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Search Results for: kids care

Jamie Forman with Menagerie on Main and Katie Cruz with Bomb Babes

June 24, 2024 by angishields

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Cherokee Business Radio
Jamie Forman with Menagerie on Main and Katie Cruz with Bomb Babes
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Jamie-FormanJamie Forman is the founder and owner of Menagerie on Main. She has created a beautiful space for artisans to use and display their work.

Menagerie on Main is always evolving with new artists, a variety of events and wonderful people!

Connect with Jamie on LinkedIn and follow Menagerie on Main on Facebook and Instagram.

Katie-CruzKatie Cruz is the owner of Bomb Babes. Being a baker has been a lifelong dream of Katie’s, and she’s immensely grateful to do what she loves.

Bomb Babes was born at a kitchen table while discussing her desire and hesitancy for starting a home-based bakery.  In 2021, they made and sold over 2,000 hot chocolate bombs, and participated in three vendor events. It was challenging, but mostly rewarding.

One day, katie was given the opportunity to make Cakesicles for an event. Although she had no experience, she gladly accepted, and it was the most fun & rewarding dessert she had ever made; and the rest is history!

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn and follow Bomb Babes on Facebook and Instagram.

Kid-Biz-Radio-Austyn-GuestAustyn Guest is a young entrepreneur from the The Kid Biz Expo program.

 

 

 

Layla-DierdorffLayla Dierdorff is a young entrepreneur from the The Kid Biz Expo program.

 

 

 

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Kid Biz Radio. Kid Biz Radio creates conversations about the power of entrepreneurship and the positive impact that journey can have on kids. For more information, go to kidbizexpo.com. Now here’s your host.

Layla Dierdorff: Hi, welcome to Kid Biz Radio. I’m Layla.

Austyn Guest: And I’m Austyn.

Layla Dierdorff: And today we have awesome guests with us in the studio. We have Katie with Bomb Babes and Jamie with Menagerie on Main.

Austyn Guest: Hello Katie and Jamie, thank you so much for being with us here today.

Katie Cruz: Thank you for having us.

Jamie Forman: Yeah. Thanks for having us.

Layla Dierdorff: Yeah.

Austyn Guest: So can you tell us both a little bit about yourselves and your businesses?

Katie Cruz: Um, okay. Well, my name is Katie, and I’m the owner of Bomb Babes. We are a gourmet cake bomb bakery, so we specialize in transforming classic desserts into your newest dessert obsession. So it’s just like a cake pop without a stick. And much more delicious.

Austyn Guest: Nice sound. Amazing.

Jamie Forman: And I’m Jamie. I own Menagerie on Main. It’s a an art gallery that represents about 50 local artists in the area, and we have everything from paintings and photography to clay and jewelry and fiber arts. And we also do classes and workshops and events. And we recently added some local wine sales. So we’re kind of like, yeah, a gathering spot, all things creative and local.

Layla Dierdorff: So how did you guys both get started in your business? Did it just come from nowhere? An idea or was it kind of something you’ve always had in mind?

Katie Cruz: Um, well, okay. For me, I’ve loved. I love cake pops. Like I’ve always loved cake pops. I think that cake pops are, like, the most delicious dessert ever.

Austyn Guest: Yeah.

Katie Cruz: They are pretty good. When do you go to a birthday party you don’t want to grab, like, a whole bunch of slices of cake. And no, because everyone’s like, what the heck? Why she can eat so much cake? Um, but if you have a, um, a cake pop, nobody knows how many you’ve eaten. You can just throw the stick away.

Austyn Guest: Yeah, they don’t pay attention.

Katie Cruz: Gone is the evidence. So, um, it kind of just stemmed from from my love of cake pops. But then a desire to make them more delicious, so.

Jamie Forman: Makes sense. And art has always been a part of my life. I grew up with an artist mother. I didn’t pursue it as a career because I don’t know if you’ve heard this, but a lot of times, people, there’s this starving artist reputation out there and yeah, it’s almost discouraged. Um, so I went other paths, but no matter what I did, I always found myself engaging with the creative. And that became a focus. And so midlife hit and I was presented with an opportunity to open a gallery and decided to do it.

Austyn Guest: Yeah.

Layla Dierdorff: So on this journey, uh, what have you done that has helped you become as successful as you are today?

Katie Cruz: Um, a lot of patience.

Austyn Guest: It does require lots of patience.

Katie Cruz: Yeah. Patience is a big thing. Um, and then also surrounding myself with people that support my dreams and ideas. And without the support of people in my life, I probably would be, um, not working or having some sort of other awful job that I wouldn’t want to have.

Austyn Guest: Yeah, it is very important. Me personally, I have my parents as my sponsors because they are paying for the startup and I’ll pay them back later, but it is needed. Mhm.

Jamie Forman: Yes. Support is huge. I think like the internal work you do on your mindset too. I think um, really forcing yourself out of your comfort zone and accepting failure along the way and just knowing it’s, it’s part of it. I think a lot of times we try to shy away from it or protect ourselves from it. And getting over that has probably been the biggest thing that I’ve helped me.

Austyn Guest: Everybody makes mistakes. Believing in.

Katie Cruz: Yourself. Yeah, believing really, truly. And leaning into yourself as like, you know. Yeah.

Austyn Guest: Believing that this will work one day. Yeah.

Jamie Forman: You have to believe that.

Austyn Guest: You have to believe that. Okay. So what do you define success as?

Jamie Forman: For? For me, I think it’s, um, choice and pursuing something that I’m choosing to versus something I’m settling for or, um, you know, feel obligated to do.

Austyn Guest: Yeah.

Katie Cruz: Jamie, that’s such a great point. Um, I have to agree with that. Um, but also for me, it is, um, seeing people smile, like, when they get desserts. I mean, I love, I love when people are just, like, happy and having a good time. And, like, my desserts bring a smile to people’s faces. Like, everyone loves dessert.

Austyn Guest: So sweet tooth. I love my desserts.

Katie Cruz: Yeah, well, you know I love that.

Austyn Guest: Yeah. So in the process of starting up said business, do you have any regrets that you have while starting it up? Or maybe some mistakes you made along the way?

Jamie Forman: Yeah, lots of mistakes along the way. Um, I thought a lot about this. I wouldn’t say I have regrets, because I think the regrets teach you a lot. So if you don’t have those things, sorry, I do. I will say what I’ve learned to do, and I wish I had done sooner was kind of was pause and listen to myself. I think early stages you have a tendency to or I did ask other people for feedback and input, and there’s this assumption that other people might know more than me. And, um, sometimes when I chose things based on that, they didn’t work out because it wasn’t coming from me. So it’s that combination of pausing, listening to people accepting input, but like, not losing sight of, yeah, where I stand.

Austyn Guest: Mhm mhm.

Katie Cruz: Um, I think for me, my only regret is that I didn’t start sooner. Yeah, we.

Austyn Guest: Get a lot of those. Yeah.

Katie Cruz: Uh, I mean, but otherwise, you know, I’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way, and. But it’s taught me, like Jamie said, is it’s taught me as well to just kind of learn from those mistakes and move forward. So, um, yeah, I just wish I would have started sooner.

Jamie Forman: And it teaches you to not be afraid of mistakes. Like, now it’s like, yeah, I’m gonna make mistakes now from here on out. I’m just gonna keep going.

Layla Dierdorff: It’s not so scary.

Katie Cruz: Yeah, definitely a test of, uh, the perfectionist in me.

Austyn Guest: Yeah, I feel that in my soul.

Katie Cruz: Yeah. Like you can’t. You can’t be a perfectionist. You just have to just do.

Austyn Guest: Sometimes you gotta wing it. Mhm.

Layla Dierdorff: Um, do you have any advice for any aspiring entrepreneurs to help prevent some of the mistakes that you made?

Katie Cruz: Um, don’t don’t be fearful about what you can provide. Um, don’t be afraid to start. Don’t be afraid to try something new. Don’t be afraid to throw away an idea that you thought was going to be a really great and turns out not so great. And, um, I think just trust yourself to make the right decisions. And they’re not always going to be right, but they’ll be a decision and you’ll learn from it. So yeah.

Jamie Forman: Yeah, I think realizing like, check in with yourself, how much do you want it? And then when the things come against you, you get to decide, is this a test that that’s not going to stop me or am I reevaluating the direction? But I think it goes back to, yeah, trusting yourself and staying committed to what it is that you want to see, um, happen.

Layla Dierdorff: So we’ve talked a lot about the past and the present. Um, do you have any future goals for your business and what are those.

Austyn Guest: Short term, short term or long term?

Katie Cruz: Yeah, yeah. So it’s funny, Jamie and I were just talking about this shortly before, but. Yeah. So I’m, um, I’m currently in the process of, um, ordering a new machine, and this new machine will allow me to print directly onto food so I can offer, like, uh, images. So I can print your face on a nice medallion and, like, we could print your face on on something like that and, um, or a logo. So my direction is going to be moving towards, uh, more corporate orders and, um, gourmet gifts like our gift boxes that we offer.

Austyn Guest: You’re like, those are good for, like we were talking about earlier. Um, bridal showers. Yeah. Bridal parties. Sorry. Or, um, like a grand opening for a business.

Katie Cruz: Yeah. And I’m moving more towards, like, larger orders and more, uh, challenging bakes. So, like, offering new items so I can challenge my skills a little better. Yeah. No.

Austyn Guest: That’s good. You got to do that every now and then.

Jamie Forman: Yeah. And, uh, for me, I’ve gotten kind of into this custom commissions with art. So I represent a lot of artists and I have clients and, um, really exposing people to the opportunity for commission pieces of art. It’s very unique and special. That’s one direction I’m really digging into. We also, as I stated, uh, recently added local wine sales. When I first opened, I always had this vision of a of a place where people could come and linger and be inspired around the creative, the creative. It’s a nice little space. It’s a cool little space.

Austyn Guest: And it is.

Jamie Forman: So, um, so I wanted to extend that and give people another reason to kind of spend some time. So that’s that’s my focus right now okay.

Austyn Guest: All right. So these questions are require a little bit more thought. So take your time to answer. But um if you had the attention of the whole world, everybody is watching listening to what you were saying for five minutes. What would you say?

Katie Cruz: Oh, a loaded question here.

Austyn Guest: Yeah.

Katie Cruz: Um. I would tell everybody to probably take a deep breath. Honestly, it’s probably needed. Yeah. You know, I would probably just be like, okay, everyone, take a deep breath.

Austyn Guest: Just calm down for a moment.

Katie Cruz: Yeah. And it kind of like rethinks everybody in the world, assuming, you know.

Layla Dierdorff: I like that. It’s like everyone sitting at the same time. Yeah.

Austyn Guest: Like, take a chill pill for a minute. Just simmer down.

Katie Cruz: Just have everyone inhale and exhale.

Jamie Forman: Yeah I would say stay curious I think um, I think that and bring it back to like, the people around you in your community. Because I do think that you can’t be in, in judgment and be curious about somebody at the same time really makes sense. I just I don’t know, there’s so there’s so many there’s so much good right around you. And like sometimes we get we go back too far. Yeah I know, so breathe. Stay curious I like the breathe.

Austyn Guest: That’s good, I like it. Yes.

Layla Dierdorff: Um. One more. If you woke up tomorrow without your business, what would be your first steps to recovery if you even chose to recover?

Austyn Guest: Like it was like it never existed. It was just gone.

Layla Dierdorff: It was. You’re like, oh, where is it? Oh my God, that’s crazy.

Austyn Guest: Do you mean like.

Jamie Forman: Get your business back or recover? Like as a person? As a human? Both.

Austyn Guest: Yeah.

Layla Dierdorff: Like really?

Austyn Guest: It’s like that would take an emotional toll if you want. So. Yeah.

Katie Cruz: I’d probably I’d probably first breathe. Yeah. Um, but also, uh, I think, I think that would require a lot of mindset shifting, you know, like you’d have to really, like, wrap your mind around, um, what the next steps would be. But, yeah, uh, I, I would assume that my business would disappear because my house burned down or, like, my kitchen burned down. So my first steps would be to call my insurance company. Yeah. Um, I don’t know. I other than that I would probably have a good cry at first, and then I would pick up the pieces and just reevaluate and go from there.

Jamie Forman: Yeah, I think I’d go for a run. I, I am a firm believer that you have to take care of your thinking. And so whatever I had to do, um, but there’s no doubt I’d be doing something creative too, so just recentering.

Austyn Guest: Yeah. Okay, so after to deep questions, we’re going to have a quick this or that. So just answer as quick as you can okay. Cats or dogs? Cats Spider-Man.

Layla Dierdorff: Or Batman.

Austyn Guest: Batman books or movies.

Katie Cruz: Movies.

Layla Dierdorff: Waffle or curly fries.

Austyn Guest: Waffle mountains or the beach.

Katie Cruz: The beach.

Layla Dierdorff: Sweet or salty?

Austyn Guest: Sweet chocolate or fruity candy? Absolutely.

Layla Dierdorff: Chocolate cake or pie?

Katie Cruz: Definitely cake.

Austyn Guest: Lower high rise jeans.

Katie Cruz: Oh, high rise jeans.

Austyn Guest: Yeah, yeah.

Katie Cruz: All that cake and pie.

Layla Dierdorff: Uh, comedy or horror?

Katie Cruz: Comedy. Okay.

Austyn Guest: Nice.

Layla Dierdorff: Nice, nice. Okay.

Austyn Guest: All right. Cats or dogs?

Jamie Forman: I’m gonna go with cats.

Layla Dierdorff: Spider-man or Batman?

Austyn Guest: Spider-man books or movies?

Layla Dierdorff: Books. Waffle or curly fries.

Austyn Guest: Waffle mountains or the beach? The beach.

Layla Dierdorff: Sweet or salty?

Austyn Guest: Sweet chocolate or fruity candy. Chocolate cake or.

Layla Dierdorff: Pie?

Austyn Guest: Pie. Sorry. Lower high rise jeans.

Layla Dierdorff: High rise comedy or horror?

Jamie Forman: Definitely comedy.

Austyn Guest: Nice. Okay. Well, thank you, Katie and Jamie for hanging out with us today. We really appreciate it. Um, can you tell everyone how they can get in touch with you and check out what you’re doing?

Katie Cruz: Uh, yeah. So you guys can go to my website. Uh, it is wbom babeshko. Com. Um, or you can follow us on Instagram. Our handle there is Bomb Babes HC.

Jamie Forman: Yep. Menagerie on main. Com is our website and then on Facebook and Instagram. Menagerie on main is the handle.

Austyn Guest: Honestly, do your best to spell that. Yes.

Layla Dierdorff: Try I dare you.

Jamie Forman: Okay. Google it. It’ll come.

Austyn Guest: Up. Yeah.

Layla Dierdorff: We enjoyed our time with you today, and we know our audience will get so much out of hearing your story.

Austyn Guest: Thanks for listening and we’ll see you on the next one.

 

All About Tansy, the only Black Women owned Nursery in LA County – Celebrating Women of Color Business Owners

June 20, 2024 by angishields

WIM-Shawna-Christian-Feature
Women in Motion
All About Tansy, the only Black Women owned Nursery in LA County - Celebrating Women of Color Business Owners
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Shawna Christian joins Lee Kantor in this episode of Women in Motion. Shawna is the owner of Tansy, a plant nursery and home decor shop. They discuss Shawna’s shift from a successful IT career to entrepreneurship, her journey, challenges, and the positive community impact of her business. Shawna highlights Tansy’s diverse customer base, strong LGBTQ support, and her plans to start shipping plants.

Shawna-ChristianShawna Christian left her 24-year career in IT to follow her dream and open her own business. Tansy is a family-owned and operated nursery and home goods store located in Burbank, California as well as Seattle, Washington.

Tansy features a wide array of hand-picked indoor and outdoor plants, as well as a vast selection of art and home goods from all over the globe.

Shawna is the only black female in LA county to currently own a nursery.

Connect with Shawna on LinkedIn.

Music Provided by M PATH MUSIC

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

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

Shawna Christian: Hi everybody. Thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about Tansy.

Shawna Christian: So, Tansy is a plant nursery. It is also home décor accent shop. We have items from all around the world. It’s insanely colorful. It evokes so much emotion and joy. It’s my baby.

Lee Kantor: So, what’s your back story? Have you always been involved in this kind of business?

Shawna Christian: You know, after dedicating 24 years to the management of a very successful outsource IT firm, I had a very close friend passed away suddenly, and it just made me realize that it was time for a change. That as much as I loved my old job, my old business, it was just time to move on. I was in that later part of my life. My kids were grown. And I, for the last 10 to 15 years, had really become obsessed with plants and home décor and just, essentially, making your home a sanctuary. Your home is your safe space, and I learned that very early on, and it was one of those things that I just got really good at.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you talk about kind of the decision to change careers. Like you had a passion, obviously, you were enjoying it in your own life. Can you go through kind of the thought process and maybe how you came to actually taking action on this and not just keeping it in the background? Like a lot of people do with their dreams, they’re like, “Oh, yeah. I’ll get to it whenever.” But can you walk us through what it took to go from, “Yeah, I’m going to do this” to actually doing this.

Shawna Christian: Yeah, definitely. So, it was a few things happening. It was the realization that, you know, life is just so short. The person who I actually spoke about that passed away suddenly, he was on the brink of changing his life. He was about to live his lifelong dream about a couple of weeks away from it before he passed away suddenly. So, that was a pretty big impetus for me.

Shawna Christian: I had been with this company for 24 years. It afforded me an amazing life. I made a very good salary. It’s very comfortable. I had helped build it from the ground up. It was just amazing. And once I turned 50, I realized that if I didn’t change up what I was doing now, I was never going to do it. I didn’t want to die there, so to speak. I had all these ideas of other things I had wanted to do.

Shawna Christian: And I have to say, I do feel like I had a little bit of a leg up because I had run a company for so long, I feel like I had already had the skills to be able to do this specifically. And once you get over the fear, which I think is the biggest piece that stops you from doing things, it’s kind of like all – what is it? – move ahead. Everybody go. Let’s do this.

Shawna Christian: It was definitely a very quick transition for me, unfortunately. I would have liked to have it been a little bit slower, because it feels like I did think it through, but I didn’t think it through deep enough, if that makes any sense. It was one of those things where I said, “Oh. This would be very neat to do. Let me see if I can sit down and write a business plan.” I wrote the business plan. Then, I was thinking, “Hmm. I wonder if I can get a small business loan off this business plan?” And I applied for a small business loan and got approved. And then, two weeks later, we found a space in Burbank to renovate and to do. It all happened so quickly, I almost didn’t even have time to scare myself out of it.

Lee Kantor: Did you go through kind of a pros and cons or playing out “Okay. What’s the worst thing that can happen?” Like did you get into that side of it as well?

Shawna Christian: Yeah. Oh, definitely. Definitely. And honestly, you know, writing down the pros and cons list as I was talking about fear, the biggest thing for me was what is the worst possible scenario that can happen from me doing this. And, really, I’m not going to be homeless. I have an amazing support group around me that would always help me if ever need be. I will always have clothes on my back. I will always be able to get food.

Shawna Christian: Really, the biggest fear was, “Oh. It might not work. I might have to owe some people money. Maybe I have to claim bankruptcy.” But, really, when it came down to it, the pros and cons, the list of pros, even when you first write it down, it could be the same amount, or you could even have more cons than pros per se. But then once you do it, the amount of pros that come up just from living in that life just supersedes it. It is hands down I would never go back.

Lee Kantor: And it’s funny doing the exercise like you did, in which a lot of people do is, you know, kind of imagining or catastrophizing the worst possible scenarios that could happen. A lot of time we don’t spend as much time on what are the best possible outcomes. We focus only on what are the bad things that can happen, but we don’t even anticipate all of the positives that are going to come out of it.

Shawna Christian: Yeah. And, honestly, I couldn’t even have told you most of the positives that have come out of it so far. Like, I couldn’t have told you in the beginning. I really needed to do this and to work through it and to see what basically came out of it, because it’s basically shaped my whole life and it has completely changed the direction of me.

Lee Kantor: Now, talk about those early days when you’re coming from a more established company and a comfortable kind of day-to-day routine, I’m sure, to now this more chaotic, more make some stuff up as we go scenario that you kind of thrust yourself into.

Shawna Christian: Yeah. Robbing Peter to pay Paul, essentially. It’s funny, we like being comfortable as human beings. We like being in something that we know, that there’s not a lot of change, what have you. But with that, there’s definitely no growth. You get to a certain point where if you could do this in your sleep, I don’t know how you stay awake for your normal daily life.

Shawna Christian: It is crazy to own your own business. It’s insane. There are days where I am putting fire after fire after fire out. There are days where I’m wondering sometimes how I’m going to pay payroll. And then, there are other days where we get to see what we’ve accomplished and what we’ve done. And that just makes it all worth it. Do I miss having money and not worrying about money? Definitely. Definitely. But again, I would never go back. It’s only up. It’s only up from here.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. I think what happens to a lot of people who choose this entrepreneurial route is they kind of become unhirable because they get used to “Hey, we’re making things happen and we’re just figuring it out,” and you don’t have kind of the patience for a lot of the bureaucracy or politics that happen in more of a corporate environment.

Shawna Christian: Oh, definitely. Definitely. Your tolerance is definitely not the same. And it’s that thing, too, I think that when you live in every moment and there’s reaction to every moment, that’s how you come across. And being in a corporate environment, that just doesn’t work. You either look unstable, or you look like you’re a maverick, or you look like you’re not really part of the team. But I had a great mentor, the gentleman who owned the company that I worked for, for 24 years, he was an expert at it. He bobbed and weaved like I’ve never seen. And, honestly, it’s something I probably couldn’t have even learned in college. It was definitely a great education.

Lee Kantor: So, why do you think that so many people are afraid to kind of take the leap that you have made? What does it take to overcome that fear?

Shawna Christian: I think a lot of it stems from having very low self-confidence. It’s scary to think that you could basically maybe take away a safety net to do something that you love, but I think it’s more in the idea that you’re not 100 percent sure you believe in what it is you’re doing, whether you’re making art, or you’re coming up with a new invention, or you’re trying to bring a service to people that maybe isn’t around. You have these seeds of self-doubt, like “Why hasn’t somebody done this before?” or “Nobody’s going to want to buy this art of mine, only I like it.”

Shawna Christian: I think until you get over the self-doubt, you’re never going to fully jump, you’re never going to fully leave that life and really extend yourself and try and do something different. I think, unfortunately, it’s human nature, but fear is the driving force behind so many things, so many things. And like you were saying, the fact that you can think of all these cons, but nobody really stops to think of the pros. It’s a mindset. It is totally a mindset.

Shawna Christian: And I can’t say that this is like an automatic switch, like just think positive. It’s not that at all. It’s literally going through the idea of you have to stop worrying what people think about you. You have to be insanely strong and confident in what it is you’re bringing to the masses or to your customers, your clients. Once you’re there and you really, really love what you’re doing, and nobody’s going to tell you different, that fear of doing it, it dissipates. It goes away. It really does.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. The first sale you have to make is to yourself.

Shawna Christian: Yeah, yeah. If you don’t believe in yourself, you are not going to con anybody else to do this for you at all, at all.

Lee Kantor: And that comes across. That’s not something you can really fake. People can sense if you’re really all in or not.

Shawna Christian: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Again, it’s just confidence is such a huge thing. I think a lot of people are born with it. I think some people aren’t. I think some people have to learn it. But it has to be a jumping point. If you don’t have the confidence, you will always stop yourself. There will always be something in the back of your head telling you why you’re going to fail or why you shouldn’t be doing this.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned some of the positives that you didn’t kind of anticipate, can you share some of those moments where you were like, “Hey, I am making an impact. My work is important and this thing is working.”

Shawna Christian: I think the biggest thing for me was I never really was a person who sat in the idea of pushing my femininity out into the open, my race. I’ve always felt like I’m Shawna, and I never really defined myself in any manner. It really just wasn’t a thing for me. I’m of mixed race. I was raised in different religious households. I had to adapt pretty much my whole life, which was great, but it made it so I never really thought about what I was or who I am. I just was always just very confident.

Shawna Christian: And doing this has shown me that everybody is different, but it’s the amount of women who I have come across who don’t know how to begin changing their lives. The amount of women who DM me, they email, they call, they come into the shop, and it’s always “Can I take you to lunch? Can I take you to breakfast? I just want to pick your brain. How did you start? What made you want to do this?”

Shawna Christian: And, really, the biggest piece for me was there is this need to not educate, but to help other women find their voice and find their vehicle to basically take control of what it is they’re doing and for them to just become insanely proud of it. And it was something that I didn’t realize that it was a need. It just hadn’t really occurred to me. But it’s the biggest thing in my life right now. And I’d have to go straight down to the fact that I had a great mentor, I think it’s the same thing.

Lee Kantor: And it’s probably one of those things where while you were having that mentorship, it just probably organically occurred during your day-to-day life and you don’t realize how other people are lacking that.

Shawna Christian: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. You don’t. I mean, it’s that idea that when you put your child into, say, an advanced class, most times your child will basically push themselves forward to try and stay in that advanced class as opposed to if you’re going to put a child into a class where kids are like messing around and not doing much, what do you think that child’s going to do? And so, you don’t realize when you’re being mentored or actually people are showing you things on how to do and how to be, I can’t even put a monetary value on it.

Shawna Christian: I’m so grateful that I got 24 years of just the most amazing mentor in the world. And I realized it’s this whole idea of pay it forward. And it’s what I want to do. It’s made something where I have now found my life’s mission from opening this business, where if you had asked me when I first opened the business, this wasn’t even on my radar.

Lee Kantor: Now, for folks who haven’t been to Tansy, can you explain how Tansy is different? Like, you used the word nursery, but it’s a lot more than a nursery. It’s a community. And you’re doing work that goes well beyond buying a plant for the yard. Can you talk about how you’ve kind of reframed what a nursery could be and you’ve created this third place, really?

Shawna Christian: You know, it’s funny, it was this idea that I wanted to sell plants and I wanted to sell things that I would only have in my own house. That was kind of how it started. And it turned into the most insane community. People come to our shop and it’s their field trip for the day. The shop itself, because of all the color and all of the curation that’s been put into this shop, whether it’s stuff for your home or it’s gifts or it is the plant room, it evokes so much emotion from people.

Shawna Christian: We always know when it’s somebody’s first time when they come in. The look on their face, it is something I wish I could bottle. It is amazing to see. The amount of community that we have been able to create, we have workshops, and we have parties, we have pop-ups. We are very supportive of local artists. Half the items in our shop are of local artists. And it has turned into something that is just, again, I could never imagine the vehicle in which this was going to become. It’s just been amazing.

Shawna Christian: We also have what I call the Teen Titan program. We have girls ages 9 through 13 – I have a waiting list every summer at this point – and we pick basically seven girls, and each one gets a day to come in over summer and they get to work four hours one day a week. And they get to learn how to run a business. They get to learn how to help customers. They get to learn about plants.

Shawna Christian: And the biggest piece for me is this idea that ages 9 through 13, that is like the most uncomfortable age for a girl. You don’t know your voice, you don’t know your body, everything is like pins and needles. And you get these girls in there and the first day they’re there, you can barely hear what they’re saying because they’re just so guarded and just don’t know how to talk. And then, you get to the end of summer and we have people coming in the door and they’re like, “Hi. Welcome to Tansy. Can I help you find something? Here, let me walk you over. So, tell me, how well do you know plants?” It is amazing. It is amazing.

Shawna Christian: And so, this whole business has turned into something I could just never have forecasted.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. That wasn’t in the business plan, I’m sure.

Shawna Christian: Not at all.

Lee Kantor: And that’s the beauty of entrepreneurship, you can adjust to the new information you’re getting as it’s happening. That didn’t have to go to a committee and a board to make a decision.

Shawna Christian: Right. No, I didn’t have to get approval for it. It’s very nice to feel like you get to make your own decisions, as scary as it might be sometimes.

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

Shawna Christian: So, I hadn’t realized what a community it was. Initially, when I had first opened my business, a friend of mine, a mentor of mine had said this is something you might want to look into. And it’s one of the only women I know who is just, you know, years ahead of me when it comes to business, and everything she says I listen to. And so, I looked into it, I started down the path and I kind of gave up halfway. It was a lot. COVID hit. We were bobbing and weaving trying to kind of figure out how we were going to stay open. And it was a lot of paperwork. And I kind of gave it up.

Shawna Christian: Well, fast forward, I have this master plan of something that we have in the works that involves women, and it involves women around the country. And my friend, one of my mentors had basically said, “Hey, you might want to try this again. I think it would be really good.” And so, I finally had time. I did my research and I was blown away. I was blown away at the amount of female support that WBEC gives. I had no idea. I had no idea.

Shawna Christian: It was one of those things where I had been trying to do what they do on a large scale. For me, trying to do it on this really, really small scale for women that I’m meeting, not even realizing that this network that WBEC offers, it’s life changing. It’s life changing. And I am so proud and excited to be part of it.

Lee Kantor: So, what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Shawna Christian: What do I need more of? I would like to have more group specific to industries. I would love to be able to have those groups where I can find where it’s great to have a retail group, but I would love to find a retail group that’s, say, in the top five biggest cities in America. Because it’s a major difference being the only Black female-owned nursery in all of Los Angeles County than it is for me to talk to somebody who they’re in retail and they might be selling candles and they have places in, like, Oklahoma and Florida or what have you. I like the idea of having just more defined meet and greets, if that makes any sense.

Lee Kantor: Right. With people that are kind of doing work maybe similar, maybe not exact, but tangentially connected to your kind of mission and vision.

Shawna Christian: Yeah, exactly. They don’t have to be into plants per se. But maybe they are – I don’t know. Maybe it is plants.

Lee Kantor: Who’s your ideal customer? Are they right now people in and around Burbank, in Los Angeles County? Can people order your things online?

Shawna Christian: Yeah, definitely. So, our demographic, it’s a good 70 percent women from ages, like literally, one, because we have children’s stuff as well, to 100 years old. We definitely are very well-established and liked within the LGBTQ community as well. We have a website, it’s shoptansy.com. We can ship all over the world. We don’t ship plants right now. It’s something we’re actually going to start doing. But we have our social media as well, it’s ShopTansyLA for Los Angeles. We did open a second location in Seattle last year, and so that’s ShopTansySEA. Our demographic is definitely highly female, but we cater to anybody who has a love of plants and color, honestly.

Lee Kantor: And that website is shoptansy, S-H-O-P-T-A-N-S-Y,.com.

Shawna Christian: You got it.

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

Shawna Christian: Thank you so much. And thank you again so much for even thinking of me and having me. I’m so excited to hear this.

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

 

 

Tagged With: Tansy

Nursing Staffing Solutions – Celebrating Women of Color Business Owners

June 18, 2024 by angishields

Chanelle-Nakkashian-feature
Women in Motion
Nursing Staffing Solutions - Celebrating Women of Color Business Owners
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In this episode of Women in Motion, host Lee Kantor interviews Chanelle Nakkashian, founder of HonestLove Global Professional Staffing. Chanelle discusses her company’s role as a travel nursing agency and staffing provider for allied health professionals, primarily in California, with plans for nationwide expansion. She shares her inspiring journey from being an immigrant facing homelessness to becoming a registered nurse and entrepreneur. Chanelle highlights the importance of mentorship, continuous education, and career growth for her team. She also emphasizes the value of community and collaboration, offering advice to aspiring entrepreneurs.

Chanelle-NakkashianChanelle Nakkashian is a distinguished leader in the healthcare industry, known for her exemplary career as a registered nurse and her visionary leadership as the CEO of HonestLove Global Professional Staffing. With a strong background in nursing and a passion for elevating healthcare standards, Chanelle has dedicated her career to making a positive impact on patient care and the professional development of healthcare professionals.

Chanelle’s journey began with her pursuitof a nursing degree from a prestigious institution, where she honed her clinical skills and developed a deep understanding of patient care. Throughout her years as a practicing nurse, Chanelle demonstrated exceptional dedication, compassion, and expertise in providing high-quality care to patients in various healthcare settings.

Driven by a desire to address the challenges faced by both healthcare organizations and professionals, Chanelle founded HonestLove Global Professional Staffing. As the CEO, she leads with integrity, innovation, and a commitment to excellence. Under her guidance, HonestLove has become a trusted partner for healthcare organizations seeking top-tier staffing solutions and for healthcare professionals seeking rewarding career opportunities.

Chanelle’s leadership philosophy is centered on empowering her team to excel and fostering a culture of collaboration, respect, and continuous improvement. She prioritizes employee well-being and professional development, recognizing that a motivated and skilled workforce is essential for delivering exceptional service to clients and patients alike.

Beyond her role at HonestLove, Chanelle is actively involved in industry associations and community initiatives aimed at advancing healthcare standards and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in the healthcare workforce.

Through her tireless dedication to improving healthcare delivery and supporting healthcare professionals, Chanelle continues to inspire others and make a lasting impact on the healthcare industry.

Connect with Chanelle on LinkedIn.

Music Provided by M PATH MUSIC

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

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

Chanelle Nakkashian: Thank you. Thank you. I’m so excited to be here. And thank you so much for having me here.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn about your company. Can you tell us about Honest Love? How are you serving folks?

Chanelle Nakkashian: Absolutely. Honest Love is a travel nursing agency and also for allied health. It’s mostly staffing for healthcare. And we do provide health care workers and clinicians to various hospitals and healthcare organizations. So, what we do is we send nurses and other therapists that do work in healthcare, in mostly acute care facilities, which is hospitals, we send them there to go help out for staffing shortages.

Chanelle Nakkashian: So, here and there, hospitals will be short of staff, although they will have facilities that are looking for extra help because some of the nurses called off, or they have more patients, or they have more demand than they currently have so they will outreach to resources such as Honest Love Global Professionals Staffing and we will be able to provide them that support that they need.

Lee Kantor: Now, are you providing the support primarily in California or is it around the country?

Chanelle Nakkashian: Currently, we are providing primarily in California, but we are looking to also helping out in other parts of the country. Certain states do require licensing, so we are working on that. And some of the other states that do not, we are marketing and continuing to expand and trying to help all the other states that could possibly use our help.

Lee Kantor: Now, in your work, it seems like you have two different clients, you have the medical facility that hires you, but also you have the health care professional that you place there. How do you serve both of those constituents?

Chanelle Nakkashian: You know, me being a health care professional myself – I’m not sure if I did explain to you before – I am a registered nurse, and prior to starting my company, I did work in the healthcare, and I also did work as a travel nurse. So, I do have quite an extensive background in that field, so I’m able to actually pinpoint the needs of the client and be able to also serve them with the clinicians that I believe that will be able to be the right fit for that particular facility.

Lee Kantor: So, let’s talk a little bit about your backstory. How did you transition from being a healthcare provider to, you know, running this entire firm?

Chanelle Nakkashian: Excellent question. You know, I’m an immigrant from Africa. I arrived in the United States in 2001, right after high school. And when I came to the U.S., I didn’t have any security or stable place to live. I faced challenges of homelessness, and I found solace in a sense of belonging within the community of the church that I used to attend. With that being said, healthcare has always been my passion. Despite all the adversities I faced, I remained steadfast in my pursuit of education, particularly in the field of healthcare. I’ve always been determined to make a difference in the life of others.

Chanelle Nakkashian: So, I began taking classes in community college with the goal of pursuing a nursing education. Nursing, for me, was not just a career, but a choice, and also a profound way to connect with and support others in their times of need. Driven by my passion for helping others, my journey has always served as a testament to the power of perseverance and the transformational impact of compassion.

Chanelle Nakkashian: My journey extends beyond the realm of nursing into the dynamic of entrepreneurship. As I stand today, I’m a founder out of two impact ventures, not just Honest Love Global Professional, but I also did founded Honest Love Global Home Care, which served the community and provides home care resources for the elderly. So, this all came from my deep rooted passion for helping others, and also it aligns with my commitment to making a difference in people’s life.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned the term travel nurse, can you explain to folks who maybe aren’t familiar, like what’s a travel nurse? And why is that choice of nursing different than one who may work in one place over a long period of time?

Chanelle Nakkashian: Okay. Excellent. So, you know, travel nursing is when a nurse decides to explore. So, instead of just serving, working, deciding to work at one particular hospital, an individual or a nurse or a clinician decides to go to different hospitals or sign a contract at a particular hospital for a certain amount of time. It could be 13 weeks, which is the average time frame.

Chanelle Nakkashian: So, a nurse will sign a contract with a particular hospital and that’s where the middleman comes in, which is the agency. And the nurse will work at the hospital for a certain amount of time. It could be 13 weeks or the hospital will decide to extend that for another 13 weeks. So, it goes for three months at a time.

Chanelle Nakkashian: Part of the pros of actually working as a travel nurse is, after that 13 weeks, you can actually take a vacation and decide to take three months off. On the other hand, if you did work for the hospital, you can just take that time off from the hospital without the hospital or the current company authorizing that time off. So, being a travel nurse kind of gives you that freedom to be able to make your own schedule, work when you want to, take time off to be with family in case that’s needed.

Chanelle Nakkashian: As a former travel nurse myself, I did do travel nursing because it did work for my schedule. As a mom, I was able to take the whole summer off to spend time with my kids and then go back and travel when the kids were in school. So, those are some of the perks that a travel nurse will have. And travel nurses tend to get paid a little bit higher, too, so that is also another part of the perks that a lot of the nurses do enjoy.

Lee Kantor: And when you’re saying travel, they’re not traveling to another country. They could just be traveling to another facility within their community.

Chanelle Nakkashian: Absolutely. They can be traveling to another facility within the community that they live, or they could be traveling to a different state or a different city or a different county in California. For instance, if someone lives in Riverside County, they could drive to a L.A. County to be a traveler, to work in a particular hospital in Los Angeles or to Northern California. So, you do have that flexibility to move around and you do have control over your schedule in that sense.

Lee Kantor: Now, how do you help your team kind of grow their career? Do you give them mentoring or education or advice when it comes to a career plan?

Chanelle Nakkashian: Absolutely. You know, I serve as a resource and a mentor to all our staff. And I always tell them I’m always open for any questions that they have or how do I advance their career. Education is my number one, so I’m always advising people to continue to go up and move on and get your education, advance your career, go get your masters. A lot of our nurses do travel nursing because they are advancing their careers and going to be a nurse practitioner. And being a traveler becomes a lot more flexible to be able to work for three months and go back to school, and also cut down on their hours when that time is needed to be able to complete all their clinical work and be able to get their degree as a nurse practitioner.

Chanelle Nakkashian: So, a lot of our nurses, actually, they do work on advancing their degrees. Some are in school to have their doctorate degree. So, we do support that and we do encourage that and we always offer them resources.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you share a story about maybe one of your people that got to you maybe young and maybe not confident, and then after working with you, they were able to attain a higher level, a new level in their career.

Chanelle Nakkashian: Absolutely. You know, a lot of our nurses or a lot of the clinicians that work for us, they come to us after a year or two of getting experience. And we do have nurses fly in specifically from Houston and Texas – Texas, not just Houston – excuse my language – from the State of Texas. The State of Texas is very close to California, so some of the nurses will fly in to work as a traveler here in California.

Chanelle Nakkashian: Let’s put it this way, California logistics is a little bit different from that in Texas, so sometimes some of the facilities that we will place them at, they do have a hard time, either the way they chart or the expectations of the hospital. So, this is when we come in and we mentor them, and I give them tips because I have done it. I’ve lived in your shoes, so it’s easier to communicate with them, let them know this is what you can do, this is what it takes to survive.

Chanelle Nakkashian: Because being a travel nurse itself is not easy and it’s not for everyone. You have to pick yourself up, go to a different facility, and act like you’ve worked there before, and be a people person to be able to work with others very well. There’s a certain criteria that our clients are looking for. So, this is when I come in and I mentor them, I send them emails, I call them, I let them know this is how you do it. If you have any challenges, let us know.

Chanelle Nakkashian: So, basically, there’s been a lot of instances where I have shaped specifically younger nurses that have, like, a year or two experience and I’m talking about 24, 25. And by the time they do talk to me, they realize, “You’re actually right, when I used all the things and everything that you shared with me, I’m having an easier time at work.”

Lee Kantor: Yeah. I would imagine, because if you’re not used to that, you’re always kind of the new person. Like you get in there and you don’t know anybody and then you’re kind of dropped in there, and if you don’t have the confidence, it could be challenging.

Chanelle Nakkashian: It could be very challenging, because, like I said, there’s certain qualities that the facilities are looking for. You have to just go in there and be able to fit in. And it’s not always comfortable. And I always let them know it does take a few days, a few shifts because you’re not going to go there and be comfortable that very first day. But it takes perseverance and endurance to be able to fit in and prove yourself, let them know how confident you are. And it works out great. I’ll tell you, 90 percent of the time they have a great experience after a week or two.

Lee Kantor: Right. And especially if you can really get them with the right mindset coming in, it probably becomes a lot easier.

Chanelle Nakkashian: It’s a lot easier. And the mindset is extremely important, especially in this field.

Lee Kantor: So, now, why was it important for you to be part of WBEC-West and what have you gotten out of that?

Chanelle Nakkashian: You know, it was extremely important to me, it’s a sense of belonging. Like I shared my story earlier, I’m an immigrant that basically didn’t have any family. So, for me, once I became an entrepreneur, I wanted to actually join forces with others that were just like myself or that were trying to be an upcoming entrepreneur, to be able to join forces and come together and also help others that want to be while I was continuing to also take mentorship from others. So, basically just learning from each other.

Lee Kantor: So, what’s next for Honest Love?

Chanelle Nakkashian: What’s next? What’s next for us is continue to get more contracts, continue to make our name out there, continue to overcome all the other hurdles and other barriers. Because this business is also not easy. The healthcare industry is complex and it has a lot of hurdles and also a lot of evolving technology. So, our goal for Honest Love is continue to expand, and continue to educate, continue to broaden our knowledge, continue to bring on more clients. And also prove ourselves and let people know that Honest Love is here and we do have a lot to offer.

Lee Kantor: What about some advice for maybe the person that’s new to America and then says I want to be an entrepreneur, do you have any advice for that person on how to jumpstart their entrepreneurial journey?

Chanelle Nakkashian: Yeah, absolutely. You have to believe in your mission. You have to stay true to your passion and purpose. Be dedicated to helping. You have to build a support network that will be able to serve as a mentorship to you. Continuously learn and always build a landscape of constantly involving people around you. And always stay curious, keep learning, be willing to adapt to new changes and new opportunities. It is not easy, but seek collaboration and partnership. Stay resilient. It can be a roller coaster ride of highs and lows, but you have to develop resilience to bounce off from setbacks and keep moving forward.

Lee Kantor: And if somebody wants to learn more about Honest Love, either the professional staffing or the home healthcare, what is the website? What’s the best way to get a hold of you or somebody on the team?

Chanelle Nakkashian: Please contact us at Honest Love Global Professionals Staffing, or you can always call us, 951-290-8543, and one of our recruiters will be willing to welcome you and show you how amazing we are.

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

Chanelle Nakkashian: Thank you so much for having me. You have a great day.

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

 

Tagged With: HonestLove Global Professional Staffing

Chirag Nijjer with Chirag Speaks

June 14, 2024 by angishields

High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Chirag Nijjer with Chirag Speaks
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Chirag-NijjerChirag Nijjer is the leading expert in simplifying complex marketing concepts into practical advice. Through engaging in digital content and global speaking engagements with “Chirag Speaks”, he uses dynamic real-world storytelling to help entrepreneurs move from chaos to action in their marketing methods.

He has built an impressive online audience of 60k+ followers and 6.1M+ views. As a son of immigrant parents from Punjab, India, Chirag’s infatuation for marketing began with his family’s store in NYC. From an early age, he was committed to finding ways to draw customers into the shop.

Chirag set on his quest for education, earning a B.A. in Economics with a focus on Entrepreneurship. Finally, he was able to access the knowledge and books that were unavailable for his immigrant family. Chirag often could not wait to bring what he learned back to his family, and discovered his passion for teaching and speaking.

In Chirag’s “9-to-5”, he is a Platinum Customer Success Lead and celebrated team member at Google. He works with some of the world’s largest global brands, as an expert in crisis management and proactive problem-solving. For Chirag’s “5-9”, he is a dynamic speaker and insightful advisor, having worked with over 300 companies worldwide. With his proprietary methods and marketing strategies, he brings brands out of chaos and into action.

In teaching his 3 core theories, Chirag takes businesses and student entrepreneurs from 0-80, putting them in a position to feel confident and comfortable to build their brand and effectively market their products and services. They finally grasp the complexities of marketing in a simplified way, using creativity and luck to push for the final 20 percent.

His accolades include the Hunsicker Business Studies Award, the Dyer Innovation Fellowship, and the Whitman Economics Fellowship. In addition, appointments as a Dyer Innovator-in-Residence, Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization Global Ventures Judge, and a Google for Startups Accelerator Mentor. He has also been featured in the hit HISTORY docu-series ‘Mega Brands That Build America’.

In his spare time, Chirag enjoys spending time with his extended family and cooking. He loves the feeling of accomplishment in the kitchen, going from the chaos of all the ingredients to the finished product.

Connect with Chirag on LinkedIn.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Stone Payton: Welcome to the High Velocity Radio show, where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you today. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Chirag Speaks, Mr. Chirag Nijjer. How are you, man?

Chirag Nijjer: I’m feeling good. I’m feeling really, really good. You know. Excited about this for sure.

Stone Payton: Well, it is an absolute delight to have you on the program. I’ve really been looking forward to this conversation. I’ve got a ton of questions. I know we’re not going to get to them all, but I think maybe a great place to start is if you could paint a bit of a picture for me and our listeners. Mission. Purpose. What are you and your team really out there trying to do for folks? Man.

Chirag Nijjer: Absolutely, absolutely. So I think, Stone, the most important detail I tell people about my life is I grew up at a small business family. Uh, and literally I grew up we used to have clothing stores in Manhattan before the oh eight crisis. Um, and I grew up my crib was at the store. My first toy was my dad’s old, uh, credit card machine. I always tell people I learned, like, I could run your credit before I even knew my ABCs type of upbringing. Um, and that was absolutely a beautiful sort of upbringing. But, uh, at the same time, as much as I was learning skills like public speaking, interacting, selling with people at the same time, I was really starkly aware that at the end of the month, there was this thing called the rent payment. Uh, and for some reason, all the adults were freaking out about this thing. And we used to be across the street from things like Modell’s, McDonald’s, like all these big brands. And it always used to strike me a little weird as to like, why did they have lines? But we don’t. Um, and so this was something I kind of consciously sort of played around with, tinkered around. And I always tell people there was a story. Uh, my dad at one point says, hey, let’s put a bunch of jackets outside on a rack on the street itself. Um, and, uh, let’s advertise them for $99 instead of 100. And I’m sitting there going, but you’re going to lose a dollar, like, what’s the sense here? And he goes, oh, like, it’s, it’s a, it attracts people, right.

Chirag Nijjer: Of 99 feels a lot less than 100 I’m looking at I’m like, you’re crazy. I’m like at this point maybe eight, nine years old. I’m like, this is wild. Whatever. Um, but it does work. And so that became my first sort of introduction to the world of marketing and branding. Later on, many years later, my research finding out that actually psychologically little pricing tactics like that do work. But I became fascinated. You know how some people collect Snapple caps to learn the little facts and tricks? Yeah, yeah. Um, I collect marketing and brand strategy, little facts and tips. Right. Um, and so that became my first sort of excitement into this. And so when you say my mission and my vision many years later, now for the past eight years, uh, I’ve been on this a massive sort of research project, working with some of the world’s largest corporations down to mom and pop shops to understand, like, can we distill marketing strategy into simple, accessible tidbits that are actionable? And that’s what I’ve been doing. So my when you say what my mission is or what are the team’s mission is we want to make brand strategy more accessible, right? I want to teach you how to use your brand stories to develop intentional and actionable strategies. Most importantly, simple language. Man, I want to get you out of chaos that me and my family faced every single day and get you into actions. You feel a little more confident in what you’re doing. I’m going to pause there for a quick moment.

Stone Payton: Well, it sounds like incredibly rewarding work, and it sounds like you’ve been at it for a while. What are you enjoying the most at this point, man? What’s the most fun about it for you?

Chirag Nijjer: Oh man, I tell people, Stone, there is no better feeling than so I in my process, right? I get the chance to be able to speak on some amazing stages, right? Whether that’s colleges, conferences and all. Um, and I tell people there’s no better feeling than when I’m on stage and sort of explaining one of these concepts, going, hey, look like breaking down, I don’t know. So four P’s of marketing or the eight of marketing funnel. Uh, and as I’m saying this, you see someone in the crowd just sit there and go, okay, okay. Oh, and when you see that little oh that happens. Oh, man. Stone, that is perhaps one of the most the I tell people there’s no high like it. Right. It’s a completely exciting but more sort of on the ground is when people show, uh, come up and say things like, hey, I’ve been in like there was one person I was working with. She’s been in business for about ten years now. Um, she used to be in, uh, an executive at some fortune 500 company, quit, started her own business, ran it for ten years. She comes in and she goes, hey, despite everything and having even gotten an MBA, this, like, the thing you were talking about never had really made sense the way that when you said it did and it clicked for me, and I think that’s I wear that with a badge of honor, right. And being able to make these seemingly complex things into simple, uh, strategies.

Stone Payton: So let’s dive into the work for a moment. And in a moment I’d like to talk about, you know, the engagement cycle when you’re actually, you know, sleeves rolled up and hands on helping people. But I’m kind of fascinated by people who make a career or a large part of their career. Uh, in the, in the speaking, what is it like to be a professional speaker? Because I would think. That some people would find that nerve wracking.

Chirag Nijjer: Stone I’m a middle child. I’m a middle child. I love the attention. Uh, it’s what I tell people, right? I mean, I joke, um, so I think, uh, quite frankly, people ask all the time, right? You’re not the first person who have asked about, uh, the public speaking side. It’s like, oh, how do you prep for it? And I wish I could sit here and tell you. Yeah. I was born with this unnatural skill of being able to speak to a crowd. But at the end of the day, like any other skill, it’s practice. Practice. Like I want you to imagine from a very, very young age. I’m talking my parents waited 30 days for my immune system to built up, and they had me on the train going into the stores right there, a very young age, anytime a customer walked in, hey, go talk to that customer. Hey, go interact. Right? My parents were very, very deliberate. They did not want a shy kid in any way. Um, and so over the years, that skill builds up of being able to speak publicly. And as far as doing it as a, uh, as a career or as a sort of a life thing is. At a certain point, you fall in love with it, right? You fall in love with this ability, especially when you have a message the way that I do.

Chirag Nijjer: Right? Um, what I have developed over time, and I think what we’ll get a chance to talk about is the Brand Clarity framework. And it’s over the last, I mean, almost a decade of research, being able to distill it down into basic core concepts, a framework that you follow to go from chaos to action with your marketing. And when you have a message like that, at that point you’re like, hey, I want to scream this from the rooftops. One of the best ways to be able to do this is, sure, I can put a ton of videos out there. I could write a book. One of the most fulfilling, meaningful ways to do this is being able to hop on stage, be able to look the crowd in the eyes, and actually be able to share a message to a mass audience. Um, once I’m all I’m doing is just talking. I’m having multiple conversations at once. And as someone who loves the attention as a middle child and is super energetic, to me that’s one of the best feelings in the world.

Stone Payton: Now to some of these folks in the audience also end up being clients and utilizing you in a consulting fashion. Yeah.

Chirag Nijjer: Yeah. No, no. Absolutely, absolutely. I think it is. Uh, so one thing I can sort of backtrack here is, uh, the speaking is also actually what I can call sort of my 5 to 9. Right. Uh, during my 9 to 5, I’m actually fortunate to work in the tech world. Uh, I work with, uh, over at Google as a platinum customer success lead. I get to.

Stone Payton: Work. Google. I’ve heard of them.

Chirag Nijjer: You may have heard of. Yeah. Uh, one thing to make very clear. Google and the speaking Chirag speaks are completely separated, right? There’s no affiliation. And all I do track speak sort of on my as I tell people, my 9 to 5 over at Google, 5 to 9 marketing speaker. Um, but uh, there I get to work with some of the world’s largest advertisers on a roll. That’s almost proactive problem solving, crisis management, um, which has been an amazing experience in itself. And then the speaking side, yes, it does turn into I mean, that’s kind of the goal, right? I want people to reach out. I want people to hear the messaging. So things will talk about things like, how do you break your marketing into stages. Right. Um, and if we have the time I can give an example of someone. Yeah. So for example, I was talking to someone who, um, she was complaining about the fact that her marketing, she was doing a bunch of stuff on social media, but it didn’t seem to be converting into sales. Right. And typically we tend to see this a lot, right? People view their marketing as this holistic, huge journey and it’s like, oh, I’m going to fix my marketing. And it’s like, that’s like saying you’re going to boil the ocean, right? Let’s break it down into stages. People saw your video, they saw your page. They looked on your link. They went on the home page. They went on the product page they want to check out. They bought the item.

Chirag Nijjer: Very simple. That’s seven steps someone’s taking. Let’s break down each one of those steps. Let’s ask ourselves what questions are they asking of you at every step. Because the basis of marketing, and this is one of my core theories, uh, the brand curiosity theory, which is that oftentimes marketing is just people asking you questions and you effectively answering them, but answering them in a way where you’re not only answering their question, but then guiding them to the next question. Right? So it’s like, what are they like? For example, if you would ask me, hey, Chirag, who are or if you were to say, hey, who are you? I’m never just going to say I’m Chirag. I’m going to say, hey, I’m Chirag, I’m the speaker, I’m Chirag, I work in tech. I answered your question, but I made it easier for you to ask me the next one. Oh, cool. In tech, where do you work? Oh, cool. You’re a speaker. What do you speak about similarly in your marketing? Let’s break down each little stage as figure out what questions are asking, and then guide them through those stages until we find what stage we’re losing them at. And in this person’s case, we found that her home page, large number of people were coming over from Instagram and TikTok and all these other platforms. They would get to the home page and we would lose like 80 or 90% of them. Okay, cool. Let’s let’s fix this home page. Let’s add a couple things onto it.

Chirag Nijjer: Let’s remove a couple things, test it out. Nothing was really working. And I said, why don’t we just get rid of the home page? Take everyone that comes to social media directly onto the product page. Uh, sales suddenly skyrocket, right? And we realized that it’s because for a lot of people, they were seeing content on social media of her product in action. So they were already bought on. They were already sold. They just wanted to be able to go buy it and get out of the way. And then when we were able to look at their marketing and the stage basis, that’s when we were able to realize, okay, cool, let’s get rid of this step. And it worked out for her. But that’s sort of the type of work that I get the pleasure of being able to do with people where it’s they come and hear me speak about sort of these work, uh, this way of looking at marketing and branding, stage based questions based, uh, and then oftentimes the work I get to do with them then is like, once their eyes have been opened, then they’re sitting there going, okay, cool, how do I apply this? And we get to go nitty gritty, like, let’s take a look at exactly what’s happening. Let’s, let’s apply some of those quick fixes where we can um, and that’s, it’s, it’s super fun and fulfilling. Right. It’s not this long thought out, you know, 20 year plan. It’s the hey, how how can we be actionable now?

Stone Payton: I gotta believe in that kind of work. You must see some consistent patterns evolve in a lot of your work. See some of the same, I don’t know, uh, misconceptions, common mistakes. Do you run into some of the same things and you’re like, you’re not surprised. You’re like, yep. I thought we’d probably run into these four things. Are there some common mistakes that you see over and over.

Chirag Nijjer: Over and over, over and over. Right. Um, so one of the I think the most prevalent, right, is this assumption that people know our brands the way we know our brands. Right. Um, and so one of the theories that I’ve developed over time is something called the brand echo theory. Right? And it argues, again, we’re simplifying marketing and branding. So it’s not going to cover everything. But the most simplest form, it’s arguing that your brand is essentially just a series or collection of words and terms that you want people to use about. You say when you’re not in the room, and your marketing is just finding unique ways to remind them, right? So let’s take a look at a couple examples here. Um, Heinz, are you familiar with Heinz, the ketchup company?

Stone Payton: Yes, sir.

Chirag Nijjer: Yes. So, Heinz, they have three words they care really deeply about. Red slow 57. A very specific shade of red means that ketchup is high quality. Slow means it’s coming out of the bottle and it’s very thick. So it’s a high quality. And, uh, 57 is they just have that number of 57 variants, right. Or varieties. Now their marketing is usually just reminding you of those three words over and over again. Right. So for example, they came out with a puzzle set that was 570 pieces, all red, slow red 57. They partner up with a company like Waze, the navigation app. Are you familiar with them? Yes. Yeah. Uh, over in Canada, uh, if you were traveling at a very slow speed that matched around the speed, by the way, they have a very specific number at which the like a speed at which the ketchup should come out of the bottle. But if you were driving around that speed and your traffic was, uh, you know, when it turns red in Waze, when there’s a lot of traffic, again, red slow, they partnered up to give you a coupon. Right? And when you start looking at some of these larger corporations, you realize that marketing what I’ve often found, right, with some of these bigger businesses is you ask them, hey, what’s your brand? Right? Like, what do you want to be known for? They go on this huge sort of 2020 five minute rant, right, of like, oh, this is where I started.

Chirag Nijjer: This is where I want to go, this is what’s going on, blah, blah, blah. And the assumption often, and the frustration that they’ll feel is when people don’t remember all that stuff. And you have to realize that when you’re not in the room and someone asks me about your brand or what your product is, you’re competing against millions of other thoughts. I’m having my biases, my mood that day, my memory. And so either you can rely on me to remember everything you’ve said or. And this is where the brand echo theory of mind comes into practice is you can select 4 or 5 words that you care the most about and consistently just drill them into me over and over and over again so that by the point that someone asks me, hey, who are you? Or like, what is this brand about? I’m simply echoing back the words that you gave me. And, uh, I can give one last example and I’ll stop here is, uh, there was a brand that was working with me, and, uh, they do a ton of pop ups and they go, that’s a clothing brand, small brand that just started off. And I go, okay, cool. What are your brands? And they’re like, hey, we want to feel homey, right? We want to feel outdoorsy, right? It’s almost like a log cabin that you know, that your family is sitting in with you, right? And I go, okay, cool.

Chirag Nijjer: What are you doing for that? And he goes, oh, well, we kind of say that it’s on our website, it’s on the tags. And I was like, yeah, but that’s just words sitting there. I go, well, next time you do a pop up, why don’t you go get a bunch of Febreeze bottles? And, you know, Febreeze always has those unique flavor, uh, that flavor scents like a campfire or a log, uh, house smell or outdoors, like camping smell that they have wxyt-am you have your pop up spray, a little bit of that in the area every now and then. So when people are coming by, they’re also smelling the very words that you want them to use. When you ask me what the misconception is, is that I think people assume that marketing and branding is this big. Like, let me toss a couple of words out there and it’s feelings and it’s emotions. It’s it’s a science. It’s time you take tiny little bricks, stack them up, and eventually you have yourself a marketing and brand strategy. It’s not very complex. It’s just intentional. Pausing there.

Stone Payton: Two quick observations. One, my wife absolutely will not purchase any brand of ketchup other than Heinz. There you go.

Chirag Nijjer: And they know. And they know it and they know it.

Stone Payton: Maybe we all know why. Uh, and I really do believe you are so quickly demonstrating right here live you living into your brand, because that was incredibly helpful for me to think of branding, uh, as what I want people to say about the Business RadioX network when I’m not in the room. So, uh, that was very helpful right there. And I may very well steal it. And trying to help some of my clients.

Chirag Nijjer: Uh, but by all means, steal pride. In fact, Stone, connect with me. Afterwards, I’ll send over some materials for you to use. Man. Well, I I’m telling you, it was. Oh, sorry. Sorry I cut you off there.

Stone Payton: I’m just saying that I sincerely appreciate it. And I’ll take all the help I can get, man.

Chirag Nijjer: Of course, of course, man. Look, Stone, I grew up, like I said, small business, low income family. Right. Uh, when things were tough, right. There wasn’t much for us to do. I couldn’t go out. We couldn’t get out. Consultants. We couldn’t go out and buy the newest business books. We couldn’t go out and, uh, get an MBA or anything like that. Right? The only thing I had at my disposal was a really old, horribly slow, uh, this is really, really old. Like, I think gateway or HP computer that by that point was already a decade old. Right. So you could just imagine how old this thing was. Um, and, uh, it barely worked. But the one thing it could do and horrible internet also is I could go on Google and I could search up a bunch of things. I couldn’t load videos, but I could load most web pages. Right. Um, and so a lot of this stuff was just me asking questions into Google to see what was going to pop up. Um, and sometimes I found nice, you know, tidbits of what people shared, but oftentimes it was paywalls. Hey, pay to get access to this.

Chirag Nijjer: Buy this book by this consultant. So a lot of the vision or the mission that we’ve had over the last couple of years is can I learn as much as I possibly can now that I’m fortunate enough to have access to these spaces and these resources and then share them with people who need them the most? Let’s be frank, corporations, large corporations don’t necessarily need a very small, systematic approach, right? They operate in massive scale. Um, but all of this business, academia and information that’s existed for decades never makes its way down to the mom and pop shops that desperately need simplicity, especially in a world where we’re being told you need to be on every single platform, on every new thing, and you need to be producing content and information every minute. Otherwise you’re not going to be relevant. It’s like, no, you just need to be intentional. So please don’t. When you say that you’re going to take it and run with it, just don’t hit me up. I will send you resources. I want you to take it and run with more people. We can share this with, the better it becomes for everyone.

Stone Payton: Fantastic. Well, I love that, uh, that approach to to serving. And I do sincerely appreciate it. So how does the whole sales and marketing thing work for a guy like you who wants to get out there and serve and work with these clients? Surely you’re eating your own cooking, but do you find yourself you’re out there shaking the trees and having to live into all you have to be like a living model of what you’re what you’re providing, don’t you?

Chirag Nijjer: Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah. So I think the two things right. One is eating. Uh, yes. When I’m teaching, there’s always like that argument people make is like, hey, if you’re teaching everything to them, but then also part of your business model is like them hiring you as a consultant and bringing you in to help them, um, is that I will what you often find is my job in any given talk is credibility and trust. And this is one of the key concepts I share with people. Right? Is the in business, the most important thing you’re asking someone to do, um, is not pay you money, it’s to pay you trust. Money is just a symbol in place, right? Because you can’t physically hold on to trust, right? So as long as you trust me, you will continue to work with me, right? So in my talks, my my goal is give you as much value as possible. Right? But it’s akin to me giving you, um, it’s like a painter coming to your house, right? And saying, look, this is the paint you’re going to use. This is the finish you’re going to use. This is the exact stuff. These are the exact steps you’re going to follow to do this. And now at that point is you can do this yourself, right? Or in the process, because I have explained everything step by step to you. And I’ve shown you that I’m going to listen to you along that way you can bring me in to do it, and I’m going to do it quicker, faster, uh, more efficiently.

Chirag Nijjer: And best thing of all is I’m going to be there. That smiling when things are breaking down, when that paint spills over onto the carpet and you’re freaking out at that moment, well, what if that happens while I’m there? I’m going to be the guy that’s smiling and going, don’t worry, I’ve seen this a million times. We’re going to clean this up. We’ll be fine to go. Um, so one, I think there is a lot of value in sharing what you’re able to teach people because you’re able to show them. People often don’t really want to do these things themselves. Right. Um, most people didn’t get into business. Very few people get into business were like, oh yeah, I love marketing. They go on to become marketing directors. People are in business, so usually because they love selling the product that they love selling or they sell. Be very specific about what they’re doing. My job is to show you, look, I’m going to educate you so that you know what’s going on and you feel empowered, but then also show you that I know what I’m talking about. So bring me in. Um, and then the second part of your question, uh, I apologize. What was the, uh, the second part of your question? Do you remember, uh.

Stone Payton: Just sales and marketing? I’m just I’m operating under the impression, and it seems to be true, that you have to eat your own cooking and live into what you’re. Oh, yeah. Uh, espousing.

Chirag Nijjer: Yeah. No, no. Absolutely, absolutely. And I think it’s a little tough, right? It’s always like the. Hey, um. Eh, it’s very hard to trust a coach who hasn’t done it themselves. Right? Um, right. Uh, if a coach can’t throw a free throw, can you really teach you how to throw a free throw? Uh, free throw kind of thing? Um, and I think you’re absolutely right. So I think, uh, part of it is, uh, it’s a learning process along the way for everyone. I think I’m always very transparent with everyone is everything I’m teaching and everything I’m sharing is mainly because these are stuff that I’m learning and sharing. Excited with you all. And I’m actively testing it out every single day. And the stuff I do now. You’ll notice, though, if we were to take a word cloud of some of the of this conversation and of itself, though, have you ever are you familiar with like the concept of a word cloud?

Stone Payton: A little bit, yeah. But say more about that.

Chirag Nijjer: Yeah. So a word cloud is essentially and there’s I mean search up free word cloud generator on Google. But essentially you can take any speech or any written thing tossed it in here. And what I’ll do is it’ll the more times a word is spoken or referenced, it’ll make that word bigger and bigger. And what I often tell brands, right, is like, if you’re, say, you’re on your website and you have this entire long page that says, here’s who we are, blah, blah, blah, right? I want you to take that thrown in a word cloud generator and see how many times you’re mentioning those words that I told you to choose earlier on in our conversation. Right. Um, right. And so the idea is like being very deliberate. Now, Stone, you do this every single time when you start off with this, uh, with your sort of intro music and the words that you say right here at, uh, High Velocity Radio, here’s what we’re doing. We’re talking to people who are doing this, blah, blah, blah, right? Those work. You are constantly reinforcing those words. Chances are, anyone who listens to your podcast, probably out of most of the stuff that the experts are, the people you bring on have spoken the thing they can probably verbatim repeat back to anyone who asks about your show is your beginning, right? Same way how we can always repeat back, like the lyrics to the intro song to any sitcom from the like the 90s or the that because it’s just that’s the one thing that’s been repeated over and over again.

Chirag Nijjer: If I took a word cloud of everything Stone has ever said in his life, chances are the words you used in the front of those, uh, in the front of this interview will be the biggest ones there. Right. Um, and similar thing that I do with mine. Right. You’ll notice there are very specific words that I’m using when I’m speaking to you. Um, and that’s kind of what I teach in the Brand Clarity framework, which is pick your keywords, identify your stories, and then repeat them over and over again with people. Um, and I hope that people over time will start will pick up on that. That makes sense there. So it is a lot of doing what I am preaching, which is hard often to follow your own advice. Yeah, yeah.

Stone Payton: So I’m almost certain the answer to this is yes, but I’m going to ask anyway. Have you had the benefit of one or more mentors along the way to help you navigate the terrain of, uh, creating the Brand Clarity framework, doing the speaking, doing the roll up your sleeves consulting?

Chirag Nijjer: Yeah. Oh 100 110% 110 I mean, both from the emotional standpoint. I mean, my family, I always tell people we may not have grown up with a silver spoon, but I’m very, very privileged in the sense that I grew up in a loving family. Right. Uh, an entrepreneurial family. A family that allowed me to test out a lot of these things that I was learning. One of the first people to have ever, uh, really helped me realize how much I love teaching. Some of this stuff was my my father. Right. Uh, at one point, I remember I’d come across a concept that I fell in love with. Uh, and I tried, I said, I told my dad I was like, hey, you may not understand it, but let me just explain it to you, because if I can explain it to you, then that means that I get it right. Um, and I explained it to him. And then a couple of weeks later, he calls back and goes, hey, I used that thing that you were talking about. Indian immigrant never went to college entrepreneurs entire life. And he was saying, hey, for the first time, something’s making sense like that.

Chirag Nijjer: Um, so having an emotional sort of mentors, um, over down to mentors who probably don’t even know I exist. Right. So a lot of my research and a lot of the concepts are based, uh, we stand on the shoulders of giants, right? It’s very easy to shout in a crowd when I’m on someone’s shoulders. Right. But, um, people like Peter Drucker, Simon Sinek, um, down to even modern people like, uh, Gary Vaynerchuk. Right? These are all individuals who have I don’t know if you’re familiar with any of these names. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. But I mean, these are all people who have, uh, and we were talking about Richard Branson as well. Um, these are all individuals who have sort of specialized and shared this, uh, finding information and then sharing it to mass audiences, sort of master that. And then lastly, there are professional mentors all across the world. I mean, the stuff I do over at Google, the stuff I do outside, there are always people that I’m able to rely on and reach out to.

Stone Payton: So something popped out for me as I read your bio when I got to the show notes before we came on air, and I’d love for you to share a little bit about it. And it was you. I think you called it the Ikea effect.

Chirag Nijjer: Yeah. The Ikea effect. Yeah. Yes, yes. So, uh, Stone, have you ever built anything recently, like constructed something in your house? Put it together? Maybe.

Stone Payton: So the short answer is yes, but I will confess, I tell a lot of people, and it’s almost true that I have two tools at my house a telephone and a checkbook. But yes, I have. I have built furniture before.

Chirag Nijjer: Yes. Okay. But, you know, I’m glad you said that. I’m glad you said that. Right. Let’s take a look at the Ikea effect. You said, uh, there’s things that you’ve paid for and there are things that you have assembled yourself. Mhm. So what I’m willing to bet the thing that you assembled yourself may be a little crooked, maybe wobbles a little bit maybe. But here’s the thing. Here’s the thing. Every time someone comes over or like someone mentions it or looks at it, you probably look at them and go, I put this myself or like, hey, I did this right? That the Ikea effect is one of the, uh, so it’s we try to I try to take a lot of marketing brand strategy like this abstract and turn it into concepts. Now, Ikea effect is not something I’ve invented, right? It’s just something I speak often about because it’s such a great example of what we can do when we simplify things. Right. But the Ikea effect, in the most simplest sense, is the stuff that we built ourselves or put some sort of, uh, effort into. We care and love for a lot more because it feels like it’s part of us. Right. And there are multiple examples now. It’s dubbed the Ikea effect because a lot of Ikea furniture, what you tend to find is over time, the company has found that people show a high affinity or a high amount of love for a cabinet that they’ve assembled from Ikea. Then maybe something they got professionally made because it’s like, oh yeah, my work went into this, but let’s take a look at the marketing strategy on a whole, right, uh, cake mixes when they first came out.

Chirag Nijjer: Right. Those add water, toss it in an oven. You’re all good to go, right? Yeah. Um, when it originally came out, it was very, very simple. Everything was already done. All you needed to do was add water or add or milk and then toss it into the, um, the oven. What they found was that very quickly sales started to decline. At first everyone wanted it. Suddenly no one wanted it. So they just kept trying to figure out what was going on. Eventually, they bring in a psychologist who spoke to a lot of their target consumers, which at the time were stay at home moms. Now, one thing I also want to be aware is it’s sometimes tricky to talk about marketing and advertising because a lot of it’s rooted in history. So let’s keep in mind that this was this was, uh, mid 90s at the time. Right? Very different social norms at the time. But at the time their target audience were working, uh, were at stay at home mothers. Right. And what they kept finding throughout the entire interview process was that the words kept popping up like it didn’t feel personalized. It didn’t feel like I was adding my love. I was just giving my kids or my family another generic cake. That’s when they realized, okay, here’s what the Ikea effect comes into play. So right around that time, what we noticed was that they removed dried eggs from the cake mix and they started writing in the instructions. Add your own eggs to this. Not only were you adding the water or the milk, but also the eggs itself. Very small step, but made a big psychological impact because the idea became like you’re still adding plus also the symbolic nature of eggs themselves, not to mention dried eggs, especially back then.

Chirag Nijjer: Probably didn’t taste that good either, right? So I’m sure there’s a lot of factors that go into this, but it did play that psychological effect of like, well, there’s still something coming from you in this, ergo, you’re still making this with love. And then they did something really interesting. The cake mix companies started partnering up with magazines and cake decorating companies. Now suddenly it was like, okay, cool. Well, the cake you made may be a bit generic, but now look, because of all the time you saved baking the cake, you can decorate it with this nice cool football stencil, or these special icing, or this special sparkle sprinkles that were coming out with entire industry of cake decoration at home had a huge boom. Again, playing on that same idea. If you want to show, like if you want to instill love in what people are building, allow them to play some part in its creation. Um, but you see how like, you know, a simple concept like that is like whether it applies to a large industry or to a very specific, narrow Ikea setup, it’s very useful when you’re able to look at your business yourself and go, hey, what are some of the things that I think I’m making easy for my customers? But in reality, I’m taking away their ability to invest their love into something. What are the eggs that I can tell them to add to the process? But I’m pausing there for you?

Stone Payton: Well, no, that’s really helpful for me because the the line that I drew from what you were describing to my world is exercising the discipline to give my prospective client, even, even before they’re a client, some authorship in the plan, uh, you know, like, and so maybe instead of, you know, just handing them this proposal that’s got all the answers, maybe make it more of a coauthored document where it’s like a recommendation summary. And we’re we’re in this together. And here’s some things you can do to. Yeah. No, that’s incredibly helpful. And that’s. Yeah.

Chirag Nijjer: Thank you know, you pulled it. Uh, please, please don’t you you pulled all I did was bring, uh, shed a light on something. You took it and you ran with it, and. But you did. Exactly. I can’t tell you how satisfied I am leaving this interview right now, having known that. Okay, at least one thing has resonated. And you hit it right on the dot. You hit it right on the dot. It’s as simple as it doesn’t have to be complex, right? It’s as simple as like, okay, cool. Let me as we’re going through this process, let me ask them, hey, what do you think? Even if, you know, like, you know, uh, sometimes even as simple as, like, you know that the color you should go with is blue, but you’ll still pose it in front of the your audience going, hey, you’ve got blue, red or green? Here’s why I think it should be blue, but I want you to make that final decision. Some small little decisions like that help people feel more involved and more fall in love with what they’re doing. And this is the Ikea effect. Please. Most of the stuff I can speak about, your audience can easily go search up again things that have been around for decades, but almost never make their way out of the academia or these big, huge corporations, usually because of these paywalls.

Stone Payton: So we’ve reinforced the idea that it’s that it doesn’t have to be complex and in fact should not be complex. Uh, but it really doesn’t have to be expensive either, right? I’m sure we have listeners who are aspiring entrepreneurs or feel like they have very limited budgets, but there’s still room and hope for them to follow this path. Right?

Chirag Nijjer: I’ve got amazing stone. So that first part, the brand echo theory. Right. So oftentimes when I go through my entire, uh, brand clarity framework, the first part we start is with your brand echoes. Part of the reason I do that is with your brand, like your echoes, your keywords that you want people to know. One, it helps people who usually I always tell people my favorite clients or the favorite people I love talking to are those that have been in business for at least a year or two years and have been trying to do their marketing themselves because they have the most realistic understanding of like, okay, this is overwhelming and things have gotten out of hand. The first thing we do when we simplify your words down to like four words, even like that, you care the most about it makes your life a lot easier mentally, right? Because you’re like, okay, I only need to focus on four words. But the more important part is the second step is, okay, well, let’s find unique, fun ways to get people to remember these words is when you find it makes marketing fun again. In a world in which we have to analyze and have analytics for every little thing, and it feels overwhelming, it’s like, now let’s go do a couple fun little marketing exercises just to get your brain running again. And so a great example that I give of this is, uh. Man. I want to say it is Red bull. Um, but don’t quote me on this, I believe so it was some energy drink.

Chirag Nijjer: I do believe it was Red bull. Right. Um, and at one point, I believe Red bull wanted to. Or. Okay, let’s actually, you know, if it’s not Red bull, let’s just. There was this energy drink, right? Um, that really was struggling to hit the market at the time. They didn’t have a lot of budget. Um, but what they did know is they wanted to be associated with nightlife and clubbing and, uh, DJs and. All right, so those were their key words, nightlife, clubbing. What they did is they took a bunch of empty cans, crushed them, and then left them in strategic places like, say, live, um, across, uh, a city in London in, like, the clubbing district. Right. Leave them in a bunch of trash cans around the place, um, or taking these cans and just like going into a nightclub where the DJs performing and just leaving the can right next to the DJ booth so that as people took pictures, those cans popped up. Very, very cheap strategy. Very, very effective strategy. Wow. Reinforcing that people were sitting there going, I want to say it was Red bull, but, uh, please, just because I can’t, uh, fully confirm. But we do know that that brand accredits a lot of their initial success to that simple little strategy because it got the word out there. People were like, wait, what are these cans? Why are so many people drinking them that like, I’m seeing them everywhere, crushed up and thrown away?

Stone Payton: And what? Yeah, yeah. And what helped him get there to that really creative tactic was getting very clear about who what they wanted to be associated with. And then from that, it spurred these creative ideas I love it.

Chirag Nijjer: Exactly. And you know what? I actually just had a chance to take a look. It was Red bull at the time. And Red bull, I think I often encourage people, if you’re looking for a brand, I mean, we’ve seen how massive Red bull is today, right? Yeah. Um, Red bull, when it started off, openly admitted that they didn’t have a lot of budget to compete. Um, so a lot of the stuff they did, I think even like when Red bull wanted to be associated with extreme stunts, I think the originally again now I feel horrible for continually saying, don’t quote me, but, uh, I think originally some of their original, like, big defying stunts was literally just finding a stuntman who was willing to do it for free, and then they would, like, sponsor it a bit. Right. Um, so it doesn’t always have to be this large, complex. I need to buy out inventory on some website or on some TV. And look, there’s always a step. Eventually you reach scale. You want to do these massive things, but initially you can start off really, really small. As long as you’re intentional about the words that you’re using.

Stone Payton: Yeah. So I don’t know when or how you would find the time. You’ve got a lot of irons in the fire and you’re doing an awful lot. But I am, uh, interested to know passions, hobbies, interests that you pursue outside the scope of this work. Anything you have a tendency to nerd out about or do outside the scope of this work?

Chirag Nijjer: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, I always tell people, uh, the way I get everything done in just 24 hours is that, uh, the bags under my eyes? Very expensive, very expensive. So these are Chanel bags and. No, um, uh, you do sacrifice a little bit of sleep sometimes in these scenarios. One thing I’ll say is the brand marketing and the brand strategy, things that I do, I love them. They’re such a like when you mention Ikea effect, man, I lit up, right? I get excited, I know people can’t see the stream, but this kind of stuff is so fascinating. So fun. Like, I started this because I was learning this stuff. I didn’t have anyone to share it because my friends didn’t care. Uh, so I was like, okay, I’m just going to put this online and see if I can find people who nerd out about this like I do. Um, so one is that. But then the second thing is, uh, loving cooking, the cooking. And then I come from a South Asian background, Punjabi family. Um, and we have a dance form called bhangra. Right. Um, and between cooking and bhangra, I think those are my two sort of outlets over time. And I found, uh, actually recently, it’s like the cooking, the idea that I can take small, like, take this really complex dish, break it down into these small individual ingredients, and then just one step, one step, one step, build it up. And somehow, like these arbitrary random group of groceries have now turned into a dish that feels amazing, super satisfying. Um, and then bhangra, the dance form, if you’ve ever seen it, I don’t know if. Have you ever seen, uh, bhangra?

Stone Payton: I have seen in a there’s a business group here, um, that that was founded largely by an Indian population. And I went to one and they did a form of dance. I don’t I couldn’t say whether it was that or not, but they were really into it. And it was it was fun and fascinating to watch.

Chirag Nijjer: Yeah, I can imagine. You know what? I’m willing to bet it probably was background or some version. Right. Um, but bhangra is a it’s a very, very dynamic dance form. You are on the balls of your feet the entire time you are jumping around, you are hopping. Um, and for me, I’ve always tell people it is like you’d be surprised if you ever see me speak in stone. I’d love to have you out someday. Right. As well as, uh, we I you will see I am not. I do not stand still on a stand. I have had I have literally I have one videographer I work with often and he’s been very vocal. He goes, Chirag is probably the worst client that I’ve ever had to film because this guy does not stand still on a stage. Right. Um, so he’s just always if you people are always like, oh, you must be exhausted after an hour long talk and you look over to the camera guy and he’s sweating and all, he’s exhausted because he’s been running around just as much as I have following me with that camera. Um, but the dance, like bhangra, allows me to practice some of those big, sweeping movements that then you’ll see in some of my talks, which is me going to one corner of the stage and then suddenly jumping to the other side, going, hey, here’s this big point I want to emphasize for you.

Stone Payton: I’m so glad that I asked. It’s fascinating what you can find out from people by asking that question. And I do, at least personally for me. I, my listeners, know that I like to hunt, fish and travel. Yeah, I need that that white space, I call it. And I feel like I come back that much more refreshed, recharged and equipped to fully serve, you know, in the business arena.

Chirag Nijjer: Exactly, exactly. And I think I came across something the other day, um, in a world like today where we see a lot of people constantly wearing multiple hats, um, your hobbies don’t have to make you money. Not everything you do needs to be monetized, right? Uh, sometimes it’s or. Nor do you need to be great at it. Right. Um, I don’t think I’m a great bhangra dancer, but I still do it because it is in some way. It is still me reinforcing my general identity. Right? Or giving giving myself space and building a small scale. Same way with you, Stone. It seems like people could argue like, oh, what does that have to do? What is, uh, fishing, hunting and, um, traveling have to do with this podcast? It’s like, well, it gives me the ability to go out and look at things systematically, have my white space. I’m sure the travel probably brings a ton of meeting newer cultures and individual people and being able to tailor your questions right. So you’re more multifaceted than just, say, a podcaster who sticks at home all day.

Stone Payton: All right, before we wrap, I’d love to leave our listeners with 1 or 2 actionable pro tips, just something they can be thinking about reading, doing, not doing. And look, gang, the number one pro tip is reach out and have a conversation with Chirag or somebody on his team. But between now and then, let’s leave them with a couple of actionable tips.

Chirag Nijjer: Absolutely, absolutely. Uh, the first thing is, uh, I mean, aside from everything we’ve already spoken about, right? I don’t want to repeat myself there to give you guys as much value as possible. So do take a look at the brand clarity framework, the brand echo theory. Uh, the, uh, brand curiosity theory I was speaking about earlier in the talk, um, in this conversation. But I think the two things I’ll leave you with right now is one stage based marketing, right? There are, uh, Stone, have you ever heard of the Aida marketing funnel?

Stone Payton: Yes.

Chirag Nijjer: Yes, yes. So you’re familiar for the audience? That isn’t. There are four stages everyone will always go through, whether they’re meeting you for the first time or buying something from you or anything. And you go through this all the time as well. You become aware of the fact that something exists. So a for awareness, you become interested in what it is. So eye for interest you begin to desire it. So d for um desire. And then finally you take the action A for action. Right? So you become aware of the fact that a shirt exists in the mall. You become interested in taking a look and touching it. Finally you desire wanting to get it, and then finally you take the action of getting it. This could take minutes or seconds, and sometimes when you’re buying a home or a car, this could take months to do right. But when you start becoming intentional about breaking your marketing down into these stages, you begin to learn where you can guide people through each one of these steps. So if you’re saying, hey, what’s, uh, what’s, uh, one rabbit hole I’d want people to jump down is go search up concepts like the Aida marketing funnel. Been around for decades. Very simple, but it’s simple because it works and it’s powerful. Um, at least to introduce yourself to the brand strategy world.

Chirag Nijjer: And then the second thing I’ll quickly shout out for the sake of time here is, um, there’s a concept within my framework, within the clarity framework, uh, called the eight Resonance Stories. So after you’ve developed the words or the echoes that you want people to use, it’s not just enough. Because if someone asks you about your brand and all you’re doing is sitting there and telling them four words, that’s a bit, uh, disappointing. But if you’re sitting there and talking to them for 30 minutes about your brand, that’s very overwhelming. So there are eight story types that I’ve identified across my research of over eight plus years now. Um, there’s your origin story, your product story, your culture story, your world story, your universe story. There’s a ton of, uh, and please reach out on my website and we’ll give some contact information afterwards. But these are eight stories, and I always encourage everyone sit down and write 500 words for each story. What is your origin? How did you start? What is your product? What does it do? One not only does this help you narrow down your focus, but now if you do all eight stories, that’s 4000 words, all written in your tone, your language, emphasizing the story you want to tell.

Chirag Nijjer: So when you go out and hire that college student to be your intern, to help out with something, or you go and hire out a new sales rep, you’re not sitting there hoping that they understand what the brand is. You’re literally giving them a packet of 4000 words for them to read and to reference. From where I’ll leave you here. Stone is one of the most powerful applications of this is Stone. Every question you have asked me. Right. So for example, like how do I, uh, I have to walk the walk or, uh, I walk the talk if I’m going to speak about this stuff. I grabbed a sentence from my origin story. I grabbed a sentence from my product story, a sentence from my customer story, and a sentence from my future story weaved that together. That’s a four sentence response that I’m giving you, stuff that I feel confident speaking about, because over the years I’ve developed these eight stories and I know what I stand for. So not only does it help in cohesion with your audience, with your team, it also helps you be able to be more confident in what you’re talking about. I’m going to pause there, Stone. I feel like I went on a rant there for you.

Stone Payton: Well, I don’t think so. I asked for actionable and we got it, so that was fantastic. All right. What’s the best way for our listeners to tap into your work and have that conversation with you? Website, whatever. You know, LinkedIn, whatever you think is appropriate?

Chirag Nijjer: Absolutely. I think it depends on your goal. The easy basics, um, is Chirag speaks.com. So Chirag speaks.com. That will be the hub that has all my information for you to contact. If you’re someone who is a business owner and you just want to learn as much as you can and enjoy the content, go follow me on any of the platforms. Tiktok being our biggest one, but if you’re someone who is putting together maybe a conference or wants me to come in and host a workshop with your business, uh, check out the website and then email me at Chirag. So Chirag at Chirag speaks.com and someone from my team will be more than happy to speak.

Stone Payton: Well Chirag, it has been an absolute delight having you on the broadcast today. I thank you for your insight, your perspective, your enthusiasm and your actionable ideas. Man, this is, uh, this has been a marvelous way to invest a Wednesday morning.

Chirag Nijjer: Oh, man. Stone, that, uh, knowing that you’ve got plans to go, uh, hit up a Blackstone and really, uh, cook up some amazing food for the rest of the day, knowing that you’re saying that this was a good way to start off is actually making me feel really good, man.

Stone Payton: Well, it’s been fun. All right, until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today. Chirag Nijjer with Chirag Speaks and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying, we’ll see you in the fast lane.

 

Tagged With: Chirag Speaks

Trey Toler with 24 Seven Talent & Fuse

June 13, 2024 by angishields

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Sandy Springs Business Radio
Trey Toler with 24 Seven Talent & Fuse
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Trey-TolerTrey Toler, Senior Business Develepment Manager with 24 Seven Talent and leadership team member of Fuse, is an Atlanta native, dedicated volunteer and natural network builder with a vibrant history in stand-up comedy.

With over a decade of experience in advertising, Trey has not only made a mark in his career but also contributed his expertise to the Fuse board (formerly AiMA) for several years, culminating in a term as president.

Outside of his professional pursuits, Trey is passionate about fitness; he’s a certified group fitness instructor and coaches at Orange Theory in Buckhead.

Trey’s blend of humor, leadership, and community involvement make him a standout professional and coach.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here with Rachel Simon, another episode of Sandy Springs Business Radio, and this episode is brought to you by Connect the Dots Digital. When you’re ready to leverage LinkedIn to meet your business goals, go to Connect the Dots dot digital. Rachel, welcome.

Rachel Simon: Hi Lee, how are you?

Lee Kantor: I am doing well. I’m so excited about this show. You got a great guest.

Rachel Simon: Yes, I am super excited as well. Um, especially when you, you know, I get to invite friends onto the podcast. It’s even more fun. So today we’re talking with Trey Toler. He is the senior business development manager at 24 over seven talent, and he also serves in the leadership capacity for Fuse Atlanta, which is a networking group for marketing. We’re going to hear all about it. So Trey, welcome.

Trey Toler: Thank you. Thank you so much for for having me, Lee and Rachel I appreciate it. Excited to be here.

Rachel Simon: Yeah. We’re gonna have a fun time. So why don’t we start off why don’t you tell us a little bit about Fuse?

Trey Toler: Yeah, of course. That’s a great question. So Fuse is a nonprofit and we’re a marketing and advertising organization. And to boil it down, we are here to serve the community. So whether that’s giving folks that are in our industry access to colleagues to learn more or learn about what’s going on in the ecosystem, what are hot topics? There’s that arm of it. And then the other arm of it is we also give back to other nonprofits. Uh, specifically this year we’ve partnered with Black Girls Code. We’ve also partnered with an organization called Posh Pack, which is a non profit organization that helps young women have access to period supplies and underserved communities. So for every event we do, we try to give back.

Rachel Simon: That’s really awesome to hear. And it’s local to Atlanta. Correct.

Trey Toler: It is local to Atlanta. Yes.

Rachel Simon: Yeah. So you know Fuse I mean the goal is again to kind of bring people in the marketing space together. Is it primarily a networking organization, professional development? All of the above. Obviously there’s a component to it. Gosh.

Trey Toler: You just you know, it’s all of those things, right? I think it depends in what you’re going into it for. And specifically across the country and in our state. We saw so many people during the pandemic kind of retreat inward, and a lot of that was just where we were at that point in time. Part of the networking and in-person event space fizzled out during that time, and people felt isolated. They felt detached and with folks working remote. It was really challenging for people to ramp up and learn new skills in the same way they were prior to the pandemic. So, to answer your question directly, Fuse is all of those things you know, you can go there to network is a huge piece, but it’s it’s really about building your personal brand. And this is really important, especially right now. And I know this for the work that I do at 24 over seven, unfortunately, so many people right now are in flux between opportunities. Maybe they feel underemployed. Um, and just some folks just aren’t in a good space in general. So the beautiful part about Fuse and organizations like Fuse is when you network, you go to an event, you meet people, you learn something new, you have an interesting topic, you have a panel discussion, but you’re also building that personal brand. And rather than starting from the ground up for anyone that’s been let go or part of a workforce reduction, you already have that built in community. So you have a leg up to other people in that situation. And I just can’t emphasize enough the importance of of being part of that community. Right. And whatever way that you can. Yeah.

Rachel Simon: Well, you know, I love anything that has to do with building your personal brand. So you’re talking about kind of doing it in person, and I’m helping people utilize that on LinkedIn, where two pieces and applying those together, obviously networking ties all that in as well. So it sounds like, you know, it’s really helping people in that marketing space, whether they’re kind of in a role that they’re happy with or looking for their next opportunity to really just meet good people. You never know who can open a door for you, right?

Trey Toler: You know, and that’s a really beautiful way of looking at it. I know the work that you do and what you’re passionate about, and that’s such a huge piece of it. And when you take the two together, it’s it’s that holistic approach. You have your digital identity, you have what people can go on the internet and see at a quick glance. And then you have the other side of that, which is the spaces between, like, what can you not capture, um, online and just streamlining those together. So absolutely.

Lee Kantor: So now let’s get kind of granular about the membership. So who is that ideal member for you. Is it a young person that maybe has a marketing degree got their first job, maybe, like you said, got laid off or something happened and then they’re kind of struggling? Or is it the older person that maybe has been involved in marketing for a long time, maybe in a corporate setting? And then they are they got, you know, kind of laid off and then now they’re kind of struggling like, is it for everybody in that window or is it do you have a niche?

Trey Toler: It’s everybody within that window. And there’s such a beautiful component to that, right? I mean, speaking about people that are more senior in their career versus people that are greener, I think the organization serves a purpose for both of those people. Depending on where you are in your life, you’ll get the same thing in return out of it. Um, you know, from a mentorship perspective, once you reach a certain point in your career, most people want to do something, whether it’s in a macro or micro level, to give back. So I think it satisfies that need. But also at the same time, regardless of how long you’ve been in your career, there’s always something evolving, always something new to learn. And I think maintaining that cutting edge, um, is incredibly beneficial for everybody.

Lee Kantor: So it could be, uh, somebody who’s a CMO at a fortune 500 company could be a member as well as somebody that just graduated college and is looking for their first job or second job.

Trey Toler: Absolutely. We love, we love, we love them all.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there an education component as well where you’re kind of explaining or somebody a subject matter expert is explaining, hey, this is a trend or I are both talking about AI or this is how you leverage, uh, you know, an alum. Um, this is how you can use it for marketing. Like, is there education as well, or is it just everybody’s kind of it’s a mixer and we’re all kind of learning about each other.

Trey Toler: Oh, absolutely. No, it is a little bit of both. So the educational piece is really important. And typically for the educational piece we’ll hold a panel or a topic discussion. Um, and you mentioned I, we did a panel last year and spoke to the different ways AI is impacting our field. Right. And it doesn’t matter if someone is a creative or if they’re on the marketing side. This is a topic that comes up over and over again. Um, so that’s the educational piece. And then you mentioned like more of the mixers type thing, we actually have something coming up on June 27th at Bartaco Chastain. That is just a chill happy hour. We would love to hear what people want to get out of the community. What’s missing? What do you like? What do people want to see? So it is a mix of both.

Rachel Simon: So for something like that, like the um, and I love the name of it, thirsty.

Trey Toler: Thirsty Thursday.

Rachel Simon: Is um, how do you make sure people feel comfortable coming? Like, let’s say somebody has never been to a Fuse event before and they’re like, okay, I’m going to go to Thirsty Thursday. I don’t know anybody. Like, what do I do? Who am I going to talk to? Because that’s I think one of the barriers for people to attend these kinds of events is like this fear of how do they start conversation in a room where they don’t really know anybody?

Trey Toler: Yeah. No, I that’s a challenge. That’s a challenge for a lot of people. And and I can definitely spot that. And you know, my advice for people in that environment is the board that we’re working with, my partners in crime, very warm, very welcoming people. And as someone in a leadership role with the organization, I greet everybody with the same level of enthusiasm, whether I’m meeting them for the first time or we go back 25 years, um, regardless of where we are in our lives or our career, we can all tap into a place where we felt vulnerable, going into a situation where we didn’t know anything, we didn’t know anybody. So I think about things like that when I meet new people and trying to help them feel comfortable and safe when they’re in that environment, because there’s so much good that comes out of it, but recognizing that it is pushing some people out of their comfort zone to do things like that. So I think just leading with that empathy and implementing that is really important.

Rachel Simon: Yeah. And that’s a good thing. One time I went to a networking event, I won’t name the organization and I there were no name tags. There was no welcome table. I literally walked into this restaurant, took a loop and was like, walk right out. I’m gonna go now because it felt so right. It was so unwelcoming. And just knowing that, you know, you’re going to spot those people that are looking around like. Dewine. I don’t know anybody here.

Lee Kantor: It’s so important for organizations to understand that from the member state or potential member that that people need, like a Sherpa, they need like somebody that’s an ambassador that’s going to make maybe that first introduction for them, or put them in the least in the direction of the right folks that they could benefit from. Yes.

Rachel Simon: And have those people that, you know, are going to, like, start a good conversation like, hey, here, this is so and so like.

Trey Toler: It’s just connecting people. It’s like, you know, think about it. If you go to someone’s house and you know, they open the door and they’re like, oh my gosh, Rachel, get on in here. Lee is so good to see you. It’s been forever or welcome. We haven’t met yet. Whatever the case may be, the other person, the person walking into the door will automatically feel leaps and bounds more comfortable than if you’re like, all right, open the door and just kind of stand there. Are these my people? Can I touch anything in here? Can I breathe like, I don’t know? Where’s the bathroom?

Lee Kantor: Right, exactly.

Trey Toler: It’s just awkward. So I think it’s just helping people feel welcomed and warm. And that’s not something that you even have to say with words. It’s just an energy that you give off and and giving people that attention saying, hey, I know you’re here. What’s up? You’re welcome. Yeah.

Rachel Simon: It really makes a huge difference for sure.

Lee Kantor: Now can you share maybe your journey within the organization, like how did you hear about it, what kind of attracted you to it, and why did you decide to invest so much time and energy to take a leadership role?

Trey Toler: Sure. I joined the organization. Actually, um, my former HR director, when I was working at 360, I. Amanda Papini. Told me about this organization and she said, I really feel like you need to connect with a few people. And I was like, all right, cool. I’m totally down. I’d love to. So shortly after, I started volunteering with the organization and working on the events. So I focused on the events. Then the pandemic hit and, you know, everything was flipped upside down for quite some time. And in the back of my mind, and I guess the way that I’ve always been since I was a child is I like bringing people together, right? I mean, it doesn’t really matter how less than ideal a situation can become. I really do believe in my heart. There’s a lot of power and connection and power in community, and that really just motivated me to want to do more, to want to give back to the community. And I think hearing feedback from people like you made me feel really welcome. Or hey, I learned something about AI and now I’m not freaking out about it. I can approach this strategically, just hearing bits and pieces from people in the community. Is personally inspiring to me and it makes me want to keep going. But it’s also the team of people on the board and within the community. Um, that really just propelled me forward to want to to want to continue to get deeper.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there a story you can share, maybe a member story that you met somebody who was able to take their experience within the organization and kind of elevate their career to a new level? You don’t have to name their name, but maybe name the challenge that they were going through and, and how they were able to leverage what they were getting out of the organization to kind of grow their career.

Trey Toler: That’s a great question. And the first example that comes to mind for me, is that necessarily specific to someone who joined the organization? And, you know, kind of worked their way up into the organization rather. It’s someone who joined the organization, found a community, and then in turn found a job. Right. This was heavily last year with a lot of the layoffs going on. And there were there was an influx of people that were laid off. And I think when you’re in that situation, it’s really easy to feel like you’re the only person going through that, and it’s just really stressful. Through the happy hours and through the events that we had last year. There were a lot of people that were like, hey, you know, I know coming to these didn’t get me the job, but it opened the door and made it possible for me to have conversations with people who were either a in the same boat or b potential hiring managers. And two of the people that I’m thinking about are gainfully employed now. So I think that’s a huge victory.

Lee Kantor: And that’s something that I hear a lot about of so many people think that, okay, I don’t have a job, I’m going to go to all these job boards and put in my name 100 times in these things and just sit and wait. And and it doesn’t happen for them. And they’re like, well, I put out 500 things and I got no interviews or I’m getting ghost or whatever. And it’s much more fruitful, I think, to use your network and relationships to find an end and spend your time that way, rather than just kind of spamming a bunch of companies and hoping for an interview 100%.

Trey Toler: It’s the intentional outreach and the intentional presence of wanting to move forward in a process like. It’s great to show those metrics and the effort of I’ve applied to 500 jobs, you know, per day. But at the end of that, I mean, is that the best use of someone’s time? Right? I mean, that’s a volume thing from the recruiting perspective, where, you know, recruiters physically cannot get through all of the candidates that are coming in, they just can’t. And on the other side of that, to your point, it is incredibly advantageous for people who have that soft end. And they’re like, hey, Rachel, I know that you work at company X. I know this isn’t in your department, but I really feel like I could crush this job. And here’s why. Rachel, if you’re comfortable with it, can I ask you for an internal referral for this? Boom. Easy enough. And most people want to help. Most people genuinely do want to help other people. And I think by. Yes, going out on a limb and it takes courage to do something like that. But it’s way more fruitful, like you said, than just applying aimlessly into a black hole.

Lee Kantor: Especially if it’s not working. Like if you got to 100, 200, 300. You might want to alter your plan here because it’s obviously not paying off.

Trey Toler: It’s not a good return.

Rachel Simon: Yeah, exactly. It’s not a good return. Exactly. And I mean, there’s such an opportunity to to like we’re leveraging our networks, right. The networks that we have in person, the networks that we have online. And we have to take advantage of those connections that we have. And to your point, something that I have been talking to my college age son about, you know, people want to help people, right? So, like, who are the people who are, you know, alumni of your school who are going, who are graduated with your degree, connect with those people on LinkedIn. Great advice, because at some point, even with a question of like, I’d love, what is the best piece of advice you could give me going into this major? People like. First of all, they love talking about themselves and they genuinely want to help people. Some people don’t. There’s always those people who are just like, I don’t have time for this, but most people are happy to give some guidance, some mentorship. Um, but we just have to identify and then ask those people for help.

Trey Toler: That’s right. And it’s kind of like a situation where, um. When you’re in the thick of a situation and something hadn’t happened suddenly, such as a job loss. You’re in reactive mode, right? Like you’re not necessarily able to think with the same clarity as if you’re thinking proactively. So again, it just goes back to if we can proactively network. Not for the sake. I almost have a weird taste for the word networking. I think people have an idea of what that looks like, kind of like speed dating. And yes, there’s some truth to that, but I think at the end of the day, at the core of networking, it’s who is the person behind the job title and figuring out what makes someone tick and learning. Just to have casual conversations with people, right?

Lee Kantor: It’s a human to human interaction. That’s right. It isn’t like a spreadsheet to spreadsheet interaction, which a lot of people want this to be, that it’s scalable, that I can just do this thing and then press a button and 100 things happen. And it just it’s this is the work that’s not scalable. It’s that effort and human to human interaction. What do we have in common? How could I help you? How could you help me? Let’s learn about each other and see if we can come up with something that’s mutually beneficial rather than, hey, can I do this one action? And it’ll just do a million more at a press of a button, and that just isn’t how you do it, I don’t think.

Rachel Simon: No. And honestly, you know, networking ultimately just I think often comes down to reminding people that you exist because it’s really hard to keep up with people. You people fall off your radar and just think about how many times you will run into somebody and you’d be like, My God, I totally forgot about that person. Like, I haven’t seen them and I like them ages, right?

Lee Kantor: It’s not even something negative, right? It’s just something that, look, we’re all busy and we all kind of get on our own rabbit hole, and then you just kind of grew apart for whatever reason, and now you just got to be mindful and reconnect with as many people as.

Rachel Simon: Possible and just be like, hey, remember me? Here I am. Exactly. And that’s.

Trey Toler: So true. I mean, it’s we live in an age, I mean, both personally and professionally. Where and listen, there’s this isn’t against anything digital, right? Like I’m a huge fan of it. I think it’s wonderful. I think the flexibility and the opportunities that exist because of what we can do online is. Incredibly fantastic. I think the flip side of that is sometimes people can lean too heavily on that, and with the digital landscape, we have the ability to curate the content and life isn’t curated right. I think we see things based on how the algorithm is working. And if to your point, like if someone is in your feed and they bump out for whatever reason, then you forget about them out of sight, out of mind. But when you see that person in person, you’re like, oh my gosh, like I remember, you know, they told me about their kids or they told me about their son at UGA or whatever the case may be. And you humanize, you humanize that. And that’s just so important, right?

Lee Kantor: Because the algorithm doesn’t really include kind of these accidental con, um, synergies or collisions. It doesn’t it make for that it’s trying to be efficient. And this kind of random serendipity isn’t really part of that. And that’s where the humanness comes in. And how do you kind of reintegrate that kind of, um, serendipity into something? And I think that’s why it’s so important to have organizations like Fuse, where you’re creating these opportunities to bump into old friends and to reconnect with a bunch of people. And you’re doing the kind of the hard part of organizing this and inviting kind of this wide net of people. So they have a reason to all kind of come together.

Trey Toler: God. You said that very well. That was very nice, very consolidated. I’m very long winded. So that was impressive.

Rachel Simon: Not his first interview. Perfect. Yeah. No, it’s interesting because even thinking about, you know, you’ve got more of the casual meet ups which are very beneficial and have their purpose. But then the educational, um, events then not only are you providing, again, professional development for members, but then it is also a conversation starter for people who attend or maybe couldn’t attend. Right? So let’s say somebody went to the eye panel and they reach out to someone else in the organization, I’m going to say on LinkedIn, because that’s my my world to say, you know, did you have the chance to go to the views eye panel? What did you think? Right. It’s an opportunity to start a conversation where maybe they didn’t know how to start that conversation with somebody who potentially might be more senior than them, whatever the case may be. But it’s really giving that like little like push, like here, talk about this.

Lee Kantor: Right. It’s like a cheat code because now you can use the organization in a variety of ways. One, you can invite somebody who you want to connect with and go, hey, this you know, you were talking about this or I know this is important to you. Why don’t we go to this meeting together? Why don’t we learn about this together, where you can use it as a lever to meet or reconnect with somebody? Or you can find people there that you don’t know and say, hey, we were in this thing together. Let’s talk about it, or I have a question or you ask a great question. I’d like to understand more of what you’re thinking. So it’s a way that you can benefit. There’s multiple ways to kind of use it as a way to help you grow your kind of personal brand, like you were saying.

Trey Toler: Oh, 100%. And I love that you just stitched the two together with LinkedIn and the in-person stuff, right? Like I’m on LinkedIn all the time for work. And I think it’s an incredibly powerful tool. And sometimes I feel like the barrier with LinkedIn is, um, folks aren’t exactly sure how to connect with someone else. Like, what do you say in that message? You know, do you just do you just send it and not say anything, or do you put something? And if you put something, you put the wrong. It’s like this thing that we overthink. And then in reality, if you bump into someone in real life, like we were just talking about, whether it’s at the grocery store or you go to an event, that’s a super easy segue. Hey, loved your question at that event. Absolutely loved your perspective. You know, when you spoke on that panel, etc., etc. and tying that back, I mean, people, people like to see those dots connected and it makes it so much easier just to come up with the topic, something that’s genuine but also real and tangible. Um, to, to build your LinkedIn network.

Rachel Simon: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, honestly, even just saying great meeting you at insert event here.

Trey Toler: Absolutely.

Rachel Simon: Um, because the other thing now we are somewhat limited on how many personal like personalized connection requests we can send if you don’t have a premium account. But let’s just say we can send as many as we want. People like to know where you came across them like, because otherwise we have to spend so much time like sleuthing, researching.

Trey Toler: I feel like a true crime investigator sometimes. Like I go on these black holes.

Rachel Simon: Like, who is this person? How many people do we have in common? Where do they live? Why would they connect with me? Where would they come across my profile? But just to say, great meeting you at the Fuse event. Love to connect. Boom. Easy. Easy. Done.

Trey Toler: Easy. You connect the dots, you’re like, great, this is how I know you. This is what’s going on. And yeah, I couldn’t agree more. I think the two are very much hand in hand. Like I’m a huge fan of LinkedIn and. I think if we use the in-person stuff and the LinkedIn stuff and merge them together, it’s like the best of both worlds. I think it’s just incredibly powerful. Linkedin is beautiful at showcasing. Again, it’s it’s, I hate to say one dimensional because that’s not the word that I’m looking for, but you only see one side of the mirror ball, right? Like online with anything. And it doesn’t have to be LinkedIn. It can be any social media. But in person, like you realize that we are all dynamic humans. And while you may not agree with someone’s marketing strategy, or maybe you don’t like the creative they executed on a certain campaign, there are still other things that we have in common, and I think that’s the value of in-person networking. Where that comes from, right, is you. It’s like we’re giving ourselves reminders that it’s okay to be, you know, multi-dimensional human beings.

Rachel Simon: Now, ideally, we are showing up in person in a similar way, the way we’re positioning ourselves online, because then otherwise it gets a little bit weird sometimes.

Lee Kantor: Oh gosh, it has to be authentic. I mean, you hope in whatever world they’re in, they’re kind of true to themselves.

Rachel Simon: Exactly.

Lee Kantor: Now let’s talk a little bit about your day job. Well, what’s your day job?

Trey Toler: Yeah. So, um, I specialize. I work on the sales side of 24 seven, and we’re a holistic talent solutions provider, so we’re essentially a one stop shop for embedded teams. We have an in-house design firm, of course, freelance and full time staffing and the areas we specialize specifically, it’s, uh, creative digital advertising.

Lee Kantor: So and then is it local to Atlanta and Georgia or is it, uh, candidates can come from wherever.

Trey Toler: That’s a great question. So we are global. We’re a global company. Um, we are across the United States. I’ll focus focus specifically on the US. My team is in Atlanta. Um, we have an awesome team, but it’s really a great company across the board. Any person can be a candidate. And that’s the beautiful part. About 24 seven is we do not have candidate ownership. So let’s say, for instance, one of my colleagues in Los Angeles recruited for a design role that’s specific to that market. Well, one of my colleagues in Atlanta can recruit the same candidate if they fit the bill for what a client is looking for. So at the end of the day, I think the beautiful part about that, it’s not only very efficient, but it’s also, you know, we’re we’re serving the candidate and we’re serving the client. It’s it’s not about, um, I guess marking your territory. We’re really in it to make sure that it’s a win win on both the candidate and the client side.

Lee Kantor: So now who’s the ideal client for 24 over seven?

Trey Toler: You know, that’s a great question and I don’t have a concise answer for you. I think the ideal client is really anyone who is looking to move the needle forward, and they’ve had challenges, whether that’s due to limited resources internally, um, cutting headcount, cutting funding for staffing or hiring. But it’s also for that small business who may not can afford a chief marketing officer. So they need someone who’s a fractional CMO, or they need a marketing director to come in and help them get over the hump. So that’s another thing that gets me excited is there’s not like a strong profile in either direction, right? I mean, if it falls in the wheelhouse of creative digital and marketing, I mean, we can touch it from, you know, individual two person shops to fortune 100 companies.

Lee Kantor: And it’s full time as well as like a project.

Trey Toler: It is. Yeah. So full time freelance consulting. So project based deliverables or SSW work. Um, we also have the ability to provide embedded teams, and we have a design firm that we acquired last year and it’s killer. It’s a really, really cool shop.

Rachel Simon: Very cool. That’s awesome. So you’re basically like any marketing need, you’re going to find the right resource for whatever. Absolutely. And how do organizations find you. Like how do they understand, how do they need have this need. And they need to find somebody who can help fill it, you know.

Trey Toler: Well 24 over seven talent. Com is our website. And we do have a job board on there. Um, personally Trey Tolar on LinkedIn. And you just reminded me of something that I wanted to share. And I know in sales in general, like, I, I love working in sales and I think. I think there’s a misconception of the value that a salesperson can bring to any organization. Right? And specifically, I’ll focus on staffing. It’s when you have the right people in place and they serve as an extension of your team. It’s just such a wonderful situation, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a client or a prospective client. I’m like, man, I’ve just I’ve waited so long to have this meeting with you and you know what’s going on in your world and. It. Just the amount of work that needs to be done with fewer resources is incredibly overwhelming, and it’s present across every organization. I mean, every organization right now, people are talking about how they’re like literally giving their kids a bath while they’re trying to get off of a zoom call, and it’s just never ending. So I encourage people and listen. I work for 24 over seven, of course. I love the company. It’s a great company, but any outside resource just give people a chance. Like, you know, there are so many good people out there that want to work and there are so many good people out there that just want to partner and troubleshoot and try to help make your life easier. And I think it just goes back to my passion about networking is we’re so quick to want to close the door on conversations or people before we even give them a chance. And I just think that’s really important, especially where we are right now.

Lee Kantor: Now, at the end of every episode, we ask Rachel for a LinkedIn tip. And since I have you here, I would like both of you to chime in about this tip. Now, from your perspective, what would a candidate who wants to be found? What are some best practices when it comes to LinkedIn and maybe in your world, what would you like to see more when you’re searching for that perfect fit for your clients? Like what do you want to see from that standpoint? So together, maybe you can share with the listener some really great, uh, tips for candidates.

Rachel Simon: Okay. I’ll start. Um, well, on the on the LinkedIn side. And again, I don’t work as much on the job seeker side, but I’m going to just speak to general best practices, which is having that complete profile with great photos, a headline that is a lot more than just your job title. You want to know what you do, what is the value that you bring to the table when you just say, I’ve seen this all the time, project manager. Of what? What company? What exactly do you manage? So we need more information. Um, having an about section that really is telling your story. Don’t just plop the top of your resume in there. Give us a narrative. Write it in the first person. Uh, but the other piece, besides just checking all the basic boxes, right? Having your experience section well filled out with accomplishments is the skills, and I’ll be curious to know what your thoughts are on. I think the skill section is one of the most undervalued parts of the profile. Nobody’s looking at your skills. However, that is what LinkedIn is using to bring you into searches. And so you have to have those right keywords in your skills section. And if you haven’t looked at your skills section in a minute, it’s time to take a pass and make sure that it’s actually relevant to what you currently want to be found for. So that’s that would be my advice.

Trey Toler: That is great advice. And it’s it’s incredibly accurate. So while I don’t sit on the recruiting side, I do want to echo what you just said. And it’s really important that your profile, if you are a job seeker, is 100% current on all the things that Rachel spoke about. And the reason why that’s important is on the back end for a recruiter, when they’re using LinkedIn recruiter, everything is keyword based. So the more intentional you are with highlighting certain programs, certain projects, certain things that you’ve done on your portfolio, your profile, you’ll get pulled up. So that’s incredibly important. I think in terms of what I use LinkedIn for and in general, um, it’s really just leading with authenticity. I think people can write a million articles about, you know, I don’t sleep because I’m too busy getting everything done all the time. Grind, grind, grind, hustle, hustle. Like get off of your, like, off brand Ted talk. And just like, be a real person, right? Like, talk about real things that matter. Like period. I think authenticity is crucial, but also bring value and just show that you’re real. And, you know, some people might find that off putting, but. You know, I think at the end of the day, that’s all we have is just show up as who you are. Everybody else is already taken, you know?

Lee Kantor: Now try if somebody wants to connect with you. What is the coordinates for Fuse and also 24 over seven.

Trey Toler: Sure. So for 24 over seven our website is 24 seven talent com for Fuse. Fuse is Fuse atl.org and to connect with me directly and to have links easily clickable. Um connect with me on LinkedIn Trey Toler and that will link you out to both 24 over seven and to Fuse.

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

Trey Toler: Thank you both for having me. This is awesome. I love the show. I’m so happy for you guys and thank you so much for having me. I’m really grateful.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor for Rachel Simon. We’ll see you all next time on Sandy Springs Business Radio.

 

About Your Host

Rachel-SimonRachel Simon is the CEO & Founder of Connect the Dots Digital. She helps B2B companies close more business by leveraging the power of LinkedIn.

Rachel works with professionals, both individuals and teams, to position their authentic brand on LinkedIn so they can connect organically with ideal clients, attract the best talent, and stand out as a leader in their industry.

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Connect with Rachel on LinkedIn.

Tagged With: 24 Seven Talent, Fuse

Julia Cox with Just Closed With Julia and Amber de Marché with Mortgage Right

June 13, 2024 by angishields

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Cherokee Business Radio
Julia Cox with Just Closed With Julia and Amber de Marché with Mortgage Right
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Brought to you by Diesel David and Main Street Warriors

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Julia-Cox-bwAs a realtor with nearly 3 years of experience in her beloved community, Julia Cox’ passion for helping others has always extended beyond the realm of real estate. With three generations of military service in her family, including her father, husband, and son, the values of service, dedication, and respect are deeply ingrained in Julia’s character. These values drive her commitment to supporting the elderly, a cause close to her heart.

Growing up in Georgia and spending decades in this vibrant area, Julia has witnessed firsthand the invaluable contributions our senior citizens have made. Their wisdom, resilience, and stories enrich our lives, and it’s her mission to ensure they receive the care and support they deserve. Whether it’s through assisting with downsizing, finding a home that better suits their needs, or simply offering a compassionate ear, Julia strives to make their lives a little easier.

As a retired military member, Julia understands the unique challenges that come with aging, especially for those who have dedicated their lives to serving our country. Her approach is detail-oriented and empathetic, ensuring that every senior she works with feels heard and valued. It’s not just about real estate; it’s about community over competition, fostering connections, and creating a supportive environment where our elders can thrive.

In addition to her professional endeavors, Julia is an avid gardener, crafter, and dog lover. These hobbies have taught her patience, the importance of nurturing, and the joy of seeing something grow and flourish—principles she applies when working with the elderly. Her goal is to help them navigate their next chapter with dignity and grace, providing them with the resources and support they need to enjoy their golden years to the fullest.

Together, we can build a community that honors and uplifts our seniors, ensuring they feel as cherished and respected as they truly are.

Connect with Julia on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

Amber-De-Marche-bwAmber de Marché’s professional journey has been an exciting one, leading her from a successful ten-year career as an educator in the cosmetology industry to discovering her true passion for real estate during the challenging times of COVID.

With a decade of experience in education, Amber has developed a strong foundation in communication and empathy, which has seamlessly transitioned into her role as a Loan Officer. Helping first-time homebuyers and veterans navigate the complex world of real estate is a true joy for Amber, but she’s equally dedicated to assisting anyone on their journey to finding their dream home.

Education is at the heart of her approach. Amber firmly believes that understanding the loan process is crucial for borrowers to make informed decisions. That’s why she takes the time to explain every step of the way, ensuring clients feel empowered and confident throughout the entire process.

But it doesn’t end with the closing of your first deal. Building meaningful and lasting relationships with her clients is paramount to Amber. She’s committed to being your trusted lender for life, ready to support you in all your future real estate endeavors.

When Amber isn’t immersed in assisting clients, you can find her cherishing precious moments with her family, like chasing her toddler around. As an avid lover of the great outdoors, Amber seizes every opportunity to explore nature’s beauty. And when it’s time to recharge, you’ll likely find her indulging in a well-deserved nap!

Connect with Amber on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Stone Payton: Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of Cherokee Business Radio. Stone Payton here with you this morning, and today’s episode is brought to you in part by our Community Partner program, the Business RadioX Main Street Warriors Defending Capitalism, promoting small business, and supporting our local community. For more information, go to Main Street warriors.org and a special note of thanks to our title sponsor for the Cherokee chapter of Main Street Warriors Diesel David Inc. Please go check them out at diesel.david.com. You guys are in for a real treat this morning. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast, first up on Cherokee Business Radio with Just Close With Julia, and 1Look Real Estate office. Miss Julia Cox, how are you?

Julia Cox: I am doing fabulous. It’s a beautiful day out and I’m going to go wash my car after this, so yay!

Stone Payton: Well, we’re delighted to have you in the studio. You and I have been plotting this conversation for some time now. Uh, Julia and I are part of the young professionals of Woodstock, and so we’ve gotten a chance to know each other a little bit. But today we’re going to get to dive in, visit with her about her and her business, maybe get some pro tips for some folks out there. And you’re going to introduce us to a guest that you brought with you here in a little bit, too. Yeah.

Julia Cox: Yes.

Stone Payton: All right. Tell me a little bit, maybe a good place to start. Mission. Purpose. I know you’re in the real estate arena, but for you specifically, you’ve kind of refined your mission, your purpose, your focus. What are you really out there trying to do for folks?

Julia Cox: I am trying to help seniors mostly right now because they are in desperate need for somebody to just help. They get taken advantage of left and right by everybody. So I’m here to inform them, to let them know what their choices are to get them. There’s legal aid. There’s all kinds of things that they are that they can have. The biggest thing right now is I wanted to make sure that all the seniors know that they can appeal their tax assessment. You can either call them and they will send you a written copy, or you can go to the Cherokee County Tax assessor’s office. And down on that page it will say appeal. You have 45 days from your first day of notice. If your appeal is approved, it’s good for three years. So that way you know your your tax is going to stay the same and you’re going to be good to go for three years.

Stone Payton: Well, I’m certainly no expert in the arena, but it has been my observation that our assessment never goes down.

Julia Cox: No it doesn’t.

Julia Cox: Yes, I worked with this one lady. Hers went up 30%. I mean, seriously 30%. So and you know so you know, all you have to do is get one of your trusted realtors to give you a CMA, which is a comparative market analysis, which will show how much in the market the house is worth. And then you can tell that and you can take that and put that in your paperwork and you can go from there. But it really helps. And please, there’s not a realtor out there that will not help you out and it’s no charge.

Stone Payton: So what is the the back story? How in the world did you find yourself in this line of work?

Julia Cox: Well, my thing is, I wanted to be a realtor all my life. It’s just such a big part in people’s life, and it’s such a family oriented thing that this is just something I wanted to do. But as many people know, being a realtor is incredibly hard and it takes a lot of time and it takes a lot of face time. And usually you don’t see any income from anywhere from six months to two years. So it took me a while and I finally get to do my dream job, which is very exciting. And then I got into it and I was trying to find, okay, where where do I fit what’s what’s a good place for me? And just so happens that I’m going into my senior years and we are retired military. So I went and got my Qris, which is a senior real estate specialist certification, and I got my MRP, which is a military relocation professional, and that way I can help the people that I am. And I work with seniors, you know, the 500 and 1C3 the nonprofit seniors like stand up for seniors, Cobb Cherokee Senior Services. There’s quite a few out here, and I work with them because I want to people to move in my community that I support and I work toward and I work for. So it just makes me feel better. They’re walking in and I know what they’re walking into so I can help find them a place where they’re going to flourish. They’re going to feel comfortable. They’re going to know people. They’re going to know, you know where to go when they want to do something, whether they want to be in a quilting circle or wanting to be in a book club, we can help with that.

Stone Payton: Well, now that you’ve been at it a while, what are you what are you finding the most rewarding? What’s the most fun about it for you?

Julia Cox: The most fun about it, and this just happened recently, is I had a senior lady and this was just awesome. Um, her son was going to sell her house because obviously he knows more than anybody else. But in the end, she we talked and, you know, we got this set up and she actually told her her daughter that, you know what? She doesn’t want my brother to sell a house. She wants you to. And my brother called me and asked me, what in the world why is mom so ready to move now? And she’s okay with it? That was a huge win because she felt that comfortable with me and it was great.

Stone Payton: Real estate strikes me as a very I don’t know if it’s fair to say, crowded, but a competitive arena from a sales and marketing standpoint, how does the whole sales and marketing thing work for a real estate agent? Because there there’s I I’m operating under the impression that there’s plenty of opportunity out there, but there’s also a lot of folks in your business, right. How do you go about the sales and marketing thing?

Julia Cox: You do the best you can and be authentic. You have to be authentic. And it’s like when you go and you you work at a you are what, one of the 500 and 1C3 events and you’re taking pictures. People are like, well that’s rude. You’re taking a picture to advertise. You’re not you’re not advertising yourself. Very rarely am I in the pictures. I’m advertising the event. Plus I just talk to people. I like going out. I like meeting seniors, and I’m authentic and people gravitate toward that. And the real estate is it’s very it’s very challenging right now. And a lot of people are getting out. It’s not as crowded as it once was. The numbers are going down very quickly, actually. So a lot of people are saying the cream of the crop will stay in, but being authentic and being in it for the reason your heart’s in it, there’s a reason that you’re in it. And if your heart is making money, then it’s still your heart. So you’re going to make money. But it’s just honestly, it’s being true to yourself, being authentic, just getting in front of people, helping your community and just being a part of your community is huge.

Stone Payton: Well, and I know you personally to be very invested in the community, collaborative, very relationship oriented, I guess, I guess I would say and one tremendous example of that I think, is, is how you work with other people with specialized expertise in their domain to make all this stuff come together. And you brought one with you. Did I tell us who you brought with you?

Julia Cox: I brought Amber de Marché and she is a loan officer with mortgage. Right. And Darren Hunter is the lead the lead mortgage lender on that team. And Amber is wonderful. And she actually knows how to do reverse mortgages, which is another item that I can bring to the table when we’re talking to seniors. And she also is very savvy about making sure that people are not getting ripped off, and they know how to send money through wire so they don’t send it to somebody in. You know, I don’t know Nigeria because, you know, the prince needs money.

Stone Payton: Yeah, I got an email from him. I haven’t responded.

Julia Cox: But it’s amazing, isn’t it? That man needs a lot of money.

Stone Payton: Well, Ms. Amber, what’s it like to to hang out with Julia?

Amber de Marché: Hi. So super excited to be here. Julia is awesome. All the things you said I second, she definitely has a passion and a heart for helping people, especially the seniors. So yeah, lots of fun with Julia.

Julia Cox: So how did you.

Stone Payton: Get in the mortgage business?

Amber de Marché: Oh, Covid actually helped me get in mortgage. Yeah, I was, um, my background is actually in cosmetology. I was an instructor admissions director at a cosmetology school in Arkansas. And Covid shut all of that down and kind of made me rethink. I knew a mortgage broker that was like, hey, maybe this is for you. You should try it. You’re at you’re not doing anything at home anyways. You might as well come shadow with me. And I totally fell in love with it. So it’s, um, it’s been really, really rewarding, especially, um, you know, growing up with parents that were divorced and living paycheck to paycheck and, um, never really thought that home ownership would be something attainable for myself. And then learning through working in the business that it actually was and have bought two houses now. So I love helping people realize that it’s not quite as complicated. And if you have the right people helping you, like Julia, it really can be simplified and not as stressful.

Julia Cox: So it’s something else that Amber does that I think is really, really great is she is getting a class so she can actually help people budget so they can pay off their credit cards. They can start. And these are because younger people are coming out with credit card. It’s not really money because they don’t teach these items in high school. So she it’s really cool. She’s going to go get her license with this for this. And it’s just that’s going to be huge. That’s going to make a difference. Maybe she can go talk in some high schools. You know even middle schools.

Amber de Marché: Yeah I’m excited getting my financial coaching certification. So yeah I’m excited to be able to to spread my passion for helping people and and help people dive into more day to day financial stuff too. So.

Stone Payton: Well, I agree 100% for what that’s worth. That financial literacy for me is a very important topic, and I also was not very knowledgeable or disciplined about money, even to the point I was very fortunate and made more money than most at a younger age than most in in my first career. But I spent just a little bit more than that.

Julia Cox: And part of it.

Stone Payton: Was like, you developed this mentality when when that is your path, what would just make some more tomorrow?

Julia Cox: Yeah, absolutely.

Amber de Marché: I, I tell people all the time, you know, sometimes I talk to borrowers that are they really want to buy a house, but maybe they’re not quite sure what that looks like and maybe they’re not quite there yet. And like, don’t feel bad about yourself. You know, like they don’t teach you that stuff in high school. And and if you know, your parents are in survival mode or just maybe they they weren’t taught that stuff either, then it’s. It’s just what it is. And I made all the mistakes in my 20s with I can tell you I totally ruined my credit and had to rebuild it. And so through that, you know, definitely have learned a lot and hope to use that to help other people.

Julia Cox: I bet you.

Stone Payton: In your line of work run into some patterns, some things you see over and over, and maybe there’s some patterns among young people trying to get their first house and they do some things, or fail to do some things that to you or just walking around sense and if you can get to them early enough, or even if they’ve made some of those mistakes, you can help them recover. Is that accurate?

Amber de Marché: Yes, absolutely. I would say the biggest piece of advice I give people is just make your payments on time. Like if you’ve opened a credit card or a loan or something, just make your payments on time. It’ll make a huge difference in your whole life.

Stone Payton: And maybe don’t make a crazy big move like the new truck or the new yeah, yeah, yeah. Right in the throes of things. Yeah.

Amber de Marché: Uh, 100%. Yeah. Especially when you’re going through the mortgage process. Like, don’t go buy a truck, don’t change jobs, don’t quit your job. Like, just basically freeze everything. Don’t cosign a loan for anyone. Don’t, you know, purchase anything big? Um, when you’re getting a mortgage, you know, we’re looking at your ability to repay. And sometimes there are certain things that we need to be at a certain point. So maybe you can do it after, if that’s if your heart desires to go buy that brand new Ford F-150, then that’s okay. Do it. After you close on your house.

Julia Cox: You sounds like good advice.

Julia Cox: And you know, some of the some of the two things that I thought that was really cool, that Amber told me about is also, don’t pay off your credit cards and keep your credit cards at like anywhere between 10 and 30% because they want that consistent payment. So I thought that was fascinating.

Amber de Marché: Yeah, they want to see you. The credit bureaus want to see you having a healthy relationship with that credit. So keeping a balance and keeping it paid down.

Julia Cox: And well, I’m glad you.

Stone Payton: Mentioned that because that that would that would be a little counterintuitive for me. But, you know, I’m at a different stage in life where I’m don’t carry debt. But at that point, you really you want to have the the debt capacity, but you don’t want to have the, the where you owe very much. Right?

Amber de Marché: Yes.

Julia Cox: Yeah. Interesting for sure.

Stone Payton: So have you like Julia and maybe you already partially answered this question because because of your focus on financial literacy, but have you chosen any particular niche, a demographic, a psychographic, a certain group of people that while you you’ll be delighted to help a lot of people, that this is where you’re going to focus your sales and marketing energy on and your education and community energy on.

Amber de Marché: Yeah, for sure. And it’s not maybe as specific as Julia, but, you know, young, young families. So young families that either they bought their first house, but it was 5 or 10 years ago. The market’s very different now. And they’re needing to expand. You know, they have kids coming. And you know like we do that take up a lot of space. Um, or um, you know, young young families that maybe are first time home buyers and, and aren’t really sure where to get started or what the process looks like. Those are my favorites to help. But like you said, I’ll help everybody.

Julia Cox: And I wanted to add to that because the more I dive into seniors, because I’ve already doubled the amount of C credits, which is continuing education credits for my seniors, the more I dive in to the seniors, the more it helps me understand the process better. So I like helping seniors, but I am more able to handle anybody because I know how the mortgage works. I know how I know all this vendors, the partners that can help me get their houses up and ready to go or what we’re looking for. So it’s like you, you have a niche, but the niche actually, if you really dive into that niche, it helps you across the board, which is kind of cool. I think it’s the same way for sure.

Julia Cox: Yeah, well.

Stone Payton: Let’s dive into a use case and maybe we can we can have you both dive into a single use case, but let’s just take well, let’s take the young couple and they somehow got into their first home, uh, no kids making pretty good money and all that. And so they were able to get into that one that’s not going to serve in this next phase of life because they want to, you know, they want to have kids. And then, uh, what’s the do they approach you first typically to start getting their financial ducks in a row? Amber. Is that the walk us through kind of at least the early stages of what that looks like?

Julia Cox: Yeah.

Amber de Marché: So it’s funny you ask that question, um, because a lot of people go to the realtor first. Um, but really they should talk to the loan officer first, because when you go talk to the real estate agent, they’re going to say, have you talked to a loan officer? Have you gotten pre-approved? Um, and mostly because as a real estate agent, you know, they don’t want to take you to look at a $400,000 house if you can’t afford to buy it. Right. If your budget is only up to 375, well, now you’ve fallen in love with the house and everybody’s going. To be really disappointed.

Julia Cox: But also they will not. If you if they fall in love with that house, they will make an offer on it. They can’t. Right. Because they haven’t gone through the approval process. Yeah. So it just we’re like breaking hearts and we’re crying almost as much as, you know, the people that want to buy the house, it’s it’s a sad thing. Yeah.

Amber de Marché: So you would definitely reach out to a loan officer first. Um, go through the pre-approval process. So they’re going to most likely ask you to fill out an application, um, you know, maybe provide some documents to verify your income, that you have some savings if that’s the route you’re going. Georgia has some down payment assistance programs. That would be a whole other podcast episode for you. Yeah, yeah. Um, but um, so yeah, depending on the route. So basically anything you put on the loan application, we just have to verify with documents. So like your driver’s license says, this is who you are and this is where you live. And, you know, income is a big thing and asset. So like your bank statements, savings accounts, stuff like that. So definitely talk to a loan officer first and then you can go do the fun part that everybody wants to do, which is go look at the houses with the real estate agent.

Julia Cox: So when I actually talked to people that are coming in and looking at the houses at the open house, I’m like, are you pre-approved? If you’re not, please, I’ve got some great lenders. I can, you know, send you to, well, we’re not looking to buy for six months. And I’m like, the lenders would love it if they got you six months before you bought the house.

Julia Cox: Okay. Excellent. Six months to a year.

Julia Cox: They they would love it because there’s no surprises. They can knock it out before it even happens. So and that’s what I try to encourage people to do is talk to your lender. I mean, just seriously, a year, six months before you’re even looking for a home.

Julia Cox: Wow. Okay.

Amber de Marché: Yeah, I always think about it like, um, like if you’re going so, like, you decide to get healthy, right? And you’re so you have like two parts of that, your diet and your working out. So the real estate agent does the working out part, which is the one that everybody posts about. Right? Like nobody wants to see what you’re eating. They want to see like that heavy weight that you lifted so they can be like, wow, you deadlifted 300 pounds this morning. Way to go. But so so the real estate agents like the trainer at the gym, the loan officers like, the dietician like we’re going to look at your finances and make sure that your finances are healthy enough and that you have good habits. So it could be six months to a year before you’re ready to buy that house. But if you talk to the loan officer first, we can definitely look and see how to get you there.

Stone Payton: It makes all the sense in the world to me. So let’s take this young couple. Let’s say that they took this advice, reached out to you a good six months plus ahead of time. I guess initially you might come back with kind of a working number, but it’s not really a hard number. Right. Like let’s, let’s call it 375. Mhm. Um, let’s and but you’re not necessarily saying okay go get you a $375,000 house. You’re saying, okay, we know that we’re in this neighborhood financially. Now let’s continue to look at and then we’ll get you even better or we’ll help you think through. Yeah it’s 375 but I think we’ll we’ll stop at 350 or something. Yeah. Yeah.

Amber de Marché: Absolutely. Yeah. And you know, a lot of times the purchase price makes a difference. Right. But the biggest thing that we’re looking at is the monthly payment, because that’s really going to impact you more than anything in terms of looking at. So maybe we say, okay, you can afford up to $375,000 based on just how we qualify you for a mortgage, how the bank looks at you, but comfortably for you guys in their mind, they may they might be like, I don’t want my mortgage payment to be more than $1,500 a month. And then it’s like, okay, well then you need to keep your purchase price at 350. That’s going to get you right where you want to be with your mortgage payment.

Stone Payton: So yeah. So getting into the mortgage business, I’m sure the answer to this is yes, but I’m going to ask anyway, did you have the benefit of one or more mentors to kind of help you navigate that terrain and a team you could lean on for a while?

Amber de Marché: Yes, 100%. You definitely need it in the mortgage and in the real estate world because it’s really, you know, everybody says this, but you, you learn so much through the classes that you have to take and the licensing process and all of that. But applying it in the real world is a lot different than reading about it in a textbook, you know?

Julia Cox: So in real estate, they call they call it drinking from a, you know, a water, um, a fire hydrant because you’re getting you can only drink so much. You’re getting all this information. So it it takes you, it takes you a little while. And the more you work at it, you go, oh, yeah, oh, yeah, oh, yeah. It’s really good because it’s like anybody you learn better when you do it. Yeah. So doing it is just huge. And or you can help somebody do it.

Amber de Marché: Yeah.

Julia Cox: Which is awesome at mortgage right.

Amber de Marché: I mean I ask those guys all the time, I’m like, so I have this scenario, I don’t know what to do. So yeah, definitely lean on. And Darren’s been a huge mentor for me. Just helping, you know, with building the business for myself. And you know, we’re all our own brand. Right. So so helping with that as well. So. Yeah.

Stone Payton: Well, that’s a good point. Yes. Your mortgage. Right. And and a lot of us around town know Darren to be a marvelous person. Yes, but you’re also Amber and you get. So you’ve got this whole sales and marketing differentiation thing. I don’t, I don’t know. Do you employ, uh, tools like social media and getting out there in the community talk. Walk us through how you kind of do your sales and marketing thing, if that’s the right term.

Amber de Marché: Yeah, it is the right term. That’s what I call it anyway.

Julia Cox: Okay, good, good.

Amber de Marché: Um, yeah. So I do social media, um, you know, like most people, I get tired of it sometimes. So I take a little. I took a little break, but I’m getting back into it now. Yeah. Um, I do a lot of the business networking groups around to like the Kennesaw Business Club, Woodstock Business Club. I’ve been to some of the business associations, so I’m doing that big in the chamber, the Cherokee chamber. Um, love those people there. Um, and then, you know, I have a passion for helping people, so I, I consider my volunteer to be networking as well.

Julia Cox: Yeah, absolutely.

Amber de Marché: Um, I volunteer with the chin up program through the Children’s Haven. So they, we do like a, a, a program a couple of times a month for middle school and high school kids that are having truancy issues in school and stuff and maybe just need like a positive role model there, somebody to spend some time with them. So, um, I do that. I’ve, I’ve volunteered with Cobb Mentoring Matters, where we mentor kids in, in the middle schools to just kind of be a guide for them to figure out what path they’re taking. And, um, I’ve done some mentoring through Serenade Heights, which is a nonprofit that helps single moms kind of get back on their feet or go back to college and stuff like that. So, um, that’s a big part of of my passion for all of this, so.

Stone Payton: Well, I can tell it. I can hear it in your voice. I can see it in your in your eyes. I think this might apply to both of you guys. Uh, I know I came from the training consulting world, and we would often lean on other practitioners who had specific expertise in another domain much deeper than ours, like home services folks, the people that can get a house ready. Or do you guys probably know a lot of those people? And you, you’ve got your go to lot guy and your go to roof person. Is that true?

Julia Cox: That is.

Julia Cox: Yes. That’s like part of my when I go in to speak to somebody, especially a senior, because there’s a lot you have to do because they’re moving into a different lifestyle. So it’s almost like they have four different buckets. They have what they’re taking with us, they have what they’re going to put in storage. But we’ll probably they have what they’re given to their children, and they have what they’re going to do an estate sale with, or they’re going to sell on Facebook. And I have people for both of those, and then they have what they’re going to donate. So it’s just and then I have this wonderful packer that will help. Impatient. I have a wonderful mover that will take things to the four different places, or break down the old swing set in the back yard. I have an amazing person that can come and do like mold remediation. I have a wonderful roofing person. I mean, it’s just these people are what make up my toolbox. They are so awesome and they they’re what make me smile. And I know I’m doing a good job because they’re doing a good job. It’s like it just reeks of goodness. It’s awesome. But yeah, those are you’ve got those are wonderful.

Stone Payton: And you’re and you’re the same way. Right. You know people in that arena as well, right?

Amber de Marché: Yeah, 100%. I would say most of the time the homeowner looks to the realtor for most of that stuff because they’re in the houses with them, and maybe they’re looking at a house and like, oh my gosh, is this foundational crack in the wall? Or is it just settling, you know? So, um, but I definitely do have people. You definitely have to be the guy that knows the guy, you know?

Stone Payton: Doesn’t that feel great? Don’t you find that incredibly rewarding? In my experience over the years has been if I can just try to help people address their challenge, even if it has nothing to do with what I do, or if it has a lot to do with what I do. But, uh, Tim over at Mesmerize Media, he’s awesome is going to be a better solution because what they want to do right now needs to be more video centric than the than the work that we do. I mean, that’s my my first phone call. I but I get a lot of, uh, and it sounds like you do too emotional compensation from from and it feels good to be the guy that knows the guy. Yep.

Julia Cox: It makes me feel powerful. It really does, because I get very confident because I know these people are going to do a good job. I know we’re going to do a good job on your house. And it just it’s just such a powerful to have all these people behind you. And it takes time. I mean, you know, you’re building I’m building relationships with these people. This is not someone I’m looking up in the Yellow Pages. I’ve met them and talked to them. So. And some of them I’m actually used. I’ve actually used NB roofing because they’re awesome. And I’ve used, um, Russell Hollister to cut down a tree in my backyard.

Julia Cox: Oh, this is great.

Stone Payton: I’m keeping. I’m gonna send them all an invoice.

Julia Cox: Yeah. No, but it’s just. No.

Julia Cox: But I mean, it’s just these these are down home people that come and they talk and you meet and you get. You build relationships there? Not just this person. There a person. Yeah, that makes sense.

Stone Payton: It makes a ton of sense. I’d like to. Before we wrap it up, I wonder if we could do a little bit of a pro tips kind of section. I don’t know if you might draw on something you’ve written before, or some things that you know you’re always going to mention to people, and we can do a couple of different use cases or whatever. And maybe we start with you, Julia, with seniors. And maybe the advice is directly to seniors. My parents recently last six months moved up from Pensacola, Florida to here. So I’ve I’ve been in and around a lot of what you described. And maybe we should have had this conversation six months ago, but maybe a little bit of, you know, things to do don’t do, uh, be thinking about reading just a few pro tips. We could, uh, leave people with who are either the seniors themselves or the people that are kind of trying to help them, like their kids.

Julia Cox: Absolutely. My biggest one for the seniors is please sit down with your family and have the difficult talk. You need to have that talk. You need to know where your finances are. You need to know who’s going to be the executor. You need to know these things, and you need to let your family know that this is how it is. Get your will done. Make sure that somebody’s got the power of attorney to do this. It’s just it’s so important. It helps the strife. There’s not as much strife when somebody dies. People react in different ways that are just so unlike them. And usually it’s negatively because they’re they’re mad their parent has died, so they’re going to take it out on somebody and usually it’s the other siblings. So get that done, have that conversation. And if you don’t know something, please ask your kids don’t. They’re not going to think anything less of you. They’re not going to, you know, please ask them because they’re probably going to know my, you know, 30 year old son helps me with my internet and my Facebook because holy cow, that thing’s over my head. Sometimes I’m like, why is Facebook shutting me out? So just have those conversations. They are difficult, but they’re so, so important.

Stone Payton: I’m sure you got a handful of tips as well. Oh yeah.

Amber de Marché: Yes, a whole handful. Um, I would say the biggest one for any listener that’s thinking about buying a house, whether it’s your first house, second house investment property. Like don’t one, don’t be afraid to go talk to a loan officer. We’re not going to be mean to you or judge you or any of the things, like you’ll get some really valuable information and also talk to a couple. Um, you know, we all do the same thing, but the way that we do it is a little bit different. I had a couple last year that had been trying to buy their first house. They had talked to a couple of lenders and were like, well, we just can’t get approved right now. So I spent a Thursday night, a couple of hours at their house talking to them, and figured out that they actually could buy a house right now, and they actually did last year, buy their first house. So sometimes, you know, spending that little bit of extra time asking questions, if someone says, well, you don’t qualify because of this, like push them to be like, well, what do I have to do? Help me figure it out? So, um, you know, I think if that’s if that’s a goal of somebody, then they, they deserve to, to get that goal.

Stone Payton: So yeah. And I want to reinforce that. Give yourself some runway. Right. Yes. Those things play well together. Yeah. Yeah absolutely. Julia, lay it on us.

Julia Cox: I’ve actually got.

Julia Cox: One more, um, the seniors that are looking to move, whether they’re upsizing downsizing or they just want to stay at home, I really try to convince family and the seniors to stay in the home as long as they can, because seniors are living longer, people are living longer. And, um, the retirement communities, the senior living, the assisted living, it’s very expensive. And make sure that you talk to a loan officer or talked to a financial adviser and see how see what it looks like, because it can get very scary very fast.

Stone Payton: Well, and there’s more and more options, as I sometimes say, more better. My my high school English teacher would not like that for making that a more practical solution for longer, up to and including. I’m sure you both have a go to person to put the bars on the shower and make it a safer place. Absolutely everything from from that to some, uh, I don’t even know what you call it. Like some some bridge services where maybe you do have somebody come in and your home and hang out with you and take you grocery shopping on Wednesdays or whatever before you make that big leap into full blown care. Absolutely.

Julia Cox: And we have people that will go in and I don’t and, and actually watch one of the couples so the other couple can just go out and have maybe sit at the lake and just watch the duck goes by, just have a moment to be themselves. Because one of the biggest things is when a when a person dies, the other one is basically lost because they’ve been spending 24 over seven with that person and they’ve kind of lost their own identity. So they they need help to regain that back. So people going in and just giving them just, you know, four hour break and I know those people.

Julia Cox: So there you go.

Amber de Marché: Yeah I need someone with empathy like Julia to help you through those times.

Julia Cox: So. That’s right.

Julia Cox: That’s so sweet.

Julia Cox: Thank you. Well.

Stone Payton: Amber you were sharing with us before we came on air that you have a family. I know you obviously have a very vibrant career. I don’t know when and how you would find the time, but I’m interested anyway. So I’m going to ask passions, hobbies, other interests that you might pursue outside the scope of your work. Anything like.

Julia Cox: That?

Amber de Marché: Yeah, well, I have a two year old. He keeps me really busy. We’re actually potty training right now, so just keep us in your prayers. Um, but yeah, outside of that, we love pretty much anything outdoors. Um, hiking, kayaking, canoeing. Um, I grew up in Arkansas, so that’s, you know, there’s not anything else to do in Arkansas except for outdoors.

Julia Cox: That is awesome. We live there on tour when we were in the military and yeah, it’s beautiful. Oh my gosh, it’s gorgeous.

Amber de Marché: It is. It’s a pretty place. So yeah, that’s pretty much pretty much it. Besides watching mindless TV shows that probably are not productive in any way.

Stone Payton: But sometimes that’s just a good escape, though, where you don’t you just turn the brain almost completely off.

Julia Cox: Yep.

Amber de Marché: Don’t even have to think about anything. Just worry about what’s happening on the screen.

Stone Payton: Yeah, Julia, we didn’t talk much about military, and it’s probably a whole, uh, additional episode or or more, but there are some special programs and some things to look into for veterans. Is that accurate?

Julia Cox: Oh, absolutely. Well, you have the you know, the veterans have their own loan programs program, which is tremendous. But some people don’t realize when they can use it, how they can use it, and how much it can help them. But and also, Amber actually has a wonderful program for them too, that it’s it’s called a reverse mortgage. And it’s it’s got a bad rap in the past. But then they folded it under the FHA and it’s become a really solid program for certain seniors.

Stone Payton: Yeah, well, I was getting ready to wrap, but now I want to talk about this.

Julia Cox: That’s all right. I’m sorry.

Stone Payton: We’ll come back to your hobbies in a minute. But no, because I’ve seen the commercials and I’ve seen a couple people who play very trustworthy people on television. And because I have heard some of the bad rap around reverse mortgage, I’m like, shaking my head. I’m like, dude, you just cracked through your whole trustworthy image on TV. But maybe that’s my uninformed knee jerk reaction to the idea of a reverse mortgage. So yeah, with your permission, let’s can we dive into that a little bit and educate?

Julia Cox: Absolutely.

Amber de Marché: Yeah. We can. Um, yeah. So reverse mortgages do have a bad reputation. I think that it’s definitely a product that has to make sense for the person that’s doing it. Or you can get yourself in trouble or, you know, hurt someone. So essentially, a reverse mortgage is available to anyone that’s 62 years or older. If you have a couple, only one of them has to be 62. Um, so one can be 59 and the other can be 62, and they’re still eligible. Um, essentially what happens is you so if you had a loan, you let’s say you own a house that’s $400,000 and you owe $100,000 on it. Um, and you want to do a reverse mortgage? Maybe you have a senior, right? That’s struggling financially month to month. They can’t eat the foods they want to eat, you know, because they’re on a fixed income. They can’t take those trips, can’t fix up the house that they’ve lived in for the past 20 years because they just don’t have the funds. A reverse mortgage essentially takes pays off the mortgage that they have and puts it into a new mortgage. You don’t pay monthly payments on the mortgage. So, um, the interest that you would incur just keeps adding on. So that’s where you have to be careful, right? Has to make sense. And there’s a whole calculator that’s used with an algorithm that is kind of creepy. But it’s like we think they’ll live this much longer. So yes, it makes sense or no, it doesn’t make sense.

Amber de Marché: But instead of paying the mortgage, you can get the equity in your house up to a certain amount, depending on your circumstance. Um, you can get it in a lump sum. You can get it in a line of credit. You can get it in certain disbursements. A lot of people do a combination where like maybe you do, you know, a third of it up front, a lump sum at closing. So you get 50 grand at closing. And then after year two, day one, the line of credit opens up, and then they can take out the line of credit so they can get used the money. Um, you know, you can pay back at any time, but it’s not required. So, you know, if you have a senior whose monthly payment is $1,200 a month on their mortgage, I mean, and you’re and now you’re taking that away. Now they have $1,200 more. And that’s a whole lifestyle change for somebody that’s in the right position. I always say definitely talk to your financial adviser. Definitely, like have a meeting with a financial advisor or a CPA because sometimes there are tax implications. Have your heirs, whoever whoever’s inheriting this, whenever you pass away, you know, to have a meeting there. There are ways to get out of it. You can refinance out of it once the once the homeowner passes away, you can sell it and, you know, pay the loan back. But it is a good product if it makes.

Julia Cox: For you.

Julia Cox: You do? You do have to be very careful, because it’s only honestly good for about 10% of it. Is. It is. It is one item in the tool belt. Yeah. So and just talk to a loan officer. And if you go in and you ask them if they do reverse mortgages and they say no, that doesn’t mean they’re any less. That just means that they don’t want to do that because like she said, mortgages, they all do the same, but they do it differently. Mhm. So just find someone who does and you can always ask. Yes. Your trusty, you know real estate person. And we will have probably five loan officers. We can give you the names for fantastic.

Stone Payton: But it comes down to the math. You need somebody that understands that world, understands the math and your unique situation. And it might be, you know, you looked at my parents and absolutely not. It makes no sense. You look at somebody else’s parents and yeah, this is a good option based on their input and in the math.

Amber de Marché: Yeah. So it’s it’s really cool. You’re still liable for the property insurance and the taxes on the property. But I mean, other than that, if it makes sense, if, if your home is going to appreciate and it’s and it’s worth a lot, you know, and all of that like it, it definitely can make sense for someone. And uh, the one of the big questions that are always asked is like, well, what if there’s a housing crash? What happens then? Now they’re just out all of this money. But they since they’re under the FHA now, which is one of the reasons why it’s a better product, is now their insurance is in place that protect the homeowner in the event of like a housing crash that, you know, happens once every generation probably. But.

Stone Payton: Well, thank you. You may very well have restored my faith in this one particular celebrity actor that will go unnamed, because I don’t know if his product is as good as the one you’re talking about, but I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt because he’s a very trustworthy guy and his role on TV.

Julia Cox: There you go.

Stone Payton: Okay, now I get to ask my question what are you into? Do you nerd out about anything in your spare time? If there is such a thing as spare time for a realtor that’s doing as much as you are.

Julia Cox: Okay. Um, yeah, I’m. I love to garden my big thing. And nobody, nobody believes it when I tell them I love playing Zelda.

Julia Cox: Oh, okay.

Julia Cox: Tears of the Kingdom, man, I am rocking it right now. This is. This is like the third time I’ve played it. And I’m trying to go in different ways, and you do different things and you get different outfits and it’s just, it’s so much fun. But this is something I can play at 11:00 at night or 4:00 in the morning when I’m getting up or I’m having to do stuff. And it helped my it helps my mind wind down. I love that, but it’s I have a blast. That garden. My backyard is just beautiful right now.

Amber de Marché: It’s come to my house and help me because ours is like a little. It’s a lot of work.

Julia Cox: Yes it is. And it’s hot. Yeah, it’s very hot right now.

Stone Payton: You never know what you’re going to learn in this little room, right?

Julia Cox: It’s fantastic.

Amber de Marché: That is true. I feel like I need a cooler hobby now because Julia plays Zelda.

Julia Cox: Yeah. No kidding.

Stone Payton: All right, Amber, what’s the best way for our listeners to get in touch with you? Tap into your work, both at the community level and on all of these topics around around mortgage and financing for a for a home, whatever you think is appropriate. Just some good points of contact for them.

Julia Cox: Yeah.

Amber de Marché: So I am on social media. So Facebook, LinkedIn and TikTok and Instagram, you can just search my name Amber Demarcay. Um, or I mean mortgage, right? Woodstock. If you Google that, our phone number will come up. You can reach me there if you want to call me directly. Can I say my phone number? Oh, please. On air? Sure. Uh, my direct phone number is (501) 368-8450. Still have my Arkansas number that I’ve had for too long to give it up.

Stone Payton: And, Julia, what’s the best way to connect with you?

Julia Cox: Uh, please call me (770) 722-6890. You can look me up and on Google. You can look me up in Facebook. Just close with Julia. And, um, the best way is just to call me and ask me, and there’s no stupid question. There really isn’t. And have fun. I just looking for a house has got to be. It’s stressful, but it’s really fun. So take your time. Make sure you’re picky, picky picky picky picky. Don’t get pushed and take your time. If you want to go see 40 houses, go see 40 houses.

Stone Payton: You and I and some other real estate folks I know are really good about that. It looks like an incredible time commitment to me to get out there and and run. But you want them to be then it’s right.

Julia Cox: Yeah. You can go to sleep at night because you know it’s right. It’s like when a senior looks at you and they really want to stay where they’re at, and all it’s going to do is take a couple, you know, some money. And, you know, that’s when we get them to talk to someone. But if they want to stay where they’re at, they need to stay where they’re at. And I want to be able to sleep at night. I’m not making any money, but I want to be able to sleep at night. And I’m I’m making my community stronger. So that’s why I do that.

Stone Payton: You certainly are. Okay, one more time. Those contact points for people.

Julia Cox: Just close with Julia and my broker is one look real estate Gen Jennifer Zielinski. And my phone number is 770722. 6890 and Google and Facebook. It’s just closed with Julia.

Stone Payton: Well, thank you both for coming in today. This has been a marvelous way to invest a Tuesday morning. Your insight, your perspective, your passion, uh, for the work. It just it really comes through. And we sincerely appreciate both of you coming in.

Julia Cox: Thank you.

Julia Cox: Thank you for having us. Yeah.

Stone Payton: My pleasure. All right, until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today. And everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you again on Cherokee Business Radio.

 

Tagged With: Just Closed with Julia, Mortgage Right

David Samaha Interviews Host Sharon Cline

May 28, 2024 by angishields

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David Samaha Interviews Host Sharon Cline
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David Samaha turns the tables on host Sharon Cline, as he asks the questions in this episode of Fearless Formula.

Listen in to hear about Sharon’s background, and how her interest in radio brought her to Business RadioX®.

David-SamahaDavid Samaha is an ASE Certified Technician. In 2014, he started Diesel David, which eliminates the frustrations of working with a repair shop. His services are 100% mobile.

David’s customers love him because he saves them time, money, and heartache. No more waiting rooms, no more sheisty mechanics, and the best part is you get to drive your car or truck with confidence!

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Coming to you live from the Business RadioX Studio in Woodstock, Georgia. This is fearless formula with Sharon Cline.

Sharon Cline: Welcome to Fearless Formula on Business RadioX, where we talk about the ups and downs of the business world and offer words of wisdom for business success. I am your host Sharon Cline, and thankfully in a month it will be the two year anniversary of Fearless Formula and I’m going to have a new intro and I’m very excited about that. And also, third time is a charm because today on the show I’ve got Diesel David, who is one of my most favorite people, David Samaha. Hello.

David Samaha: Hello, Sharon. How are you doing?

Sharon Cline: I’m good. I’m freaked out, actually.

David Samaha: You’re a little bit nervous.

Sharon Cline: I am, I don’t like it.

David Samaha: So there’s this study that I recently saw where the brain cannot tell the difference between anxiety and excitement.

Sharon Cline: Okay.

David Samaha: It is what we tell the mind that it is.

Sharon Cline: Okay, then I’m excited. Right? Is that what I’m doing? I’m reframing. So this is a different show today for me. So that’s why I’m nervous.

David Samaha: Why is it a different show for you?

Sharon Cline: Because I asked the questions. I like being on this side where I’m like, David, tell me about your dreams. Tell me about how you made them come true and inspire other people to have the same kind of feeling that you do, but instead you’re asking me questions. Which the reason why I agreed to do this show, seriously, is because, uh, Joe Cianciolo, who we both know, Front porch advisor Joe, um, told me that one of the things that I can do to help connect with listeners is actually allow myself to to have the same vulnerabilities that I’m asking guests to have. So this has been on my mind for probably six months of sure, I’m going to do that someday in the future. And so when you asked me about….

David Samaha: I said, have you ever been interviewed?

Sharon Cline: And I was like, not on my show.

David Samaha: I was like, we should do it. I was like, let’s. And you’re like, okay? And I was like, when? And you’re like, da da da da date. And then I messaged you last week. I was like, hey, what was that date?

Sharon Cline: I was like, oh yeah, you didn’t forget about that. Okay. So anyway, it’s today, today’s the day. So I’m excited but nervous too. So I’m going to try to reframe it as excited. I don’t know why this like makes me uncomfortable because the the truth is I, I love asking questions and kind of understanding other people’s lives. Like, what is it like to be you for a little bit? But it’s interesting because I don’t think as deeply about myself as I do about other people. So this is fascinating.

David Samaha: Do you think some of our listeners have that have a similar tendency?

Sharon Cline: Yeah, I.

David Samaha: Do, to think more about others than, than oneself.

Sharon Cline: I do.

David Samaha: Do you I think absolutely.

Sharon Cline: Okay. It’s a lot easier. I think it’s very easier.

David Samaha: Yeah.

Sharon Cline: Yeah. Okay. It’s going to be fine. Yeah. Because this is.

David Samaha: Fun. This is going to be good. So I wanted to start by understanding more of your background and your journey to. Because you’re not from Cherokee County. That’s right. Okay. So you came here and you got into to radio. Yeah. So how did how did that happen about your life on, like, what brought you to Cherokee County and then how you got into being a radio show host?

Sharon Cline: Okay. So, uh, I moved here from Florida in 1995, so I’ve been here almost 30 years, so it feels like home to me. Lived in, uh, Forsyth County for a good bit, but then about 21 years ago moved to Cherokee County. So I kind of consider it more my home now, Cherokee County. Um, but being on the radio, um, I had gone back to school, um, in 2009, 2010 to get my degree. And I went to Kennesaw State University and worked at the radio station there. And I had a couple different radio shows that I did, and I loved it and thought, that’s where I really would go for my career. Um, but I wound up going into the network television field, which is great, but always loved radio, always just loved the freedom of being able to ask questions and make it kind of my own, which is what I did at the station at the Owl Radio. And so when I met Stone at our networking meetings, Stone owns the studio here. He’s one of the founders of Business RadioX Stone Payton. He, uh, he had me on the show like two years ago or so, and we had talked about the fact that I had worked in radio, and if he ever needed someone to be a backup for him doing producing, that, I would be happy to do it. So it just kind of naturally unfolded that way. He was really generous with me and allowed me to, um, kind of decide how I would like to frame the show and who I would like to have on it, and it’s just been the biggest blessing to my life, I have to say. It’s like my happy days are Fridays because I get to talk to people.

David Samaha: Oh, that’s so fun. Thanks. So was it would you say Stone was your inspiration to get into radio or what?

Sharon Cline: It was it was, I would say, Stone because he I had wanted to work at a radio station at one point, but I really just needed the stability of an everyday job. That I could count on that didn’t require me to have weird hours, because at the time my son was young and I needed to be home. So I really went to stable route, stable, steady job. But then when I met, when I got into voiceovers and started doing books, which was in 2016, um, in an attempt to, um, expand my network, I started to go to our networking meetings that we go to here in Woodstock, and that’s how I met Stone. And when I heard he was in radio, I was like, well, maybe he needs voiceover work. Maybe he needs people, you know, to do announcing. And I didn’t really understand what Business RadioX was or whatever I just heard. He said radio. And then we became pretty fast friends. He’s one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet in the world. And, um, he was just so sweet. Allowed me to be part of this. We also work on Main Street Warriors, which is a whole other program that’s associated. He’s wearing a shirt right now. Diesel David is, uh, yes. So that’s also another little avenue of Business RadioX that I get to participate in occasionally. So it’s been just so much fun, so much fun for my life. And I love how I get to know people in the community right next to me, right around me. How many times have I seen you at the networking meetings, having you on the show and actually devoting time, just you and me and also Brendan, who was here just being able to have a discussion in a room where there’s no distraction, there’s no other place I need to be, fosters such a sense of friendship and understanding that I don’t get when we’re in big networking meetings or on the street.

David Samaha: That’s what I love. That would that would make me want to have all sorts of people I know.

Sharon Cline: Right?

David Samaha: Like, it’s.

Sharon Cline: The truth.

David Samaha: And it’s not even it’s not so much of the interviewing and and the getting to know it’s I think it like is the authentic time. Right. Like the quality time.

Sharon Cline: Yes. Quality time. That’s a great way to look at it.

David Samaha: I think that’s like where the joy and like where the beauty. Yeah. In what goes on in this room.

Sharon Cline: Oh, that is so inspiring to me. Thank you. It’s true though, because when I am finished with an interview, most of the time I feel like I really know someone. And if and we’re friends somehow. It’s been an hour and I didn’t know you before, and now I feel like I know you and I genuinely want to understand, and I have no other motive than just what could other people glean from your experience that could be inspiring for them to follow their own dreams? I mean, that’s the goal, really. What keeps you from allowing fear to stop you? So yeah, it is a it is a sacred space that way for me. And, um, it is genuine, at least on my end. I think it’s genuine.

David Samaha: Some fake ease in here.

Sharon Cline: I haven’t really felt that yet, but that’s the thing. It’s like, maybe I. Maybe I just don’t know. I see everything through my lens and it all is the same, you know? But maybe.

David Samaha: Wow, that was prophetic. Thanks. I was I keep.

Sharon Cline: I go deep sometimes it.

David Samaha: Was like effortless. You’re like yeah that’s just that’s so you mentioned voiceover. Is that radio or is that something that’s different?

Sharon Cline: It is different. There are many, many avenues that voiceovers affect many different places that you can hear someone using their voice. But my goal when I started to do voiceovers was to be able to do a book, but in a tiny, tiny, tiny version of it because books are, you know, laborious. And I’m a producer of the book as well. So it’s intensive and I’m fine with that. But it’s I agree with doing that when I signed to do a book, but for voiceovers, you kind of, you know, 30s you’ll do an ad, you’re in and out. And that’s kind of what I like is, well, let me, let me do this, but in a quicker pace. So that’s why I went back. I went to school to, to learn how to be a voiceover artist and really be prepared to be in the industry. It’s very competitive. And I went to a school called called Such a Voice and they were wonderful and created my commercial demo and my narration demo, and that’s when I made my website and kind of tried to grow from there. But yes, there’s commercials that you can hear on TV, there’s radio, there’s um, oh goodness, I’m trying to like, you can definitely do books. There’s also, um, video games. That’s a big place to do. Well, um, animation is another place that I’m really working on. In the next couple of weeks, I’m going to a class that I’m going to learn a little bit more about that. So I’m trying to grow.

David Samaha: So you might see you on the on like an upcoming like Pixar.

Sharon Cline: Exactly. Well that would be the dream. The big dream I have. Okay. If I had to say that’s the big dream. Yes for sure. Um, but I, you know, it may be a minute before that happens.

David Samaha: Do you have like, any partiality towards like Dreamworks or Pixar?

Sharon Cline: Do not.

David Samaha: Disney right. Is there like one that you’re like, I want to work with these people? Because basically.

Sharon Cline: Yes, Disney would be great because my kids we watch Disney movies, you know, and it’s still just part of our sort of history. And every Disney movie that comes out, you know, we’ll watch. But I, you know, it’s so competitive. And I would love to make that my big dream. But at the same time I’m like, you know, that’s the big pie in the sky right there.

David Samaha: You’re also so talented.

Sharon Cline: Oh, this is the best interview.

David Samaha: So it’s like a matrix, right? Like you have the competition on the x axis and you have like talent on the y axis.

Sharon Cline: So that’s amazing X and y. Yeah I never thought about that.

David Samaha: And I think that your talent definitely a sense. And you’re not afraid to work hard.

Sharon Cline: No that’s true. You have to.

David Samaha: You also have a teenage son right.

Sharon Cline: Well he’s 21 now but yeah, he requires a lot of attention. I mean, as far as, like, being a parent to him because he’s still home. I don’t want to neglect, you know, my being in his life. So I still feel tied, you know, to home right now. Yeah.

David Samaha: That’s fine. So, like, I mean, because you were balancing what was it like to balance motherhood and launching a radio show two years ago? So you would have been 19, so you would have been a teen teenager, and.

Sharon Cline: You met him and talked to him about his car dreams, which, you know, he has big car dreams because you’re a diesel, David. You know, you’re in that whole world. Not only that, but your job is so successful and your business so good on you as well. Um, I it was a challenge, I think, because I didn’t know what I was doing. Um, but they’ve been my kids have been the most supportive in the world. I just love them. I got so lucky in the kid department. Very grateful.

David Samaha: So what? I’m trying to wrap my head around what makes you lucky in the kid department.

Sharon Cline: Um, I our relationship. That’s a good question. Our relationship? Um, between all three of my kids are. They’re very special to me, and, um, I, I love to observe who they are as adults. Can you hear the thunder? It’s, like, about to pour really bad outside the studio right now. I heard that I was wondering if you could hear it on.

David Samaha: Be like an ASMR. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: We’ll just take the mic outside. Funny. Yeah. So each of my kids, I love that I can appreciate who they are as just humans on the planet. Not my daughter or my son. It’s just, who are you? And how lucky am I that I got to have a hand in bringing these people to the world, and I just delight in them, you know? It’s just like, I love seeing what their journeys are like and how they’re different from me and how they’re alike, um, as I am. Is that how you say that? Yeah. So, I don’t know, we just they’re a really good people. They really care about other people. Um, they have a lot of resilience. Um, I’m very proud of of who they are and kind of admire that, you know, I’m related to them.

David Samaha: Wow. What a what a compliment. I think if I ever received that compliment from my mom, I wouldn’t know how to respond. I mean, because I think something that stands out to me here is your your kindness and support that you share with your kids. Because I think something that can be a tendency of so many people, right, is is like perfection. And that comes down to so many kids and they feel like they’re not good enough. And and that shows up in, in anger that shows up in like maybe isolation. And I don’t feel like that describes your kids at all.

Sharon Cline: No, no, I, I’m not perfect. I’m so far from perfect. So for me to look at them and expect any kind of perfection is unrealistic and damaging. And I wouldn’t want to do that to them because I could never live up to anything like that. I think one thing I really appreciate, and that I it’s one of the goals I have here on on this show, is that we all are humans on this planet, and we all are trying to do the best we can. And so I can I can ascribe that same philosophy to being a mother and putting my children in that same sort of lens of, you’re just, you’re doing the best you can. I’m doing the best I can, and some days I do better than others. But like, I am fully human. I’m all the things. I’m jealous and supportive and angry and happy. I’m every spectrum just depending on whether or not I’ve had enough sleep, whether I’ve eaten, whether I’m just, yeah, what is that day?

David Samaha: What is it? Halts like hungry, angry, lonely. Tired. Yeah. If it’s any of those four things and if it’s two of them, God help us.

Sharon Cline: I forgot about my God. I have to remember that I love it. Yeah, because I yeah, I would, I would just want them to be I want them to live their life however, they believe their life should be lived, as long as they’re not hurting themselves or somebody else. If they if that, whatever they’re doing that makes them happy and feel the most authentic to themselves. That’s what I want that for everybody. But yeah.

David Samaha: A, um. Almost like an abiding in, like, nonviolence.

Sharon Cline: Yes. Right.

David Samaha: And then. And then like. Like bowing to nonviolence would be, like abiding in their truth.

Sharon Cline: Oh my goodness.

David Samaha: So it’s like, be be in your truth, son, but not at the cost of someone else. Exactly. Oh, that’s so good.

Sharon Cline: Yes, that’s exactly it. I love the word abide. I never really thought about it like that, but that was a really beautiful way to phrase that.

David Samaha: You said, like, laborious or something. Oh, yeah. And I’m like, oh, we’re gonna learn on this show. No, we’re going to did I, we’re going to prep for college.

Sharon Cline: And no, you’re, you have, uh, you know, a way of looking at the world that is really cool to me. So I’m, I’m excited to see when you’re asking me questions, I’m like, okay. Because again, I like asking the question. So when you’re asking questions, my brain immediately is like, okay, so what? How does he think about this? You know, it’s like my brain’s working really hard right now.

David Samaha: That’s so fascinating because I feel like it’s probably working even harder since I don’t have any formal training. Well, right. Like like if, like, it’s like if I see someone talk about cars that doesn’t know what they’re talking about, it’s pretty exhausting to follow them, especially if it’s regarding a problem.

Sharon Cline: Because you know so much.

David Samaha: Because it’s like there’s a there’s a particular way that you would assess this problem and you would provide the data in that manner. And when the customer is like giving you this information and this information like everything’s out of sorts, you have to recompile it in your head to make sense. So I almost feel like you’re experiencing that in terms of having all of the knowledge and what an interview format looks like, how it flows and the like. Okay, I’m trying to get this emotion like all the way to the audience, right? Like my listeners. Right? It’s like, that’s who this is. It’s not just for the people in this room. Yes, it’s in a sense, it’s it’s selfless for like, what can I provide? What can these people get out of this type of value? Yes. Whether it’s joy or knowledge. Yes. You know, wisdom or inspiration. Yes. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: It’s true. But I also like it because it’s forcing me to exercise a muscle that I don’t usually exercise, which is vulnerability and kind of a profound way in a deep way. I don’t usually answer. I love asking because I know my motivation behind the asking is really for genuinely, for good and for understanding, but being on the other. And I do ask a lot of guests, you know, to be vulnerable or authentic. And I’m that’s my favorite place to be.

David Samaha: But what would you tell a guest that was struggling with being vulnerable? Like you could tell there’s just so much more depth and like, so much more there.

Sharon Cline: Yes. Um. So oftentimes before a show, if someone’s never done this before, I try to say, you know, it’s like we’re just at a coffee shop having a conversation because the truth is, I would most likely be asking those exact questions at a coffee shop where I’d just be like, tell me what it’s like to be you. You know, it’s not about the audience. And sort of, um, what do they call it, like gratuitous, um, displays of emotion or or, um, deep questions for the sake of an impact. It’s not about that. It’s more about what’s it just like to be you. And oftentimes at the end, of course, I just want every guest to be happy. At the end, they’ll say, that was great, you know, or they’re happy. And that that’s all I really want is for someone to feel heard and honored and, um, understood and valued for a little while because I think that is really missing a lot in life for most people, for a lot of people. So that’s what is like joy for me. That’s why it’s sacred to me, because it’s really honoring the human experience you’re in right now. It’s the whole goal for the show for me.

David Samaha: Do you feel like there was do you feel like it came natural to you to experience the human experience? Yes, yes, because I think it’s so unnatural for so many people.

Sharon Cline: I agree, I agree, I think I’m a weird person. I really think I’m a little odd. I swear, I think I’m a little bit of an outlier somewhere. My brain does not relax. It’s always thinking, thinking, um, I don’t really have a chill. I don’t have a shut off. I’m not a.

David Samaha: Doctor, but I think that’s a condition.

Sharon Cline: It’s called a weird condition. The outlier condition. It probably is. I don’t know, I, I’m a very curious person, and so but I also love, um, knowing I come from, like, when I’m interviewing someone, I’m coming from a place of, um. We’re your human. I’m a human, you know? What’s it like to be you and your human world and. I don’t. We’re the same, you know. We’re more alike than we are different. So if someone’s struggling in an interview, I will usually highlight an emotion like, okay, did that scare you? Or, you know, how did you work around the setback that you had? How did you get the courage to do it? What what was the feeling like that made you do it? Because those feelings are universal.

David Samaha: Yeah, well, things were a mess back in oh eight and oh nine. Yes. 2010. So where did you get the courage to go back to school? Like that was an undertaking?

Sharon Cline: It was um, so I had been married for 20 years, and I suspected that my marriage wasn’t going to last much longer. So I went to school in an attempt to be able to take care of myself because I had been a stay at home mom the majority of my married life, and I wanted to be able to take care of myself and make sure that I had some kind of degree or something so that I could be on my own if I if I needed to be. And so that was the impetus for going back to school. But I loved school, I absolutely loved school. And, um, would probably have been a lifelong student if I didn’t. You know how there are people that are what are they called, like a professional student? Something like that. I would have done that.

David Samaha: Probably five degrees.

Sharon Cline: Yes. Exactly.

David Samaha: On their sex.

Sharon Cline: Exactly. Because I just was kind of fascinated with seeing the world from a I think I was 38 or 39 when I went back to school. So seeing the world from an adult perspective and, and having it explained to me, um, almost as on a basic level to mostly 20 year olds, um, I just kind of saw it a little bit differently. And I was very determined to graduate, um, with the highest honors I could get because I thought, these are 20, 19, 18, you know, year old kids. I’m smart. I can do this. You know, like, I just determined, very determined to graduate with, um, you know, as high grade as I could. So I was very hard on myself with school, and I took it very seriously. Um, but I also knew that it was an attempt to make sure that I could at least take care of myself financially, you know, on my own, if I. If my marriage didn’t survive.

David Samaha: Yeah. That makes me think of the meme where it’s like there’s four pictures of the same person. So it’d be like, Sharon is a student, and it’s like, you look like a courtroom judge. You know, you’re like, so stern and, like, determined. And then it’s like Sharon as like a radio host and like.

Sharon Cline: What is it I know.

David Samaha: Well, so it it obviously you succeeded in taking care of yourself. And I can make that statement factually, just simply looking at your eyebrows because they are so manicured. I know I’m going to describe it for y’all. So there’s this a perfect amount of spacing between her eyebrows and then the shape of them. It just goes, it has this, this very nice radius that it follows. And I mean, they’re perfectly manicured and I it’s we’re on radio, which is, you know amazing like glad to be here but this these eyebrows need to be on TV. They need to be on TV.

Sharon Cline: So I hope I can replicate tomorrow and every day whatever I did today. Because that is so sweet.

David Samaha: I don’t think you did anything. I feel like just like.

Sharon Cline: No, I did.

David Samaha: Well, that’s so inadvertently put so much pressure on her. But the best part is, is no one will have anything to compare it to.

Sharon Cline: That’s so true. Whatever your imagination is, we’ll just make that.

David Samaha: As we move into quadrant two of Sharon on radio, she’s like, all smiles, super positive. I was like, on time. And for me, that’s running behind. Oh. And oftentimes. I saw on the big stuff. I’m like. 30 minutes, 15 minutes early. You don’t.

Sharon Cline: Give yourself that.

David Samaha: Time. I don’t like on time is not or, you know, on time is late on like the big stuff. But then like the normal things. It’s time is time is a spectrum.

Sharon Cline: Oh that’s fascinating.

David Samaha: So like like young professionals of Woodstock, I’m always there 15 to 30 minutes early like that. That’s an event that’s like a big deal to me. Yeah, that’s.

Sharon Cline: Our networking meeting. Yeah. So you’re always there early before 730.

David Samaha: Always there early before. Yeah, I’m usually there like 650 to like seven. Geez. And then so early. I know it’s so early. Um, yeah. So, like, you were just so gracious. Oh, like. Yeah. We’ll just get started. You’re like, it’s gonna rain. And I’m like.

Sharon Cline: Yeah, just be safe.

David Samaha: Does that have to? I was like, does that affect the audio quality? No, I didn’t understand. It was just like supportive. Yeah. Like okay. That was that was fun.

Sharon Cline: No I would feel horrible if you rushed here, you know, and something happened to you. So that would destroy my life, I think. So let’s just just take your time. You take your.

David Samaha: Time. Still not interviewed?

Sharon Cline: Oh, God. Yeah. That’s okay, I know. Oh my gosh, I can’t.

David Samaha: So so. Okay, so who would Sharon be as like a mother, right. If we had to fill like fill in that quadrant because I feel like you’re, like, bubbly and like smiley on the radio show, like, needs to be TV. Maybe we can settle for, like, a podcast video. Maybe.

Sharon Cline: So at some point, I think we’re moving in that direction. We have a couple cameras in here in the studio, but we don’t use them consistently.

David Samaha: More and more. Um, yeah, I’ve noticed more and more cameras come here. That’s right.

Sharon Cline: It’s a it’s a it’s a next venture, but it’s not like I like just rolling in here and not caring what I look like too. So that’s kind of nice.

David Samaha: Well, I think that’s part of the human experience. Right? It’s like it doesn’t have to. It’s almost like you could come in here exactly like. How you are now or in a day. Apparently, when you don’t care. Like what do you look like? And it’s like that could be. Almost like a Business RadioX video exclusive. Yes. Right. Does it have to be every episode? No, but it’s like whenever it’s like feeling. It’s like, you know what? Like, let’s let’s go live, like, let’s, you know, let’s kind of show people the energy we have going on here because some people are visual learners, right? Even if it’s just learning from a smile, it hits the cortex that much more.

Sharon Cline: That was amazing. Learning from a smile I love that. Well, okay, so yes, um, TikTok and reels and all of that. It’s very important. Um, but I just, I don’t know, I like being I don’t like being on camera as much as I like being, you know, just the voice. That’s where I’m happiest.

David Samaha: Like, I like being interviewed more than I like being on camera.

Sharon Cline: Which I don’t like at all. No, you’re making this fun, though, so thank you. I appreciate that.

David Samaha: You’re welcome. Okay, so if we went to the Motherhood Quadrant okay, that would be like quadrant. I don’t know you as a mother.

Sharon Cline: Truth. You know, me as just a networking person and voiceover and also business radio X but as a mom, um, okay, so I’m saying this knowing that my children may be better to explain it to you than than I.

David Samaha: How would your kids describe you in that quadrant?

Sharon Cline: Um. Optimistically, I’m going to say that they would say that I’m supportive and loving. Um, but.

David Samaha: So you’d have, like, a spatula. It’s like I.

Sharon Cline: Made fresh.

David Samaha: Linens. Like, is that what we’re describing? Okay.

Sharon Cline: When they were younger, I was very heavily into the mother role. I would stay at home, mom. I did what they needed. They were in classes and they took sports and whatever. I did the very classic stay at home mom things in the minivan. Absolutely. And loved being a mother to them. I always wanted to be a mother, so I felt very lucky that I got to have that experience and and still feel that way. Um, as they have grown and their lives have changed, two of them have moved out. I still just have the one home. I don’t my interactions with them are different, so my role shifted instead of being I’m still their mom and I still care about you and.

David Samaha: A call center.

Sharon Cline: I’m in a call center? Yes, like answering phones.

David Samaha: This is your. This is your mother. What problem may I solve for you today? It’s like, mom, all my laundry is pink because my roommate put in the blanket. Okay, here’s what you do.

Sharon Cline: Here’s what you do. Yes, I would love those calls. I can I can do those calls. It’s harder now, which is surprising. Wow. Actually, to say, because when they were younger and I was, you know, in charge of kind of a good bit of what they experienced in life, they were, uh, movable and according to what I needed that, you know, we’re having dinner now. We’re taking a bath now we’re going to bed now, um, and as they got to be teenagers and now are well, my oldest will be 29 next month. And then Rachel just turned 27 the other day. Um, and John 21, they’re my role is not I can’t control anything that they’re going through. Really. My role is to be support and to witness what they go through and to give them tools to help them manage whatever they go through. But I cannot control any of it. And my job is not to insert myself and give them my opinion. I don’t think that’s unless they ask for it. If they ask for it, I will give it. But my role is support is if they need me, how can I best help them navigate relationships or, um, you know, situations that they’ve been in. Um, so it’s harder because I cannot influence as much what their experiences are like. I just have to help them get through them if they want me to. Yeah, it’s harder for me. Do you feel like.

David Samaha: You have a sense of, like, need to know with them? Is that like, something that you try and keep at bay, or is that not really?

Sharon Cline: It’s a good question because my daughter actually, I just had lunch with her, my oldest, Grace, and she I asked her some questions and she said, how much do you want to know about this? You know? And I was like, well, this is a good question. How much should I know about this? Just a topic that we were kind of trying to figure something out about. And, um, some things are their experience to have completely separate from my role in their life. I don’t need to know everything. I don’t want them to feel a, um, that that judgment of mother onto them. Um hum. Um, they’re always my child, but they are. They’re they’re humans that were brought here to have their experience. And it’s not my place to influence that unless they ask for it and or unless I think they’re in danger. Um, and then, you know, or something horrible is going to happen, I’ll be like, listen. But mostly I try to observe what they’re going through and say, do you need, you know, be here for them. If they say, I’m struggling or what would you do? Or here’s how I would handle it. But, you know, their experience, their job is to grow and learn while they’re here. And I don’t want to hinder that. So witnessing them struggle. Very hard for me for sure, because I don’t want them to struggle and witnessing people being mean to them or whatever, not love them like I do is very difficult for me. I want them to be loved like I love them, but I also know they won’t be so. Having having to see them go through, have a very full human experience and know that I can’t save them from anything really is tough. For sure. But but but that’s okay.

David Samaha: Yeah. That’s what.

Sharon Cline: We do.

David Samaha: That’s. I feel like that’s more. That’s ideal. Oh nice. Right. Like way more than okay. I mean, I feel like that’s almost like a goal of parenthood, right? Because I think it’s so you get so attached to wanting the best for them. And then we don’t realize that we’re taking away the best, which is to be able to be present and experience your life. And it seems like you’ve actually really. Done a lot of work to make that be true for your relationship with them, I think.

Sharon Cline: And I think a lot of people when they because I had I’ve had like a tough childhood. So like growing up and seeing how I would have wanted someone to treat me makes me want to treat my children that way. If the support that I want to give them, I want the goal is for them, for me is to be. Resilient, you know, don’t let life knock you down too hard. Um, be able to get up and keep going and also care about other humans as well as yourself, and just live a life that is the most authentic to the way you think you should, whatever that looks like. Um, that’s it for me. I want them to just be happy. What makes you happy? You know, again, as long as they’re not hurting themselves or someone else, do what you got to do, you know, to make yourself happy. That’s it. Uh, I don’t know. I think, you know, when you when you grow up and you see things that you wish were different and you have an opportunity to do different than then, that’s like liberating.

David Samaha: Yeah. It’s great. This is, you know, we can rewrite. We can rewrite the story.

Sharon Cline: That’s exactly right. And in the same way, I get to reparent myself because I get to give them what I would have wanted. I get to experience it as if it were a little bit me. And although we’re different people, the support is universal. So I get to I rewrite, rewrite history a little bit for myself.

David Samaha: What do you what challenges do you face personally or professionally that shaped that?

Sharon Cline: Um, so I am the hardest person on myself. When I make a mistake. It’s it goes in the 2:00 in the morning playlist. Gosh. It’s awesome. It’s so awesome being me. Uh, yeah. So I think that I, I struggle with mistakes. I struggle with hearing, um, you know, the voices that are like, you should have known. It should be different. How could you let that happen? Why didn’t you? You know, the the. I don’t even know where those voices exactly come from. Outside of, like, maybe it’s parent related, but I think just knowing that I make mistakes is really tough for me. And knowing that, um, oftentimes now when I’m doing things, it’s out there in the world, it doesn’t go away. So it’s not, you know, it’s just it’s out there. So, um, I think that has informed a lot of the struggles that I have, because I have a lot of anxiety and a lot of worry, and, um, I don’t surrender as well as I wish I did to to the experience, to the journey. You know, the journey is the destination. I’m always like, nah, I got to get to the destination. What are you talking about? Like we suffer through the journey to get the. You know, it’s just I have to always reframe myself, reframe the way I think about it and calm myself down. Um, it’s tough because I’m, again, I’m my own worst enemy and no one is harder and no one says more awful things to me than me. And, um, so yeah, that’s that’s tough, but I’m I’m getting a little bit better.

David Samaha: I’m honestly. But I know that I’m not perfect.

Sharon Cline: No I’m not. That’s great. Yeah. I’m not, and nobody else is. But yeah, for me I think that’s that even though I say I know I’m not perfect, I if I make a mistake that I really didn’t want to make, that’s tough for me to forgive myself for. But do you find that is the same for you?

David Samaha: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, for sure. And I feel like the. I think that’s common for so many people. There’s this thing that I once heard that what is most intimate is what is most universal.

Sharon Cline: Oh, what? I’ve not heard that.

David Samaha: Yeah. So it’s like, that’s a very personal, intimate thing, right. To to not feel good enough.

Sharon Cline: Oh, yeah.

David Samaha: Or to feel like you, you are missing the mark.

Sharon Cline: 100% when like.

David Samaha: A lot of times it’s arbitrary.

Sharon Cline: And whose decision is it that’s good enough, right.

David Samaha: Yeah. Well, and and it’s what’s so fascinating is you have, I think what tends. To be true is like when we’re so hard on ourselves, then we’re hard on other people. And I think that you have. Cultured a lot of awareness around it to especially protect your kids right from this, like trauma and this, you know, perfectionism. Perfectionism. Yeah, yeah. To to to bleed over to them to be like, no, here’s what you need to do. Or, you know, like don’t do that. Like right to like almost like I think it’s so easy for many people to want to live and to actually, like, live out their kids lives. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: That vicarious thing.

David Samaha: Yeah, I.

Sharon Cline: Do, I, I mean, I do experience what they experience. So if it comes.

David Samaha: Down to what’s your action. Right. Like, yes. You know, I think that’s like so many of us. Will not even realize that we have a choice. And you know that you have a choice, and then you’re observing it, and then you’re changing your actions to be like, this is what I actually wanted, right? Because you didn’t have that reality, because your parents did not have the awareness and also the self-discipline to be able to create a disconnect between what was in their mind and what actually came out of their mouth. And here you are. Curing generational trauma really is what this comes down to, because your kids are not going to have the same trauma that you had, and your parents probably had that same trauma from your grandparents.

Sharon Cline: It’s there.

David Samaha: It’s literally stopped here with you.

Sharon Cline: Yeah, that’s one of the goals I had, was that I didn’t want them to feel the way I felt in many situations. Um, so check. However, it’s fascinating to me how different they are when presented with situations. I would respond a certain way. They would respond differently. I’m fascinated by that. How how different would I have been with a different upbringing? And that’s what I actually do here at Fearless Formula is I want to know, what is it like to be you and what was your upbringing like? And I wonder if I would have made the same choices that you’ve made, if I had your upbringing, or if I wouldn’t have? Do I like that? Do I not like that? Is that inherent to my personality? You know, I’m just very curious that way. My brain again. Yeah, doesn’t chill. But I appreciate your acknowledging that. It’s very sweet. I do want they just have their challenges will be different. They don’t have that same challenge that I did that I continue to battle battle. They have different challenges, but their life is still challenging. So but they just don’t have this one.

David Samaha: Yeah. So this is forewarning. If you have kids in the car, if you’re on children you don’t want to like, oh no, what are you so well okay. Yeah we’ll give it a second. So if you were just laughing and this is about to exit my mouth. So if you passed away. Yes. Today. Yes. Would you be happy with the life that you lived? Yes. I have zeroed out in that. I believe that wholeheartedly. Like, I mean, just the one. Just that little. Not even little. It’s the massive nugget that we unlocked about, like how many people can claim that they’ve stopped generational trauma? What an accomplishment.

Sharon Cline: Thank you. It’s funny. I don’t think it’s like.

David Samaha: A life goal. I feel like some people like. They’ll never accomplish that. And even even. And they want to.

Sharon Cline: Right, right. Uh. Thank you. I don’t even know what to say I. I don’t know. I think each generation, you know, their influences as we watch TV and as we grow and what we’ve been exposed to can help us think a little differently. So who knows what my children and their children will be like in terms of exposure and and accessibility to knowledge and how pervasive it is now to look at, you know, the words like narcissist and gaslighting and all of those kind of relationship dynamics that maybe 20 years ago were only heard if you were in therapy. So now it’s become such a normal part of our vernacular that they’re now going to normalize that, I believe, and then have an awareness of it that will create different relationships than what we’ve had in the past. So my parents and their parents and their parents did the best they could with what they had. And I trying the same. I’m sure if you were to look at a pendulum being on one side of a very abusive and the other side very permissive, um, you can, you can swing one way or the other and they’re, they’re damaging items, you know, results each, each side.

Sharon Cline: Yeah. So striking the balance of honoring, you know, my children and their human experience, but also worrying about them and, you know, hoping that they will make decisions that, you know, I know because I’ve been on the planet so long, you know, generally are not a good outcome. I don’t know, I can’t I want them to learn. That’s the best thing. I want them to learn and, um, and, and, and care about other people leave the world a little better, you know, because they were on it. That would be great. And I see that, though, with the relationships that they have and the interactions that they have with their jobs and things. So I’m that, you know, I couldn’t be prouder of just the fact that, like, I was I was part of of that. That’s like, I if I died today, that’s the legacy that I, I’m proud to leave for them. But I, I would also say I’m, I’m afraid of a lot of things, but I’m not afraid of making some changes that will align my life to be more authentically lived for myself, even if it’s scary, even if it’s I don’t know how it’s all going to play.

David Samaha: Has it always been that way for you? Yes. Really? Yeah.

Sharon Cline: I’ve always had that drive for freedom. That drive for control of how I want my life to play out. Um, so I was terrified, you know, to leave a marriage I’d been in for 20 years. I’d never been in the, you know, a business world or taking care of myself in a major way and didn’t know a lot. And. Uh, but I still. Did it.

David Samaha: You knew. You knew that there that it was possible.

Sharon Cline: Yes, and I was.

David Samaha: And you knew that there was access for that to be true for you. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: Resources. Somewhere, somehow it’s going to work out. If it doesn’t, I’ll make a different decision and hopefully that’ll work out. Um, I don’t know.

David Samaha: So what I feel like that would be like, almost in like list format, right? If you could list off some of, like, the top resources that you saw or maybe even thought would be resources, and it was necessary to explore that to get to the actual resource. If you could maybe list off a few things for someone that is thinking about entering singlehood, right?

Sharon Cline: Again, something very daunting, like, yeah, what?

David Samaha: What would those things be?

Sharon Cline: I’m very grateful to, um, I’ve had some very good friends that have helped me to, um. Find people that can help me. So if I say, here’s my problem, oh, I know, I know someone who knows someone, you know, even finding my divorce attorney and all of those things, like really good people that led me along the way.

David Samaha: So you said wise, safe friends that you’re able to be vulnerable around?

Sharon Cline: Yes. That genuinely want good things, you know, that are that.

David Samaha: Aren’t trying to live your life for you.

Sharon Cline: Yes. Or control anything or want an outcome, anything other than my being happy. So yes.

David Samaha: Okay. How how do you know when your friends want to control you? Or we can literally get it.

Sharon Cline: So oh my God, I.

David Samaha: Feel like it’s way more that happens with women, right? I don’t feel like that happens as much with guys. Kind of like.

Sharon Cline: I never thought about that. I feel like.

David Samaha: Guys are just like, oh yeah, man. Like, don’t do that. That’s dumb. Or like, did you just need to go ahead and do that? Like, you’ve been talking about it for two years, like. It’s not just in relationships, right? I’m just thinking like guys in general, but I feel like I’ve.

Sharon Cline: Never thought about that.

David Samaha: This whole I’m a firm believer that if you go all the way back to the beginning of the Bible, it is very telling of anyone’s struggles where like the the core core struggle. Right? So the feminine struggle is trust and the masculine struggle is worthiness. So when you had Eve, right, she didn’t was not trusting that God was going to provide all the knowledge that she needed, the plan that she needed to know. Right? So she sought control by going after the apple. And then Adam was there with her. So he witnessed all of this going down. And because of his own lack of worthiness, he was not strong and foundational enough to say, hey, we should not do this.

Sharon Cline: Wow. Interesting. I never thought about that whole story like that before.

David Samaha: Yeah, I really would like to have like. Some actual, like, philosophical, you know, explanation of this. This is only my own, um, hypothesis from from reading the Bible. Right. But it’s like. Yeah, I think that like with guys it’s worthiness. It’s. Yeah, they’re being passive. Like they wouldn’t judge another guy because they might. They’re judging themselves too hard. Oh right. And I feel like with women it’s like they want to seek control even with their friends. Right. So it’s like they’re not ashamed of what they have going on. So they’re willing to just be like, tell you how that you need to live your life.

Sharon Cline: So I have had relationships, friendships that have had more of a, um, an investment in the outcome of what my decisions were. And I’ve had to leave those friendships. And it’s some of it’s been somewhat traumatic for me. And, um.

David Samaha: Because then you beat yourself up because you’re like, I should have known.

Sharon Cline: Or.

David Samaha: Or I didn’t do it.

Sharon Cline: Should have been more generous, or I should have taken someone else’s feelings into consideration more as opposed, you know. Yeah. Um, but I also know that as I’ve evolved and continue to, um, if there are friends that can’t come along the journey with me. Um, and I’ve had to let let them go, then I’m actually making room for people who are wanting to go on the journey with me as I see my journey to be.

David Samaha: Oh, wow. So that would almost be like resource number two is like understanding that you’re you are capable, even if you had to let some people go along the way.

Sharon Cline: Yes. Which the irony is that the more authentic I became to myself, the more I lost some people that I didn’t want to lose and I could not reconcile. That was it was the antithesis of what I wanted. Um, but. I also, um, had to shore up myself to where, at the end of the day, am I being the most authentic to me? Is someone wanting that same, you know, journey for me, or do they want something for themselves in the end? Um, if they don’t want to, if they’re not aligning with me and aren’t congruent with me, then they can’t come. And I, I grieved it, I didn’t understand it. I went to therapy because of it. No doubt I was very confused. But I see now my friendships are in a very they’re in a different level for me because, um, I allow people in my space that are willing to be supportive in the way that feels, uh, congruent with.

David Samaha: That’s so cool.

Sharon Cline: Yes, but I had to I had to learn it the hard way. I had to grieve a lot, so.

David Samaha: Well, yeah, I mean, it’s something that isn’t. I don’t feel like we just know how to pick friends, right?

Sharon Cline: And. And women are horrible. I’m one of them. I mean, you know, we can be horribly mean and duplicitous and, um, you know, controlling is a is a great word. Um, there’s a lot of competition and a lot of different ways. And I am not a competitive person as a human on the planet. We’re all just humans on the planet. So for someone to feel competition with me is painful for me, because I just think you’re just like me. I am you, you are me. You know? We’re the same. Like, why are we competing? So I don’t know. That’s how I feel today. I may change someday, but right now I. I just feel like the friendships that I have and the way, the way that I have curated a small group, um, I’m grateful for and value very highly. And I’m good. I’m good where I don’t need anything else. Even even having time like this with you is special. But going out with my friend Tricia, I went out with her last night. Like there’s only so much time I have, you know, so I’ve kind of got, like, my hierarchy. And I try to feed those relationships by spending time with them or talking on the phone. Um, but yeah, I mean, women, women are, are pretty messed up in a lot of ways. But I really am grateful for just the perspective I have now of where I want them in my life, how I want to place them in my life. But it came through pain, a lot of pain.

David Samaha: And you feel like that was was that like a journey that you went on after you? Yes. Left your marriage? Yes. Okay. So to even get to that point, you were really you had to double down on your resources. Yes. So one of them was like asking right, the right friends for guidance and for like actual resources. Right?

Sharon Cline: Like people and support and emotional support. And what would you do if you know, this happened? How would you feel? Where would you go to get help if this problem was presented to you? Yeah, but I didn’t lose everyone. I just lost some very key people. But my, um, I still had some good friends that I could still talk to. And the bottom line being that I really was my best resource, I had to learn how to do it on my own. It’s the best way for me to become strong. And I.

David Samaha: Was just thinking.

Sharon Cline: That, yeah, so I didn’t. I had support, but the bottom line always came down to what did I really ultimately want? How did I see my life playing out? And, um, I had to figure it out on my own. I had to be good with losing people if it meant that I was being authentic to myself. And it’s like a muscle, you know, after after a certain point, you know, you just you do that enough to where you start to see relationships where. No, I see that tendency is not going to work for me, you know? Yeah. You just get stronger because you have because you have to. But ultimately it is, you know, your journey is yours and mine is mine. And we have I’m going to die alone, you know, on this planet. It’s going to be my journey is mine alone, you know? So I have to I have to be responsible to myself. Um, but I let myself down a lot, too, so, I mean, I say, I’m going to do stuff and I don’t. And, you know, I make plans, like, today is the gym. And then I’ll be like, no, you know, this TikTok is taking me way too long to go through. And then, you know, I don’t go that kind of stuff. So I still have work to do.

David Samaha: Yeah, yeah. I mean, we all do. Yeah, we all do. And I feel like that’s such a good example. Right. Like with social media and the asset that it can be. Right. And you live in that world like you are, you’re talking about like, um, you know, your kids and like their access and like just this generation’s access to media. And I’m like, you are media. Yeah, you are, you are, you are, you are radio. Like that’s true.

Sharon Cline: Yeah.

David Samaha: And what a good. You know what a good resource to. Leave, right. So like, you know. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: Well it gives me self esteem, honestly, to do something that I feel is, um, good in the world. I know my intention behind it and I, I’m grateful to have an area, an avenue, you know, to use to help, to have that experience that I feel like I’m loving on people a little bit. It it makes me feel, uh, good about myself at night, you know, when I put my head down, like I did try to honor people today. And not every day is the best day. But on these days, I feel lucky that I can do that. So, I mean, there are a lot of things I do wrong. Or, you know, if you want to judge wrong, whatever that subjectiveness is, but I can do better, whatever. But at the end of the day, I like knowing that what time I did have here, I got to love on people a little bit, or maybe make them happier a little bit, because you don’t know where that happiness exponentially can go, you know? You don’t know what it’ll mean for someone, or maybe someone will hear this and be inspired.

David Samaha: We don’t always know the outcome, what we do that will actually bring that truth. So it comes so much down to this, like authentic living, right? Like I had a friend messaged me the other night, um, and she was like, hey, um, I was just talking with my son about, you know, some personal things, like, you know, just how, like when you talk with kids and then they start rambling and, like, sharing, like, things that they remember about an event. And it was actually the passing of her mother. And it was at the funeral. And like, you know, it was shared publicly. And she was a friend of mine and I like stopped in to like, pay my respects. And I don’t know if they had food there or if I had food with me. Long story short, I remember her son was crying and I just like, gave him some, like, cheese puffs and like, that’s what like, I totally forgot about this. And she messaged me and she’s like, yeah, like he says, like saying he’s like, yeah. And I was sad until someone gave me cheese puffs. And then I was happy and like, that’s what he remembered from it. And like, I almost didn’t. I almost didn’t go, but like more so than that. Like that was just me being me, right? Like someone that’s a friend. Like, we didn’t go super far back, right? And I showed up and like to the point of, like, I was the only person in my friend circle that was there. So I immediately felt really awkward, like, oh, like, I shouldn’t be here. Like I’m an imposter because it’s like such a like it was like family, like very close family. So but it was like two years later for that story to come back to here. It was like, how cool is that? Right? So like when you come in here and you’re able to like ask questions, you don’t really have this agenda, right? You’re not trying to like, understand more about diesel mechanics. So that way you can, you know, fix your diesel truck. Yeah. You know.

Sharon Cline: What is it, diesel? David? It would be Chateauneuf. Diesel. Sharon. Something like that. Like, try to take something.

David Samaha: You could be like a Honda shadow expert.

Sharon Cline: Excuse me. No, the Prius, the Toyota Prius expert. Yeah.

David Samaha: Those are such great cars.

Sharon Cline: Thank you. Gosh, thank you for saying that on radio. I really appreciate that. Brendan goat.

David Samaha: My coworker is like, man, I’m surprised that you don’t drive a Prius. Like, hybrids are really starting to grow on me. And it’s just funny because it’s like two guys that run a diesel shop, like talking about like, the practicality of hybrids. And it’s just, it’s funny. Um, how awesome.

Sharon Cline: For you to have a moment that two years later, you get to almost see it from a third party perspective because you don’t remember it. You know, you get to experience it in that moment of what I did, that you know, how awesome to see yourself that way. What a gift that is.

David Samaha: It was such a gift. It was it made me I read it and I like I had to take a pause because it had. It shocked me that much. And what I did remember was feeling like out of place.

Sharon Cline: Oh, like.

David Samaha: Almost like.

Sharon Cline: Feeling. The whole thing was.

David Samaha: Almost like regretting going. I mean, obviously I didn’t like, hold a regret about it, right? But like in that moment, I remember being like, I shouldn’t be here. But it’s like when you do things like just because you’re doing it authentically doesn’t always mean that it’s going to be comfortable truth or it’s going to be easy.

Sharon Cline: Or land the way you think it’s going to. Yeah.

David Samaha: Truth, right? Like how many times have we spoken life in our friends and it was not an easy conversation?

Sharon Cline: No, you’re right, I have this quote on my phone. It’s my screensaver right now that says the outcome has little to do with me. The process is what needs my participation. The process is mine, the outcome is not mine. And I love that because it means that I’m just in this moment, doing the best I can with what I know. The outcome is going to be what it’s supposed to be. Yeah, and I can’t control everything or everyone because I would if I could. Yeah, for safety, I guess. For safety. Safety above all else, I’m sure. But yeah. So I think that’s like what you’re saying. You were just in that moment and the outcome landed in a way that you didn’t even expect. So that’s actually super special. You know, you’re right. How often do we do little things that we don’t know where what the impact will be? But if your intention is for good, you just having the peace of like I did the best I could with what I knew, you don’t have to. I’m a mental torture person. But in those moments, you don’t have to mentally torture yourself if you’re just doing the best you can in that moment.

David Samaha: And I think sometimes of when. We’re not doing our best. We. Can simply look at evidence of what we did do when we were at our best, and then just do that.

Sharon Cline: Yes, that’s true.

David Samaha: Because it’s not always clear on what we should do. Especially like if you’re going through a season of life, if you’re going through some stuff. You’re not going to know what to do. Your judgment, your wisdom is not going to be at the level of when you are switched on and you are, you know, properly nourished and you’re like, not, you know, stuck in. Yeah, yeah. When you’re not stuck in like the base of Maslow’s triangle. Right. Like, oh, wow. So from then it’s just like we can go, like, empirically. Yes. And look back like. Okay. Well, when. Sharing eats noodles. She feels better, right? Like when David gets a good night’s rest like and then responds to this text like the conversation goes better. So it’s like, I’m just going to go to bed now, right?

Sharon Cline: So that requires self control. And there are days where I have more than others. But yes, I mean, I like that you talked about that. Maslow, Maslow’s hierarchy of need. You know, where the base is, the survival, you know, shelter. And then as you go further up the triangle to the peak of the triangle is like, you know, existence and the purpose of being here. So, yeah, there are days where I’m surviving on the bottom of that triangle, and then there are days where I get to touch on moments like this, where I get to talk more philosophically and, um, you know, esoterically, which I love. It’s like my happy spot. But I also love that what you’re saying is embracing, um, like what I talk about the human experience. Like there are going to be days where you do need to know where you are. Yeah, just you’re going to need to rest. Just rest, you know, but give yourself the space to not respond from, you know, the times where you know, you’re not 100%. I love that I’m a.

David Samaha: Huge fan of like, what can we do to set ourselves up for a more joyful life? And like, you don’t have to ascend from, you know, food, water, shelter up to, you know, stable family environment, up to, you know, through the ladder. You can skip that whole thing and all the like, exhaustion and energy that would be involved and just simply because it doesn’t take much energy to think about the past, you know, or to like, be like, okay, what would. Another thing that I like is like if I have like someone that I really look up to or someone that’s wise or like a mentor in my life, be like, what would this person tell me to do in this instance? Or what would I tell someone to do if they were in this? And it’s so easy, right? I don’t have to go through all those stages to be that person at that level to like, show up how that person would show up. Because guess what? In this moment, I’m not that person. So yeah, I’m a huge fan of this of this hack of like, look at what? Tell someone, look at what I would do if I was in a really good spot or what would someone tell me to do, not taking any of these things and then just do that.

Sharon Cline: But, you know, it gets bogged down with shame. So that’s a struggle for me is being able to look at myself. Third party. What would I tell if I were Sharon’s good friend? What would I say? But that comes with the other side of the coin of why didn’t I already know that? You know, why am I fighting so hard? What do I ultimately really want? Am I being lazy? You know the judgment and the shame. So I have to be better a little. Because what you’re talking about, I get, I completely get. But when the resistance comes with how do I not shame myself for needing that? So I gotta work on that rules.

David Samaha: Right?

Sharon Cline: Like rules. Whose rules?

David Samaha: What’s your rule? Right. You make a rule that sets you up for a congruent life, right? If that’s what you’re optimizing for. Yes. Is congruency alignment, right. Like what I try and optimize for is joy. And that’s something that’s an area that there’s a lot of growth opportunity in that in that area. We all have it for me. Right. But it’s like I mean your rule could be like, hey, like if I am struggling, like I will automatically map myself and on Maslow’s triangle, and if I’m in the bottom category or the second category from the bottom, then I will. Handle things this way, right? Like if I’m, if I’m in the bottom or next to the bottom, like, then there’s no judgment because I am going to do things in a survivalist mindset. Correct? Correct. So then it’s no, there’s no judgment. There’s no room for judgment because you’ve already said like, okay, now if I’m here, here, like I’m going to expect the most out of myself because I can actually deliver the most nice.

Sharon Cline: I love that it’s a hack, like you said, a life hack.

David Samaha: It’s not a it’s not ambiguous anymore.

Sharon Cline: No it’s not. I love that because.

David Samaha: You’re either there or you’re not.

Sharon Cline: And either way, it’s okay. Because I have a plan. Yeah. And I don’t have to judge myself for needing the plan. I got it. That’s nice. Um. Thanks, diesel. David.

David Samaha: You’re so welcome. Sharon. So one thing that I wanted to get into, and I know we’re closing in on our time, was. You ride motorcycles?

Sharon Cline: Oh my gosh. Yeah I do. And so in 2016, I took a riding course at one of the Harley dealerships here in town. And I always wanted to, um, at the time I was dating someone who did ride, so I was like, that’s it. You know, I want to ride to and really loved it and took the class twice. And then I took the advanced riding course, and, uh. You’ve got a motorcycle that I still have. And, um, you know, thinking of expanding and getting a different motorcycle at some point. Um, but I really enjoy the camaraderie in the motorcycle community. I think it’s gotten a bad I mean, it’s maybe a justified rap. However, it’s some of the most wonderful people and most solid, kindest, funniest people I’ve ever met has been on a motorcycle. And, um, it’s just a major part of my life. I mean, I’m sad it’s raining all weekend. It’s Memorial Day weekend, and I’m the saddest person because I, you know, would love to go out tomorrow and just go for the day and go ride somewhere and explore the world. And I don’t know, part of me likes that. It’s unexpected. There’s just always a little part of me that’s like, yeah, I ride, you know, as.

David Samaha: You wear a Harley Davidson shirt and have like, I know, right? Like hard metal necklace on there’s like ball bearings and this like this black tank top with like a, there’s like a goose riding a motorcycle. There’s two geese that say Harley Davidson.

Sharon Cline: Yeah. So true.

David Samaha: Like on the beach, like bum bum. Like riding away from the sunset. They’re like, this ain’t a happy shirt. Like we’re hard. We don’t. We don’t ride off into the sunset. We ride out of it. We go and we say goodbye. We’re going ladies.

Sharon Cline: It does. It’s funny though. It’s like lots of women in particular, being part of a women’s writing group called The Leader’s Atlanta. Here in Atlanta, um, a lot of people don’t see women writers as being, um, a large part of the demographic. And they are they grow every year. So I, you and I both have a mutual friend and a coworker. I met her through the leaders. She’s become one of my best friends.

David Samaha: She yells, gang leader.

Sharon Cline: Gang leader.

David Samaha: That was that was my original question. So. So you’re a part of a biker gang? Yeah, I’m.

Sharon Cline: Part of a biker gang. Sure, yeah. Girl gang. I call it my girl gang. But it’s not a gang. It’s just a collective of women that ride once a month and we have a bike night and, you know, just nice people. Just the nicest people you’ll ever meet. Um, so far that I’ve experienced. But, yes, I mean, lifelong friendships can come from that, you know what I mean? Like, um, you do life together in certain ways, and I’ve had some of the most joyful rides where I’ve cried because I’m so happy and, uh, just it’s spiritual for me and, um, very important. And thankfully, my children are very supportive of the times that I go riding. And, you know, I’ll say like, can you hold the fort down? You know, when they were what was this, eight years ago? So they were younger, you know, it was probably a big surprise, I would say, for them, for me to ride. But they’ve they know it’s just part of who I am. So, um. Yeah.

David Samaha: Do you, do you and your. I know your son loves cars. Do you inherit him also share a love for riding.

Sharon Cline: You know he doesn’t. No one else rides in my family. My kids don’t ride. I do, but I think we have a love of mechanics. Like, right now, he actually is taking a class on, um, motorcycle suspension and something else. So I told him, whatever you learn, can you teach me so that I can know about. And it’s a good opportunity for us to spend time together. But also, I’m a big fan of classic cars like he is. So that’s our time. We get to, you know, talk like we’ll be driving somewhere and he’ll see some car and he’ll be like, oh my God, that’s a whatever name. And he knows all the names and numbers and whatever it means. And yeah, so we get to bond, um, we get to bond about different vehicles, you know, not the traditional, you know, Prius. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but yeah, we get to talk about the different ways that we can get around the world in different kinds of vehicles. So they’re very all my kids are very supportive of that. So I’m very grateful.

David Samaha: That’s so cool.

Sharon Cline: Yeah.

David Samaha: That is that is so cool. Yeah. I feel like that’s like the ideal. Um. Relationship, right? So you have to like bond over it. But then so there’s like a certain risk. Right.

Sharon Cline: Yes there is. So if they were riding I would be worried like crazy because they’re my children. But I ride and I don’t, you know, I’m just like, well, I’m heading out. Yeah. It’s terrible. It’s it’s definitely hypocritical. But yeah, I like to I.

David Samaha: Like that’s the biggest, the biggest double standard. Yeah. Like this is not a bad one to have. I feel like.

Sharon Cline: I can’t get it out of my head though. Like it’s I don’t know if I could disengage the, the worry that I just naturally have over my children, but, um, you know, if they wrote, I’d be like, great, just tell me when you get home. But, like, I don’t worry about myself, so I don’t know. It’s the price of love.

David Samaha: That’s so fun. Well, as we close up, yes, I would like to do a few, like rapid fire.

Sharon Cline: Oh, no. Okay.

David Samaha: Right. This has been, like, really conversational and enjoyable. Okay. Um, what is your favorite motorcycle ride?

Sharon Cline: So I just did it recently. Um, I and my friend Presley, we went riding up to, um, Suches, which is part of North Georgia, and I felt like I rode very strong and, um, different than I usually do because I was using a different bike and I just had the best day. That was my best, happiest ride. It was like two weeks ago. Um, we went up to where two wheels of Suches is, which is like this campground and a lot of bikers go to. And it was an unexpected day because we didn’t plan to do that. But it was my happiest day, I would say for sure.

David Samaha: That’s awesome.

Sharon Cline: Thank you. It just happened. Out of all my years in.

David Samaha: Two Wheels of Suches. Is that the corner store?

Sharon Cline: It is. It’s like a little store. It’s like a restaurant. Yeah, it’s.

David Samaha: Like across from the campsite of where? Yes, yes. Right there. Super familiar with that spot.

Sharon Cline: Nice.

David Samaha: What is a favorite car of your son’s?

Sharon Cline: The 1988 Toyota Corolla. Gt-s is his absolute most favorite car, so he is still working on getting it running just right. But it’s his favorite. He and he also loves the Ae86, which is a Toyota um Torino vehicle. It’s part of the initial D anime series. So it’s like this hatchback. It’s like 1986. It’s got like black, black and white paint. And that’s his dream car. But they’re very, very expensive. Um, so this car is like the next best thing that he has. Yeah.

David Samaha: Yeah. Like a stepping stone. Yeah. And it makes it that much more enjoyable when he gets the 86, you know, like.

Sharon Cline: Yeah, he’s determined, you know, 100%.

David Samaha: Yeah. What is hidden talent of yours?

Sharon Cline: A hidden talent. Um. Oh, no. Oh, no. Do I have a hidden talent? Oh, I sing. Really? Oh, yeah, I forgot. Yeah.

David Samaha: I forgot, I forgot it just. Well, I just smash it on stage.

Sharon Cline: No, I don’t lead my life with singing. But I do sing and. Yeah, like, that’s just a little side side thing that I do, so. But mostly in the car or the shower or do people who are like, please stop. That’s hysterical. No, but I do, I do, I can hold a tune. Okay.

David Samaha: That is great. All right. So the last one is what are you looking forward to doing on your Memorial Day weekend?

Sharon Cline: Oh good question. Okay. If you answer that for me as well when I’m finished okay. And then we’ll wrap it up. So this weekend I would have wanted to ride. It’s a beautiful weekend. Normally you know it’s summer, beginning of summer, but no riding. Um, I may be spending time with my friends. I know Anna, actually. Our mutual friend may be having some friends over tomorrow, so I might do that. Um, but generally speaking, if I can just get some good rest in because I’ve had a very busy several weeks, I would love that. So, and any time I can spend with my kids is great. So that’s probably what I’ll wind up doing.

David Samaha: And it’s, you know, like so the rain actually serves a purpose because.

Sharon Cline: It forces me to rest. Yes. To rest. Okay. Yeah, that’s a good thing.

David Samaha: Let’s look at purpose in the plan.

Sharon Cline: Purpose? The big plan. All right. What are you going to do?

David Samaha: I am so looking forward to a wedding. Really? Yes.

Sharon Cline: Who’s getting married?

David Samaha: My best friend, Kyle. Isabel is his name. He moved in next door to me when I was two years old. You’re still best friend and we are still best friends to this day.

Sharon Cline: So sweet.

David Samaha: We live next door to one another for 18 years. And then my family moved like three miles over, two miles over and again, still best friends. And then I’m going to be the best man in his wedding. So when I leave here, I’m going up to North Georgia. It’s going to be at Coal Creek Lodge or something, and it’s beautiful facility. And I think something that I’m like also so proud of. I’m going to brag on this for a minute. I only asked you this question so you would ask it back.

Sharon Cline: I love how honest you are. I’m down for the honesty that is.

David Samaha: That isn’t why at all. No, it’s just it just so happens that I have a really rad weekend coming up. Oh, goodness. So he. Yeah. Like we’ve I’ve reserved the cabin from Friday to Monday a while ago. And then, as it turns out, because like that was like kind of the dates that they were going up there. Got it. And, you know, being part of the wedding party, I figured everyone was going to do that. And there’s like not many of us going up tonight really. So that to me was like, and there was a time where I was thinking like, okay, do I go up on Saturday with everyone else? And then it was that was very short lived thought, because you’re like, no, like, this is my best friend. Like knowing the woman and knowing the man that he is, it’s one of those marriages where you’re like, they will be together for the rest of their lives.

Sharon Cline: My goodness.

David Samaha: You know, like his heart and his willingness to compromise. And also like, he’s not a passive guy. So he’s very like he’s assertive to her. On when he needs his alone time. He’s assertive about like his non-negotiables, which aren’t much. Right. Like he’s he’s like the guy, right? He wants to go hunting. He wants to play golf, he wants to eat a steak and he wants to spend time with his partner. Right. Like. Those are like. Those are his wants. And, you know, for him to be able to take care of his own needs to be like, hey, like, I need this time for myself. Like it makes him present for her. Like she gets the full him. And I think that that’s so important, right? Because if you’re not doing things for yourself, then you’re just pouring from an empty cup. And I think that’s why a lot of relationships fail is because the woman’s not having their needs met and the man is unable to meet their needs, and they’re like, oh, he’s not the right guy for me, right?

Sharon Cline: Or vice versa. Yeah. Same thing. Exactly. Right. I love that he has boundaries like that, because, I mean, the way I define boundaries is like my way to love myself and you at the same time, honor myself and honor you at the same time. And that, to me, makes a balanced human, you know? Yeah. So that sounds are you going to spend time with him tonight? Yes.

David Samaha: So so that was like it was a quick I was like, should I just go up with everyone else? Like. And I was like, no, like he’s my best friend. Like if anything, this gives us a chance to bond more. And knowing how like caring of a person he is, like he’s definitely a nurturer and. He that’ll mean so much that like, man, if all the people like you are one of the few that actually came up that was willing to, like, adjust your schedule, you know, reprioritize, you know, pay the extra night, like, you know, all all the little things that go in. Yeah. For someone knowing that, like they made a good choice in a best man and that they also like, you know, just feel valued and like, you know, just that everything is, you know, it’s good. It’s not tainted.

Sharon Cline: It’s so rare that people have friendships for that long these days. And it’s something that you clearly value. And it’s very sweet that you get to be part of such a moment in his life and, you know, his new wife’s life. I’m such a romantic. So when I hear happy couples, I’m just like, yay! I love happy couples, happy marriages. And yes, you know, the belief in, um, true love. Yeah. So that is so wonderful. Yes. I’d probably cry all weekend.

David Samaha: No, I have every belief that they will continue to flourish in their marriage. Like there is a point of where she. Was doing some things that weren’t serving her and their relationship. And like he had the courage to bring that up to her. And like, that’s what you need in a partner. Like you need someone that actually cares about you and will speak truth because and like about you, because sometimes we’re stuck and whether we know it or whether we don’t know it, right? Sometimes we know we’re stuck and we’re just that stuck that we like, need someone to just put out a hand and save us. And it’s like his voice and his care and his love was able to, like, pick her up and give her permission to just be who she actually is. And like that type, like, I feel like that’s the relationship goals. Heck yeah. Right. Like to see it.

Sharon Cline: Right in front of you? Yes. And celebrate it this weekend 100%.

David Samaha: Can’t wait.

Sharon Cline: Heck yeah. Okay, okay. That was a good show. We had fun.

David Samaha: Yeah. And I feel like we learned a little bit about you. There’s still much mystery for future interviews.

Sharon Cline: Oh, interesting. Okay. You know a lot. Diesel. David, I can’t thank you enough for even asking me to do this. And I was so nervous, obviously, in the beginning, but it actually turned out to be a lot of fun. And I appreciate you even investing time with me this way, because I don’t I don’t normally do that. So, um, you know, have, have this moment of, of vulnerability that again, I know I ask a lot of, of guests that way. So, um, now I can kind of even have a little more compassion for them when I’m when I’m asking questions, too, because I know what it’s like. So thank you for providing that opportunity for me.

David Samaha: You’re so welcome. I’m happy to be here.

Sharon Cline: We’ll do it again sometime.

David Samaha: Absolutely. Thank you so much, Sharon Cline.

Sharon Cline: You’re welcome diesel David, and thank you all for listening to Fearless Formula on Business RadioX where um, oh, again, and this is Sharon Cline. And I’m reminding you that with knowledge and understanding, we can all have our own fearless formula. Have a great day.

 

Tagged With: Diesel David, Fearless Formula, Sharon Cline

WBE Feature – Women’s Health Awareness: Insight Therapy Solutions

May 28, 2024 by angishields

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Women in Motion
WBE Feature – Women’s Health Awareness: Insight Therapy Solutions
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On this episode of Women in Motion, Lee Kantor interviews Franchesca Van Buren, founder of Insight Therapy Solutions. Franchesca shares her journey from being an attorney to establishing a telehealth-based therapy clinic. They discuss the significance of therapy in addressing various life challenges, especially in the wake of events like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Franchesca highlights the shift to remote therapy and the benefits it brings, including increased accessibility and better client retention rates. She emphasizes the importance of building a strong client-therapist relationship, which is facilitated through Insight Therapy Solutions’ unique therapist matchmaking service. Additionally, Franchesca reflects on the challenges and successes of leading a fully remote business and the importance of supporting women in the professional world.

Franchesca-Van-BurenFranchesca Van Buren founded Insight Therapy Solutions in 2012 to help at-risk youth in rural Nevada. Today Insight is a national behavioral health telehealth company that has helped thousands use their insurance benefits to see some of the best therapists in the country.

She is an attorney and entrepreneur who uses her combined expertise in business and in the law to build companies that are ethical and sustainable, and provide value to their communities and to the world. Not only that, but to be truly sustainable must also create corporate cultures that value every single individual team member for their unique contributions.

Franchesca is half Chilean and fluent in Spanish. She spends her time outside of the office with her husband and young daughters.

Follow Insight Therapy Solutions on LinkedIn, Facebook, X and Instagram.

Music Provided by M PATH MUSIC

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios. It’s time for Women in Motion. Brought to you by WBEC West. Join forces. Succeed together. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:27] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Women in Motion and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, WBEC West. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Women in Motion, we have Franchesca Van Buren with Insight Therapy Solutions. Welcome.

Franchesca Van Buren: [00:00:48] Thank you so much. I really appreciate the invite. It’s nice to be here today.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:52] Well, I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. For folks who aren’t familiar, can you share a little bit about Insight Therapy solutions? How you serving folks?

Franchesca Van Buren: [00:01:01] Yeah, definitely. So Insight Therapy Solutions is a national talk therapy clinic. We are all telehealth and and we accept insurance. So basically counseling.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:13] Now what is talk therapy for folks who aren’t familiar.

Franchesca Van Buren: [00:01:17] So. Yeah. So it’s it’s counseling. So basically like if you have, you know, depression anxiety, anger management family issues it’s counseling for that. So I say talk therapy because there’s lots of different types of counseling. You know there’s religious counseling. There is you know, school counseling things like that. So that’s why I say talk therapy because it’s basically therapy that, you know, that you talk about, like you talk about and get therapy, you know.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:47] So can you explain it between like a life coach and a therapist? How kind of would the work be different from a patient perspective?

Franchesca Van Buren: [00:01:57] Oh, it’s very different. So therapist therapy is a medical model. So therapists have to go to school. They generally have a master’s or a PhD. And then they are licensed through their state as therapists a life coach. There’s there’s a lot of programs out there that can be a week long. You know, it’s it’s not there’s no real degree for life coaching. So life coaching is really more, I would say like a motivational kind of thing. You know, you might get life coaching to help you figure out maybe you want to change your career, or maybe you want help figuring out how how do you reach reach your weight loss goals, you know, things like that. Whereas therapy is really much more, you know, generally there’s a diagnosis and you have an actual treatment plan and it might last five weeks, it might last six months, it might last years. But really therapy is very, very different from life coaching. It’s not the same thing at all.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:57] Now, what would be some of the things that a person’s going through, where therapy is the right path to go to solve their problem?

Franchesca Van Buren: [00:03:05] Well, therapy is is such a good thing for so many different things. You know, you think about, um, some people have things like chronic issues, like they may have chronic depression or they may have chronic anxiety, where, you know, their entire life they’ve struggled with with a mental health issue. And of course, therapy is very important for that. But you may also have a certain life issue that’s happening, such as maybe you’re going through a divorce or maybe you just lost your job, or maybe maybe you lost a parent, or even a child, or maybe you got a life altering diagnosis. Like maybe you’ve been told that you have cancer and, um, and that plunges you into depression and anxiety and that kind of thing. And so even if you never experienced a mental health issue before, uh, all of a sudden, you know, you may need a professional to come in and help you, help guide you through that. And, you know, one of the things that I think, um, brought the whole world to a better understanding of mental health issues is Covid. You know, Covid happened recently and that was such a that was such a terrible life event for all of us. Um, I’ve talked to many people about, you know, how Covid made them feel. And all of a sudden, all over the world, people, people now understood depression.

Franchesca Van Buren: [00:04:30] They now understood anxiety because people who had never felt that before, because Covid was such a huge, life altering thing, all of a sudden they got it, you know, they couldn’t leave their homes. They were worried about their health. They were worried about their families. I mean, it was that was such an incredible event that we all went through where where we understood, you know, I think most people understood what mental health, um, what mental health issues were at that point. So, you know, I would say those are the types of things that, um, you might you might want to reach out to a therapist for basically, you know, anything that, uh, you’re feeling lost, you’re feeling confused. You know, you you feel like, um, maybe your daily life functions are, are are no longer, um, the way that they were. You know, maybe you don’t have motivation to get out of bed anymore. Maybe you hate your job and you hate your life, and you’re constantly, you know, yelling at your kids or, you know, yelling at your partner. Um, it’s it’s these kinds of personal crises that that we experience. Um, when you’re having a personal crisis, it’s a good it’s a good opportunity to reach out for help. Even if you never experienced what you consider mental health issues before.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:52] Now, do you think that prior to Covid, that people just thought that this type of anxiety and stress was just kind of part of normal day to day life and that you were just supposed to accept it and just kind of tough it out and that now there is, uh, more conversation and talk about that. This isn’t you know, you don’t have to tolerate this as normal. There are ways out of this. And we start labeling it and then actually talking about it and then trying to get help and trying to improve the situation.

Franchesca Van Buren: [00:06:23] Oh, 100%. You are absolutely correct about that. You know, before it was, you know, buck up, buttercup. You know, you don’t. You’re sad. You’re upset. Well, you know, that’s life. Well, yeah, that’s life. But it doesn’t mean that that we can’t reach out for help. You know, it’s it’s like we have doctors to help our physical wounds. Why is it so terrible to reach out to a doctor to help you with your emotional wounds as well? You know, it’s just part of being healthy. It’s part of, uh, wellness is taking care of those things before they get worse. You know, you notice a problem, you notice, let’s say you notice a cut on your arm. Well, you’re going to you should treat it with antibiotic or not antibiotic, but, you know, like, uh, antibiotic cream, maybe, and put a Band-Aid on it. Make sure it doesn’t get worse. It’s the same thing with, with, uh, mental health issues that we come up with. You know, you start to see yourself decline. There are resources out there to help you with that. And there is there should be no shame in that. And you’re right. Before Covid, there was so much shame wrapped up around reaching out for help. There was so much shame. Well, you know, if I’m depressed or if I’m anxious or if I have postpartum, well, there’s something wrong with me, you know, especially like postpartum.

Franchesca Van Buren: [00:07:38] You think about new moms. It is postpartum is something that affects, uh, such a great number of new moms. But guess what? You’re not supposed to talk about it. Because if you’re depressed after you have your baby, well, there must be something wrong with you. Despite the fact that it is so common. It is so common that, you know, doctors have a checklist of postpartum depression issues that they ask new moms, you know. Right. For the baby is born. Well, are you feeling depressed? Do you want to kill yourself? I mean, these, these keys, but it’s it’s ridiculous because there’s still a stigma that, you know, you can’t say that, uh, that something hurts inside, you know, you. But I will say it is so much better today than it was before Covid. Because as I mentioned, when Covid happened, we could not cope. You know, the world as a whole could not cope with the overwhelming, um. Black hole of despair. That was Covid, you know. And so today there is much less stigma around reaching out for help. And that is, you know, what a silver lining around Covid that it really has allowed people the the ability to, to reach out for help before things get really, really bad.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:59] Now, can we switch gears a little and talk about your journey? Have you always kind of been involved in this kind of work?

Franchesca Van Buren: [00:09:06] No, um, I am actually an attorney. I’m not even a therapist. Um, but, uh, I started this. I actually was a business attorney for a long time, and I started this company as, uh, basically as a hobby, as an after school program for, uh, troubled kids in a little tiny community that I grew up in. And, um, working with those kids, I realized that therapy was the linchpin in trying to improve their lives for the better moving forward. So these were kids who, uh, they were, you know, they were on free lunch. They lived with an aunt or maybe grandma. Their parents were on the streets on drugs. Um, I had just seen there was this cycle of, um, the cycle of of issues that these kids were dealing with, their families were dealing with. And, uh, they were they were under a lot of it was untreated mental health issues. And so we came in, we started the after school program. We brought therapists in, and all of a sudden we were really able to to change their lives in in a way that was just unbelievable and spectacular to me. And that’s when I realized, wow, like mental health is just so important in changing the world. So that’s that’s kind of how insight started. Um, like I say, it was an after school program. And then we realized the importance of therapy and decided to focus on therapy so that we could make real change.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:44] Now, when you started, it was in person. And now your business is primarily remote and virtual.

Franchesca Van Buren: [00:10:50] Yes, it was in person. And when Covid hit, um, you know, we had this little office, it was a little old office, and the therapy was done in these little tiny, airless offices. And many of my therapists were older. Some of them were medically fragile. I didn’t feel like I could keep them safe. I didn’t feel like I could keep my clients safe if we were doing therapy in person. So I said, okay, well, you know what? Let’s, uh, let’s go online. And I was I was so scared. I was convinced that that was going to be the end of insight. But lo and behold, within three months, our retention rates had gone up 10%. And my therapists were telling me that they never wanted to go back to the office because they loved it so much working from home. So, uh, that was the beginning of really a huge expansion for us. Um, because without the burden of having physical locations, uh, we were able to get therapists licensed in many different states and, and start seeing clients in lots of different locations. So it was a pretty incredible thing for us.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:04] And when that occurred, I’m hearing that the, um, therapists were happy about the change, but were you noticing, uh, the clients were getting the same, if not better, results?

Franchesca Van Buren: [00:12:17] Better results. Better results. So, um, I pretty, pretty immediately we started seeing our retention rates go up. And what I mean by that is clients were sticking around for a longer period of time. And, um, that’s really important because therapy is like going to the gym. If you go one time, you’re not going to go anywhere. Um, it’s it’s the kind of thing where you’ve got to, you know, we usually have a treatment plan and treatment, depending on, uh, the client’s diagnosis will last. It’s supposed to. It should last anywhere from, you know, let’s say, uh, 2 or 3 months to six months. Um, but, uh, in the office, we had a lot of people drop off after the first time or after, you know, the second or third time. And we know that those people who drop off after the first, second or third time are not getting anywhere. They didn’t get effective treatment. And, um, you know, they’ve got to stick around for a little bit longer in order to actually get real relief of their symptoms, whatever their symptoms are. So, um, like I said, we started seeing our retention rates go up and, um, and client satisfaction went up. Um, so when we were in the office, it was, it was it was challenging for a lot of clients. We we had a lot of, uh, Medicaid clients who had transportation issues. And, you know, when the weather was hot, if they were taking the bus, they couldn’t they couldn’t make it, especially if they had if they had, um, medical issues. Um, if you, you know, if they had to if they didn’t have money for gas, you know, it was it was really hard for them to come to their weekly appointments because they just didn’t have the money for it.

Franchesca Van Buren: [00:14:07] Um, let’s say they had any if they had a car accident or if they had a, a flat tire, you know, that that session couldn’t occur today. Those barriers don’t exist with telehealth. And it’s really it’s really an incredible thing. And I and I, I just have to emphasize the changes that Covid brought about with the insurance companies. Um. Previously, insurance companies would not reimburse for telehealth. You know, they or if they did, they they they paid a lot less. They really they didn’t like telehealth. Um, and then Covid happened and we realized we’ve got to get people help, you know, even if we think maybe it’s not as good, we’ve got to get them help. And so the insurance companies relented and they, um, took away a lot of these barriers. And so, you know, today, uh, Medicaid will will reimburse for a phone call, they’ll reimburse for, um, a video call. And while the majority of our sessions are video sessions, the ability to have just a telephone therapy session with somebody who is, um, who, who, who has, uh, issues paying for internet, you know, everybody’s got everybody. Almost everybody has access to the phone. So it just opens the doors so wide to allow people to access, uh, mental health benefits. It’s really it’s really an amazing thing that happened. So we saw tremendous benefit. We we still see tremendous benefit to people being able to utilize, um, uh, telehealth. It’s really an incredible thing.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:51] It sounds like you also expanded your potential clients beyond the the students in school. Now it’s adults and it’s, uh, businesses. You have more variety of clients nowadays.

Franchesca Van Buren: [00:16:05] We do. We, uh, we do. We see. We see clients of all ages. We see all insurances. Um, and the wonderful thing is that we’re able to access people who were not able to access services previously. So, um, when we started, we started in rural Nevada, and it was very challenging for me to get quality clinicians to go out to rural Nevada. So I had, you know, my clinicians would drive an hour and a half, two hours a day to get to our physical location in order to see people in rural Nevada. We had an office, um, in, in a we had an office in one tiny town. And, uh, in that town, while I did have licensed clinicians, I, I was not able to get on all of the insurance panels. So I was so upset because we had this one lady call in and she was desperate to come in and see us because the only other therapist, the only therapist in town who accepted her insurance, was her next door neighbor. And of course, she didn’t want to be seen by her next door neighbor. So we tried desperately to to get on that panel or to get, um, like an exemption just for her. But the insurance, they wouldn’t allow it. So that and I and I still think about that today that that that poor woman was never able to access therapy um, because of, because of the, uh, strictures of time and place and the insurance company. But today, you know, we would be able we would be able to see her because, you know, now I have 50 clinicians that are credentialed with almost every insurance company. And, uh, we are no longer bound by geographical limitations. It’s just such an amazing thing.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:50] Now, uh, can you share any insight from a business leadership standpoint when it comes to running a I guess now it’s a fully remote company.

Franchesca Van Buren: [00:18:01] It is. It is almost fully remote. We actually had to, uh, reopen a physical location in Las Vegas, uh, basically to, um, comply with the Nevada Board of Social Work. Um, because we, we have interns and they have certain rules for their interns. They want their interns to have some face to face time that they call it face to face time. So we do have a small physical location, but none of our administrative functions, um, come out of there. And, uh, it’s really a very small part of our operation, but almost everything we do is remote. Um, so. Yeah. So then you were saying what?

Lee Kantor: [00:18:43] What were like what from a from a business leadership standpoint, what are some of the challenges and maybe, um, learnings you’ve had in running a pretty much remote business? Because I would imagine just from a keeping the team on the same page, you have communication challenges. There’s, you know, how do you develop that corporate culture without, you know, being in the same building with people? Like some of those things could be challenges for a remote organization.

Franchesca Van Buren: [00:19:11] Absolutely. And, you know, it’s interesting because I’ve had both experiences, you know, for the longest time we we had our physical location, but we were a lot smaller when we had our physical location. And we’ve grown exponentially since then. I mean, we when we, uh, shut down our physical office, I think we had, oh, fewer than ten team members, and today we have almost 90. So it’s a it’s a real big change for us. And, um, I. I think for us, the biggest challenge has been changing the way that we think about training people. So in the office we would train people, you know, we’d sit side by side and we would show them things on the computer or whatever. And, um, it was. It. We didn’t have the same need for processes and procedures that we have today, that we are much larger and we are all remote. Um, but and, and there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of pushback. I mean, you see it in the news, you know, these companies that are asking their remote workers to come back to the office and you have a lot of leaders who say, well, you know, I can’t monitor productivity. I you know, there’s a lot that’s lost when you’re not in person. Um. But for my perspective, that that’s not my that’s not my reality and that’s not my perspective. What I have seen is that, um.

Franchesca Van Buren: [00:20:45] If you have the right policies and procedures in place, you can effectively run a remote company. Um. One of the amazing things for us has been that we are no longer because we’re remote, because we can hire talent anywhere in the world. And we do. And we have we have team members in at least ten different countries. We are we are able to access the best talent in all of the world. And, you know, when I was when I had my physical location, I was really limited to people who lived within like a 30 mile radius. And that was, uh, very, very limiting. Um, but having the right policies and procedures in place, having, you know, good onboarding that includes, um, the right kind of training. It’s just it’s it’s really all about training and it’s about having the right productivity tools. So we we actually do use employee monitoring software to, you know, to make sure that people are, um, working when they should be working and, uh, being as productive as they can be. You know, when when you’re in the office, you’re able to see, okay, is this person coming in on time? And are they are they leaving at the right time? Um, but one of the things that I always think about is I used to work at big law firms, and I remember walking up and down the halls and a lot of the people who were sitting there, you know, they had they were sitting in their seats.

Franchesca Van Buren: [00:22:17] They were in front of their computers. They were sitting there doing online shopping. They were playing solitaire. They were on Facebook. They were not working. Um, so for us, we don’t have those problems generally. And if we do, uh, those people don’t stick around very long. So I actually think that we’re able to monitor what people do in a way that’s much more efficient than what I used to see in the office. Um, and then in terms of, you know, you think about, well, okay, well, what about FaceTime? You know, how do you establish relationships? Um, I, we use Google Workspace, um, for, for one of my companies. Another one, we use slack. But all day long the people on the team are communicating with each other. I so all day long we have we have voices in our heads of our teammates. Like we know what everybody is working on. We know what they’re doing. We’re constantly communicating. Um, we also use asana to keep track of, uh, the projects that everybody’s working on. And so we get constant updates on, okay, well, where are we on this project? Where are we on that project? Um, I, I, I think that remote work is just it’s so much more efficient, uh, than in person.

Franchesca Van Buren: [00:23:37] I mean, my so for me personally, I don’t lose any time in the commute. You know, I, I, I’m here in my home office. I am productive all day long. I don’t have anybody coming in to my office. And, you know, just hey, how’s your day going? And, you know, hey, what did you do this weekend and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, which I understand there’s some value there, but when I was in the office, I would say 40% of my day, at least 40, 50, maybe even 60% of my day occasionally was taken up with those types of water cooler chats. I mean, I would close the door to my office and people would still come in and just hang out. And I am just so much more productive in my home office where I can control who is coming in and who is coming out. You know, like, I can pick up the phone to talk to somebody, I can do a zoom call, I can do a a Google Meet video call. Um, or I can just chat with them on the chat. I just think I just think that it’s I think remote work is, is so efficient. And when it’s done, I think that when it’s done well, it is so much better and so much more efficient than in-office work.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:45] Now, how do you protect the Insight Therapy Solutions brand when, um, and I’m sure this was an issue in the law firms. Right. Like the relationship between the client and the lawyer is one thing. And then how does how do you kind of protect the relationship between the client and the brand? You know, because that’s slightly different because the firm wants to keep the clients, obviously. And then you’re dependent on that individual who is dealing with them intimately, you know, for the vast majority of the time together.

Franchesca Van Buren: [00:25:20] Yeah, that’s a great question. Well, uh, we have, we have. So. The way that we do business. It’s not just the therapist that has the touchpoint with the client because we are insurance based. Um, and more than that, you know, we have a we have an excellent front desk that is constantly in contact with clients to make sure that they’re that they’re happy with our services. You know, just to check in and see how things are going. Our billing department is constantly in contact with clients to make sure that they understand their insurance benefits. Um, so we we have a lot of touch points with clients. But to be honest with you, I encourage the therapists to have that close personal relationship with clients because that is where that is how good therapy happens. 70% of the efficacy of therapy is related to the relationship between the client and the therapist. And number one most important for me is that clients get good therapy and they have a good experience. So, um, I understand what you’re saying about protecting the brand, but I guess from my perspective, what’s what’s more important is that people get good quality service, and I expect that they’re going to establish that close personal relationship with their therapist. And, you know, at the end of the day, um, clients are free and they they should be free to choose the provider of their choice. Um, so, you know, if if a clinician leaves, um, sometimes the clients will go with them, uh, but sometimes they’ll stay with us because we provide good value and good service at every single touch point. So I guess what I’m saying is it’s more important to me that the clients, um, actually get something of, of value, and that is necessarily going to include that close personal relationship with their therapist. And I wouldn’t want to interfere with that.

Lee Kantor: [00:27:28] And one of the things that you do that I believe is kind of unique and special and is is more value to your client, is this complimentary therapist matchmaking service? Can you talk a little about that?

Franchesca Van Buren: [00:27:41] Yes. So that’s something I think very different from what other clinics do. Basically other clinics, if you call into a clinic and you say, hey, I’d like to see a therapist, they’re probably just going to put you with anybody that has an opening and that is not the right way to do it. Uh, our therapist matchmaking services, what it is, is when you call in and you say, hey, I’d really like to see a therapist. Our matchmakers get to know you. They get to know the issues that you’re dealing with and a little bit about your personality, because as I mentioned, 70% of the efficacy of therapy is related to the relationship between the client and the therapist. So every single client needs to be placed with the right match for them. And what that means is from a personality perspective. So, you know, of course the clinician needs to specialize in whatever the issues are, right? Like if it’s depression or anxiety or couples or whatever, and they need to accept the insurance, that’s important too. But also what is very important is the therapist’s personality and their style. So some clients might need a softer touch.

Franchesca Van Buren: [00:28:49] You know, they might need somebody who’s warm and fuzzy, somebody who’s going to be, you know, like a warm blanket. Other clients may need somebody who’s going to be very firm with them, who’s going to call them out on stuff. And, um, those are the types of things that make for an effective therapeutic relationship down the road. And those are the things that we train our matchmakers to listen for when they are speaking to a new client. You know, is the new client soft spoken? Do they seem a little hesitant? Do they seem angry? Do they seem, um, like they would walk all over a softer spoken therapist? Um, and so that’s something very special that I haven’t seen any other, uh, clinic out there do. And I’m very proud of that. And and I think that that speaks to that also speaks to our retention rates. So 85% of our clients come back after the first time. And that’s a big deal. Um, with other clinics, you see, uh, 25 to 50% of clients don’t come back after the first time. So I think it really speaks to the effectiveness of our matchmaking program.

Lee Kantor: [00:30:02] Can you, um, share why it was important for you to become part of Webrequest?

Franchesca Van Buren: [00:30:09] Yes. So it’s.

Speaker4: [00:30:15] Um.

Franchesca Van Buren: [00:30:16] How do I want to put this? As a professional woman, I have. I’ve had a hard time, just like most professional women do. And, um, you know, as a woman, when you walk in a room, you don’t have the same. Effect that men do even as a professional woman, as a lawyer. You know, I found this all the time. I was a litigator and I was a very aggressive litigator. And it always it always surprised me when I would walk into a room. Uh, I would sometimes have to be more aggressive than men because, you know, because I look like a cute little woman, you know? And so, um, it’s just it’s very it’s very difficult for women in the workplace. It’s very difficult for women in the professional world. And, um, I’ve, I’ve always tried to do business with other female professionals, and I’ve tried to do business with women owned businesses. And, um, it was when this opportunity was presented to me, I thought, wow, that seems like exactly the kind of place, uh, that I should be a part of because I want to meet other women business owners. I want to meet other people who have had the same struggles that I have had, and that understand where I’m coming from.

Lee Kantor: [00:31:44] So what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Franchesca Van Buren: [00:31:47] Well, um. That is such a great question. Uh, you know, I would I would just love to have more, um, connections, uh, with. I’ll be honest, we really have not utilized this resource the way that we should have. And part of it is, you know, we’ve been pulled in lots of different directions. Um, I’ve, I’ve, uh, I’ve learned some things, but, uh, I still find it to be a very complicated world. And so really, I think I’d like I’d like some additional support in figuring out the, the resources that are that are available through this organization.

Lee Kantor: [00:32:35] And if somebody wants to learn more about insight, what is the website? What’s the best way to connect with you?

Franchesca Van Buren: [00:32:42] Um, Francesca at Insight Therapy us. Uh, our website is Insight therapy Solutions.com. And, uh, we’re always, you know, we’re always looking for people to partner with, for people to collaborate with and, uh, put more good out into the world.

Lee Kantor: [00:33:03] Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work, and we appreciate you.

Franchesca Van Buren: [00:33:08] Thank you so much. I appreciate that you had me today. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:33:11] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Women in Motion.

 

Tagged With: Insight Therapy Solutions

Oldcastle APG: Making Outdoor Dreams a Reality

May 20, 2024 by angishields

Sandy Springs Business Radio
Sandy Springs Business Radio
Oldcastle APG: Making Outdoor Dreams a Reality
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On today’s Sandy Springs Business Radio, hosts Lee Kantor and Rachel Simon talk with Jason Dean and Dave Jackson from Oldcastle APG. Jason discusses his journey from the US Coast Guard to the brick and block industry, while Dave, who handles branding, shares insights into the company’s marketing strategies. Oldcastle manufactures a variety of outdoor products and the conversation covers the company’s focus on customer relationships and the integration of sales and marketing. The guests also discuss the impact of the pandemic on outdoor living trends and Oldcastle APG’s participation in HGTV’s dream home program.

Oldcastle-logo

Dave-JacksonDave Jackson is Senior Brand Manager, Oldcastle APG, leading all aspects of brand strategy and managing marketing and advertising efforts for brands including Sakrete, Amerimix, Echelon Masonry and Belgard Commercial.

Utilizing more than a decade of experience, Dave’s innovative mindset and customer-centric approach have propelled APG’s dry mix, masonry and hardscapes business to new heights and exceptional growth.

Jason-DeanJason Dean is Senior Vice President of Pro Sales of Oldcastle APG, leading all aspects of national sales efforts for the professional division across the organization’s hardscapes, masonry and dry-mix business. With nearly 30 years of company experience and industry insights, his keen leadership skills enable him to develop effective sales strategies, drive revenue growth and cultivate stronger relationships with existing and prospective customers.

Since joining APG through the acquisition of Georgia Masonry Supply (GMS) in 1994, Jason has held several leadership positions of increasing responsibility and experienced significant success in building and strengthening the pro sales department. A testament to his dedication and expertise, his 30-year career has produced an outstanding track record that has positively impacted our business and continues to serve and address our customers’ needs across North America.

Since being appointed SVP of Pro Sales, he has championed several successful strategies which focus on increasing customer connections, developing strong sales pipelines, collaborating across all brands and honing key markets and prospects. To grow the customer base for a commodity in a static market, he reenergized the network of customers and enhanced relationships with dealers to increase loyalty to the brands.

In addition to customer-centric strategies, Jason championed several creative projects to promote brand awareness, such as Concrete Combat and Sakrete Time, both of which appealed to previously unengaged markets. Jason’s innovative approach to boosting brand awareness and increasing market reach has led to increased revenue in an extremely competitive business.

Follow Oldcastle APG on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here with Rachel Simon. Another episode of Sandy Springs. Sandy Springs Business Radio and this episode is brought to you by Connect the Dots Digital. When you’re ready to leverage LinkedIn to meet your business goals, go to Connect the Dots dot digital. Rachel, welcome.

Rachel Simon: Hi Lee, how are you?

Lee Kantor: I am doing great! I am so excited about this show. Got a great group here today.

Rachel Simon: Yeah, we’ve got two guests. It’s our first time with two guests. So super excited for that. It’s going to be fun but.

Lee Kantor: That was good. You managed it by being of the same firm.

Rachel Simon: There you go baby steps. Yes. So we are really happy to welcome Jason Dean and Dave Jackson from Oldcastle APG. Welcome. Thanks for being here.

Jason Dean: Yeah, we’re really excited to be here. Thank you so much.

Rachel Simon: Uh, so let’s dive right in. Tell us a little bit about yourself and Oldcastle APG.

Jason Dean: Okay. Um, once again my name is Jason Dean. I’m the SVP of pro sales for Oldcastle APG, and I’ve kind of had an untraditional path to get here today. Um, you know, uh. Early in my career. Um, you know, I was coming out of high school. I went to high school in Maysville, Kentucky, which is rural Kentucky. I wanted to go into law enforcement, so I did a stint in the US Coast Guard. Um, and then went to college, um, using the GI Bill, which is always a great thing. And um, studied criminology corrections in there. And then when I got out, I was trying to really decide what I wanted to do with my life in law enforcement. My uncle had a brick and block company here in Atlanta, Georgia, and he said, hey, while you’re thinking about your next step, why don’t you come down and sell for me for a short period of time? And then, um, you can see where your career takes you? Well, that was 30 years ago. Um, started my career in 94, and it’s been a it’s been a really good ride. Once you get sucked into this industry, you just can’t get out of it. Um, it’s been a great career. It’s not over yet. Um, and the thing probably the most exciting about working with Oldcastle APG is, you know, we’ve got the same core values, integrity, creative community. Um, our our three big ones. But, um, the respect for our employees is probably number one, um, regardless of their background and beliefs. So, um, great working environment, great company. And happy to be here.

Rachel Simon: Awesome. Well, tell us a little bit about yourself, Dave. Yeah.

Dave Jackson: Dave Jackson um, I come from the agency world, so, uh, most of my career has been in marketing, and actually before that I tell Jason. And actually, that’s my story. I’ve had two jobs. I’ve either worked in hardware or I’ve done advertising. So working at Old Castle now for a little over five years is kind of a beautiful synthesis of the stuff that I’ve, uh, done throughout my career. So, uh, I run branding for a couple of our brands in Oldcastle, APG, working really closely with Jason and the sales team, um, most notably being Sakrete, which is the bagged concrete brand, the original bagged concrete brand. It’s important to note, um, and I think we’re going to spend some time talking about that today. Yeah.

Rachel Simon: So, um, first of all, I love nontraditional paths because it’s always great to tell that story of like, how did you end up doing this? Um, those are always fun. So yeah. Tell us a little bit about specifically what Oldcastle APG does, who your customers are, because it may be a brand that our listeners are not familiar with. Sure.

Jason Dean: So. So we’re part of CRH and Oldcastle. We’re a leading product manufacturer in North America and probably one of the biggest companies you’ve never heard of. Um, we we’re a family of brands. And kind of our mantra right now is live well outside. Right. So we play in a lot of spaces, um, including pool finishes and landscape products, masonry fencing and railing, composite decking, soils and mulches. And then once again, of course, our Sakrete brand, which we’re really proud of from, um, originated in 1936, um, as Dave mentioned.

Rachel Simon: So chances are somebody who has an outdoor space has probably has products from your company.

Jason Dean: Absolutely. We drive I get texts and emails all the time. There’s always people going, hey, I saw your product here. I saw your product there. Um, actually, my daughter was in New York City a couple of weeks ago and sent me a picture of a pallet of sakrete in downtown New York City. So it’s always fun to see our products, um, kind of out there in the real world. Yeah.

Rachel Simon: And it’s a global company, correct?

Jason Dean: We are. We’re a global company. Yes, ma’am.

Rachel Simon: Um, very, very interesting. I mean, especially I’ve been begging for a deck at my house, so maybe someday I’ll have some Oldcastle APG materials at my home. Well, you know.

Jason Dean: Who to call.

Rachel Simon: You do? There you go. Um, yeah. So tell us what. What’s sort of your differentiator in the market?

Dave Jackson: Well, you know, I think we work in a very interesting space where, you know, at the end of the day, building materials are a bit of a commodity product, especially bad concrete. It’s probably one of the worst offenders. That bad concrete, at the end of the day is sort of bad concrete. So what it really comes down to for us is how can we get closer to our end users and solve problems for them, because it’s really not all about the material. At the end of the day, concrete is concrete is concrete to a certain extent. What we spend a lot of time thinking about and driving, I think both from a sales and marketing standpoint, is how can we make APG a customer or a business that our customers want to do business with? How can we make their lives easier? How can we help them make more money, get the job done faster, easier, more efficiently? So I think that’s really the thing that from a conceptual standpoint, sets us apart is that starting from the customer’s point of view rather than our own.

Speaker6: Yeah.

Jason Dean: And we focus on building relationships, right? Because we’re in a relationship business people buy from people, and we want our customers to feel confident in doing business with Oldcastle, because providing the highest level of service and quality products is. Kind of our day to day goal.

Lee Kantor: Now, from a B2B standpoint, obviously you’re working with people who are dealing with the end user. At the end of the day, how does sales and marketing kind of work together? Like our sales kind of the front line. You’re learning what your customer needs are and you’re trying to stay ahead of that and you’re listening to their concerns, and then you’re sharing that with marketing or like who who’s kind of driving and who’s kind of reacting to the information that’s gleaned.

Dave Jackson: Well, I’d say if you’re doing it right, the information is flowing in both directions. You know, the sales team is definitely the front line. They’ve got the best read on who the customers are, what they need, what the competition is doing. That obviously has to be fed into marketing for us to spin, for lack of a better term. And then we on the marketing side, I think, have to be well versed enough in the sales process to give the sales team information, assets, campaigns that solve that problem for them, because sales guys are great at selling, and if we can help them tell a really good, compelling story, they’re the the best voice that we have out in the market.

Lee Kantor: So do you have a mechanism that allows the sales folks to bubble up those stories? How does that come about?

Jason Dean: Yeah, so so being a big company, we do a really good job of collaborating across the sales team and the marketing team. The good news is Dave and I have worked really close together for, you know, for a few years here at corporate. And we do we take stories from the field and it’s all about the customer. We listen to the customer and understand what their needs are. And it’s not just the customer that’s buying the material. We talk. We made a pivot the last few years and we really focus on the end user, okay. Because that’s really important information of what the end user actually needs to be successful in the field. And then we take that back to Dave. And Dave puts wonderful spins on and gives us good ideas of kind of how we can take what our customers need, the end user needs, and spin that into a story that that really resonates in the marketplace.

Rachel Simon: Is the end user like a contractor? Like who? Who would be other examples of who that end user might be? We’ll have.

Jason Dean: Diyers. Yeah. You know, the Weekend Warrior, they’re doing their own projects. And then a lot of pro customers, you know, the pro customers, you really don’t. You know, we always joke about where does Sakrete end up. We sell so much sakrete, you know, one year we sold enough sakrete to go around the world like three times. If you take the bags end to end and a lot of it ends up in the fencing world, a lot of it ends up in repair products. So it’s kind of it’s kind of fun seeing and we’ve seen some outlandish ways that our products are used and we’re like, I probably wouldn’t do that. But it’s it’s always been fun to kind of see kind of what’s going on in the marketplace and how they’re using our products.

Lee Kantor: Now, you’ve been in the business for so many years. How have you seen it evolve in terms of kind of learning from your customer? Have you seen some things like, oh, we didn’t think of that, but the customer did, and now that’s a whole, you know, big part of our business now.

Jason Dean: Yeah, we have, you know, when when the brand started in 1936 obviously I wasn’t around in 1936. But you know, over, over the past few years, we’ve kind of dug in and we’ve understood that, um, you know, even though it’s just concrete and it’s repair products, um, they’re used in so many different ways. And we always try to find that niche use that we haven’t thought of.

Lee Kantor: Um, can do you remember any that stands out to you in the years that you’ve been doing this? That something was like, oh, wow. That’s that’s pretty clever there.

Dave Jackson: Well, you know, I think to your point about trying to really nail down who our customer is, what they care about, who they are. As as people has become more and more and more important because especially when we’re selling commodities, it’s how do we set ourselves apart? It’s by being smarter, more relevant, more connected. And I think the one that jumps to mind immediately for me is the fact that we have just in the past year or two years, started doing a very, uh, focused Hispanic marketing effort, uh, which frankly, and this is, you know, egg on my own face, something that we should have been doing for a long time. Um, statistically, just based on census data. Hispanic customers and Hispanic pros are 30% of the construction market, and that’s a low number, I would imagine. So the fact that we had been. What, man? Not not intentionally, but unconsciously, leaving them out of our our communications. And the story that we’re trying to tell was a huge gap that we needed to fill. And I think in the past year and a half, two years, the efforts that we’ve made to really make sure that we are speaking directly to that customer and making sure that they see, you know, feel heard and represented and respected is a very big deal for us. And just I’d say that’s a good sort of encapsulation of our ethos around making sure that we’re delivering solutions for the actual customer. Yeah.

Jason Dean: And based on some of that feedback we’ve gotten from our customers, we have created products maybe that are more fast setting, maybe that the extended working times, there are certain things that the Concrete Pro is looking for to be able to do their job efficiently and effectively. And I think we’ve we’ve made some tweaks along the line of finding what that what our customers are really needing. And we’re still listening to them. You know, we listen to them every day. Um, you know, we’re very connected to that end user. And if we find that, um, if we find that we’re missing a, we’ve got a gap in our portfolio, then we quickly figure out a way to fill that gap.

Speaker6: Yeah.

Rachel Simon: So when you’re, you know, trying to using your example of kind of getting tapping deeper into the Hispanic market, are you connecting with them at conferences like in print? Like how where are you tapping into that audience?

Dave Jackson: So there’s I’d say there’s really two big ways. And what’s really interesting, not just about that, that customer and that market. I’d say this is a general rule, but the idea of getting involved in their in the community, having a voice, having a presence, being, um, seen essentially, you know, but being in an organic, authentic way is what’s really important. And I’ll say in particular for Hispanic pro social media has been a really strong entry point for us. Um, obviously it works very well, general market, but there’s what we’ve found is that that is really such a big point of community for the Hispanic pro. They have a ton of pride in the work that they do, sharing that on social building, kind of that community, even though it’s not in person, is something that we’ve been able to tap into. And I think make sure that we’re, you know, authentically engaging with them through that direction.

Rachel Simon: Yeah. Which channels are sort of the most successful for you?

Dave Jackson: The, the big ones? Um, TikTok and Instagram are definitely the big two. Um, we’re working with, um, a couple of influencers over on that side. And, and I would say those are definitely the big two. So it’s short form, mobile driven, uh, relatively young audience. And just from a digital penetration standpoint, you know, the Hispanic pro is very, uh, overindexes on sort of their interest in social media.

Rachel Simon: Linkedin is is beta testing short form video again. So just.

Speaker6: Interesting.

Rachel Simon: Put that on your radar.

Speaker6: Put that in put.

Dave Jackson: That in the queue. There we go.

Lee Kantor: Now is there any advice for other firms that you’ve mentioned several times here how important it is to have that collaboration between sales and marketing? Is there any kind of advice or tips you can give an organization to create that level of communication and clarity of messaging when it comes to having a good working relationship between sales and marketing?

Jason Dean: You know, I would say that, um, it goes hand in hand, right? If companies keep those departments so separated that they’re not collaborating on a day to day basis, they’re going to miss out. And that’s one thing that we’ve done really well is we’ve brought the teams together on the marketing and sales.

Lee Kantor: So that’s from a cultural standpoint. You think the culture of the organization is such that it kind of lends itself to this level of collaboration and and teamwork, whereas some of them, as you mentioned, are siloed. Some organizations may be culturally dysfunctional or siloed. And then it’s they’re they’re kind of adversarial rather than collaborative.

Speaker6: Absolutely.

Jason Dean: And I think our culture, um, is one thing. And then our focus on the customer, right? We we focus on our customer and we focus on the end user. And I’ll keep saying that because that’s such a foundation of what we do and how we’ve been successful. Um, you know, brands don’t stay around for almost 90 years. Um, if they don’t have that.

Dave Jackson: And I think you’re right, it is that that culture. And that’s something that I try and reinforce to my team. Is that really marketing done right is a sales support function. But I think that that your point about customer first is really the ethos that brings us all together and points us in the same direction.

Rachel Simon: Yeah, I’ve seen just in my, uh, observation from different companies that a lot of times one of the reasons why there’s misalignment is lack of clarity on who owns what, right, who’s. For this function. And, you know, sales thinks its sales marketing thinks its marketing or vice versa. And then it’s like, let’s all play together. We all have the same goals. We. So kudos to you all for really sounding like you’re doing an amazing job of collaborating.

Jason Dean: And one other thing I would say is, um, you got to be willing to change course, right? You know, I mean, there’s we’ve said and we’ve said in rooms for hours, Dave and I have and we’ve, we’ve thought we had it all figured out. We do something, we make a change. We we we pull out an ad, and then all of a sudden we’re like, no, we need to we need to tweak this and we need to hit the market again with a different message. So you have to be willing to to change course if needed. Um, but once again, it does. It comes back to that collaboration piece is so important from a sales and marketing group.

Dave Jackson: And having a bit of humility, I think that we don’t necessarily have all the answers. And it’s, you know, reaching across the aisle and making sure that we’ve got sort of everything considered.

Lee Kantor: Now, how has the kind of outdoor, uh, architectural or landscaping, um, industry as a whole changed? Is it is this now more of a must have for people in their homes, or is it is that trend going or is it, um, you know, kind of a nice to have.

Jason Dean: Well, well, I think during, during Covid, um, it changed a lot. I think a lot of folks at home, you know, they would spend time in the out in, in their backyard. Right. Um, when Covid happened, they had to spend time. It wasn’t it wasn’t a maybe we will we have to because we can’t go anywhere. And we saw a really boom. And that’s kind of why we we changed our mantra on on our outdoor living segment to live well outside. People feel better when they’re outside, right? Um, you’re healthier. You feel good. So we we’ve kind of gone all in. And what we’re trying to do is we want to be a family of brands that play in the, in the backyard and be able to, you know, from the pool, finish all the way to the fence when you’re done. We want to be able to play in that space.

Lee Kantor: So are there some things that are are that we can look forward to, maybe trends that are upcoming that people, homeowners can, uh, you know, either aspire to get or start thinking about putting into their household budget when it comes to outdoor elements.

Speaker6: Yeah.

Jason Dean: So we offer a lot of elements in the outdoor. We’ll do we do everything from kitchens, um, you know, we can do the art forms, kitchen packages, which are really popular right now. But but I really don’t think the products have changed much overall. You know, when you look at your outside, you think about a nice deck, a fire pit, a swimming pool, an outdoor kitchen. We’ve played in those spaces for several years, but we’re being a little bit more intentional today on kind of how we talk about those products and make sure that customers know that, hey, these are available in your market. And, um, it’s just a matter of picking and choosing what your backyard wants to look like. And we help with design as well, and through our belgard business. So, um, you know, we we’re all in. And if people go to the website Oldcastle apg com, they can see and they can pull up the belgard, um, side of our business and really see what we offer from from that backyard solution.

Rachel Simon: Are you doing commercial spaces as well?

Jason Dean: We do. We’re heavily involved in. I’ll let Dave talk about the HGTV. We’re the dream home. We’re we’re heavily involved in that program every year, which is phenomenal. Um, so you can if you watch HGTV, you’ll definitely see our commercials there. Um, on that side of the business as well.

Lee Kantor: Has has that changed kind of people’s expectations, like those type of, uh, shows where they see like, oh, this is out, this is possible. Now why can’t I have one?

Speaker6: Yeah.

Jason Dean: And all you got to do is you got to figure out what you want and make sure it works in your budget. And the good news is, is, is we’ve got, um, we’ve got you can get a nice backyard upgrade what you have now for $5,000. Right. Or you can go out and spend $200,000.

Lee Kantor: You can spend as much as you want.

Speaker6: I’m sure you can.

Jason Dean: Spend as much as you want. So. So that’s the thing. We appeal to all, all sides of that. Um, and we’ve got products that, that we make that will work in, in each, you know, each segment of, of whatever your budget might be.

Speaker6: Yeah.

Rachel Simon: That’s a very cool brand partnership with HGTV, I’m sure.

Jason Dean: Oh it is, it’s been long standing and it’s great. And our customers love it. And and it does. It’s it shows the possibilities of what you can do outside, um, understanding, you know, that there’s budget constraints for everybody. But we can we can hit each bucket and get them something really nice that that works. So you get.

Rachel Simon: To go to the dream home every year when they do their HGTV dream home.

Jason Dean: We do. Yeah, we’re heavily involved in the dream home, um, stuff and, and our, our, our president, Tim Ortman and Jenny Nail, our, um, chief revenue officer, they’re heavily involved in in those as well. So it’s a team effort, um, on kind of our marketing side and, and what we talk about on a daily basis to live well outside.

Lee Kantor: So what is an element you’ve seen somewhere that you were like, oh, I didn’t even I couldn’t imagine something like this. Like what’s kind of the most, I don’t want to say outlandish but maybe most extravagant outdoor.

Dave Jackson: You know, I actually don’t think that it’s extravagance so much as the transformation element of seeing someone’s backyard, you know, as it was torn down to the studs and then rebuilt into something that is completely different. Um, that is what gets me really excited personally. Is that potential for change and how much you can do with the space that you have? Because we all know that, you know, housing market’s real tough right now. So people are not buying their way into these upgrades. You kind of have to build with what you’ve got. But I think the fact that you can take a boring, basic builder grade backyard and really turn it into an oasis using a combination of all of our products is really powerful and exciting to see out in the world, because.

Lee Kantor: You see sometimes, like in a hotel or you travel, you see a resort kind of experience outdoors, and all of a sudden now you’re seeing some backyards that are having kind of some of the elements that were only in like high end.

Dave Jackson: Absolutely.

Speaker6: I think it’s yeah.

Jason Dean: It’s absolutely amazing. Some of the stuff that we see because we, you know, we do our obviously we do our belgard catalogs every year and things like that. And we get submissions in and, and some of these backyards. Outlandish is a good word to use. They’re crazy. I mean, we see everything from, you know, full kitchens, um, you know, pool slides. I mean, really, the sky’s the limit. And, um, and a lot of folks, you know, they’re I mean, that’s a living space anymore, right? You know, we’re years ago, it wasn’t a living space. Um, you know, over the last few years, you know, we’ve changed that. We’re like, hey, I’ve got this backyard. So that’s an extra room. So that’s the way we.

Lee Kantor: Look, right? So they’ve kind of in their mind, they’ve reframed what their backyard could be, where it was like grass and a swing set maybe. And now it’s like you said, it’s another room. This is more square footage for my house to make it more valuable and more. Yeah. Um, you know, better for me currently and for the future owner if I sell this.

Speaker6: Sure.

Jason Dean: Absolutely. And it’s more livable. And people, obviously, you know, with what’s going on with interest rates and how and home prices, people are saying, hey, I could do this and move and spend this much money, or I could invest in my property and, and make it nicer for, for me and for my kids. And, and we see that. And that’s the most exciting part about being part of a progressive company is we have all these products and we do we we, you know, we want to own the backyard, and we want our contractors and customers really to be able to come to us. And then we can provide a solution so they don’t have to go to ten different vendors to, to accomplish what they want to accomplish in their backyard.

Rachel Simon: This is what I aspire to in my backyard.

Speaker6: We can help.

Jason Dean: I told you, we can help you.

Lee Kantor: It’s also you’re helping them think bigger. You know, they might not even know what’s possible, but you’re giving them an idea of what could be. And then, like you said, you can take baby steps to get there.

Jason Dean: Yeah, Belgacom there’s a lot of stuff on that. So if people want to start at least looking at what, you know, kind of.

Speaker6: The possibilities.

Dave Jackson: Getting it out of getting out of Pinterest mode, out of inspiration and actually trying to put some bones around that, like, hey, this is what I could theoretically achieve. So as she writes down Bellosguardo.

Speaker6: There you go.

Rachel Simon: Um, yeah. So tell us a little bit again. You’re based here in Sandy Springs. What are some examples in the area, some success stories we could potentially see in our community here?

Speaker6: Oh, it’s.

Jason Dean: Kind of funny you say that. So, um, you know, Georgia Masonry Supply is our local business here, and we’ve got block, paver and dry mix plants over, um, just a couple jobs that that you would probably see us at is the the Sandy Springs, Sandy Springs city center. We were heavily involved in that, the Abernathy Greenway. We’ve got hardscape products there. And then right now we’re doing the Sandy Sandy Springs Police headquarters, um, that’s actually under construction. And then not to mention the hundreds or thousands of backyards that that are around our community right now that have product going in. Um, you know, it’s funny, I was talking to somebody this morning and I was talking to Anne Carlson, and she’s in our office this morning and she’s like, yeah, she lives in Sandy Springs. And she’s she was out for a walk, and she sees belgard pavers and sakrete on her walk every week. She sees a house that’s doing a certain project. So you’ll see our a lot of folks, they use our products every single day and they just don’t realize it. Um, so.

Speaker6: Yeah.

Dave Jackson: And I’m still at the point where I get excited when I’m like, oh, look, that’s our block. My, uh, my wife’s about tired of hearing about it, but it’s still exciting to to see our stuff out in the wild, I think.

Jason Dean: I love to see it, you know, um, we I was in Salt Lake City, um, several weeks ago, and I was at a stoplight and there was a whole, um, truckload of sakrete next to me that somebody had just picked up. And I just got the. Yeah, I took a picture. I was sitting in a stoplight, so. Safely took a picture, but it’s exciting when you see your products out there making a difference and customers are are raving about our quality and our service. And that’s really that’s why that’s why we do it for that’s why I’ve been here for 30 years. And if they if they keep me around, I’ll be here for another, I guess until they tell me to tell me to leave.

Lee Kantor: And it’s one of those things where everybody is happy around your product. Like when they’re done, they’re they got something they’re proud of. So it must be rewarding work for you.

Speaker6: Oh, absolutely.

Jason Dean: It is rewarding. I mean, you know, that’s the ultimate goal during the construction phase. There’s a lot of hard work obviously. Are we? We always joke our products aren’t real sexy on the secret side of the business, but but our secret products are useful in everything that that we build in the backyard, from the fence to the repair, you know, the.

Dave Jackson: Port walkways.

Jason Dean: And walkways. So but when you get to the final end of that, um, end of that journey on your project, you can look at it and you can be really proud of kind of what we helped create.

Speaker6: Um.

Rachel Simon: Great. Well.

Lee Kantor: And so once again, what are the best websites coordinates for someone to plug in?

Dave Jackson: I start with Oldcastle APG. Com and you’ll be able to access all the other brand sites from there, from belgard to moisture shield decking to Sakrete to pebble tech pool finishes and everything in between. But yeah, old.

Jason Dean: Fencing and Brett fencing business. Um, everything you can you can get from that website.

Rachel Simon: Absolutely. One stop shop. You got.

Dave Jackson: It. That’s the idea.

Speaker6: Stop shop. There you go.

Lee Kantor: And, Rachel, before we wrap and a LinkedIn tip.

Rachel Simon: Uh, yeah, well, not as much of a tip as, uh, some a new kid on the block. Um, so LinkedIn, uh, May 1st rolled out games. I don’t know if you’ve noticed it. There’s three games they rolled out. So now, if you’re on your home screen, kind of underneath where the news is on the right hand column, you’ll see the games there. Um. I think it’s kind of interesting. I’m not sure why they feel like LinkedIn users want to play games on there. Um, sometimes.

Lee Kantor: I think it’s time on site. They want they.

Rachel Simon: Want time on site. They do.

Lee Kantor: More time on.

Rachel Simon: Site. I will be honest. The games are. Not the most fun to play.

Lee Kantor: Uh, there’s not a Wordle in there.

Rachel Simon: There’s not a Wordle. There is like a minesweeper. Oh, my God, I wish right.

Speaker6: Um, bring back minesweeper.

Rachel Simon: Yeah, they should have. Totally. I used to be addicted to that game. Um, so, you know, test them out, see what you think? I. I’m not sure they’re getting the play that they were hoping, because you can kind of see how many of your connections are playing them. And mine is generally around like 10 to 15. And I have a lot more than that. So I just don’t I don’t know, sometimes it’s just an example of they roll out features that. May not be what the users want, but.

Speaker6: Check.

Rachel Simon: It out and see what you think. Let me know.

Speaker6: Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: Well, thank you both for being part of the show today. You’re both doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Speaker6: Absolutely.

Jason Dean: Thanks for having us. We we really appreciate you being here.

Lee Kantor: All right. Lee Kantor for Rachel Simon. We’ll see you all next time on Sandy Springs Business Radio.

 

About Your Host

Rachel-SimonRachel Simon is the CEO & Founder of Connect the Dots Digital. She helps companies ensure that LinkedIn is working for them as an asset, not a liability.

Rachel works with teams and individuals to position their brand narrative on LinkedIn so they can connect organically with ideal clients, attract the best talent, and stand out as a leader in their industry.

Rachel co-hosted LinkedIn Local Atlanta this week along with Phil Davis & Adam Marx – a networking event focused on bringing your online connections into the real world.Connect-the-Dots-Digital-logov2

Connect with Rachel on LinkedIn.

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