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Financial Literacy with ACEE CEO Elena Zee Murray Smith with FPA of Greater Phoenix Kris Anest with Charles Schwab and Guest-Host Marie Burns

March 26, 2019 by Karen

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Phoenix Business Radio

Financial Literacy with ACEE CEO Elena Zee Murray Smith with FPA of Greater Phoenix Kris Anest with Charles Schwab and Guest-Host Marie Burns

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Financial Literacy with ACEE CEO Elena Zee Murray Smith with FPA of Greater Phoenix Kris Anest with Charles Schwab and Guest-Host Marie Burns

Arizona community members are invited to a Pro Bono financial planning event on Saturday, April 20th from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm. Download the flyer for this free event and register here.

The Arizona Council on Economic Education (ACEE) is a 501(C)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to improving economic and personal financial literacy in Arizona. ACEE is the author of Arizona K-12 Economic Education Academic Standards and the only organization in Arizona which: provides teacher professional development in teaching personal finance and economics; has a strong, affiliated academic base with universities and community colleges; and distributes proven economic education curriculum resources to schools free of charge.

Elena Zee started her career in the private sector at American Express before becoming President and CEO of the Arizona Council on Economic Education. Elena has a Master’s Degree in Economics from Columbia University and Double Bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Math from Wellesley College. Elena serves on the board of Organization for Nonprofit Executives, the National Association of Economic Educators and Global Economics Education Alliance. She was the former President of Phi Beta Kappa Phoenix Association, promoting excellence in liberal arts and science higher education.

Elena is very passionate about education, financial freedom and professional development.

Follow ACEE on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

The Financial Planning Association® (FPA®) is the principal membership organization for CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER professionals, educators, financial services providers and students who seek advancement in a growing, dynamic profession. The primary aim of FPA is to elevate the profession that transforms lives through the power of financial planning.

FPA supports high standards of professional competence, ethical conduct and clear, complete disclosure when serving clients. By providing opportunities for professional development, business support, advocacy and community at the national and chapter levels, FPA is truly indispensable in the advancement of today’s CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER professionals.

The Financial Planning Association of Greater Phoenix (FPAGP) strives to be the essential hub of the Phoenix-area financial planning community. It’s mission is to connect Certified Financial Planners and associated professionals with the resources they need and the people who need them. Certain CFP(R)s within the chapter have ambition to promote financial literacy in Arizona and do so through public awareness presentations and pro bono, 1-1 financial planning.

Murray Smith is a Financial Planner at KeatsConnelly, the largest cross-border wealth management firm in North America that specializes in helping Canadians and Americans realize their dreams of a cross-border lifestyle. Murray is responsible for providing financial planning recommendations to move people efficiently toward their financial goals. His recommendations are formed from a deep understanding of a client’s situation, values and goals combined with his expertise, experience and skills in financial planning and analysis.

When Murray isn’t helping people achieve their goals, he is busy working on his own projects. Along with his wife and young son, Murray tends to the 600 square feet of gardens in their backyard (including rainwater collection). In addition to spending time with his family, he loves do-it-yourself projects, tinkering with electronics, developing software and playing guitar. To help build community, he performs public awareness and pro bono work through the Financial Planning Association of Greater Phoenix (FPAGP).

Murray is a board member of the FPAGP. He currently is vice-president and will be the organization’s president in 2020. In 2021, he will remain on the executive committee as chairman.

Follow FPAGP on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

Kris Anest has been in the brokerage business since February 1987. She started her career with Fidelity Investments working in Salt Lake City, Utah and Boston, Massachusetts.

She has been with Schwab since December 1995 with a break in service from 2001 to 2007. During her break in service, she taught World History, Economics and Advanced Placement Macroeconomics at North Canyon High School in Phoenix, Arizona. During her teaching tenure, she continued to provide independent investment consulting services.

During her tenure with Schwab, Kris has served as a registered representative in Participant Services, Retail Brokerage Services, Quality Assurance and Retail Help and Advice. She managed Participant Services call center teams and the Institutional Prime Broker desk as a Senior Manager in Trading Operations. She is currently managing a team of business analyst in Advisor Services Pricing and Billing. She has co-chaired the Schwab Phoenix Community Ambassador Team and is active in non-profit efforts. She is an OCJ Kids board member and an executive board member on the Arizona Council on Economic Education.

Kris attended Arizona State University where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Secondary Education with a concentration in History and Economics. She earned her Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership from St. Mary’s University, MN. She is FINRA Series 63, 66, 7, 9 and 10 licensed and Schwab also carries her P&C insurance licenses. Kris’ hobby is competitive ballroom dancing.

Connect with Kris on LinkedIn.

Marie Burns, a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) with insurance and securities licenses, has been advocating for clients as a financial advisor for close to 20 years. She is a member of the Financial Planning Association nationally and locally, 100+ Women Who Care, Ahwatukee Foothills Friends and Neighbors, and Mountain Park Church. Originally from Wisconsin, she has helped clients with their financial lives in a bank setting, accounting firm, at Vanguard, at a financial planning firm and now writes and speaks and has her own practice with an independent Registered Investment Advisory firm. She enjoys cooking, reading, walking, hiking, Zumba and especially creating memories with family and friends.

Connect with Marie on LinkedIn and follow Paper Lifesavers Facebook.

LEADERSHIP LOWDOWN Dawning Public Relations Owner Kendra Riley and Beyond Payments Founding Member Anna Lam

March 22, 2019 by Karen

Phoenix Business Radio

LEADERSHIP LOWDOWN Dawning Public Relations Owner Kendra Riley and Beyond Payments Founding Member Anna Lam

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LEADERSHIP LOWDOWN Dawning Public Relations Owner Kendra Riley and Beyond Payments Founding Member Anna Lam

Dawning Public Relations specializes in the development and implementation of public relations, community relations and social media campaigns for everyone from the small independent business owner to nationwide brands with storefronts from coast to coast. Services include everything from writing (be it press releases, press kits, newsletters, ad copy, and blogs) and establishing a brand presence within the community and key stakeholders to social media management and securing coverage for clients in media outlets across the globe.

With over 20 years of experience and long-standing contacts, Dawning Public Relations not only garners stellar publicity and unique marketing concepts for clients, but is also experienced in the planning and management of corporate parties, grand openings, fundraisers and events.

Kendra Riley founded Dawning Public Relations in 2013 with a focus on helping lifestyle brands elevate their exposure through comprehensive communications campaigns. She specializes in local and national public relations outreach and social media strategies and implementation.

Originally from Valparaiso, Indiana and with a degree in Media Arts from the University of Arizona, Kendra has taken her Midwest roots, Southwest education and 13+ years of experience to create a communications company that has helped businesses in every industry. Her work within the community has helped a variety of local non-profits, including Phoenix Children’s Hospital, PSA Art Awakenings, Childhelp, Scottsdale League for the Arts, Make a Wish Arizona and many more.

When not glued to her phone or laptop managing her clients’ brand presence in the marketplace, Kendra enjoys traveling, dining out, trying new wines, and spending time with her husband, two young daughters and their two French Bulldogs.

Connect with Kendra on LinkedIn and Twitter and follow Dawning Public Relations on Facebook.

Beyond Payments is a payments, business management and lending solutions company founded in 2017 by Robert O. Carr, a prominent businessman and philanthropist whose track record of success reflects his deep belief that “doing the right thing” for customers and advocates ultimately produces the best bottom-line results. Carr has brought on a team of seasoned experts in the payments industry committed to building a world-class company from the ground up.
Beyond designated the non-profit Give Something Back (Give Back) a founding partner and beneficiary as Give Back is 49% majority shareholder of Beyond Payments.

Established by Carr in 2003, Give Back provides college scholarships and mentoring to students who have faced economic hardship and other challenges such as foster care or the incarceration of a parent. So far, Give Back has prepaid over 1,500 scholarships for students at partner colleges and universities across the country—an upfront investment of more than $36 million. Carr’s motivation results from his desire to secure long- term funding for the Give Something Back Foundation long after his time.

By investing in the minds and futures of smart, capable young people, Beyond is building a well- prepared workforce and contributing to a growing economy – which creates greater opportunities for their business customers as well as for Beyond. In just under two years since its beginnings, they are rapidly growing and being noticed as one of the leading US companies changing the face of business simply by operating as a for-profit business with its core mission as a force for good.

Anna Lam spent most of her childhood and young adult life in Northern California where she graduated from University of California, Davis with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. She enjoyed studying political behavior but chose to pursue her strong interest in business within the eyecare industry. She became an optician licensed by the American Board of Opticianry and shortly thereafter, she was recruited by Sunglass Hut International Corporation in Coral Gables, Florida where she led buying and merchandising within their optical division. Due to her track record of success, she was invited to accept an opportunity by a prominent privately-owned landmark optical retailer in New York, New York to join their company as Director of Merchandising.

Anna quickly expanded her knowledge and experience within the multi-million dollar environment and rapidly moved upwards into various management roles ultimately culminating to Vice President of Sales. She focused on instilling a strong culture of empowerment and ownership for its employees company wide which resulted in 5 consecutive years of double digit record sales growth. Today, Anna still maintains her own retail optical consulting business serving small and medium sized retail optical offices.

Anna Moved to Arizona 7 years ago and made a conscious choice to take on a new venture. She joined the 5th largest and most respected payments company in the US, Heartland Payment Systems founded by Robert O. Carr in 1997, a deeply admired pioneer in the payments space. Anna now continues her journey with Mr. Carr and Beyond Payments, which began in 2017 shortly after his sale of Heartland Payment Systems for $4.3 billion. She is thrilled to be a Founding Member of Beyond as she is confident this company “will surpass Heartland Payment Systems in its legacy as a world class business by holding itself accountable to its values – honesty, transparency, and integrity as a for-profit business with a meaningful philanthropic focus.”

Anna also enjoys being involved in her community. She takes an active role in the Southwest Valley Chamber of Commerce and in the U & Improved Leadership Foundation as a Board Member. She is also an active member of the Greater Phoenix Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, the Executive Association of Greater Phoenix, and Arizona Business Leadership. She recently became a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) of Arizona to contribute in helping foster kids succeed.

Anna enjoys taking time traveling, hiking, exploring new restaurants, and immersing in self- development and spiritual activities. Most of all, she loves spending time with her family and friends, especially with her two beautiful 5-year old twin daughters, Tori and Talia.

Follow Beyond Payments on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

ABOUT YOUR HOST

Jodi Low is an accomplished corporate trainer, inspirational speaker, and the Founder and CEO of U & Improved. Jodi has trained thousands of entrepreneurs and executives on how to build a booming business, master a mindset for success, and achieve the lifestyle they desire through heart-fueled leadership.

Through U & Improved—an award-winning personal and professional leadership development company based in Scottsdale—Jodi has redefined traditional leadership training by creating a sustainable and actionable model that is personal, challenging and meaningful to each and every individual who enrolls in any of the two-and-a-half-day experiential training classes. She and her elite training team have advanced the charge in heart-based leadership
development and empower U & Improved graduates with knowledge, tools and awareness to immediately be more effective and responsive leaders at work, home and within their communities.

Among her many accomplishments as a Valley leader, Jodi launched a teen leadership program in 2014 to empower young adults to become more confident, motivated and focused stewards of our future. In 2016, she founded a non-profit arm of the company—the U & Improved Leadership Foundation—that makes the program more accessible to deserving teens.

Jodi has been recognized by industry publications and organizations for her work in leadership development and serves as a source of inspiration within the community. In 2015, she was honored as an “Outstanding Women in Business” by the Phoenix Business Journal and by the Phoenix Suns and National Bank of Arizona with the “Amazing Women” award. She has received both the prestigious “Diversity Leader of the Year” and the Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce’s “Sterling Award.” She was also awarded a Silver Stevie Award for Female Entrepreneur of the Year 2015 and was a finalist for the Junior League of Phoenix’s Valley Impact Award. Jodi is a devoted single parent who volunteers her time at her daughters’ school programs and with organizations such as Angel Mamas, where she’s served on the board for three years.

RHINO NATION Baby Bloom Nutrition with Yaffi Lvova RDN and Pro Shot Doc CEO Nicole Spracale

March 17, 2019 by Karen

Phoenix Business Radio

RHINO NATION Baby Bloom Nutrition with Yaffi Lvova RDN and Pro Shot Doc CEO Nicole Spracale

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RHINO NATION Baby Bloom Nutrition with Yaffi Lvova RDN and Pro Shot Doc CEO Nicole Spracale

Baby Bloom Nutrition provides nutrition education to help smooth the transition to parenthood. This time is rife with confusion and guilt. By providing easy-to-digest and up-to-date scientific information to the pregnant or postpartum woman, parent with a colicky or fussy baby, or parent who needs assistance with initial food introduction, I can help parents and caretakers boost confidence in the decisions they make for heir families. I provide personal or small group counseling, public speaking, and writing to assist in the following areas:

Pregnancy Nutrition
Nutrition During Breastfeeding
Nutrition for the New Mom
Colic and Fussiness
Initial Food Introduction
Selective (Picky) Eating
Allergy Management

Toddler Test Kitchen is a unique, hand-on experience. Frustrated parents can have a blast with their child while increasing confidence in both the child and the parent. This builds an important skill, while helping with selective “picky” eating tendencies! Toddler Test Kitchen geared towards, kids ages 2 to 6 years of age (recommended).

Toddler Test Kitchen will increase food acceptance for your selective eater and boost excitement for your adventurous child.

Yaffi Lvova is an experienced Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and a proud mom of twins, plus one. She created Toddler Test Kitchen as a way to introduce children to unfamiliar foods in a safe way—a way that builds confidence and self-reliance, while spending quality time with parents.

As the owner of Baby Bloom Nutrition, she works with pregnant women and new parents to increase their nutritional confidence and help smooth the transition into parenthood. Yaffi is available for public speaking and workshops, both virtual and in person. She can be reached at yaffi@babybloomnutrition.com.

Follow Baby Bloom Nutrition on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Pro Shot Doc is getting your junior high and high school athletes off the bench and into the game. We’re making sports fun again with easy to follow programs that work for any level of player. Your child will gain confidence and leadership skills while participating in an interactive community. Join us in building tomorrow’s leaders!

Nicole Spracale has over 25 years of experience in the services and technology space, focused primarily on operations, marketing and human resources. After an extensive career in corporate America which culminated with her role as the Senior Vice President of People, she decided to explore her own entrepreneurial spirit. She started her first consulting practice focused on Executive Coaching and Business Strategy, then co-launched a retail bakery before moving onto her current adventure working with early stage companies and their founders.

Today, Nicole wears two hats. In her consulting practice she serves as the Chief Strategy Officer of PowerVIsion, a firm which works with early stage businesses and their owners to put in the systems and process to grow and scale. She is also the CEO and Co-Founder of a startup, Pro Shot Doc, which is focused on helping kids get off the couch and back playing sports …. ultimately becoming more engaged and involved in their community and as future leaders.

Nicole’s personal mission is to help one-million people connect with their purpose, and then execute on their goals to create amazing organizations and communities. As a frequently requested speaker and facilitator, she is actively working each day to make her mission a reality!

Nicole holds various advanced degrees including her MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. She also holds several certifications including: Strategic Workforce Planning (HRCI), Senior Human Resources Professional, (HRCI) and the Certification for Internal Coaches (Babson
College). Additionally, she has attended the Kellogg Graduate School of Management for executive education, focusing her coursework on sales force performance, negotiation and integrated marketing communications.

She and her husband live in Tempe, Arizona with their now College-bound daughter.

Connect with Nicole on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

ABOUT RHINO NATION

Rhino Nation is a growing community of influential entrepreneurs and small business owners that share a common trait, they don’t walk, they don’t run, they CHARGE to their destiny. We acknowledge and celebrate their business expertise, leadership and fearless attitude to be victorious in their goals. Rhino Nation is committed to making powerful connections and providing enhanced exposure to broaden the reach and promote the extraordinary talents of our community members.

ABOUT YOUR SPONSOR

Rhino Online Strategies & eCreativity helps you free up your precious and limited time as a business owner, to do what you do best….running and growing your business. Michelle Faust and her partner, Jacob Fann, work with you to identify your content and marketing needs and provide you with fresh, innovative, dynamic copy that will effectively reach your target market, leading to increased customer engagement, a higher conversion rate, and increased sales.

Great content becomes the seeds of a bountiful business harvest, so you can cultivate and grow your business. We take the time to personally understand you and your company’s purpose, so your marketing message reflects who you are and speaks directly to your target market. For good content to be truly effective you need it to reach your ideal audience. A great strategic marketing plan includes the ability to target selectively and capture those targets for increased engagement which results in greater revenue generation. We’ll partner with you to develop powerful messaging strategies that work.

Michelle has an extensive background in sales, marketing and public speaking, primarily in the pharmaceutical industry. When she left her corporate career, she shifted into the entrepreneurial world, combining her experience, talents and passions to reinvent herself. As a marketer and content writer, Michelle thrives on discovering what motivates people into action and what their key emotional triggers are. Michelle and her team create powerful and targeted messaging that improve conversion rates and increase sales. Michelle loves to connect people through the power and beauty of the written word. Her passion is helping people create a road-map to success, so they can fulfill their dreams and live their destiny.

For more about Rhino Online Strategies & eCreativity find them at www.rhinostrategy.com, on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Jacob Fann is the CEO and Founder of Fanntastic Media, which has elevated over 90 businesses to a greater level of success. Gross revenues from his combined clients total over 32 million and that number continues to grow with his customized marketing strategies. He specializes in social media marketing; creating powerful brand presence, capturing new customers and finding untapped markets by optimizing target marketing and social media algorithms that results in higher conversion rates and increased sales.

Jacob first spread his entrepreneurial wings when he set up a lemonade stand in front of his home close to a popular hiking trail. Location, demand and an inherent business savviness netted him enough money to solidify his desire to be a future business owner and master of his own destiny. In 1963 Jacob’s grandfather Floyd and uncle Don founded Fann Toyota. The Fann legacy holds tradition for respected ethical practice, trust, and valued work. As a 22-year-old college graduate from Northern Arizona University, Jacob founded Fanntastic Media based on those same principles, which he learned first-hand by working in the family business.

After graduation he expanded his business knowledge and experience by getting his real estate license and working as a day trader. Since then he has built up an
impressive list of clients, connections, and relationships doing what he loves; helping people thrive in life and in business.

SCOTT-FOUNDATION THOUGHT AND SERVICE LEADERS Curt McCormick and Associates with Melissa McCormick Wise and Generation Justice with Rebecca Masterson

March 17, 2019 by Karen

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Phoenix Business Radio

SCOTT-FOUNDATION THOUGHT AND SERVICE LEADERS Curt McCormick and Associates with Melissa McCormick Wise and Generation Justice with Rebecca Masterson

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SCOTT-FOUNDATION THOUGHT AND SERVICE LEADERS Curt McCormick and Associates with Melissa McCormick Wise and Generation Justice with Rebecca Masterson

Curt McCormick & Associates, LLC is a real estate company in Scottsdale Arizona since April of 1980. We sell the entire Valley & will help you in any way possible.

Melissa McCormick Wise grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona surrounded by the real estate business. Her father, Curt McCormick, a Real Estate Broker for 45+ years has had his own company in Scottsdale for 39 years, and her mother was a Realtor for more than 15 years.

Melissa began her own real estate career with her father in 1996. She continued her real estate career in Houston when she moved there with her husband. Melissa regards “customer service” as her top priority, followed by dedication, loyalty and honesty. According to Melissa, one of the great attractions and challenges of real estate is its ever changing nature, and she makes it a priority to remain flexible when conditions necessitate this.

Are you looking for a Real Estate Team that believes in integrity & hard work? A Real Estate Team that will be there when you need them? A Real Estate Team dedicated to making your Real Estate Dreams a reality? We are a Real Estate Team that has over 67 years of combined Real Estate experience in Arizona! We look forward to speaking with you soon, Call or Text Melissa McCormick Wise at 602-432-1840 You Deserve the Very Best Customer Service & Knowledge Available When Buying & Selling Your Home!

Connect with Melissa on Facebook and McCormick Real Estate.

Generation Justice protects abandoned, abused and trafficked children through a pro bono legal network, and reforms the child protection system to prevent future injustice.

Every child has worth and is entitled to the full protection of the law. But the scales of justice provide greater protections for the criminally accused than for children. Gen Justice pioneers rights and strengthens protections for child victims.

Rebecca Masterson, an experienced attorney, consultant and entrepreneur, was the first to join Generation Justice in 2017.

While litigating at one of Phoenix’s busiest litigation and trial firms, Rebecca was named a Super Lawyers Rising Star and invited for membership into Arizona’s Finest Lawyers. After several years in the court room, she founded a successful boutique firm, specializing in special education and disability law. She continues to be a sought-after speaker and panelist about the legal rights of disabled children under state and federal laws.

Rebecca is a published writer and creator of the popular blog, Sincerely Becca. She is a small business owner, a volunteer lawyer for foster children with disabilities, and the mom to two teen boys.

Follow Generation Justice on Facebook and Twitter.

ABOUT THE THOUGHT & SERVICE LEADER Podcast and Scott-Foundation

Scott-Foundation has big aspirations and a different path for Arizona foster youth. They imagine a journey that changes the face of humanity and inspires their kids to be their absolute best today while making tomorrow’s world a much better place for all. They imagine an education and societal system focused on the power of community rather than competition; and they imagine a world where children are taught we are not separate, but instead, we are all a part of something much bigger than ourselves – we are one.

Scott-Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that invests in the future of Arizona foster youth who wish to make the world better than they found it. The foundation produces year-round experiential programming that highlights, inspires and educate youth on the importance of social emotional well-being, while mindfully developing their heart and purposeful career path.

WHAT DO YOU LEAVE BEHIND? What kind of person do you want to be? Life/Legacy Plan – What is the history of your future? How can you make the world better than you found it?

Motivated by tragedy, youth transform to find their true self and become self- supporting, successful, community-minded, “compassionate people”.

ABOUT YOUR HOSTS

Autumn Wilson has proudly stepped into the Community Relations Specialist position with Scott-Foundation as well as continued work as a Thought & Service Leader and Mentor.

Having been in the foster care system since she was 3, she began her Scott-Foundation journey at 15 and her passion is “helping others”. Things that make her the happiest is her sisters, helping people and “knowing” she will never be like the people who hurt her.

She describes herself as brave, courageous and kind. Her challenge is trust, very hard to do, and her biggest fear is being left alone, being lonely and empty.

Her direction in life has always been very clear for her since she was little, with a dream to be an Inspirational Public Speaker and possibly a Therapist advocating for kids in foster care. She’s grown a lot since she’s been with Scott-Foundation and very quickly declared her wish to take the Founder & CEO of the Scott-Foundation’s position, Colleen Walski.

If she could make one rule that everyone in the world had to obey, it would be – “Everyone would be caring.”

When asked how she wants to help the world, Autumn shares, “I want to make it safer, better for us to live in. I want everyone to know there are people that are out there and care about them.”

Her future is bright with career interests of being a Thought & Service Leader, Public Speaker, helping others use their voice, being there for others, making her mark on the world and by making Scott-Foundation’s worldwide and breaking the cycle of foster care.

SarahAnn Goree, Thought & Service Leader & Mentor. Her Scott-Foundation journey began at 14 and her passion is helping others in need, drama club and writing. She is happiest when she is helping her siblings and others; and loves being together with them.

She describes herself as nice, funny, caring, loving and terrific. Her challenge is depression and bad memories along with her eye sight. Her biggest fear is not being able to feel and control her emotions.

Heading into her third year she has found her gift of “love that guides her to stay strong as a growing leader. Her future is bright with career interests of starting a band, dancing, singing and acting, writing, public speaking and helping other foster kids. Her wish for the future is to be successful and help others. She wants to be an actress with a message of peace and nonviolence.

Follow Scott-Foundation on Facebook.

Decision Vision Episode 5: Should We Use Data Analytics in Our Business? – An Interview with Angela Culver, Mobile Labs, and Micky Long, Arketi Group

March 7, 2019 by John Ray

Decision Vision

Decision Vision Episode 5: Should We Use Data Analytics in Our Business? - An Interview with Angela Culver, Mobile Labs, and Micky Long, Arketi Group

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**Angela Culver, Micky Long, and Michael Blake**

Should We Use Data Analytics in Our Business?

It’s a question for which all businesses should have an affirmative answer. Businesses large and small have all the means to collect and store significant amount of data on every aspect on their business. In this interview with Decision Vision host Michael Blake, Angela Culver and Micky Long argue that business success in coming years will be determined by a company’s ability to analyze the data they collect.

Angela Culver, Mobile Labs

Angela Culver is the Chief Marketing Officer of Mobile Labs. Since the first install in 2012, Mobile Labs remains the leading supplier of in-house mobile device clouds that connect remote, shared smartphones and tablets to Global 2000 mobile web, gaming, and app engineering teams. The company’s patented GigaFox™ is offered on-premises or hosted, and solves mobile device sharing and management challenges that arise during development, debugging, manual testing, and automated testing. A pre-installed and pre-configured Appium server with custom tools provides “instant on” Appium test automation. GigaFox enables scheduling, collaboration, user management, security, mobile DevOps, and continuous automated testing for mobility teams spread across the globe and can connect cloud devices to an industry-leading number of third-party tools such as XCode, Android Studio, and many commercial test automation tools. For more information please visit www.mobilelabsinc.com.

Micky Long, Arketi Group

Micky Long is Vice President and Practice Director, Lead Nurturing at Arketi Group. Arketi Group is a public relations and digital marketing firm that helps business-to-business technology organizations accelerate growth through intelligent strategy, public relations, messaging, branding and demand generation. Consistently recognized by Chief Marketer magazine as one of the nation’s “B2B Top Shops” and a “Chief Marketer 200” firm, Arketi helps its clients use marketing to generate revenue. Companies benefiting from this approach to B2B marketing include Cox, First Data, Featurespace, Mobile Labs, NCR and Snapfulfil. For more information, call 404-929-0091 ext. 210 or visit www.arketi.com.

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. Mike is also a specialist in the appraisal of intellectual properties as stand-alone assets, such as software, trade secrets, and patents.

He 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 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:

Intro: [00:00:01] Welcome to Decision Vision, a podcast series focusing on critical business decisions, brought to you by Brady Ware & Company. Brady Ware is a regional, full-service accounting and advisory firm that helps businesses and entrepreneurs make visions a reality.

Michael Blake: [00:00:22] And welcome back to Decision Vision, a podcast giving you, the listener, clear vision to make great decisions. In each episode, we will discuss the process of decision making on a different topic. Rather than making recommendations because everyone’s circumstances are different, we will talk to subject matter experts about how they would recommend thinking about that decision.

Michael Blake: [00:00:41] Hi. 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, which is where we are recording today. Brady Ware is sponsoring this podcast. If you like this podcast, please subscribe on your favorite podcast aggregator, and please consider leaving a review of the podcast as well.

Michael Blake: [00:01:06] And, today, we’re going to talk about making customer data analytics an integral part of your business. And this is a topic that, I think, we’re only, as a community, as an economy, scratching the surface of. American society sort of runs away from math. We kind of run away from numbers. We know what the educational data are out there in terms of our general math capability, but the fact of the matter is, now, if you’re running away from numbers, you’re running away from business. And like it or not, if you want to be successful, you’ve got to get comfortable with data analytics, with data collection, with data science.

Michael Blake: [00:01:52] But that’s an intimidating decision because what I’ve observed – and we have experts here that will say if this is right or not – people are having to fundamentally change how they are thinking about their businesses. They’re changing their business models based on data analytics, and they’ve had to move towards kind of a fact-based, scientifically-driven decision making process that the age of, sort of, the crusty executive that just flies by the seat of their pants and makes gut decisions, takes gut decisions on major points of interests or points of issue, that is rapidly disappearing. So, this is a very interesting topic, a very important topic, and one that I hope that you, as a listener, will listen to very carefully.

Michael Blake: [00:02:37] A little bit of data here. With predictions that by 2020, there will be 1.7 megabytes of data created for every person on earth every second. I’m old enough to remember one when all the data would fit on a half of a megabyte floppy disk. I still have a computer that does that. And now that that data is being created at that rapid rate, there’s no doubt that we’re in the age of data-driven business.

Michael Blake: [00:03:08] Businesses of all sizes, all markets, and all customer types simply must get a handle on the information generated by business transactions, internet behavior, and simple day-to-day activity. Those who understand and find ways to manage this endless and growing data flow will flourish. Those who don’t are destined to drown. And I couldn’t agree with that more.

Michael Blake: [00:03:30] We’re being joined by two guests today. Our first guest, not concurrently, but I’m just going left to right as I sort of see across the microphone, is Angela Culver. Since the first install in 2012, Mobile Labs remains the leading supplier of in-house mobile device clouds that connect remote shared smartphones and tablets to global 2000 mobile web gaming and app engineering teams.

Michael Blake: [00:03:55] The company’s patent of GigaFox is offered on premises or hosted and sells mobile device sharing and management challenges that arise during development, debugging manual testing and automated testing, a pre-installed and pre-configured IPM server with custom tools, provides instant-on IPM test automation. GigaFox enables scheduling, collaboration, user management, security, mobile dev ops, and continuous automated testing for mobility teams spread across the globe and can connect cloud devices to an industry-leading number of third-party tools such as Xcode, Android Studio, and many commercial test automation tools. Angela, thanks for joining us today.

Angela Culver: [00:04:35] Thank you.

Michael Blake: [00:04:36] We’re also being joined by Micky Long of Arketi Group. Arketi Group is a public relations and digital marketing firm that helps business-to-business technology organizations accelerate growth through intelligent strategy, public relations messaging, branding, and demand generation. Consistently recognized by Chief Marketer Magazine as one of the nation’s B2B Top Shops and a Chief Marketer 200 Firm, Arketi helps its clients use marketing to generate revenue. Companies benefiting from this approach to B2B marketing include Cox, FirstData, Featurespace, Mobile Labs, NCR, and Snapfulfil. Micky, thanks for joining us.

Micky Long: [00:05:14] You’re welcome. Glad to be here.

Michael Blake: [00:05:16] So, you guys are tag teaming today. You guys, obviously, had a relationship. Talk about that relationship. How did it start? How are you guys working together?

Micky Long: [00:05:26] You want to go first?

Angela Culver: [00:05:28] So, I actually inherited Arketi. I joined Mobile Labs about four months ago, and they were the agency of hire. I know one of the founders of Arketi. He’s been in my network for quite some time and was, actually, introduced to Mobile Labs through Mike Neumeier. I’m a data-driven marketer. Mike is all about numbers as well. He has built a practice, a marketing agency practice around that. So, there has definitely been synergy. I met Micky about four months ago. And we’ve had a great relationship. He is one of the drivers. I see him and his team as my extended marketing team, and they help me execute almost on daily tasks for what we need to get done.

Micky Long: [00:06:22] Yeah. As you say, we are a company that believes in the data. Everything we do is built around data. And having Angela at Mobile Labs has been really refreshing because with her approach, it really, really works much better than if you’re dealing with an organization that perhaps doesn’t have the same focus and commitment to making the data work for you.

Micky Long: [00:06:40] So, marketing has changed. Marketing over the years goes back to the way — I go back as far as to say I remember the days when marketing and advertising was built around I know that of every dollar I spend, I’m going to waste 50 cents of it, but I just don’t know which 50 cents. Well, those days are really gone. We have the tools, we have the data streams, we have all those things today that we can measure it. We just, now, have to figure out how to put it into practice and make it work.

Michael Blake: [00:07:05] Yeah, that’s a great point. So, I’ve heard that expression before. I mean, that’s just not acceptable anymore to say you’re going to waste 50% of your money, right?

Angela Culver: [00:07:14] Yeah.

Michael Blake: [00:07:14] But it wasn’t that long ago when that was sort of considered acceptable losses, right? But, now, for most well-run businesses, if you tell somebody, “Hey, look, I need $5000. We’ll do well to get 2500 bucks of value of.” You’ll be laughed at out of their office at this point, right?

Angela Culver: [00:07:33] Absolutely.

Michael Blake: [00:07:33] For most mature businesses, right?

Micky Long: [00:07:35] Right.

Michael Blake: [00:07:35] There are others, I’m sure, that haven’t gotten the program yet. So, where’s this data coming from? Data is hitting us from everywhere. I’ve got Amazon Echoes in my house, I’ve got a smart home, I’ve got cameras every place. Pretty much anybody on the planet who wants to know anything about my habits, they know it all, right. Where’s the data that you’re working with coming from?

Angela Culver: [00:08:03] So, we’re inundated with data. It truly is coming from all different sources. Everything that we do is tracked, essentially. My iRobot tracks and mops my house and becomes more intelligent on how it needs to vacuum my floors. Your Echo tracks your behaviors and delivers products to you that is more succinct with what you want.

Angela Culver: [00:08:38] It really is coming from everywhere. We are in a situation where we are living in a world, especially in business, where the mindset is the more data I have, the more I rule the world. And we’re about to take a bit of a shift with this. It’s no longer how much data you have. It’s how you use that data and why you’re using that data. And we’re starting to see that shift happen where our big data is just too big for us to manage and for us to actually use intelligently. And, now, we’ve got to focus on the quality of the data.

Micky Long: [00:09:17] It seems to me it’s kind of gotten to the point now there is so much data available. It’s like living in a library where all the books are in a foreign language.

Angela Culver: [00:09:25] Yes.

Michael Blake: [00:09:26] Right? And there’s so much of it that you cannot possibly use at all. And 20 years ago, companies would be begging for this kind of data. They thought they died and gone to whatever heaven it is they believe in. And, now, it’s an embarrassment of riches. They’re so much coming from all sides. Is it fair to say the first step is kind of wrestling that steer to the ground, and hog tying it, and just trying to organize it?

Micky Long: [00:09:56] I think you have to start with the goals of your own business. And this is where we see because we deal with a lot of companies helping them try to figure this out. And what we typically find is companies start at — Usually, they start at step two or three. And what is missing is the initial step of saying, “Okay, I’ve got all these data streams, but what from a business standpoint do I really want to accomplish with this? What can I do? What do I want to do? Assume I have everything, but what do I want to do?”

Micky Long: [00:10:22] And figure a plan based on that because once you have your strategy, then you can plug in what you’ve got. If you don’t do that, you go back to sort of just thrashing about. And we see a lot of thrashing. Companies have not really mastered that yet. That’s one of the things that we’re working with Angela is to figure out how the process is supposed to work. So, I think that’s the key. That’s the first step you’ve got to look at.

Michael Blake: [00:10:43] So, is there a particular kind of data that you find is the most often overlooked? There’s just a goldmine sitting right there in front of people. They just walk by it every day, not realizing they’re walking past a goldmine.

Angela Culver: [00:10:55] Yes. So, especially in B2B, one of the most overlooked data sources or types of data is emotional and behavior data. From a marketer, we all buy from people. We buy products. And for the longest time in B2B, there was a sense that there was no emotion in the buy. There’s always emotion in the buy because you are buying into a relationship with another organization, and you’ve got an entry point of the person.

Angela Culver: [00:11:28] Tracking that type of information, it’s been difficult. It’s much like unstructured data. We’re inundated today with unstructured data. Figuring out how to manage it is a bit reminisce of about 20 years ago, 15-20 years ago, of how you manage transactional data. Everybody wanted very structured data, non-changing. It stayed essentially in its format and didn’t it morph into something else like transactional data. And, now, we’re looking at that in an unstructured data. But within the unstructured data, the gold mine is understanding how to use the emotional behavior components.

Michael Blake: [00:12:17] All right. So, you said something really cool I want to come back to because I think there’s a very important vocabulary point, but this notion of of emotional data is really fascinating. And I’m in finance, and emotions have finally worked its way into what I do. It’s called behavioral economics or behavioral finance where academics and I are asking, “Well, what if everybody doesn’t make the right decision all the time?” Well, we never thought of that. Well, let’s start thinking about that.

Michael Blake: [00:12:43] Is emotional data, is it as simple as, “It’s 10:00 at night, and I stress eat, so I know I’m going to Taco Bell,” or is it, “I’m more likely to make impulse purchase because I’m depressed or I’m an insomniac. I’m up 2:30 in the morning watching QVC or Home Shopping Network”? Is it as simple as that or is it — Where else does that kind of show up?

Micky Long: [00:13:07] From my perspective, one of the things that is really interesting is you, now, with the tools and the ability, you have the ability to track behavior enough that I’ll eventually know more about you than you know about yourself. So, I know what behavior you take. And we often tell people, and this is somewhat overlooked when you’re looking at just crunching the numbers, if you want to find out what people are about sometimes, one of the easiest ways to is to ask them because from a behavioral standpoint, they’ll tell you. If you ask the right questions, they’ll tell you.

Micky Long: [00:13:35] A lot of companies we work with will do why they won analysis of sales, but what they don’t do is they don’t do the loss sale analysis. They don’t say, “Why did somebody either did not buy my product in favor of somebody else’s or just not buy anything at all?” And knowing that information to balance that scale is critical if you want to drive additional sales from learning what the behavior was that was going on in your prospect’s mind when they made the purchase decision, or they didn’t make a purchase decision.

Michael Blake: [00:14:02] And that requires behavioral changes of itself, right, because a big part of what I do is in sales, and learning a new engagement candidly is an endorphin rush. I like it. I never thought I’d enjoy sales as much as I do because I’m a natural introvert. My wife always says if they ever do a Mars mission, I’m going to be first one. Like I’m going to be a tin can with no way to talk to for seven months.

Angela Culver: [00:14:28] Yeah.

Michael Blake: [00:14:28] I am in. Radiation be damned, but that on the other side, it’s human nature to focus on the positive. But as Bill Gates is famous for saying, “Success is a lousy teacher. It’s learning from the places where you failed,” but that’s hard to do. So [crosstalk].

Micky Long: [00:14:45] I think, you learn more about it from why you failed if you really look at it that way because, again, we all believe that what we’re selling is wonderful, and it solves a problem for people, and what have you, and everybody should buy it, but not everybody does. So, learning why they didn’t is really the key thing. To me, that’s the most interesting data points that you can pull out of things. And, now, with the tools we have, we don’t have to do a one-to-one conversation each time. The behavior is out there for us to kind of measure and pull together. And it makes it much easier.

Michael Blake: [00:15:16] But, as a company or as a decision maker, you’ve got to have the courage to dive into the failure.

Angela Culver: [00:15:23] Absolutely.

Michael Blake: [00:15:23] And I think, Angela, you’ve told me stories about that with people that have basically made that kind of change in terms of their attitudes and approaches to things that it really drives it.

Angela Culver: [00:15:34] Yes. Emotional type of data can be seen as abstract. And I’ve learned over the years, I started off my career in technology and business intelligence, BI tools. And I went through the dot com boom, and then immediately the bust. And I realized very quickly that in order to keep my job, I had to become a data scientist. And then, I had to teach my team and my customers how to be that as well. One thing I realized is that marketing has really started taking this shift.

Angela Culver: [00:16:10] I seem to take it probably a little earlier than most folks, but, now, everyone needs to be a data scientist in marketing. And I use the scientific, basically, approach. I create a hypothesis, I formulate what my end result is going to be, I use math to manage and monitor that result that I’m anticipating. And with emotional behavior data, you’ve got to do the same thing. You’ve got to understand how you’re going to use it to make business decisions, and you’ve got to put a stake in the ground to start with. I find that a lot of people find this intimidating initially until they start working through this process. And it is all about a process, putting a process in place.

Michael Blake: [00:17:02] So, you mentioned something a little while back, but I think it’s important vocabulary, structured versus unstructured data.

Angela Culver: [00:17:09] Yes.

Michael Blake: [00:17:09] What does that mean? What is the difference?

Angela Culver: [00:17:11] So, unstructured data would be e-mail, or Slack messages, or Instagram feeds, or video content where you’re — I’m going to throw another word out there, where you’re managing it through metadata, which is essentially data about data. You’re giving a description. But the core information content is not in a table column field format that’s easy to search on. You’re doing more of a, I would say, free-form find and search.

Micky Long: [00:17:52] And the tools are getting better. And there’s a lot of the — We’re starting to see the prominence of artificial intelligence coming into data management and things like that that are giving us the ability to sort of go after this unstructured data and start to pull it together in ways that we didn’t have before. But it’s still early stage on that. But it’s a matter — You still have to do both because there’s a lot of unstructured data that factors into the process that you’ve got to consider.

Michael Blake: [00:18:15] And that unstructured data has a lot of really cool stuff. It’s harder to use because it’s unstructured. But like so many things, the thing that’s most valuable requires the most effort to monetize. So, yeah, I suspect almost anybody who’s listening to this podcast has read an article, Harvard Business Review, McKinsey Quarterly, whatever it is, you got to get on data. You got to get on data. Does that apply to any sized company? Like if I’m a small, three-person, graphic design shop, do I need to get on top of data, or is this something that only applies to the NCRs of the world, the Coxes of the world, and so forth?

Angela Culver: [00:19:02] Yes. Everybody needs to have an understanding of their data. You’re not too small. You’re definitely not too big. The biggest challenge I’ve seen over the course of my career is that companies start too late. They start during a growth acceleration period. And at that point, they don’t have the historical data captured to help them make decisions to properly forecast on growth. How many leads they need to have? How many leads turn into sales opportunities that, then, turn into closed one? They’re having to back step, and capture the data, and hoping that their intuition is going to guide them in the right direction while they’re going through growth acceleration.

Angela Culver: [00:19:50] So, I believe you start the minute that you open your company doors. Do you have to have so much sophisticated technology? No. You can start with a spreadsheet, but you have to have a plan. That’s the number one thing that you have to go to the table with is having a data management plan. And you need to be looking at where you need to go two quarters from now, but also a year from now, versus five years, so that you can grow and manage your data strategy according to the company growth.

Michael Blake: [00:20:27] It’s a whole lot easier when you’re small.

Angela Culver: [00:20:29] Yeah.

Micky Long: [00:20:30] Yeah.

Michael Blake: [00:20:30] … than when you get bigger.

Micky Long: [00:20:30] That’s right. It really is. And so, if you get the right things, it’s like a lot of other things, if you set the discipline up on the early stage, and you put the processes in place that are going to drive it, it’s a whole lot easier than trying to come back and backfill as Angela mentioned when you get larger or when you’re going through a growth stage. That’s a challenge.

Michael Blake: [00:20:50] I don’t know this for sure, but it makes intuitive sense. As you grow the data inflows become exponentially greater, right? And it’s just it’s harder to wrestle that loose firehose off the ground and do something with it. You haven’t developed habits. And then, I’m guessing, I do a lot of work with startups, when you do hit that high growth, when you haven’t put in that discipline of data analytics yet, it’s hard to kind of stop and make yourself do that when you have five prospects wanting to get a proposal right away, right?

Angela Culver: [00:21:22] Absolutely.

Michael Blake: [00:21:22] And the next thing you know, it just never gets done. Until then, it becomes such a big problem you can never tackle, right?

Micky Long: [00:21:27] Yeah. Let me give you a really, really quick example of what you were just talking about. A lot of companies spend a good bit of time trying to make sure they capture their information about prospects into a program like Salesforce. If they don’t have the discipline set up on the early stage to identify, “How are we going to manage the titles of these prospects that we’re using or the functions of these prospects?” and they allow that to go on for a while, you could end up-

Michael Blake: [00:21:54] We had a client, for example, and a couple of years back that will remain nameless that when we went in to try to find out how to segment to do a better job of marketing, they had 375 different types of titles in their Salesforce program because they never forced their salespeople to consolidate. So, if I was the vice president of stuff in my organization, that’s what went into Salesforce. But the vice president of stuff is not really something that you could really sort on.

Micky Long: [00:22:24] So, the reality is as it gets larger, and as your database gets larger, this company had 100,000 people in their database when we started to look at this. It was a phenomenal problem, a very expensive problem to fix. So, if you start early, and put the discipline process in place early, when you have 25 people or 100 people, it’s a whole lot easier to deal with.

Michael Blake: [00:22:45] Yeah. Our firm is a case study as well. We’re starting to go back now and trying to understand basic things about our clients. What industries are they in? And can we associate them with [makes] codes, so we can start doing some kind of categorization, and some geographic analysis, and income levels, very basic stuff.

Michael Blake: [00:23:05] But we’ve been in business 60 years. The easiest thing to do is to cache that stuff and make people put that on the client intake form. But then, you try to go back and capture. You’re trying to ask a partner who’s building it 400 bucks an hour, and it’s busy tax season. Like, “Hey, can you verify these 80 different clients?” Like, “No, I can’t. I mean, I understand you need this data, but I’m not going to tell — which client do I tell their tax return doesn’t get filed because I’ve responded to your data request.” It’s because 65 years ago, nobody thought about this. But, now, we have to go back. It does become 10 times harder.

Michael Blake: [00:23:42] But let’s say you do have a clean slate, and start a company called Donut Shop. What’s the most — What are the pitfalls or how do I get started? Sorry, this. How do I get started doing that, right? I think about data, open the door day one. What’s my to-do list?

Angela Culver: [00:24:04] So, I always advise people to start with the company goals. What are your company goals? What are you trying to achieve within this first calendar year? And then, how do you need to make those decisions whether it’s successful, failure, or neutral? And then, from there, start building an alignment with the type of data that you need to help you manage to those goals.

Angela Culver: [00:24:35] Data is not the only thing that you’re using as a resource, but it should be one that allows you to create predictability. Most of our data is still historical. So, if you’re just starting, then you really need to identify your company goals, so that you can start mapping. And a lot of times, I advise people to start with a free technology. Start with a spreadsheet and just start identifying some of those metrics that will help you move towards that.

Angela Culver: [00:25:09] Being in marketing, I focus more on that. So, I’m looking at, what is it going to cost me to acquire a customer? What’s my cost per lead? What are my retention rates? How many products am I selling by month, by quarter? Do I have any slow periods? What is the actual selling price on average, and the time for payback as well? Not just marketing but overall cost of the company. Those are some fundamentals that I look at initially. As you drill down, you’ll see that you have website metrics that roll up to that. You’ll have advertising metrics that roll up to that. But it all starts with company goals. Micky, what do you think?

Micky Long: [00:25:59] Yeah, you have to have them. And the other part of this is you can’t go too far too fast. What I mean by that is you have to — I would say the way I would put it is you have to figure out the appetite of your company for this because if you try to bite off too much and go way down the path, you’re not going to win. You’re not going to be able to do it, and you get frustrated, and somebody’s going to throw up their hands and say, “Well, that was a wasted exercise.” And it isn’t. It’s just that you tried to do too much. So, the idea of having a plan based on your business goals and taking steps along the way, so you create milestones is really the way to sort of do it in stages, so that you’re not trying to eat the elephant all at one time. So, that’s an important consideration.

Michael Blake: [00:26:40] So, there’s something to be said about being incremental and that-

Angela Culver: [00:26:42] Yes.

Micky Long: [00:26:42] Absolutely, absolutely.

Michael Blake: [00:26:43] Otherwise, you’re so intimidating, like, “Yeah.” You’re just sort of-.

Micky Long: [00:26:44] And if you try to do too much too fast, this is where you run into problems with something that nobody from the marketing side, anyway, wants to hear about, which is the data quality issues. So, that’s a real problem for clients now, for companies that are trying to deal with this because as the data flow comes in, and this data gets into their systems, if it’s not set up right the first way, if it’s not cleaned regularly, what you’re going to end up with is the dirty data issue, which costs companies millions of dollars to sort of struggle through. And that’s a big problem that it’s out there because if you run it too fast, you’re not going to have the discipline to sort of figure it out.

Micky Long: [00:27:22] So, I could be in your system as Micky Long, Micky L. Long, M. Long, or something else, and how do you know it’s all the same person? So, if you don’t have those things figured out, the tools and the processes, you’re not going to get there. So, you really have to make sure that you put the emphasis on ensuring that the data that you have in your system is clean. That’s a big consideration.

Michael Blake: [00:27:44] And the data collection itself, I think, to a degree, needs to be non-intrusive too, right? I’m old enough to remember RadioShack. And RadioShack used to be able to get cool stuff. I want to fix my TV, I want to get a remote-controlled car, you go to RadioShack. But, golly, the thing I always dreaded was that they would insist on taking my phone number every time I went in. Every time, which meant they took it. So, they wanted it, presumably, to know the geographic distribution of their customers, but they never hung onto it. There’s nothing — And, I think, the technology is not available that there is a central database to which they could connect, right?

Michael Blake: [00:28:30] If you think about it, if we had that barrier to kind of mechanically cough up our data every time we bought something, we’d never buy anything. We’d all live on some sort of agricultural economy and just share things with each other because the time costs of going into Kroger, and share, and getting our blood drawn is just not worth it, right?

Angela Culver: [00:28:49] Yeah.

Micky Long: [00:28:50] But the reality of that is I often had this this conversation with my kids, there is more data about you, and there are more people out there that know more about you than you’ll ever imagine. So, we’ve given up a lot of our data freedom, if you will, because of the exchanges we made. So, the reality in my mind is it’s there. Why can’t companies put it together and make sense of it? So, why can’t I walk into a Publix or a Kroger, and as I’m walking down the aisle with my mobile phone, have them immediately start feeding me offers about the dog food that I bought last time I was in the store or the competitor’s dog food with a special opportunity to try it?

Michael Blake: [00:29:29] All of that exists. All of that data is there at all of the stores. This is what Angela’s company does is help companies with these mobile applications. So, the applications are there. The data streams are there. Why haven’t they put it together? That’s, I guess, the big question is, why haven’t they figured out how to join A to B to create a really strong environment? Because they build better customer interactions that way, along with higher revenue.

Michael Blake: [00:29:54] Is part of it because maybe the data tools themselves are just prohibitively expensive, intimidating?

Angela Culver: [00:30:01] So, intimidation is probably one key. So, if we just look at MarTech alone, in 2018, there were over 8000 types of technology in this space. So, if you look at the Loomis Escape, you need a magnifying glass to actually see the logos now on the sheet. About five years ago, I think, we were at about 600 companies. So, the space has grown considerably. So, there’s more options than you know what to do with.

Angela Culver: [00:30:33] And a lot of companies start with, “Okay. I’ve got this huge dataset. I know I have all the answers in this dataset. So, I need to run out and buy the technology to support that, and be able to mine it, and digest it.” The problem is they start with the how. They go out and buy this complex system, multiple systems, integrated together, but they never really understand why they’re doing it and what they’re trying to solve for.

Angela Culver: [00:31:03] So, they put in these systems. They’ve got the technology to find the answer, but they don’t know what the answer they’re looking for. So then, they start breaking it apart and going backwards. So, we see this shift in companies quite a bit just because they didn’t start with the plan initially to figure out what they wanted. So, if I went into a grocery store, and they had an aisle that said, “Angela, here’s all the products you want. And this is what you typically buy,” or they packed my bags for me, they have all that information, and they could manage that if they wanted to create that type of a customer experience for their customers.

Micky Long: [00:31:50] Amazon’s doing it. You look at what Amazon does. When you go to Amazon, you buy something from Amazon. And so, for the next lifetime, you’re going to get recommendations from Amazon based on the products you’re buying. So, they’re using that same kind of technology with the data from previous sales to give you a better user experience. And that’s what it’s all about is trying to make the user feel more comfortable, more personal, and more engaged with the brand of the company.

Micky Long: [00:32:14] And that goes across, I think, companies from the three-person company that starting out as a very boutique-oriented company to a large organization. It’s trying to just keep things going in the middle of the road. So, whether you’re large or small, you really want to build that brand. So, it’s all about customer experience.

Michael Blake: [00:32:32] Now, there’s the tool out there. And that makes sense. I mean, if you have a mismatch tools, it’s like buying a Tesla. And then, all of a sudden, realizing you really like to do off-road stuff, and you think it’s the Tesla’s fault, right.

Angela Culver: [00:32:45] yeah.

Michael Blake: [00:32:46] Well, it’s not. You just you didn’t buy a truck. So, the other side of the coin is the skills, right?

Angela Culver: [00:32:54] Right.

Michael Blake: [00:32:54] Not everybody has taken a course in statistics. And many who did like me 20 years ago in my MBA diploma’s in a caved wall in France someplace, I don’t necessarily remember it. How do you get up to speed or how do you hire for that, find somebody that can make sense of that data and interpret it in a way that becomes useful business information?

Angela Culver: [00:33:16] So, when I’m hiring someone into a marketing operations role, which is traditionally where my data scientists, or analytics person or persons would sit, I am looking for someone that has a science and math mind, and they have a natural curiosity to solve problems with numbers. They’re usually linear in thought, but they’re very flexible to creative ideas. So, they’re a bit different than a financial person that you would see doing accounting or working in the finance department. But I found if — I have discovered that if I find someone that has a knack for science and really likes math, then they can learn the technology and be successful in this job.

Micky Long: [00:34:12] I think, you got to find somebody — Forgive the term. You have to find some that’s a little geeky, somebody that really gets excited over data, the kind of person that kind of runs out of their office and says, “Look what I found,” when they put these two things together, but they really have to I think have a passion for it because if you really want to see what the insights are, you’re looking for something, as you said for that, you want that curiosity, that deep curiosity that says, “If I put A and B together with 1 and 4, what I’m going to show you is this is something you never thought of before, and this is going to help drive our business in a different direction or a different way.”.

Micky Long: [00:34:43] To me, that’s nirvana. That’s what you really want to get out of this is to be able to take these things together in ways people haven’t thought of and say. “That’s going to put us in a new direction. That’s going to really, really light some fires under the sales team to get some high revenue coming in.” And it happens every day. You just have to have the right people.

Michael Blake: [00:35:00] And that sounds a lot like what Angela was describing in terms of that like hybrid of flexibility and linearity. You need the flexibility and creativity to ask the right questions, but then the linearity to answer the question in a process-driven way-

Angela Culver: [00:35:13] Absolutely.

Michael Blake: [00:35:14] … so, that the statistics are meaningful? right?

Angela Culver: [00:35:16] Yes.

Michael Blake: [00:35:16] If we don’t do that, then you get gobbledygook basically.

Micky Long: [00:35:19] Right.

Michael Blake: [00:35:24] What do most companies miss? What are companies most missing out on in data management? What do you think is the most frequent opportunity or biggest opportunity they’re missing out on?

Angela Culver: [00:35:33] I think to go back to when they get started, I think that is a miss that I see quite a bit in a lot of companies where they’re starting too late. They don’t set it as a priority earlier in the business when it can have a huge impact. They’re not treating data as an asset from day one. And that’s a potential mess.

Micky Long: [00:36:02] Yeah. I see two things. Number one, they take the approach that’s incorrect, which is that this is a marathon, it’s not a sprint. You have to be able to do this and have the discipline to do this over the long haul, and not do this as, “Oh, let’s try this for a couple of months. And if it doesn’t quite work, we’ll go back and do something else.” That’s one thing.

Micky Long: [00:36:18] And the other thing is it’s not a marketing exercise for the most part, it’s a revenue exercise, which means you can’t just sort of take the data streams coming in and say, “That’s the prevalence of the marketing organization.” You’ve got to join marketing and sales together for this thing to really work. And that’s something that is still a challenge.

Micky Long: [00:36:36] I remember back in the day when marketing automation tools first started. It was supposed to be the answer to all of our prayers. It was going to be marketing and sales were now, finally, going to get together, and sing Kumbaya around the campfire, and we’re all going to do everything together. And we’re still trying to put marketing and sales people together. And it’s been at least 10 years since that started. So, why has that not happened? It’s because we still have issues. They’re the people issues. They’re not tool issues.

Micky Long: [00:37:00] So, the reality of it is you’ve got to look at this thing holistically and say, “It’s a business issue, not so much that.” So, that’s what people miss, in my mind, that are big things that they don’t look at. It’s the integration.

Michael Blake: [00:37:10] So, do you have a favorite data success story, something really wonderful, spectacular you’ve found that you just did not expect to find in a data exercise?

Angela Culver: [00:37:20] I have two actually. I was working for a company a few years back, and part of what I was hired to do was to increase the brand equity of the company in a relatively short period of time. And when I got into the company, the brand colors were predominantly green and red. And after looking at the customer base, I realized that 80% were male, most of them were between the age of 35 to 50, and 1:10 were color blind, red/green colorblind. So-

Michael Blake: [00:37:59] Oh, yeah. I’ve heard of that statistic. Yeah.

Angela Culver: [00:38:00] Yeah. So, our ads, the call to action were either highlighted in red or green. And the company was losing almost a half a million dollars in advertising cost due to the end user not being able to see the call to action. So, I went into the leadership team, said, “We need to change the brand colors,” presented my data, and within seconds had the approval to change the brand colors. I changed from red/green to essentially green/yellow, citron. And we immediately saw an uptick in the brand value. We went from about 16% to a 25%, which is unheard of, especially with a tech company. So, I wouldn’t have been able to do that without the data.

Micky Long: [00:39:03] So, I can give you one that’s a really simple one hasn’t having to do with database size and the quality of data we talked about before. I had a client that had a base of 100,000 people, and they were doing the classic marketing e-mails and things like that to try to get them in place, and they were having miserable returns, miserable e-mail open rates, and all those statistics you look at. So, what we did was we started doing an analysis. And what we found was there was a large group of these 100,000 that had never opened an email, had never engaged with it, and had never done anything for them.

Michael Blake: [00:39:36] So, what we tried was something very revolutionary for that company, which is we said, “Let’s ignore that 75,000 people in your database that have never touched anything. Just don’t send e-mail to them. Don’t think about them when you’re crafting your messages, and concentrate only on that smaller group, and really refine that smaller group to see what we could do.”.

Michael Blake: [00:39:56] And as you might expect, what’s happening is the company is now seeing a tremendous return on the investment against that smaller group of people. And, now, with better messages and better approaches, they can start to expand out to other people that are like that. And the 75,000 that never did anything, they still sit there, and we don’t do anything with them.

Michael Blake: [00:40:14] So, the reality is it’s a matter of concentrating on the people that are likely to do something and ignore the ones that don’t. And I would predict that most companies, if not all companies, have that same situation in place.

Angela Culver: [00:40:25] We have been dealing with email within our support group. We track at mobile apps, all our support tickets. And we actually get a little worried if we’re not receiving support tickets from our customers because, typically, they’re not using the product daily. One set of support tickets we’ve realized has helped us educate and improve the functionality of the product. So, within our product, we use iPads, telephones, mobile devices. They come in at all different versions. So, you’ll have an iPhone 6, an iPhone 8, and they’re plugged in 24 hours a day.

Angela Culver: [00:41:15] After a certain period of time, you will start seeing battery bloating. And it will slow down the performance of actually testing a mobile application on one of those devices. So, through our support tickets, we started seeing that customers were complaining about battery bloating. So, we actually started sending out information in advance. We knew if they were a customer for six months, and that they were constantly plugged in, that they were most likely going to start seeing deterioration of devices. And we’ve been able to counterattack that through putting out more educational information through emails; where in the past, we would send out promotional materials and emails, and they weren’t getting it, they didn’t want it, but this educational material is actually helping them improve the performance of the product overall. And in the end, it has an impact on retention rates, customer churn. So-

Michael Blake: [00:42:14] Sure, it makes sense. So, okay. So, we’ve talked through a lot of topics here. Some of our listeners are thinking, “Okay, I’m sold. I got to make data part of my business,” where do they start? What’s the what’s the first thing on their to do-list?

Angela Culver: [00:42:32] Start with the goals, set realistic expectations. So, like what Micky has said, you don’t want to try to boil the ocean. Start with what your company can tolerate. So, understanding that if you’re going to set up a marketing data hub, and you need to utilize sales information, understand what the tolerances from your sales team. Putting over 50 required fields in Salesforce for them to fill out every time they have a prospect come in probably might be over their risk tolerance or their ability to handle that initially. Maybe start with five fields if you’re just starting to input data and utilize data. So, setting up expectations would definitely and setting goals would be my first.

Micky Long: [00:43:34] Mine would be just do it. Just stop talking about it, stop thinking about it, stop reading about it. Just go do something because even if the first thing you do isn’t 100% correct, it’s going to get you further than if you just start reading whitepapers about, “Look, I get this data under control.” And that’s what we see is just that inertia is what stops a lot of people because they start looking at all the downsides to it. Just go do it is really what I would recommend.

Michael Blake: [00:44:00] Just rip the Band-Aid off.

Micky Long: [00:44:01] Just rip the Band-Aid off and just go for it.

Michael Blake: [00:44:04] Okay. So, all right. So, again, a lot to unpack here. We’ve only scratched the surface. We could easily make this a three-hour podcast, but not everybody would listen for three hours. So, if somebody wants to learn more, can they contact you and ask you some questions?

Angela Culver: [00:44:21] Absolutely.

Michael Blake: [00:44:21] Would that be okay?

Micky Long: [00:44:21] Sure.

Michael Blake: [00:44:21] So, Angela, why don’t you go first? If somebody wants to ask you about your experience with this, ask you some advice, how would they contact you?

Angela Culver: [00:44:28] So, you can definitely contact me via LinkedIn. That’s my name, Angela Culver, Mobile Labs. Also, my email, angela.culver@mobilelabsinc.com.

Micky Long: [00:44:41] And likewise, my LinkedIn profile is out there for prevalence. And my email is really, really simple. It’s mlong@arketi.com.

Michael Blake: [00:44:53] Okay. Gone are the days, the long strings with nine different numbers behind the at symbol, right? So, thank goodness for that. That’s going to wrap it up for today’s program. I’d like to thank Angela Culver and Mickey Long from Mobile Labs and Arketi Group respectively so much for joining us and sharing their expertise with us.

Michael Blake: [00:45:13] We’ll be exploring a new topic each week, so please tune in so that when you’re faced with your next business decision, you have clear vision when making it. Again, if you enjoy this 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 &c Company. And this has been the Decision Vision Podcast.

Jeffrey Wolf with Quarles & Brady, Marisa Felker with Washington Federal, and Chad Barnett with Foods 2000

March 5, 2019 by angishields

The State of the Franchise Industry in Arizona

Valley Business Radio

Jeffrey Wolf with Quarles & Brady, Marisa Felker with Washington Federal, and Chad Barnett with Foods 2000

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Jeffrey H. Wolf, Quarles & Brady

Jeffrey H. Wolf, a partner at Quarles & Brady in Phoenix, is a commercial litigator with nearly 30 years of experience representing clients in a variety of business sectors. His practice focuses on franchise, employment, health care, contract, partnership, real estate, and intellectual property matters. He also serves as outside general counsel to several Phoenix-based behavioral health care companies.

As a member of the firm’s national Franchise & Distribution team, Jeffrey devotes a significant part of his practice to representing franchisors in litigation involving issues of unpaid or under reported royalties, fraud, liquidated damages, system standards, earnings claims, encroachment, advertising funds, trademark and trade dress infringement, and vicarious liability. He also has extensive experience handling cases requiring the enforcement of restrictive covenants and other post-termination rights and the defense of franchise and consumer class actions and other system-threatening cases.

Jeffrey has handled numerous arbitrations, bench trials and jury trials in state and federal courts throughout the United States. He is a highly effective, detail- oriented and responsive attorney committed to helping clients resolve their disputes as cost efficiently as possible, whether through early settlement, mediation or, if necessary, trial.

Connect with Jeffrey Wolf on LinkedIn and follow Quarles & Brady on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

Marisa Felker, Washington Federal

Marisa Felker is the Franchise Finance Manager at Washington Federal. In mid-2028, Washington Federal launched a formal Franchise Finance Division focused on helping established restaurant franchisees secure funding for their businesses. The division is being led by industry veteran Felker, who will work from the Arizona Regional Headquarters office in Scottsdale and oversee the program across Washington Federal’s eight-state footprint.

Over her 25-year career, Marisa has served as a leader in franchise funding and also brings expertise in the areas of private banking and portfolio management. She has worked in leadership roles with both CitiCapital and GE Capital in franchise finance. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts from Southern Illinois University and a Master’s degree in International Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Connect with Marisa Felker on LinkedIn and follow Washington Federal on Facebook and Twitter.

Chad Barnett, Foods 2000

Chad Barnett is the President of Foods 2000, a SUBWAY franchise company. With nearly 44,000 locations in 110 countries, SUBWAY is the world’s largest restaurant chain in the number of locations, and the second largest restaurant chain in terms of sales. With over 40 restaurants and 450 employees, Foods 2000 is one of the larger multi-unit owners in Arizona. Foods 2000 has been in business since 1990 and Chad has been leading the company since 2000. He is responsible for establishing, implementing, and enhancing the mission, goals, and objectives of the company while building and developing a team of administrative and supervisory leaders that effectively execute in these areas and lead the team of 400+ employees.

Chad is a board member of the SUBWAY Franchisee Advertising Fund Trust, which oversees the marketing efforts for SUBWAY franchisees throughout the greater-Phoenix and northern Arizona markets, including all advertising, marketing, promotions, public relations, and other activities designed to increase business at individual franchise locations and brand awareness in the marketplace. He is also a board member of SUBWAY Kids and Sports of Arizona, providing sports equipment, uniforms, registration fees, and access to major sporting events for kids who might not otherwise be able to participate.

Connect with Chad Barnett on LinkedIn.

SCOTT-FOUNDATION THOUGHT AND SERVICE LEADERS with Vision Keeper Jackie Wszalek

March 4, 2019 by Karen

Phoenix Business Radio

SCOTT-FOUNDATION THOUGHT AND SERVICE LEADERS with Vision Keeper Jackie Wszalek

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SCOTT-FOUNDATION THOUGHT AND SERVICE LEADERS with Vision Keeper Jackie Wszalek

ModLuxe – A Modern Print Experience Making a Bigger Splash with expanded services including print, mail, marketing and more throughout Arizona and beyond!
Locally owned and operated in the Deer Valley Airpark with deep roots in the Phoenix and Scottsdale community. Print professionals available to help make the most of your marketing dollars with quality, on time service with an an eye for color and unique options.

ModLuxe is proud to be a positive force in the community. We believe that good neighbors and business owners leave the world a little better than they found it. Thanks to your support every year we donate thousands of dollars of goods and services to the organizations that we believe in. We don’t stop there, we serve on boards, connect business owners, volunteer and provide meeting space.

Connect with Jackie on LinkedIn and Facebook.

ABOUT THE THOUGHT & SERVICE LEADER Podcast and Scott-Foundation

WHAT DO YOU LEAVE BEHIND? What kind of person do you want to be? Life/Legacy Plan – What is the history of your future? How can you make the world better than you found it?

Motivated by tragedy, youth transform to find their true self and become self- supporting, successful, community-minded, “compassionate people”.

ABOUT YOUR HOSTS

Autumn Wilson has proudly stepped into the Community Relations Specialist position with Scott-Foundation as well as continued work as a Thought & Service Leader and Mentor.

She describes herself as brave, courageous and kind. Her challenge is trust, very hard to do, and her biggest fear is being left alone, being lonely and empty.

If she could make one rule that everyone in the world had to obey, it would be – “Everyone would be caring.”

When asked how she wants to help the world, Autumn shares, “I want to make it safer, better for us to live in. I want everyone to know there are people that are out there and care about them.”

Follow Scott-Foundation on Facebook.

RHINO NATION The Savvy Blondes with Ash Krupnik and Caitlin Martin

March 4, 2019 by Karen

Phoenix Business Radio

RHINO NATION The Savvy Blondes with Ash Krupnik and Caitlin Martin

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RHINO NATION The Savvy Blondes with Ash Krupnik and Caitlin Martin

Tune in to this engaging and somewhat wacky episode of RHINO NATION to learn about how millennials contribute to society in a really positive way.

Ash Krupnik and Caitlin Martin are the dynamic duo behind The Savvy Blondes. On their YouTube channel they have discussions around the challenges (adulting) and the joys (it’s all about me) of Millennial life. Everything from tax preparation to sexuality is addressed along with why this education needed.

The Savvy Blondes are a dynamic duo with a fashion and beauty background, taking an honest and often humorous look at what it means to be a Millennial. Often posting educational videos to help their peers with “adulting” skills, Caitlin and Co-founder Ash are working to highlight the weaknesses, but also to celebrate their generation as one of innovation and creativity. They post new videos on YouTube every Wednesday night, and enjoy having guests on the show to chat about everything from starting a business, to female sexuality.

This show is geared primarily toward the Millennial woman, and with Caitlin living as a single, boss babe, pageant queen and Ash as a domesticated diva with over 13 years of marriage and 4 kids, these entrepreneurs are here to empower women and encourage them.

Ash Krupnik is a Holistic Health Coach and Lifestyle Instagram Blogger with her husband. She is obsessed with street tacos, Disney trips, old movies, The Office, and fashion. As a Xennial, she brings a different perspective as one of the Older Millennials. Her favorite thing about being a Millennial is watching her generation rise to the challenge of creating change and becoming more aware of the importance of empathy and connection.

Caitlin Martin is a 22 year old with a passion for empowering women to elevate their peers and alleviate the constant competition between one another. She is currently a titleholder in the Miss Arizona Scholarship Organization and spends her free time volunteering and promoting her platform, “Empowered Women, Empower.”

She loves all things Disney, (millennial) pink colored, and adores getting to spend time cuddling with her puppy Luna. She is at the tail end of the Millennial Generation and is a proud member of the generation bringing so much change and passion to the world.

Follow The Savvy Blondes on Instagram.

ABOUT RHINO NATION

ABOUT YOUR SPONSOR

For more about Rhino Online Strategies & eCreativity find them at www.rhinostrategy.com, on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Decision Vision Episode 3: Should Our Firm Have an App? – An Interview with Scott Burkett, Incursus

February 21, 2019 by John Ray

Decision Vision

Decision Vision Episode 3: Should Our Firm Have an App? - An Interview with Scott Burkett, Incursus

00:00 /

Should Our Firm Have an App?

Michael Blake, Director of Brady Ware & Company and Host of the Decision Vision podcast, interviews Scott Burkett on the decision process for building an app, understanding the business problems an app will solve, working with an app developer, and more.

Scott Burkett, Incursus

Scott Burkett is the Founder & CEO of Incursus.

Demonstrating a passion and commitment to quality and process improvement, Scott holds a certification in Six Sigma, and is a former director on the Board of the Carnegie-Mellon sponsored Software Process Improvement Network (SPIN). He played an instrumental role in a key client (AT&T Universal Card Services) winning the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, as well as a 2,000+ person consulting firm achieving Ford Motor Company’s Q1 Quality Certification. An original contributor to the Linux kernel, Scott co-authored The Linux Programmer’s Guide, The New Linux Book, and Linux Programming Whitepapers. He was also a key contributor to the now legendary comp.lang.c USENET group.

Scott has been featured, quoted, or published in Money Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Computerworld, TechJournal South, Datamation, WebSmith Magazine, The Linux Journal, and TechLINKS. He has been featured as a lecturer/speaker at events sponsored by such organizations as Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), The University of Georgia, ATDC, Draper-Fisher Jurveston, NASAGA, APRA, ACPI, The Kettering Executive Network, ExecuNet, 400 Technology Connection, and i-Compass.

Incursus, Inc. is a boutique creative-design and open-source software solutions studio headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. In short, “We Create Thingz®,” as they like to say! The Incursus team focuses on four key areas: creative design, custom application development, managed cloud services, and technical due diligence. Additionally, they have a program for startup companies aimed to help them affordably satisfy their technology needs.

They do not aspire to be the biggest provider of these services in the world. They simply aim to be the best. Period.

The Latin word Incursus — which can be translated into “raid”, “attack”, or “invasion” — represents their attitude towards their work — with swift forward movement into projects to get them done efficiently with skill and finesse.

Michael Blake, Brady Ware & Company

Brady Ware & Company

Decision Vision Podcast Series

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:

Intro: [00:00:02] Welcome to Decision Vision, a podcast series focusing on critical business decisions brought to you by Brady Ware & Company. Brady Ware is a regional full-service accounting and advisory firm that helps businesses and entrepreneurs make visions a reality.

Michael Blake: [00:00:22] And welcome to Decision Vision, a podcast giving you, the listener, clear vision to make great decisions. In each episode, we’re discussing the process of making decisions on a different topic, rather than making recommendations because everyone’s circumstances are different. We will talk it to subject matter experts about how they would recommend thinking about that decision.

Michael Blake: [00:00:40] 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, which is where we are recording today. Brady Ware is sponsoring this podcast. If you like this podcast, please subscribe on iTunes, and please consider leaving a review of the podcast as well.

Michael Blake: [00:01:02] So, today we’re going to talk about building an app, and not just the process of building an app. We, probably, won’t talk a lot about the process at all, but rather a decision of getting an app. So, lots of companies, now, are thinking that they’re kind of left out. They’re not in the cool kids club anymore if they don’t have an app. And so, everybody kind of wants one. But is that really the right — Is that the right decision? Is that the right place to put management time? Is that the right place to make investment? And is it really all it’s cracked up to be?

Michael Blake: [00:01:34] So, how do we go about making that decision? And to help us with that decision, I’ve invited my good friend, Scott Burkett. Scott is a 30-year veteran of the technology industry. He’s the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Incursus Inc., a boutique creative design and open source software solutions studio headquartered in Atlanta. Incursus focuses on four key areas: creative design, custom application development, managed cloud services, and technical due diligence. Team Incursus, also, recently launched ticketburner.com, a web-based platform that focuses on customer service delivery by helping companies automate their business processes.

Michael Blake: [00:02:14] Prior to founding Incursus and TicketBurner, Scott served as a Chief Technology Officer for several companies, including MFG.com and Apto Solutions. Scott was also the founder of wwetcanvas.com, a large online community for visual artists, which is now owned by F+W Publishing, one of the largest privately-owned media groups in the country. Additionally, Scott has been very involved in the Atlanta area startup community for the past 15 years and was a Co-Founder of startuplounge.com, one of the early advocates for fast-growth entrepreneurship in the southeast. So, it’s my great pleasure to welcome to the program and recently released from prison-

Scott Burkett: [00:02:52] That’s right.

Michael Blake: [00:02:52] … Scott Burkett.

Scott Burkett: [00:02:53] Thank you. Thanks for — Thanks for being here, Mike.

Michael Blake: [00:02:56] Well, I’m [crosstalk].

Scott Burkett: [00:02:56] But the StartupLounge is here when we had our podcast.

Michael Blake: [00:02:59] This is sort of a role reversal. We did that podcast, you sort of drove this, and I was the foil. So-

Scott Burkett: [00:03:04] Well, that’s okay.

Michael Blake: [00:03:06] How does it feel to be Dean Martin now?

Scott Burkett: [00:03:08] Weird. I’m like Dean Martin without the drink.

Michael Blake: [00:03:11] Well, if you say so.

Scott Burkett: [00:03:13] Yeah, exactly.

Michael Blake: [00:03:15] So, let’s talk about, even the word “app” is kind of a new term in the English language, right?

Scott Burkett: [00:03:20] Right, yeah.

Michael Blake: [00:03:20] So, let’s make sure we have the right vocabulary when we start. What is an app? And when you think of an app or one of your clients thinks of an app, what are we talking about here?

Scott Burkett: [00:03:28] Well, generally speaking, when you hear someone use the word “app,” they tend to be referring to mobile devices, right. Your smartphone, download this app, download that app, or whatever, or maybe even your tablet or something like that. But I’m a software engineer by trade, so it kind of irks me when I hear app only being used that way. A lot of folks will refer to an app that way, but an app can be anything. It can be a web-based software product. It can be a desktop app, an application for your desktop. So, it’s a pretty broad term, but, yeah, it tends to get more love on the mobile side these days.

Michael Blake: [00:04:03] And so, is that where that’s now headed? Is every app a mobile app, or-

Scott Burkett: [00:04:07] No, not at all.

Michael Blake: [00:04:08] … do you see that there’s not an end for apps on a more conventional sense?

Scott Burkett: [00:04:11] I think, it’s hard to argue that the growth of mobile hasn’t played a role in this, right. I mean, there’s more mobile devices, phones, laptops, whatever, tablets than there are desktops. Just people aren’t buying desktop. They’d rather buy a smartphone and a tablet than buy a desktop. Unlike I’m a hardcore gamer, as you are as well.

Michael Blake: [00:04:31] You’re more of a game historian, I think, at this point. It’s true.

Scott Burkett: [00:04:34] But I still play them.

Michael Blake: [00:04:35] Long live Atari, baby.

Scott Burkett: [00:04:36] Exactly, but I’ll still have a high-end gaming rig at home and use desktop stuff, but most of the work that we do is on laptops or mobile devices these days. So, that’s a big shift.

Michael Blake: [00:04:48] So, when somebody comes to you and says, “We think we want to have an app for our company,” did you kind of walk them through the process? Is that the right path for them to go? Or how do you find the clients who are thinking about that? What does that decision tree look like?

Scott Burkett: [00:05:04] Well, it’s complicated because every situation is different, right. The first thing that we try to do at Incursus is dig into what the business problem is they’re trying to solve with it, right. We were talking at lunch here earlier about the cool factor behind apps. And that’s certainly out there, but the reality is 99.9% of our clients are going to come to us and say, “We need to build something to solve this particular set of problems.” And it could be to extend a web application to the mobile device, or it could be just greenfield app itself on a mobile device.

Scott Burkett: [00:05:37] So, you want to understand those business problems, right. And once those things line up, then you can kind of dive into what’s the next step. How do we prioritize these? How do we dig into them? And to make sure that their understanding of what a return on that investment is going to be is the same as your understanding of it because, at the end of the day, it has to drive some sort of value and trying to put that-

Michael Blake: [00:05:57] You’d like to [crosstalk]-

Scott Burkett: [00:05:58] Yeah, back to the-

Michael Blake: [00:05:59] Although it is cool just to have my logo on my phone.

Scott Burkett: [00:06:02] You have the light saber app, don’t you?

Michael Blake: [00:06:03] I do.

Scott Burkett: [00:06:04] I do, yeah. Hey, it’s at sword fight mode. We could actually-

Michael Blake: [00:06:06] We could, but it doesn’t work as well as audio.

Scott Burkett: [00:06:08] Yeah. I was going to make a bad crossing swords joke, but I’m not-

Michael Blake: [00:06:11] That’s all right.

Scott Burkett: [00:06:11] Did I just make a bad crossing swords joke?

Michael Blake: [00:06:12] It’s not that kind of podcast.

Scott Burkett: [00:06:14] That’s right. Family-friendly.

Michael Blake: [00:06:17] So, every sort of situation is different, which is kind of what we expect. So, is it fair to say that there are kind of two categories of apps? One is kind of outward-facing. You’re trying to have an app that is client-focused, client-facing, maybe let clients interface with your company a different way. And then, kind of, an internal app, something that makes the way your company works or operates more effective and more efficient. Is that a fair distinction?

Scott Burkett: [00:06:44] That is fair. The thing with the App Store is it’s a public utility effectively at this point, right. You go into it, and you find what you want. You pay for it or you get it for free. You download it. Most companies are probably not going to want you to download their internal applications from the app store, but we do see both. We do see both.

Scott Burkett: [00:07:01] I think, the biggest trend over probably the past, I’d say, the best decade, really, as the shift to mobile happened was you had successful web applications like Facebook, for instance, or LinkedIn, those kinds of sites, social media type sites in general that didn’t, initially, have a mobile app. And the mobile adoption is a lot greater now than it was when those companies were founded.

Scott Burkett: [00:07:22] So, the mobile strategy kind of came in later for them, but that became a way to interface with a larger platform on the desktop effectively. It’s the same product, right, but you’re limited to a certain set of features and certain experience on a mobile device that’s a little smaller in footprint than what you’d get on a desktop, for instance, right. But, yeah, that shift is definitely there.

Michael Blake: [00:07:44] Are we at a point now where you can realistically have an app that doesn’t have a mobile companion?

Scott Burkett: [00:07:50] Well, in that context do, we talked about web applications, right. On the B2B side, if you’re successful, you need to have a mobile app. It’s just your users are going to demand it. In fact, if you don’t eventually have a mobile app in your B2B type web application, your customers are going to go find another solution somewhere else because mobile’s that important in the enterprise now, right.

Scott Burkett: [00:08:13] My UPS guy who comes to the house and drops off packages, first thing he does is he pulls out his mobile device, and he’s got access to all this back in functionality at UPS that he’s like flipping around and doing all this stuff. I try to sign my name, it looks like my kindergartener signs it when I do my finger, but all that functionality is all on a mobile device. That’s a great example of an enterprise application on a mobile device right there. Not something you can download from the app store, but they have it. So, yeah.

Michael Blake: [00:08:39] So, apps, I mean, back in the old days, we used to call them software applications or programs. So, the words changed, but what we’re creating is largely the same. Does an app have to be something grandiose, like PowerPoint or Microsoft Word? Is this something that can be fairly slim? Walk us through that. Does an app have to be big, and hairy, and complex to be valuable? Are there ways to do something relatively quick and painless?

Scott Burkett: [00:09:10] I can tell you that 99% of the stuff that’s on my smartphone, my iPhone here, was put there by my kids. And the vast majority of things that are on there are simple silly things that add zero value to my life. So, the short answer is it doesn’t really matter, right. There’s an app for anything these days, you want to track your weight loss or whatever. And you’re still doing all the work, by the way. It’s not like you stand on the iPhone-

Michael Blake: [00:09:34] I don’t need an app for that by the way, but the math there is not that complicated or fast.

Scott Burkett: [00:09:37] You don’t stand on your iPhone. I want to write a trick app that it’s a scale for your iPhone, and you just stand on your iPhone, and I wonder how many people would do that. But there are apps for everything, small, large whatever. I don’t think people have to have a vision of something being grandiose or lightweight. I think they have to have a vision that their app — And I’m speaking more in a business context here — solves some kind of problem or fulfill some sort of need in a marketplace, right.

Scott Burkett: [00:10:06] So, it could be a game. It could be just pure entertainment or just a boredom breaker kind of a thing. And those things tend to be kind of lightweight. But when we start talking about business-to-business enterprise type integration, those things tend to lean towards the hairy side just by their very nature, right.

Michael Blake: [00:10:22] Got it.

Scott Burkett: [00:10:22] So, yeah.

Michael Blake: [00:10:23] All right. So, somebody comes to you and says, “Scott, we think we want an app. We’d like to have you build it.” Open the hood a little bit, what does that process kind of look like?

Scott Burkett: [00:10:33] Well, the first thing I do is I get out my incense burner. No, I’m kidding.

Michael Blake: [00:10:38] No, that’s what we do in valuation.

Scott Burkett: [00:10:39] no. The interesting thing about technology is that while technology has changed a lot over the past 20 years – let’s just say 20 years. It’s really longer than that. About 30 years, I guess, at this point. God, we’re getting old – the process by which you build it has nominally changed, right? Certainly, we have faster tools we have better tools, and libraries, and integrated environments that we can build all these great things in.

Scott Burkett: [00:11:04] And that’s condensed the timeframe for delivery of building something like that, but the process is still largely the same. You got to understand the requirements. Are there requirements? What are you trying to build? If you just have an idea you’ve got a lot more work to do. You could come to me with an idea, that’s great. I’m happy to help you walk through kind of flashing that out.

Scott Burkett: [00:11:21] But, at some point, you’ve got to put pen to paper, or well, we used to do that, but put your fingers on the keyboard, as it were, and type up your requirements. Well, what are the problems it’s going to solve? How is it going to solve? What are the benefits to the user? What are they going to reap by using this particular application? And it doesn’t matter if it’s on the web, or if it’s on a desktop, or if it’s a mobile app, the same principles still apply.

Michael Blake: [00:11:41] Now, having known you as long as I have, I know you’re a very creative guy. You’ve done-

Scott Burkett: [00:11:45] A few things, I guess.

Michael Blake: [00:11:47] You’ve done literally done art websites.

Scott Burkett: [00:11:50] That’s true, that’s true.

Michael Blake: [00:11:51] So, when you have that conversation or when somebody — I want to depersonalized a little bit. Is it reasonable to expect that if I’m looking for someone to help me develop my app, is the app developer going to, then, maybe interact with me and help flesh out what the business case might actually be, suggest additional functionalities, or is it more like an order-taking process where, “I need an app that does A, B, C, and D,” “Here it is, go”?

Scott Burkett: [00:12:17] Well, to the latter, there’s a million people that can do that, right? You can go to upwork.com, find a freelancer offshore somewhere, send them a bulleted list of stuff that you want to build, and they’ll build exactly that.

Michael Blake: [00:12:31] Okay.

Scott Burkett: [00:12:31] Okay. And it will be cheaper. By and large, it will be cheaper to do that. The problem is if your development team isn’t completely aligned with your business drivers, and in those sessions, and on the white board, and trying to understand how your business is evolving, and not just in a bulleted list, these are the things that are important to us, but understanding your customers and what they want. You’re going to paint yourself into a corner as a founder. You’re making an investment. Ostensibly, it’s a chunk of your savings, or you’ve raised some money maybe in a seed round or something like that, and you’re trying to build something. The last thing you want to do is know that you just wasted $100,000, or $50,000, or whatever it is by giving somebody a bulleted list because you think you’ve got all the answers, and you think that’s all they need. There’s always more to it than that.

Scott Burkett: [00:13:18] If I took a pile of building supplies and dropped them off on a lot that you owned, and said, “We’re going to build a house.” And you came to me and you said, “Okay. Here’s what I want. I want three bedrooms, and I want two baths, and I want a sunken den. That’s all it. That’s my main thing. I just got to have these things.” We’ll build it. We’ll build the house. It will have three bedrooms, two baths, and a sunken den. And then, you’re going to realize that you wanted brick, and you wanted one bedroom upstairs, and not all three. You didn’t want a ranch house, right? So, the house is still built. I did my job, right?

Michael Blake: [00:13:46] Yeah, yeah.

Scott Burkett: [00:13:48] And so, you run into situations like that. And more importantly, you run into situations where you realize you can’t add an extra room to your house because of the way the house was initially built, right? It wasn’t built to be extensible. We took up all of the real estate on that lot by building this house, right?

Michael Blake: [00:14:02] If we add here, that’s a support thing.

Scott Burkett: [00:14:04] That’s right, that’s right. That’s a load-bearing wall. We can’t take that down. So, you think about that from a development standpoint, developers, there’s something called technical debt, which may come up later in the show here. But technical debt is one of those things where it’s the — You’re familiar with monetary debt, right?

Michael Blake: [00:14:20] Of course.

Scott Burkett: [00:14:21] So, it’s financial debt, right? It’s very akin to that. When you’re building an application, and a developer takes the easy route, if you give me a bulleted list, I’m taking the easy route and implementing all this because I don’t know what you’re going to want to do a year from now or two years from now because I’m not in line with your business. So, I’m going to build those things, and I’m going to take the easiest fastest way for me to accomplish those tasks, and I’m going to do it. Okay.

Michael Blake: [00:14:43] Just satisfy the statement of work.

Scott Burkett: [00:14:44] That’s right, just satisfy the statement of work. So, fast forward a year from now, your business is pivoting, or you’re changing, you’re getting into a new market, you got a new partner that you want to integrate with or something like that. And all of a sudden, you realize you can’t do that because you have technical debt. You have to now re-factor, and take all the easy stuff out, and do it the right way where you can open those doors into integration with other companies and things like that in your code.

Scott Burkett: [00:15:07] So, when you think about giving someone a bulleted list, if anybody’s listening to this that is in that mode, don’t do that. Don’t give someone a bulleted list and a check and say, “Let me know when you’re done.” That’s absolutely the worst possible thing you could do.

Michael Blake: [00:15:23] So, one of the decision points, then, is do I, as a person who wants the app, do I have enough time myself to engage in this process, so that I get what I want? When you put an addition in your house, a great way to make sure you’re unhappy is just send the contractor off.

Scott Burkett: [00:15:39] That’s right. That’s right.

Michael Blake: [00:15:40] Not oversee the work, not get progress updates.

Scott Burkett: [00:15:41] That’s right.

Michael Blake: [00:15:41] It’s sounds like it’s the same thing there. You can’t just throw it over a wall.

Scott Burkett: [00:15:42] There’s basically there — I guess, three ways of looking at building an app, or three reasons, or drivers behind it. One is you’re writing something for yourself, which happens a lot with techies. Us, geeks, like to write tools that we use, and we think are cool. And that’s fine. You’re the only user of it, and you’re happy. That’s a success, right? Or you’re trying to monetize it, and actually grow business out of it, and turn it into something that’s a little bit more longer lasting than just you using a tool. And then the third one is the hobby market. You’re making something for other developers to use or other tool builders to use as a part of their applications.

Scott Burkett: [00:16:21] When you look at the second one, that example that you just gave about, “Am I going to have time to engage in this?” Well, if you’re writing it for yourself, and you don’t have time to engage in it, then I don’t even know what’s going on there. The third one is a hobby. It kind of falls back to the first one, which if you’re not willing-

Michael Blake: [00:16:35] You either do it or you don’t.

Scott Burkett: [00:16:36] Either do it or you don’t. If you’re trying to monetize it and build a business around it, you either find the time or you don’t. And if you don’t find the time, you’re just wasting your money.

Michael Blake: [00:16:43] Okay.

Scott Burkett: [00:16:44] Right? You have to engage. I think you absolutely have to engage with your developer. IT people and techies are not the same as they were even 20 years ago. They have business degrees now. They understand sales and marketing. They understand how companies work, at least, on the surface, right? They can understand those business drivers and apply them to how are we going to integrate with those partners in our app down the road. Things like that are going to open up for them. So, I think you absolutely have to find the time to engage with your development team no matter what you’re building.

Michael Blake: [00:17:12] Okay. So, I mean, apps sound great. It’s the way of the future. It’s all cool. Why doesn’t everybody have one?

Scott Burkett: [00:17:20] A lot of people don’t have a mobile strategy upfront. And we’re seeing this is a little bit different now because, I think, mobile strategy is one of the first things an investor is going to ask you, especially if you’re in the business-to-business side or building a web application that’s going to have a lot of users. What’s your integration strategy? What’s your mobile strategy? That’s one of the things they’re going to want to know. And if you don’t have one it’s going to be a strike against you. You’re not thinking big enough. You’re not thinking outright.

Michael Blake: [00:17:44] Right, because that’s where most of the devices are.

Scott Burkett: [00:17:47] Exactly. And that’s how we consume content, by and large, these days. I mean, I get my news from my smartphone. I don’t watch the news at night. Who does that anymore?

Michael Blake: [00:17:53] I can’t remember the last time I watched the news.

Scott Burkett: [00:17:55] Exactly.

Michael Blake: [00:17:55] Do you even do that anymore?

Scott Burkett: [00:17:56] Is Walter Cronkite still alive. No. Yeah, right. That’s the last news that I saw, right?

Michael Blake: [00:18:01] Right.

Scott Burkett: [00:18:02] Paul Harvey and Walter Cronkite, right? So, yeah. Someone’s listening to this going, “They’re Googling Walter Cronkite right now.”

Michael Blake: [00:18:08] Exactly.

Scott Burkett: [00:18:09] “Who is Walter Cronkite?”

Michael Blake: [00:18:09] Exactly. Going to the biography channel.

Scott Burkett: [00:18:09] How do you spell his name? Yeah. So, no, and people consume content on their mobile devices. So, mobile strategy is important. I think maybe a decade ago, 15 years ago, mobile was — I don’t want to say it was optional, but it was sort of like gravy. In fact, a lot of investors back then probably we’ll look at you and say you’re thinking too big. What’s this mobile thing? I mean, the world has changed. Obviously, it’s evolved. So, if they don’t have an app, then there’s either one of couple of obvious reasons for it. One is they don’t want to fund it. That can happen, right?

Michael Blake: [00:18:40] Yeah.

Scott Burkett: [00:18:41] They don’t see the value, in which case you want to short their stock, I think, at this point, right?

Michael Blake: [00:18:45] Got it.

Scott Burkett: [00:18:45] Certainly, if it’s an enterprise type company. And on the social side, I think any sort of social media app these days, application on the web is going to have a mobile component. If not designed kind of in counterpart with the web platform, it’s going to be built like shortly thereafter once they get all their integration points and everything is sort of in place where the mobile devic can communicate to the web app.

Scott Burkett: [00:19:06] So, I mean, when LinkedIn and Facebook first launched, they didn’t have mobile apps. This came along later. So, I don’t know how Facebook is now, but it’s probably 15 years old or something like that maybe.

Michael Blake: [00:19:18] It’s something like that, yeah.

Scott Burkett: [00:19:19] Something like that.

Michael Blake: [00:19:20] I mean they went public in — Went public in — Actually fairly recently. It went public in like ’13 or something. So, looking around 2006.

Scott Burkett: [00:19:28] Right. So, yeah. Yeah. So, there you go.

Michael Blake: [00:19:32] So, is there kind of a tale to this? It’s one thing to sort of build an app, but I have a feeling an app is not something you just buy once and put away, right?

Scott Burkett: [00:19:42] That’s right.

Michael Blake: [00:19:43] You put it online, and you’ve got to maintain it. Apps tend to get updated if they’re going to be around for long. So, is that the case that when budgeting and figuring out if an app is right for you? Do you have to think about six months from now, a year from now, kind of, what long-term commitment you’re going to make to it?

Scott Burkett: [00:20:00] Any business has to think about that. It doesn’t matter what your business is, you have to think about, “Okay, I know I’m going to raise this much money, maybe nothing. And I know that whatever I have is going to get me to a certain point at which, hopefully, I’ll have a product.” And there’s a revenue ramp. And at some point, your revenue is going to go up and then you can afford to pay the bills.

Scott Burkett: [00:20:21] What a lot of young entrepreneurs tend to do – and I see this unfortunately more often than I want to admit – they just assumed that once they get that revenue ramp going that it’s just cruise control from there. And they just basically are printing money. And that never works. It never works. When’s the last time-

Michael Blake: [00:20:40] It’s not that easy to become a billionaire?

Scott Burkett: [00:20:42] No, it’s not.

Michael Blake: [00:20:42] Oh, shocks.

Scott Burkett: [00:20:43] It’s absolutely not, but think about your — My iPhone, I turn it on. Every day, there’s updates to my apps, right. The ones that don’t get updated are going to become deprecated over time. Users are going to abandon them, and this could be mobile, but it could also be on the web as well. It could be on the desktop as well. I mean Word Perfect went under. Remember Word Perfect?

Michael Blake: [00:21:02] Sure.

Scott Burkett: [00:21:02] Yeah, it was great. It was great. Well, Microsoft Office came along with its auto updates, and then everybody said, “Hey, this is great. They’re adding new features to this incrementally. It’s getting better. It’s improving.” Word Perfect went the way of the dinosaur and had a horrible interface. They never did anything to fix it. It’s an antiquated analogy, but, still, it’s one of the examples.

Michael Blake: [00:21:20] No, it’s true. Once the old lawyers died out, that-

Scott Burkett: [00:21:21] That’s right.

Michael Blake: [00:21:22] Because the lawyers were the last stronghold-

Scott Burkett: [00:21:24] And they loved it, that’s right.

Michael Blake: [00:21:25] … for Word Perfect. And once they died out and retired, the new generation grew up with Microsoft Office or, now, Google Docs.

Scott Burkett: [00:21:31] That’s right.

Michael Blake: [00:21:32] That’s what they’re using, right?

Scott Burkett: [00:21:32] Users are going to demand a couple of things. They’re going to demand that the bugs get fixed. And there’s always bugs in software. It’s written by humans. Right? So, we’re going to have those problems. Bugs get addressed in a timely fashion. The product evolves. As new opportunities and new technologies arrive in the marketplace, your product, if it’s applicable, has to be in a position to take advantage of those things and incorporate those into your application as well.

Scott Burkett: [00:22:00] I’m just thinking out loud here, but I just bought a device called the AirServer, which is a little embedded device that allows me to stream Chromecast, and AirPlay, and Miracast from a PC, a Mac, a Smartphone. Any sort of device, I can screen cast directly to my TV. Well, before I learned about this product, you had to have the right laptop. You had to have the right TV.

Michael Blake: [00:22:24] Apple with AirPlay.

Scott Burkett: [00:22:25] That’s right, that’s right.

Michael Blake: [00:22:25] Apple TV.

Scott Burkett: [00:22:26] Exactly, right. So, something better came along. And it’s one of those things that something better is always coming along in this day and age. I mean, my Twitter feed is full of it. Every day, it’s just 20 new things that are launching that didn’t exist yesterday. And some of those things are going to fall out by the wayside. It’s just law of averages, right? But the ones that make it, the ones that have long-lasting ability in the marketplace are the ones you have to take advantage of. And how do I integrate with it?

Scott Burkett: [00:22:51] It may not be applicable to everyone, but when certain things come along — Like single sign-on is another great example of that, right. Interfacing with single sign-on, does your app want to take advantage of that? You see apps now that lets you login with Google or Facebook, right? Easy. You just click the button and you’re done, right?

Michael Blake: [00:23:06] Thank God.

Scott Burkett: [00:23:07] It’s great.

Michael Blake: [00:23:07] Just typing all those things with my fingers on the phone, it’s a nightmare.

Scott Burkett: [00:23:11] And it takes you eight times to get your password right. Then, you locked yourself out.

Michael Blake: [00:23:14] Exactly.

Scott Burkett: [00:23:14] But it’s one of those things that — Just think about this, if your product was in the marketplace, and you didn’t have that capability, it’s a seemingly inane feature. Okay. It shouldn’t be a make or break decision, but I can guarantee you, people will say, “Why do I have to keep logging into this when I can just — Why can’t I just click on the Facebook button and authenticate me that way?”

Michael Blake: [00:23:32] Especially if it’s just a subscription to Reuters. I don’t care if somebody pirates that account.

Scott Burkett: [00:23:37] That’s right. That’s right. You don’t really care.

Michael Blake: [00:23:38] I’m not paying anything. I can’t post anything. It’s not a high-leverage discussion.

Scott Burkett: [00:23:43] Absolutely right. So, I think you have to — Getting back to the question, I think, as a founder, you’ve got a budget for the incremental advancement and evolution of your app, okay. Be it on the desktop, the web, mobile device, it doesn’t matter, you have to constantly be thinking, how is this going to get better? Because that’s what makes your business better at the end of the day anyway. How are you going to evolve as a business? Well, that involves dragging your product along, hopefully, right?

Michael Blake: [00:24:05] Yeah.

Scott Burkett: [00:24:06] So, there you go.

Michael Blake: [00:24:07] All right. So now, It’s the time in the program to go negative.

Scott Burkett: [00:24:11] Uh-oh.

Michael Blake: [00:24:11] And what I mean by going negative is I like to talk about times when people and customers or, not even customers, companies have built apps that have just failed.

Scott Burkett: [00:24:21] Okay, sure.

Michael Blake: [00:24:22] Why do apps fail? And what can we learn from that where maybe it’s just not a good decision on the part of that company to commission the app in the first place?

Scott Burkett: [00:24:33] Well, we’re speaking here, obviously, in the business context. If you’re writing it for yourself, and it fails that you don’t even use your own tool, then that’s your problem. That’s not a world problem. But there’s a couple of things that it comes down to. If a company’s generating or building an app, we’ll just use a mobile app in this particular case, and maybe it mirrors their web application, right? They’re not seeing the adoption rate, for instance, going up.

Scott Burkett: [00:24:58] Now, if you’re web app is successful, and your mobile app is not, that’s a different problem, okay. That tells you that the core product that you have is valuable, and people are using it on the web, but they’re not using your mobile app. Maybe the interface stinks, maybe the usability stinks, it’s not worth it, there could be bugs, things like that that need to be addressed.

Scott Burkett: [00:25:18] But it all comes down, at the end of the day, to outreach and marketing, getting your app on the mobile side, the same exposure that your web application is getting in that particular instance. And when we say a business context, that’s generally what we’re talking about. It’s Facebook with a website or a web application, and they’ve got a mobile component to it as well, that type of pattern. So, they’ve got to look hard in the mirror and ask themselves why it’s not working, why it’s not getting the adoption.

Michael Blake: [00:25:44] And that’s true on the internal side too, right?

Scott Burkett: [00:25:46] That’s right.

Michael Blake: [00:25:46] If you want your app for internal use, you got to make sure people know about it.

Scott Burkett: [00:25:49] That’s right.

Michael Blake: [00:25:50] There’s got to be an incentive for them to use it.

Scott Burkett: [00:25:51] A policy. Crate a a policy, right?

Michael Blake: [00:25:53] It could be a policy, It could be you remove whatever process there was before, so they’re forced to use it,

Scott Burkett: [00:25:59] Right.

Michael Blake: [00:25:59] But-

Scott Burkett: [00:26:00] The worst thing you could hear as a developer, as s a software engineer, is that people aren’t using your app. They’d rather use email. That’s like the worst thing.

Michael Blake: [00:26:08] Really?

Scott Burkett: [00:26:09] Yeah. It’s too clunky, it does this, it’s too slow, whatever. It’s just easier to send the guy an email. Okay. So, that’s what they do, right?

Michael Blake: [00:26:16] Right.

Scott Burkett: [00:26:16] And email is like — Everybody wants to kill — Everybody has been trying to kill email for 20 years.

Michael Blake: [00:26:22] They have. It’s died more often than Rasputin.

Scott Burkett: [00:26:24] Exactly. I know, right? He’s on his 12th life at this point, right? But the reality is when that’s your fallback, your fallback is, “It’s just easier to send an email,” yeah, you got some issues with your app that you need to sort out.

Michael Blake: [00:26:37] And that brings up — I’m not going to attribute the name. I don’t necessarily have permission, but I was at a conference-

Scott Burkett: [00:26:41] Oh, come on.

Michael Blake: [00:26:43] I was at a conference a couple months ago, and there’s a venture capitalist there. One thing that he said that I’ll never forget, it was a great advice, is that, “Already good will always beat might be better, or good enough will always beat might be better.”

Scott Burkett: [00:27:02] Is there a question in there, or do you want to-

Michael Blake: [00:27:03] No, I’m asking for a reaction. If it’s something you’ve got, like email is already good enough, something that has, now, a learning curve that has some risk to it, if it’s not clearly better, it’s just going to get dumped off on the side of the road. They’ll go back, like you said, the email.

Scott Burkett: [00:27:20] Well, I think any founder would agree that their business plan paints a perfect picture of how things could be better or should be better. No business owner is going to say, “Well, my business plan does a poor job of telling you how great this product is going to be.” They’d probably go too far in that regard, if anything.

Scott Burkett: [00:27:36] I think that’s applicable sometimes. I mean, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it Kind of mantra, but there’s certainly been plenty of applications that have come along that have made getting tasks done, or achieving certain goals, accomplishing something, adding value in ways that were it was easier than before. Case in point, look at LinkedIn, right. Before LinkedIn, I either knew you or I didn’t. I either could call you on the phone or send you an e-mail because I had that information. And email contacts were closely guarded, like that was your rolodex, right?

Michael Blake: [00:28:12] Yeah.

Scott Burkett: [00:28:12] Like the little black book that we used to have in the ’80s with all the phone numbers written down on. It was the same thing, you guarded your contacts. The business development people made a killing because they would go from one company to the next, and they bring basically their book of business with them because they had all their contacts, right?

Michael Blake: [00:28:26] Yeah.

Scott Burkett: [00:28:27] Well, that’s gone now. By and large, it’s gone. Still relationship-driven and a lot of industries are, but if you think about LinkedIn, if I wanted to connect with someone to ask them a question, or invite them to come on to a panel, or speak at an event, or whatever my reason is for reaching out, I can probably get to them within a day. I can probably get my message in front of them pretty, pretty quickly, right?

Michael Blake: [00:28:49] Sure.

Scott Burkett: [00:28:50] So, before LinkedIn came along, that didn’t exist. That capability didn’t exist. Now, imagine yourself as an investor, and it’s hard now because LinkedIn is just part of the fabric now. Everyone uses it but think about maybe 15-20 years ago as an investor, and some guy, Reid Hoffman, comes to you in California and says, “I’ve got this great idea. We’re going to connect the world on the internet.” “What? Okay. It’s a big idea. I get it, but-”

Michael Blake: [00:29:16] No, you burn them for witchcraft.

Scott Burkett: [00:29:18] Exactly. It’s heresy. “What do you mean? These are my contacts. I’m not going to share them with other people,” and that kind of thing. Well, the world’s changed. So, I think there’s some applicability to what that investor told you, either way though.

Michael Blake: [00:29:29] Yeah. So, a lot of apps are now made offshore. I don’t know if your company uses offshore.

Scott Burkett: [00:29:35] No.

Michael Blake: [00:29:36] Not so relevant to the discussion. But if I go to a shop, and they say that they tend to use a lot of offshore labor, wherever it is, it could be India, it could be Ukraine, it could be Philippines, should I be concerned? Should that in my mind be a disqualifying feature in terms of selecting who my developer should be?

Scott Burkett: [00:30:00] I think, it’s going to come down to one key factor here and that’s money.

Michael Blake: [00:30:04] Okay.

Scott Burkett: [00:30:05] Okay. You can certainly find a country that will build your app, probably off of a bulleted list, like we cautioned about earlier, and you save some good money if you find the right company in the right country. But I will tell you a story not so awful long ago, there was a Japanese software company that had offshored, outsourced some of its development on its key product to China. Okay. Well, China, hopefully, the Chinese politico is not listening to this right now, and they’re going to hunt me down or something, but China doesn’t really have a great track record in not stealing things. I mean, China has-

Michael Blake: [00:30:42] Always since Marco Paul.

Scott Burkett: [00:30:43] That’s right, yes. China has a wee bit of a reputation for reverse engineering things and just outright lifting things.

Michael Blake: [00:30:51] Adopting them as their own.

Scott Burkett: [00:30:52] Adopting them as their own. Look at our new stealth fighter, right. Yeah, right, whatever. So, this Japanese company was so paranoid about China, these developers in China working on their product, they actually had five different Chinese offshore companies, and they gave each one of them a piece of it. They wouldn’t give the entire thing to one company. So, what does that tell you?

Michael Blake: [00:31:12] I think Apple does that, if I’m not mistaken.

Scott Burkett: [00:31:14] They could, they could.

Michael Blake: [00:31:14] They don’t let everybody have the whole formula.

Scott Burkett: [00:31:15] The keys to the kingdom, right?

Michael Blake: [00:31:17] Yeah.

Michael Blake: [00:31:17] And I’m not here to say that all offshore is bad. It’s not. I’ve had some successes with offshore development in the past, and I’ve had some that were not as successful. Ultimately, it came down to the ones that were successful were the ones that were fully engaged with the team, the larger team, the business team throughout the development process. They took the time to understand the drivers behind it, and where we’re we going, and best practices. And there was a liaison on the business team that ensured that the development team were using best practices and things of that nature, so not to paint you into a corner.

Scott Burkett: [00:31:52] So, I think, it goes without saying that you should probably go into it with eyes wide open, if you do it. But to be fair, I would approach it here in the United States as well the same way. I’d do it the same way. I wouldn’t necessarily give it to five different companies to work on like the Japanese company I mentioned did. But I would certainly — Over here, we’re protected by NDAs and other things, IP agreements, and things like that, and, of course, the US Code of Law, which helps a lot.

Michael Blake: [00:32:19] There is that, yeah.

Scott Burkett: [00:32:20] The minute you put it offshore — And I’m not an attorney by any stretch of the imagination. Though, I have given a free legal advice before.

Michael Blake: [00:32:27] Don’t let that stop you.

Scott Burkett: [00:32:28] That’s right. But I think you should probably consult maybe some fellow entrepreneurs that have had successes building things offshore, and maybe kind of learn from them, specifically, who they’re dealing with, and are they reputable. That referrals always going to go a long way.

Michael Blake: [00:32:44] So, a recurring theme we’re hearing here is that the business side of the business has to be very closely involved with the technology side. This is not just something you hand over a bunch of nerds-

Scott Burkett: [00:32:55] That’s right.

Michael Blake: [00:32:55] … and say, “Have us build something.” I mean, you’ll get something.

Scott Burkett: [00:32:57] You’ll get something.

Michael Blake: [00:32:58] It just won’t be what you want most likely.

Scott Burkett: [00:33:00] Or the technical would be off the chart.

Michael Blake: [00:33:02] All right. Well, we’re running out of time, unfortunately. We could talk about this and other things-

Scott Burkett: [00:33:06] That true.

Michael Blake: [00:33:06] … for a long time. So, any concluding comments, anything that I should have asked but didn’t, or something else that our listeners need to know about the app decision process whether to build that app?

Scott Burkett: [00:33:19] I haven’t even got to my belly dancing bit.

Michael Blake: [00:33:22] Probably for the video version of the podcast.

Scott Burkett: [00:33:24] Okay. I think when you decide you want to build something, I think you have to make a commitment to the project. It doesn’t matter if you’re a solo founder, a single founder, or you’re a small team, or you’re a company that’s looking to build an application. Again, it doesn’t matter if it’s a desktop, web, or mobile.

Scott Burkett: [00:33:41] I think you’ve got to apply those fundamental business practices to it, take those practices, and basically force feed the development team with those business drivers because if you don’t, like you said, you’re going to get something back, but it may or may not — it may do everything on the list functionally, but it may or may not solve the problem at hand. And, I think, aligning those things is a very key factor that people should go into it with knowing that, so.

Michael Blake: [00:34:07] Okay. Well, this has been great. I’m sure somebody listening to this this podcast will want to learn more. How do people find you?

Scott Burkett: [00:34:15] Unfortunately, I’m fairly easy to find on the web. So, you can just Google my name, Scott Burkett, I suppose, or just go to scottburkett.com, and all my links are there somewhere. I think so.

Michael Blake: [00:34:27] Yeah. you are not hard to find.

Scott Burkett: [00:34:28] I’m, unfortunately, not hard to find.

Michael Blake: [00:34:30] All right. Well, that’s going to wrap it up for today’s program. I’d like to thank Scott again so much for coming and sharing his expertise.

Scott Burkett: [00:34:36] Thanks for having me.

Michael Blake: [00:34:36] This has been great. I’ve learned a lot. And we’ll be exploring a new topic each week. So, please tune in so that when you are faced with your next business decision, you have a clear vision when you’re making it. Once again, this is Mike Blake. Our sponsor is Brady Ware & Company. And this has been the Decision Vision Podcast.