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Rome Floyd Chamber Small Business Spotlight – Julie Smith with TRED, Cheryl Jenkins with One Community United, and John Rutter and Brian Carter with Elder’s Ace Hardware

September 16, 2022 by angishields

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Rome Business Radio
Rome Floyd Chamber Small Business Spotlight - Julie Smith with TRED, Cheryl Jenkins with One Community United, and John Rutter and Brian Carter with Elder's Ace Hardware
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Tagged With: Brian Carter, Cheryl Jenkins, Elder's Ace Hardware, Hardy on Broad, Hardy Realty, Hardy Realty Studio, John Rutter, Julie Smith, One Community United, Rome Floyd Chamber, Rome Floyd Chamber of Commerce, Rome Floyd County Business, Rome Floyd Small Business Spotlight, Rome News Tribune, TRED

BRX Pro Tip: How Are You Making Your Clients Feel?

September 15, 2022 by angishields

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BRX Pro Tips
BRX Pro Tip: How Are You Making Your Clients Feel?
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BRX Pro Tip: How Are You Making Your Clients Feel?

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tip. Stone Payton, Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, the question of the day, how are you making your clients feel?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:11] Yeah, there’s something that Maya Angelou said a long time ago that really resonates with me. And she said that at your funeral, people don’t talk about what you did, but they remember how you made them feel. And at Business RadioX, we try and support and celebrate the work of the business leaders we interview. We want them to feel heard and appreciated.

By doing this, we help our clients and partners build and nurture real relationships with the people that matter most to them. And, you know, by doing that, we help them build community, real community in their niche and in the markets they serve.

So I think that it’s super important when you look at the world that way and you want to make an impact and you want to make a difference that you focus in at the kind of the granular level of how you’re making somebody feel. Are you making them feel special or you making them feel like they are important? Because these are things basic human condition that everybody wants and everybody needs. So if you can do that, you’re on your way to building a successful business and one that’s making an impact.

WBENC 2022: Tammy Cohen with Infomart

September 14, 2022 by angishields

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GWBC Radio
WBENC 2022: Tammy Cohen with Infomart
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TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: [00:00:18] Lee Kantor live from WBENC’s National Conference in the GWBC booth, Booth 1812, if you want to stop by real quick. Right now, we’ve got an old friend, Tammy Cohen, with InfoMart. Welcome, Tammy.

Tammy Cohen: [00:00:30] Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:31] I’m so excited to see you. Before we get too far into things, just a brief elevator pitch for InfoMart, tell us how you’re serving folks.

Tammy Cohen: [00:00:39] InfoMart is a global background screening company, so we do background checks for new hires, we do vendor screening, and we also do continuous monitoring on your current employees.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:50] So, there’s a lot of job security in that service. There’s a lot of folks that need that.

Tammy Cohen: [00:00:55] Definitely, over and over again.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:57] Now, how has it changed since you started? You’ve been doing this for a minute.

Tammy Cohen: [00:01:02] Oh, wow. Well, see, I’m going to date myself, but you can probably remember this, when there was no internet and no email and there was just fax machines, so it was just a paper shuffle. And it was even on the fax paper that was thermal.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:16] The rolls.

Tammy Cohen: [00:01:17] Yeah. It would lose its color after so long. So, I’ve been doing it a very long time. So, mainly just, you know, everything is electronic now.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:25] And then, now, I’m sure people demand this service faster. The speed is an important component of this.

Tammy Cohen: [00:01:33] Just like the mail. You remember when you used to send something out, you had three or four days? Now, you send something out and they email right back. So, it’s the same thing. So, we generally get information out to our clients in a day.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:45] So, here we are at the WBENC National Conference. Have you been to these before?

Tammy Cohen: [00:01:51] Oh, yes.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:52] Because with the pandemic, there hasn’t been an in person one like this.

Tammy Cohen: [00:01:56] No, there hasn’t. But, you know, I’ve gone to the ones years before. I go to a lot of tradeshows, and this is actually my favorite every year.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:06] And the energy seemed so high. Everybody is so optimistic and looking forward to this and connecting. It seems like there’s hugs happening everywhere. Everybody’s been holding in all these hugs for two years and it’s kind of exploding out on the conference floor.

Tammy Cohen: [00:02:19] Yes, it is. It’s so good to get to see people and be able to hug them, and everybody’s excited. You know, this is one of those few shows you really do business at this show, especially for women. I mean, you walk in knowing you’re going to get business, and so it’s exciting.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:39] So, how do you attack the show?

Tammy Cohen: [00:02:41] I basically create my strategy before.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:45] All right. So, what’s the Tammy strategy?

Tammy Cohen: [00:02:47] Well, my strategy is, I focus on a vertical. I’ve had verticals that I’ve made friends, so I’m going to go drop in on those verticals, say hi. And then, I’ve got a couple of new verticals that I want to start building relationships. Because, really, if you want a larger account, you have to build a relationship. It takes many years, and get to know you and your integrity. So, I just take my time and get to know people.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:11] So, you pick out a vertical and then spend time kind of getting to know the players and who’s here. Obviously, if they’re here in a booth, they think this is important, too.

Tammy Cohen: [00:03:21] Yes. And I spend time getting to know that vertical, the lingo, what is happening in the industry, what is their pain point, what types of background checks are they going to need. Are they doing retail where, you know, theft is really important or do they have drivers? So, I try to look really deep and focus on that so I can really be a benefit to the organization.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:45] Now, what about from an educational standpoint, is there any kind of speaker you’re excited to see or hear?

Tammy Cohen: [00:03:50] I always like the fireside chats because you get to really know somebody. And I think I just love that and I love panels. I always get so much out of a panel and a fireside chat.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:04] Right. Because this is stuff where you can get some actionable information that you could just put back into your business tomorrow.

Tammy Cohen: [00:04:09] Yes. And learn something that, “Wow. I need to contact them because I’ve got a solution for them.”

Lee Kantor: [00:04:17] Right. Now, talk about GWBC a second. Why should a woman business get involved with GWBC? Why should they kind of invest the time it takes to get certified and actually go through the process?

Tammy Cohen: [00:04:29] So, you know, a lot of people always think, “Oh, you’re just here to get contracts.” And I think everybody joins for that reason. But what you really take away is, you learn how to sell, you learn how to pitch on the fly. You know, a lot of the corporates here I have had that have been great mentors that would say at the beginning, like, “That was horrible.” And you’re like, “What?” “You know, that was a horrible pitch.”

Tammy Cohen: [00:04:54] So then, actually my very first WBENC meeting was a meet and greet table, and I sat down and everybody pitched. And I was nervous and I did horrific. I walked away so embarrassed. And I was like, “I will never do that again.” So, I really refined, refined, refined. Two years later, I end up being in the final five on the perfect pitch competition on the big stage. And I thought, “That all came from WBENC.” You know, they have so many webinars and meetings, and you get a chance to constantly pitch.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:28] Now, any advice for the listener about that perfect pitch? What are some of the most important do and the most important not do?

Tammy Cohen: [00:05:35] I think, first of all, keep it short, keep it sweet, keep it factual. And don’t say, “Oh. We’ve got the best quality.” No. No.
“Our turnaround time is a day.” You know, give them the facts. Especially here, I mean, this is a tough sell because the corporate see so many pitches and they talk to so many people, they have an expectation. But the benefit is when I go to do a sales meeting outside of WBENC, I’ve got it. I know what I’m doing.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:08] So, if somebody wants to learn more about InfoMart, what’s the website?

Tammy Cohen: [00:06:11] backgroundscreening.com.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:14] Well, Tammy, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Tammy Cohen: [00:06:19] Thank you, Lee. Well, so do you, we appreciate you.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:21] All right. This is Lee Kantor broadcasting live from WBENC National Conference 2022. And we’re inside the GWBC booth.

 


About WBENC

The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) is a leading non-profit organization dedicated to helping women-owned businesses thrive.WBENC-Logo

We believe diversity promotes innovation, opens doors, and creates partnerships that fuel the economy. That’s why we not only provide the most relied upon certification standard for women-owned businesses, but we also offer the tools to help them succeed.

About GWBC

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

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

Tagged With: InfoMart

Mike Van Pelt with True Man Life Coaching

September 14, 2022 by angishields

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Cherokee Business Radio
Mike Van Pelt with True Man Life Coaching
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Sponsored by Business RadioX ® Main Street Warriors

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Mike-Van-Pelt-True-Man-Life-CoachingMike Van Pelt is a Men’s Life Coach and known as the “Comeback Coach”. He, is also the creator and host of the True Man Podcast. His experience and passion for coaching, guiding, and mentoring men has come from his involvement in leading Christian men’s groups along with his own journey to “take back” his life and achieve success.

In addition, he brings over two decades of deep organizational expertise and thought leadership in account management, consulting, and leadership development. His purpose is to help serve men that have misinterpreted or been misguided in the direction of their lives.

He believes men want success and satisfaction in every area of their lives, and they are looking for a roadmap of discovery back to their true hearts and minds. His goal is to be an instrument of guidance and healing and to lift the heavy heart loads that many men carry.

In addition to being a coach, he is happily married to my wife Jill and best friend of 26 years and has two talented teenagers. When he’s not coaching, he’s probably enjoying time at one of the many family activities or getting a quick round of golf in with friends.

Connect with Mike on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Cherokee Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Stone Payton: [00:00:24] Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of Cherokee Business Radio. Stone Payton here with you this morning. And today’s episode is brought to you in part by the Business RadioX Main Street Warriors. For more information, go check them out at Main Street Warriors dot org. And also for those of you who have been following the Main Street Warriors and our activities, make sure you check out the high velocity awards. This is where we make available grant scholarships and cash. Yes, cash money to solopreneur, non-profits, minority and veteran owned businesses. And of course, my personal favorite youth entrepreneur. So go check it out at high velocity awards dot com. All right. You guys are in for such a real treat this morning. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with True Man Life Coaching. Mr. Mike Van Pelt. Good morning, sir.

Mike Van Pelt: [00:01:23] Good morning,Stone. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.

Stone Payton: [00:01:27] Oh, man, I’m looking forward to it. We were connected by a mutual friend, Brian Pruitt, who I just think the world of. He’s got a golf tournament coming up in a couple of days. I’m not going to be able to make it. We’re headed down to Savannah. We’re going to be doing an on site broadcast for the what is this, the Georgia Economic Developers Association. But yeah, Brian and that crowd, they will be in our in our thoughts and prayers and what a what a marvelous community we have here in Cherokee County. And and Brian is a perfect example of that, isn’t he?

Mike Van Pelt: [00:02:02] Well, you know, Brian and I talked yesterday, and it was really funny because we’ve we’ve reconnected a little bit here. We hadn’t talked in quite a while and we reconnected. And the funny part about it is you find out how small your community is because he’s he’ll be like, I’m working with this person and I’m like, Oh, you’ve got to connect me with them because they do such and such. And so and you know, that’s that’s the beauty of doing business, is finding these strategic partnerships and these relationships where you can all mutually benefit and and create these win win type type things. And I love that. A man.

Stone Payton: [00:02:38] All right. Let’s talk about true man life coaching, mission purpose. What are you really out there trying to do for folks?

Mike Van Pelt: [00:02:44] Well, you know, the simplest way for for me to tell you what I do is I like to tell people I impact the lives of men for good. Now, that’s a pretty broad statement, right?

Stone Payton: [00:02:57] That’s a big one, man. That’s a tall order.

Mike Van Pelt: [00:03:00] That’s a pretty big statement. But essentially, you know, what I do in my coaching practice is is just work with them a variety of different ways, but primarily one on one where they need it just kind of clear the cobwebs and give them peace and clarity around their life or their business or whatever’s going on. You know, when I got into coaching a number of years ago, I did it from a business perspective. But what I found was that there are all kinds of systems out there. And, you know, I encourage people to go get systems that make their business better. But if the real system, the real meat on that bone is what’s going on, on your inside. And so if you’re not right in your head, your heart, your mind, your soul, it doesn’t matter what kind of business system you have. And so that’s was kind of my breakthrough. And I said, you know what? I just want to work with people. I want to work with people and help make them better. And I didn’t see a lot of men out there or a lot of people in general just saying, hey, I’m going to plant a flag for men and walk alongside them. And I decided that’s what I’m going to do. So here I.

Stone Payton: [00:04:11] Am. So how did you get started? What compelled you to move into coaching? I’m operating under the impression that you had some other type of career going into. Yeah, what’s the back story?

Mike Van Pelt: [00:04:23] Well, so, I mean, really had a sales career going and but I wasn’t being fed. I just wasn’t being fed and I didn’t really know what that meant. And I was in the insurance and financial services world, and I went to one of their leadership development programs, and it was a six month program and I’d never done anything like that. And I got done with it and I was like, Wow, what am I going to do with this? This was amazing. And I didn’t really want it to end, so I didn’t let it end. And the whole idea of it was that you would take what you’d learn and bring it back to your organization. But I took what I learned and used it for me and I realized, hey, you know, I’m telling my kids how important it is to get a great education, but I didn’t complete my college degree. I want to do that. And so I went back, completed my business degree, and at the time I was doing and I became a stay at home dad. During that time because my kids were really young and I was doing a ton of volunteer work within my church and in the community. And I thought, you know, I really think my life’s leading me to to be in the nonprofit world. What do nonprofit directors have at the top of the food chain that I don’t have? Oh, they have a master’s degree. So. So, yeah, I’m a glutton for.

Stone Payton: [00:05:46] Oh, no, no. Now you’re getting addicted. Yeah.

Mike Van Pelt: [00:05:48] So I did go back. I got my master’s degree in public administration and you know that that’s really how I started down the trail. But what really happened after that was once I got my master’s degree, I was out looking for work and struggling like people did not know what to do with Mike Van Pelt. Here’s a guy that was a stay at home dad. He got this education. You know, he’s doing all this volunteer work. They just didn’t know what to do with me. And it really led me down a road of I internalize the nose and I took it in and it became kind of a deep wound for me. And that’s when I decided I’m going to go down this road of entrepreneurial is I don’t need these people. And that’s when I kind of started the business consulting and I met a guy by the name of Paul Bailey, and I always mentioned him because he’s been a part of of everything that I’ve done since. And so I met him at a business networking event. And this is why business networking events, I think, are so important, because you never know who you’re going to meet for sure. But I met Paul and we had this great conversation at lunch about giving and taking and how we saw more takers in the room than givers. And we thought, doggone it, we can do this better. And so we decided we were going to start our our own group.

Mike Van Pelt: [00:07:09] But that group, I think, before it ever got off the ground, turned into, you know, what we really need? We need a men’s small group. And that’s when things really began to shift for me because I got involved in men’s small group. We connected with guys that were doing retreats. I got involved in a retreat and it was really at that retreat where I had an opportunity to get out there with 300 guys and walk around the woods and get in touch with my faith, where on a Saturday morning they played a song by Josh Groban and I recommend listening to the song. I’d never heard it called You Are Loved. Now people would say, Well, that’s not a Christian song. Listen to the words, because the perspective in that situation was Listen to the song as if God is singing it to you. And when I did that, I almost hit the ground because I had no idea that God wanted such an intimate and loving relationship with me. And that was my take away from that weekend. That was in March of 2019. And it was at that point I said, You know what? I’m going to go fight for the hearts of men. And I don’t want guys walking around empty. Like, I was like the tank was on E! And if you’re listening to this and you’re on empty, you know what I’m talking about? It’s undeniable.

Stone Payton: [00:08:31] So let’s talk about the work a little bit. Someone maybe through the benefit of hearing this conversation or for some of the other work that you do. I know you have your own show and I want to hear more about that in a little bit. But however they get there, they sort of identify, yeah, I’m kind of running on empty and they reach out to you, talk about the work a little bit. Is it is it individual one on one? Is it group? Is it retreats? Is it a little bit all of this?

Mike Van Pelt: [00:08:57] Well, it’s turning into a little bit of of all of it. That’s kind of the entrepreneurial journey that we go on. Right, right, right. You like, okay, I’m going to plant a flag and this is what I’m going to do. And then, you know, some people, I guess, are fortunate. They know exactly what that means right away. But it wasn’t me. Yeah, but but that hasn’t been me either. And so really what happened was, you know, I’m working with a gentleman who has some fantastic coaching programs and so he had a system and I love systems because I also like shiny objects. And when I find a shiny object, it typically takes me off the system. So right. So I’m sure a lot of business people can relate to that. And so I found a system that worked for me for one on one coaching. And so that that was priority number one was to find that. And so what I do is really primarily work with guys one on one. So when somebody says, you know, yeah, I want somebody to kind of clear out the cobwebs for me and I want to figure out what the, you know, my next thing in life is, whether it’s in business or personal life. And so typically we’ll start with an assessment. We have a proprietary assessment that we do, and we go through that. We have an initial to our call. And then based on the program, they may choose and I usually do a six month or 12 month. You know, we jump in the coaching process excuse me, one on one. Now where this is all heading, I believe it’s been my experience that men love the one on one because they, they like having another dude to talk to.

Mike Van Pelt: [00:10:36] They don’t always have that where they can have a safe space, where they can really strategize about their life. And but they also like the feel of community. And so where all this is really heading is that I’m in the process of building some small group stuff. So we’re going to do I’m working with an organization called the Christian Businessmen’s Connection here in the Atlanta area. John Posey is the executive director. We’re going to build out some Christian small groups through that. I’m going to build out some small group situations through myself as well. And I think where all this is headed is we’ll do some coaching combined with some mastermind groups where we take people through a 12 month program. And then on top of that, right, because you’ve got to bite, you’ve got to just jump on that elephant and go for a ride. You know, I’m working with an organization right now where we can build retreats and we’ll do some small ones where we maybe do some ten or 12 person guys. But this this organization that I’m working with that really set up to facilitate larger retreats and I’ve done enough of these now where I see tremendous value and just shutting it down for a weekend and getting out with a group of guys and, and, and having God’s voice show up in your life. It’s incredible experience. So there’s I just gave you a lot and I didn’t even give you everything.

Stone Payton: [00:12:05] Well, I really I really applaud. And I’m inspired that you’re going to do some of this group work in this retreat work? Yeah. My frame of reference for that kind of thing, it’s related. It’s not exact. I come from the training and consulting world. Yeah. And I would facilitate classes, but the most powerful classes that we had were ones that we ran as more of a peer to peer experience. Yeah. So I would essentially teach facilitation skills and then would have these folks in our case it was often sales teams. Yeah. And have them actually facilitate different modules or segments of the training to each other.

Mike Van Pelt: [00:12:45] Yeah.

Stone Payton: [00:12:46] So much more powerful than the than the whatever. There’s some big college word for one guy talking to a bunch of people, but when you do the peer to peer thing. Yeah. Oh it’s just, it’s exponential isn’t it.

Mike Van Pelt: [00:12:57] Yeah. You know I look at it this way, I’m just kind of the conductor of the orchestra, right? Yeah. You know, and I. I certainly don’t know it all and never will. That’s okay. I don’t need to be the smartest guy in the room. I just need to bring, you know, the guys together so that we can facilitate them getting in a room and figuring out how to improve their lives. I encourage, strongly encourage, find men finding small groups. Now, you know, networking is. Sure. But that doesn’t facilitate the intimate conversations that sometimes need to be had in a safe place. And so I am a huge believer that you’ve got to have a wingman. And if you can have multiple wingman, that’s really good. That’s good. That’ll keep you out of trouble. Learn from these guys that have been down the road that you want to go down.

Stone Payton: [00:13:53] So I’m sure there are some idiosyncrasies in every individual relationship, every individual coaching process. And I suspect that there are some patterns that you see and you’re like, Yep, here comes that one again. Yep, I’ve dealt with this before. Not that you necessarily articulate that, but are there a handful of kind of common patterns that that you see that it would make sense to share?

Mike Van Pelt: [00:14:18] Yeah. You know, one of the things I’m finding myself talking about more and more is this idea around identity. Now, because here’s the thing. If I meet you. We’re at a networking event. There’s a couple questions that are going to be asked right off the bat. One, what’s your name? So people identify you from your name. That’s a given. No worries there, I guess, unless you don’t like your name. But but the second question people are going to ask is, what do you do? And that becomes an identifying point. So and people will unconsciously put you in categories. He’s an attorney. This guy collects junk. This guy is a dentist. This guy sells insurance and they start categorizing you and see. What happened to me was at one point, I, you know, when I was a stay at home dad, I got a lot of attaboys. Wow. I really wish I could stay at home. In my mind. In my mind I was like, Yeah, it’s great, but. I was raised to be the breadwinner. I was raised to be the man. I need to be out supporting my family. And so I would go to all of these things that I needed to do. And what I identified with was what I wanted to be versus where I was. And that meant sometimes I wasn’t present with my family. I was there, but I wasn’t right. I was thinking about all the things I wanted to do.

Mike Van Pelt: [00:15:51] And that’s dangerous because the most important thing that we have in front of us other than our faith is our family, and they need to be taken care of. And if you’re struggling with your identity, maybe you don’t like the career you’re in or or or where you’re at in life. You know, you need to take action on that because if you don’t, you’re not going to show up present for the people that you really need to be showing up for. And so that’s that’s what happened to me. And I see that happen to a lot of guys. We get wrapped up in our careers and our, you know, and these negative identities that we get attached to. And at the end of the day, and I know this is a business radio thing, but my faith is how I identify and he will drive everything else. And that’s exactly what’s happening in my business. As soon as I let. Go. That hard grip that I had on the steering wheel, you know, and you know, I get better at this all the time and gave it over to him. What I’m seeing is my business flourish and I’m less worried about what’s going to happen on a day to day basis as a result. And, you know, regardless of what business you’re in, I you know, I think it’s applicable.

Stone Payton: [00:17:17] So does the question, the topic of masculinity, what that really means, how am I supposed to live into that? Should I not worry about that? Does that come up with individuals and groups as well?

Mike Van Pelt: [00:17:30] Well, you know, that is such an interesting topic in this day and age, because I think that, you know, I don’t like. That Hollywood or the news media drive things the way they drive them. But they have portrayed negativity in a very negative way. And so, you know, it’s easy to go on television and talk about, you know, Matt Lauer or, you know, some somebody doing something negative and portray that as while the entire male race is bad. No, no. That’s a small segment of the population. But, you know, masculinity is really you know, I always say, you know, right now we need to have this. You got to put God first. You’ve got to you’ve got to put family second. And and I love putting country third. And then like everything else is like way down the line, but it’s about caring, loving, being purposeful and everything that you do. That’s masculinity. That’s masculinity. Not, you know, beating up your wife or abusing her. I mean, you know, or or the Hollywood movie portrayal of of men beating on their chest and firing weapons, I mean. Granted, that’s kind of fun, but but that’s not what masculinity really is.

Mike Van Pelt: [00:19:03] And so, you know, one of the things that I think is important and it’s why, you know, I talk about retreats and I want to do these getaways, is it’s important to see men, see other men that are vulnerable and that are having intimate conversations around how to be a better man. You know, generationally speaking, I’m 52. I don’t mind sharing. You know, I grew up in a time where if we fell down on the baseball diamond, you know, it was like just, you know, get up, you know, don’t say ouch. Yeah. You know, and and that turns out to be not a very masculine way to handle it. And I’m not blaming my father or I’m not blaming his father. That’s not what this is about. You know, I think that we know more about psychology. I think we know more about what we need from a human perspective. And, you know, masculinity is about being in touch with your heart. That’s a big piece of this because, guys, we do too many things with our head and not our heart. So that’s to me, I could probably go on all day about that, but.

Stone Payton: [00:20:07] Well, you could with me because I because I know I am just I am very enamored with the whole conversation. I’ve got a thousand questions and we’re not going to get to them all this morning, but we’re going to get to some of them. So you mentioned several aspects of life, I guess is like spiritual and family and business. I’d love to get your perspective on on this whole topic of balance. Oh, wow. And I’ve even talked to some folks that that don’t like the word balance and they try to plug something else in there. But I’d love to get your take on.

Mike Van Pelt: [00:20:44] You know, it’s interesting because I love to plug in words and then go out to the thesaurus and then look it up and see. And what I’ve learned over time is that that can be dangerous, because you really can’t sugarcoat certain words that people know a lot about. And so this term balance comes up quite a bit, and usually it’s related to, well, how do I get balance in my business? And personal life is a lot of times where that that I hear that the most. I’ve heard that from my wife over the years in her corporate job. You know, I think balance and finding it is different for everybody. You know, for example, I used to separate my business and my personal life. And now because there’s so much faith work and it’s so much it’s so personal, I don’t separate the two. They’re just kind of all lumped together. And for me, I love that. That gives me great joy and and energy. But for others, I mean, they need to separate them. They need to need to leave their work, you know, at work. And they need to come home and be present with their family.

Mike Van Pelt: [00:21:53] And I think it’s different for every person. But, you know, balance is really tough because we live in a world where I mean, I remember when I first started in business, right? My business phone was on my business desk. Now my business phone is my mobile phone. And that means for some reason, we’ve all taken on this mantra of that means you’re at work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. And if you don’t respond to my text message immediately, there’s got to be something wrong. And so, you know, it’s important to figure out for yourself, what does all that mean? And if you’re a business leader, I think it’s important for you to spell it out for your team. What does this mean? Where do we draw the lines? Because otherwise people are just going to keep charging ahead because they operate under this assumption that while everybody at my work has my mobile phone number. And so I you know, that means I’m accountable and I need to keep answering stuff. Is that what it means? Have you had that.

Stone Payton: [00:23:02] Discussion with your employees?

Mike Van Pelt: [00:23:03] I mean, do they know where the line is drawn? You know, maybe they need to know because some of them may think they’re on the clock 24 hours a day and that may not be the case. And you know, this is another area that I commonly get into. We need to know how to pause. Just like I just did, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Emphasis on the pause. We need to know how to pause because pausing and taking a break from things helps build margin in your life, helps build up that battery. And so the fact of the matter is, is that we’re not build built to be the hard chargers in with all this technology around us that we’re not built for that most of us don’t know really know how to handle it. We just don’t want to admit to it. Like I’m admitting right now, I don’t know how to handle it. It’s just too much. And so we’ve got to figure out how to take pauses. And so and to me, figuring out what that pause is for you is will help you figure out that balance in your life.

Stone Payton: [00:24:12] So how does the whole sales and marketing thing work for for a guy like you? Like, how do you get the new clients?

Mike Van Pelt: [00:24:23] You know, I will. I’ll be honest and tell you, it’s been one of the biggest challenges that I have had to undertake because I’m a men’s life coach. And so that means I’m not accepting women or I’m not working with couples per say. I’m really searching for men and men, interestingly enough. Right. We don’t show up anywhere until we’re completely broken, which is crazy. Don’t do that. You know what I love to be in the position of is is, you know, if you think about Olympic athletes, they’ll spend their entire lives just trying to shave a half a second off or get a half a foot in front of somebody else, constantly working. And and so I want to take and they’re already great at what they do, right? I want to take great people. And I want them to get clear about how they can get better. And to me, that’s really what coaching is. I understand helping people when they’re broken. I get that and that’s how a lot of people come to me. But but it’s really about taking people to the next level. The other thing that I’ve done right is we created the True Man podcast, and so the True Man podcast was an opportunity for people to hear about men’s topics, how to be better dad, how to be a better husband, you know, just how to generally be a better man. And so we take all those topics and I bring guests on and we talk about, you know, in a lot of cases, their story.

Stone Payton: [00:26:05] Oh, that’s great. So it’s not just the Mike Van Pelt Hour. It’s you’re bringing in other folks, getting their perspective.

Mike Van Pelt: [00:26:10] I’m doing some solo shows because I think it’s important to highlight what I do from a coaching standpoint. However, I think what men really want to hear and what they really need is a story from another man. And I have women on the podcast all the time because women have stories too, you know, to have these people come on and tell their story. So, for example, this Monday, well, I, I recently released a podcast and I interviewed, amazingly enough, the best man at my wedding. I was married 26 years ago to my lovely wife, Jill. And shortly after we got married, of course, you know, the Internet was starting to become a thing back then. And my buddy got involved in Internet gambling. He did, you know, of course, back then we didn’t talk about those things. Right. So he becomes an addict. And so on the podcast, I was recently back home in Iowa. That’s where I grew up and we were talking. He said, I love what you’re doing with the podcast. I’d love to come on and tell my story. And I was like, Wow, you can just know once you tell that story, it’s out there, number one. Number two, yeah. I’m proud of you that you’ve gotten to a point where you’ve healed enough that you can come on and tell that story because you can impact the lives of a lot of people by doing that. And so we did an interview and he told his story about how he got into gambling and and where he’s at today. And it’s truly a comeback story. You know, he got himself into trouble. And, you know, he he’s he’s made a great comeback. And so those stories are out there all over the landscape.

Stone Payton: [00:27:55] I’ll bet.

Mike Van Pelt: [00:27:56] And I can’t I can’t bring those guys on fast enough to tell their story, because that’s how we motivate other men to take action. Right. You know, and to me, that’s what it’s all about. And that’s why we started the podcast, so that people could hear those stories and I could bring experts on and provide that value for for men. So that’s one of the big things that I do. And it does it inadvertently creates that know like trust factor from a business perspective that we’re all searching for, that somebody can come on, they can they can hear me, they can hear my guests and they can make a decision. Hey, he sounds like a pretty decent dude. You know, I’ve got some things I’d like to talk with him through, and so that that’s what it’s all about. And of course, I’ve had to get to do all the social media and fun stuff that comes with. Right, right, right. But, you know, other than that, you know, I’m doing a lot of networking. I’m getting involved in a lot of men’s organizations. I mentioned the Christian Business Connection, Pbmc, great Christian business men’s organizations, and there are others out there that I’m searching for. And, you know, I’m always available to come in, in business and work with businesses. And I’m not going to work with you on your your, you know, your business planning or anything like that. I could, but that’s not what I’m there for. You know, I just want everybody to be the best possible person they can be, because that’s how we lead. Well.

Stone Payton: [00:29:23] I’m glad I asked. And one of the things. No, it’s very helpful context. One of the things that I’m picking up from what you described is, yes, that’s probably a great way to go to market, create some awareness, have people reach out to you. But also your existing clients are probably getting ongoing value from the fact that you’re doing that show, right? Yeah.

Mike Van Pelt: [00:29:48] Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, listen, I’ve talked about it. It has been a thrill of my life to do it. I think what we as 71 podcast in and then you know, we’ve got the YouTube channel going and everything and I’m doing exploring other opportunities. I’m on a couple of other different shows now. It’s funny how this thing just morphs, but, you know, we’ve talked about everything, you know, from marriage. One of the topics I hate to talk about it and you know, I bring it up now because it is other than gambling, the number one problem men have comes in the area of pornography. And I hate to talk about I hate to talk about it, but every time I do it. My numbers spike on the podcast. And so that tells me everything that I need to know, even though I already know the statistics are there. And, you know, so it’s things like that that, you know, most is is it comfortable for me to talk about? Heck, no, it’s not comfortable for me to talk about, but I talk about all kinds of things that I never thought I would talk about sitting in front of a microphone like this. But that’s how we add value to other men. And I think that’s what they’re looking for, is those authentic and those real conversations that help them get to the next level.

Stone Payton: [00:31:12] Yeah. All right. Let’s leave our listeners with a with a handful of Pro Tips. Number one, pro tip gang is if you are finding any value in this conversation at all, and I’m sure you are, reach out to Mike and have a conversation with him. But short of that or preceding that, I don’t know. It’s something we should be reading, something we should be doing, questions we should be asking ourselves just a couple of maybe just actionable steps that those of us who are trying to be self aware and trying to to to live into our purpose and be better people. Just a couple of pro tips maybe come to.

Mike Van Pelt: [00:31:51] Well, listen, I’m going to give you a book and it is a book that is helped transform my life. It’s a book that has transformed the lives of a lot of men. And that is a book called Wild at Heart by John Eldridge. And John Eldridge has a ton of books. His wife Stacy has written a number of books, but I strongly recommend that book. If you’re searching for more in your life, whatever that looks like, if you’re wondering how you can be free in your life and begin to take your heart back and not have all that baggage that we sometimes drag along as men. I recommend reading the book Wild at Heart by John Eldridge. That is a that is short of reading the Bible, I think a book that will give you some of the most in-depth knowledge of of your masculine life that you’ll ever read. So and there, there are a number of books after that, but I like that as a starting point.

Stone Payton: [00:33:00] All right. I got to ask, is there a book in you do you have some designs on on writing a book yourself currently?

Mike Van Pelt: [00:33:07] Yeah. Currently working on a book, as a matter of fact. Yeah. Currently working on a book. And you know, in that book we’ll tell the the true man story. You know, how Paul Bailey and I started a small men’s group? What is the true man? You know, why do you want to become a true man? And so and I’m kind of excited about it because I just had an epiphany here a couple of weeks ago and I’m like, Yeah, we need to this needs to be a roadmap book, you know? And that just comes from Paul and I had taken road trips prior primarily up to ironically enough, I was thinking about this. I’m like, Man, it’s funny how all this stuff comes together. Ironically enough, we used to travel from South Carolina up to North Carolina. Yes, there were coffee shops around the corner, but that’s not why you take a road trip. You take a road trip to get in the car and have these intimate conversations with somebody. But our road trips always evolved around going to this place in Columbus, North Carolina, called, of all things, Open Road Coffee.

Stone Payton: [00:34:10] I love it. Well, when you launched that book, I hope you’ll come back and visit with us and get us caught up on your work and maybe share some insights from the from the book. All right. Let’s make sure that our listeners can connect with you. If they’d like to have a conversation with you or someone on your team, maybe find out about some of these retreats or take advantage of your expertise and counsel and an individual coaching relationship, whatever you think is appropriate. Website, email, phone. Just I just want to make sure that they can connect with you, man.

Mike Van Pelt: [00:34:39] Well, you can always go out to my website, which is probably about to go under under another revamp, but all the information is out there at Truman Life Coaching Dotcom and you can reach out to me at Mike at Truman Life Coaching and give me a call 8642662058. And I love talking and strategizing with guys and we can set up an initial hour and have a strategy call and see what’s going on in your life. And if you need more coaching or if you need me to plug into a group. Let’s do it. Or if you want a book recommendation. I got plenty of those, too.

Stone Payton: [00:35:24] Oh, what a pleasure. Mike Van Pelt, thank you so much for coming in and sharing your story and your perspective. This has been an informing and inspiring conversation I have. What a terrific way to invest a Tuesday morning, man. Thank you. Absolutely. No, you’re doing important work, man. And we sincerely appreciate you.

Mike Van Pelt: [00:35:46] Well, you know, and I I’ve I’ve done a lot of research around what this means, so I don’t take this lightly when I say it. But I’m doing the work that God has called me to do, and I’m enjoying almost every minute of it. And if you’re a business person, you know what I mean by almost.

Stone Payton: [00:36:06] All right, until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, the comeback coach with true man life coaching, Mr. Mike Van Pelt and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you next time on Cherokee Business Radio.

 

Tagged With: True Man Life Coaching, True Man Podcast

Rome International Film Festival Podcast with Seth Ingram, Michael Dunaway, Katie Weatherford, and Mark Van Leuven

September 13, 2022 by angishields

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Tagged With: Hardy on Broad, Hardy Realty, Hardy Realty Studio, Katie Weatherford, Manco Logistics Corp., Mark Van Leuven, Michael Dunaway, RIFF, Rome International Film Festival, Rome News Tribune, Seth Ingram

Rome Business RadioX® Studio

September 13, 2022 by angishields

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BRX Pro Tip: Invest in Real Relationships

September 13, 2022 by angishields

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Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor, Stone Payton here with you. Lee, we all have to make decisions, those of us running enterprises, where to invest our time, energy, money, resources. And I’ve heard you say over and over again, invest in real relationships.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:20] Yeah, I think that the people who really want to succeed and become wealthier, more successful, they have to invest in more and more real relationships with people who matter. And these are people that can help you, the people that you can help.

The more connections you have, the more valuable you become to the community you serve, the better your circumstances will be. You’ll have a lot more resources at your disposal. You will become a resource to more and more people. You’ll be trusted. You’ll be valued, you’ll be liked, you’ll be known. Those are all qualities of a successful person. And the more you lean into humanity and people around you and those connections, the more successful you’ll be.

And I think it’s so important to just remember, don’t prejudge or underestimate the individual members of your network. You don’t know who is going to be that person out there that’s going to be that great client, that great referral source, the super fan, who’s going to be an advisor, who’s going to introduce you to an advisor or somebody that can really move the needle in your business. Somebody out there could be an investor or future purchaser of your business or your services.

There are so many people out there that the more people you serve, the more people that get to know you and your mission and what you’re trying to accomplish, and you’re going to find that people are going to want to help you. And the more you can kind of lean into that and share and discuss, you’ll find that you are going to have a more successful business.

So a lot of people kind of are trying to build a bunch of superficial online relationships and invest a lot of time, energy, and resources on building out, you know, third party social networking followers and friends. But you need real friends and you need real people who can help you. So invest some time in real life human beings and I think you will benefit in the long run.

Marcie Smith with The Children’s Haven

September 12, 2022 by angishields

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Marcie-Smith-The-Childrens-HavenMarcie Smith joined The Children’s Haven in 2018 with over ten years of experience with nonprofit organizations focused on education, fundraising, homelessness prevention, child abuse prevention, and childhood cancer research.

Marcie holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Birmingham-Southern College and a Master’s degree in conflict resolution from Norwich University. She is a 2022 graduate of Leadership Cherokee and was named a 2022 “Top Ten in Ten Young Professional to Watch in Cherokee County” by the Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce.

She is a 2016 graduate of LEAD Atlanta. She has previously served with the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Millennial Advisory Committee. She currently serves on the state Board of Directors for Prevent Child Abuse Georgia.

Marcie serves on the Bascomb Elementary Student Advisory Council and is a Volunteer Coordinator for a Soldier Family Readiness Group with the Georgia National Guard. Marcie is passionate about social innovation, family services, community collaboration and efforts to work together to protect children and their childhoods.

She lives in Towne Lake with her husband, Nate, and children, Elijah and Hadley.

Connect with Marcie and follow The Children’s Haven on LinkedIn.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:10] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Cherokee Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Sharon Cline: [00:00:26] And welcome to Fearless Formula on Cherokee RadioX, where we talk about the ups and downs of the business world and offer words of wisdom for business success. I’m your host, Sharon Cline. And our guest in the studio today is the executive director of the Children’s Haven, whose mission is to promote the health and happiness of children impacted by abuse through programs that help increase their safety and improve their educational, social and emotional functioning. I would really love to welcome to the show Marcie Smith. Hello.

Marcie Smith: [00:01:00] Hello. Thank you so much for having me.

Sharon Cline: [00:01:02] Of course. Thank you for coming. I’m excited to talk to you today because I think what you do is so important and it’s not something that I think about all the time in the back of my head as I go about my day. So I’m interested to find out what drew you to being so helpful and impactful to children who suffer abuse.

Marcie Smith: [00:01:23] Well, you know, I think that really stems from how I was raised. My my mother was always very adamant that volunteerism was just woven into our life. And she worked for defects for a while as I was growing up. So I got to learn about families who were engaged in the system and families who were in foster care and really opened my eyes at a very young age. And I went to school to study international relations. And I think I always knew I’d be in nonprofit management and.

Sharon Cline: [00:01:52] Always were drawn to it.

Marcie Smith: [00:01:54] I was, yeah, I knew that. That’s where I would end up. My master’s degree is in conflict resolution, and that’s something that I use on a daily basis. But being engaged with nonprofits and volunteerism is something that has just naturally been a part of my life. And so being able to serve our kids who need services the most and then engage with volunteers who want to give of them themselves and their time and their resources and their hearts, I think I love getting to see both ends of that work.

Sharon Cline: [00:02:23] It’s so interesting that it was something that you felt very sort of was a natural fit for you because of the way you were raised. You know, I did a little bit of that with my own kids, but it wasn’t something that I thought about a lot when I was growing up. It just it’s kind of cool that your mom sort of made that a very important part of your life. A very natural part of your life.

Marcie Smith: [00:02:42] Yes, definitely. It just wasn’t a question. So when I ended up in the role where I am, it just felt.

Sharon Cline: [00:02:47] Right. Oh, that’s awesome. So tell me a little bit about where you were before you started working with Children’s Haven.

Marcie Smith: [00:02:56] So my career has always been a nonprofit. I started right out of school actually volunteering with a nonprofit in American Samoa, and that I served as a volunteer teacher in that capacity, but really got to know the the ins and outs of a nonprofit working internationally. And then I spent some time as a director of a transitional housing program for homeless women and children. I also worked for a national nonprofit that raises funds for childhood cancer research. So got to learn a lot about fundraising and a lot about working on a bigger scale of nonprofits. But I really, really missed the community piece of it.

Sharon Cline: [00:03:35] That what drew you to Cherokee?

Marcie Smith: [00:03:36] That’s what drew me to Cherokee County. My husband and I knew that we wanted to raise our family here for a while, and so the timing was really just perfect where we made the move. And there was a position that brought together all of the pieces that I felt really passionate about, which was serving our families and serving families in a way to build strong communities. And the Children’s Haven was so community oriented with such an incredible base of supporters who really advocated for our work. So it made it really easy for me to come in as director because there were so many people who really cared about what we were doing already.

Sharon Cline: [00:04:11] So I think about it from my perspective, I have such a tender heart regarding children that I wonder what it’s like to be exposed to so many aspects of parenting and society that are kind of the darker side. What is that like for you?

Marcie Smith: [00:04:27] There’s a lot of heartbreak. We have 388 kids in Cherokee County who are in foster care today, and that number has grown over the years. Most of them are coming into care because of substance abuse, that their parents are experiencing a lot of neglect because of that substance abuse. And we are seeing physical and sexual abuse as well. And it’s very, very intense situations and a lot of brokenness and a lot of crises that we’re exposed to. So there is heartbreak there, but I think I find the balance in seeing the generosity from the community and people who really care and believe that they can make a difference. We have a lot of volunteers who support our kids and to see them give of themselves so freely, knowing that one person can really make a difference. They can help change a child’s story, they can impact them. And together we can do a lot of preventative things to to keep families strong before they reach crisis. And so I really. Well, even the work we’re doing and I think, you know, kind of over the years finding a way to strike that balance where there’s some peace there.

Sharon Cline: [00:05:31] It’s interesting that you note just one person can make such an impact, because in my mind, it feels overwhelming. But can you explain to me how you could see one person sort of helping? Because I think if you think about it, where I have the power, just me to impact someone’s life in such a positive way, it makes me feel like, well, then of course I want to do that. But outside of it, it feels overwhelming. Sure.

Marcie Smith: [00:05:53] So our foundation program is called CASA. It’s court appointed special advocates. It’s a national program. We’re affiliated with National CASA and then Georgia CASA at the state level. And these volunteers go through a pretty rigorous training to learn how to advocate on behalf of kids in foster care. And our promise to them is that we ask them to take one case at a time that gives them the opportunity to fully invest in this one child or this one sibling group, which doesn’t sound too overwhelming. They’re really thinking about serving one family to make a difference in their lives and the way that they make that difference. There are a lot of small, small ways that add up, but they have a huge impact. The kid knows that there’s one person in their life who’s going to be consistent during a very scary time that they’re in foster care, they’re away from their home and their biological family, sometimes their schools and their neighborhood friends, people that have been in their lives forever. Everything has changed. And to have one adult who says, I’m going to be with you this entire time and I’m in your corner and I only care about you. And I’m here to advocate for your best interests and the things that you care about. I think just having that connection with an adult who cares about them can really change a child’s life and they hold on to that forever.

Sharon Cline: [00:07:09] It’s it’s so impressive to think that there’s one person out there that could have that much power to impact the whole trajectory of where someone’s going in their life. I mean, it’s almost humbling.

Marcie Smith: [00:07:20] Yes. And Marcos says they come from all walks of life. We have some young parents who have toddlers at home. We have retired teachers. We have people who work 40 hours a week. It’s really neat to see that they have found time in their lives to add this volunteerism because they feel so strongly about it and they see the results from it, they see the successes, and they see those little glimpses of hope that let them know that their work matters and it matters to this child.

Sharon Cline: [00:07:48] What do you think some of the biggest misconceptions are about what you do?

Marcie Smith: [00:07:54] You know, I would say really, I think that we’re trying hard to to share the story and advocate for our parents, too. And I think that a lot of times people might jump to the conclusion that the parents have made terrible mistakes. And we’re searching for adoptive homes for these children. But truly, our goal is always going to be reunification first, if it makes sense for the family and if the parents need some time to get back on their feet, they need to go through some substance abuse treatment to gain that sobriety. Maybe they need help with counseling and resources for stable employment and stable housing. And we try to look at how can we support the parents, too? And if we if if reunification is a possibility and that’s a safe home that the child can go back to, then we really want to try to encourage that. We want to build strong families and not look at ripping families apart. And so I think that that’s a part of our story that we’re trying to do a better job of telling that we want to support our families when that is an option.

Sharon Cline: [00:08:53] So it’s not just let me let us take these kids away from you and let me find someone to be a surrogate parent for these children. It’s really the goal is to keep families together.

Marcie Smith: [00:09:01] Absolutely. We also started a new program this year to help with some prevention efforts. We felt like there could be some times where foster care could be unnecessary and we could prevent it if the families had resources in their homes. And these families would be families who are at risk of foster care involvement, but they truly just need resources. The kids are in a loving and safe place, but the parents need help. They might need parent education, they might need some coaching to get them into stable employment. And so seeing that program really take off, we’ve supported 30 families in the first year of operation. Wow. We have a staff member going into their homes every single week. And it’s really incredible because these families really just needed help to get through a crisis, to get through a rough time, and they may not have a network of support to help lift them up. And so we’re trying to build that network of support to keep kids with their families when that is a possibility.

Sharon Cline: [00:09:55] I was reading a statistic about it’s from the American Journal of Emergency Medicine that domestic violence cases increased by almost, what, 30 some odd percent during the pandemic. What was that like for you? Did you see that same statistic?

Marcie Smith: [00:10:10] We did? We we did in Cherokee. I mean, very terrifying. You know, part part of that was also looking at the timing of the pandemic. And all of a sudden, all of our children were at home. And the majority of reports of abuse and neglect come from our mandated reporters who are our teachers in schools. So all of a sudden, I didn’t.

Sharon Cline: [00:10:31] Think about that.

Marcie Smith: [00:10:32] Yeah. And all of a sudden, all the kids were at home and nobody was seeing them. There were no eyes on kids. And it got very quiet for a while and we knew it didn’t mean that abuse and neglect weren’t happening. It just meant that our people who are always reporting it, weren’t getting to see it.

Sharon Cline: [00:10:48] That’s so fascinating. Who would have really you wouldn’t have been able to point that out how important that that notion was without having this separation between teachers and children? And who would have thought that that is like their number one advocate right there?

Marcie Smith: [00:11:03] Absolutely. And I think that the the numbers of domestic violence cases that rose and we had higher numbers of babies who were being born addicted to substances and babies who were being seen at the hospital because of broken bones. It really reflected a lot of the stress and trauma that families have been under and a new layer of financial stress and trauma and then a new layer of mental health trauma resulting from the pandemic. And really, you know, I think our service providers have bonded together to serve families the best we can, but definitely very challenging times.

Sharon Cline: [00:11:39] Would you say that’s the most what is the most challenging part of of what you do? I mean, I would imagine there are different aspects of it because that all is so emotional. I’m just picturing myself. I always think the world is a reflection of me, right? So even though I know it’s not true, but I imagine what it would be like to see you’ve got an emotional side to yourself. You’ve got like a physical side to yourself because there’s a stress in your body that you absorb. And so I’m wondering, what are the what is the most challenging part? Is it trying to have the correct kind of volunteer or consistency? I don’t know. I’m just trying to imagine my life there.

Marcie Smith: [00:12:16] You know, I think it’s it’s it’s really challenging to have patients, patients with a broken system, as we often refer to it, patients with our volunteers who are very passionate. And we want to see, you know, we can see this child needs this and this and this. And knowing that the obstacles to overcome, like treating their mental health needs and going through therapy and a family who’s trying to overcome substance abuse by going to treatment, those things all really take time. And so our our goal for CASA in particular is that a child doesn’t stay in foster care any longer than necessary. They’re we’re always advocating for permanency, whether that is a permanent placement of reunification back with our biological family, a guardianship or an adoption. Our volunteers are going to keep trying to move things along, knowing that it takes a long time. But if they can stick with it and keep moving things along so that we don’t feel like any child is forgotten or that they fall through the cracks of the system, I think having that patience can be really challenging, but it’s so important because we do get to see those happy endings and we get to see those stories and look back at how far somebody has come when we saw so much brokenness and so much trauma. But really seeing that we can celebrate a high school graduation and we can celebrate different, different milestones and somebody’s life is really special.

Sharon Cline: [00:13:33] Do you think people don’t really consider just how important your program is? I’m thinking about how I go about my daily life, and I just assume everyone’s life is like mine. And I know it’s not true, but unless you’re really exposed to it, you don’t really kind of understand all of the dynamics. And so I think what would I want to say to someone who really doesn’t have like their finger on the pulse of of what your daily life is like?

Marcie Smith: [00:14:00] Yeah, you know, I think we don’t know what we don’t know. And what I’ve seen in my role has been so inspiring because we have such a caring and giving community. And when people find out about the work that we do, they’re drawn to at least one part of our mission. And that might be that they’re bringing in clothing items for our clothing closet. It might be that they are signing up to volunteer as a mentor or a volunteer. It could just mean that they’re coming for a work day and they’re going to pull weeds in our playground. But to me, it’s really cool to see how people when you when you know, when you understand and when you hear about these things, I feel a lot of times people will say, well, if not me, then who? And they get pulled in and they find little ways that they can help make a difference. And our community has just been outstanding at that.

Sharon Cline: [00:14:47] What is your biggest need right now? Do you have a biggest need or is it everything? Yeah, of course.

Marcie Smith: [00:14:55] So, yeah, I mean, and we always need people. We always need volunteers to fit in different ways. And that looks different for every person. But we have volunteer opportunities for kids. We have families who will come and help sort donations in our clothing closet. We have people who are committed to mentoring, and our mentoring program is just once a month and we’re serving middle school kids and it’s really been a lot of fun. We have people who are ready in their lives to take on the role of a CASA volunteer. Being a nonprofit, we are supported by donations from this community, so that’s incredibly important to our board of directors that we’re really transparent on how we’re spending those funds. And we’ve been very adamant about obtaining the highest level of transparency, and we’ve gotten the highest ratings from charity watchdog organizations. So as an organization, that’s incredibly important to us. When we’re asking people to support us financially, we want to show them that, yes, $0.90 of every dollar you give to the Children’s Haven is going directly to our programs, and we have very little administrative costs because the work is so important and there’s so much of it to do.

Sharon Cline: [00:15:57] Wow. So if you’re just joining us, I’m spending time with Marci Smith. She’s the executive director of Children’s Haven. I love the notion that you feel like when you’re giving, you’re giving and you know, you have peace. And knowing that this isn’t just, you know, $0.10 out of every dollar is going toward it. And the rest of it is what about. I’m just I’m just saying it’s like there have been obviously lots of controversies, but I appreciate that you’ve been so transparent with your program, and that’s very important. I think you’ve won some awards recently as well.

Marcie Smith: [00:16:26] We have our very proud of our team. We were the 2020 nonprofit of the year for Cherokee County from the Chamber of Commerce, and our supervised visitation program actually won the 2020 provider of the year. And that is a national recognition out of 850 different supervised visitation providers.

Sharon Cline: [00:16:43] Congratulations.

Marcie Smith: [00:16:44] Thank you. Super proud of them. Our CASA program was recognized as innovative program of the year from the Georgia CASA team. We have an incredible staff, but it operating at the highest efficiency is our goal. We want to be very professional in how we work. We work with a lot of volunteers, but our team of staff members are exceptionally professional and our board is very committed to telling our story and making sure that we are transparent and that people really trust in our mission and trust in how we operate. That’s, I think, a big part of our success.

Sharon Cline: [00:17:15] Is it a challenge to balance your life? Because I would imagine myself being so emotionally invested, it would be really hard for me to not be thinking about it at like 11:00 at night or two in the morning. It is, but.

Marcie Smith: [00:17:28] It definitely is. We I’m a big advocate for self care with our team. Our staff members are all mamas and so we are all mamas. First, we that’s the most important thing that we take care of our families first because we can’t take care of other families well if we don’t take care of ourselves in our own families first. So I try to preach that to my team, and that means that I have to also model that. And so sometimes I have to work harder to hold myself accountable. But other times I know that my work and my family life will overlap, like having my kindergartner join me for meetings.

Sharon Cline: [00:18:00] So yeah, we have a little extra member here, like hanging out and drawings and pictures. It’s really cute.

Marcie Smith: [00:18:07] His first radio station.

Sharon Cline: [00:18:09] Oh, well, that’s awesome. You’ve been very good. So how do you. So your your boundaries kind of around the ways that you can kind of, I guess sort of feed your own soul during this. What are some of your what are some of the things that you do that helped? So the show is called Fearless Formula. And so I’m always thinking of things that people are tend to be afraid of or are hesitant to do because they’re not sure how it’s going to come out. So what do you do that kind of keeps yourself in balance?

Marcie Smith: [00:18:38] Try to practice gratefulness a lot and recognizing maybe we tried something and it didn’t work, but trying to look at the positives that did come from it, even if it’s just a learning experience, I think that helps to encourage myself too. And we, you know, one thing that we did this year was we started the mentoring program. It was brand new. It was scary. We didn’t have a lot of resources or capacity to start a new program, but the need was there. And our motto through this program, development, was progress, not perfection. And if we can do a little bitty things and celebrate those little things, we finally got to the place and where we’re standing back and looking at what look what we just built. And we jumped right in and we weren’t afraid. And we used each other’s resources to really build it together as a team. And it was really cool to step back and and look at what came from that.

Sharon Cline: [00:19:30] What are some of the changes that have happened since you’ve joined? I know it used to be called Cas.

Marcie Smith: [00:19:36] Yup, just Cas.

Sharon Cline: [00:19:36] Yeah, but but they changed it to Children’s Haven not too long ago I.

Marcie Smith: [00:19:39] Want to say. Yeah. 2015. Ah, our board really looked at our cost of program has been around 30 years as of next year and had really built a strong foundation in the community. We have great retention with our volunteers. We were serving children well and really looking at the other needs and knowing that there was a way for us to grow and develop to meet some of these other needs. So in 2015 we changed the name from CASA to the Children’s Haven, and then CASA became a program under the Children’s Haven. At that time we also purchased a new building right across from Cherokee High School and opened the well star family visitation center. So those two programs I came into, they were running well and doing great and had really built a solid foundation for the organization. And I really wanted to look at with our board and our Strategic Planning Committee, the two programs that were running so well were addressing abuse and neglect after they had already happened. And how can we really bring our mission full circle and do some preventative efforts? So I’ve been there for four years, just super proud of the way the organization has grown. We have a fantastic team and we have two programs now that are addressing things on the preventative side and really we’re seeing successes from that, which is telling us that that was a space we really needed to be in.

Sharon Cline: [00:20:56] How do you prevent? Because it’s like almost predicting, right? So do you look at factors that.

Marcie Smith: [00:21:00] Yes, so yes. And we really rely on our partners too. I think having strong community partnerships is the way that we can be successful in our mission. It is so necessary. So working with the school system and with defacto our division of family and children’s services to take referrals on families who come on their radar, we don’t get to see those families in in our position, but we have people in our community who are making those calls or having concerns and even sometimes self referrals of families who just will voice, I need help, I really need help. And so having strong working relationships where we can get some solid referrals, that’s saying that these kids are safe in the home, but they need something to change and. Working through that system has really helped us, I think, to be most impactful with our in-home parenting program, where they’re getting really intensive parenting once a week. And then with our mentoring program, the children who are currently in our mentoring program are involved with juvenile court because they have missed an absurd amount of school and they’re in middle school. And there are a lot of reasons that they don’t want to go to school. And what we have seen through our mentoring program is that they’re really just craving a connection with an adult who cares about them, who is not their parents, who’s not a family member and not somebody in the school building. It’s a different adult who asked them about their day. Ask them about challenges. They also are all ears and want to know what’s their favorite pizza and what music do they like right now? And so just being able to talk to somebody who’s there just for them, I think has been encouraging. And they know that there’s somebody else who’s encouraging them to go to school and do their best.

Sharon Cline: [00:22:40] I like the fact that you encourage people to ask for help because I think a lot of people consider that a weakness. You know, that there’s something wrong with them if they can’t handle it.

Marcie Smith: [00:22:49] Well, you know, we’re seeing a lot of the families that have been in our parenting program love their kids so much. But they either didn’t have the greatest role models of parents when they were growing up. And so they really are kind of lacking some parent education that they just weren’t exposed to. But they know that they want to be better and that they need help. And I think that we’ve come a long way in mental health where people are feeling more comfortable talking about their needs. And that’s the story we want to tell to we want to say advocate for yourself, ask for help when you need it. And then knowing that if someone is asking for help, it’s our responsibility as a community to make sure we’re directing them to resources so that they can really be connected with an organization or an individual who can help to meet that need. And I think that’s how we build strong families and that’s how we keep families together.

Sharon Cline: [00:23:38] What do you think? And this is a big question. What do you think is the most rewarding for you?

Marcie Smith: [00:23:46] You know, I I think in my position, we have staff members who do direct services and they work directly with our families. And I love getting to see their faces light up when they tell the story of a child who took their first steps in our visitation room, or the child who has a 4.0. And and I love to get to see that joy that it brings them through the direct services because they also see the heartbreak. And so we all celebrate that as a team. But in my role is executive director, I also get to see I like to call it radical generosity and just.

Sharon Cline: [00:24:17] Oh, I love that term.

Marcie Smith: [00:24:18] People and businesses in our community who just approach us without us soliciting, but they just come to us and they say, we want to help. How can we help? What can we give? Here’s funding to help with this program or here’s a truckload of 1300 diapers. I mean, to me, it’s just I feel very blessed and fortunate that I get to see those sides of people. When you think the world is a doom and gloom place, to know that there are so many good people in this world and especially in our community, we we are so rich with generosity in this community and people who truly care about their neighbors.

Sharon Cline: [00:24:54] I know it’s so easy for me to see. The dark side is I always go to the dark side first. But it is so heartwarming and encouraging to know that there are people that are willing to go outside of their own circle and and look beyond their own immediate family to want to help, just as from the pureness of their heart.

Marcie Smith: [00:25:12] Yes. And there’s nothing in it for them. And so I just feel so lucky that I get to see that all the time.

Sharon Cline: [00:25:17] If there’s someone that’s listening that doesn’t has not ever considered really volunteering that way, what could you tell them?

Marcie Smith: [00:25:24] Really, there are a lot of different ways to volunteer. I think that that some people jump in and they may not know how to give of themselves or what they’re comfortable with. But I think that if you really think about how you want to spend your time and how much of your time you want to spend, and you can voice that to any organization. I feel confident that people can get plugged in and it might be that it’s one time of year that that you do something. But volunteering with a nonprofit to help vacuum and wash their windows and pull weeds helps them so much. And that kind of service just on a one off can really be truly impactful.

Sharon Cline: [00:26:00] I think people and just in small amounts that I’ve ever volunteered, it’s it’s touched me in such a way that I feel like I can’t explain it unless someone else has done it too. And then you can talk about it. But it’s hard to describe the feeling. It’s like a.

Marcie Smith: [00:26:13] Joy, you know, like, say, fills your cup.

Sharon Cline: [00:26:16] Oh yeah. It feels like, oh, that’s a great one. Great way to say it. If you could make the perfect scenario as far as funds or volunteers or, you know, like where you would like to be and even five years, what would you love to see happen if you could had all the power in the world?

Marcie Smith: [00:26:31] Yeah, I think, you know, we recognize that our team is really special and as a director and with our board of directors, we want to take care of them. So knowing that they are professionals and they are exceptionally talented and well educated. I always want to have enough funds to take care of them and know that they’re not volunteering. They are they are giving of their careers. This is what they’ve decided to do. And looking at how we grow to provide additional services and take care of our people, I think there’s a big need for additional therapeutic services and our community. And so that’s something that we would love to be able to support more families with.

Sharon Cline: [00:27:09] I mean, like emotional.

Marcie Smith: [00:27:11] Those where we have a supervised visitation program, but there’s always a need to have therapeutic supervised visitation and add another layer of care for families when they they truly need a little bit more. We also are very fortunate that we have two staff members who are bilingual, and that’s a growing need, too. So as I look at at who we’re serving and our community, I really want to be mindful that we want to increase our services for our bilingual families who need support. And so that’s something we have to look at as as we grow in the future.

Sharon Cline: [00:27:43] Are there any needs that are sort of specific to Cherokee County or are they like if you were to compare a different county here in Georgia, how how do how does Cherokee County compare?

Marcie Smith: [00:27:54] You know, we’re the seventh largest county in Georgia and we’re the second fastest growing.

Sharon Cline: [00:27:59] So I knew that I didn’t know that statistic.

Marcie Smith: [00:28:03] You know, I think a lot of people are shocked to find out that a few months ago when we were looking at how many kids are in foster care, Cherokee have the same number of kids in foster care as Fulton County did. And you think about how big Fulton is. Yes. So those are the changes in our population are going to affect our families. And I think as we also look at at housing and employment and some things like that, we try to project and be prepared for the future. And knowing that our work could change, we might need to be working harder as a nonprofit. We always say we’d love it if we went out of business because we fulfilled our mission and nobody needed us. That would be a dream world. The dream that would be a dream world. But that’s not the case. And us growing and expanding means that more people need our services. But we’re honored to be able to do that and we’re only able to do it because of our community. And we have to be very realistic about projecting and knowing what that looks like in the future.

Sharon Cline: [00:28:59] So if people wanted to contact you in any way for any reason, how could they do that? What’s the best place?

Marcie Smith: [00:29:04] Yeah, so our website is Cherokee Children’s Haven dot org. We’re also very active on social media, the Children’s Haven on Facebook and Instagram. My email is Marci with an eye at Cherokee Children’s Haven dot org and our office. Our visitation program runs seven days a week, but we have standard office hours and I think that we’re fairly reachable.

Sharon Cline: [00:29:26] You’re findable.

Marcie Smith: [00:29:27] We’re findable.

Sharon Cline: [00:29:28] Yes. Even on the social media.

Marcie Smith: [00:29:29] So, yeah, absolutely.

Sharon Cline: [00:29:30] Get away from it. Well, Marci Smith, I’m so grateful that you took some time today to come in and kind of highlight the wonderful work that you’re doing, the meaningful work that you’re doing. And I applaud your energy and effort, and I’m so excited to see where we’re all going to go as as you create such a huge positive impact on society.

Marcie Smith: [00:29:49] Thank you so much. Thank you for the opportunity to share more of our story. I really appreciated your great questions.

Sharon Cline: [00:29:55] Oh, thanks, girl. It’s been my pleasure. And thank you all out there for listening to Fearless Formula. I’m Business RadioX. And this again is Sharon Klein reminding you that with knowledge and understanding, we can all create our own fearless formula. Have a great day.

 

Tagged With: The Children's Haven

Sheryl Vazquez with CSG Capital

September 12, 2022 by angishields

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Buy a Business Near Me
Sheryl Vazquez with CSG Capital
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Sheryl-Vazquez-headshot-bwSheryl Vazquez is the founder and owner of CSG Capital. She practices commercial real estate sales, as well as business sales, primarily in the restaurant and retail assets.

She is a member of the International Business Brokerage Association, the Carolina-Virginia Business Brokerage Association, the Durham Chamber of Commerce, the National Restaurant Association, Innovative Commerce Serving Communities, and Urban Land Institute. She is a Certified Exit Planning Advisor for business owners, and works with them to increase the value of the business years before listing it for sale.

Sheryl is located in North Carolina, and works with clients nationwide.

Connect with Sheryl on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram, and follow CSG Capital on Facebook.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Buy a Business Near Me, brought to you by the Business Radio X Ambassador Program, helping business brokers sell more local businesses. Now here’s your host.

Stone Payton: [00:00:32] Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of Buy a Business Near Me. Stone Payton here with you this afternoon and you guys are in for such a real treat. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with CSG Capital backed by EXP Commercial. Ms.. Sheryl Vasquez. How are you?

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:00:54] I’m doing so good. How are you?

Stone Payton: [00:00:56] I am doing well. It is such a delight to have you on the show this afternoon. I got a ton of questions. We’ll never get to them all. But before we do dive into some of those that I knew I wanted to ask, maybe it would be good mojo for for me and for our listeners to get just a little bit of an overview. Mission purpose. What are you and CSG capital really out there trying to do for folks?

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:01:23] Yeah. What I love to do, right? I love working with people. I’ve worked with people all my life in anything that I’ve done. So it translates into real estate. I’ve been in real estate for about six years now, and so I am in the commercial space, primarily focusing on restaurant and retail space, and I do business brokerage in that as well. So for owners who want to sell or lease their their space, their real estate, I can also help them sell the business if they’re ready to leave that and move on to a new venture or whatever that looks like for them. I like to help people search for businesses to buy. I’m located in the Southeast, I’m in North Carolina, and I also have access to everything nationwide.

Stone Payton: [00:02:13] So how do you how’s the whole sales and marketing thing worked for for someone like you? Like, how do you find the business owners who are looking to sell?

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:02:25] Right. So a lot of it. I always start with my sphere of influence who you know, because everybody knows somebody who, you know, either wants to buy or sell or buy or sell a business. In coming out of COVID. There’s a lot of people who have turned to being entrepreneurs and starting their own companies. There’s a huge amount of startups coming, and so a lot of people are looking to lease spaces in that. There’s a lot of people that are looking to exit the business. So I talked to a lot of people that I know. I post a lot on social media about what I do and I send mailers out to people and I do podcasts like this. I have email campaigns going, so I email business owners, let them know what I do, that I’m available to help them value the business, that sort of thing.

Stone Payton: [00:03:18] So yeah, in terms of valuing the business, I guess maybe a more general question for me, how do you know or how does the seller really know if their business is ready to sell?

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:03:32] Right. Some some owners just they want to get out of the business and they’re just, okay, I’m ready to sell. But when you look at the numbers, they’re not ready to sell. The numbers don’t really match what they want for the business. It’s it comes down to the big why, right? So why do you want to sell your business? Is it big enough for you to just leave it behind and move on? Or do the numbers not make sense right now? And we can build value in that and you have a little time in that and you want to get the most for your business.

Stone Payton: [00:04:09] And so do you find I think I know the answer to this, but I’m going to ask it anyway. Do you find sometimes that an owner or a set of partners feel like their business is worth more than it really is out there on the market?

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:04:24] That’s usually the case. I know. That’s what you’re thinking, right? Right. Right. Yeah, it’s I mean, it’s their baby. A lot of them have built it from the ground up and it is what it is today. It’s tough with COVID and how it impacted business owners and what that looks like for them. A lot of business owners have morphed into doing business a different way and so that increased value one way. But some business owners weren’t able to do that and so value decreased. They still want maybe what they put into the business they want out of it, or if they’re not selling the real estate with it, it’s just the business that can be a disappointment. Know so it’s all about the numbers is what it comes down to.

Stone Payton: [00:05:08] So if they are coachable and they come to you with one number one idea in mind, can you kind of hit the brakes and say, okay, you’re not where you want to be, but if you want to move in that direction, we can help you get there. Or I’ve got a group of, you know, crack experts in these different domains that can help you get there. Do you find yourself doing that sometimes?

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:05:30] Absolutely. So I’m with the Exit Planning Institute as well, and I’m a certified CPA. So that’s a certified exit planning advisor. So if I come to owners and they want to sell and the numbers are not where they need to be, I can talk to them about building the value in their business that can take anywhere from 3 to 5 years. So it depends again on how much time and effort they want to put into it. And it’s also a team effort. You know, your whole management staff, your employees, everybody has to be on board with building that value. Where can we put systems in place to build it? What do we need to do? Do we need to acquire another business? Do we need to acquire another space? Roll out a new product? What does that look like? So it depends if the if the owner wants to do something like that. So again, comes back to their big why?

Stone Payton: [00:06:27] Well, it must be really rewarding. Invigorating work. I got to ask, what’s the back story? How did you find yourself getting in this line of work?

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:06:40] It’s so funny. I used to be a bartender. I was a bartender for 30 years. So I am really good at reading people, really good at talking to people and just a great listener. So in that you go, you got to grow up at some point. So I got into real estate and I still love working with people, walking them through the whole transaction from A to Z and a lot of hand-holding. But I felt like commercial real estate was really where I wanted to be. So I got into commercial real estate because I’m all about the deal and I love working with investors. So when I got into commercial, I was introduced to business brokerage and I just fell in love with that because I love working with numbers, so. Someone else told me about the exit planning. And again, when I love working with people and taking them from one place to building value and and creating that for them, that that’s wonderful for me, you know, I feel like I’m just helping them in that way. So that’s kind of how it came up. It was introduced to me and I just took it and ran and just love it.

Stone Payton: [00:08:03] So I understand that you do quite a bit of work. And you mentioned it earlier in the conversation in the in the restaurant and retail assets arena. Was that a conscious choice? And does it continue to be a conscious choice or is that just the way things seem to be unfolding for you?

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:08:20] So it’s good when you jump into commercial to kind of pick a niche. And I’ve been in restaurants for 30 years, so it was kind of a no brainer for me. I know when I’m listing a restaurant exactly what to look for. I know what the buyer is going to look for. Do you have a hood? Is it a second generation space where the grease traps, what are the walk ins look like? What’s being transferred in a contract to the buyer? All of these things that I need to look for. How is your POS system run? What’s in the business? What do we need to take out of the business? That’s personal. So I look for all of those things because I’ve been in it for so long, so that when you pick a niche, I was like, This is kind of a no brainer. I’m just going to do that. And in that, I’ve just people have come to me as a specialist for it. So and I am I know what I’m talking about when it comes to retail and restaurant.

Stone Payton: [00:09:19] Well, no, I can tell and I know our listeners can tell, just as you rattle off all of those different things. So those 30 years of bartending, they served you.

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:09:26] Well, for sure.

Stone Payton: [00:09:30] So is it is it easier do you find to to to secure listings for sellers or to find viable buyers? Or is it just two different sides of the same coin? And they’re equally challenging and rewarding.

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:09:47] You know, I feel that it’s pretty equal right now. I mean, for myself, I can’t speak for everybody, but for myself, I find that it’s pretty, pretty equal and I can help both just as easily.

Stone Payton: [00:09:59] So I shared with you before we came on air and my business partner and I. His name is Lee Kanter. We own the business radio network. We have a network of people with studios. We do national shows. And of course, I mean, we’ve been at this for, gosh, 18 years now. Well, Cheryl, I had black hair when we started. So, of course, we’ve had this conversation about exiting, how we want to exit. Do we want to exit on the open market or do we want to sell all or some of it to our studio partners? So for for folks like us, one of the things that we started kind of, you know, batting back and forth without the benefit of, you know, specialized expertise and counsel for someone like you, at least so far at this point, is deal structure, because it’s not that Lee and I necessarily need or even want someone to just write a big check and we ride off into the sunset and it doesn’t have to be that way, right?

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:10:56] No, no, absolutely not. You guys want to talk amongst yourselves and definitely bring in your, you know, your family, your financial advisors, that sort of thing. Because not only is it about the business, it’s about your personal life, your financial life outside of the business. Because once you leave the business, what are you going to do? You have to write that down and in detail, write and include the people that you love around you because they’re going to be part of that plan. Right. And then how does that what does that look like? What does it look like for your team of people who are going to stay on? So are they interested in taking over and buying the business? Because that’s one avenue that you could explore. You could build the business to include other radio stations and other podcasts. I mean, it depends on how big you want to be, how long do you want to stay in it? But moreover, what are you going to do after that? You know, because if it’s just golfing somewhere, you’re going to get bored really quickly. You know, you either find a new venture to get into or something else. You know, some people, they do want to golf for the rest of their lives and that’s fine. But just know what that entails, you know? So that’s that’s what I say. First of all, you have to write out that plan. The two of you sit together and write out what that looks like and include your significant others, your family, you know, talk to your managers, your people underneath you, your group of core people around you.

Stone Payton: [00:12:35] And I’m getting the sense that don’t have that conversation three, six months before it’s something you want to do. Maybe have it as far out as well. I don’t know. You tell me. Maybe even a couple of years.

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:12:48] Yeah, couple of years. Yeah. Okay, yeah, a couple of years. Because we have to look at different things. You know, we it’s a whole strategy and it depends on where you want to go with it. So if you want to build the value, we’re going to have groups of people and we’ll meet every 90 days and come back and and have a workshop about how did that go for us? Did we build value in this area? Did we do what we were supposed to do and what we set out to do? What are the numbers look like now? You know, and just revisit every 90 days. So every 90 days can be a long time, especially when you have a goal set of where you need to be before you put it on the market. But then again, we’ll revisit that maybe after you grow the business, you want to hang on to it for ten more years, you know, you never know.

Stone Payton: [00:13:42] Well, and I’m thinking that the cleaner, the books and there’s probably some other things that’s like part of the curb appeal in this market. Like, you know, in residential, you know, you want a nice curb appeal. Part of that that’s really important. Right? And the reason I’m kind of laughing as I’m saying that just yesterday I bought a t shirt with the company credit card and I’m sure I shouldn’t have done that happened. I know the shirt looks great, Cheryl, but no, you got to clean up the you got to clean up the books. And then I’m sure there are other things that they’re looking for in those books that that suggest to them, hey, we can we can buy this and and we can run it without laying stone or at least after a period of time. Right. Those are things. There’s things they’re looking for, right?

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:14:30] Yeah, for sure. I mean, that’s that’s my job. That’s part of my job is, you know, I get all the numbers, the profit and loss statements, the balance sheets, and then I pull out, what is this? What is this? What is this? Can we add that back into the business so that the. Iyer who comes in, is not paying for that. So that’s value add that we can add back into the business. That’s part of the fun of it for me, actually. I really enjoy doing that kind of sleuthing with the business. You know, a lot of it is like car payments. That’s fine. A lot of folks pay for their car through their business. But will the car be staying with the business? No. So we add that back end personal cell phones, stuff like that, and it can get dicey. It’s like really digging. But that’s I mean, that’s part of what I love about it.

Stone Payton: [00:15:24] Well, and I’m thinking as you’re talking because I mean, this this conversation is very helpful to me personally because of the situation that Lee and I are in. But I mean, I’m getting the sense that even if we weren’t getting ready to sell or did he it was way down the road. It seems like just a great productive exercise to act like you are right and be thinking about some of these things.

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:15:49] I think that too. I mean, I’ve taken so many courses and so many classes and I always apply them to my own business. What could I be doing better? How could I be setting these in place so that, you know, where are my financials going? How is that being documented so that it’s easy to read if I want to sell or build or do whatever, you know? So I think it’s just really good to always have these conversations, talk to a business broker that you know, and try to pick their brain about how they look at numbers. And then what do I need to how do I need to apply that to my business? And I think it’s good common practice just to do that on a regular basis. It’s easier, I think, for you for your CPA as well.

Stone Payton: [00:16:38] Well, and after hearing you talk about, first of all, your business, I’m getting, the idea is far more relationship oriented than transactional. And I don’t I don’t think I really saw it that way, you know, but obviously you are building a level of trust and have a depth of relationship with buyers and sellers that I did. I didn’t see it in that frame. And I am and the reason I mentioned that is I don’t think now after this conversation, I don’t think I would feel bad about approaching a broker. And, you know, that would be a transparency. Look, we’re not in any hurry, but we’d really like some insight and perspective. They if they’re if they’re worth their salt, they understand it might be a while and they know they’re going to get the nod when we are ready. So so don’t feel right. Don’t feel bad about approaching about approaching a broker to get some insight and perspective. Right. Okay. Let’s before we wrap in, let’s leave our listeners, if we could, with a handful of pro tips. Well, number one, pro tip, just reach out and talk to Sheryl or somebody on her team. That’s your number one pro tip. But maybe just a couple of things to do, maybe to read, to be thinking about and in preparation for even a conversation with someone like Cheryl or just to start getting ready, buyers and sellers alike, let’s leave them with a couple little actionable ideas, if we could.

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:18:07] Yeah, for sure. So I think a really good book to read is Exit Rich. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of that. It’s written by Sharon Lechter and Michelle Seiler. Tucker, Sharon Lecter also writes with Napoleon Hill Foundation. So that book kind of focuses on selling your business and getting it to where it needs to be. They work a lot in M&A, so the mergers and acquisitions area of business selling, but I think that’s a good starting point for a lot of owners. A lot of people don’t know the business owners exist or what we even do, so thank you for bringing light to that aspect of it. I find myself explaining what I do to people quite often. I never mind explaining it because people need to know about it and then, you know, educate yourself on where the numbers need to go, what it needs to look like. Talk to your CPA. I know if you’re a business owner, you have a CPA in hand, you have an attorney on hand. You should you know, you can talk to them about what the books look like, what your pal statements look like, and where we need to put things, just like you said, to clean it up a little bit. So those are some things for a buyer. I think one of the best things you can do is get SBA approved because a lot of business owners will look at that like, you’re serious about buying this business, you’re pre-approved. Sba is a huge lending thing that a lot of people. Go to and they’re ready to to help you out. So I have plenty of SBA lenders that I can have people talk to. And most of us do. So I think that’s the best thing. And a lot of buyers I mean, we’re going to guide you through the whole buying process anyway. And they’re going to do their own due diligence in the process. But we we help guide the buyers as well. So. Yeah.

Stone Payton: [00:20:13] I am so glad that I asked. I think that’s incredibly helpful. Helpful. Counsel, thank you for that. And Cheryl, it has been an absolute delight having you on the show this afternoon.

Sheryl Vazquez: [00:20:25] For having me. I’m super excited.

Stone Payton: [00:20:26] Thank you. Well, it is my pleasure. All right. Until next time, this is Stone Payton for our guest today, Cheryl Vazquez with CSG Capital, backed by XP Commercial and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you next time on Buy a Business Near Me.

 

Tagged With: CSG Capital

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