Business RadioX ®

Kris Cugnon, Professional Offline Matchmaker, Dating Coach, and Wing Woman

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Kris Cugnon
North Fulton Business Radio
Kris Cugnon, Professional Offline Matchmaker, Dating Coach, and Wing Woman
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North Fulton Business Radio, Episode 718)

Kris Cugnon is a professional offline matchmaker who believes in creating personal connections and reversing the impersonal effects of dating apps. Kris offers a range of services, from matchmaking to date coaching and even becoming a “wing woman.” She and host John Ray delved into Kris’s approach to helping clients find their forever person, which includes an in-depth understanding of the client, their personality, interests, and what they seek in a partner. Kris also discussed how she guides her clients through the dating process, the importance of setting realistic expectations, shared advice on dating during the holidays, navigating the initial stages of a new relationship with transparency and authenticity, and more.

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

Kris Cugnon, Professional Offline Matchmaker, Dating Coach, and Wing Woman

People say Kris never meets a stranger. She is passionate about the process of truly getting to know people and discovering the factors that aid in Matchmaking.

With over 25 fulfilling years in Business Development and Program Management, she has helped launch, market, and connect people with products and services nationwide.  She utilizes these same skills, and intuition, to seek out amazing singles and facilitate meaningful introductions and date coaching.

Kris is a fierce networker with the heart of an altruist. Her goal is connecting people with their “forever human”.

In her spare time, she and her husband support numerous Veteran initiatives. They enjoy traveling, music, and culture-seeking at every opportunity.

Website | LinkedIn | Instagram

Questions and Topics in this Interview:

  • 01:12 Welcoming Guest: Kris Cugnon, Professional Offline Matchmaker
  • 01:39 Understanding Kris’s Journey and Passion for Matchmaking
  • 03:58 The Problem with Online Dating Apps
  • 07:12 The Offline Matchmaking Process
  • 09:02 Understanding and Managing Dating Expectations
  • 11:33 The Importance of Authenticity in Dating
  • 18:38 Navigating Dating During Holidays
  • 23:56 Success Stories and Final Thoughts
  • 25:13 Conclusion 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.
[00:00:19] 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 getting tattooed by your big bank, your big mega bank out there, and you know what I mean by that computer generated voices, and you can’t find a live person if your life depended on it I’ve got a suggestion.
[00:00:46] John Ray: Go to Renasant Bank. They’re big enough to handle pretty much any need you can throw at them, but they’re small enough to deliver those services in a personal way, and I know this myself from my dealings with them. So go to renasantbank.com, find one of their local offices, some 200 around the southeast, and give them a call.
[00:01:05] John Ray: I think you’ll be glad you did. Renasant Bank, understanding you. FDIC. And now I want to welcome Kris Cugnon. Kris is a professional offline matchmaker. Kris, welcome.
[00:01:19] Kris Cugnon: Thank you so much. Excited to be here.
[00:01:21] John Ray: I’m excited to have you here. That’s not the word I think people would have expected is offline, right? They were expecting online.
[00:01:30] John Ray: So let’s. Let’s get into this quickly. Talk a little bit about you and how you’re serving folks out there.
[00:01:35] Kris Cugnon: Excellent. Thank you so much. Sure. Absolute pleasure to be here with you today. So I am a, I’m a fierce connector. I’ve had a long career in business development, project management. So I’ve taken those skills and my passion for connecting people and helping them find their forever person. Wow.
[00:01:57] John Ray: So you were in the business world for a long time.
[00:01:59] Kris Cugnon: Long time, yes. And I actually dabbled in this just for fun as doing matchmaking singles events back when I was single and looking. But I’ve come full circle now and made it my full time focus.
[00:02:11] John Ray: That’s wonderful. That’s wonderful. Talk about why you developed this passion for matchmaking.
[00:02:19] Kris Cugnon: I actually woke up this morning thinking about this because I do have a funny story. Okay.
[00:02:24] John Ray: We love funny stories.
[00:02:26] Kris Cugnon: When I was five years old, I’m the oldest of three. The oldest tend to, be a little more take charge sometimes.
[00:02:33] Kris Cugnon: I was five. My parents were at the hospital having my little brother. And they left me with one of their best friends, a very kind woman, lifelong friend. And it was supposed to be nap time, but I got up, took a piece of paper and a pencil, and proceeded down the street asking for people’s names and phone numbers.
[00:02:53] Kris Cugnon: I don’t know what I was going to do with it, but I knew that I needed that information to do it. to launch myself into some kind of business. I actually got to really, can you imagine how terrified this poor woman, but I realized, and I look back on that and just laugh about it. Now I’ve, Talked about it so many times, but it’s the marker of who I am.
[00:03:16] Kris Cugnon: I am a connector and I’m so passionate about getting to know people on a really deep level. And my husband says I never meet a stranger and it’s, it is the truth. I take it very seriously. That’s just who you are. It
[00:03:29] John Ray: is indeed. But why, there are a lot of ways you could apply that talent and that that you have, why matchmaking?
[00:03:38] Kris Cugnon: So many people are just, there’s so many amazing people out there and they just haven’t found their person yet. And a lot of people are stuck right now, wondering what in the world to do, especially if they’ve been in a long relationship and they’re just getting back out there or they just haven’t found their person yet and.
[00:03:58] Kris Cugnon: Unfortunately the dating apps, we can talk about that later if you’d like, but they have, they’ve really done a disservice to our society. I feel like they have completely changed the face of dating. I think they were created by men, maybe just for and then everybody was forced to use them.
[00:04:17] Kris Cugnon: Everybody was forced to use them. And it’s created more problems than good. I want to be the alternative to that. We’re getting back to good old fashioned matchmaking in person conversation and networking. Yeah,
[00:04:30] John Ray: That’s good stuff. I would imagine that most of the clients that you work with have tried the online Experience.
[00:04:37] John Ray: Absolutely. And they’ve got horror stories.
[00:04:40] Kris Cugnon: There’s so many. I actually heard one yesterday at the North Fulton Chamber of Commerce. Okay. Tell us. He was finally, and they say that it takes a hundred swipes in a dating app to actually get on an actual date with an actual person. And you still don’t know who that person is.
[00:04:59] Kris Cugnon: And so yesterday, I heard yet another story. He found somebody fairly interested. They had a meeting at the bar, I think, seven o’clock. They’re supposed to meet at the bar. And he’s looking all around, could not find her. So he called her on the phone. And the woman right beside him answered the phone and he’s you don’t look anything like your pictures.
[00:05:20] Kris Cugnon: Yep. What’s with that? She’s oh I wasn’t getting much attention with my own pictures. So she And it was a completely different person. And she said I didn’t think I’d you know get to you if I just Shared my actual, so of course that the date’s over quickly and . Yeah. He was catfished once again.
[00:05:38] Kris Cugnon: So
[00:05:39] John Ray: is that what you call that? .
[00:05:40] Kris Cugnon: . They either make up their own profile or use other people’s pictures.
[00:05:43] John Ray: But you call that catfishing.
[00:05:44] Kris Cugnon: It’s called catfishing. They are, oh, there’s, it’s very deceitful.
[00:05:47] John Ray: It happens
[00:05:47] John Ray: so much. There’s a term for it. . Yeah. Yeah. That. And it’s I think people know this by now dealing in the recesses of the internet is you can be anybody you want to be,
[00:05:59] John Ray: right?
[00:06:00] Kris Cugnon: Yeah. That’s the scary part. That’s the problem. That is a big, huge problem. Absolutely.
[00:06:04] John Ray: I’m just curious about this. I’m sure, the stats on this is that how successful are those dating apps really? If we were new, knew the real numbers. Nobody would ever go on them.
[00:06:15] John Ray: Exactly.
[00:06:16] John Ray: Do you know, do you have, can you get beyond all their veneer and marketing who he and tell us what the real numbers or do you know,
[00:06:23] Kris Cugnon: well, there, there are some, and actually there was recently some research that just came out. One in three dating app users say they left the relationship because it felt toxic.
[00:06:34] Kris Cugnon: And then yeah. And then, of course, there’s, it’s just a dangerous psychological space. But you get unsolicited pictures, unsolicited people trying to contact you just in a general inappropriateness. And 52 percent of people are urgently swiping through these matches. And you just have to take a step back and say, how could you possibly find your soulmate by just glancing at a picture for two seconds?
[00:07:02] Kris Cugnon: Yeah, really. Yeah. So there, there are plenty of stats about that, but yeah.
[00:07:10] John Ray: So you. So let’s talk about how it happens with you and that process. So you’re there to help folks decompress from that experience, right? Yes. And and reconnect with as you say, some good old fashioned, just face to face, uh, meeting and talking and getting to know someone.
[00:07:31] John Ray: Yes. That’s intimidating. It’s intimidating for all of us in a way, right? Even the most extroverted sometimes. So talk about how you work with someone on on at the beginning.
[00:07:41] Kris Cugnon: We typically meet in person if possible. If not. Online video chat can suffice, but yeah, we get to know you on a deeper level, really get to know you and what you’re looking for.
[00:07:53] Kris Cugnon: And then we take it from there. We do matchmaking, but also date coaching is a big piece of what we do. Just really helping people narrow their list. If they have a very lengthy list of expectations and something they’re looking for, we help. Rope that in. And then some people don’t have a list at all because they’re completely confused or whatever their past experience has been.
[00:08:17] Kris Cugnon: They don’t know where to start or what the expectations should be. So through that conversation, we help them, guide that, guide the search. And then we can be a friend through the whole process and even provide that consultation, date coaching and I can even be a wing woman on the side to help actually have practicum experience out in public.
[00:08:36] Kris Cugnon: I can support, yeah, folks for all those needs.
[00:08:39] John Ray: I want to hear more about that. Kris Cugnon is with us folks, and Kris is a professional offline matchmaker. Kris.
[00:08:50] John Ray: People are different, right? And you just described it that some people have a lot more expectations than they ought to have. And some people just have no idea what they’re getting into. So what do you have a series of questions you take people through? Or how do you really get into knowing Who someone is right?
[00:09:14] John Ray: And so that you can help better service them in terms of matching them up
[00:09:20] John Ray: properly.
[00:09:20] Kris Cugnon: That’s a great question. I would look at it like I have maybe a flight was just delayed and I’m sitting beside somebody at the airport and she just Start to find out what their hobbies, their interests are, their career education, background and their past dating history.
[00:09:37] Kris Cugnon: What does that look like? And then eventually the conversation comes around to, and the main focus of finding your forever person is how you want to feel. And you can look at it five years down the line. How do I want to feel? When I am loved and I want to give love, what does that look like for me?
[00:09:59] Kris Cugnon: And it gets beyond physical descriptions and other things like that. So it gets really to the heart of what matters.
[00:10:05] John Ray: Do you work with women, men,
[00:10:08] John Ray: both? Both. Yep. Both. And all ages. Okay. Ages, all ages.
[00:10:15] John Ray: So what do you see are the differences in men versus women that you work with?
[00:10:22] Kris Cugnon: Women are quick to seek guidance. I think we naturally. Packed together and maybe you’re a little more social and conversational about that when we’re looking for a match men tend to not be as, as, I guess assertive with looking for that help but an equal number of men are absolutely amazing and fantastic and deserve that great match as well.
[00:10:49] Kris Cugnon: So I know they’re there but drumming them up, it takes a little more, a little extra push but I want people to feel completely comfortable. Like I’m a friend in this process. And that’s what we do. We’re friends through the whole thing and we get to know you and. And set out and find that good match for you and set you on your
[00:11:06] Kris Cugnon: way.
[00:11:06] John Ray: Okay
[00:11:07] John Ray: so we’ve had our discovery sessions, shall we say, where you get to know someone. So what about the, what they’re looking for? Do you help people clarify that? Do you sometimes find that you help people discover what things that they’re looking for they didn’t, they really didn’t know?
[00:11:32] Kris Cugnon: And sometimes just the reverse of that. Somebody has in their mind, since they’re, Whatever, a teenager, a physical description of what they’re looking for. I heard recently someone who’s looking for very good eyebrows and or a good jawline or this, that, and the other. You’re not marrying their eyebrows or their hair or their, these physical descriptors that at the end of the day, it just, it’s not an attraction, of course, that’s a good thing, but but you’re going for that feeling, like I said so yeah, absolutely, I’m, I help have those discussions and get to the root of really what’s important.
[00:12:10] Kris Cugnon: So you, I can imagine you have to have some conversations that are. Pretty Frank it’s yes, because people have expectations that are unrealistic.
[00:12:24] Kris Cugnon: Yeah, exactly. I actually just recently, there was a gentleman that had a five page list of what
[00:12:32] John Ray: I was going to ask you about that. I could imagine you get some really.
[00:12:38] John Ray: Difficult situation. So let’s just put it like that, right? Whereas people have so many expectations that they’re looking for a unicorn.
[00:12:45] Kris Cugnon: Exactly. Absolutely. And it’s, there’s a lot of reasons for that. Some people are um, I don’t want to say self promoting, but maybe that’s the word there.
[00:12:56] John Ray: Oh, come on.
[00:12:56] John Ray: I’m shocked to hear there are people like that,
[00:12:59] Kris Cugnon: and then perfectionism that’s an, and then maybe things that they, a mantra that maybe a parent has planted in their head that they have to have this person with a certain career or this certain status or certain look and, or they have to have.
[00:13:12] Kris Cugnon: Wearing or be super trendy or whatever the those hang ups are. We people have them for different reasons. Certainly past experiences, personal values priorities, cultural differences. Those all come into play when they’re Creating their list. But yeah, ideally it needs to be roped in just a notch, typically.
[00:13:34] John Ray:
[00:13:34] John Ray: Yeah, I can see how you have to have a, frank discussion once in a while with people, but so okay, so you’ve had this, you’ve had this this time together. Is that one session, several sessions or however long
[00:13:49] Kris Cugnon: it takes one session, a couple hours. Okay, cool.
[00:13:53] John Ray: And so what happens then?
[00:13:56] Kris Cugnon: Then we decide what the course of action is. So some people, date coaching and couple sessions just to talk that out, get them on track and find some, really new exciting, fun things to do around town, ways to network, that kind of thing. So it could be consultation route.
[00:14:12] Kris Cugnon: But if somebody wants help typically. There’s certain people, busy professionals, people who are very serious about finding that person quickly they can hire us to do actual matchmaking and then we set out to find those matches. We actually set the dates. So all that’s super easy.
[00:14:32] Kris Cugnon: You just meet at typically a restaurant or somewhere. at a certain time and you know who to ask for and then take the conversation from there.
[00:14:40] John Ray: So you bring, you can do it two ways and maybe more. You can actually bring the candidates. Is that the right word? Yeah, clients. Okay, the clients. You can bring your you can bring your client potential matches.
[00:14:57] John Ray: Or you can help them understand what the dating game looks like these days and launch them off into the world. Exactly. Okay. Exactly. Okay, got it. So what, give some advice on what the first few dates. What do you think the first dates ought to look like?
[00:15:16] Kris Cugnon: They should be fun. They should be fun.
[00:15:19] John Ray: That always helps, right?
[00:15:20] Kris Cugnon: Absolutely, and just usually I suggest only about an hour. No pressure. You’re just going to meet a new friend. It doesn’t have to be intimate. No expectations, especially those first one, two, three, four dates. Keep it high level. Just super fun. What you’re doing during this time is…
[00:15:40] Kris Cugnon: Setting up the rules for the dance. So you’re seeing how the two of you interact, are they on time, responsive, respectful are they interesting? And so you’re just noticing their character, the vibe and that kind of thing. It’s, and it. I say too, it’s very important that perhaps the person you’re with may not be your match.
[00:16:01] Kris Cugnon: If this is just a date that you found, but they might know someone who would lead you to their match. So if you’re keeping it friendly, you’re meeting a new friend they may have a neighborhood cookout where you meet somebody fabulous, or maybe they’re going to a Braves game and you meet somebody there.
[00:16:16] Kris Cugnon: So just a lot of times people ask me, do you believe in love at first sight? But I think what’s more important is don’t expect a spark. You might be pleasantly surprised, but don’t expect a spark rather. Think about it’s curiosity at first sight.
[00:16:33] John Ray: Ah,
[00:16:34] John Ray: okay. That’s a good way to think about it.
[00:16:37] Kris Cugnon: And a lot of people, especially those first few dates. People get overwhelmed by the task of dating. I hear that so often that they just can’t, Oh, I don’t have time, I can’t, How could I possibly do that? I think what those people are thinking is that they have to pour so much of their energy into those first couple dates and tell their life story and this and are they checking all the boxes?
[00:17:03] Kris Cugnon: But that’s not it. Try don’t get overwhelmed with that really. It’s just a one hour, go grab a coffee, a quick beverage, a slice of pizza, a shaved ice, a walk in the park, something, something super easy and you’re just getting to know a new friend. Yeah.
[00:17:18] Kris Cugnon: Yeah.
[00:17:18] John Ray: Yeah.
[00:17:20] John Ray: So let’s talk about those first few dates. And the signals that someone should be looking for beyond the obvious, there’s some obvious ones that are it’s a go or no go. But some of the signals that you should be looking for that this is a good match or not a good match.
[00:17:40] Kris Cugnon: That’s a great
[00:17:40] Kris Cugnon: question. So certainly eye contact. Eye contact is. It’s a gauge of a person’s character and really you can gauge honesty and sincerity that way. And then is the person courteous? Are they courteous? Are they are they on time? Do they respond when they say they’re going to respond?
[00:18:01] Kris Cugnon: Do they maybe um, hand you something during dinner or are they’re holding the door for you? That would be, Typically for a gentleman, but either way, it’s just signs of courtesy and respect. That’s what you’re looking for because again, you’re setting up this dance and or the rules for the dance.
[00:18:19] Kris Cugnon: Just like you are ballroom dancing. Usually the gentleman takes the lady’s hand, walks her to the dance floor. You do the dance and he returns. He returns are there. That’s I’ve done some ballroom dancing, so that’s very formal. But it’s the rules of the dance and how you’re gonna create your own personal space and then space together.
[00:18:36] John Ray: Got it. Got it. We’re here recording this show. In November 2023, a week before Thanksgiving, so we’ve got the holidays coming up that always gets real dicey, right? Talk about what the what you advise around the holidays in terms of when it’s time to introduce uh, this person that you’re think you’re getting serious about to the family or what have you.
[00:19:06] Kris Cugnon: I Would say don’t I would say don’t, this is, it’s highly personal. It’s your decision. And the moment that you introduce somebody, there could be, there could be negative comments, there could be. Questions that you just maybe aren’t prepared to answer, don’t need to answer quite yet because you’re still getting to know each other.
[00:19:27] Kris Cugnon: So certainly not only the holiday, any holiday around the entire year that’s sometimes stressful enough in family situations. So adding another person to the mix is, uh, just, I would say be a little cautious and make sure the timing is right for you. You’re the one that matters and who can make that decision.
[00:19:47] John Ray: Yeah.
[00:19:48] John Ray: Yeah. And you’ve got to make sure you’re both on the same wavelength on that, right? Correct. And that you both understand what that means and what it doesn’t mean.
[00:19:56] John Ray:
[00:19:56] John Ray: And they may be pressuring you to bring this new person around, even if they’ve heard about them or that, but it’s really on your own schedule.
[00:20:03] John Ray: Yeah. Nobody should feel that pressure.
[00:20:06] John Ray: So what about those that are single during the holidays and that just being single, it creates its own dynamic there during what is most people consider a family time.
[00:20:22] Kris Cugnon: But it’s an exciting time to. There’s so many things you can do as a single person to meet people and do your own.
[00:20:31] Kris Cugnon: networking, outside of your career you can set a challenge that you’re going to go do something new each week. And put yourself out of your comfort zone. One great thing to do for our community, but also for yourself is to volunteer. You can, there’s so many things. Year round to do for volunteering and you always meet good, kind hearted people typically.
[00:20:54] Kris Cugnon: I have some other ideas if you’d like to hear those. Please. Okay. If somebody is into, to wine tasting, there’s always plenty of events going on with wine tasting. Join them. a wine club. I’m actually a co host for the Atlanta Wine Meetup. It’s on the meetup app. Okay. We’ve got about 7000 members in that group.
[00:21:13] John Ray: Oh, wow.
[00:21:14] Kris Cugnon: Yep. Just high professionals, a lot of fun people, good people who like wine and we do a lot of fun things around year round. Wine tastings.
[00:21:24] John Ray: And it helps to like, let’s use this event as an example. It helps if you like it, right? You can’t show up at the wine event and not like wine. Right?
[00:21:35] Kris Cugnon: You
[00:21:36] Kris Cugnon: could. You could certainly go. If you don’t care for it, you can have a juice or a other drink and that would be perfectly fine. Oh,
[00:21:43] Kris Cugnon: okay.
[00:21:44] John Ray: Okay. I guess the point is you want some authenticity in this, right? Yes, of course.
[00:21:48] John Ray: Yeah.
[00:21:49] Kris Cugnon: But they’re, yeah, there are plenty more things that you can do as a, yeah,
[00:21:53] John Ray: but
[00:21:53] John Ray: there are a lot of things you can do and it’s really and this is where I guess you help your clients to really get out of the mental box that they’re in
[00:22:01] John Ray: terms of what’s possible,
[00:22:02] Kris Cugnon: exactly, and just that overwhelmed feeling or especially not having much time as busy professionals, you don’t have much time.
[00:22:11] Kris Cugnon: So you’ve got to be very intentional, very targeted on what you’re going to choose to do with your time. So
[00:22:17] John Ray: Let’s get to valentine’s day. That’s another little ticklish, a little time of the year for singles that are navigating that and whatever status they’re in, right? If they’ve got a.
[00:22:30] John Ray: Potentially budding relationship that really gets ticklish, right? So talk about your thoughts about Valentine’s day.
[00:22:38] Kris Cugnon: It’s important to, to communicate what your expectations are and your level of comfort and what you’d like to see happen. Rather than leaving people guessing or expecting something amazing or surprise.
[00:22:51] Kris Cugnon: So the ball is always in your court. And so you can guide that process to your comfort level, what you want. What you’d like to do or not do, right? So you’re empowered to drive that. And I think that helps just so there’s no, no mystery on, if two people on different pages.
[00:23:09] Kris Cugnon: Yeah, but actually go ahead. I can share a Valentine’s story. I
[00:23:14] John Ray: would love, yeah. Stories are great.
[00:23:16] Kris Cugnon: So there’s always singles, balls and galas and typically around that time of year. And gosh, it’s been over. 15 years, maybe more. Not quite 20, but somewhere in there. When I was single, okay, went to this with a couple girlfriends and one of my best friends met a gentleman there.
[00:23:37] Kris Cugnon: I helped facilitate the wing. I was the wing woman there. Okay. But they are married with two teenagers now. Wow. And absolute love story. And yeah so had we not gone there, I don’t think she would have met her forever person.
[00:23:50] John Ray: Yeah, that’s well, what a great story. Yeah.
[00:23:52] John Ray: And you’ve given me a great segue to. Question. I know people are interested in examples of successes that you’ve helped create along the way in the matchmaking you’ve done.
[00:24:05] John Ray: There’s
[00:24:06] John Ray: one.
[00:24:06] Kris Cugnon: Yes, absolutely. Naturally I, when I am out. At singles events or any kind of networking, I’m always on the lookout.
[00:24:15] Kris Cugnon: So I’m always as a connector, I’m always have my clients in mind and what they’re looking for. So I might not meet the person directly, but I’m always asking, do you know anybody? Here’s what I’m looking for. Here’s. the person I’m looking for. So I’m always having those conversations and just seeing who I can drum up where I can meet people.
[00:24:39] Kris Cugnon: And and I put the word out so people know how to contact me if they’d like to introduce a friend to me, a friend that’s fabulous and single and they’re looking for some help. That’s,
[00:24:49] John Ray: that’s great. Great work from Kris Cugnon. Kris is a professional offline matchmaker. Dating coach and wing woman, all of those things.
[00:25:01] John Ray: Wow, Kris, this is making people happy is, and that’s what you’re talking about here really at the end of the day and fulfilled is really what it’s all about for you. And congratulations on that work. That’s important work. And we’re grateful we could shine the light on that work.
[00:25:16] John Ray: Let’s get to the most important question though, which is how people can get in touch.
[00:25:19] Kris Cugnon: Absolutely.
[00:25:20] Kris Cugnon: Absolutely. On LinkedIn, it’s Kris Cugnon, C U G N O N. And on Instagram, it’s Connector Kris on Instagram, but with a K. So it’s Connector Kris, Cugnon, and you can message me either place. Okay, cool.
[00:25:36] John Ray: Kris Cugnon, professional offline matchmaker wing woman, dating coach.
[00:25:44] John Ray: She can make your life better.
[00:25:45] Kris Cugnon: I would love to. I would love to. And if your listeners have not heard, please know that you are beautiful, brilliant, and deserving of finding that your forever person that you can really feel that true love with and share. Share your love of the way that you want to share it.
[00:26:04] John Ray: That’s wonderful. Yeah. Great. Great words, Kris. Thanks again. Thank you so much.
[00:26:08] Kris Cugnon: Pleasure to be here. Absolutely. Have a great day.
[00:26:11] John Ray: You
[00:26:11] John Ray: too. Hey folks, if you’ve got some issues in your back office. If you’ve got administrative tasks that are piled up, bookkeeping that’s just a mess and you’re just, you’re tired and weighed down by all those issues, and you know you need to be spending more time on employees.
[00:26:35] John Ray: And your clients. I’ve got an answer for you. That involves Office Angels they have a toll team of angels that fly in and get that work done. So you can spend time on the most important parts of your business, which is the front part of the business where you’re working with clients and your employees.
[00:26:54] John Ray: Give them a call 6 7 8 5 2 8 0 5 0 0 and tell them we sent you. And what will happen is they’ll talk to you about what your needs are and match you up with an angel that can work with you on an ongoing or as needed basis and help you restore the joy. To your business that you think you’ve lost.
[00:27:15] John Ray: I highly recommend them. I use their services myself and they do great work and folks, just a quick reminder. I’ve got a book coming out here in about a month. Now, as we record this show in November, 2023, the books called the generosity mindset method for business success, raise your confidence, your value, and your prices.
[00:27:38] John Ray: If you’re a solo or professional services provider, That has trouble with business development, with pricing issues. This may be a book for you. Go to the generosity mindset. com to sign up, to receive updates. Or if you’re listening to this show in 2024, you’ll find out where to buy the book by going to that link.
[00:28:00] John Ray: And I want to thank you, our audience. You’re just terrific. We’ve survived on this show now seven and a half years, over 700 episodes of North Fulton business radio. And that’s because of you, our listener you have continue to love us on social media. And one of the things you do that I.
[00:28:20] John Ray: I’ve heard from a number of people is you share the show with people that you might think have an interest in the services of our guests on the show. And if you know someone out there that’s looking for that forever person, then you’ve heard from Kris here today, right? But we’ve got so many other business leaders that we’ve had on the show.
[00:28:40] John Ray: And you support them in that way and honor their work in that way. And thank you for that. That also helps us because it helps us live into our mission to be the voice of business in the North Fulton region. And I am grateful for you. So thank you. So for my guest, Kris Cugnon, I’m John Ray, join us next time here on North Fulton Business Radio.

 

 

The Future of Wine Serving, with Angela Caine, WineView

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WineView
North Fulton Business Radio
The Future of Wine Serving, with Angela Caine, WineView
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North Fulton Business Radio, Episode 717)

Angela Caine, Co-Founder and COO of WineView, joined host John Ray on this episode of North Fulton Business Radio. She discussed her background in software and law, and the idea behind the creation of WineView and how it aims to transform the server experience in the wine industry. Angela delved into the details of their software, including its user-friendly interface, how it is designed to bridge the educational gap in wine knowledge for servers, and its customer experience and bottom-line benefits for restaurants. She also shared WineView’s collaboration with restaurant point of sale and management system, Toast, offered a success story, and much more.

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

WineView is the only all-in-one solution for wine programs. We seamlessly integrate with Toast POS systems to guarantee a 10-20% increase in wine sales.

WineView is your Digital Wine List

✔ Gives guests and staff a way to quickly navigate your wine list

✔ Recommends wine pairings with each of your menu items

✔ Can be used on multiple devices, no hardware or iPads required

✔Automatically hides wines when they run out of stock or you 86 them

Wine Training For Today’s Workforce with Interactive wine training for your staff, trackable results to measure staff performance, training that’s tailored to your wine program, and training on your entire alcohol program.

WineView also works for other POS users.  It’s a new way to train your servers with interactive, gamified wine training, server’s score tracking and wine training that’s tailored to your wine program.

Website | LinkedIn |Facebook

Angela Caine, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, WineView

Angela Grace Caine practiced law for 25 years before she decided to start a tech company.  She is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and the Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham, Alabama. For over thirty years, Angela has worked with top executives, law firms, private companies and governmental entities. During that time, she also drank a ton of wine.

When she met her co-Founder, Gary Campbell, Angela had been working as a professional for many years.  She immediately understood the idea of WineView and decided to help build the company.  Her knowledge and insight contributed to the success of the new startup as she was able to mobilize her networks in economic development, business and law to help start and build a solid foundation.  Her many years as a server did not hurt either.

WineView is “the pairing app” that helps guests and servers pair wine with their meals.  It is based on a sophisticated algorithm and database of more than 400,000 wines and 250,000 recipes.  It helps servers gain confidence in recommending wine pairings to their guests – even if they have never drank a drop of it themselves.  Further, it provides an interactive guest experience for the wine drinker who still wants to learn.  Finally, it helps restaurants boost their wine sales by training their staff and delighting their guests.

Prior to entering law school, Angela worked in Washington D.C. for U.S. Senator H. John Heinz (R-Pa.) in the office of the Press Secretary. She has accumulated multiple awards including Best in Bar for immigration law in 2008 and 2009. Angela works out the WineView office in Atlanta, Georgia.  For more information visit www.WineView.com or contact Angela at Angela@wineview.com.

Questions and Topics in this Interview:

  • 00:05 Introduction 
  • 01:17 Welcoming Angela Caine from WineView
  • 01:26 Understanding WineView and Its Services
  • 03:01 Angela’s Journey to WineView
  • 04:49 The Birth of WineView
  • 05:32 The Challenges and Successes of Starting a Tech Company
  • 06:23 Why Angela Chose WineView
  • 07:46 The Role of WineView in Enhancing Restaurant Experiences
  • 08:01 The Importance of Wine Education for Servers
  • 08:48 The Impact of Wine Pairing on Dining Experience
  • 09:34 The Role of Servers in Enhancing Wine Experience
  • 13:16 The Need for a Change in the Restaurant Industry
  • 14:28 How WineView Empowers Servers
  • 15:47 The Fun and Interactive Training Modules of WineView
  • 16:53 The Power of Digital Wine Lists
  • 17:30 The Importance of Storytelling in Wine Selling
  • 17:51 Challenges in the Wine Industry
  • 18:08 The Impact of Changing Demographics on Wine Consumption
  • 18:27 The Rise of the Craft Beer Industry
  • 18:53 The Struggle of the Wine Industry to Engage Younger Generations
  • 19:11 Making Wine Knowledge More Accessible
  • 19:51 The Role of Technology in Enhancing Wine Sales
  • 22:05 The Benefits of Collaborating with Toast
  • 24:47 The Competitive Advantage of WineView
  • 27:48 The Ideal Customers for WineView
  • 29:15 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.
[00:00:19] 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 from inside Renasant Bank in beautiful Alpharetta. And if you’re tired of the mega bank experience, Yes, the computer generated voice is you know what I’m talking about.
[00:00:37] John Ray: If you’re at one of those banks, you can’t get a live person to save your life. Here’s an alternative. I’ve found that Renasant Bank is big enough to handle pretty much any need you can throw at them as a bank, but they’re small enough to deliver those services that they work in a personal way.
[00:00:54] John Ray: That’s what I found myself. Here’s a way to try them out. Go to Renasantbank. com. Find one of their local offices near you and give them a call. See if a live person answers the phone. That’s a good way to test them out. And I happen to know they do answer the phone. Give them a try. I think you’ll be glad you did.
[00:01:11] John Ray: Renasant Bank, understanding you, member FDIC. And now I want to welcome Angela Caine. Angela is with WineView. Angela, welcome.
[00:01:23] Angela Caine: Thank you so much. Good to be here.
[00:01:24] John Ray: Yeah. Great to have you here. Wineview. Tell us a little bit about how you’re serving folks. It sounds like fun.
[00:01:30] Angela Caine: Yes. Wineview, and it’s spelled W I N E V I E W, and I have to say that because a lot of tech companies decide to name themselves by changing a letter here or there.
[00:01:42] Angela Caine: Yes. And so we decided against that strategy. We wanted people to know exactly what we did. It’s Wineview. W I N E. And view, V, I, E, W. So that makes a big difference to our company. But anyway, we are a software company a right now a B2B software company and we help restaurants increase their wine sales in two ways.
[00:02:03] Angela Caine: Number one, we train their servers on their particular wine list and menu and build confidence in their serving staff. And then we also provide an interactive guest experience. And I can talk a little bit more about those, but those are our two main. Functionalities. And we found that there’s a big need in the market because after the pandemic the servers in particular, workforce in particular had a huge problem finding servers who were experienced.
[00:02:27] Angela Caine: A lot of the veterans left the industry. And and also where we are on the coast is a lot of seasonal employees, a lot of college kids, a lot of non wine drinkers who are still acting as servers. And so we found that there was a kind of a gap there. On the guest experience side, we realize that sometimes, like for example, you go down to Destin and you’ve got a two hour wait for your table, what do you do in the meantime?
[00:02:48] Angela Caine: You can research that wine list. If you’re a wine drinker and there’s 200 bottles of wine on the list, how are you going to know 200 bottles of wine? Sure. In 10 minutes. You have an opportunity to interact with that wine list digitally.
[00:03:00] Angela Caine: Oh wow. I want to get We’ll get into that, of course, in depth, but let’s talk about you and your journey, though.
[00:03:08] Angela Caine: We all have one. We’ve all got one, but I’m asking the questions here now. We’re not going to talk about Bob, we’re going to talk about yours. No, uh, why wine view? This is not talk about your background, which I already know a little bit about because it does not necessarily lend itself to, you would think that a startup like this, right?
[00:03:32] Angela Caine: Absolutely.
[00:03:33] Angela Caine: And it was strange because I’m certainly the least tech person out there. I’ll just throw that out there at the beginning. Okay. I’m, I was an attorney for literally 30 years. And I decided, which, which allowed me to know a lot about wine. So you have to learn that in law school.
[00:03:48] Angela Caine: So I was working with another partner, my co founder at the time, and he had a digital company, which did websites, social media, digital strategy. And so I had a client at the end of my career, that was an entertainment client. He was on the, on American Idol. Very popular. He was the singing garbage man, for those of you Idol fans out there.
[00:04:07] Angela Caine: And he, he did very well, and so I needed a digital strategist, and I got Gary Campbell to help me put his digital strategy together, his social media, his website, all of that. And then when we went to the finale in Los Angeles, I said we’re all here in Los Angeles, we definitely need to go to a winery.
[00:04:25] Angela Caine: Cause Gary had never been to a winery and I said, we got to winery if you’re in, if you’re in California. So we did. And he started to realize just how difficult wine was for the consumer. And so I said yeah, wine’s great, but there’s millions and millions of bottles out there and it’s a lot of information and most people don’t know a lot of that information unless you go to school to become a sommelier.
[00:04:48] Angela Caine: Sure. So we got out there and we decided that’s where the company was born. And so I thought what is a lawyer who is not a tech person? And lawyers are notoriously bad tech people anyway. What is a lawyer doing running a tech company? So I thought, all right, I’m going to let Gary go out ahead.
[00:05:04] Angela Caine: And so he hired our first dev team. He put the product together and I stayed on the sidelines. I continue to practice law. I continue to do some other things, recruiting. I worked in international and I watched how things were going, right? And, but since I’ve been a lawyer for 30 years and I’ve represented a lot of small businesses, I knew a lot of the mistakes that they were going to make and that we could make.
[00:05:23] Angela Caine: And so that helped me really navigate the first two years of our business and lo and behold, we’re still standing after two years and we’re starting to grow. So
[00:05:32] John Ray: you can see the hairpin journey. Yeah, you could see the hairpin turns coming, right? Because
[00:05:37] Angela Caine: there are so many and you can hopefully predict the ones that aren’t coming that you don’t know exactly what they’re going to look like, they’re out there.
[00:05:43] John Ray: Yeah right. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. And most, most startups don’t have this, right? They don’t have this.
[00:05:51] Angela Caine: And they have to hire it, and it’s very expensive to hire a professional service provider early in the process.
[00:05:57] Angela Caine: It really is, and lawyers are bad about helping small businesses survive, right? They start the clock running, and the costs go up, and even the accountants are guilty of that. It’s difficult, and so I think we had a huge advantage of my… 30 years of experience working with small businesses.
[00:06:16] Angela Caine: And and thankfully I didn’t have to handle any of the tech stuff.
[00:06:19] John Ray: One more thing about you personally, and then let’s talk about the company itself. You could have gotten involved with a lot of different. Startups, if you, if that’s what you wanted, but why Wineview versus anything else that’s come your way?
[00:06:32] John Ray: I guess I
[00:06:33] Angela Caine: I knew so I grew up half in Germany and half in the United States My mom’s German my dad’s from Alabama and they met when he was stationed over there in the classic story. Sure And so I grew up in two cultures and the European wine culture is so different than the American wine culture, alcohol culture.
[00:06:51] Angela Caine: And so I had a unique understanding of how it worked. And then I like to cook and I started getting more into wine as I liked. And I had worked as a server forever. That’s how I put myself through college and law school and made great money doing it. And so I felt like I had a unique set of skills and plus as a lawyer, you’re still a server at the end of the day, you’re a service provider.
[00:07:10] Angela Caine: So I’ve been in the service industry my whole life. And I thought that’s interesting. My skill set is. Fairly unique and I thought it would be a good compliment to Gary’s skill set and so I thought if we’re gonna do something You know, I like the space I felt like we’re really helping Restaurants understand how to get better at what they were trying to do which is sell more wine and educate their guests and their servers On how to sell more wine and drink more wine.
[00:07:33] Angela Caine: Yep. So I thought let’s you know, let’s do this Good thing is you don’t think too much don’t overthink it Yeah. When you start a tech company, do not overthink it or you probably will run.
[00:07:42] John Ray: So true. Angela Caine is with us folks. She is with wine view. You talk Angela about your service.
[00:07:51] John Ray: And it’s software as a service, is really what we’re talking about here. Yeah. How you’ve got basically two main objectives. One is to, and let’s talk about them one separately here. What you talked about the I guess the relative lack of wine education that most servers have. Today are many of them have today.
[00:08:10] John Ray: I don’t know if most is the right word, but many of them have today So how does how specifically does? Your service help bridge that education gap,
[00:08:22] Angela Caine: right, so so there’s a there’s a disconnect in the wine training in general, right? Because you can become a sommelier and just to become a level one is about a two year journey and it’s way overkill, right?
[00:08:34] Angela Caine: If you’re a server in a traditional restaurant that has, let’s say 50 plus wines, you do not need to be a sommelier to sell wine. In fact, if you, if that’s all you have, you’re missing what we think is the biggest part of it, which is the pairing. So it’s not just the wine knowledge, it’s what wine goes with what food and what’s so interesting and what, and one of the reasons I love what we’re doing is, you have these chefs who are creating these tremendous menus and they are really creative people and they are putting these menus together and then you have these fabulous wines out there and nobody’s talking about how to put them together and more importantly, how do you do that?
[00:09:11] Angela Caine: quickly, right? Your staff is not gonna have the time or the maybe even the interest to learn at that level. And so what we’ve done with our software is allow them to learn what they need to know about that restaurant’s wine list and that restaurant’s menu. And so that’s really our secret sauce is that if you’re a restaurant owner and you’re like, I don’t want to sell more wine.
[00:09:32] Angela Caine: Here’s how we do that, right? We allow your servers to learn your wine list and your food pairings so that they can be experts on your restaurant. Now, whether they go somewhere else is irrelevant, but at the point of sale, when they come to you as a guest, instead of saying, Hey, what would you like to drink, they’re going to make recommendations.
[00:09:50] Angela Caine: So we’re actually changing the script of that first 60 seconds when you sit down at a restaurant.
[00:09:57] John Ray: Yeah, that, that makes a lot of sense because you said it well, that, that. Here you have these executive chefs. A lot of times are the owners, right? That really care about what’s coming out of the kitchen.
[00:10:10] John Ray: They spent a lot of time on these creations, but they can’t be out in the dining room. Making sure the right wine gets paired, right? And that makes all the difference in the world sometimes. Absolutely. With your guest experience.
[00:10:24] Angela Caine: And your guests are becoming more discriminating when they go out there, with inflationary pricing, they want a better experience.
[00:10:30] Angela Caine: If I’m going to drop a bunch of money on a nice. dinner. I want that experience. I’m not going to, I don’t want to have the server go I’m new and I really don’t like wine. I really drink wine happens all the time. So how do you get that level experience that you want for your guest when you’re back?
[00:10:44] Angela Caine: Like you said, you’re back in the kitchen creating that menu item. And it’s funny because a lot of servers can rattle off ingredients in that dish. Yes. Elaborate. Oh, tonight’s special is and then they’ll go through this elaborate description and yet they forget the last piece, which is, and it would go very nicely or chef would recommend this wine to go with it.
[00:11:03] Angela Caine: No one ever does that, right? Because most guests would probably say yes, because they’re, you’re the expert on your restaurant, right? You’ve put your wine list together. You put your menu together. Why would you leave money on the table by not having the server or Be able to recommend to the guest
[00:11:20] John Ray: and that does mean money on the table.
[00:11:22] John Ray: So let’s talk about that. Let’s get to the bottom line. You’re right. So yeah, what does that mean? What’s the Delta?
[00:11:27] Angela Caine: Absolutely. Just, and we’re really not changing the process. We’re just tweaking the script, right? So typically, typical restaurant situation, you walk in, you sit down with your wife and they ask you.
[00:11:39] Angela Caine: What would you like to drink and they’ve given you what a minute and a half to look at them and you have no idea. Maybe it’s the first time you’ve ever been to this restaurant before, no idea. You’re looking at 200 wines on a wine list. And so if you’re a typical guy, you’re gonna be like, you know what?
[00:11:52] Angela Caine: I’m just gonna go with a bourbon or a beer. And then the wife is I like wine, but I have no idea. This is going to take forever for me to figure it out. So instead of doing that, what we’re trying to do is to let that server seat you, give you some water. And give you the time to relax into the experience and then come back and ask you not what you’re having to drink, but what are you having to eat?
[00:12:15] Angela Caine: For example, are you starting off with the crab claws, right? And then you say, yes, that’d be great. The chef recommends because of the way we prepare them, this great Sauvignon Blanc. Would you like to try a glass with the appetizer? Think about how different that would be. Cause first of all, you’ve been given time because a lot of times we train these servers to upsell and fast fast, and turn your tables.
[00:12:36] Angela Caine: And I was a server for 30 years and I can tell you it. It has not changed, it has not changed the same thing I did back, in the 80s is what’s happening today. So we’re going to change that and give you the time to enjoy this experience. And so one of the biggest things is that, that wine pairing.
[00:12:52] Angela Caine: It’s knowledge, it’s amazing when you pair the right wine with the right food. It’s magical, that is where the magic happens. That’s where we are trying to plug in. And I think a lot of restaurant owners will agree, but they feel like I believe they feel like they’re limited because of, the workforce is hard to find.
[00:13:09] Angela Caine: They’re very inexperienced and it takes time to train people and it takes time to motivate people, right? So that’s one of the ways we’re helping them out.
[00:13:16] John Ray: And the other thing too is The industry itself has trained diners, um, in a not so great direction, right? To go ahead and make that selection on what they’re going to have to drink before they order the food.
[00:13:31] John Ray: And so you’ve really got to, unlearn that tendency, right?
[00:13:37] Angela Caine: Correct. Go to Europe and you’ll unlearn it real fast because they don’t do that over there. They’re starting to because they feel like it works, but the European style is you’re seated for a minute. Before they come over and start asking you what you want to have.
[00:13:50] Angela Caine: And so that gives you the time to just settle in, this isn’t McDonald’s. You’re not there for fast in and out. This is an experience. If you’re dropping 200 bucks on a dinner, you want your money’s worth.
[00:14:00] John Ray: Yeah. And let’s get to that piece of it. So the guest experience.
[00:14:04] John Ray: I could see, of course we’re business here and I’m thinking about a business dinner, right? Where they don’t. Happened as much as they used to, right? And so therefore, when they happen, you want you that you want them to be first class and over the top and successful, right?
[00:14:23] John Ray: So that’s what we’re talking about. Here’s creating that. a great experience,
[00:14:27] Angela Caine: correct. And what I think that comes down to is how confident is your server on the menu, right? So you have to have confidence to be able to recommend a wine. It is not a cheap product. And if you were selling a glass, you have to upsell to a bottle.
[00:14:41] Angela Caine: And there’s, pro tips that we give on how to do that. But you have to go to that table with confidence. And that’s one of the things that, that most servers are not, they lack confidence in selling wine. They can sell a beer, they can sell a mixed drink because most people know those, most guests can order those themselves when it gets into wine, even the executives because this is a totally new wine list.
[00:15:02] Angela Caine: Maybe they’ve never seen these at Publix the wines on this list. So even then it’s, it comes down to the server being able to recommend. Wine to that table, and you can definitely get them to order wine because it makes the experience, the lunch or the dinner so much more fantastic,
[00:15:18] John Ray: right. And the server, I can see how the server is might be worried about running up against.
[00:15:24] John Ray: Someone who has some knowledge about wine, right? And they’ve got their own opinions. Absolutely. And so what you’re doing is giving them the knowledge and the confidence to be able to talk intelligently with that particular diner too.
[00:15:40] Angela Caine: Exactly. Because they’re not experts on wine.
[00:15:42] Angela Caine: They’re experts on their wine at their restaurant. That’s the big difference. And they’re pairing. That’s right. Yeah, that’s exactly what we teach them and the training modules are fun So we actually modeled them on an app called Duolingo. Yes, which is a very fun I mean talk about something difficult learning a foreign language is really difficult Yes, and so we’ve said okay if they can do it and make it fun Then we can do it and make it fun.
[00:16:04] Angela Caine: And so the knowledge that we give there’s usually about eight to ten questions We do it like a wordle we do it maybe fill in the blank. There’s gonna pop in confusion Fetty, there’s lots of reinforcement because we want people to want to take, we want the servers to want to take the training and then really learn something along the way.
[00:16:21] Angela Caine: So we put it in kind of bite sized, unintended bite size morsels, and then we reinforce the training on that specific wine list and menu. So that’s, I think the big difference with our product.
[00:16:32] John Ray: So is this a product where the server learns this let’s say off the dining room floor and then brings that knowledge or they have a handheld or how does that work?
[00:16:44] Angela Caine: Yeah, so there’s a couple different ways that the restaurants can do it if they’re not tech adverse. So a lot of restaurants that are, they don’t want technology anywhere near the guest. I can understand that. And now with this newer generation, they recognize that maybe an iPad is a good way to.
[00:16:58] Angela Caine: Cause if you’re having that much knowledge that you have to impart in a very short amount of time, sometimes the guest wants to learn a little bit more about the wines that you have, right? Cause maybe the server slammed, maybe he just got sat with 10 tables. And so the guest might want to interact with the wine list.
[00:17:13] Angela Caine: And what’s cool about that is the chef or the beverage director can say, you know what? There’s the tasting notes on this wine are not very. Good. They’re not very informative. I’m going to change them and I’m going to say, I can make my own. I can customize the tasting notes so I can give the guests directly what I want them to know about this wine.
[00:17:30] Angela Caine: And that’s even better because, at the end of the day, the guest kind of likes the story. If you think about how many wines are out there, it’s the story that sells, where is this vineyard from? Why did they start this vineyard? What’s the, what are they passionate about with this wine making?
[00:17:43] Angela Caine: What is the vintage year and why was it important or why was it not good that year? Those kinds of things make things a lot more fun in the wine industry. And really the wine industry itself has done a poor job of kind of getting next generation wine drinkers interested. They’re still elitist to a certain extent.
[00:18:00] Angela Caine: It’s not very accessible to everyone. And so we’re trying to change that.
[00:18:05] John Ray: That’s an interesting dynamic. I hadn’t thought of. It’s just the demographics how those are changing and how that’s changing wine consumption. So is wine consumption overall on a downward trend right now? And you’ve got a lot of course, it seems like we have new wineries come out coming out all the time, right?
[00:18:24] John Ray: So is that the dynamic? That’s going on right now?
[00:18:27] Angela Caine: I think So if you compare the wine industry to like the craft beer industry, it’s getting crushed, right? The craft beer industry has done an amazing job of motivating the next generation wine drinkers and educating them and exciting the wine, the next generation of beer drinkers.
[00:18:42] Angela Caine: The wine industry has, I believe, lagged behind. Because I don’t think they thought they had to keep up, right? I think they thought they had their sales. They had their distributor channels. They had their loyal clientele. But as you, like my son’s 23 and he’s starting to learn how to cook. And he’s mom, I have no idea.
[00:18:59] Angela Caine: I want to make a lasagna or a chicken, chicken Alfredo or something. What do I do with it? So there is interest there, but especially men are very intimidated, with learning wine out in the open. We want to get. them more comfortable with it. And so that’s the idea is to I don’t want to say dumb it down, but make it more accessible to everybody.
[00:19:17] Angela Caine: Sure.
[00:19:18] John Ray: Maybe the way to say it is you break down the component parts of it all. Because it can be overwhelming, um, when it’s all put together. That’s right.
[00:19:27] Angela Caine: Yeah, absolutely. It’s a diff and like I said, when we saw Duolingo did a pretty good job with a very difficult topic.
[00:19:33] Angela Caine: Yeah. I thought, alright, if they can do it, we got this too.
[00:19:35] John Ray: . Yeah, for sure. For sure. and as, no, as as good and worthy as learning Spanish or Portuguese is learning about wine that way sounds even more fun. That’s right. Angela Caine is with us folks with Wine View is the name of her company.
[00:19:51] John Ray: What’s the overall difference that this makes for, uh, in terms of the the, the revenue to the restaurant itself. What, I know it’s different for each restaurant, but what does that look like overall?
[00:20:06] Angela Caine: So we guarantee a 20 percent minimum increase in about two months if you use our product correctly.
[00:20:12] Angela Caine: So we have a great onboarding process. We have a great CSM assigned to you to make sure that Understand the technology, we say it’s like a diet app, right? Yeah We all want to lose weight and then we download these apps and we actually never use them and then we’d understand why we haven’t Lost the pound, right?
[00:20:26] Angela Caine: So that’s what I realized from being a non tech person that we needed this really very robust onboarding process And so we figured that one out and our clients are very happy We walk them through the process. We get the servers on lined up for the training. And so what happens is you can increase wine sales because we’re not changing the actions that take place in the restaurant.
[00:20:46] Angela Caine: We’re just changing the conversations that take place in the restaurant. So you still have the server going up to the table and taking their order and you still have the guests looking at wine lists or menu items and trying to figure out what they want to eat or drink. But we are putting, We’re taking it up a notch, right?
[00:21:02] Angela Caine: So just by that changing that transaction, we can easily guarantee a 20 percent probably more, but our data is suggesting that, because you’ve servers are servers, you’re going to lose some and the downturns in the economy and people aren’t, that those factors, by and large, if you use our product as intended, you’re looking at a minimum of a 20 percent increase in about two months.
[00:21:22] John Ray: And that’s a 20 percent increase in wine sales. And and that’s a much higher margin. Component of the business than food, let’s say. So your gross margin is increased because of that. Increase in wine sales. ThAt’s music to a lot of restaurant owners ears, right?
[00:21:40] Angela Caine: And I know from being a server for all those years, margins in restaurants are tough and inflation is killing them right now.
[00:21:46] Angela Caine: High costs of energy is killing them right now. Workforce problems are killing them now. So technology I think is trying to get further and deeper into that industry to help restaurant owners. But, they’re limited on time. It’s not just the money. They don’t have time. And so we have to do both.
[00:22:00] Angela Caine: We have to save them time. We have to make them money. And I feel like we’ve done that.
[00:22:05] John Ray: You’ve got a collaboration with a company called Toast. Yes. Explain who Toast is and what the value of that collaboration is. Yes. So
[00:22:14] Angela Caine: Toast is an incredible, so Toast is a POS point of sale company and so we go to the National Restaurant Association convention every year in Chicago And we met them the first year.
[00:22:24] Angela Caine: I think they were the first year but when we were on the floor at the National Restaurant Association, there was probably 20 point of sale Systems out there and we’re in Atlanta. So NCR is a big one They have one called Aloha and then there’s micros and there’s all kinds of POS I had no idea there was 20 of them and probably more those were just the ones that we saw at the show But we started asking around and, just like every other industry, who’s the cool kids, right?
[00:22:47] Angela Caine: And Toast, definitely. They’re out of Boston and they have decided that they wanted to be the most innovative and they wanted to solve problems differently with technology than some of the existing who’ve been around forever. And so we hitched our kind of wagon to their train and they are growing like gangbusters and what’s nice because we’re integrated.
[00:23:06] Angela Caine: So we’re at what’s called a full integration partner. So right now if you’re a Toast customer, you can go on your point of sale and you can enable wine view, right? You don’t even have to talk to us at all. It’s right there on your point of sale system. And what that means is all of your menu items and all of your wines will migrate over to your system.
[00:23:23] Angela Caine: Through us. Okay. Then obviously you have to hire us to manage all that, but you can enable it right now. And some customers are already looking at, all right let’s, walk before we run, let’s see how this goes. And so being with Toast has given us a really good context because that’s, obviously they are a huge technological giant.
[00:23:42] Angela Caine: They’re, I went, just went to an event last night and they’re constantly putting new things out there. They’re trying to make it more. User friendly and we get the benefit of that, right? They’re a billion dollar company. We’re not. So we can, and they have lots of partners and the way they sell their partners is look, Toast cannot do everything.
[00:23:58] Angela Caine: So we bring in the software, like an app store, right? So you can a la carte, go through the app store on Toast and pick which ones that you need, maybe the accounting software, maybe an inventory software, maybe a menu software. And so we’re the only wine software in not only Toast, but any POS.
[00:24:14] Angela Caine: There’s no other wine software. where that’s integrated with the
[00:24:16] Angela Caine: POS.
[00:24:17] John Ray: Oh, wow. So that
[00:24:18] Angela Caine: we got real lucky./
[00:24:20] John Ray: And that, that’s certainly, I see why Toast would be interested in you then. Because you’re, that’s something that doesn’t exist unless you’re on the scene there for them. That’s right.
[00:24:30] Angela Caine: Our biggest competitor, if you ask around and they’re not even a competitor because they don’t do, it’s not apples to apples, but it’s a company called Vivino and they want to be the Amazon of wine. So they actually, you can buy from them and they can ship things to you and they teach you about wine and all that.
[00:24:43] Angela Caine: It’s a great product, just not the same as ours. Yeah,
[00:24:46] John Ray: got it. So let’s talk about, whereas we come up on The end of our time, I’d love it if you could share maybe a success story or I know it’s early on, but sounds based on our conversation before the show, you’ve already got some.
[00:25:03] Angela Caine: We do. And, and I hope this doesn’t offend anybody, this industry is is no different than any other industry. So one of the biggest challenges they have is how do you train and motivate a young workforce that is always on their phone? The next generation, and I’m sure you’ve heard this after interviewing all the businesses that you’ve interviewed.
[00:25:20] Angela Caine: Oh, sure. How do you do that? These folks, they learn different. They respond different. They act different. And so if you’re, let’s say a baby boomer or a Gen X or a owner. And you’re, or beverage director, and you’re looking at this new generic, you’re pulling your hair out. You’re like, I can’t get them off their phones.
[00:25:39] Angela Caine: I don’t know if they’re paying attention. I don’t think they’re retaining anything. I don’t, they want everything too fat. How do they’re literally at the end of their rope. And they’re going, and I don’t have the time or expertise to deal with them. So what we’ve done, and we just signed a customer that’s got about 26 locations in multiple states.
[00:25:55] Angela Caine: And we handle all that for them, right? So we. Wrangle their servers and we can use messaging so we can directly message the servers and say, Hey, we’re out of the, 2018 Pinot Noir or whatever. And so there’s lots of ways that they can interact with their servers. We do all of the training.
[00:26:11] Angela Caine: We make sure that they’re doing the training because every week we can give a report to the restaurant and say, Hey, Susie’s looking really good. She’s crushing it. Billy, not so much. You may want to look at that or we can look at that for you. You decide how you want to handle it. So they were extremely happy that one of their biggest frustration points has turned into actually something quite positive because they’re seeing the wine sales go up as we are wrangling their staff and making sure that they know what they’re doing when it comes to selling wine and they’re loving it.
[00:26:40] Angela Caine: Because they literally had no other, they had no other option. They didn’t know what to do and they didn’t know we existed. And so when we were introduced to them by their distributor, they were like, yes. So yeah, so that’s one of our big ones and we ran it as a pilot and then we’re going to roll it out to all 26 locations.
[00:26:57] Angela Caine: That’s awesome. So I think it’s going to be, and it’s fun too, because the different locations now are competing against one another. So we told them like, like Framingham is doing pretty good, Meadowbrook or whatever is killing you guys. So you need to up your game so we can make them competitive and servers are very competitive people.
[00:27:12] Angela Caine: And so once you say, and there’s prizes and everything, they get bottles of wine, they get to actually try the food that they’re serving, which is rare in the industry. And so that’s like some fun, competitive advantage. But the biggest success story is that woman that we were meeting with initially, the beverage director is thank you.
[00:27:27] Angela Caine: I can now sleep at night. My hair is not as going as gray as it was. And and I’m not about to kill somebody. So I consider that a pretty big success
[00:27:36] Angela Caine: story.
[00:27:37] John Ray: That’s a great one. Let’s be clear as we wrap up here Angela on. The because restaurant industry is a big industry, lots of different players, lots of it’s changing and it’s changing.
[00:27:48] John Ray: So who are the best fits for your service?
[00:27:51] Angela Caine: Yeah, so really, we’ve narrowed it down to two types of restaurants. One is your sort of typical fine dining with servers with a big kind of a robust wine list, I would say at least 30 to 50 and above. And some have 600, these wine bars that have ridiculous amounts of wine.
[00:28:06] Angela Caine: So I would think that is definitely one of our biggest categories. But the other one is Just the opposite. Let’s say you go to a pizza and right around the holidays is really important. Let’s say you’re at Christmas shopping and your son or you’re with, they want, he wants a pizza and you’re like, I’m not feeling the pizza thing.
[00:28:20] Angela Caine: I want to get some pasta, right? Some nice pasta. And so you go to one of these kind of fast, casual restaurants that you still have to order and they still have alcohol. You’re not going to have a beer with like chicken Alfredo. You might have it with pizza, but you’re not going to have it with that. And if you’re a female, you really don’t want to have a beer with, with something like that.
[00:28:39] Angela Caine: So any place that has like pasta or fast casual that you would normally have a glass of wine with, those restaurants don’t even build a wine program very well. They have a couple of them. Like when you go in, they’ll say, would you like red or would you like white? That’s it. Yeah. , you don’t get anything else.
[00:28:54] Angela Caine: That’s proof. Yeah. So we can even help them build out a very basic wine selection and then we can help them. ’cause they don’t have servers, right? You’re ordering everything at the countertop. So we, there’s a big difference between one of our customer groups versus the other, but both of them benefit they just benefit from different parts of our product.
[00:29:11] John Ray: Yeah.
[00:29:12] John Ray: That makes a lot of sense. Wow. Angela, congratulations on your success so far. It’s, I’m delighted that we could have you here to celebrate that and to wish you well as you continue to grow. Yeah, congratulations on your work. But let’s get to the most important question for those that have heard something here that makes them want to be in touch.
[00:29:31] John Ray: Tell them how they can do that.
[00:29:32] Angela Caine: Absolutely.
[00:29:33] Angela Caine: So our website is as wineview. com and you can go there. It’s very, I feel like we’ve done a pretty good job of explaining what we do. A lot of times you go to a tech website, you have no idea what they do. And then you actually have to talk to a person. If you go to our website, there’s a book, a demo button, and that’s the easy, what I tell people is it’s very difficult with tech to explain it. So it’s better just to see a demo. So if you’re a restaurant owner, you would go and then we could actually tell you how wine view would work in your restaurant. I feel like that’s the easy, I’m a visual person. Anyway, I feel like that’s the best, but yeah, but otherwise you can go to wineview.
[00:30:05] Angela Caine: com. You can find it on the app stores so you can download it directly off your apple app store or android and then you can check us out that way as well.
[00:30:13] John Ray: Terrific. AngelCainene from WineView. Angela, thanks again for coming in.
[00:30:18] Angela Caine: !Thank you so much. Pleasure being here.
[00:30:19] John Ray: Absolutely. Hey folks, just a quick reminder.
[00:30:22] John Ray: If you’re, um, if you’re not getting what you need out of your back office and you’re Just drinking too much wine. Worried about it. Maybe that’s the way to put it. You’ve got administrative tasks that are weighing you down. You’ve got your bookkeeping has the look of a Nike shoe box with receipts falling out.
[00:30:43] John Ray: If that’s your state of affairs you need to improve to bring the joy back to your business. And the folks that can help you do that are the folks at Office Angels. They have a whole team of angels who fly in, get that work done for you, and then they fly out and they do it on an ongoing.
[00:30:59] John Ray: Or as needed basis, I use their services myself for my business, and I couldn’t do it without them. Give them a call 0 5 0 0. Or if you’re shy, go to office angels dot U S and check them out there. But I suggest just giving them a call and let them know I sent you 6 And you’ll be glad you did. And as we record the show here in November, 2023 we’re a month away from my book coming out.
[00:31:31] John Ray: If you’re a solo or a small firm, professional services provider, and you’re having trouble with your confidence, knowing your value, knowing your pricing, what your pricing should be this may be the book for you. It’s called the generosity mindset method for business success. Raise your confidence, your value and your prices.
[00:31:51] John Ray: If you want to know more, you can go to the generosity mindset. com and receive updates on the book. Or if you’re listening to this show in 2024, you can find out where to buy the book. But you can go to the generosity mindset. com. go To that website one way or the other.
[00:32:08] John Ray: And I want to thank you, our listeners. This is show, I think number seven. 16, I believe after seven and a half years, we’re still going and we’re still going because of you you continue to support us in numerous ways, including sharing social media posts. And one of the particular ways that I really appreciate is when you share the show with someone you think could benefit from knowing about the services or products of our guests.
[00:32:35] John Ray: Here’s a great example. If you know of a restaurant owner, you think could benefit from wine view services. Here’s a great one to share. Thank you for that because it helps our guests and that’s what we’re here to do. And it also helps us live into our mission to be the voice of business in the North Fulton region.
[00:32:54] John Ray: So for my guest, Angela Caine, I’m John Ray. Join us next time here on North Fulton business radio.

 

Catapult your Health with Advanced Healing Modalities, with Dr. Rocco Crapis, Alchemy Chiropractic, and Michelle Pershing, Soul of 100 Women

by

Chiropractic
North Fulton Business Radio
Catapult your Health with Advanced Healing Modalities, with Dr. Rocco Crapis, Alchemy Chiropractic, and Michelle Pershing, Soul of 100 Women
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North Fulton Business Radio, Episode 716)

Dr. Rocco Crapis, Alchemy Chiropractic, and Michelle Pershing, Soul of 100 Women, joined host John Ray to discuss their distinct but complementary wellness services. Dr. Crapis discussed the approach of his firm, Alchemy Chiropractic, which focuses on fine-tuning the vibrational frequency of the spinal cord to enhance overall health, improving brain functionality, and human performance. Michelle described her modality which involves deep cleaning of the body’s lymphatic system to optimize health and wellness. They both shared their individual success stories, explained how their methods can complement each other, and much more.

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

Dr. Rocco Crapis, Owner, Alchemy Chiropractic

Dr. Rocco is a classically trained Chiropractor and is driven by a strong foundation and interest in human Potential and the ability to adapt. He has spent the last decade studying healing modalities from around the world and applies his knowledge in a way that fine tunes the nervous system specifically to each unique patient.

Dr. Rocco is determined to guide you to achieve a level of health you’ve never experienced before, no matter where your healing state of being currently resides.

His practice has been strictly word of mouth and as such has no web presence. He can be reached at 561-573-4580 or through contacting Michelle Pershing.

Michelle Pershing, Owner, Soul of 100 Women

Soul of 100 Woman Lymphatic Consciousness Body Work believes in supporting the Consciousness shift of one’s health and the health of the Planet.

The ALT/XP2 machine moves the lymphatic system at a greater depth than Manual Lymphatic therapy. ALT with the XP2 machine cleanses and filters the entire lymphatic system and venous system of trapped protein, toxins, hormones, cleaning/repairing body tissue and inflammation, while boosting the immune system.

Assisted Lymphatic Drainage Therapy supports detoxifying and regenerating several conditions: Lymphedema, Lipedema, Fibromyalgia, CFS, Adrenal Fatigue, Oncology massage, X Plant Detoxification,Breast Surgery Recovery, Pre/Post Op Plasitc Surgery, Pre/Post-Op Professional Athletic Bone and Tissue Surgery, Surgical Tissue and Bone repair, Chronic Venous Insufficiency (VS), Vertigo, Scar Reduction Therapy, Cancer, Lymes DIsease, Peridontal DIsease, Digestive therapy. ALT is ultilized as a positive form of therapy for PTSD: internally calming the body’s Autonamic, Parasympathic, Sympathetic Nervous System.

In addition to the website, Michelle can be reached at 818-421-7649.

Website

Questions and Topics in this Interview:

  • What is the foundational structure of healing with Technology Lymphatic and Organ Detox?
  • Dr. Rocco, how does your Chiropractic Technique initiate a megawatt chain effect of healing in the body?
  • Michelle, why is Assisted Lymphatic Therapy so powerful?
  • How do both techniques piggyback and support each other to catapult the healing process?
  • What are the results of opening up the body at these deep levels?
  • How are these modalities rare gems “diamonds in the rough” that are beyond mainstream treatments the most people are utilizing already?
  • What awareness and education do you want to share with the public?
  • Who are people seeking your services?

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/.

Working with Adult Children of Divorced Parents, with Meisha Marshall, Renew Mindset Coaching

by

Renew MIndset Coaching
North Fulton Business Radio
Working with Adult Children of Divorced Parents, with Meisha Marshall, Renew Mindset Coaching
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North Fulton Business Radio, Episode 715)

Meisha Marshall, a certified master coach and owner of Renew Mindset Coaching, joined host John Ray on this episode of North Fulton Business Radio. Meisha discussed marriage, divorce, and the psychological impact on adult children of divorced parents. She explained her approach to supporting affected individuals and couples, highlighting the importance of acknowledging and dealing with emotional triggers and negative patterns of behavior. Meisha also described the positive impact of her services on clients’ lives and relationships, her personal reason for going into this field, and much more.

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

Renew Mindset Coaching

Renew Mindset Coaching is for engaged or married couples who are children of divorced parents.

Clients will discover behaviors they and their partner have that strengthen or damage your marriage. They will quickly identify and resolve things that don’t serve the marriage using Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). NLP helps individuals unconsciously and effectively identify, create, and build on the behaviors you desire to exhibit in your ideal relationship.

Couples will leave the breakthrough with a strong foundation for the relationship, and aligned values that equip them for building a loving, healthy, and stable marriage. Discover wholeness for yourself first and also for your marriage.

At Renew Mindset, they use methods from both Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and the Gottman Institute, which provides a research-based approach to relationships.

NLP was developed in the 1970s. It is a great mindset tool to help people overcome limiting beliefs interfering with their self-esteem and personal goals. It is excellent for resolving unhealthy fears related to marriage and helping change unwanted behaviors, for many, in as little as 15 minutes.

The Gottman Institute developed the Gottman Method which integrates research-based interventions based on the Sound Relationship House Theory. The goals of Gottman Method Couples Therapy are to (1) disarm conflicting verbal communication, (2) increase intimacy, respect, and affection, (3) remove barriers that create a feeling of stagnancy, and (4) create a heightened sense of empathy and understanding within the context of the relationship.

Together, these two methods pair well; strengthening the mindset and skills needed for partners to happily work together, enrich their communication, and reconnect and deepen their love for one another.

Website | LinkedIn | Facebook

Meisha Marshall, Marriage Coach, Renew Mindset Coaching

Meisha Marshall, Marriage Coach,  Renew Mindset Coaching

Meisha is a marriage coach dedicated to helping adult children of divorced parents disrupt the cycle of divorce. Her mission is to assist clients in better understanding what’s really behind their negative behavioral patterns and what to do about them. Meisha’s ultimate goal is to keep more families together.

She achieves these objectives by helping couples build valuable skills that enable them to demonstrate healthy love, effective communication, mutual support, and stability.

Questions and Topics in this Interview:

  • For our listeners who may not be familiar with your work, can you briefly explain what makes it unique or interesting?
  • What are some current challenges you see in our society around divorce?
  • What are common mistakes or patterns you see in adult children of divorced parents?
  • What are you currently working on that you’re most excited about?
  • What is the best compliment you have ever received from a client?

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/.

“Ask The Profitability Coach,” Celebrating 50 Episodes of ProfitSense, with Host Bill McDermott

by

Ask the Profitability Coach
North Fulton Studio
"Ask The Profitability Coach," Celebrating 50 Episodes of ProfitSense, with Host Bill McDermott
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Ask The Profitability Coach

“Ask The Profitability Coach,” Celebrating 50 Episodes of ProfitSense, with Host Bill McDermott

The tables were turned on host Bill McDermott, as he was joined by guest host John Ray to celebrate 50 episodes of ProfitSense. Bill answered a variety of questions and topics submitted by ProfitSense listeners, including starting a business the right way, cash flow and profitability-related questions, selling a business, and the emotional aspects of letting go of a business. If you want to hear the Profitability Coach in action, check out this episode! Bill offered numerous insights for business owners and covered a range of financial and emotional considerations.

ProfitSense with Bill McDermott is produced and broadcast by the North Fulton Studio of Business RadioX® in Alpharetta.

About ProfitSense and Your Host, Bill McDermott

Business Immigration Law, with Elizabeth Ji, The Ji Law Firm

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Elizabeth Ji
North Fulton Business Radio
Business Immigration Law, with Elizabeth Ji, The Ji Law Firm
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North Fulton Business Radio, Episode 714)

Elizabeth Ji, CEO and Managing Partner at The Ji Law Firm, joined host John Ray on this episode of North Fulton Business Radio to share her expertise in business immigration law. Their conversation focused on the intricacies of immigration law, the importance of correct documentation, and the effects of misrepresentation or misunderstanding of the law in immigration cases. Elizabeth covered some common misconceptions and some of her firm’s success stories, her personal journey and motivation to become an immigration attorney, and much more.

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

The Ji Law Firm specializes in business immigration law because they believe that employers deserve access to the highest quality talent, and sometimes that talent is outside of the US. Business immigration law is their business.

Their team is passionate about helping business owners, investors, entrepreneurs, human resources professionals, individuals, and families with immigration law matters. They serve clients in the United States and beyond.

Access the world’s highest-quality talent. With their professional guidance and support, companies can draw from a global pool of skilled professionals to create a vibrant workforce that transcends boundaries. No matter where they come from, individuals with remarkable skill sets are empowered to take their talents into virtually any business environment, thanks in part to The Ji Law Firm’s immigration services.

Unlock your business’s potential for success by discovering how you, too, can benefit from hiring talented workers across borders—and maybe even oceans—with their experienced business immigration team.

Website | LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram

Elizabeth Ji, CEO and Managing Attorney, The Ji Law Firm

Elizabeth Ji is the founding attorney of The Ji Law Firm, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The focus of the firm is corporate and family immigration. Elizabeth earned her Juris Doctorate from Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School while working full-time at a US subsidiary of a foreign company.

Elizabeth has extensive experience and knowledge in the field of immigration law and has been recognized as a 2023 Georgia Super Lawyer, Rising Star. Prior to practicing law, Elizabeth earned her Bachelor of Arts with dual majors in Political Science and International Studies from The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Because of her tenacity, commitment to excellence, and hard work, she was the recipient of several prestigious academic scholarships.

Her passion is focused on providing corporations, individuals, and families with well-planned and well-executed immigration plans because they deserve it. Having navigated the immigration system by designing hundreds of immigration strategies, Elizabeth understands how to approach each case with a keen eye for the most direct route to the client’s desired outcome. The team at The Ji Law Firm serves clients across the United States with professionalism and compassion

LinkedIn

Questions and Topics in this Interview:

  • Can you explain the most common challenges faced by families during the immigration process and how you help them navigate through these challenges?
  • In the corporate immigration context, what are the key considerations for businesses looking to hire international talent? How do you assist companies in this process?
  • How do you stay updated with the latest regulations, and how does this knowledge benefit your clients?
  • Could you share a success story where your expertise in immigration law made a significant difference in the life of a family or a company?
  • What are the most frequent misconceptions people have about immigration laws, and how do you address these misconceptions in your practice?
  • Are all Visa’s created equally?

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/.

Open Enrollment for 2023 in Health Insurance, with Bill Neglia, Neglia Insurance Group

by

Neglia Insurance Group
North Fulton Business Radio
Open Enrollment for 2023 in Health Insurance, with Bill Neglia, Neglia Insurance Group
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North Fulton Business Radio, Episode 713)

Bill Neglia from Neglia Insurance Group was the guest on this episode of North Fulton Business Radio. Bill and host John Ray discussed health insurance, open enrollment periods, group health insurance, supplemental insurance plans, and life insurance. Bill shared his experience in the insurance industry, provided insights into different types of insurance policies, and much more.

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

Neglia Insurance Group

Neglia Insurance Group was started in 1983 and has over 600 active individual and over 100 active group clients.

They have access to all the major insurance carriers and many smaller, high quality less known carriers throughout the country. They specialize in Health, Life, Disability, Long Term Care, Dental and Vision insurance.

They do not charge a fee for their services!

Website  | Facebook

Bill Neglia, President, Neglia Insurance Group

Bill Neglia, President, Neglia Insurance Group

Bill Neglia began his insurance career as an agent for John Hancock in 1983.  After several years of working with large insurance companies, he started the Neglia Insurance Group in 1996 so he could deliver a personal style of serving his clients.

The Neglia Insurance Group offers all of the support and resources of larger insurance agencies with the advantages of a local personalized agency where they get to know you along with your unique wants and needs.

LinkedIn

Questions and Topics in this Interview:

  • Personal health insurance
  • Personal life insurance
  • Group health insurance
  • Personal and group supplemental insurance
  • Senior health insurance
  • Changes in health insurance market

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 life 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/.

Nourishing and Healthy Food, with Cristy Kisner, Cristy’s Kitchen and Author of Cristy’s Kitchen

by

Cristy's Kitchen
North Fulton Business Radio
Nourishing and Healthy Food, with Cristy Kisner, Cristy's Kitchen and Author of Cristy's Kitchen
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North Fulton Business Radio, Episode 712)

Cristy discussed the importance of understanding dietary needs and providing healthy, gluten-free, and dairy-free options for people with allergies or health issues. She shared her personal story of how her family’s health struggles inspired her to open a restaurant and create a cookbook with delicious, nourishing recipes. Cristy talked about the tasty dishes and offerings at Cristy’s Kitchen, her mission of promoting health and well-being through food choices, the importance of involving the whole family in the cooking process, and more.

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

Cristy Kisner, Owner, Cristy’s Kitchen and Author of Cristy’s Kitchen

In 2019, after a bankruptcy left her family with nothing, Cristy Kisner; her husband, Sebastian; and their five daughters moved from Peru to Roswell, Georgia, to give them a better future and to fulfill Cristy’s dream of opening a healthy café in the United States.

When the Covid-19 lockdown came, they never closed their doors, working sixteen-hour days for a year. In March 2021, Brandon Stanton, the creator of Humans of New York, became a regular customer and fell in love with the food at the café and Cristy’s incredible story. He wrote about Cristy and sponsored a fundraiser, and her moving story went viral, allowing the family to stay afloat and continue to live their American dream.

The food at Cristy’s Kitchen is gluten-free, dairy-free, organic, nourishing, and thoroughly tasty. Back in Peru, Cristy had developed her recipes after two of her daughters experienced medical issues ranging from allergic rhinitis to digestive problems to an autoimmune disease. They switched to organic ingredients; removed dairy, gluten, and processed foods from their diets; and got each diagnosis under control.

Her daughters’ special packed lunches gained the attention of other parents, and Cristy started teaching classes on healthy food prep, which evolved into the dream of having her own bakery and café serving sweet and savory baked goods, prepared foods, and more, many inspired by favorite ingredients from her native Peru.

She is also the author of a new cookbook by the same name, Cristy’s Kitchen. Cristy provides helpful health information and sources on the more unusual ingredients in the book, including those she’s refined into her celebrated gluten-free baked goods.

The delicious and healthful recipes in this book include favorites for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and desserts, including: Golden Milk Pancakes Spiced Pumpkin Smoothie Bowl with Caramelized Bananas Pear, Spinach, and Fennel Soup with Chicken, Avocado, and Cashew Parmesan Yucca Gnocchi with Carrot Greens Pesto Stuffed Poblanos with Lamb Paleo Molten Lava Cake Passion Fruit Super Gummy Candies.

The incredible stories and recipes in Cristy’s Kitchen will inspire you to cook and eat more healthfully, cherish the blessings in your life—and understand the miracles that can happen when love and determination go hand in hand.

Website | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok

Questions and Topics in this Interview:

  • What kind of food do you make?
  • When did you start using food as medicine for your family?
  • Tell us about your cookbook.
  • What does your restaurant offer?
  • What advice would you give to people who want to start eating healthier?

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 life 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/.

Getting IT Done: Turning Strategy into Execution, with Chris McChesney, FranklinCovey, and Maria Walden-Sullivan, Community Foundation for Northeast Georgia

by

Chris McChesney
North Fulton Business Radio
Getting IT Done: Turning Strategy into Execution, with Chris McChesney, FranklinCovey, and Maria Walden-Sullivan, Community Foundation for Northeast Georgia
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North Fulton Business Radio, Episode 711)

Chris McChesney, author of discuss the Foundation’s upcoming workshop, “Getting IT Done: Turning Strategy into Execution,” which Chris will be leading. They talked about the challenges of execution and how to overcome them, particularly in the nonprofit sector. They also touched on the impact of the pandemic on execution and the importance of creating systems and accountability.

Chris provided a high-level overview of the four disciplines of execution, what participants can expect at the workshop, and much more. The workshop will be held on November 1, 2023, at North Point Community Church in Alpharetta. To learn more and to register, follow this link.

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

Chris McChesney, Author of 

Chris McChesney, Author of  The 4 Disciplines of Execution and Global Practice Leader at Franklin Covey

Chris is a best-selling author of The 4 Disciplines of Execution®, the world’s most popular book on Strategy Execution.

For over 20 years, Chris’s practice has helped thousands of organizations improve their execution. Chris has a single focus: helping organizations get results through predictable execution. 

Chris has been the Global Practice Leader of Execution for Franklin Covey for 20 years. Chris’s team of 4DX consultants has worked with 4,000+ organizations around the world. He has spoken in 22 countries on six continents. He’s personally led many of the most noted implementations of 4DX and is one of the highest-rated speakers for the Global Leadership Summit.

Chris and his wife Constance live in Atlanta, Georgia. They are the proud parents of five daughters, two sons, and one grandson.  Chris’s downtime is divided between his passion for waterskiing and windshield talks with his kids.

Website | LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram

At the Community Foundation for Northeast Georgia, everything they do centers around one purpose – improving our world through the power of philanthropy.

On a fundamental level, they do that through managing funds held in trust, donated by individuals, organizations, and businesses. Most funds are donor-advised funds, similar to savings accounts. These funds are pooled for investment purposes and their income is used to make grants for a wide variety of charitable purposes.

But the Foundation’s goals expand far beyond managing funds. They desire to strengthen the communities they serve in Gwinnett, Northeast Georgia, and beyond by providing leadership, addressing community needs, and assisting individuals and organizations with their charitable giving.

Website | Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

Maria Walden-Sullivan, Director of Development, Community Foundation of Northeast Georgia

Caring for her community is at the heart of everything Maria does. She was born in the oldest city in America (St. Augustine) and has been a proud Atlantan for the past 25 years. Maria is passionate about making a difference in her own backyard and inspiring others to do the same.

As our Director of Development, Maria is leading the Community Foundation of Northeast Georgia into a whole new territory. Through her role, we are now able to expand into and impact North Fulton and Forsyth. She has a passion for nonprofits and is highly skilled in donor relations, major gifts, volunteer management, grant writing, and capital campaign management.

Maria is a trainer and facilitator for leadership development, strategic planning, and capacity building. With almost a decade of experience at the world’s most trusted leadership company, Franklin Covey, Maria has been certified in over a dozen leadership courses. She has also served as an ad hoc faculty member for the Georgia Center for Nonprofits since 2019.

LinkedIn

Questions and Topics in this Interview:

  • Introduction to Chris and his book
  • The event sponsored by the Community Foundation for Northeast Georgia and featuring Chris McChesney
  • The challenges of execution and achieving goals
  • The impact of the pandemic on execution and dealing with uncertainty
  • Importance of systems and clarity in goal-setting
  • Details about the event on November 1st

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 life 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/.

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