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Growing a Process-oriented IT Company: Insights from Gurmeet Judge, President and CEO, Encompass Solutions

December 26, 2023 by John Ray

Gurmeet Judge, Encompass Solutions
Business Leaders Radio
Growing a Process-oriented IT Company: Insights from Gurmeet Judge, President and CEO, Encompass Solutions
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Gurmeet Judge, Encompass Solutions

Growing a Process-oriented IT Company: Insights from Gurmeet Judge, President & CEO, Encompass Solutions

On this edition of Business Leaders Radio, host John Ray spoke with Gurmeet Judge, President and CEO of Encompass Solutions, about the crucial role of IT services in small and large businesses. Judge shares his journey from software development into establishing and leading his own IT firm. He highlights the importance of understanding client goals, the impact of company culture, and the evolving role of AI in businesses. He also talks about the importance of setting up IT processes that allow for measurable results and how Encompass Solutions addresses talent challenges in its forward-looking growth plans.

Gurmeet Judge, President & CEO, Encompass Solutions

Gurmeet Judge, President & CEO, Encompass Solutions
Gurmeet Judge, President & CEO, Encompass Solutions

Gurmeet Judge is the President and CEO of Encompass Solutions. Gurmeet founded the company in 2015.

Encompass Solutions is an innovative provider of powerful, practical, and cost-effective technology and consulting services focused on “Aligning Technology with Business Process” and the belief that technology should deliver consistent, expected business results.

Working closely with their technology partners, Encompass’s staff is on a mission to become a world-class IT service provider, delivering excellent customer service, improving business performance, and controlling technology costs for our clients. Their strong history of building and supporting large infrastructure means they have the experienced teams necessary to deliver on the toughest of problems. Our commitment to optimizing IT processes for business means we solve problems efficiently.

Encompass has decades of experience building mission-critical IT infrastructure across a variety of industries. Their strengths primarily exist in designing, building out, supporting, and solving problems around large-scale IT infrastructures. Key to their skill sets has been the creative integration of new technologies into the customer environment and our focus on drastically controlling costs. Their depth of experience in municipal and financial environments illustrates a partner who understands the integration of various technologies in the public sector.

Connect with:

Gurmeet Judge: LinkedIn

Encompass Solutions: Website | LinkedIn | Facebook

Topics in this Interview

00:02 Introduction and Welcoming Guest
00:25 Understanding Encompass Solutions and Its Services
01:27 Gurmeet’s Journey to Becoming a CEO
03:17 Transition from Software Developer to Entrepreneur
05:32 Challenges and Surprises in the Business Journey
07:42 Understanding Client Base and Their Mindset
12:44 Aligning Personal Goals with Company Goals
27:52 The Role of AI in Business
31:15 Future Plans and Challenges for Encompass Solutions
32:46 Conclusion and Contact Information

 

Business Leaders Radio is hosted by John Ray and produced virtually from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® in Alpharetta.  The show can be found on all the major podcast apps and a full archive can be found here.

 

Tagged With: AI, Business Leaders Radio, company culture, Encompass Solutions, Gurmeet Judge, Information technology, IT processes, it services, John Ray, technology services provider

Maximizing Value in Your Business Exit, with Joe Farach, Revenue Igniter Group and Neri Capital Partners

December 18, 2023 by John Ray

Joe Farach
North Fulton Business Radio
Maximizing Value in Your Business Exit, with Joe Farach, Revenue Igniter Group and Neri Capital Partners
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Joe Farach

Maximizing Value in Your Business Exit, with Joe Farach, Revenue Igniter Group and Neri Capital Partners (North Fulton Business Radio, Episode 734)

On this North Fulton Business Radio episode, host John Ray welcomed Joe Farach, a seasoned expert in business growth and exit planning. Joe’s remarks centered on preparing businesses for sale, process optimization, handling due diligence, and building a robust management team. He further highlighted the need to start considering exit planning as early in the business’s inception as possible to anticipate challenges and ensure a more seamless transition. Other key topics Joe addressed include business valuation, leadership development, overcoming challenges in the selling process, the role of strategic thinking in business growth, and success stories from his work.

North Fulton Business Radio is broadcast from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta.

Joe Farach, Revenue Igniter Group and Neri Capital Partners

Joe Farach brings over 35 years of experience in strategy formulation, business development, market expansion, operations improvement, leadership development, and M&A. He has diverse experience working for global Fortune 500 companies, private family-owned companies, ESOPs, and starting his own business.

His career highlights include starting a manufacturing and service company in Brazil, acquiring and integrating a $200 million multi-plant business in the U.S., turning around a Mexican subsidiary, developing international capital investment projects, and formulating and implementing a global M&A strategy. He also led and grew P&L in companies and divisions ranging from $1 million to $300 million. Joe started his career as a nuclear submarine officer in the U.S. Navy.

Joe is a Certified Exit Planning Advisor and a Certified Mergers and Acquisition Advisor. He holds a B.S. Mechanical Engineering degree from California Polytechnic University, Pomona, and an M.B.A. from Villanova University. In addition to English, he has native fluency in Spanish and Portuguese.

Joe’s LinkedIn Profile | Revenue Igniter Group LinkedIn | Neri Capital Partners website

Questions and Topics in this Interview

00:04 Introduction and Welcome
01:15 Introduction of Guest: Joe Farach
01:27 Discussion on Business Exit Planning
02:58 Joe’s Personal and Professional Journey
08:04 Insights on Business Valuation and Exit Planning
10:47 Challenges in Business Selling and Exit Planning
24:24 Success Stories and Client Experiences
28:02 Contact Information and Closing Remarks

 

North Fulton Business Radio is hosted by John Ray and broadcast and produced from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta. You can find the full archive of shows by following this link. The show is available on all the major podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon, iHeart Radio, and many others.

RenasantBank

 

Renasant Bank has humble roots, starting in 1904 as a $100,000 bank in a Lee County, Mississippi, bakery. Since then, Renasant has become one of the Southeast’s strongest financial institutions, with over $13 billion in assets and more than 190 banking, lending, wealth management, and financial services offices in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. All of Renasant’s success stems from each of their banker’s commitment to investing in their communities as a way of better understanding the people they serve. At Renasant Bank, they understand you because they work and live alongside you every day.

Tagged With: Business Exit Planning, business selling, business valuation, exit planning, Joe Farach, John Ray, Neri Capital, Neri Capital Partners, North Fulton Business Radio, Revenue Igniter Group, selling a business, strategy

Enhancing Wellness Through Lymphatic Therapy, with Frank Diaz, Integrative Lymphatic Therapy 

December 18, 2023 by John Ray

Frank Diaz, Integrative Lymphatic Therapy
North Fulton Business Radio
Enhancing Wellness Through Lymphatic Therapy, with Frank Diaz, Integrative Lymphatic Therapy 
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Frank Diaz, Integrative Lymphatic Therapy

Enhancing Wellness Through Lymphatic Therapy, with Frank Diaz, Integrative Lymphatic Therapy (North Fulton Business Radio, Episode 733)

On this episode of North Fulton Business Radio, Frank Diaz, the owner of Integrative Lymphatic Therapy, joined host John Ray to discuss the importance of lymphatic health for overall wellness. Frank offered insights about the lymphatic system’s role in our overall health and highlighted its often-underrepresented status in mainstream medical advice. He also shared the challenges of sedentary lifestyles and their relation to lymphatic health, demonstrating how his non-invasive, assisted lymphatic therapy can effectively address such issues. Frank discussed symptoms one should be aware of, who might be predisposed to lymphatic issues, success stories, and more.

North Fulton Business Radio is broadcast from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta.

Frank Diaz, Integrative Lymphatic Therapy

Frank Diaz, Integrative Lymphatic TherapyFrank Diaz is an educator and learning practitioner. After 40 years working in higher education, K–12, and corporate training, he began his second career as a Certified Lymphatic Therapist (CLT). Using his acquired educational knowledge and lifelong learning experience, he adds client knowledge transfer to the typical therapy sessions. “To me, an informed and educated client will have the necessary tools to succeed in their personal health journey.”

Website | LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook

Questions and Topics in this Interview

00:04 Introduction and Welcome
01:20 Introduction to Guest: Frank Diaz
01:37 Frank Diaz’s Company and Mission
02:13 Importance of the Lymphatic System
02:53 Frank Diaz’s Journey into Lymphatic Therapy
10:32 The Impact of Sedentary Lifestyle on Lymphatic System
14:03 Symptoms of Lymphatic Issues
15:54 When to Seek Lymphatic Therapy
18:36 Frank Diaz’s Approach to Lymphatic Therapy
21:48 Success Story: Lymphatic Therapy in Action
24:05 Contact Information and Closing Remarks

 

North Fulton Business Radio is hosted by John Ray and broadcast and produced from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta. You can find the full archive of shows by following this link. The show is available on all the major podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon, iHeart Radio, and many others.

RenasantBank

 

Renasant Bank has humble roots, starting in 1904 as a $100,000 bank in a Lee County, Mississippi, bakery. Since then, Renasant has become one of the Southeast’s strongest financial institutions, with over $13 billion in assets and more than 190 banking, lending, wealth management, and financial services offices in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. All of Renasant’s success stems from each of their banker’s commitment to investing in their communities as a way of better understanding the people they serve. At Renasant Bank, they understand you because they work and live alongside you every day.

Tagged With: Frank Diaz, Integrative Lymphatic Therapy, John Ray, lymphatic system, lymphatic therapy, North Fulton Business Radio, sedentary lifestyle, wellness

Melanie Cook, Veritas Management Group, and Jeremy Sisemore, ASAP Talent Services

December 15, 2023 by John Ray

Veritas Management Group, ASAP Talent Services
North Fulton Business Radio
Melanie Cook, Veritas Management Group, and Jeremy Sisemore, ASAP Talent Services
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Veritas Management Group, ASAP Talent Services

Melanie Cook, Veritas Management Group, and Jeremy Sisemore, ASAP Talent Services (North Fulton Business Radio, Episode 731)

On this episode of North Fulton Business Radio, John Ray welcomed Melanie Cook from Veritas Management Group and Jeremy Sizemore from ASAP Talent Services. The discussion highlighted the recent merger of the two companies and how they are working towards creating a more diverse, geographically dispersed client base. Melanie discussed Veritas Management Group’s significant role in public health data analytics and IT, citing their global presence in nine countries and close ties with the CDC. Sizemore shed light on ASAP Talent Services’ accomplishments in IT talent recruiting and their customer-oriented approach to delivering customized staffing solutions. Both touched upon how AI and ChatGPT are expected to shape the future of their industries and the steps they’re taking to ensure fair representation in AI data collection. Looking ahead, both Melanie and Jeremy expressed optimism for the year 2024, with plans for further expansion and benefiting from favorable economic indicators.

North Fulton Business Radio is broadcast from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta.

Melanie Cook, CEO, Veritas Management Group

Melanie Cook, Veritas Management Group
Melanie Cook, Veritas Management Group

As CEO, Melanie is responsible for providing strategic and operational leadership to VMG while driving company growth. She has over 20 years of management experience in the government and corporate sectors as a corporate attorney, senior consultant, and business development executive. She has been widely recognized for organizing and transforming startup enterprises.

In the past, Melanie has held positions as Sr. Consultant to a Wall Street investment bank, Sr. Adviser to the US Secretary of Commerce and the Under Secretary for Technology, Attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Sr. Consultant supporting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”).

Melanie is a co-author of Business Success Secrets, an honest, raw, and real look at some of the best-kept entrepreneurial secrets. Business Success Secrets is now a best seller on the Wall Street Journal and USA Today Best Seller lists.

Melanie is a graduate of Spelman College and Harvard Law School.

LinkedIn

Veritas Management Group (VMG)

VMG is a leading management consulting firm offering solutions to complex challenges involving public health, technology, and military domains. They serve government and commercial sector organizations, academic institutions, and non-profit organizations, both domestically and globally. Their diverse team of experts stays on top of the details, so their clients can focus on the big picture.

They specialize in research and evaluation, international support, administrative support, leadership development, health communication, health equity, diversity and inclusion, and military support services.

VMG is proud to be SBA 8(a) certified, MBE, FBE, and SBE certified with the City of Atlanta, and an SBA woman-owned small business.

Website | LinkedIn

Jeremy Sisemore, President, ASAP Talent Services

Jeremy Sisemore, ASAP Talent Services
Jeremy Sisemore, ASAP Talent Services

Jeremy Sisemore has been one of the leading IT executive recruiters throughout North America for the past 20 years.  He started his career with MRI, was Rookie of the Year in 2000, and quickly became the go-to resource for SAP, ERP, and cybersecurity talent acquisition needs nationally.  ASAP Talent serves over 75 major Fortune 500 clients throughout North America and internationally in Hong Kong, Singapore, Germany, and the UK.

Today, Jeremy is President at ASAP Talent Services, a Veritas Management Company.  He serves on the board of The Pinnacle Society and is the Outreach Chair.  He speaks regularly at industry conferences such as NAPS, NCASP, The Fordyce Forum, HAAPC, and MASA, among others.

Jeremy is a content creator, influencer, and writer who has been quoted in CIO magazine.

LinkedIn

ASAP Talent Services

ASAP Talent Services, a Veritas Management Group (VMG) company, is a leading IT executive search firm specializing in SAP and cybersecurity talent. Since 1999, our team members have been trusted recruiting partners for Fortune 500 to Fortune 1000 clients. Their search team has a track record of success in SAP, S/4 HANA, Salesforce, Workday, Hybris, Qualtrics, Callidus Cloud, CoreSystems, and Cyber Security searches at all levels. Hiring managers and IT professionals trust us to get the cultural fit right as well as the technical fit and choose ASAP Talent when quality is a critical factor.  ASAP Talent is a trusted partner for building world-class SAP delivery teams, bringing on SAP consultants on a staff-augmentation basis, or even building teams with a contract-to-hire model.

Website | LinkedIn | Facebook | YouTube

Questions and Topics in this Interview:

00:05 Introduction and Welcome
01:18 Welcoming Guests: Melanie Cook and Jeremy Sizemore
01:47 Discussion on Veritas Management Group
02:48 Importance of Data in Public Health
04:20 Introduction to ASAP Talent Services
05:09 Merger of Veritas Management Group and ASAP Talent Services
05:29 Future Plans and Diversification
08:47 Discussion on Workforce Trends
17:33 Impact of AI and ChatGPT on Workforce
25:37 Success Stories and Future Outlook
31:42 Contact Information and Closing Remarks

North Fulton Business Radio is hosted by John Ray and broadcast and produced from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta. You can find the full archive of shows by following this link. The show is available on all the major podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon, iHeart Radio, and many others.

RenasantBank

 

Renasant Bank has humble roots, starting in 1904 as a $100,000 bank in a Lee County, Mississippi, bakery. Since then, Renasant has become one of the Southeast’s strongest financial institutions, with over $13 billion in assets and more than 190 banking, lending, wealth management, and financial services offices in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. All of Renasant’s success stems from each of their banker’s commitment to investing in their communities as a way of better understanding the people they serve. At Renasant Bank, they understand you because they work and live alongside you every day.

Tagged With: AI, artificial intelligence, ASAP Talent Services, ChatGPT, cybersecurity, data analytics, it executive recruiter, Jeremy Sisemore, John Ray, Melanie Cook, North Fulton Business Radio, public health, Veritas Management Group

Enhancing Hospital Processes for Safer and More Effective Care, with Brandy Wilkins, Defining Point Coaching and Consulting

December 12, 2023 by John Ray

Brandy Wilkins, Defining Point Coaching and Consulting, LLC
North Fulton Business Radio
Enhancing Hospital Processes for Safer and More Effective Care, with Brandy Wilkins, Defining Point Coaching and Consulting
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Brandy Wilkins, Defining Point Coaching and Consulting, LLC

Enhancing Hospital Processes for Safer and More Effective Care, with Brandy Wilkins, Defining Point Coaching and Consulting (North Fulton Business Radio, Episode 730)

In this episode of North Fulton Business Radio, host John Ray was joined by healthcare quality consultant Brandy Wilkins, Owner and Chief Consultant of Defining Point Coaching and Consulting. Brandy discusses her work in helping healthcare organizations improve patient safety and clinical outcomes. The discussion gives insights into her process and team, how she consults with hospitals and healthcare institutions, and tangible examples such as medication administration. Brandy explained the role of technology in healthcare but highlighted that it’s not a standalone solution. She also emphasized the importance of proactively addressing issues, not only for patient safety but also for a hospital’s bottom line.

North Fulton Business Radio is broadcast from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta.

Brandy Wilkins, Defining Point Coaching and Consulting, LLC

Brandy Wilkins, Defining Point Coaching & ConsultingBrandy Wilkins is a healthcare quality executive with a clinical background in physical therapy.

With almost a decade of healthcare quality experience and even longer as a clinician, Brandy has consulted with over seventy healthcare organizations and hundreds of specialty programs to identify and improve challenges with patient safety, patient experience, and clinical processes.

Brandy is on a mission to improve the U.S. healthcare system by assisting and empowering healthcare organizations to improve care for the communities they serve.

LinkedIn | Company LinkedIn | Company Facebook | Company YouTube

Questions and Topics in this Interview:

01:15 Introduction to Guest: Brandy Wilkins
01:31 Brandy’s Role in Healthcare Quality
02:30 Transition from Physical Therapist to Consultant
03:46 Challenges in Healthcare and Patient Safety
05:46 Real-Life Example: Medication Administration
07:09 Role of Technology in Healthcare
08:32 The State of Technology Implementation in Hospitals
09:34 The Role of Technology and Human Judgment in Healthcare
13:40 The Impact of Process Improvement on Hospital Reputation and Bottom Line
15:20 Working with Hospitals to Improve Processes
22:43 Success Story: Reducing Fall Rates in Hospitals
23:47 Contact Information and Closing Remarks

North Fulton Business Radio is hosted by John Ray and broadcast and produced from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta. You can find the full archive of shows by following this link. The show is available on all the major podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon, iHeart Radio, and many others.

RenasantBank

 

Renasant Bank has humble roots, starting in 1904 as a $100,000 bank in a Lee County, Mississippi, bakery. Since then, Renasant has become one of the Southeast’s strongest financial institutions, with over $13 billion in assets and more than 190 banking, lending, wealth management, and financial services offices in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. All of Renasant’s success stems from each of their banker’s commitment to investing in their communities as a way of better understanding the people they serve. At Renasant Bank, they understand you because they work and live alongside you every day.

 

Tagged With: Brandy Wilkins, Defining Point Coaching and Consulting, Healthcare, healthcare organizations, healthcare quality, healthcare technology, hospitals, John Ray, North Fulton Business Radio, patient safety

Effective Marketing for the Home Services Industry, with Richard Blount, Four Winds Marketing

November 29, 2023 by John Ray

Four Winds Marketing
North Fulton Business Radio
Effective Marketing for the Home Services Industry, with Richard Blount, Four Winds Marketing
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Four Winds Marketing

Effective Marketing for the Home Services Industry, with Richard Blount, Four Winds Marketing  (North Fulton Business Radio, Episode 722)

In this episode of North Fulton Business Radio, host John Ray spoke with Richard Blount of Four Winds Marketing. They discussed the importance of SEO and effective marketing for home service providers, focusing on the need for a professionally designed, functional website that caters to the end user and fosters immediate engagement. Richard highlighted how SEO involves technical, on-page, and off-page aspects, and he underlined the need to refresh a business’s look every four to five years to remain updated and relevant. Richard also shared success stories of businesses that experienced significant growth through his effective online marketing strategies.

North Fulton Business Radio is broadcast from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta.

Four Winds Marketing

Four Winds Marketing is a full-service creative and digital marketing agency.

They increase online traffic and engagement for more booked appointments and visibility. They provide services such as website development, SEO, SEM/PPC, Social Media, Email Marketing, and SaaS solutions.

Four Wind’s primary clients are in the home services industry, like electricians, HVAC, plumbing, landscaping, tree services, etc.

Company website | LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram

Richard Blount, CEO, Four Winds Marketing

Richard Blount, CEO, Four Winds Marketing

Richard is a rare cross-brained breed, possessing a unique blend of analytical skills and creative talent. With a background in finance at WDW (Walt Disney World), he has developed a keen ability to dissect and analyze complex data sets and spreadsheets. Driven by his passion for design and marketing, Richard ventured into agencies where he excelled in graphic design, web development, and marketing. His exceptional skills and innovative mindset earned him recognition in the form of multiple awards.

Recognizing that attractive websites alone were not enough, Richard delved into the realm of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Through extensive study and relentless determination, he achieved exceptional results for his clients, ensuring their websites ranked high on Google and gained maximum visibility in search engine results. Although Richard’s ability has been to apply his analytical skills, design expertise, and marketing experience to a wide range of clients, he is narrowing his company’s focus to maximizing opportunities within the Home Services Industries.

By combining data-driven insights, captivating design elements, and strategic marketing approaches, he helps Home Services businesses thrive in the competitive digital landscape. Richard understands the unique challenges and requirements of these industries, and his multidisciplinary approach allows him to create comprehensive solutions that drive growth and success for his clients.

Richard’s unwavering commitment to excellence and his ability to leverage his diverse skill set make him a trusted partner in the Home Services industry.

LinkedIn

Questions and Topics in this Interview:

  • 02:17 Richard’s Journey into Marketing
  • 04:01 Richard’s Unique Blend of Finance and Marketing
  • 04:27 The Importance of SEO and Website Functionality
  • 10:25 The Impact of Professionalism in Marketing
  • 17:26 The Importance of Regularly Updating Your Website and Logo
  • 21:47 The Mystery of SEO Explained
  • 26:03 Success Stories from Four Winds Marketing

North Fulton Business Radio is hosted by John Ray and broadcast and produced from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta. You can find the full archive of shows by following this link. The show is available on all the major podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon, iHeart Radio, Stitcher, TuneIn, and others.

RenasantBank

 

Renasant Bank has humble roots, starting in 1904 as a $100,000 bank in a Lee County, Mississippi, bakery. Since then, Renasant has become one of the Southeast’s strongest financial institutions, with over $13 billion in assets and more than 190 banking, lending, wealth management, and financial services offices in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. All of Renasant’s success stems from each of their banker’s commitment to investing in their communities as a way of better understanding the people they serve. At Renasant Bank, they understand you because they work and live alongside you every day.

Since 2000, Office Angels® has been restoring joy to the lives of small business owners, enabling them to focus on what they do best. At the same time, we honor and support at-home experts who wish to continue working on an as-needed basis. Not a temp firm or a placement service, Office Angels matches a business owner’s support needs with Angels who have the talent and experience necessary to handle work that is essential to creating and maintaining a successful small business. Need help with administrative tasks, bookkeeping, marketing, presentations, workshops, speaking engagements, and more? Visit us at https://officeangels.us/.

TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00] Richard Blount: Live from the Business RadioX studio inside Renasant Bank, the bank that specializes in understanding you, it’s time for North Fulton business radio.
[00:00:19] John Ray: And hello again, everyone. Welcome to another edition of North Fulton business radio. I’m John Ray and folks, we are broadcasting from inside Renasant bank in beautiful Alpharetta. And if you’re tired of the big bank experience, the mega banks who really don’t want to talk to you live, they want a computer to talk to you.
[00:00:39] John Ray: If you are at one of those banks, you know what I’m talking about. If you’re tired of that kind of experience, Renasant, I think has found a magic combination between being big enough to handle pretty much any need you can throw at them, but they’re small enough to deliver their services in a personal way.
[00:00:58] John Ray: I’ve found that myself, and I think you will too. If you’ll go to renasantbank. com. And find one of their local offices and give them a call and guess what? They answer the phone. Imagine that Renasant bank, understanding you, member FDIC. And now I want to welcome Richard Blount. Richard is with Four Winds Marketing Agency, Richard.
[00:01:22] John Ray: Welcome.
[00:01:23] Richard Blount: Thank you. Good to be here.
[00:01:24] John Ray: Yeah. Great to have you here. Let’s talk about you and your firm. How’re you serving folks out there?
[00:01:29] Richard Blount: We are a full-service online marketing agency providing websites, SEO, social media, all that fun stuff for promoting businesses. We mainly focus on home service, um, companies and just help them.
[00:01:49] Richard Blount: grow. That’s our favorite thing to do.
[00:01:51] John Ray: And let’s, for those that don’t know, I’m sure most people do, but let’s define home services specifically.
[00:01:58] Richard Blount: That covers anything from roofing to landscaping. So HVAC, electrical, plumbing, carpentry, all that kind of stuff. Just
[00:02:08] Richard Blount: about anybody that pulls up in with a truck in front of a home and is going inside or outside to work, right?
[00:02:15] John Ray: Yeah. Yeah. Got it. Let’s talk about a little bit about your backstory and what your journey has been and how you got into marketing.
[00:02:25] Richard Blount: That’s a pretty loaded question. It was definitely not a straight line. I’ve been drawing since I was five. And then but my mom said I should be an artist when I grew up, but I wanted to be rich.
[00:02:39] Richard Blount: I didn’t want to be a poor, starving artist. And so I ended up heading more toward got a job at Disney working in finance, worked my way up. And I was the only one on a team of 70 people that had Happy Meal toys all over his cubicle. Had posters up, and if a report needed to look pretty, give it to Richard, he’d, that’s what he does.
[00:03:04] Richard Blount: And so I was involved in a lot of creative things throughout my entire life. And then, finally left Disney, and, in my early thirties and got on with an ad agency down just outside of Orlando. And worked my way up art director and then moved around a little bit. Ended up in a.
[00:03:25] Richard Blount: And it’s a great place. With paper there, they had an internal agency and where we were servicing all their clients doing print online, digital websites, all that kind of stuff. And we were rocking it. It was a lot of fun. And I won awards and got recognized. And but, newspaper industry started to Take a dive.
[00:03:49] Richard Blount: And I was doing a lot of freelance and then just got a vision for starting the company in 2015 and launched it January 1st, 2016.
[00:04:00] John Ray: That’s terrific. Now you’re unusual. You in a good way because not many people have a successful. in the finance side of business and then make this shift over to marketing.
[00:04:16] John Ray: So what did, what does that say about you and your talents? And I guess what is that background in finance? How does that help you with your clients today?
[00:04:27] Richard Blount: Oh
[00:04:28] Richard Blount: yeah. I found that to be very helpful, especially when it comes to doing SEO work and and just running a business in and of itself because I’m used to spreadsheets.
[00:04:39] Richard Blount: I can look at numbers and yeah, I loved math as a kid. I did well in math and science and art, those were my go to places. And so I just worked in that that realm, for me, it was just natural just to do the finance thing and it’s all tracking and and all that.
[00:04:59] Richard Blount: And so it transfers over very well, especially trying to run your own business, cause you got to switch hats a lot. Sure. And so being able to stay profitable with your own business and then with SEO, it’s very much math based and creative based. You’ve got to have both mindsets in order to try to.
[00:05:19] Richard Blount: work the algorithm sorry, the algorithms that that Google uses and just to track your numbers, your conversion rates, your impressions. I could get into a lot of technical stuff right there, but it really helps. Yeah.
[00:05:32] John Ray: That makes a lot of sense. And algorithms come out of math.
[00:05:36] John Ray: Yeah. And. Google is full of data people.
[00:05:40] Richard Blount: Yeah. Yeah. And you start to see patterns. And so we could do a lot of testing as far as so it’s a wonderful mix between the psychology of people who are searching the internet and the math that Google is using to try to serve up the correct information that people are searching for.
[00:05:59] Richard Blount: And so just, We do a B testing on different things. So just changing the color of something, the image the layout a little bit and have a big impact on that. So I think just being able to go back and study the numbers and look at how things are working and looking at the trends really helps a lot and is a lot more interesting than finance.
[00:06:22] Richard Blount: Finance was okay, but it was. There was a reason why I had posters up and I started a newsletter within the company. Really? Yeah. And then, cause I would write, I would do illustrations for it and stuff like that. And cause I was always about all is all about fostering a team and bringing people together.
[00:06:40] Richard Blount: That was my thing that I enjoyed doing.
[00:06:42] John Ray: That’s pretty cool. Yeah. And I can see how, when There are probably a few people down the hall or around the corner or what have you. When they needed a little more fun in their day, they came to see you, right?
[00:06:53] Richard Blount: Oh, yeah.
[00:06:57] Richard Blount: And if they didn’t, I would stop by and see them. . , that’s right.
[00:07:02] John Ray: The holdouts you would go find. I love it. I would, I love it. Richard Pilot is with us folks. He is the CEO of his own firm. Four wins. Marketing. So you’ve decided to form your own firm along the way, and why the focus on home services for you?
[00:07:19] Richard Blount: A couple of reasons. The first house I built was built in 1940 so it needed work. , I was horrible at doing the work myself, so I was constantly reaching out to electricians, plumbers, and roofers because the things I would try to do myself. I failed miserably and
[00:07:38] John Ray: I identify with that.
[00:07:39] Richard Blount: Yeah.
[00:07:40] Richard Blount: I really grew to respect what they do and I really appreciated honest home service providers, because there are a lot of ones out there that don’t put out good work, but there are ones that do a good work and I respect them. And then actually the second house I built was in, I bought was built in the forties.
[00:08:02] Richard Blount: My third house was built in the fifties, and then when we moved up here to Atlanta, this house was built in 1970. And my wife was like, this is an old house. I’m like, what? It’s new to me. This is fantastic.
[00:08:16] Richard Blount: It’s 30 years newer than the ones I’m usually used
[00:08:19] Richard Blount: to, right? Exactly. Yeah. And yeah, we’ve I’ve always dealt with.
[00:08:23] Richard Blount: Window people, garage people, roofers. And so I watched their marketing. I watch, I look at their websites. I look at what they’re doing to reach out to people and it’s all stuff I can identify with. And I, again, I respect it. And As I, in the agencies that I worked in, they cater to everybody from termite people to security people, from dentists to lawyers.
[00:08:51] Richard Blount: You name it. We did a website or advertising forum. And so when I started the company, that was my, I just kept the same mindset, but it naturally just worked out that around 20 to 40 percent of my clients ended up being in the home service industry. Anyway, either contractor contractors or HVAC people, stuff like that.
[00:09:14] Richard Blount: And and those are the ones I had the most success with as far as uh, building out their websites, their online marketing, doing their their SEO and even social media. things like that. There are a lot of fun and I like working with people who do a good job because I like to do a good job for them and so that’s we’re starting to you know zero in on that and focus on that industry specifically and instead of trying to cater to everyone I’m gonna just go ahead and focus on the industries I respect and with the ones that I have the best So I can show them, what we can do.
[00:09:54] John Ray: Yeah. That, that, that makes sense. You said something there that I’m curious about, and I would imagine a lot of home services people are too, those contractors out there that they are honest. And there’s a lot of them out there that, that. Yeah. They’re, they are, they’re honest.
[00:10:13] John Ray: They do great work. They. Tell clients things that cost them money sometimes because they’re honest. How do you communicate that in your marketing effectively?
[00:10:25] Richard Blount: Oh, about about them being honest and
[00:10:28] John Ray: being, because everybody says they’re honest and trustworthy, right? And that’s almost a cliche in some of this marketing that home services folks do. The ones that really How do they, though, have that philosophy of way of doing business? How do they communicate that effectively in their marketing?
[00:10:45] Richard Blount: Well, a lot of it shows in the quality of the marketing itself.
[00:10:51] Richard Blount: When it’s a subtle thing to see graphics and messaging that come across from a professional standpoint versus, somebody who’s not in, in the industry, there are really cliche kind of things that people will say, but then there is the more, I don’t know how to say it. Just there, there’s a, an essence in doing the marketing itself, just in the graphic work in the messaging and the, even the colors that are used.
[00:11:29] Richard Blount: tHere’s a lot of things that play subconsciously into the viewer’s mind when they’re looking at something, either if it’s a website, there are so many times people will try to put up a very simple website that doesn’t offer a lot of functionality and it’s just a postcard on the screen is basically all it is.
[00:11:52] Richard Blount: Whereas with a professional. So what we try to do is go, all right, look, let’s cater to the end user and give them an option to do an online booking to do an instant chat and to engage with you quickly where, and we can set it up so that you get texts or the the company gets texts so they can engage immediately with the viewer.
[00:12:18] Richard Blount: So like
[00:12:19] John Ray: through the chat feature, you mentioned
[00:12:21] Richard Blount: through the chat.
[00:12:22] John Ray: Oh, wow. Okay.
[00:12:23] Richard Blount: So
[00:12:23] Richard Blount: it’ll go straight from the chat to a text to the owner. Oh, wow. So that way the owner gets a text going, Hey, you’ve got a chat going on with your website and they can respond immediately. Oh, that’s great. And it keeps somebody from going on to the next person.
[00:12:39] Richard Blount: So as opposed to just having. Something on the website that says, Hey, I’m legit. Go check it out. As opposed to something that shows up on a website. That’s got my history to it and has functionality to it where people will actually stay on the page I guess if somebody’s on there for a second and a half.
[00:13:00] Richard Blount: Which is a lot of times average. It doesn’t sound
[00:13:04] John Ray: Okay, let’s just stop right there. Yeah a second and a half. That’s the average
[00:13:09] Richard Blount: Yeah, really one to two seconds is where somebody will be on a page and it doesn’t sound like a whole lot of time But you can get a gist of something We get it just instantly because of visuals.
[00:13:21] Richard Blount: And so by adding the functionality and doing providing more content, getting them to stay on there for four to five seconds to a minute then at that point, if you’ve got them engaged, they’re either texting or booking an online appointment or something like that. So at that point.
[00:13:41] Richard Blount: They’re invested. Sure. And they’ve spent a minute on your website. Yeah, that’s huge.
[00:13:45] John Ray: Wow. This is fascinating to me. And I’m sure a lot of business owners out there just shaking their heads at this, right? But that makes sense. If someone, if the average time on a website is one to two seconds, people are, they want an instant impression.
[00:14:03] John Ray: And that’s where the quality of the graphics, the art, the colors, everything you mentioned that’s where that comes into play.
[00:14:12] Richard Blount: Exactly. Okay. All that comes in because there’s a psychology to all of that. Sure. Because there’s. One or two things that people are looking for immediately. They’re looking for, what you do, where you’re at and how to contact you because they know they’re not going to get a price off of your website.
[00:14:30] Richard Blount: They need to like engage with you and they want to do it. Like 80 percent of people want to do it through a text. And if you have that feature on your website where they can chat and turn that right into a text. Then you’ve got them. Yeah. Yeah. You’re going to schedule an appointment, a phone call, and from there, your sales team takes it on.
[00:14:49] John Ray: Well,
[00:14:49] John Ray: and that feature among others, I’m sure you could talk about. Really reveals professionalism and that’s really what you’re talking about when you’re talking about features that show that you, that illustrate your trustworthiness. Exactly. That, that when you have a feature like that, as opposed to the last three websites that they checked that don’t.
[00:15:14] John Ray: You instantly differentiate yourself.
[00:15:16] Richard Blount: Yeah. Through the website you want there’s a lot of. pRofessionalism that goes into that. You want somebody to put that together who has a history of doing that. And so there’s just a lot of background work and a lot of stuff that comes in there.
[00:15:32] Richard Blount: It’s the whole thing where I think everybody’s heard the story where. There’s a boiler that’s not working in somebody’s basement, and they call somebody, they come in, they can’t figure out how to fix it. They call somebody else, they can’t fix it either. They call a third person, he walks him, takes a look around, waits a second, he takes out, he pulls out a hammer, hits it on the side, and then…
[00:15:58] Richard Blount: Boom. It’s running fine. He says, all right, that’ll be 1, 000. Like, how’s that 1, 000? You’re only there for a minute. aNybody could have hit that with a hammer. Yeah. But did you know where to hit it? Yeah. So that’s what we’re dealing with a lot of times, it’s hard to explain how I know where to hit the hammer where, but that’s how it works in, in, since I’ve been doing this since.
[00:16:22] Richard Blount: I think I started doing graphic design in the eighties and then built my first website in 1995. And I’ve been watching how SEO works ever since, that just analyzing how it all works. So I’ve got at this point, 25 plus years doing this. And so much of it has become almost instinct. And somebody asked me one time years ago, where do you get your inspiration?
[00:16:48] Richard Blount: And I said, I get it from everywhere, every magazine, every billboard, every television ad, every, radio ad every email I get and a website I visit. There’s so much I soak in from that. And there are I used to keep files of all this kind of stuff, an inspiration file. So that when I needed to create something, because we used to work with so many different types of businesses, then I would just go to my inspiration file and just start going through that and then find yeah, and this is what inspired me to go in that direction or the other direction, something like that.
[00:17:26] John Ray: How often does a home services company need to refresh their look, whether it’s their logo, website, what have you? I asked that question because a lot of them, um, I think, and correct me if I’m wrong, but this is my perception. They get to a point where, they’ve got a pretty good call, pretty good business.
[00:17:49] John Ray: They’ve got established. Calling patterns based on their reviews and referrals and all that kind of thing, right? And they let the website slide, and they, maybe the logos a little dated or what have you. So how often should that refresh occur?
[00:18:05] Richard Blount: From what I’ve seen in the industry, every.
[00:18:07] Richard Blount: Four to five years, I would go in and refresh because styles are constantly changing. And people can can tell. When a website looks 10 years old or older, there’s functionality, there’s graphics, there’s messaging, there’s layouts, there’s all these different things. And then the website itself is actually getting faster.
[00:18:33] Richard Blount: So different hosting providers are speeding up or the software that they run helps speed things up. And so the websites need to stay up with that as well. So there’s a lot of. Back end stuff. It’s like a car. You’ve got to constantly take it in and get it tuned up or and fixed up or whatever on a regular basis.
[00:18:52] Richard Blount: But I would say what I’ve seen every four to five years you may have to go in and retool the website. I’m not saying that you need to replace it. If a company has been a business, I would say five to 10 years or more. They definitely don’t want to replace their website because their website already has a lot of history with Google.
[00:19:15] Richard Blount: And if you create a new website, then you’re breaking all those old links and creating new ones. And Google looks at it as though you’re starting fresh. In those cases, there’s retooling that can be done to a website to make it more modern and all that without breaking all those links and all that history with Google.
[00:19:37] Richard Blount: But with a company that is, say a company is like 5 years old or whatever, or even if they are 10 years old, But they’re not doing the kind of business that they want to be doing if they’re, they haven’t broken, say 200 or 500, 000 a year yet, or they’re in that range, then at that point a lot of times what I’ll do is I’ll look at how their Google ranking is and, a lot of research can be done.
[00:20:05] Richard Blount: And if we need to, it’s a, you’re fine to go ahead and, it. Build a new website and start from scratch and get that going. A lot of times it depends on the age of the company. And how, how busy they are. How many, clients that they have going and all that kind of stuff. And then even if they do, there’s still social media and Google ads and things like that could be done to help.
[00:20:32] Richard Blount: Boost that kind of stuff. But as far as their logo goes, that can always be updated. Shoot, Google has changed their logo. I lost track of how many times. It’s got to be well over 2000 times since they launched in 95, 96. Yeah. And AT& T, although they changed theirs, they modified it a little bit here and there.
[00:20:55] Richard Blount: So there’s, as far as changing the logo, people will have this idea that it’s taboo to change it. I’m like, no, you can always refresh it and, bring it up to, more current standards and there’s techniques and way to do it, that it makes sense. And same with messaging colors and stuff like that.
[00:21:13] Richard Blount: And actually it can be a good way to relaunch your company. So if you’ve been around for say five or 10 years. And you’re at a point where it’s just like you and two other guys, maybe got two trucks or three trucks or whatever, and you have aspirations of 10 trucks, then going through a rebranding can be a really good thing because it’s a relaunch and it’s a great way to foster up new press releases.
[00:21:40] Richard Blount: And do grand openings and all that kind of stuff. So there’s just a lot of things that can be done.
[00:21:44] John Ray: Yeah.
[00:21:45] John Ray: Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. SEO search engine optimization. Yeah, this is where you were talking about how. iT can be a mystery around what the right color is and all that.
[00:21:58] John Ray: Now we’re really getting the mysteries, right? SEO. And I, I think the average home services entrepreneur, they know they need to be found on web search, but they don’t know all the, what goes into that, right? And it’s hard to judge effectiveness, right? So what advice do you give them on that?
[00:22:23] Richard Blount: That’s
[00:22:24] Richard Blount: a SEO is a big one. Yeah. Cause I’ve seen it change from the beginning. Google constantly updates its algorithm and and they fine tune it and they will even work to hone it in on specific industries. They’ve done updates that really hit the financial industry earlier this year. And but if the SEO is done, then a website can survive an update by Google because there’s there’s white hat, black hat, gray hat, methodologies and white hat is, I just think about, think of it like in the old Westerns, the guy with the white hat did everything the way it was supposed to be done. The guy with the black hat.
[00:23:10] Richard Blount: He was always the outlaw, and sooner or later, the outlaw got caught, thrown in jail. So that’s what I would see happening. Or worse. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And Google provides Google Analytics. It’s a free tool that anybody can create an account with. And then hook that up to their website and it will show them the amount of traffic, the amount of where it’s coming from and how they’re showing up.
[00:23:38] Richard Blount: And then there’s another one that Google has called Google Search Console. And that will show people How many people clicked on it, what pages they clicked on and all that kind of stuff. So those are free. Google offers that for everybody. And for all our clients, what we do is we hook into their account or create an account for them.
[00:23:58] Richard Blount: Cause a lot of people don’t even want to mess with it, but we will set that up and we run reports to show them and the reports can be quite daunting. There’s a lot of information in there, but there’s key areas that we look at. I won’t get into all the technical stuff, but that will show us the results.
[00:24:19] Richard Blount: But with SEO, there are actually three aspects of it. There’s the technical SEO, which has to do with the The technical part of the website running fast, the the layout and things like that. That’s all the technical stuff. The meta tags and meta description, all the things that Google looks at.
[00:24:40] Richard Blount: Then there’s the on page SEO, which are all the things that are done to build out the website. So that it is more effective and will capture or, Capture is not the right word, but will attract more keywords. And then there’s off page SEO. And that’s to deal with other areas on the web that point back to your website.
[00:25:04] John Ray: Wow.
[00:25:06] John Ray: A good reason to have a, aUthority here, folks, Richard Blount, Four Winds Marketing. Wow. That’s pretty that gets deep fast.
[00:25:15] Richard Blount: It does get deep fast. Yeah. I’m trying to keep it short and sweet. Yeah.
[00:25:19] John Ray: Yeah. But what, here’s what I’m hearing out of this is that, you’ve got a background, in finance, it’s not just the numbers and you learn in finance that just cause you can measure it doesn’t mean it’s important.
[00:25:33] John Ray: Correct.

[00:25:37] John Ray: And you bring that background to it, right? You can help a business owners know what’s important. And in that daunting report and winnow it down to something that’s simple and easy to understand.
[00:25:48] Richard Blount: Exactly. I try to give them that and then I will look at the secondary stuff that is a little bit in the minutiae.
[00:25:56] Richard Blount: Yeah. But I know it can have an underlining effect and help me increase their search engine results. Yeah.
[00:26:02] John Ray: Terrific. I want to get to success stories here, Richard, as we come to a close. You’ve been at this for a while, worked with a lot of different home services professionals. Give us a success story or two to help illustrate the great work you do.
[00:26:19] Richard Blount: We did we were working with one electrician company and within three years we got them to a point where I remember my numbers because there’s quite a few their paid traffic increased 470%. Their organic traffic increased 810%. And what the difference between paid and organic is basically the ads that were being run for them increased how many people were coming to their website as and then working with the SEO alongside of that.
[00:26:55] Richard Blount: iNcrease it over 800 percent in the course of three years as a result. They increased from about, I think they had five or six people working at that time. Now they’ve got over 16 people working and the owner no longer has to work out in the field. He’s no longer in a truck, actually working the jobs.
[00:27:12] Richard Blount: He’s overseeing everybody at that point. Wow.
[00:27:15] John Ray: And then that’s a great place to be. Yeah.
[00:27:18] Richard Blount: Yeah. It’s either that or there was a one HVAC supplier. And, we worked with. And, yeah, we increased their traffic over 600 percent their monthly visitors rose 714 percent in the course of four years. Their visibility grew to a point.
[00:27:38] Richard Blount: Where we had an increase of their keywords by 875%. So keywords are, when you type in something in Google to look for something, that is a keyword. And the more keywords that you capture the more visibility you have. And they grew to a point where they were able to sell their company to a national company.
[00:27:58] Richard Blount: And so the owner was able to sell it for big bucks and retire. And
[00:28:02] John Ray: wow, lots of value there.
[00:28:04] Richard Blount: Yeah. So I, those are the things I like working towards.
[00:28:07] John Ray: Yeah. Wow. That’s fantastic. Richard Blount. Folks with Four Winds Marketing Richard, that’s that’s a great way to end this and I, I want to get to the most important question that people have, I’m sure right at this point, which is how they can get in touch with you.
[00:28:25] Richard Blount: Through our website, that’s our best bet. Of course. Yeah. That’s a four winds marketing dot us or United States. Or any spell out four wins F O U R W I N D S. Marketing. us
[00:28:39] John Ray: Terrific. RiChard Blount with Four Winds Marketing richard such great work and we’re excited to be able to highlight you and share your story and keep up that great work.
[00:28:51] John Ray: We appreciate you.
[00:28:52] Richard Blount: Thanks, john. I appreciated being here. Enjoyed talking to you. It was an honor.
[00:28:55] John Ray: Yeah, thank you so much. I appreciate that. Hey folks, just a quick reminder. If you are, Having some search problems in your business being your back office and what I mean are getting to the bottom of that administrative task pile you need to get done or maybe you’re having problem finding all those receipts and you when it comes to tax time, your bookkeeping is a mess.
[00:29:20] John Ray: Here’s an answer for you. that will help restore the joy to your business that you used to have that you don’t have anymore because of all these problems. Office angels. They have a whole team of angels that fly in and get that work done for you so you can focus on what’s most important in your business, which is working with your clients and your employees, right?
[00:29:41] John Ray: Let them take those issues off your plate and give them a call. Just describe what your problem is and let them know we sent you. Describe what your problem is and I think they’ll be able to help you. 6 7 8 5 2 8 0 5 0 0 is the number office angels dot us is the website. If you’re shy, I want to learn more, a little bit about them before you call.
[00:30:04] John Ray: But I just encourage you to be in touch. They do great work. And I know that myself because they do work for me and my business and I couldn’t work without them. And folks, just a quick reminder, if you’re listening to this show. Here at the end of November, 2023, I’ve got a book coming out. It’s called The Generosity Mindset Method for Business Success.
[00:30:27] John Ray: Raise your Confidence, your Value, and Your Prices. If you’re listening to this show later in December or in 2024, the book’s out , so go check it out. If you’re a a small firm or solo professional services provider, this might be a book that. You have an interest in might be helpful to you in your business.
[00:30:46] John Ray: Go to the generosity mindset. com to learn more, where to find the book. Also, I want to thank you, our listener. You have supported us significantly. Just very heartening ways over this last seven and a half years. As we have passed show number 700, you continue to like us on social media, you share the show and please keep doing that.
[00:31:09] John Ray: If you’ve heard something here that makes you think, Hey, I know. I’ve got a home services buddy that needs some help with this marketing. Maybe you need to share the show with that person. And they need to know about what Richard’s up to, but this is true for any of our shows. So when you hear something that makes you think, Hey, this would be a good person for someone else to know.
[00:31:28] John Ray: Please continue to do that. That’s how we get the word out on the great work that business leaders like Richard and the some 1100 others we’ve had on this show, the great work that they do. And it helps us fulfill our mission to be the voice of business in the North Fulton region. So for my guest, Richard Blount, I’m John Ray.
[00:31:49] John Ray: Join us next time here on North Fulton business radio.

 

Tagged With: Four Winds Marketing, google, home services company, John Ray, logo, marketing, North Fulton Business Radio, Office Angels, renasant bank, Richard Blount, SEO, The Generosity Mindset, website, website design

The Importance of Talent Development and Custom Solutions for Business Growth, with Lori Fancher, TrainingPros

November 27, 2023 by John Ray

Lori Fancher
North Fulton Business Radio
The Importance of Talent Development and Custom Solutions for Business Growth, with Lori Fancher, TrainingPros
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Lori Fancher

The Importance of Talent Development and Custom Solutions for Business Growth, with Lori Fancher, TrainingPros  (North Fulton Business Radio, Episode 721)

Lori Fancher, Relationship Manager with TrainingPros, joined host John Ray to discuss the significance of finding the right talent at the right time for businesses. Lori shared her passion for lifelong learning and human resource development, highlighting how they align with her current role at TrainingPros. She focused on the shifting landscape of the corporate world due to COVID-19 and the evolution of gig work as an accommodating solution. Lori outlined how TrainingPros helps leaders manage their project loads and how she has seen a rewarding transition of contract employees into permanent roles within companies.

The discussion also covered Lori’s award-winning project with Synovus Bank as well as an introduction to the Cana Foundation, a non-profit supporting leadership development and personal growth. They concluded by emphasizing the importance of flexibility, coherence with corporate goals, and how rigorous identification of the right talent forms the foundation of organizational success.

North Fulton Business Radio is broadcast from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta.

TrainingPros

For more than 25 years, TrainingPros has served the training, eLearning, and technical writing communities by providing qualified learning and development (L&D) consultants to clients on a contract basis. In addition to staffing services, TrainingPros provides custom eLearning and instructor-led training development for companies through managed services.

The company has relationship managers in locations throughout the United States to serve both clients and consultants. TrainingPros is certified as a Women’s Business Enterprise by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council.

When learning leaders have more projects than people, TrainingPros can provide the right L&D consultants to start their projects with confidence.

Company website | LinkedIn | Facebook | YouTube

Lori Fancher, PhD, Relationship Manager, TrainingPros

Lori Fancher, PhD, Relationship Manager, TrainingPros

Lori Fancher, PhD, is a relationship manager at TrainingPros, Lori guides talent development consultants, leaders and executives in the selection and placement of expert contract-based staff to realize strategic business results. Her background working with operations and human resources leaders spans multiple industries, including health care, insurance, retail, transportation, and banking. Having been a client of TrainingPros in the past, Lori is well acquainted with the firm and its mission.

Bringing over 18 years of experience as a consultant and a leader in the enterprise learning and design industry, Lori has advised clients in achieving strategic imperatives by maximizing capabilities and improving the performance of large companies. She also has a combined 10 years of business research and consulting experience in talent and organization development (OD), HR metrics and strategy, internal capabilities and organizational culture.

Lori earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, and holds a doctorate, in human resource development and OD from Georgia State University. She is a member of the Association for Talent Development, is certified in CCI DISC and Uniquely You from Arrow Coaching+ (formally Christian Coaching Institute) and is a Hogan Leadership Coach by Hogan Assessment Systems.

LinkedIn

Questions and Topics in this Interview:

  • 01:19 Guest Introduction: Lori Fancher from TrainingPros
  • 01:50 Lori’s Passion for Human Resource Development
  • 03:34 The Role of Learning in Organizational Development
  • 04:36 Lori’s Journey to TrainingPros
  • 06:02 Understanding the Role of a Relationship Manager
  • 08:01 Trends in Talent Development and the Impact of COVID-19
  • 11:16 The Rise of Gig Workers and Advice for New Gig Workers
  • 14:50 Understanding the Business of Contracting
  • 15:34 The Importance of Marketing and Branding Yourself
  • 15:48 The Role of TrainingPros in Your Business
  • 16:11 Addressing the Challenges of Leadership Development
  • 17:05 The Art and Science Behind Successful Training
  • 17:27 The Role of TrainingPros in Project Prioritization
  • 18:11 The Impact of TrainingPros on Organizational Transformation
  • 18:30 Celebrating Success: The Synovus Project
  • 20:44 The Cana Foundation: A Nonprofit Initiative
  • 23:57 The Success Stories of TrainingPros
  • 26:14 The Versatility of TrainingPros Across Industries

North Fulton Business Radio is hosted by John Ray and broadcast and produced from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta. You can find the full archive of shows by following this link. The show is available on all the major podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon, iHeart Radio, Stitcher, TuneIn, and others.

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Renasant Bank has humble roots, starting in 1904 as a $100,000 bank in a Lee County, Mississippi, bakery. Since then, Renasant has become one of the Southeast’s strongest financial institutions, with over $13 billion in assets and more than 190 banking, lending, wealth management, and financial services offices in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. All of Renasant’s success stems from each of their banker’s commitment to investing in their communities as a way of better understanding the people they serve. At Renasant Bank, they understand you because they work and live alongside you every day.

Since 2000, Office Angels® has been restoring joy to the lives of small business owners, enabling them to focus on what they do best. At the same time, we honor and support at-home experts who wish to continue working on an as-needed basis. Not a temp firm or a placement service, Office Angels matches a business owner’s support needs with Angels who have the talent and experience necessary to handle work that is essential to creating and maintaining a successful small business. Need help with administrative tasks, bookkeeping, marketing, presentations, workshops, speaking engagements, and more? Visit us at https://officeangels.us/.

TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00] From the business radio X studio inside Renasant bank, the bank that specializes in understanding you it’s time for north Fulton business radio.
[00:00:17] John Ray: Hello again everyone. And welcome to another edition of North Fulton Business Radio. I’m John Ray and folks, we are broadcasting from inside Renasant bank in beautiful Alpharetta. And if you’re looking for a bank that’s big enough to handle pretty much any need you can throw at them. But they’re small enough to deliver their services in a personal way on, and I know this myself because I work with them. Renasant bank is your choice. At least I think, and again, know this personally. Here’s what I would tell you about them. And maybe the way to test, go to Renasant bank.com.
[00:00:55] John Ray: Find one of their local offices and give them a call. See if a live person answers the phone. They will. And imagine that for a, in the banking world today, that’s just the way they do their business. And it’s indicative of wait, what happens if you become a Renasant customer.
[00:01:13] John Ray: Renasant bank, understanding you, member FDIC.
[00:01:19] John Ray: And now want to welcome Lori Fancher. Lori is a relationship manager with TrainingPros. Lori, welcome.
[00:01:25] Lori Fancher: Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
[00:01:27] John Ray: Yeah. Delighted to have you here. Let’s talk about you and your work, how’re you serving folks out there.
[00:01:33] Lori Fancher: Yeah. So I’m helping people find the right talent at the right time to get their training projects done.
[00:01:40] John Ray: Oh, nobody needs that these days.
[00:01:41] John Ray: Right? Everybody needs that. Okay. This is a timely interview. Glad to have you here. Let’s talk about your journey and what makes you passionate about human resource development, organizational development. Whatever you want to call it. That’s your world. What makes you passionate about that work?
[00:02:05] Lori Fancher: Sure.
[00:02:05] Lori Fancher: So I’m a lifelong learner. I’m an achiever too. And I’m a connector according to StrengthsFinder. Anyway. And so it lines up perfectly with where I am today. The journey for me started out with, I got involved a little bit in corporate and having an opportunity to train others. And my love of learning led me to pursue how to do that better and how to help learners learn what they need to do to be successful on the job. And at throughout that journey. What I realized is that. Sometimes training.
[00:02:37] Lori Fancher: Isn’t the answer. And if training is not the answer, then what. Can be the answer. And what role does organization two organizations play? And helping people learn and grow. So that led me down the path of pursuing my education and human resource development, which is really focused on organizational development. Training and learning and career development. That’s how we get our people.
[00:03:05] Lori Fancher: That’s how we keep our people.
[00:03:06] John Ray: Yeah, for sure. I want to come back to what you said about training there in a minute, but you’ve got a PhD in human resource development and organizational development now. My bride is a. PhD and I know what it takes to get a PhD in any. Discipline. So that reveals some passion that you have about your work. Talk about that passion.
[00:03:34] Lori Fancher: Yeah.
[00:03:34] Lori Fancher: So when you look at learning and you look at what help, what, how do we learn? We have to, we learn from our environment. We learn from other people that are modeled around us at work. We learn from our leaders. We learn from our colleagues. Exposure to resources, right? It’s very complex.
[00:03:49] Lori Fancher: The discipline itself has a lot of other disciplines involved in there. And so I pursued the PhD to be able to have credibility. And helping organizations at that highest level understand. If we want to create corporate learning. If we want to operate corporately corporate, it means. We are. Yeah. That’s many, that’s the collective operating as the individual. How do you take all these people? Learn differently and they pursue work differently. And get them to all align and operate corporately as an individual. And I loved that.
[00:04:27] Lori Fancher: So that’s why I pursued the PhD.
[00:04:31] John Ray: Wow. What. What a great testimony for that. You’re at TrainingPros. I don’t want to talk about your work with TrainingPros, but talk about your journey prior to TrainingPros. Yeah, I
[00:04:42] Lori Fancher: was the client. Okay. So I’ve been, and I was a consultant. So consulting in this space and then going in and out of corporate in my corporate roles, I was responsible for bringing in the right people to help me on these projects. anD use trading pros for a lot of that time training process has been around for 26 years. And had a relationship with them maybe 20 at 24 years ago.
[00:05:04] Lori Fancher: Okay. I’m working with them and they’ve provided me with the, as a client. The ability to find just the right person at the right time.
[00:05:13] John Ray: And for those that don’t know TrainingPros let’s give them a little overview there.
[00:05:17] Lori Fancher: Yeah. So TrainingProsos was started. 26 years ago by Steve Kapaun. He had. I was working at IBM through Accenture and had a need to find an instructional designer to help him with his projects. And didn’t know where to go.
[00:05:30] Lori Fancher: Couldn’t find the the right kind of talent. So we started TrainingPros fast forward, 23 years and his right-hand person, Leighanne Lankford took over the company as president, when Steve retired. And we became a women owned. We bank diversity supplier, still serving. Out of Atlanta, which is home base.
[00:05:51] Lori Fancher: Awesome. And then have grown into 11 major markets. Is it serving the country nationwide now? COVID really changed a lot of things for us to, in a good way.
[00:06:00] John Ray: Yeah. Yeah. So you, your role at TrainingPros, you’re a relationship manager there. Explain what your role is that what that means?
[00:06:09] Lori Fancher: Yes, absolutely.
[00:06:10] Lori Fancher: So relationship manager means I’m meeting with clients. I’m bringing in new clients, I’m meeting with existing clients. Because I have been in this space as a practitioner for a long time serving corporate. And I’ve been a client. I’m able to. Meet them where they are. In their process of implementing all of their L and D projects.
[00:06:32] John Ray: L & D being for those that don’t know, what’s L and D
[00:06:36] Lori Fancher: learning and development projects.
[00:06:37] Lori Fancher: Okay. And organizational development projects. I understand the full life cycle behind both of those. So at any given point in time, connecting with them on where they’re at. And in order to help them complete those successfully. Providing them at the right talent at the right time.
[00:06:54] John Ray: Yeah. Correct me if I’m wrong, but what I think I hear you saying is that it’s one thing to staff the position. It’s another thing to create the environment to make help that person be successful in the position. Is that what we’re talking about here?
[00:07:08] Lori Fancher: Yeah, absolutely. I’m glad you brought that up because. I’m focused on contract.
[00:07:13] Lori Fancher: First of all, if I mentioned that already, but contract staffing is what I do the most of. Okay. And so when you are recognizing the need, what I’m looking for is not the person that can just meet the immediate need. But the person that can come into the organization knowing what’s ahead. And knowing what’s required in terms of skillsets. Throughout the full life cycle of that project, having been there. I’m able to find the right person. To come in and see it all the way through if necessary.
[00:07:41] Lori Fancher: So not meeting the immediate need, but it potentially the future needs as well.
[00:07:45] John Ray: Got it. Folks were here. Speaking with Lori Fancher. Lori is a relationship manager. With TrainingPros Give us an overview of what talent development looks like in the corporate world these days.
[00:08:01] Lori Fancher: Yeah, so talent development boy. We’ve really been through it, like a lot of other functions within the organization through COVID. Now I just came on board at, in this role with TrainingPros three and a half years ago. I Can speak to the last three and a half years, which were pretty tumultuous, right. COVID with the advent of COVID and then the move. The immediate move. From onsite workers to remote workers. What do you do? How can you continue to keep those folks engaged? And the work.
[00:08:30] Lori Fancher: And how do you connect with them? Providing the right learning and the training for the managers who need to now manage remote workers versus onsite. It created a whole slew of training and learning opportunities for everyone. At the same time, we also had the concerns and the. Voices from the community, the raise in awareness around DEI. So how do we get leadership? Involved and help them provide, help them be developed and have those opportunities to understand what does this mean for my organization, my people, and how do I lead differently as a result? Of COVID of DEI, remote workers, very difficult times. And so yeah, seeing a lot of changes in the talent development space as a result of that.
[00:09:17] John Ray: Yeah. And.
[00:09:19] John Ray: Particularly given the. I guess the mentality of people that are out there, the workforce, right? That’s another aspect of this. That creates some turbulence, if you will.
[00:09:33] Lori Fancher: Yeah, absolutely. If you think about the Def the pure definition of work, we were made to work. We were born to work.
[00:09:40] Lori Fancher: I tell my kids this and they don’t like to hear it.
[00:09:44] Lori Fancher: Yeah, i. I get that, but we were made to work and your definition of work isn’t about doing something to make money. It’s about pursuit of purpose. That’s to me at the root of what work is about. And corporate is a place to go and try out. That work, that pursuit of purpose, but corporate also has corporately operating as an individual, their own purpose, and that alignment between the two. Is Is really tricky.
[00:10:14] John Ray: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So any particular trends that you’re seeing in Staffing and L and D staffing in particular.
[00:10:25] Lori Fancher: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:10:26] Lori Fancher: So when it comes to L and D staffing what I have seen as of recent is a little bit of anxiety about whether we’re in a recession, whether we’re not in a recession. And a need to re. Usually when we go through these kinds of challenges, economic challenges, we see training functions. Cut. That’s one of the first places to cut.
[00:10:46] Lori Fancher: And so I’ve got a lot of people who are clients, a lot of people who had permanent. Positions in talent development who are now looking again as contractors. This is the ebb and flow of our world. And the folks I work with within a three-year time period have either been consultants and clients or clients.
[00:11:02] Lori Fancher: So we’ve got this revolving. At the cycle of. Folks who are coming in and out of these permanent roles. As adjustments are made in the economy and anxiety is addressed. Yeah.
[00:11:14] John Ray: So the.
[00:11:16] John Ray: The
[00:11:18] John Ray: whole issue of gig workers. And we’re. We read a lot about that, about the rise in gig workers. What’s your perspective. On that. And what the trends are there?
[00:11:31] Lori Fancher: Yeah, I think the COVID really opened the door to. Allow workers to have flexibility in their lives. To be able to work wherever they want to work from. And now we’re seeing that change with a call to return to the office.
[00:11:46] Lori Fancher: And a lot of folks are bucking that they don’t want to return to the office. And so in. I think the last thing that I read on the gig economy, there was a government report out that said that 2.1 million new gig workers were introduced to the market. And 2020. Which makes sense, and then in 2021 net another 2 million work gig workers at it.
[00:12:11] Lori Fancher: So is continued growth, right? People want freedom to be able to work at wherever they, they want to be and have flexibility to take care of young ones or elderly, or, just have that work-life balance.
[00:12:23] John Ray: What advice would you give to a gig worker. That’s a, will that newly minted. In with the, It’s coming out with that. Coming out of corporate and they’re leaving that shelter, if you will. What advice do you give someone that’s new to working in that way?
[00:12:42] Lori Fancher: I like to talk to him about what they liked the most about their permanent roles. And understand the differences between that and gig work, because when you’re an independent contractor, you have to be careful. And an understanding that you don’t really you’re leaving the structure of corporate. And you’re going for the freedom.
[00:13:00] Lori Fancher: So embrace the freedom. If that’s really what you want. That means flexibility and not falling back into the constraints of permanent work, because that causes legal. Legal implications. When you act, when you work as a contractor, but you, your employer treats you as an employee. So being careful that first of all, and then making sure that that freedom is really what they want.
[00:13:25] Lori Fancher: They’re not going to be climbing the corporate ladder. They’re on their own. And then there’s the ebb and the flow. The cashflow. Yeah. The month to month and what that looks like and the vulnerability there. And the sacrifices and the trade-off. Where are you financially? Are you ready to make a decision like this?
[00:13:41] Lori Fancher: What are your career goals? How does this help you achieve your career goals? A lot of people will step into the gig economy or the contract role because they want to experience new and different and innovative ways. Of doing the work of learning an out and out. Of learning and development. Can’t necessarily experience that as much in the corporate world, because there’s a prescribed way of doing things.
[00:14:03] Lori Fancher: So there’s a trade off there.
[00:14:05] John Ray: Do you find that Individuals step out into the gig. Gig. World or the gig worker. Environment. Maybe a little too. Quickly because they. Their first client, if you will, is their ex employer, right? And That they step into it thinking it’s ready. Made.
[00:14:27] John Ray: And maybe they don’t. Do what they need to do to understand what this new. Way of working. Is going to look like for them. Do you find that.
[00:14:40] Lori Fancher: Yeah, I do. It is ready and easy. Go back. The contract with your employer? Yeah. Yeah, walking those fine lines between being a contractor again in our permanent employees. Super important on both ends. The person contracting you and for yourself, right? And yeah, understanding that it. It’s temporary.
[00:14:58] Lori Fancher: It could be temporary. And you are in a more vulnerable place as a
[00:15:03] John Ray: result. Yeah. And you are in business now. It’s the business of you, right? There’s a book with that title. It’s the business of you. You have to think about that way, right?
[00:15:13] Lori Fancher: Yeah, because when that consistent. Permanent employer turns around and asks you to come back as a contractor.
[00:15:19] Lori Fancher: When that work ends, what do you do next? Yeah. How do you set up your own business? What kind of people can come into your world and accountant to finance person that can help you get set up in that business? And I’ve also found even a lawyer can help you with that as well. And then marketing.
[00:15:35] Lori Fancher: How do you market and brand yourself?
[00:15:36] John Ray: Lots of issues to think about Lori Fincher’s with us folks. Certainly can help us think about those issues and Lori. Is a relationship manager with TrainingPros. Let’s talk a little bit more specifically about your work.
[00:15:51] John Ray: How do I know when I need to call Lori? What problems. I am out encountering in my organization that made me think I need your help.
[00:16:01] Lori Fancher: Yeah, too many projects and not enough people.
[00:16:06] John Ray: Yeah. There’s plenty of that going on.
[00:16:08] Lori Fancher: And then not having the expertise to really follow through. Once you’ve got the budget to make a difference in the organization with a project like leadership development. That’s a big, huge expense, not just in providing the training. But in also taking leaders out of their day to day.
[00:16:26] Lori Fancher: So losing productivity, losing. Potentially during that time some opportunity in the market to be able to go out and learn so that you can come back and do more and better. There’s a big expense to training every time. So when you get that big budget or when you don’t, when you have a budget to do something right, How do you make sure that what you are doing and what you are teaching and what you were helping your leaders understand and learn? Is something that’s going to help the business move forward.
[00:16:56] Lori Fancher: There’s an art to that. And a lot of folks that were SMEEs and subject matter experts. Have understood the art and stepped into the ability to train right there. There. The expert and what they know, and they’re going to go train on it, but there’s also a science behind it, too. So we find the people that have both the art and the science. Behind the ability to make training successful.
[00:17:18] John Ray: Do you help someone – you’ve mentioned having too many projects, not enough people. Do you help
[00:17:25] John Ray: business owner leader, team leader in a big organization, prioritize those projects based on the availability of people. You get down in that kind of. depth with clients?
[00:17:38] Lori Fancher: Yeah, we can. So the roles that we provide for the contract roles that we provide are not just instructional design, which is mainly what I’ve been talking about. But we provide everything that touches training.
[00:17:50] Lori Fancher: So if you need that training schedule or that training coordinator or someone who’s a program manager. Project manager. Tech writer, even a content developer. You X person. We have, we provide all of those different roles that touch training, change management and ODI included because oftentimes. When a company is undergoing a transformation. There’s a huge training learning component to that.
[00:18:16] Lori Fancher: Of course. And it’s inevitable that occurs and we’re ready when that does. So organizational development people and change management, people are also roles that we provide.
[00:18:26] John Ray: Great work. So you. Have won an award. Alongside your client. Synovus. That’s a small little out of the way bank we’ve heard of.
[00:18:38] John Ray: But actually quite well managed and well known bank. I headquartered here in Georgia. So what talk about. That project. That led to this award.
[00:18:51] Lori Fancher: Yeah. So Synovus reached out to me because they had received a an agreement from their top C level suite to be able to provide some new leadership training. They saw a surge and some of their old some of the leaders who had been around for a long time were leaving, moving on and they had a large group of new leaders they needed to help get settled in.
[00:19:13] Lori Fancher: They also had some changes going on at Synovus and so they were looking for the ideal solution for their learning and that they got this budget. So what do we do? They had some off the shelf programs, Blanchard, Covey, some of the other big wigs in the space. They had some of their training components, but really we’re trying to understand how do we put this together?
[00:19:32] Lori Fancher: Something that means that’s customized for Synovis. Customized learning solutions is what we do at TrainingPros. There’s nothing off the shelf. So we take what’s existing or we create new and we make a customized. So that process throughout that process, it. Took us a little bit of time to find the right person. Because in the beginning, they didn’t really know what they needed. They were sending them different candidates and exploring various roles and places in the in the project where they would need the most need and help based on who they had in their current team. And the gaps, we were able to find a person that came in that allowed them to create a learning solution.
[00:20:10] Lori Fancher: That was award-winning. It had war award-winning features to it. It had done some things. To leverage digital assets and provide learning tools to leaders on an ongoing basis. So it wasn’t a once and done. They had people that went through the training who would come back and facilitate to other leaders.
[00:20:27] Lori Fancher: So leaders, teaching leaders. Platinum award at the end, recognized by C-suite. They did a lot of things. And they want a Brandon Hall award as a result. So we’re pretty proud of
[00:20:36] Lori Fancher: that.
[00:20:37] John Ray: Wow. You should be that’s. Congratulations on that work. That’s fantastic. Let’s
[00:20:42] John Ray: Switch gears here.
[00:20:44] John Ray: And talk about another little piece of your world, which is a nonprofit that you. We’re and I think your husband too, we were talking about before we came on the year. So shout out to him. A nonprofit, the two that the two of you are driving.
[00:21:00] Lori Fancher: Yeah, my husband’s an entrepreneur at heart. He also works for another large bank. We haven’t talked about, but anyway he had experience in creating a workspace.
[00:21:11] Lori Fancher: Like I think we work throwing a brain. Brand out there. A building where people could come and explore their themselves, their skillsets, their talents, and help them grow their business. And provide all the support to be able to do that. Then COVID hit so that wasn’t going to be an option.
[00:21:28] Lori Fancher: People weren’t going into a building. So we created an opportunity to have people go out and be immersed in the community of need. And use their talents and gifts and offer those up to folks who don’t have access or couldn’t afford it. And the way that we did this is we took a team of dentists out to Costa Rica. To a lodge that we own with several other partners out there to do mission related work. And we served a village of 300 people. We had clients and our connections provide other materials, products, resources. And we gave those out to the individuals to like eyewear so that they could see better. While they were getting also dental care. And it was fabulous. So rewarding.
[00:22:12] Lori Fancher: We learned a lot and our ability to do that. The dentist and the dental team learned a lot in our ability to do that. And so we wanted to continue to do this again. So we created con a foundation to provide those opportunities.
[00:22:27] John Ray: How do folks plug in to Cana foundation? Talk about that. How do. You did this. Big project in Costa Rica gets where does that go and who should be in touch with you?
[00:22:39] Lori Fancher: Yeah. So folks who are want to I’ll just throw this out there. Do leadership development. Bring their leaders to a place where they can serve others. Learn more about themselves, about who they are as leaders as well as be able to give back.
[00:22:55] Lori Fancher: We do some of that already. At the lodge and Costa Rica. Anyone who wants to. He wants to be able to take their, I’ve got some hairdressers and some other folks that I know that are going out next. To provide resources and help to, for women who are underprivileged there, Costa Rica. Prostitution is legalized.
[00:23:17] Lori Fancher: So it’s a very different environment for a woman who maybe is limited on their work opportunities in terms of being able to speak English and being able to serve in and. A better industry in a better environment. And so they’re going out there to this team of hairdressers is going out there next to be able to.
[00:23:37] Lori Fancher: mAke these women feel more professional and better about themselves.
[00:23:40] John Ray: Yeah. Yeah. But you don’t have to necessarily be. In a industry like the dental end. Practice where there’s a specific service you can offer.
[00:23:52] Lori Fancher: No, you don’t. Okay. You can do.
[00:23:55] John Ray: Yes. Okay. Awesome. So back to your work with TrainingPros let’s talk about. First of all the success story you don’t have to mention any names, but just one that you’ve already talked about Synovus, but talk about a success story that stands out that helps illustrate the great work you do.
[00:24:14] Lori Fancher:
[00:24:14] Lori Fancher: There’s a lot of success stories. I would say the consistency across those success stories are the people that are hired permanently. They were such a good fit as a contractor that they ended up staying permanently. I would define that as a success story. For example, I’ve got a a client that Only hires contract first, they bring them in and try them out.
[00:24:35] Lori Fancher: And then to see whether or not they’re a good fit for their team. And I’ve been able to provide them. I think the number is 70 to 80% of the time. Those folks who they then hire permanently. Wow. Pretty darn good.
[00:24:50] John Ray: I was
[00:24:50] John Ray: going to say that sounds terrific.
[00:24:53] Lori Fancher: Yeah. So those are the real success stories.
[00:24:56] Lori Fancher: We had another real quick, one other one in New York. So New York had an opening there. Airport. Where they needed to have someone come in and. They had a transformation. The airport was old and outdated and they needed to update the airport. One of the terminals in the airport. And they wanted it to be new and different and welcoming, and they wanted to provide learning to all of the airport staff and all the airport vendors to make a difference for passage, for people traveling through like you and I. And they wanted a trainer who could come in New York that lived in New York that could speak Spanish that had experience in transportation. That also had a background in adult learning that had taught how to understand or talk taught in projects of cultural transformation and knew how to connect the dots for people that were undergoing it. That’s a unicorn. And we were able to find somebody and they won awards for that terminal. Or the experience now of passengers traveling through that terminal.
[00:25:52] Lori Fancher: So that was pretty, it was pretty impressive.
[00:25:55] John Ray: That’s quite impressive. Apps. Absolutely.
[00:25:58] John Ray: Let’s you talked about. The types of the situation that an organization finds itself in where they have. Too many projects, not enough people that’s really the driver. For you and they need to be in touch with you. Are there any particular industries that you work with that are you’re more apt to be helpful on than others or. You will work across the board.
[00:26:25] Lori Fancher: I work across the board. I work a lot with financial institutions. And banks.
[00:26:30] Lori Fancher: I work with transportation. I work with retail. I work with healthcare a lot. Those are some of my more recent telecommunications. Those are some of my more recent clients. But yeah, across the board.
[00:26:41] John Ray: Okay. Okay. Awesome. Lori, this has been great. And I can’t imagine there aren’t some folks that hearing your success and the great work you do.
[00:26:50] John Ray: And by the way, congratulations on that work. Wouldn’t want to be in touch, so let’s tell them how they can
[00:26:55] John Ray: do that.
[00:26:55] Lori Fancher: Thank you. Yes. Of course, LinkedIn LinkedIn, Lori Fancher on LinkedIn and then Lori dot Fancher. At TrainingPros. Dot com.
[00:27:05] John Ray: Terrific. Lori Fancher with TrainingPros, Lori, thanks again for coming in.
[00:27:11] John Ray: We appreciate you and your work and keep it up.
[00:27:13] Lori Fancher: Absolutely. My pleasure. Thanks John.
[00:27:17] John Ray: Hey folks, just a quick thought for you. If you’re as we’re recording this show here at the end of November, 2023, and as the year winds down. You start to think about how you can improve your business for the coming year.
[00:27:32] John Ray: If your administrative tasks are driving you nuts, they’re piled higher. Then you are if you’re bookkeeping and accounting is a mess. That’s weighing on you and stealing the joy from your business. Office Angels can help restore that joy. And they do that with a whole team of angels that fly in, get that work done and fly out and they do it on an ongoing or as needed basis. So where the it’s administrative task, bookkeeping, marketing presentations they do all that kind of work. So you can spend time on the folks that really drive your business, which are your employees and your clients. So give them a call.
[00:28:13] John Ray: It’s 6 7 8 5 2 8 0 5 0 0 and let, them know we sent you a, you can go to office angels dot.us if you’re shy, but just give them a call, explain what your problem is. And. I think they’re the folks for you. And I think that because they are the folks from me, they do. They helped me in my business and I couldn’t do my business without them.
[00:28:35] John Ray: So give them a call. You’ll be glad you did.
[00:28:39] John Ray: And a couple of things as we wrap up here I’ve got a book coming out in mid December, 2023. If you’re listening to this show after that, then the book’s out. But it’s for solo small professional services providers. If you’re having trouble with business development or your pricing issues like that’s what this book addresses.
[00:28:58] John Ray: It’s called The Generosity Mindset Method for Business Success. Raise Your Confidence, Your Value and Your Prices. Go to, to go to the generosity mindset.com to learn more. Either sign up for updates or learn how to the book being on when you’re listening to this show. And I want to thank you,
[00:29:17] John Ray: our listener. You have wow. Continue to support us over the years. This is show number. 722 or something like that. And we, we have, wow. It’s hard to believe we have gone down the journey we have gone, but it’s been because of you in the support you have given us. You continue to like us on social media.
[00:29:37] John Ray: We appreciate that North Fulton BRX on all the major platforms. But you also share the show and thank you for that. Please continue to do that. If you’ve heard something here that makes you think I know somebody that needs to hear from Lori. And the great work she does. Please share the show or in for any of our business leaders. That we have that helps. Us help them. In their work. It also helps us fulfill our mission to be the voice of business. In the north Fulton region. So for my guests, Lori Fancher John Ray. Join us next time here on north Fulton business radio.

 

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Randy Hain, Serviam Partners and Author of Being Fully Present: True Stories of Epiphanies and Powerful Lessons from Everyday Life

November 27, 2023 by John Ray

Randy Hain
North Fulton Business Radio
Randy Hain, Serviam Partners and Author of Being Fully Present: True Stories of Epiphanies and Powerful Lessons from Everyday Life
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Randy Hain

Randy Hain, Serviam Partners and Author of Being Fully Present: True Stories of Epiphanies and Powerful Lessons from Everyday Life  (North Fulton Business Radio, Episode 720)

In this episode of North Fulton Business Radio, host John Ray welcomed back Randy Hain, an executive coach, leadership consultant, prolific author, and the owner of Serviam Partners.  John and Randy discussed Randy’s latest book, Being Fully Present: True Stories of Epiphanies and Powerful Lessons from Everyday Life.

It’s not a business book per se, Randy explained, but it provides invaluable insights for business leaders dealing with real-life issues and overcoming adversity. They also delved into Randy’s journey away from workaholic tendencies, and the importance of living an integrated life with set priorities. Randy related a moving anecdote from his book, touching on the recognition and honoring of human loss, and much more.

North Fulton Business Radio is broadcast from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta.

Serviam Partners

Serviam performs executive coaching and leadership consulting work for individual business leaders, teams, and companies. Serviam Partners blends deep experience, refreshing candor, and strong values into their consulting/coaching offerings.

They offer executive and career coaching, and leadership development.

Company website | LinkedIn | YouTube

Randy Hain, Founder and President, Serviam Partners, and Author of Being Fully Present: True Stories of Epiphanies and Powerful Lessons from Everyday Life 

Randy Hain, Founder and President, Serviam Partners, and Author of Being Fully Present: True Stories of Epiphanies and Powerful Lessons from Everyday Life

Randy Hain is the founder and president of Serviam Partners and the co-founder of the Leadership Foundry. With a successful 30-year career in senior leadership roles, corporate talent, and executive search, he is a sought-after executive coach for senior leaders at some of the best-known companies in the U.S. who are seeking candid and expert guidance on how to identify and overcome obstacles to their success or develop new leadership skills.

He is also an expert at onboarding and cultural assimilation for senior leaders, as well as helping senior leadership teams improve trust, collaboration, and candid communication. Randy also offers consulting/coaching for companies, teams and individual business leaders looking to develop more authentic and effective business relationships both inside and outside their organizations. His deep expertise in business relationships is a true area of differentiation for him and Serviam Partners. He is an active community leader and serves on the boards of the causes he cares about most. Randy has earned a reputation as a creative business partner and generous thought leader through his books, articles and speaking engagements.

Randy is the award-winning author of nine books, including Essential Wisdom for Leaders of Every Generation, Something More: The Professional’s Pursuit of a Meaningful Life, LANDED! Proven Job Search Strategies for Today’s Professional and Special Children, and Blessed Fathers: Encouragement for Fathers of Children with Special Needs.

Randy’s latest book is Being Fully Present: True Stories of Epiphanies and Powerful Lessons from Everyday Life, what he called the “accidental” book.

Randy is passionate about promoting opportunities for adults with autism in the workplace. He is also a board member of Growing Leaders, an international non-profit focused on developing leadership and character in young people, and an advisory board member for the Brock School of Business at Samford University. Randy is a frequent presenter to the students of the business school at Samford University and is a 1989 graduate of the University of Georgia.

He has been married for over 25 years and has two sons.

LinkedIn | Instagram

Questions and Topics in this Interview:

  • 01:14 Meet Randy Hain: Serviam Partners
  • 01:29 Randy’s Personal and Professional Journey
  • 01:58 The Power of Being Fully Present
  • 03:17 The Unexpected Book: Mining for Gold in Life’s Moments
  • 04:31 The Importance of Journaling and Reflection
  • 05:23 The Power of Presence in Business and Life
  • 08:17 The Impact of Personal Stories
  • 14:27 The Struggle with Workaholism
  • 14:29 The Power of Patience and Relationship
  • 20:50 The Importance of Self-Care and Balance
  • 22:17 Mining for Gold: Finding Value in Every Encounter
  • 28:58 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

North Fulton Business Radio is hosted by John Ray and broadcast and produced from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta. You can find the full archive of shows by following this link. The show is available on all the major podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon, iHeart Radio, Stitcher, TuneIn, and others.

RenasantBank

 

Renasant Bank has humble roots, starting in 1904 as a $100,000 bank in a Lee County, Mississippi, bakery. Since then, Renasant has become one of the Southeast’s strongest financial institutions, with over $13 billion in assets and more than 190 banking, lending, wealth management, and financial services offices in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. All of Renasant’s success stems from each of their banker’s commitment to investing in their communities as a way of better understanding the people they serve. At Renasant Bank, they understand you because they work and live alongside you every day.

Since 2000, Office Angels® has been restoring joy to the lives of small business owners, enabling them to focus on what they do best. At the same time, we honor and support at-home experts who wish to continue working on an as-needed basis. Not a temp firm or a placement service, Office Angels matches a business owner’s support needs with Angels who have the talent and experience necessary to handle work that is essential to creating and maintaining a successful small business. Need help with administrative tasks, bookkeeping, marketing, presentations, workshops, speaking engagements, and more? Visit us at https://officeangels.us/.

TRANSCRIPT

Live from the Business Radio X studio inside Renasant Bank. The bank that specializes in understanding you. It’s time for North Fulton Business Radio.
[00:00:21] John Ray: And hello again everyone. Welcome to another edition of North Fulton Business Radio. I’m John Ray and we are broadcasting as usual folks from inside Renasant Bank in beautiful Alpharetta. And if you are looking for a bank that’s big enough to handle pretty much any need you can throw at them, But they’re small enough to deliver their services in a personal way.
[00:00:42] John Ray: I think Renasant has that magic combination. At least that’s what I experienced from my own work with them and the clients I work with. So if that’s what you’re looking for, go to Renasantbank.com and find one of their local offices. And give them a call. I think you’ll be glad you did. And guess what?
[00:01:01] John Ray: When you call them, they actually answer their own phone. Imagine that antiquated piece of courtesy, Renasant bank, understanding you member FDIC. And now one welcome back. Randy Hain. Randy is with Serviam Partners. Randy, welcome back.
[00:01:18] Randy Hain: John, thanks for having me back.
[00:01:19] John Ray: Yeah. Great friend of our show. Let’s talk about you and for those that don’t know you, how you’re serving folks out there in your practice.
[00:01:28] Randy Hain: Thanks, John. First and foremost, I’m a husband and a father. I’ve got two adult sons, been married to Sandra for 29 years. And I am an executive coach and a leadership consultant, and I own a company called Serviam Partners. And I work with the Fortune 5,000 coaching senior leaders and their teams.
[00:01:46] Randy Hain: And I’m a co-founder of another business called The Leadership Foundry. And we work with large groups of leaders for global companies and write books and try to serve the community as as often as I can.
[00:01:57] John Ray: In a lot of different ways. And you, we’ve had you on a couple of times now, maybe this is the third time to talk about some of your books and we’re here to talk about your latest one, which is called “Being Fully Present True Stories of Epiphanies and Powerful Lessons From Everyday Life “Folks, I’ve had a chance to dip into this book and it’s really terrific and I suggest you get it, but we’re going to give you some reasons why, as we have this discussion.
[00:02:24] John Ray: This is really not a business book per se. Let’s talk about that.
[00:02:30] Randy Hain: It’s not. I am a businessperson in the book, dealing with real life situations. And I wrote the book through the prism of stories. All these stories and things that have happened to me over the last 20 to 30 years, often involving my faith and family, but definitely not a, if you’re looking for a book on leadership, but if you’re looking for a book for how leaders deal with real issues and situations and how do you overcome adversity, I think the book is perfectly suited for that.
[00:02:57] John Ray Well, it’s a, I will say, having been through the book, it’s a book that is A business book in the sense. It’s about a business person navigating the world and your faith in that world. Yes. Yeah. Because there is a specific business question I want to ask you here in just a little bit but why did you go in this direction? What led you this way?
[00:03:17] Randy Hain: It’s funny.
[00:03:18] Randy Hain: This book is actually an accidental book. I was working on a follow-up to my 2021 book, Essential Wisdom For Leaders Of Every Generation that comes out next spring. And over the summer, I was going through some of my old journals. I’m a, prolific journal guy.
[00:03:34] Randy Hain: I journal every day and I’ve got 24 journals that I’ve filled up over the last 20 years. And I often write down things that are going on in my life, things that have happened to me. I’m a very reflective person and as I get older I get more like that. And I found that I had dozens of stories of just life changing moments, epiphanies as it were.
[00:03:53] Randy Hain: Often involving my faith, my family dealing with my past workaholic tendencies. And I was going through the journals and I said, I think there’s more than enough for a book here. So what I did is I pulled out probably the, my favorite 15,16,17. And then this year I was really cognizant of writing down stories that were occurring to me in real time.
[00:04:16] Randy Hain: So the book is 23 stories of all kinds of situations and scenarios where I’m dealing with things, but I didn’t intend to write that book, which was actually, which made it more fun. Yeah,
[00:04:27] John Ray: That’s awesome. Really. And really what you’re speaking to is the power of journaling too, right?
[00:04:34] Randy Hain: Yeah. And don’t get me wrong.
[00:04:36] Randy Hain: I’m not sitting down every day saying, dear diary, here’s what’s happening. But when I’m waiting for clients, if I’m having coffee and I’ve got some spare time, even if I, I get up early in the morning, I always do. And before I go to bed, I’ll jot down things that really. Clicked with me that day.
[00:04:52] Randy Hain: Things that got my attention, it may just be a, an idea for a new blog post. Sometimes I’ll sit down and write an entire blog post or chapter if I’m in the mood. So it’s a very eclectic mix of content. But I just found that the act of writing it down cements it in my mind and it gives me something to look at.
[00:05:11] Randy Hain: I admire people that can use a technology and all those great apps out there, but I find that people rarely go back and look at that. I always go back and review my journals.
[00:05:21] John Ray: Great point. So the book is called being fully present. And that phrase, that idea is the umbrella for all these different stories.
[00:05:33] John Ray: Talk about the whole concept of being fully present and why you think that’s such an important umbrella for our way to look at the world today
[00:05:42] Randy Hain: and live in it. So I would say that we probably want to have a multi dimensional definition. So one aspect, one definition to being fully present is I’m here with you now in this room.
[00:05:53] Randy Hain: We’re talking, I’m listening very clearly to what you’re saying. I’m asking you questions, you’re asking me questions. We are present, you and I, in this moment. Great definition of being fully present. But I think there’s another aspect where, and I do this in the book a lot where we may think about a conversation or maybe it’s just a situation.
[00:06:12] Randy Hain: I ain’t I write about memories. I write about things that I remember from years ago and sometimes I go back to those memories and I try to mine for gold. I’m looking for the nuggets of wisdom, the things cause you say, you may say something to me today that doesn’t click with me for. and I may see, John said this and it really clicked and I may explore that.
[00:06:32] Randy Hain: I may try to, I may even write about it. So for me it’s in the moment with people. Sometimes it’s going back to memory. Sometimes I, there’s actually a fun chapter in the book where I have an encounter with my future self. And if I had not gotten off of a certain track, I would have gone into a place that would have been very negative for me and my family.
[00:06:51] Randy Hain: And and I wrote about that as a fable. I think being fully present is multi dimensional and I hope people get that when they read the book.
[00:06:58] John Ray: , there’s and there’s this concept called quality time that I’ve never quite picked up on, right? That we, as if we can compartmentalize uh, our presence with people and classify it in a certain way as quality time.
[00:07:19] John Ray: And that certainly that has some sort of specific definition to it. That seems odd to me,
[00:07:26] Randy Hain: It’s we have to have, Table stakes, right? Have your phone turned off. Yeah. If you really want to get the most out of a conversation, try to be in a place where you’re not distracted.
[00:07:36] Randy Hain: Some of my best conversations are walking in the woods with, friends or my older son and we like to hike together. So try to be in a place where there is relative quiet. Definitely have your phone turned off. Don’t be distracted. Don’t be thinking also, this is important. About not what you want to say next, but actually absorbing what you hear.
[00:07:56] Randy Hain: Take a minute to reflect on it, and then comment. I think another great way to demonstrate, but also to really practice being fully present, is to take notes with people. I’ll pull out a piece of paper and just jot down something someone says in front of me. I’m signaling to you, what you just said is important.
[00:08:12] Randy Hain: But I also have notes later that I can refer to.
[00:08:15] John Ray: Yeah. Just, the nature of these stories are there they’re yours, they’re not anyone else’s. Yet they speak to wider truths and the way you write Randy, which I’m in all of is that you, it’s very it feels one to one.
[00:08:35] John Ray: Say more on that. That is a deep compliment.
[00:08:38] Randy Hain: You’re very kind. Thank you. I I think I learned that from my mother, Sandy, who passed away 11 years ago. My mother not a train rider, but she wrote poems her entire life. And if you’d read any of her work, you would feel like you were sitting in a room with Sandy Hain.
[00:08:54] Randy Hain: And she would be talking about things that matter to her faith, family, life. But it just always seems so personal. And when I started writing, which was really only about 14 years ago, I think I’ve always been fairly well read, but I started writing about 14 years ago I always made every effort to be authentic in the writing.
[00:09:13] Randy Hain: I don’t want you to ever read something from me and wonder, who’s this guy? I want you to read it and say gosh, I know Randy, and this sounds exactly like him. I want you to feel like you’re having a cup of coffee with me. That is just something that I’ve always been very clear about. I want you to experience what I really think, what I really feel.
[00:09:31] Randy Hain: And this particular book we’re talking about today is probably the most personal of any book I’ve written. I just put it all out there. This is who I am and what I think, and I want you to experience that when you turn the pages.
[00:09:42] John Ray: Yeah I’m laughing and smiling, folks, because as you say that where you put it out there, one of the places you put it out there, just to name one, that made me smile is because in knowing you, I thought.
[00:09:56] John Ray: This is not the Randy I know is your experience with the tour guide in Italy. And I was trying to, you talk about being frustrated. I was trying to think about what Randy Hayne looks like frustrated because you never come across that way when I’m with you.
[00:10:14] Randy Hain: I am generally a very calm person, my tone of voice all the time, but no, there was a story in the book my, we took my family to Italy this year as a graduation present for my younger son, who just graduated from Samford university and we were in Florence it’s just everything’s an incredible site and we had been out doing sightseeing things all day with our tour guide and we were exhausted.
[00:10:37] Randy Hain: Yeah. Now, as I get older, I do get a little frustrated when I get tired and I was tired at the end of the day. And the story is just about really it was a God wink moment, but also a lesson in patience because we were ready to give up and I was, we were all done. But something else happened in the chapter and our tour guide was able to pull a rabbit out of a hat.
[00:10:56] Randy Hain: And it turned out to be an amazing experience. I’ll let you read it to, to learn more, but yeah I can get frustrated, but typically it just my lips purse and I have a funny look in my eye.
[00:11:07] John Ray: That’s the extent of thanks for that warning. But one of the things I took away from that chapter though, and we don’t have to ruin it for everybody, but cause I want you to read it folks.
[00:11:17] John Ray: But is that there was a power of relationship out of that story, that a relationship that you had set up. That you had created and deepened along the way that really bailed out a difficult moment.
[00:11:30] Randy Hain: So just to give you some insight into that we were in Florence, Italy, one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
[00:11:36] Randy Hain: And one of the things you have to see. If you go to Florence is the Duomo and it’s it’s actually the church at Santa Maria del Fiore and the Duomo is this beautiful building. It’s a Gothic masterpiece. It’s an incredible building. And if you go to Florence, you have to go inside this church.
[00:11:53] Randy Hain: So all day while we’ve been there for three days and on this day we were there. We were eager to get inside the Duomo at the end of the day. Our tour itinerary said we were going, and at the end of the day, we were with our tour guide, Patricia. And we’d gotten to know her during the day. She was a lovely lady.
[00:12:09] Randy Hain: We were just talking. She was fun. She was a college professor. Very learned. New, she was a native Florentine. So at the end of the day, we were in the museum that’s attached to the Duomo, seeing some wonderful works of art, seeing some amazing things. And it’s getting closer and closer to the end of the day when the tours ended for the Duomo.
[00:12:26] Randy Hain: And we had a private tour. We knew we could get in, but it was getting late. So I finally asked Patricia, when are we going to the Duomo? And she said, that’s not part of your tour. And that’s probably when the pursed lips and the glare came out. And and she said, let me call the company. So she called the tour company and they spoke heatedly in Italian for a few minutes.
[00:12:46] Randy Hain: And she hung up the phone and looked at me and my wife and my sons. And she said, okay, here’s what we’re going to do. You’re Catholic, I’m Catholic, and I happen to know there’s a very special mass today. In the Duomo, that very few people will know about, only locals know about. We’re celebrating the feast day of some of the famous bishops that in the city.
[00:13:07] Randy Hain: And if we go right now, we can make it. Let’s go to Mass. So we were excited. We ran across the square and we got in to inside the Duomo. There were 30 people total in the one place at a side altar. And we had a chance to experience mass in this beautiful church. And then she said, you’re free to walk around and take pictures, do what you want.
[00:13:27] Randy Hain: But this wonderful lady, this thoughtful lady that we’d gotten to know, to your point, built a relationship with, had the foresight to see here’s something we could do that’s very special that they would, the family would not know about. So we had a chance to experience the Duomo practice our faith inside the beautiful church.
[00:13:44] Randy Hain: And it was just one of those amazing moments, but it was a great lesson in the virtue of patience.
[00:13:48] John Ray: Yeah, for sure. And my takeaway from the story, part of my takeaway from that story was she probably didn’t do what the other person, the person on the other end of the line told her to do right. She disobeyed orders.
[00:14:01] John Ray: Probably right. Yeah.
[00:14:03] Randy Hain: And it turned out at the end, we were right. Our itinerary did say it. And there was a mix up, but it was okay because she handled it with grace. She handled it with a deep concern for us and our enjoying our experience. And she also knew that we really wanted to see this church. It all worked out beautifully.
[00:14:19] Randy Hain: But it’s a great lesson on sometimes you just have to be patient and wait. And sometimes God or his agents will make something
[00:14:26] John Ray: happen. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Now you One of your chapters is called The Hectic Pace of Life, and it’s really about do I surrender to, to that hectic pace of life?
[00:14:39] John Ray: Or do I create space? And you talked about your previous tendencies to be a workaholic and to spend a lot of time in business, in your business. And I want to ask you about those folks out there that, and there are a lot of them. That see their business as a mission, and they may see that it may be explicit um, right there on their website or brochure, or it may be In their heart, but they see their business as a mission to serve and almost in a way of prayer.
[00:15:12] John Ray: But you would say there’s still a need to create space is what I think I read there. I
[00:15:21] Randy Hain: would say that my business is a mission and my mission statement is two words. Serve others. So my coaching work, my consulting work, my marriage, my parenting, my community work, my writing is all oriented towards serving other people.
[00:15:37] Randy Hain: But there’s a challenge with that. So to this day, that is still my mission. But if you are constantly serving others, sometimes you’re not taking care of yourself. So I think it’s important that we recognize while we’re in the pursuit of the mission, that we also take time to recharge our batteries.
[00:15:55] Randy Hain: What’s the old saying? If the plane’s going down, you gotta put the oxygen mask on your own face first. And I buy that. I believe that. So I’ve gotten more cognizant as I’ve gotten older of the need to recharge because if I don’t Watch it. I can have a tendency to be really focused on doing and sometimes that’s all what Randy wants to do.
[00:16:16] Randy Hain: That’s what I’m trying to get done. I’ve got this checklist of things to do, but sometimes I, and I’ve learned how to do this, how to pull back, invest time and just technology free walks. And I exercise every day at lunch and my prayer time in the morning. My family time. I’ve learned that I need those things to fill my cup.
[00:16:35] Randy Hain: You cannot give to others from an empty cup. I think you can still have a sense of mission and absolutely do what you are called to do, but you better take care of yourself in the meantime. Yeah. What you’re talking
[00:16:46] John Ray: about is sustainability, right? Yeah. Not in the environmental sense, but just that, that sustaining yourself for the journey.
[00:16:56] Randy Hain: It’s self care. You’ve got to practice self care. I think COVID taught us plenty about this, that we need to do our best to take care of ourselves. And I think at the time it was probably very focused on mental health. Yeah. And I think to this day, we still need to think about that. But yeah, for all those that are listening.
[00:17:13] Randy Hain: that are out there hard charging, taking the world by storm, my hat’s off to you. I hope to, be with you in the trenches every day. But I also know that, you know what, today I’m not sure I have the energy to give as much as I’d like. I better pull out for just a minute and just focus on clearing my head, getting my energy back, taking care of my health.
[00:17:34] John Ray: And you talk about this Randy from and I point this chapter out specifically because a big part of the book is you talking about your own journey as a workaholic and that you your own struggles with that, what that led to, you mentioned the story earlier about where that would have led if you hadn’t changed direction.
[00:17:57] John Ray: So talk two things on that. Just share your thoughts about walking back from the brink of that for those that need to hear that and how to do that. And then just the idea of how personal you are in sharing that in the book.
[00:18:14] Randy Hain: No, I’m not sure when I first heard this or saw it as a meme on the internet, but there’s a, I want you to picture a gravestone that says.
[00:18:24] Randy Hain: He had a great career and think about that for a second and ask yourself, do you really want your life to be, he had a great career. And I can tell you that when I got that message years ago, it’s really served as a bit of a beacon for me to recognize that I don’t want my life and my tombstone to read.
[00:18:41] Randy Hain: He had a great career. I want it to be that he was a good husband, a good father. Served his community, was a good friend maybe made a difference in the world, but if all I’ve done at the end of my life is I’ve put money in the bank and I had great titles and that’s it. I failed. So when I got that message, it always served as a course correction for me.
[00:19:00] Randy Hain: And I strayed off that path many times where my work would consume me and I’d get really focused on doing, maybe, the Lord has given me the ability to produce more than others. And I certainly tried to produce as much as I could, but I also recognized, and the book talks a lot about that journey.
[00:19:17] Randy Hain: About things and people and situations that helped me get back on track. I’m not here today to tell you that I’ve completely figured it out, but I’m a lot better off than I was five years ago, ten years ago, twenty years ago. And this fable you’re referring to… I Was a senior executive of a global restaurant company in my early thirties and had a great job, but I traveled nonstop and worked constantly and I simply wrote a fable about what would have happened if I’d stayed there 10 more years.
[00:19:49] Randy Hain: What would have happened to me, my life and my family and and how I pulled back from the precipice and went a different direction. I think there are a lot of workaholics out there. I think you can never shed it. But I still think I am one. But I know how to get myself back on track. I’ve got trusted people.
[00:20:05] Randy Hain: My wife being at the front of the list there, who’s great at helping me pull back from that. I pray about this constantly and constantly focused on building things into my calendar that helped me. Not go into the unhealthy place where workaholics go. Yeah, the book does deal a lot with that topic, but I think the reader will find so many examples that probably will resonate with them in their lives, at least that’s my hope.
[00:20:30] Randy Hain: Yeah, I think it
[00:20:31] John Ray: does. So I think it will. That’s why I wanted to have you on to talk about it. So thank you folks. We’re here with Randy Hayne. Randy is the author of being fully present on the subtitle, which I love is true stories of epiphanies and powerful lessons from everyday life. How do you know when you have the right balance?
[00:20:54] Randy Hain: I Think I’ve come to believe that balance is a myth. I’m not sure we can ever get to pure 50 50 balance, but I do think we can do a couple of things. I think we can focus on an integrated life where your priorities are straight and you’ve got, I will tell you in my own life, I can only speak for myself, it’s God, family.
[00:21:13] Randy Hain: Health, relationships, and work. Notice that work is number five on the list. But you know what? My work thrives and is well served because I take care of the other priorities first. So for me, it’s not about, an equal allotment of time throughout the day. It’s focusing on, have I planned those other priorities first?
[00:21:32] Randy Hain: So if you were to look at my calendar, you would see that all those priorities are actually scheduled, taken care of. But you know what? My business thrives. My clients are happy. Because when I do show up, I give them my absolute best. Now, 15 years ago, they were probably getting a more stretched version of me.
[00:21:50] Randy Hain: Again, I can’t really speak to balance because I’m not sure I believe that it exists. But I do believe if you’ve got your priorities straight, you’re integrating your work and life and faith and all those things that matter to you. I think that it produces a healthier version of you. And I think that this book is one of the things, one of the tools that can help you on that journey.
[00:22:07] Randy Hain: So
[00:22:10] John Ray: you talk about the, in the conclusion, you’re talking about mining for gold. Let’s explain that.
[00:22:19] Randy Hain: I believe, and this is one of the things that probably is a big reason why this book is resonating with people, is I think every encounter, it can be with my younger son in a five minute text exchange when he’s over in Birmingham and I’m here.
[00:22:34] Randy Hain: It could be with someone I meet in the elevator. It could be an hour with John Ray. I find that every situation, every conversation yields something of value. Everything. I learned something if I’m really focused on it from everybody. So I go into every conversation, every moment of my day thinking about where can I extract value?
[00:22:57] Randy Hain: Where can I learn something? One of the reasons I journal is I write down things that maybe I’m starting to see value and I want to go back and reflect on it later. But I think, and this is a great sort of human sort of Maxim, shouldn’t we all engage with each other, hoping to derive great value from the exchange?
[00:23:15] Randy Hain: And I think that’s another reason why we all need to spend more time with each other. Not virtually, but with each other. There’s nothing to, nothing’s ever going to replace a cup of coffee, a meal and a hug and a handshake. So I find in those moments, I just get so much value. I call it mining for gold.
[00:23:31] John Ray: And there’s a What I find quite beautiful expectation in that that you expect to find that in every encounter that you meet and just that mindset alone. I think it’s quite, refreshing.
[00:23:45] Randy Hain: One of the things that fuels it is I’m a high functioning introvert, so I love people, but I can tell you about five in the afternoon, I’m done with people.
[00:23:54] Randy Hain: So one of the things that fuels me and gets me excited about engaging with others is the chance, the slight chance that I am going to get something that will change my perspective. Teach me something or rock my world. And that’s one of the things that gets my introverted side of my brain excited about engaging with people.
[00:24:15] John Ray: Very nice. Lots of stories in here, past and present relatively present. Talk about give me your favorite.
[00:24:24] Randy Hain: My favorite is the last story of the book. And I’m going to share it with your listeners because it’s just, it’s a fun story, a beautiful story. Earlier this summer, I was having dinner with my older son, Alex, and we were at a restaurant in Roswell.
[00:24:38] Randy Hain: And just he and I were chit chatting, just having a conversation, and I noticed an older gentleman sat next to us, at an angle. And when you picture this man’s face, I want you to think about Robert Frost, the poet in his later years. That’s who he looked like. So he sits down, and he’s by himself.
[00:24:54] Randy Hain: And I’m talking to Alex, and out of the corner of my eye, I noticed, That his food arrived along with a glass of wine. And I’m talking to Alex and then, again, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that he raised his glass with a trembling hand and he set a toast, a silent toast, to the empty seat in front of him.
[00:25:15] Randy Hain: And it just, it was really one of those moments. I was the only one in the restaurant that probably noticed it, but it really hit me. So I’m just thinking about it and I’m trying to be attentive to Alex and I’m trying to think about what I just saw and our server came over. And I don’t know what possessed me to do it, but I said, can you tell me anything about this gentleman sitting across from us?
[00:25:35] Randy Hain: I’m just curious. Do you know him? And she had a wealth of insight. She said he and his wife used to come here for many years and I heard, but I’m not sure that she passed away. He just started coming back to the restaurant about three weeks ago. And I didn’t expect to get that insight, but I just was sitting there thinking about what it must have been like for him to lose probably his spouse of many years, how sad it was for him and how touching it was to see him honor his wife who had passed away.
[00:26:07] Randy Hain: So the check came and I also asked for his check anonymously. And I just said I wrote a little note on it and I said from one of your Roswell neighbors, I just wanted to extend an act of kindness and I hope you have a great evening and enjoy your meal. And I didn’t do that to make myself feel better.
[00:26:25] Randy Hain: I wanted just to let this man know in some small way, he’ll never see me again. I’ll never see him again, probably. But I wanted to know how much he impacted me. I wanted him to feel a little less lonely on a, on an evening. And and I just wanted to do something for him and on the way out. And driving home, I was just thinking about that loss, human loss is a part of the human experience.
[00:26:48] Randy Hain: Our journey inevitably leads to that outcome. And I wonder how many people that we need to probably raise a silent toast to over dinner tonight. I like this gentleman who touched me so much. So the chapter of the title, the chapter is titled. A silent toast to an empty seat. And it’s a quick read, but it’s probably one of the most powerful stories in the book.
[00:27:10] Randy Hain: Yes, it’s
[00:27:12] John Ray: certainly powerful in the telling. Yeah, that the, and, and what you did was, and which is a lesson for all of us is just create a little space for people to breathe, right? That we, that, and it wasn’t about you because this person will never know what you did, right? But you created a little space for someone to breathe.
[00:27:34] John Ray: And that has ramifications down the road that you can never know, but they’re powerful nonetheless.
[00:27:41] Randy Hain: And I can tell you that is a chapter that people have really resonated with because every person, everybody’s experienced loss, right? But just this idea of tonight, tomorrow night, Thanksgiving’s a great time to do it.
[00:27:53] Randy Hain: Raise your toast and salute someone that’s not with us anymore. I’ll raise one tonight for my mother, Sandy, who passed away.
[00:28:01] John Ray: Great words from Randy Hain. Randy is the author of being fully present true stories of epiphanies and powerful lessons from everyday life. Randy, where can
[00:28:12] Randy Hain: folks find the book?
[00:28:13] Randy Hain: The book is readily available on Amazon paperback hardcover ebook, and there’ll be an audible version early next year.
[00:28:21] John Ray: You’ve got such a great voice. That would be a great version to get. And it’s and thank you. The format works for it too because it, you don’t have to have a very long drive in the car to tackle a chapter.
[00:28:33] John Ray: So
[00:28:33] Randy Hain: it’s a, some people, I don’t know what they think of it, but my voice is always li this is my calm voice. That’s how I always talk. Unless I’m frustrated trying to get a good D. That’s right,
[00:28:42] John Ray: that’s right. If you see Randy at four in Florence at five o’clock run right. . I love it. Randy Hain. Thanks so much for coming in and talking to us about the book.
[00:28:53] John Ray: We appreciate you and the great work you do,
[00:28:54] Randy Hain: John. Thank you. As always. I’m grateful.
[00:28:56] John Ray: Thank you. Hey folks, just a quick reminder. If you’ve got some frustrations over your back office I’ve got a group of angels that will fly in and get that work done and they will fly out and give you joy back in your life as a small business owner, those angels come from Office Angels and they have a whole team
[00:29:17] John Ray: tackle administrative tasks, bookkeeping, marketing presentations quite a list of capabilities that they have. I use them from in my business and I couldn’t work without them, which is why I endorse them. So give them a call at 6 7 8 5 2 8 0 5 0 0. Tell them I sent you. If you’re shy, go to officeangels.
[00:29:40] John Ray: us and check them out. But I just encourage you to give them a call, explain what your problem is. and see how they can help. You’ll be glad you did. And folks, just a quick reminder. If you’re a small solo or small firm professional services provider, I’ve got a book coming out that might be for you. If you’re having trouble with your business development, your pricing, The book’s called The Generosity Mindset Method for Business Success.
[00:30:05] John Ray: Raise Your Confidence, Your Value, and Your Prices . This book is, will be available mid December, 2023. So if you’re listening to this show after that it’s out. Check it out. If you want more information, go to the generosity mindset. com to earn more. And I want to thank you, our listener, where this is show number seven.
[00:30:29] John Ray: I think something like that for North Fulton business radio. And we’ve only gotten this far because you continue to support us in the way you do. And I’m grateful to you for that.
[00:30:40] John Ray: You one of the things that you do always is you share the show. And I’ve heard this from listeners and thank you for that. You share the show when you have someone who’s been on the show, whose message you really like, maybe their product or service you really you think somebody else could use it or somebody like Randy has written a terrific book and you think somebody else needs to hear about that book.
[00:31:10] John Ray: You’ve shared the show. Continue to do that, please. That’s how we celebrate great business leaders in our community, like Randy. And others that we’ve had on the show and you help us fulfill our mission to be the voice of business in the North Fulton region. So for my guests, Randy Hain, I’m John Ray.
[00:31:29] John Ray: Join us next time here on North Fulton business radio.

 

Tagged With: Author, Being Fully Present, executive coaching, John Ray, Leadership, North Fulton Business Radio, Office Angels, Randy Hain, renasant bank, Serviam Partners

Elevating Your Brand with Professional Images, with Mo Lima, Mo Lima Photography

November 21, 2023 by John Ray

Mo Lima
North Fulton Business Radio
Elevating Your Brand with Professional Images, with Mo Lima, Mo Lima Photography
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Mo Lima

Elevating Your Brand with Professional Images, with Mo Lima, Mo Lima Photography (North Fulton Business Radio, Episode 718)

In this episode of North Fulton Business Radio, Mo Lima, the owner of Mo Lima Photography, joined host John Ray.  Mo shared her journey to professional photography, highlighting its value in personal branding and empowerment. She offered advice on obtaining professional headshots, the significance of body language, and shared her specialty in photographing women who are 40 and older. Mo also discussed Portrait Experience Magazine, her publication featuring women over 50 and their stories.

North Fulton Business Radio is broadcast from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta.

Mo Lima Photography

Whether you’re celebrating yourself or your family with legacy portraits or you need headshots and photography for your brand, Mo is here to walk you through each step—from deciding what to wear and how to be photographed, to how to display or get the best use from your final photos.

At the studio, you’ll get professional hair and makeup when requested, plus personal styling help and posing guidance or techniques. You’ll experience a relaxed, fun photo shoot in a safe space! Once your images have been edited and are ready, you’ll choose from a selection of the best photos to purchase, plus get helpful advice on photo choice and wall art.

Website | LinkedIn |Facebook

Mokwang (Mo) Lima, CPP, Owner, Mo Lima Photography

Mokwang (Mo) Lima, CPP, Owner, Mo Lima Photography

Mo Lima is a Certified Professional Photographer who, after nearly 20 years in digital marketing, reimagined a career for herself in photography. Mo owns Mo Lima Photography, a boutique portrait studio in Alpharetta that provides business headshots and portraits for individuals and families.

Her studio also offers hair styling and professional makeup artistry, plus session-design consultations, and provides fine-art prints, albums, and wall art.

She wholeheartedly believes that her job is to make clients comfortable during their photo session experience and to see them overjoyed with the outcome.

LinkedIn

Questions and Topics in this Interview:

  • 01:20 Introduction to Mo Lima Photography
  • 01:54 Mo’s Journey into Photography
  • 03:12 Transition from Corporate America to Photography
  • 04:31 Choosing the Right Photographer
  • 06:12 The Importance of Professional Certification
  • 08:01 Creating the Perfect Business Profile Image
  • 15:32 Empowering Women Over 50 Through Photography
  • 19:25 The Power of Body Language in Photos
  • 21:20 The Impact of Professional Photos on Personal Branding
  • 24:23 Closing Remarks and Contact Information

North Fulton Business Radio is hosted by John Ray and broadcast and produced from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta. You can find the full archive of shows by following this link. The show is available on all the major podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon, iHeart Radio, Stitcher, TuneIn, and others.

RenasantBank

 

Renasant Bank has humble roots, starting in 1904 as a $100,000 bank in a Lee County, Mississippi, bakery. Since then, Renasant has become one of the Southeast’s strongest financial institutions, with over $13 billion in assets and more than 190 banking, lending, wealth management, and financial services offices in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. All of Renasant’s success stems from each of their banker’s commitment to investing in their communities as a way of better understanding the people they serve. At Renasant Bank, they understand you because they work and live alongside you every day.

Since 2000, Office Angels® has been restoring joy to the lives of small business owners, enabling them to focus on what they do best. At the same time, we honor and support at-home experts who wish to continue working on an as-needed basis. Not a temp firm or a placement service, Office Angels matches a business owner’s support needs with Angels who have the talent and experience necessary to handle work that is essential to creating and maintaining a successful small business. Need help with administrative tasks, bookkeeping, marketing, presentations, workshops, speaking engagements, and more? Visit us at https://officeangels.us/.

 

TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00]  Live from the Business Radio X studio inside Renasant Bank, the bank that specializes in understanding you. It’s time for North Fulton Business Radio.
[00:00:20] John Ray: And hello again, everyone. Welcome to another edition of North Fulton Business Radio. I’m John Ray and folks, we are broadcasting from inside Renasant Bank in beautiful Alpharetta. And if you are looking for a bank that’s big enough to handle pretty much any need you can throw at them, but they’re small enough to do it without tagging you with that mega bank experience.
[00:00:42] John Ray: And if you’re at one of those banks, you know what I’m talking about. I think Renasant bank has found that magic combination of size, the size you need delivering their services in a personal way. I found that myself in terms of the clients that I work with in conjunction with Renasant. And I think you will find it too, if you give them a shot, so go to Renasant bank.
[00:01:04] John Ray: com, find one of their local offices and give them a call. I think you’ll be glad you did. Renasant bank, understanding you member FDIC, and now I want to welcome Mokwang Lima. Mo is with Mo Lima Photography. Mo,
[00:01:23] Mo Lima: welcome. Thank you. I’m so happy to be here.
[00:01:26] John Ray: I’m delighted you’re here. Let’s talk about you and how you’re serving folks at Mo Lima Photography.
[00:01:32] Mo Lima: Great. I am owner of a photography studio in downtown Alpharetta, and I serve folks with I do portrait photography for families, I do headshots, and I specialize in photographing women who are 40 and older.
[00:01:53] John Ray: Ooh, that’s interesting. I want to get, certainly want to get to that specialty, but let’s talk about, um, your journey and why photography, is this something that you got onto in an early age?
[00:02:05] Mo Lima: Actually, yes, it was. My mother bought me a professional camera in high school as a gift.
[00:02:12] John Ray: Really? Yes. Why did she do that? Did you show some, some skills and aptitude for that? Or did she just see that in you and maybe you didn’t see it yourself?
[00:02:22] Mo Lima: Actually, I think she saw it in me. And also, I went to school for art, so I was always a creative person.
[00:02:30] Mo Lima: And at that time I was doing watercolors and sculpture. And my mother thought it would be fun to try something new and I loved it. And I’ve always been the photographer of the family. I’ve never been in the photos, but I’ve always taken the photos.
[00:02:46] John Ray: Yeah, right. That, that’s what happens with the family photographer.
[00:02:51] John Ray: I think every family has one, right? Yes, I think so. Yeah. It’s usually mom. What, what made you narrow your focus down to you? You had this, all these artistic disciplines as part of your education. What caused you to narrow in on photography and make it your vocation? So
[00:03:12] Mo Lima: It is actually a second career for me.
[00:03:15] Mo Lima: Okay. I had worked in corporate America and marketing for most recently a fortune 100 company. And, I was looking at retirement, early retirement, and when I was offered that, I was like, I’ve got to do something with myself. I can’t just, sit around and why don’t I do something that I absolutely love because they say, if you’re doing what you love, you’re not working, right?
[00:03:40] Mo Lima: It’s right. Yeah. So that was something that I reached back into from my youth. And so I decided to become a certified photographer and do have a studio.
[00:03:58] John Ray: Oh, wow. And you’ve had your studio how long now?
[00:04:02] Mo Lima: I have been a professional photographer for five years now. And then actually six years.
[00:04:08] Mo Lima: And I have been at the current studio that I am as an independent studio for three years now.
[00:04:15] John Ray: Okay. Congratulations on that. Thank you. There, there are… There are a lot of photographers out there, right? Many. And there are a lot of, professionals and then there are a lot of amateurs, right?
[00:04:30] John Ray: Absolutely. How do, if I’m a consumer, how do I know, how do I know what
[00:04:38] John Ray: I’m getting?
[00:04:38] Mo Lima: Great question. I love that. Okay. Yes, there are so many photographers out there and, Everybody’s got to start from somewhere. I was once an amateur photographer, decided to make that my business.
[00:04:52] Mo Lima: And of course, a professional photographer makes at least 50 percent or more of their income from photography. That’s the difference between an amateur a lot of times and also experience and dedication to the craft. So as a certified professional photographer, I take classes. And I join organizations and I actually teach as well.
[00:05:16] Mo Lima: So that I can keep up to speed and understand all the nuances of running a business. Because it’s totally different from being an amateur photographer who maybe, doesn’t have 50 percent or more of their time spent in photography. But really the best way to choose a photographer And to think about photography is to look at the photographer’s work.
[00:05:45] Mo Lima: Every photographer should have a portfolio out there with what they do. So that consumers can make a wise choice. If you like what I’m showing you in my portfolio, I can replicate that for you. If you’re looking for a photographer and you’re not familiar with their work, they may not be able to give you what you’re looking for.
[00:06:06] John Ray: That makes a lot of sense. You said something, two things there that I find interesting. One is there, you can be certified. Yes. Talk about the
[00:06:18] John Ray: certifications.
[00:06:19] Mo Lima: Absolutely. So through the photographer professional photographers association of America, you can take an exam and prove that you are a professional through your work.
[00:06:31] Mo Lima: And there are about. I think 35 of us in all of the Atlanta metro Atlanta area who are certified professional and it’s not an easy test. I’ll tell you that. There are only 35. That is correct. Out of the thousands and
[00:06:46] Mo Lima: thousands.
[00:06:46] John Ray: In a metropolitan area of what, 7 million or whatever it is right now.
[00:06:50] John Ray: Yeah. Wow.
[00:06:51] Mo Lima: Yeah, so I’m in an elite group,
[00:06:54] John Ray: aren’t you though? You’re in thin air. Good for you.
[00:06:59] John Ray: Congratulations on this.
[00:07:00] Mo Lima: Thank you. And I love it. I love learning details about everything I do. And, you have to know the physics of light to really be good at photography because photography is all about light.
[00:07:15] Mo Lima: In fact, the word. Photo means light, right?
[00:07:20] John Ray: You
[00:07:20] John Ray: say that like I knew, but… Thank you. Thank you for assuming that. But, no, I didn’t know that. But thank you, Bo. You’re so kind. That’s see, there you go. I learn something every day. That’s why I do this show. So you… tHat’s very, I find that fascinating.
[00:07:40] John Ray: But but one other thing you said there is you talked about the um, you get 50 percent or more of your earnings through professional photography. And that’s a dividing line.
[00:07:51] Mo Lima: That’s a standard
[00:07:52] Mo Lima: for
[00:07:52] Mo Lima: any profession.
[00:07:53] John Ray: That’s a standard. Oh, okay. In photography, anywhere, anywhere. Okay. Okay. That’s.
[00:08:00] John Ray: That’s good. I love that. Okay, let’s get into the details here of or more details of, as I’m thinking about getting my headshot my a business profile image, what should I be thinking about? Let’s talk about business profile images. What do, what, what do professionals need to know?
[00:08:18] Mo Lima: That’s a great question. Truly the bottom line is that images that. Portray you as a professional, make you money and that is one of the reasons you want to have a professional photograph that makes you look like a professional and shows that you give value in what you do as a professional. You want an image that shows that you have a connection.
[00:08:48] Mo Lima: And authority and a lot of that I do with posing and lighting and just the lens choice that I use. Don’t let me get too geeky about it, but um, your images communicate your brand. And so it’s really important that you give care. And to show that you are a professional if you look sloppy and you’re a photo people will think that’s what they’re gonna get from you and that you are sloppy and I tell people a lot of times to, make sure that they’re dressed appropriately and I know these days it’s a little more casual than it had been in the past, which is fine, but also to make sure that those profile images are focused on you.
[00:09:34] Mo Lima: Not your background, what’s behind you, the green field that’s behind, that’s not important not necessarily even all that you’re wearing. You want to wear a simple outfits with no pattern, no logos unless it’s your business kind of thing. So those are some tips.
[00:09:54] John Ray: tHose are good tips.
[00:09:55] John Ray: How often should you refresh your image?
[00:09:58] Mo Lima: So that’s a question I get a lot. This industry standard is two years, believe it or not. But I say that if you have a significant change, whether it’s, it could be weight loss, it could be you’ve changed your hair, you’ve grown a beard, or you, have new glasses, it’s time for a new headshot.
[00:10:22] Mo Lima: People need to recognize you when they see you.
[00:10:25] John Ray: What about if I’m going gray? I don’t you want me to show more gray,
[00:10:29] Mo Lima: huh? Oh, yeah. Don’t fool people. I
[00:10:31] John Ray: don’t know anybody like that, but I
[00:10:36] John Ray: Yeah, My wife would say different
[00:10:40] Mo Lima: That’s too funny. You definitely don’t want people to be surprised when they meet you. Yeah, that’s not a good feeling.
[00:10:45] John Ray: Right Whoa Yeah for sure. But so every two years, unless there’s a big change.
[00:10:52] Mo Lima: Yeah I would say three years. I would even get
[00:10:54] John Ray: three years.
[00:10:56] John Ray: Okay. Okay. And what I guess it depends on the business but what are the, some of the factors that you think about as you think about somebody comes to you and says, I want a new headshot or I want a new portfolio, whatever they’re looking for. What are some of the questions you’re going to ask them, maybe is the way to say it that help you determined, determine what you’re going to offer them or recommend to them.
[00:11:27] Mo Lima: So it depends on exactly what they’re looking for. If it’s a simple headshot for LinkedIn we go over wardrobe. They can bring, a couple outfits and, I’ll help them choose what to wear. I find out exactly. else they might want to use a simple headshot, whether it’s for, work, maybe it’s for a website.
[00:11:47] Mo Lima: If they need something a little more extensive let’s say they need something for brochures or they want something for their book jacket. I do offer a more. exTensive type of photography session where I first do an interview with them and I considered that my design consultation where we talk about their brand colors, what’s significant for them and how they want to be seen by their.
[00:12:14] Mo Lima: audience and we talk about words that people would use when looking for them because I do add that to the image file so that people can find it on search. And that helps a lot. It brings it closer to the top of search results when you’ve got The correct metadata behind it. And so there’s a lot of factors that we consider first before their actual photo session.
[00:12:38] Mo Lima: So I know exactly the type of lighting we’re using, the type of background. And also the posing that I’m going to use. Are they an author? Maybe they want to look a little more confident and, you knowledged, or are they an athlete? I want to do something, maybe a little more dramatic for them with some dramatic lighting.
[00:12:58] Mo Lima: Those are the things that I go through with every client that comes in who wants those business images.
[00:13:06] John Ray: Okay, so how do I prepare? How do I, and specifically, how do I get rid of my nerves?
[00:13:15] Mo Lima: Good question. Good question.
[00:13:17] John Ray: Because I’m going to be nervous.
[00:13:18] Mo Lima: Oh, absolutely. Everybody is.
[00:13:20] Mo Lima: Everybody’s nervous. Everybody’s nervous. And if you’re not, then you’re probably used to being photographed a lot, but most people are nervous. And with those folks, just getting to know them, first of all, at that design consultation helps a lot. Because it’s important to have a good rapport with your photographer.
[00:13:36] Mo Lima: anD then during the session before that, we just plan everything out so they feel confident. I do give them instructions before they come in for this session. And what’s funny that people laugh about is that I tell them to practice posing in front of the mirror. Oh, really? Yes. So
[00:13:56] John Ray: before they even come in.
[00:13:56] John Ray: I wonder how many people really
[00:13:57] Mo Lima: do that. Not as many as I’d like. But it really makes a difference and I can tell when people have done it.
[00:14:04] John Ray: You can?
[00:14:04] Mo Lima: Oh, yes.
[00:14:06] John Ray: Say more about that. How can you tell?
[00:14:08] Mo Lima: Yes, because they feel a little more confident. They know their smile. A lot of times when people have not had.
[00:14:16] Mo Lima: They’re photos done in a long time. They’re not used to looking at themselves. They look past themselves in the mirror when they’re getting ready in the morning or whatever. But when you’re forced to really see how you look, you become a little more confident with that look. You’re not expecting to see the 20 year old John in the mirror.
[00:14:36] Mo Lima: Don’t worry, I don’t ever see that,
[00:14:40] Mo Lima: but some people don’t see themselves past a certain age, which is really interesting to me, right? So I think they feel more confident once they’ve gotten used to looking at themselves in the mirror and really seeing themselves and seeing which angles. They like the best.
[00:14:54] Mo Lima: I can tell them what I think looks good. But it’s also helpful if they have an idea of the smile that they make that they like.
[00:15:02] John Ray: Because that’s muscle memory.
[00:15:04] Mo Lima: It
[00:15:04] Mo Lima: is.
[00:15:05] Mo Lima: Agreed. Yes.
[00:15:06] John Ray: Okay. Okay. I was guessing on that and I got it right. So
[00:15:10] John Ray: good. Okay. Some people are so natural, right? Because they know already sure that look
[00:15:16] John Ray: interesting.
[00:15:17] John Ray: Very interesting. We’re speaking with Mo Lima. Mo is with Mo Lima Photography. Mo, you have got this you mentioned your, the kinds of photography you do. And you mentioned a certain specialty and that’s women over 50,
[00:15:36] Mo Lima: yes, over 40 and over 50,
[00:15:37] John Ray: over 40 and over 50. Okay. So why? Why that specialty?
[00:15:41] Mo Lima: I do offer hair and makeup at the studio. I love the feeling that women have after a little bit of a makeover. I feel a lot of times, because I can relate to them, that women over a certain age in our society can be. Overlooked. And ignored. Yeah, to be honest. Yeah. And I love to serve.
[00:16:07] Mo Lima: I love to make people feel good and feel good about themselves. And also, I tend to love seeing the beauty in people, male or female. Especially women, because I think it’s so important for women our age to feel good. We give so much to our families a lot of times, or taking care of sickly or elderly family members, and ignoring ourselves and our own needs and feeling special.
[00:16:35] Mo Lima: This is something I like to give to clients. Yeah,
[00:16:39] John Ray: I love that. You’ve got some And I I think the word we were talking about this before we came on the air, I think the word that you like to use is empowerment. Yes. So say more on that. Expand
[00:16:54] Mo Lima: on that, please. Sure. Thank you. I do feel that by connecting with yourself, understanding who you are and recognizing that and seeing how someone else might see you in their eyes.
[00:17:11] Mo Lima: can give you a feeling of empowerment, can help you understand your own value. Seeing yourself looking beautiful in a photo can give you that feeling. Having family members comment on how gorgeous mom is or how grandma looks beautiful in this picture can really make you feel great about yourself and that’s so important.
[00:17:34] Mo Lima: Feeling bad about yourself can be so debilitating, um, and I do encourage some of my women clients who purchase photos cause I do offer also wall art is to purchase a photo of themselves. And put it in front of where they get dressed in the morning to see themselves and remember themselves as this gorgeous woman that they were on this day and keep it up.
[00:18:00] John Ray: That’s great advice. That’s great advice. So you have a magazine. Yes. Let’s talk
[00:18:10] Mo Lima: about that. Yeah. So for my clients 40 and over, and also I have another magazine for my clients, 50 and older. I I’m actually having I hold a campaign for each of that, those groups and feature them in the magazine with their portraits and a little bit about their story.
[00:18:29] Mo Lima: And this is a keepsake for them and it just is something that. That they can have for themselves or that they share with their family members and it’s just beautiful and the women sometimes meet each other and they know who they are and they can share stories. There are so many similar stories in the magazine that I produce called Portrait Experience Magazine.
[00:18:57] John Ray: That’s wonderful. And any How often does that how often do those magazines come out? Do you have any?
[00:19:05] Mo Lima: Approximately annually.
[00:19:06] John Ray: Okay. Okay. Got it. Got it Okay, very interesting. So Just a couple more questions about the session itself. So one of the things that you Point out that it’s really important is just the body language Yes.
[00:19:25] John Ray: That someone that’s posing they throw off, right? Tell us about what your thoughts are on that.
[00:19:31] Mo Lima: Yeah, and I think it’s really much needed information because Body language is one of the highest ranking pages on my site. I don’t really understand. Oh, really? But yeah, I get a lot of hits on my content about body language because it is important to have the correct body language in your photos so that you’re giving the correct information about yourself or what you, how you want to portray yourself.
[00:19:58] Mo Lima: Also, the body language for couples. is important and I do consider myself an expert at posing people and making sure that they have the correct body language and showing the most beautiful, features and angles and that. Enhances the story for each of the photos. You can have totally different body language in the same session, and it’s a totally different story about that person, depending on what they’re wearing, or, what the the lighting is.
[00:20:31] Mo Lima: But posing to me and body language is important in that empowerment as well, in making you feel good. About yourself. And I do train people to use the right body language going forward in their photos. I like to give tips.
[00:20:48] John Ray: Yeah that’s wonderful. What you’re doing really for people, whether it’s women over 50 or some old dude like me is you’re really giving people a refresh of their own sense of themselves, right?
[00:21:05] John Ray: And that is really, truly invaluable in terms of what people do with that. Let’s get to that. Let’s talk about maybe a success story or two that helped illustrate the great work you
[00:21:19] Mo Lima: do. Yeah. A client of mine Kevin had he was one that really didn’t have a lot of great profile images of himself.
[00:21:29] Mo Lima: And whenever people were looking for something, they go to Facebook and find, a photo of him at a bar or whatever, like the wrong message. Yeah. Yeah. And we put together a series of photos based on how he wanted people to see him. I interviewed him about who he admired, who in business inspires him, and just taking some of that energy.
[00:21:55] Mo Lima: reinforce his own brand and his own images so that he had enough great images for its website, for his press kit and for marketing material that he used. And He said he would never again take his image for granted after that because it impacted everything that he had out there and he got so many compliments on the new photos and he got lots of business as well.
[00:22:24] Mo Lima: Because he portrayed himself as a professional now and people could really appreciate that.
[00:22:30] John Ray: That’s awesome. Any other.
[00:22:32] Mo Lima: that. I do have plenty of stories.
[00:22:37] John Ray: How about for a woman
[00:22:38] Mo Lima: over 50? Yeah. So yes. I have had many emotions in my studio when people are, Women are getting their photos.
[00:22:50] Mo Lima: First we do hair and makeup and they get to see a little bit of the transformation, a piece at a time. They get to choose from studio wardrobe, or I also do a thing that I call fabric wrapping or fabric draping, where. If you know you don’t have a dress that you’re happy with, I can create one on set with the fabrics that I have.
[00:23:10] Mo Lima: I have sewn strips of fabric or used organza to create something unique for anybody, any woman that wants to have something unique. I love seeing that transformation and several and during the photo session give them a little sneak peek so they can see. What this progress is like, what it looks like.
[00:23:31] Mo Lima: And then when they come back to see their photos I’ve had several women really comment on how different they feel afterwards. And this has happened multiple times. It’s not just one story but as a synopsis, it’s just I’ve had women cry in the studio. I keep tissue at my desk because they’re so emotional about how they see themselves and how I’ve seen them.
[00:23:58] Mo Lima: Sure. They’re seeing themselves through my eyes and I like to follow sometimes fine art photos I’m sorry, portraits and artwork to go back to my artistic beginnings and old masters paintings and replicate that for some of the women and they see themselves in these beautiful portraits and it’s amazing.
[00:24:18] John Ray: Yeah. And that’s, wow, that’s wonderful. What great work you’re doing Mo. This has been great. And I can’t imagine that there aren’t some folks out there that at this point want to know where they can get in touch. So let’s tell them how they can do that.
[00:24:33] Mo Lima: Absolutely. My Instagram, where I have a lot of my portfolio, I am at Mo Lima photo.
[00:24:42] Mo Lima: So it’s M O L I M A P H O T O. And then on Facebook, it’s Mo Lima photography. And my website is molimaphotography. com and you can get all of my telephone numbers and email there and contact me and get a free consultation if you want.
[00:25:05] John Ray: Mo, this has been fascinating, and I’m just delightful and I’m delighted you could come in and we could celebrate the work you do, shine a light on it, pardon the pun, on the great work that you do.
[00:25:19] John Ray: So thank you for that and keep it up.
[00:25:21] Mo Lima: Thank you so much. This has been such a joy. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, John.
[00:25:28] John Ray: Folks, just a quick reminder. If you would be ashamed to have a picture taken of your bookkeeping system. And if you know what I mean, if you’ve got one of those boxes that’s full of receipts and it’s all scattered all over the place, or you’re, you’ve got administrative tasks that are piled high that you can’t get to.
[00:25:49] John Ray: And all those things are destroying the joy in your business, admit it. That’s what’s happening. I’ve got a solution for you. The people at Office Angels, that whole team of angels that fly in and get that work done for you, and then they fly out and they do it on an ongoing or as needed basis. I know the work they do myself personally, because they do it for me and my business.
[00:26:13] John Ray: And I couldn’t do it without them. Give them a call. If you’re shy, you can go to officeangels. us and learn a little bit more, but I just encourage you to give them a call and let them know I sent you their number is 6 7 8 5 2 8 0 5 0 0. And you will be glad you did because again, you will get the joy back in your business by using them and a quick reminder.
[00:26:41] John Ray: For those that listen to the show that are waiting. Yes, I’ve got a book coming out here in about a month. As we record this show mid November. So mid December my book is called The Generosity Mindset for Business Success. Raise Your Confidence, Your Value, and Your Prices that will be out.
[00:27:00] John Ray: If you want to know more, you want updates on when the book is released, go to the generosity mindset. com to learn more and to. Sign up for updates there and just a big thank you to you. Our listeners you are fantastic. You continue to share our social media posts like us. And then what you’ve done here that I’ve seen quite a few times is you share the show with others.
[00:27:30] John Ray: That may need the services of those who are on the show. And that’s such a general act of generosity. Thank you for doing that. And please continue to do that because you help us help the guest on this show and business leaders like Mo who deserve that spotlight, and then it helps us fulfill our mission to be the voice of business in the North Fulton region.
[00:27:54] John Ray: So for my guest Mo Lima. I’m John Ray, join us next time here on North Fulton Business Radio.

 

Tagged With: family portraits, headshots, John Ray, Mo Lima, Mo Lima Photography, Mokwang Lima, North Fulton Business Radio, Office Angels, photo session, Portait Experience Magazine, portraits, professional photographer, renasant bank

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