sayings is that everything you get out of life is tied to what you do in life. You just can’t see the string. It’s so true because things will happen, and you don’t know how they were set in motion.

Frank Agin: [00:09:33] You just need to focus on trying to find ways to help other people. I’m not talking about pulling your wallet out of your pocket and giving to charity. I’m talking about being encouraging to others. Introducing to people that don’t know each other is huge. Me being on this show is huge. There’s lots of ways that we can help one another. Just focus on helping one another, and don’t worry how it all pieces together. You just have to kind of trust the process. It does work.

Betty Collins: [00:09:59] Well, I appreciate you being here today, taking the time to be part of my podcast. I will tell you, if you’re an entrepreneur, or a sales rep, a professional, and you would like to generate a greater percentage of your business from referrals, you should consider AmSpirit Business Connection as an option for doing that. If you’d like to become better at building your network and making those connections that end up building relationships, you need to reach out to Frank, via his LinkedIn, or through his website, FrankAgin.com. Agin is A-G-I-N, And it’s all one word. So, FrankAgin.com. I can’t encourage you enough to stop networking. Make connections that build relationships.

Interior Designer vs. Interior Decorator (Part 2) and Atlanta Artist Lynne McDonald

March 4, 2020 by Garrett Ervin

Gwinnett Studio

Interior Designer vs. Interior Decorator (Part 2) and Atlanta Artist Lynne McDonald

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Lynne McDonald, Leta Brooks and Derek Hays

Let Leta take you on a journey of faith, life, travel, and interior design. Take your life out of the status quo and into 2020! Status Life with Leta is brought to you by Status Home Design, and by the Law Office of Derek M. Hays at 404-777-HURT.

On today’s episode, Leta continues to explain the differences between an Interior Designer and an Interior Decorator, and local Atlanta artist Lynne McDonald joins Leta in the studio to discuss her artwork and charitable support.

Lynne McDonald/Lynne McDonald’s Gallery

Lynne McDonald is an award winning, juried artist. She grew up in California, but moved to Atlanta from Montreal, Canada and started painting full-time in 2012. Since then, her skills have evolved and now you can find her work in galleries, stores, hotels, offices and private collections internationally. Her inspiration comes from nature and her travels. She considers herself curious and thinks of each painting as an experiment. “I prefer painting in abstracts, because I like the participation of the observer. It always amazes me what other people see in my work. I learn just as much about them as they do me.”

Lynne became a Type 1 Diabetic as a teenager and has been on insulin for 30 years now. The cruel irony is that she’s developed Retinopathy that affects her vision. She describes it as having little blind spots that make it difficult to see an entire piece. She also has difficulty seeing in low lights so she requires flood lights in her studio and has problems seeing colors properly. Because of her struggles she mentors children with Type 1 Diabetes. “Being a role model for these kids inspires me to take good care of myself. They are watching me and my attitude shapes how they see themselves.”

Leta Brooks/Status Home Design

Status Home Design is a 12.000 sq ft retail store located in the Kohls Plaza of Hamilton Mill at 2240 Hamilton Creek Pkwy, Dacula, Georgia. They have 70 different merchants inside the store selling furniture and home goods of various styles. Their Status Carpenters can rehab, refinish, or repaint almost anything. This fantastic team of carpenters also custom builds tables, bookcases, cabinets, and barn doors. Status Design Studio, Inc., their award winning full-service interior design firm is also located inside the store. Their designers, provide exemplary service for all your home and business needs. Status Home Design’s knowledge of the latest trends and access to an abundance of manufacturers for furniture and all home decor items, sets them apart from the rest. Last, but certainly not least, they have an in-house seamstress and upholstery workshop.