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Unlocking Quality: How CelticQA’s Innovative Solutions Enhance Software Development Processes

May 27, 2025 by angishields

Greater Perimeter Business Radio

Unlocking Quality: How CelticQA's Innovative Solutions Enhance Software Development Processes

00:00 /

In this episode of Greater Perimeter Business Radio, host Erik Boemanns discusses the crucial role of quality assurance (QA) in software development with Kelly Kierans, President of CelticQA Solutions, and Scott Williford, the company’s CMO. They explore the common challenges companies face when neglecting QA and introduce CelticQA’s innovative product, QA Connector. Kelly shares the company’s mission to prioritize quality from the outset, while Scott highlights the efficiency and benefits of their new QA management tool.

Kelly Kierans is the President of CelticQA Solutions, a leading provider of Quality Assurance solutions that help companies accelerate digital transformation with confidence. With a deep passion for software quality, she believes that every IT project can go live with zero critical defects when the right QA strategy is in place. Kelly leads CelticQA’s business development, sales, and marketing efforts, driving the company’s growth while ensuring a strong culture of excellence and innovation.

As a co-founder of the Higher Gear CXO Forum, Kelly helps IT leaders by fostering conversations that navigate complex technology landscapes and shift their organizations into higher performance and strategic impact. She has served on the Executive Advisory Council for the KSU Entrepreneurship Center, leveraging her expertise to support business leaders and entrepreneurs.

Kelly is an alumna of LaunchPad2X, the nation’s premier women’s entrepreneurship program, and a two-time recipient of the TiE Top Entrepreneurs Award (2016 & 2018). She is actively involved in TechBridge’s Digital Ball Sponsorship Committee, helping to drive support for technology initiatives that create positive social impact. She has also been an active member of the Turknett Women in Leadership Group and TAG.

A graduate of Radford University’s College of Business and Economics, Kelly continues to drive innovation in QA and empower companies to build high-quality, scalable, and resilient technology solutions.

Connect with Kelly on LinkedIn.

Scott Williford, CMO of CelticQA Solutions.

Scott is a serial entrepreneur, consultant, writer and speaker and is passionate about helping others succeed in whatever they are called to.

Connect with Scott on LinkedIn.

Episode Highlights

The importance of quality assurance (QA) in software development
Common pitfalls companies face when neglecting QA
Background and mission of Celtic QA
Client pain points related to QA and strategies to address them
Unique approach of Celtic QA compared to traditional staffing companies
Introduction and features of the QA Connector tool
Benefits of using QA Connector for test management
Proactive vs. reactive QA practices
Reporting and auditing capabilities of QA Connector
Best practices for integrating QA into the software development lifecycle

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Greater Perimeter. It’s time for Greater Perimeter Business Radio. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: This episode of Greater Perimeter Business Radio is brought to you by Mirability. With their new compliance exo service taking you from it risk to it reward. Now here’s your host, Eric Bomans.

Erik Boemanns: So quality assurance, or QA is a key part of making sure your company’s products will work as expected and not damage your customer or your own reputation. It’s one of those things that everyone knows they need, but frequently skips when building a new product, especially in the software business. There are plenty of big examples in the news of the importance of QA. The CrowdStrike accident last year, for example, when companies realized they needed to be better at doing better, they need help and to provide that help. My guest today, Kelly Kierans and Scott Williford are both with CelticQA, a leading provider of quality assurance solutions and strategy. Kelly is president of CeltiQA and also highly involved in the Atlanta technology community. So, Kelly, how about a quick introduction of yourself?

Kelly Kierans: Well, I appreciate you having us here, Eric. It’s great to have this conversation, and I appreciate you bringing QA to the forefront of it, because unfortunately, a lot of times it’s an afterthought. But, uh, yes, I am Kelly Cairns. I’m the president of Celtic QA solutions. I oversee daily operations, sales and marketing and just basically work with the executive team to grow and scale the business. And we’ve hired on Scott Williford to help us in an advisory role. So, Scott, I don’t know if you want to introduce yourself.

Scott Williford: Yeah. I’m Scott Williford, uh, acting as CMO for CeltiQA, as well as their QA connector 2.0, which we’re launching and hopefully going to get a chance to talk about, but got decades of experience in the high tech startup space and the technology community and very well connected. Glad to be here.

Erik Boemanns: Yeah, well, thanks for both. Thanks to both of you for joining me today. And, um. Probably should just dive right in. So no, CelticQA has been providing QA. Solutions for the last 20 years. But can you give a little bit more background on the company itself?

Kelly Kierans: Sure. I can give you the story that is is not on the website and most people don’t hear or see. So, um, my husband and I actually own the business and, uh, gosh, forever we had talked about, what do we want to do? We wanted to start our own business, but we weren’t really sure, you know, what it was going to be. And, um, my husband at the time was working for Crawford Insurance Company, but he was working, um, for Keane. And they’re a big consulting company. And I at the time, I’ve actually done a huge transformation and shift in, in my life. Um, I at the time was actually working with orthopedic surgeons. Okay. Um, going in and putting neuromuscular stimulators on patients after surgery. So, um, we talked about it. We just, you know, sit at the dining room table. What do we want to be when we grow up kind of thing. And we talked about owning an Irish pub at some point because his uncle owns several Irish pubs up in New York, and my husband was born and raised in Ireland. So that was something we considered, but decided we didn’t want that lifestyle.

Kelly Kierans: We both played soccer and we thought, well, maybe we’ll open an indoor soccer complex someday. And that’s still on the roadmap. We might do that when we retire, but, uh, we’re really, um, the opportunity or we saw a gap in the marketplace, um, because of my husband’s work with, um, QA being kind of an afterthought. And he kept, you know, he’d come home and we’d have conversations and he’d complain about it or, you know, talk about it. And me being that I was in sales at the time, I thought, well, why don’t we do that? Let’s see if that’s something we can build. And, uh, so he, you know, he’s talked to the CIO he was working with and said, if if I do this, you know. Would you work with me? And the CIA was like, absolutely. But you have to leave the company that you’re with because there’s, you know, non-competes and all that sort of stuff. So on a handshake and a prayer and lots of faith, we took that leap and started our company back in 2005.

Erik Boemanns: That’s pretty impressive. Yeah. And I think it’s great that you mentioned the idea of of the gap in the market. Right. Because there really is one when it comes to quality assurance. The challenge then is, of course convincing people that they need to add that quality assurance. So what are some stories that you tell your your potential clients or your clients to help them understand the importance of quality assurance?

Kelly Kierans: Well, I think it’s more if they have the the mindset, like a lot of times they’re experiencing the pain, but maybe not necessarily knowing how to fix that pain, and they’re just throwing people at it or tools at it or, you know, different things like that. So when we have the conversation with our clients, it’s more about what’s your QA strategy, you know, do you have an overall roadmap for QA? Are you putting a focus on that, or is that just something that you’re doing at the end and just trying to bring that conversation to the forefront and making them realize that that’s something that’s super important for their projects? Because honestly, if if they shift the focus from dev to QA and have a QA mindset first, if they begin with the end in mind, then their projects can and should go live with zero critical or major defects, right?

Erik Boemanns: I do like that you also mentioned the quality assurance strategy, because I think when I think about quality assurance companies, I do think about throwing people at right there. They have contractors, they have staff. They’re staffing companies basically.

Kelly Kierans: Right.

Erik Boemanns: And I know Celtic QA is not that. So maybe a little bit on that.

Kelly Kierans: Yeah we’re different from that. So and actually that’s one of the the big things that we, we, we’ve, we’re kind of disrupting the marketplace in a sense from that standpoint because the typical mindset is just hire someone, um, or an offshore company or something like that. So we come in and we’re very streamlined and efficient. We don’t bring in a whole huge team. We don’t bring a school bus of, you know, people in to work on the projects. Right. So we come in and we we work directly with the CIO or IT leader, you know, whomever is in that position and really help them figure out what their goals are, what they want to achieve, and then work with their teams in order to figure out, okay, what what are we missing? What’s the skills that are missing? What tools? Maybe they were sold that aren’t necessarily the right tools for their environment. So we’ll come in and assess that. But we do that as we’re working on a project. So we roll up our sleeves, lead, manage and execute entire projects. But then we’re able to see where the inefficiencies are so that the next project can go better, faster and more efficient.

Erik Boemanns: That completely makes sense. And so earlier you mentioned a little bit about what Paying the customers. Your customers are feeling. Your clients are feeling. And so obviously, if your product breaks the production system of major companies, that’s an obvious pain that you’re now feeling from a quality perspective. But what are other examples, maybe less noticeable examples of pain that companies may be feeling? That is a great reason they should be reaching out to you.

Kelly Kierans: Well, I think that’s a good segue and transition into QA connector, to be honest with you, because one of the other gaps that we saw, you know, in the 20 years of working on client projects were the tools were not designed for QA people. Yeah, they were designed for developers. So with seeing that gap and seeing the inefficiencies and seeing the issues that that caused, again, we were like, why don’t we solve that problem? So we started developing QA connector. And honestly, for years we’ve been using it internally ourselves on client projects. Um, but we didn’t have a commercial grade version. So we we’ve recently developed a commercial grade version of it to help from, from the full, um, lifecycle of QA. So it starts from the requirements all the way to execution. Um, and we’ve incorporated an AI piece which we can get into that a little bit more. But I think that was a big pain. Right. And and solving that with a test management tool that’s built by QA people for QA people we think is the solution.

Erik Boemanns: Yeah. And I know I actually have a software development background myself. And so yeah, exactly what you’re saying. The project management almost always is focused on developers. And then can can the QA team also use that, or can they use JIRA in the developer mindset to create issues? Can they use something like an Azure DevOps? Whatever they’re using for story tracking becomes the bug tracking as well, right? And and since its focus was on the development team, it’s an afterthought, a secondary capability that those products have. It’s not focused on QA. So I definitely think I see that right.

Kelly Kierans: And the nice thing about having a test management tool that’s focused on QA is it gives you a full audit trail. So, you know, when auditors do come in, especially if there’s, you know, compliance and, you know, all those Sox compliance, those types of things, you need to have that traceability and trackability. And a spreadsheet is really hard to do that with. Right. And those other tools, it’s just not designed to shut down those audits where our QA connector tool can shut them down quickly.

Scott Williford: I actually think, um, just going back to the question about other issues is like usually or often, and this has happened in my own career, where the developers had a small group of guys that did the QA, but it was still the developers doing QA, and that’s kind of indicative of the way the tools have been set up. Um, and really, you can’t test your own code because you’re only going to look for the thing you fixed, not the things that affected, that were affected that you fixed. So you know which by bringing that into an external resource or bringing that into a separate management tool. As as Kelly said, it gives you more coverage, it gives you traceability, and it really allows you to design and build test cases around every single, uh, requirement, not just those you’re touching. And so when you do your regression testing, you don’t forget to do the regression testing. It’s really a it certainly saves a lot of time and money and you know, oh, you fixed this. But now this isn’t working. It kind of gets gets fixed and found because you’re doing it properly and using best practices for QA.

Erik Boemanns: Right. And take a step back to just write for the moment. When we talk about quality assurance and software, it can be a little bit more abstract, right? Quality assurance, quality control and manufacturing. Right. There’s a part and it has to fit certain criteria. And if it doesn’t, you reject it. If it does, you accept it. Right. That’s pretty easy to understand. If we think about the software side We talked about, um, different coverages. We talked about the idea of the developer can’t test their own code. Great example of that. If you’re writing your own code, you probably only think about when it works. You don’t think about, well, how can I break it? How can I negative test. Exactly. And so when you’re in the software world, having a person who’s focused on quality assurance helps you think of all the other things, all the other things that people are going to be doing with the software that that developer never thought of. And so I think it’s important to when we say coverage, right? We’re talking about thinking about how is the software going to be used correctly. Does that work and how is it going to be used incorrectly. And does that also work the way it should work? And so I’m curious your thoughts on both the products QA that you’re building and also from your strategy, how do you think about coverage and quality assurance from the software perspective?

Scott Williford: Well, the the cool thing about QA connector in our I, we call it test gen. I built into it. We’ve used 20 years of experience to write the prompts. Okay. So, you know, you could go to ChatGPT and say, give me some test cases. Uh, but if you didn’t have that 20 years of experience, then you’re not necessarily going to get the best test cases. So what we’ve done is we’ve taken our 20 years of experience in testing software to make sure that when we’re talking to the AI, we’re giving IT requirements and saying, give us every negative test, test case, give us positive test cases, give us those abstract test cases. And, uh, we were we were running a test just yesterday where we literally took, um, some, some very simple basic requirements, you know, a couple of page word document uploaded it, and it came up with 85 test cases. But if we just sat there with a whiteboard, we may have come up with like 30. Yeah. And, and then we would have had to go to every semi to get figure out what test data do we need and all of that. And the AI did all of this in about six minutes, including what data you need. Um. It really, it really blows my mind is how much faster it is. And if since you’ve been in the software space, you know that when you’re really doing robust test cases, you got to go back to all the subject matter experts, all the SMEs, and it might take days, if not weeks, to get a final set of test cases to give QA with using test gen, I built into the QA connector. Literally. It took minutes. And then we’re saying SMEs approve these, right?

Kelly Kierans: So it solves that pain. It solves that problem.

Scott Williford: And it saves. It’s you know, it’s kind of one of those catch 22 because Celtic QA also provides services. And they would charge for all of that. And now they’re able to do it in six minutes where it might take, you know, a couple of days. Uh, but it’s it’s about bringing value to the client and it’s about bringing value. And we know that there are companies that are not going to use Celtic QA for testing, but they want to use QA connector 2.0. We had a really good meeting last week with somebody that that’s exactly it. I mean, they they have their own test team. They have all that. They just want the software.

Erik Boemanns: So let’s dive in. You brought up a great point about the the services would decrease. But when I hear we went from 30 test cases that we might have thought of organically to 85. Am I increasing the workload on my QA team or am I actually like I’m sure I’m improving the quality of the product, but now is the QA process slower because there’s all these additional test cases to go through?

Kelly Kierans: That’s where automation comes into play. So the test management tool that we have developed actually integrates in with automation tool. So that speeds up that process right.

Erik Boemanns: Yeah. So it’s really increasing the quality but not increasing. It’s not slowing down the QA process.

Scott Williford: No no. If anything it’s speeding it up right. Because now you’ve got you’ve got you you’ve got a higher higher quality and better coverage. So you’re not going to do as many cycles to find all the bugs. Does that make sense. Whereas before you might run into a bug like with a the 30 test case scenario, you might run into a bug, you know, two weeks after release or in the next version that you didn’t get coverage on the first time. So in theory, you’re testing fewer times, but you’re testing a deeper, a deeper or wider and a deeper set of test cases.

Kelly Kierans: Yep. The other thing is we have what we call a test bank. So what’s missing and what we’ve seen, you know, with others that have failed, other projects that are tools that have failed is you lose that historical information. Right? What you’ve what you’ve put together from past projects, that sort of thing. It’s either extremely hard to access, especially if you’re using Excel spreadsheets or you’re in JIRA or Ado. So we have a test bank that captures and holds all of that information. So if you want to go back from a sprint or another project and utilize that, it’s just as simple as clicking a box to pull that over.

Erik Boemanns: Gotcha. Um, so one of the things I’m thinking about as I, as as we talk is the CIO or the product leadership, whoever is in charge of software development at the organization? Uh, you mentioned earlier, you might find that issue two weeks later. So it becomes very reactive, right? And so I feel like this gives us an opportunity to become proactive maybe.

Scott Williford: Yeah, exactly. And one of the things that’s really, um, one of our first demos early when the product was demo able. Right. Uh, was with a well-known CIO here in Atlanta, and they said, I love the dashboard because now I can be the good guy in the QA meeting being part of the solution, rather than pointing out all the problems that is happening in QA. Because before, uh, using a tool like QA connector, you didn’t really the only insight you had was asking negative questions. And now there’s this unfiltered real time dashboard on every test and every tester, and it goes down to the requirement level. Project level. Overall level. And and you’re able to just see the trends see the tendencies. And so now management looking at it can be very proactive rather than reactive about hey it looks like we’re going to miss this deadline. What do we need to do to make it. Or it looks like there’s a set of common errors or common defects happening in this one section. We need to put more developers on that to to solve these problems so that those that set of defects is cleared up quicker.

Erik Boemanns: Got it.

Kelly Kierans: Yeah. And it’s unfiltered information. So you’re seeing it in real time so no one can hide anything and say, oh, the project’s doing great, when really it’s not. So this gives everyone the same visibility.

Erik Boemanns: Yeah. Well, and you just said a key word there that if we go back to your comments about auditing and reporting, you said unfiltered just now, but maybe what if I do want that filtered report? What if I am presenting to the auditors? I probably do want to have a bit more structured. How do you approach the reporting side of that? You touched on it earlier, but curious.

Scott Williford: So, uh, one of the things that the system does innately is that it manages the test plans. And then those tests as they’re being executed, it’s managing the execution. So, you know, who touched what, when, where, and it’s all stored in the data. So the dashboard that we’ve created gives you a certain level of insight for management. But when you’re looking at an audit trail there’s detailed data on this person. Tested it on this day. This was the result. This person tested the same test on this day. This was the result. All the date trails defect was created sent back over to Ada or to JIRA. Developer fixed it, came back to QA connector QA connectors. Now selling the tester to test it again. Better results. And you see all of that now, how you filter that is you could you could take it as it is. Or if you want to say, hey, we went through all these things and here, you know, so you do have some flexibility from exporting and then sorting the data if you will. But the nice thing is the auditors as deep as they want to look, we know when, where, what, how much time was spent. There’s no way to hide that because the tester is using our tool as he’s executing the tests.

Erik Boemanns: Gotcha. So we’re going all the way from executive dashboards all the way down to the exact granular detail.

Scott Williford: Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, it literally, this is this is something we were we were showing it yesterday. Uh, he was like, so this theoretically could help me know how to staff my testing because I can see how long these tests are taking. And so I can adjust my staff accordingly or reassign test cases or test plans to different testers, because these take a little bit longer because it it not only date stamps, it it times how long it took you to do the test.

Erik Boemanns: And it also helps them make that decision between manual versus automated. I assume at that point.

Scott Williford: Yes, exactly, exactly. And it gives you the ability, even in the dashboard to know this. Many tests were covered by automation, by scripting versus human interaction. But a human.

Kelly Kierans: You know, still utilize those tools. But there’s that integration between the two. So QA can use a tool designed for them while the developers are still utilizing their tools. And, and they speak to each other and pull the information back and forth. So it’s it’s a perfect marriage.

Scott Williford: Yeah. And we map the fields appropriately. So requirements stories and epics are translated to requirements. Then requirements generate test cases. Right. And so you could let’s say you’re smees and your developers are building out all the requirements in JIRA or Ada. It doesn’t matter. You could then connect a QA connector project to the JIRA or Ada project. Object. Import all of that data, run test gen AI. It’ll generate all the test cases and QA connector. And then when a defect is identified, it goes back. When the defect is updated, it’s updated on, you know, it’s synced back. One of the questions that comes up often right now, the way we’ve done it, it’s not a scheduled update, a scheduled sync. And the reason we chose that it was an intentional decision is that we want to be able to have the ability, let’s say, for example, in Ada, tickets are created by developers, so they’re not always put in the right place. So we don’t want to sync those and then have to resync those, because then it’s just the data is going to get convoluted. And so this way it gives you some control over hey it’s time to sync up and the like, you know, the same thing happens with defects going the other way. You want to have somebody who’s responsible to review those defects, to say, oh, these are really the same defects. Let’s convert. Let’s combine those, um, even though you, you’re supposed to link them, but humans are involved, so it’s not always done the right way.

Erik Boemanns: Yeah, absolutely. So connector new service from Celtica. Right. And um, if anybody is interested in learning more, how do they find out about. Where do they reach out to.

Kelly Kierans: They can reach out to me at Kelly Kierans at Celtica. Com. Or they can find me on LinkedIn. Um, that they can just find me and reach out to me.

Erik Boemanns: Yep. And just in case somebody misunderstanding you mind spelling the the name of the company, too?

Kelly Kierans: Oh, absolutely. Yes. Some people say Celtic as well. We say Celtic, but it’s c e l t I c q a.

Erik Boemanns: Okay. And that will have information on Scx connector and the other services.

Kelly Kierans: It’ll have information on the services. We’re building a separate website for Scx connector, but they can still contact me through the website.

Erik Boemanns: Awesome. Awesome. Um, so I want to go back to your story. Kelly. As a founder, a lot of the guests that I have here are founders, and you’ve been doing this a lot longer than many of them. Um, so I would love to hear some guidance that you would give people, especially if they’re just starting out a startup. It’s probably a software company, either from your own perspective as a founder or even from a quality perspective, because that’s going to be something that’s competing with all the other, you know, small business issues as you start that company is quality, taking a seat on the back burner. So just curious your thoughts.

Kelly Kierans: Well, there are a lot of startups that are developing software, right?

Scott Williford: So I’ve been in several.

Kelly Kierans: Um, excuse me. They they should absolutely think of quality first. Right? So they’re so excited about getting it developed and out there and that sort of thing. But you have to think about your brand reputation as well. And you want to put something out there that is quality because the way people are nowadays, if it doesn’t work, they’re going to move on. Um, if they have an issue, they’re going to move on. So you really do want to put that the quality first. So of course we would love to be able to work with everybody. Um, but the smaller companies, if they’re looking for a tool, they can use the QA connector tool. If they’re looking for services to help them have the best practices, you know, put, you know, a company that will scale and grow as they scale and grow. Um, we’d certainly love to help them out with that.

Scott Williford: I think also, having had some experience doing technology startups, we were in Atdc, a atdc company, back in the 90s, and then I did another startup, uh, all software based, um, one went from two engineers and me to 4.5 million users in three years. So we blew up and one of our advisors said to us is that because the developers were like they were worried they’d finish and then what would they do next? And one of our advisors told them said, look, development is never done. There’ll always be new features and there will always be new bugs. The only way to really in development is just to kill all the developers, right?

Erik Boemanns: Cancel the project.

Scott Williford: Cancel the project? Exactly. And in having been through that, what we what we realize and again, both of those startups were were they were successful and I had successful exits with both of them. Um, the, the the thing that we tried to focus on is making sure you get to that minimum viable product with as few bugs as possible so that you could sell it. But then when you released it, you wanted to make sure there was even lesser, even less bugs, because a lot of times you don’t recognize a bug as a bug. It’s just a feature request, right? And so you’ve got to be able to gauge that. Um, but I think a lot of times you get analysis paralysis, uh, as a startup by you’re trying to make it perfect and, and you want to get that’s where that minimum viable product comes in. Uh, getting a product. We’re running into that with QA connector right now. We keep we’re like.

Kelly Kierans: Oh, that.

Scott Williford: Would be cool. We’re like.

Kelly Kierans: We’re.

Scott Williford: Like, we got to get this ready for release.

Kelly Kierans: We’re like, no, we need to sell it.

Scott Williford: Yeah, we got to get this ready for release. And we were testing our own software with our software, which is kind of funny, but but we’re, uh, you know, we’re trying to get ready for release. And then we have some really big fish that want us to integrate with another project management tool. And so we’re, we’re we’ve decided we’ve drawn a line in the sand and said, uh, we are production ready. Uh, we’re going into full beta right now. Uh, the product is ready to be released to the production environment. So we’re going to have customer beta, uh, and, and we integrated with Jira and we integrated with Ada because those are the two most popular. But we’re going to come back and open up that API so that we can integrate with other tools. Uh, on the scripting side, right now we’re going to integrate initially with Ranorex. Um, but then because that’s the tool that we use internally, uh, but we really want to become the hub of all QA A software, and that means we’re going to have to touch various levels of project management tools, as well as automation tools and AI tools. Um, but it’s it’s been a fun project. It’s been a lot of fun. We’re we’re right there. We’re we’re bringing customers on right now.

Erik Boemanns: That’s that’s great. And a quick clarification, you did say happy to work with those small midsize businesses. But this is also enterprise ready as well I assume.

Kelly Kierans: Oh 100%. Yeah yeah yeah for sure. That’s who we’re talking to right now are the large enterprise businesses.

Scott Williford: Yeah we have we have several uh, in our beta pool. I there are they’re they’re they’re recognizable name brand global brands. Um, and they’re going to use it on a project, but they’ll go for us and, and you didn’t ask but we’ve, we’ve kind of looked at the marketplace and we’ve priced this in a way that you could start with five users and you can go up to enterprise level. How many users do you need?

Erik Boemanns: Gotcha.

Scott Williford: And it’s affordable. It’ll it’ll pay for itself just in the time you save by generating test cases using our AI tool.

Erik Boemanns: Right. And then reduced problems as soon down the road, too.

Scott Williford: Exactly. Exactly.

Kelly Kierans: Absolutely. Yep. Yep.

Erik Boemanns: So I was going to ask if there was anything else that you did want to share. So I think that was one thing. Anything else from you, Kelly?

Kelly Kierans: Well, I think, um, really, the the goal is simple, right? So we want to deliver high quality applications with zero critical or major defects. Um, we want to incorporate best practices. Uh, we want to have a QA tool for QA people. Right. And, um, and, and just bring about a smarter way to manage quality.

Erik Boemanns: That makes sense. Well, thank you both. I’m sorry. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you for being here today.

Kelly Kierans: We appreciate your time.

About Your Host

Erik Boemanns is a technology executive and lawyer. His background covers many aspects of technology, from infrastructure to software development.

He combines this with a “second career” as a lawyer into a world of cybersecurity, governance, risk, compliance, and privacy (GRC-P).

His time in a variety of companies, industries, and careers brings a unique perspective on leadership, helping, technology problem solving and implementing compliance.

Connect with Erik on LinkedIn, Substack and Medium.

BRX Pro Tip: Combat Negative Thinking with Gratitude

May 27, 2025 by angishields

BRX Pro Tips

BRX Pro Tip: Combat Negative Thinking with Gratitude

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BRX Pro Tip: Combat Negative Thinking with Gratitude

Stone Payton: Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips, Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, do you have some sort of operating discipline or some sort of strategy or tactic that you employ when you catch yourself kind of being down on yourself or negative about something?

Lee Kantor: I think that the first place to go whenever you’re in that kind of dark mental place and negative thinking starting to permeate into, you know, your day-to-day is to lean into gratitude. I think that negative thinking can cloud your judgment. It can drain your energy. And it can definitely affect your mental well-being.

Lee Kantor: So, gratitude, on the other hand, is almost kind of the miracle cure for all of that stuff. It’s a proven antidote that shifts your focus away from what’s wrong to all the things that are right. So, by leaning into gratitude, you can reframe your mindset, you can reduce your stress, you can combat that negativity.

Lee Kantor: And here’s some things you can do if you are in that kind of negative mindset and you want to try to become more grateful. Number one, you can just start a gratitude journal. Just start writing things that you’re grateful down. If you do this on a regular basis, a lot of people do it first thing in the morning or they do it last thing at night, just find that one good thing that happened and focus in on that.

Lee Kantor: Number two, focus in on all the positive that’s around you. I mean, we take for granted so many things. We take for granted we have a roof over our head, we have food to eat, we have clean air, clean water. All of these things, there’s plenty of people on this planet, that’s their goal for the day to get that, and we have it in abundance where we live.

Lee Kantor: So, it’s one of those things that we’re not focused in on all the gifts and all the miracles that are around us that are helping us live this really affluent life. We’re focused in on sometimes some of this negative stuff, or we become envious of what other people have, rather than focusing in on all we have.

Lee Kantor: And number three, and this is something that is a pro tip in terms of just relationship building in your business and in your family life, is, just tell more people why you appreciate them. Gratitude is not about ignoring challenges or pretending everything’s perfect. It’s just finding that balance by acknowledging what’s good amidst any type of difficulty.

Lee Kantor: Don’t sleep on telling more people you appreciate them because people don’t feel appreciated. And the more you can appreciate people and tell them you appreciate them, the deeper those relationships are going to be, and the more impact you’re going to be able to make in your family, and your community, and in your mental health.

BRX Pro Tip: How to Change a Habit

May 26, 2025 by angishields

BRX Pro Tips

BRX Pro Tip: How to Change a Habit

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BRX Pro Tip: How to Change a Habit

Stone Payton: Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips, Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, based largely on your input and counsel, I really think in more recent years, I’ve kind of changed my approach to achieving goals, to being not so focused on the the end goal as much as identifying habits that will lead me there. But I got to confess, I still don’t feel like I have a great handle on how to change a habit.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, changing a habit can be tough and it can be challenging. But there are some basics to any habit, and if you understand how habits work, it becomes a lot easier to change a habit.

Lee Kantor: So, typically habits are driven by a three part loop. The first part of the loop is some sort of a trigger or cue that initiates that habit. So, something happens and then you begin doing whatever that habit is. Number two is then the routine or the behavior or the action itself, whatever it is. And number three, there’s some sort of reward you get that’s a benefit or some sort of satisfaction you get from whatever that behavior is.

Lee Kantor: So, that’s the three part kind of loop that every habit has. So, in order to change a habit, you got to disrupt the loop somewhere by modifying one of those three components.

Lee Kantor: And it’s important when you’re modifying these things is to start small. Don’t try to do some dramatic habit change at go. But if you can break the habit change into smaller, manageable steps, you’re going to have a better chance of succeeding.

Lee Kantor: And number two, leverage some sort of accountability. Share whatever it is your goal is with somebody who can hold you accountable, or use some sort of an app or technology that holds you accountable that you’ll actually pay attention to and listen to. But accountability is an important component to having any type of change.

Lee Kantor: And whatever it is you’re trying to change, commit to that change for at least 30 days. You know, this isn’t something that happens overnight. Habits take time to form, so habits take time to change. So, commit to practicing whatever this new behavior is consistently for at least 30 days before you decide whether you’re going to ban it or not.

Lee Kantor: Changing a habit requires awareness and intention and consistency, so all three of those things have to be in place if you want that habit to change, so you can’t kind of shortcut any of those steps. And remember that progress is always more important than perfection. And don’t forget to celebrate those small wins along the way.

Julie Flowers with Elevate YOU Coaching

May 23, 2025 by angishields

Houston Business Radio

Julie Flowers with Elevate YOU Coaching

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Julie Flowers is the Founder and CEO of Elevate YOU Coaching, Inc., a transformational coaching company dedicated to empowering seasoned career women.

With nearly three decades of experience as an HR executive at Chevron—including global leadership roles in talent acquisition, development, and strategic HR—Julie now helps women confidently own their worth, define success on their own terms, and thrive in supportive, purpose-driven communities.

She is also a dynamic speaker, podcast co-host of Savvy Sisters & Cocktail Conversations, and a certified leadership and empowerment coach.

In her conversation with Trisha Stetzel, Julie shared her powerful career transition from corporate HR to coaching, driven by her passion for helping women step into their full potential. She discussed her approach to coaching, her growing social media presence, and her contribution to a collaborative book designed to uplift younger women.

Julie also reflected on her personal journey of earning advanced degrees while working full-time and encouraged others to embrace and share their stories with pride.

Connect with Julie on LinkedIn.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

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

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. I’m really excited about the guests that I have on the show today. We share a few things in common. We might talk about those Julie Flowers, founder and CEO of Elevate You Coaching. This is where she dedicates herself to empowering seasoned career women. A certified leadership and transformational coach. Julie inspires women to elevate their personal worth, value and purpose. With nearly three decades as an HR executive at Chevron. She excelled in HR, making a global impact in talent development, talent, talent acquisition, and strategic air partnerships. But wait, I’m not done. She serves on the Greater Women’s Chamber of Commerce Board and Texas A&M HR Master’s Advisory Board. She is also the co-host of the dynamic and witty podcast Savvy Sisters and Cocktail Conversations. Julie is also a published author and collaborator of the book Six Figure Chicks. Houston. Julie, welcome to the show.

Julie Flowers: Woo! I love it. I love hearing all that stuff because then it feels like I’m. I’m doing some stuff. I’m making some stuff happen.

Trisha Stetzel: Yes, exactly. Sometimes it’s the only time we reflect on all of the things that we’ve done when somebody shows up and reads our bio.

Julie Flowers: Right, absolutely. And it always feels it used to feel awkward. And now I’m trying to celebrate the wins. Like, no, girl, you’ve you’ve worked hard for all that stuff. You’re stuff. You’re continuing to work hard. Let’s celebrate that. And I’m not doing it in a cocky way. I’m doing it to inspire others and live my joy.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. So I know I told a lot of things about you, Julie, but I would love for you to tell us a little more about Julie and then let’s talk about elevate you coaching.

Julie Flowers: Okay. Great. So first and foremost, I say I am a woman that strives literally to bring the joy and energy out of others, especially women. I have an affinity to women. I think we all need to band together even more. I have a, uh, issue with Mean Girls, and so I just want to make sure we are all coming together. So first and foremost, I’m a connector relationship builder helping women see the how awesome they are just fills my cup completely. I love seeing that light bulb go on and a change in someone. But I’m also a mom of two boys. I’m not sure why God didn’t give me girls, but maybe because I think I’d be bankrupt or in jail for killing some boy. Anyways, so the the the boy mom is great because now I’m teaching them how beautiful and wonderful and intelligent women are and how much they bring to this world and how to treat a woman. So I think that really helps and I love them dearly. As one is 19, one is 17. So I just finished a college freshman and a junior, so I got a rising senior in high school and a rising sophomore in college, and they are my delight. Uh, been married over 20 years and like you said, been in corporate America for almost three decades.

Julie Flowers: So don’t do the math on my age. Okay. Now I’m old. What is it? But in my mind, I’m still some crazy 20 or 30 year old, so that’s all that matters. Um, but I loved my corporate job. I learned a lot. I traveled the world, uh, lived and worked in, born and raised in California. Lived and worked in California, Houston. This is our second time here. And Angola, Africa for three years, which was an amazing experience not only for my husband and I, but our two children, because they were small boys when we went there too, and we got to travel that part of the world, which is amazing because I believe it really opens up your mind to diversity of thought and ways of living and and patience. Right. And so that was really awesome. So all the things that you said podcaster, public speaker, about to be in a book with you, which is super exciting. This is how we met. I love that and all the things. But my coaching company came after I decided to leave corporate America. It was. It sounds cliché, but like after Covid, you know, you have these epiphanies. And it wasn’t that the company is a bad company.

Julie Flowers: It’s an amazing company. Chevron. Um, but the function I was in HR, it was HR. My entire career was changing, and not in a way that was aligned with my own purpose and passion. And it was becoming difficult to stay, uh, personally. And I’m all about listening to my mind, body and spirit. And so I made the decision to say when they were doing another downsizing, which seems to be the norm in every company these days. Right. I’m ready to go. I’m going to I’m going to I’m going to head out. And I’ve always had in my mind, I love coaching people and I love public speaking and giving back. So I decided to launch Elevate You coaching, which is just what it says. How do I elevate you? How do I help you? And it’s only for seasoned career women. Doesn’t mean I’m excluding the men. I do go to corporate events sometimes where men are in the audience and we look for that allyship. But I love the one on one coaching the group, coaching us, creating a program that goes with it. So all the things and I just love this part of my life’s journey because I feel like I’m just having fun. It’s not a job, which is awesome.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s the best thing ever. Being in a place where you can enjoy what you do and you enjoy the people, and you get to choose who you work with.

Julie Flowers: And when I work just.

Trisha Stetzel: Yes, absolutely.

Julie Flowers: And don’t.

Trisha Stetzel: Have to deal with.

Julie Flowers: Politics or shenanigans. Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: Absolutely. So you have an affinity for working with women. You’re drawn to women. Was that always the case when you were in the corporate space? Julie.

Julie Flowers: So yes and no. So in my role in, at Chevron, probably the last 7 or 8, maybe ten years. We had what was called development committees. So I was on a development committee for my function, where we helped make development and career decisions for the HR individuals worldwide. So I’d loved helping any person, uh, coach them on their career, what skills they need to develop, how to navigate corporate America, all of that. And being an HR professional and a leader in HR, you know, a lot of times I’ve reported to the business, not to HR actually, which was great. So I got to lead and coach, uh, business leaders, male and female. And I loved it. So it’s not. But the affinity for women is because I’ve seen over my career how women downplay themselves so much and don’t feel good in their own skin, or don’t feel confident or downplay their worth and value, or not sure how to make meaningful connections or contribute back to other women. I’m like, gosh, if we all could just do this together, the ripple effect that it would that would occur would be amazing. And the and the ripple effect down to the next generations because it’s still happening. I’ve spoken to some college students, you know, with my, my, um, affiliation with Texas A&M. And I didn’t go there, by the way. But, um, I love the school, love the people. And we really need to change that mindset of women and men of how they perceive women. I don’t want to be known as the only female at the table, which has happened a lot in my career. I want to be known that Julie was at the table. Um, not the only female or the first female CEO. You don’t say it’s the male CEO.

Speaker4: Right? Yeah. So we need to stop that.

Trisha Stetzel: So yeah, I love that and I I’m I’m with you. I grew up in a space that’s part of my story in the book. And you probably, uh, conquer that space as well, which is you are the only female in the room. You are the only female at the table. And it is a little different. And you have to do things differently to fit in. So one, where do you where do you think that’s coming from with the younger generations? Because I see a lot more women like you and I who are out there trying to help change that mindset of even our generation. Right? The generation that we grew up in and starting to help and support and love women again. Um, but it still happens. Younger generations. Why do you think that is still happening?

Julie Flowers: A couple things pop in my mind, so I want to use a term that I stole from my friend Kat. She was on a docu series with me. She stole it from someone else I was not in and will never be in a male dominated industry. I was in a male populated industry. No man is dominating me. Okay.

Speaker4: Okay. Mindset that.

Julie Flowers: Shift there. Did you just feel the power of that? Right?

Speaker4: I did.

Julie Flowers: No, it.

Speaker4: Just made me feel.

Julie Flowers: Different because we’re using words that are pushing us down. Right. And I think the new the up and coming generation and even my child, my children’s generation, I truly believe they’re ahead of us in some of this. They know what they want. They’re all about impact and their life. They want to.

Speaker4: Work.

Julie Flowers: To live, not live to work. Right. So I think they’ve cracked the code on some of it. However, they’re being raised by women and men, and society is telling them they have to be this or you’re not good unless you have this or look this way. So we’re still influencing it. So I’m hoping these new generations are going to start to and I see it breaking the cycle. But then you’ve got this conflicting people telling them the opposite, or the internet telling them the opposite. So the more and more we see, um, thought leaders like Mel Robbins and Brene Brown and Sheryl Sandberg and all of them coming out and saying, no, you are worth. And Jamie Kern Lima coming out and saying, no, you are worthy just because you are born, you know that. And you, you belong and you’re important and you bring a lot, male or female, I don’t think it’s, you know, we need to make that change and thank goodness for them. And I see it happening more. But we need to amplify it like turn up the volume even more, post stuff about this stuff rather than posting that you need Botox or whatever. You know what I mean? No offense to.

Speaker4: Yeah, you.

Julie Flowers: Know, getting the stuff done, but it’s a lot of pressure physically, let alone intellectually.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. I, I love the way you rephrased dominated to populated that.

Speaker4: Yeah, I stole that. I love.

Julie Flowers: That. Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: And then. Well, so now that you’ve used it at least three times, it’s yours. You know, that’s how that works, right? So you borrow.

Speaker4: It or steal taking.

Julie Flowers: It’s.

Speaker4: Mine.

Trisha Stetzel: Now that you’ve used it at least three times, it’s all yours.

Speaker4: I love it, I’m taking it, so I’m stealing it because it’s my.

Trisha Stetzel: First.

Speaker4: Time. I’m gonna keep.

Julie Flowers: Saying it so people steal.

Speaker4: It. Yes.

Trisha Stetzel: And I, I love this idea of the language that we’re using in ING and verbal. Just shift it a little bit, then it affects those that are listening. Right. Which are our, our children and our children’s children and.

Speaker4: Some right.

Trisha Stetzel: At this point.

Speaker4: And it’s affecting. Thank you for that thinking.

Julie Flowers: It’s affecting your thinking as well. Right.

Speaker4: It is if.

Julie Flowers: I’m saying I’m less than or I’m being Dominated or I am the only female. It’s affecting you as well?

Speaker4: Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. So the whole idea of self-acceptance, um, or maybe women who are listening right now that are, um, they’re afraid to take the next step because they’re not sure that they’re going to be respected in that next position as a leader. Um, what what would you say to them based on your experience in corporate as well as your coaching experience, what would you say to those women who are afraid to take the next step because they they lack the self-acceptance that they are amazing.

Speaker4: Mhm mhm.

Julie Flowers: It’s hard and there’s no one right formula. Now I have a formula. I use air quotes that I use. But it has to be customized for the individual too. But I’ll talk about it um at a high level. First and foremost, take the advice of Jamie Kern Lima of you’re worthy because you’re born.

Speaker4: Full stop.

Julie Flowers: Now, how do you become confident and and be your and being your authentic self? Now, I’m not saying because we talk about this on my podcast. I’m telling you to be your authentic self. But if you’re a jerk, that’s not what I’m telling you to be. Okay, so don’t be a jerk about it. Okay. All right. So be your authentic self. But know that you need to take stock in what skills, gifts, attributes you have. What impact have you made? I guarantee you, if you stop and self-reflect, no matter what age you are on your life to date, you have had some wins personally and professionally and then you pick that win apart. On what did you contribute? How did you do it? And then most importantly, how did it impact whatever you were doing, the value that it brought? Okay. You start to bring those good things into your mind, heart and body. You’re going to now go, oh, I am the I’m the bomb. I’m doing some good stuff here. Right? It was exactly what I said earlier. You have to celebrate the wins. You have to own the wins. We often lean on the losses or the failures. We do a whole podcast on the word failure. Like it’s the F word I don’t like. Okay, you can pick up.

Julie Flowers: I like the other one, but not this one, because a failure is not a bad word. We’ve put a negative connotation around it, right? It’s a learning moment. So turn your brain to that. So I think when you’re going up for the next role or a job interview or a promotion Ocean or even to present a project and you feel that lack of confidence. Confidence comes by doing. It’s an action. It’s not a mindset. You have to keep doing stuff to get the confidence. So the more you do that hype in your head before you walk into the promotion, the more you do your homework of the wins you’ve had or what you’ve learned from your mishaps, and that you’re growing that way, that you speak, your narrative is going to come out more confidently and you have to practice it. It’s a muscle and it’s also a dialog you have to have with that inner survival character in your head. Mine is named Penny perfect. Damn woman always thinks she’s got to be perfect. And I know says, no you don’t, girl. It’s not going to happen today. Never going to happen. But that will give you the confidence to move forward. And then the last thing I would say in this spot space is surround yourself with the supporters.

Speaker4: Right.

Julie Flowers: The relationships and the connections that are going to lift you up. They’re going to put the mirror in front of you and tell you how good you are or where you misstep, but you can learn from it. The ones that are talking about you in the positive, when you’re not in the room or in the room. Those are the things that are going to bring you up and give you more confidence to go forward with whatever is in front of you. Those are just some things. And like I said earlier, I would I would coach that in a specific way if I was talking to you because you’re you’re in a character is saying something similar yet different. So it’s not a one size fits all. We might focus on one one thing more than the other, but those are some of the things I think really help women.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s fantastic. And before I want to dig into this, collaborate with other women, because I think it plays right into, uh, the book that’s coming and having the right people in the right room at the right time, helping you with the right things. But before we go there, if we’ve got listeners who want to connect with you already, because I know they do, and they want.

Speaker4: To learn.

Trisha Stetzel: More, more about you or even your coaching, how can they find you, Julie?

Speaker4: Yeah.

Julie Flowers: So I have all the, you know, normal social media stuff. Um, my website is Elevate coaching.org. Um, LinkedIn, I have my personal profile and then my elevate coaching. Um Instagram. You know, dot dot flow is what I go by. Yeah. I gotta be sassy too, right? Um, and then it’s elevate you. But you could go to my website and get through to all that stuff, or I can give you my link tree, you know, click on the bio thing, kind of whatever that gives you all the different social media handles. But it’s a way that you can book time with me to just have a discovery. Talk about for free, you know, 30 minutes talk about what is it that you’re looking for, whether it’s coaching one on one group, coaching or me coming to do some kind of talk with the. The conference association or meeting or what? All the things. Yeah. Or listen to the podcast Savvy Sisters and Cocktail Conversations. We talk about all of this. And it’s my co-host is a colleague of mine that is at Chevron still, but she’s retiring this year. So I’m excited because I kept telling her her day job is getting in the way of us doing fun stuff. So you can listen to that and, you know, follow us and do all that, like share, post, blah, blah, blah, all that things.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s fantastic. And I’ll put all of Julie’s contact information in the show notes. So any of you who are sitting at your computer, not in your car, can click and point and click to get where you want to go, um, to connect with Julie. Okay. So let’s circle back around to this contributing to help other women. Um, I’d like to talk a little bit about the book because.

Speaker4: It’s.

Trisha Stetzel: Very exciting and a way to collaborate with other women, and also a way to give back to younger women, because there’s a part of this where we’re going to go out and talk to younger women. So six figure chicks. Houston Julie is one of the contributing authors. We will I’m putting this out there into the world. We will be a best selling book.

Speaker4: Yes we will. It’s going to be on the best.

Trisha Stetzel: Selling.

Speaker4: List.

Julie Flowers: Absolutely.

Speaker4: So excited.

Trisha Stetzel: So, Julie, tell me why you wanted to be a part of this collaboration and what this means to you to get out and bring these stories to a younger generation?

Julie Flowers: So I’m going to tell you a story then about me first. So when I started so I didn’t go to college right out of high school, I was one of those that I liked high school for the fun of it. You know, I was cheerleader. All that fun stuff. Wasn’t sure I was going to graduate because I was having too much fun. And I’m like, I’m not going to college. And I wasn’t really motivated by my parents to do it either. They didn’t have they they weren’t going to help me financially and so forth. So I’m like, I’ll go make some money, right? So I immediately went into the workforce and realized a couple years in that all my college friends were making the money. And when they graduated and I wasn’t. And, um, so I went to college while working full time. So I got both my degrees while working full time. And in that midst started working at Chevron at the bottom, like Nonexempt assistant HR assistant type role. Right. And for the and so coming into a corporate fortune ten company with not done with your degrees and you’re at the bottom. I had some shame that went with that and comparing myself to others. So I downplayed my story, my entry into corporate America. I tried, I shied away from telling my true story. What I just said to you. And it was about literally ten years into my career before a leader, a very inspirational leader for me. Female leader said, what is your problem? Why do you not tell people your story? It can inspire others. You should be proud. You put yourself through college while working full time. Two degrees start at the bottom. Your trajectory is going up. You know, I left at an executive level, you know, so I did something right in that space.

Julie Flowers: And I’m like, dang, I think you’re right. So I shifted that narrative and started to tell the story and watched not only how it made me feel proud of what I’ve accomplished, but how other women said, wow, I was doing the same thing, either not sharing because of shame, or didn’t think they could do it or didn’t see the path. All of that. So this book for me is that how do you tell the story to help other women? I’m all about helping others. And if my story can help one person, you know, it’s cliche, but it’s true, then great. Hopefully it will help more than one really dig into whatever they’re going to do and feel pride in their journey. Because everybody’s journey is different. There’s not one right path, but that really made it spoke to me when I was approached by Mel for the book. I’m like, oh, a bunch of women like me telling stories to help other women and younger women too. I’m all in, and as you would get to know me, I’m never a loss of words and never a loss of stories. I got a lot of mishaps and I have a lot of successes. So the more you share, the better. And I think that contributes also back to how to contribute back to others and how to make connections. You and I would have never made this connection. And we live in the same state, right? Probably running the same circles. Maybe it would have happened, but the odds are probably slim. And so now I’m building my my community, my circle, my tribe, if you will, through this book as well. So that’s why I signed up for it.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s fantastic. And I was an early adopter. I met Mel through another connection. And when she told me about this book collaboration, I, I knew this was something that I wanted to get involved in. And I think the draw for me was that we’re going to share it with a younger generation. We’re going to have Mentor Day, and I think that that’s just I’m thrilled that Mel made all of us be in the same room at the same time, like I’ve done a book collaboration before and it didn’t work like this. You wrote your chapter and you put it in the book and it was fine. Um, and I was talking to Mel. She’s written several book collaborations, and none of them were like this, which is created this space for all of us to meet each other. And by the way, Julie, you and I have way more in common than you know. But I got to hear your story. So we’re going to have to connect offline.

Speaker4: To talk, for sure. We’ll have to have you on our podcast then.

Julie Flowers: And so we can hear your story for sure.

Speaker4: Okay.

Trisha Stetzel: So much fun. So I’m celebrating six figure checks. Julie has the book right behind her six figure checks. Houston, you guys, the E launch is on June 4th, so we’re going to be reaching out to all of you to do a preorder on the book so we can get on the best seller list.

Speaker4: Yes. Help us out. Help a girl.

Julie Flowers: Out. Come on, let’s do this, people.

Speaker4: Exactly. So, Julie.

Trisha Stetzel: As we get to the back end of our time here, I know it went by so darn fast.

Speaker4: It does.

Trisha Stetzel: What’s what’s one big piece of advice to the beautiful woman that’s listening today that is afraid and doesn’t have that that high feeling of self worth to go and do the thing that she’s always dreamed of doing. What would you tell her?

Julie Flowers: I’d say, listen, Linda, sit down and reflect and be curious. So curiosity is key on yourself. Dig deep. Identify those golden nuggets that you that are you and celebrate them. You don’t have to do big bang stuff. You can celebrate within your own mind and your own family, whatever. But realize that you are here, you are worthy, and you have so much to give, and the impact that you’ve made are making now and will make this world needs. This world is going cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs right now, and we need some change. And it starts with you. So do something and know that you have it. You just need to tap into it. And if you need someone to help you tap into it, I’m happy to do it. Whether it’s me or someone else, it’s there. So be curious and do some self-reflection and celebrate your wins.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s beautiful. Julie, thank you so much for being on the show today. Folks, if you want to get in touch with Julie, you can find her on social media. She is not hard to find. I’m everywhere you can connect. Uh, or, uh, tell us your website one more time.

Julie Flowers: Elevate you org.

Trisha Stetzel: Elevate you coaching.com. You can go directly there and find everything else that you’re looking for.

Speaker4: Yes.

Trisha Stetzel: Connect with Julie. Be on the lookout for that book launch. Uh, just before June 14th. We’ll be asking for your preorders. Thank you, Julie, for your kind, um, demeanor. I loved having you on the show. This has been wonderful and thank you for telling of your story.

Julie Flowers: Yes, and I really appreciate you. You have this glow in this energy about you that is authentic, and I know that you’re doing great things and will continue to do so. And I look forward to getting to know you better. And I can’t wait to hear your story.

Trisha Stetzel: Thank you so much, Julie. All right, folks, that’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in this conversation, share it with a fellow entrepreneur, a veteran or a Houston leader. Ready to grow. Be sure to follow, rate, and review the show. It helps us reach more bold business minds just like yours. Your business, your leadership, and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.

Judy Hoberman with Judy Hoberman and Associates

May 23, 2025 by angishields

Houston Business Radio

Judy Hoberman with Judy Hoberman and Associates

00:00 /

Judy Hoberman is President of Judy Hoberman and Associates, a renowned executive coach, TEDx speaker, best-selling author, and leading authority on women in leadership and sales.

With over 30 years of experience in sales and business leadership, Judy empowers professional women through coaching, masterminds, and speaking engagements. She is the author of Selling in a Skirt and Walking on the Glass Floor, and host of The Trailblazer Chronicles podcast.

Judy’s mission is simple yet powerful: “To help one woman a day,” guided by her philosophy that Women want to be treated equally, not identically®.

In her conversation with Trisha Stetzel, Judy shared her passion for supporting women in business, emphasizing the vital role of mindset—especially the shift from negative self-talk to growth-oriented thinking.

They discussed strategies for overcoming self-doubt, creating work-life harmony, and the need for male champions in the workplace. Judy offered practical insights from her personal and professional journey and encouraged listeners to connect with her for coaching, support, and continued empowerment.

Connect with Judy on LinkedIn.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

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

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. It is my pleasure to have this amazing guest on with me today. Judy Hoberman, executive leadership coach and mastermind facilitator, whose mission is really surrounding women, which is why I wanted to have her on the show, and we connected immediately before I asked her to come on and have this conversation with me. Judy, welcome to the show.

Judy Hoberman: Thank you so much. I’ve been waiting for this day to happen. Trisha.

Trisha Stetzel: I know it’s been a while, at least over a month, right? We’ve been trying to get on the calendar. I’ve had things Everything’s going on. But here we are. And I’m so excited about having this conversation with you today. So, Judy, uh, tell us a little bit more about you, and then let’s dive into the work that you’re doing with your clients.

Judy Hoberman: So, as you said, I am an executive coach. Coach, I am a facilitator for masterminds for women. Um, I do high performance work. And what that means is I bring out some of the things that you stop with your potential. You’re okay over here. And I want to make sure that we get the rest of it. And I’ll explain that as we go into some of our stories together. But the truth of the matter is, I’ve been working with women for a long time. When I started my company in 2009, um, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but I knew it had to be about women because I was usually the only or one of the only women, and I had to create my own playbook. So I took what I needed, and I brought it out, and I became the woman that I wish I would have had, and that that’s truly what I do. I support women, I advocate for women. And I do want to say I don’t leave men out of the equation because we need to have men that that are champions and sponsors and advocates for us as well. Um, so the men that raise their hand and say, I’m a champion, I am all in there for you.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that, that’s fantastic. And that is really where you and I connected, right, is in this support of women who are out there, but also of the men who are supporting the women who are out there. Uh, just just a funny little thing. My husband, he tells everyone, and he aspires to carry my bags. I’m just saying he’s he’s.

Judy Hoberman: I love that, I love that he’s a keeper. He’s a keeper.

Trisha Stetzel: He’s a keeper. Judy, um, I’d like to steer our conversation today around mindset. I know you’re a big proponent of growth mindset, and that’s a lot of what you do. And I also do that in my business with my clients right now. I’m having lots of conversations around this uncertainty, Certainty things that are going on in the world, in the business place, you name it. People are just uncertain of what’s around the corner. And I’m having conversations with people, particularly women who have gone below the line, meaning their attitude has shifted from positive growth mindset to something not so positive. What are your I know you do a lot of work in that. So number one, talk to me about growth mindset. What does it mean in case people don’t know what that means and kind of what what you’re finding right now with the people that you’re working with or interfacing with.

Judy Hoberman: Well, you know, it’s this is a big topic. Mindset is everything. It is mindset is everything. It shapes your possibility, your decisions, your confidence, your ability to bounce back. And with what’s going on in the world. You know, a lot of people have taken on the scarcity mindset because they’re afraid of what’s going to happen. If the truth of the matter is that there’s research done that says that we have at least 50,000 thoughts and decisions in our brain every single day, and 85% of them are negative and 90% of them are repetitive. So if you’re thinking bad things or negative things, you’re doing this every day. So the truth is for me is I learned how to reframe. I eliminate certain words like I never use the word try because to me try, just that little tiny word is a very detrimental word to your vocabulary. Because I think I’ll try that. No, no. How about if you say something that, you know I’m working towards, that I had to learn from an early age how to reframe my the words that are in my brain because I was fed lots of negative things. So it may not have been the environment of the world, but it was my world. And so I’m very careful about what I say. I it’s not like I have a script in front of me and saying, don’t say this, don’t say that. But I catch myself now, I don’t, I don’t use the words that would make me smaller instead of being who I truly am.

Judy Hoberman: Authentic. And one of the things that I know for a fact is that we compare ourselves to everybody else. Well, why? Why is she so lucky? Why is she making money? Why is this not affecting her? Here’s what I know. You have to stop comparing your chapter one to someone else’s. Chapter 20. You’re not behind. You’re building. And that’s a that is the growth mindset. You are building. And there are days where you think nothing is going right. Why am I doing this? So here’s my secret. I have a folder on my computer and you can call it love folder or Feel Good folder, whatever you want to call it. I just call it my folder. And in that folder I have videos, audios, emails, letters that people have written, you know, created for me in this little folder. And all I have to do when I’m feeling like this mindset is not working for me today, I open up the folder and I click on something. Either I watch, I listen, or I read, and all of a sudden my mindset is like where it’s supposed to be. This is where I should be, not where I’m, you know, a woe is me. If you go back to the pandemic, which we all know what that was like, the first thing that I did other than, you know, going to my blankets for 20 minutes because my whole entire business was crashed.

Judy Hoberman: Everything crashed other than coaching, which was always virtual, but everything else was gone off my calendar. So after I gave myself permission to go wallow in it, I did for 20 minutes and then I popped up and said, okay, what am I doing? I created a panel of exceptional women. I called on four women that I knew that I that I said were not woe is me ING here. We’re going to talk about change and and how valuable change can be and how positive. And all we did was throw it out on social media. And we had about 150 women that showed up, and all we did was talk about change. We didn’t talk about anything else. And then that was it. So I thought because right after it was over, I got emails and texts and everything else saying, okay, who’s on the panel next? And can I be on the panel? So 14 weeks later, we had four different women every single week from different industries talking about mindset, growth, mindset, not anything else. All these things that we were all experiencing. And guess what? We had thousands of women that showed up and we helped support what we were going through at that time. Now, today, it’s not the pandemic, it’s different, but it’s still something that’s affecting us. So, you know, you have to do something that gets you out of your own way.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, I love that, Judy. So if I think there’s a difference. So the negative language, I love that we could spend our entire time talking about negative language and trying to cut it out. Right. Um, and how you do that and what those tools and tips and tricks are. And by the way, we’ll give your contact information so that people can talk to you about that specific thing, because I think it’s really important to remove those things from our head. And I also know that we can’t have a negative and a positive thought at the same time.

Judy Hoberman: Impossible.

Trisha Stetzel: Replace it. Right. So I, I love that and I’m curious then. So that’s about us being alone and the mindset and the ways that we can shift it. And then you talked about this amazing group of women that came together. So what’s your thought around the people that you surround yourself with when it comes to mindset?

Judy Hoberman: So I have three words that I always use. Know your people. I don’t care what position you’re in. I don’t care if you’re an entrepreneur, if you’re C-suite, if you work for. It doesn’t matter. Know your people. Know the people you surround yourself with, because those are the people that are going to lift you up as opposed to holding you down. And those people that are not your people can be your family as well. You know, when you decide to start your own business and they’re thinking, why are you crazy? Or that little person that is knocking in your head all the time? I have evicted my imposter syndrome so many times, and for some reason they have that loophole where they come back in. So I really do talk to myself. You know, honestly, if you ever watch my TEDx talk, you will know exactly why I say all these things. I don’t want to tell you everything, but I told the worst story that happened to me on a TEDx talk that I’ve never told before in my life. I told it on a TEDx talk. I mean, that’s craziness to begin with. But the truth was, I needed to say it out loud and to have people hear it so I could say, that’s not my story anymore.

Judy Hoberman: That was my story, but not my story. So, you know, when we did this, um, this these panels, it created community. Community is what women are looking for. They’re not looking for somebody to say, oh, you’re awesome, you’re amazing. You’ll get that in community, but you’re looking for people that are going to support you. And that’s the beauty of, you know, of of creating who’s surrounding you. I am very selective with the people that are the closest to me and my immediate family, my children, my grandchildren. Those are the people that I just feel so good around. But then I have my colleagues. I don’t invite everybody in because I’m not for everybody I know it. Even my LinkedIn profile will say to you that I’m not for everybody. In the first two minutes that you meet me, you will know whether I attract or repel you. And it’s good either way, because I know my people and that’s what it is. You need to know your people. That’s that’s a that’s the I mean, that’s one of the rules that I live by.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. And you can’t let that negativity seep in right to where you are, especially if you’re already struggling. So don’t hang around with the people who are woe is me and continue to pull you down. Right?

Judy Hoberman: Because that’s their that’s their job. Their job is to pull you down. And do you know that your brain is creating a survival mode? So if it knows that you’re going to this place that you shouldn’t be, it’s going to remind you, don’t you know you don’t belong? This is where you belong right here. And if you continue to go over there, all of a sudden it’s going to say, okay, well, maybe that is your space. It isn’t. It isn’t. When you don’t feel comfortable, it’s time for you to find the people that make you comfortable. And that’s that’s what I do. And I’m a I’m a huge introvert, so I know how uncomfortable you can be.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. Thank you for bringing that out, because I think so many people, um, have this mindset that introverted people can’t go out and do the things that you’re doing. Judy. Uh, so I’d like to roll back. You said something about imposter syndrome, which struck a chord with me because I hear it a lot, particularly from women. So not only do we have to shift our mindset to be positive, but we also have to believe that we’re capable. And I think that imposter syndrome really pulls us in the opposite direction. So what advice or even maybe just some tools do you use around this imposter syndrome when it starts to seep up? And I heard you say you evicted it.

Judy Hoberman: I have many times, and for some reason there’s that little creepy, you know, that hole and it keeps coming back in. I heard somebody said they gave it a name and they said, Hal, sit down, Hal, you know I’m not interested. And that’s funny, but I mean, you that’s mindset. What I do is different, though. I, I’m aware, I become aware and that’s the first step that you need to do. You have to be aware of when that happens. There’s something that that brings it in. Is it when you’re doing something stressful, is it when you’re looking for a new position? Is it when you know you put out a proposal and you’re waiting? Whatever it is, be aware of it, because once you’re aware of it, you can almost, you know, stop it. You can’t all the time, but you can almost stop it. But you become aware of it. Once you do that, then your next step is is this real or is it something that I’ve been so creative I’ve made up in my mind? You know, we make up those scenarios that are so real that you’re living this and it never happens. So is it real or is it made up? And that’s your second step. If it’s real third step is now you have to face that.

Judy Hoberman: Okay. So and I’ll give you an example in a second. But if it’s real you have to face it. If it isn’t real you have to decide like why? Why do I do this? What is what is causing that? Do I feel like I’m not qualified enough? Do I feel like I’m not enough? You know? Do am I not tall enough? Whatever it is, that’s. That’s the exercise. So you become aware. You decide if it’s real or not, and then you reframe it. So for me and this happened, I think about a year ago, just about a year ago, I was invited to somebody’s live stream. I immediately said yes because I think she’s amazing. So I said yes. And then I went home and I looked to see who was on the agenda. And right then and there, I knew I shouldn’t be there. I was way out of my league. Like, totally out of my league. So I call I always have two coaches. I have a female coach because I’m female and I have a male coach because I need a male perspective. So I call my female coach. I said, here’s what happened. And she said, oh, you know, you’re amazing. You know, that you’ve got a great message, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Judy Hoberman: It wasn’t what I needed, truly, not what I needed because I knew that I called him. This was his question. Did you ask her to be on the live stream or did she ask you? I said, she asked me. She said he said, so why are we having this conversation? Really? Why are we having it? She asked you, you, you know, you’ve got a message. You know, you’re amazing. So why are we why are we even discussing this? She asked you and I thought, oh, okay. Like he gave me that little kick that I needed. And so I did it and it was fantastic. And the person that I was most afraid of, I made laugh. And it was Mr. Wonderful from Shark Tank. Okay, so and I have a picture of him laughing. But you know, the point is that I could have easily backed out. Yeah, I could have easily backed out, but I talked to myself out of that by having a conversation with one of my people, and he really gave me what I needed. I didn’t need that. Oh, you’re so wonderful and we love you. And you know that, wasn’t it? Totally not it. Right.

Trisha Stetzel: Just one question.

Judy Hoberman: Right? Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. That’s it I love that. Okay, so, Judy, if folks are already interested in connecting with you, want to learn more? Want to hear more about your tips that you’ve been giving here on the show? How can they find you?

Judy Hoberman: I would say my the best way to get me is on LinkedIn. It’s under Judy Hoberman. Um, because I’m on LinkedIn a lot. And you’ll also see lots of things that I do and I offer and I give away, you know, all these things. The other thing is you can email me at askart.com because I am the only one that touches my email. No one else touches it. So it’s always me that responds to you. And that’s the easiest way.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s amazing. So for those of you who are not watching this on video, maybe you’re just hearing the audio. Judy has this amazing quote just above her head on this beautiful banner. And I want to share it with the audience. Judy, if it’s okay if I say what.

Judy Hoberman: It.

Trisha Stetzel: Is. Yeah. Expand on it. So the quote is women want to be treated equally, not identically. So, Judy, tell me more about where this comes from.

Judy Hoberman: If you think about it, Trisha, that a lot of times through the decades, women have had the the opportunity, I’ll say, to become more successful in what they’re doing. With that came a challenge, because there weren’t many women that were doing this or this or this back, you know, a few decades ago. And so women became they dress like men. They acted like men. They they had their language like men. And that was very confusing to everybody, including the female. But but including the men. It was very confusing. My point is, we don’t have to be exactly like anybody else. We need to be ourselves. We just want the opportunity to have the same, uh, the same opportunities as men do. So if you say to me, okay, there’s a position that I that you would qualify for, and I think you should go after it. Well, now you’re giving me the opportunity to either have the, you know, have an interview with somebody or not my choice. But you’re treating me equally. You’re not treating me just like a man. You wouldn’t say, hey, bro, you should go do this. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about having somebody that might open doors for you. Somebody that might recommend you even when you’re not in the room. Somebody that talks well about you when you’re not in the room. And so treat us the same way as far as give us the same equal opportunity, but don’t make, you know, make sure that you, you say, well, you don’t have you I don’t care if you act like a man or dress like a man. That’s not that’s not what we’re talking about. You should have the same opportunity. And it really is a very tiny little sentence, but it’s very powerful if you think about it.

Trisha Stetzel: It is. Absolutely. And going back to choosing the people that you’re putting in your room, right. The people that you want to hang around with. And do they share the same values right as you, as wanting to be treated equally, but not identically? Right. I think that’s that’s it.

Judy Hoberman: Those are the people you want to hang around with because they know it. And, you know, if I said today, I don’t want to do this anymore, I’m tired. I’m cranky, whatever. My network is big enough, male and female, that I could call somebody and say, okay, you know, what do you got? Tell me. And then one by one, they’d be calling different people and saying, you should talk to her. You should talk to her. She’s amazing. You know, that’s what it is.

Trisha Stetzel: So. And you get to choose, right? That’s the bottom line. You get to choose. You get to choose your mindset. You get to choose whether you allow that imposter syndrome to seep in. You get to choose who you spend time with. Right? And I think all of that is so important. So we’ve talked a lot about business, Judy, but there’s this whole idea of and I’m going to use the phrase work life balance. And I know that you’ve got a different phrase for that. So I’d really like to dive into where, especially women who are successful, I think a lot of us get into this mindset where it’s got to be 125% business, and then I will squeeze everything else in the margins. Maybe. Yeah, maybe you think about it sometimes and it doesn’t happen always, right? So what’s your what’s your ideal on work life balance?

Judy Hoberman: So my entire business has been based on the belief that the myth is work life balance. There’s no such thing as work life balance. There isn’t. And if you keep on trying to find this balance, you’re going to be disappointed. Balance isn’t about doing it all. It’s about not losing yourself while doing what really matters to you. And that’s why I stopped chasing balance. And that’s why I started doing work life harmony. Because to me, if you think about it, balance is very rigid. It implies that everything gets equal weight. That’s not true. It’s not realistic. And if you try to achieve things, what’s going to happen is it’s going to lead to burnout. It’s going to lead to feeling guilty all the time, or resentment because that little piece of time that you have, you realize it’s probably not even worth it. It’s not even going to do that. When you think about harmony, I don’t know about you, but I think about like movement, like harmony is movement. It’s about being intentional. It’s the choices that you’re making and all your choices align with your values. It’s also realizing that sometimes it’s going to take more energy than you know.

Judy Hoberman: Today I’m looking for a new job, so my energy today might be more on that, but my energy here might be more on family, and it’s going to change. And that’s okay, because when you think about balance, it’s like they pit work and life against each other. So it’s like a, you know, a tug of war all the time, but harmony like invites everything together. Working together to support you. And harmony really means that wherever you are, you’re fully there. So when I say when you’re working, you’re you’re in harmony because you’re there. When you’re home with your family, be in harmony because you’re there. And I always say that presence is the new power move. Because if you think about it, everything is is making us move away from what we want the most and who we love the most. But women who lead with harmony and give themselves permission to be present where they are, instead of trying to be everything else to everyone else. That’s when they can actually take the breath and go, okay, I’m good. So that’s to me, that’s the most important thing, is being in harmony.

Trisha Stetzel: What what advice would you give to women out there who are still in this mindset of, I need to be everything to everyone, and my business is so important that I don’t have time to take care of myself.

Judy Hoberman: First and foremost, let go of the idea that doing more is the same as being better. Because that’s not true. That’s what. That’s where you’re going to have burnout. You have to find out. You have to ask yourself what really matters most to me right now. What am I doing out of guilt or obligation instead of doing out of choice and intention? And where can I delegate or simply say, no, thank you, I’m busy. I mean, how many times have you said, okay? Yeah, sure. I’d love to come to that. Whatever. And the day of you’re like, oh my God, I can’t even believe I’m going. But here’s what, here’s what you have to do. You have to put yourself on your own calendar. You wouldn’t cancel your meeting with a doctor or your CEO or whomever. Why do we cancel everything for ourselves? I used to think personally this is true. I used to think that the more my calendar was booked up, the more important I must be, and a full calendar meant that I was doing something right. But really, all it meant was I was scheduling everyone else’s priorities except my own. And when I ask women, well, tell me, like, what do you struggle with the most? They never say work. They say my calendar because I have no space to think or to renew or anything. And my question always is when your calendar fills up, who’s deciding on what goes on it? You? Or is it everything and everyone else? Because you don’t have to do it all to have it all.

Trisha Stetzel: Mm. I love that. So, Judy, I have this this renewed need to go and find some space on my calendar. It used to be really good at it and then it filled up. And I think you get into this mindset right where my calendar is full, it’s just always going to be full. But it doesn’t have to be. Right. And there are so many tools out there, and the use of AI and ways that we can throttle that back to find time for ourselves and put it on our calendar.

Judy Hoberman: Well, you know, it’s so funny because I have a good friend of mine was a huge top executive for, I don’t know, 14, 15 years. And I asked her this question because I always talk about the lonely leader, because the further you go up, the lonelier it is because just for so many reasons. But I asked her this question. I said, what do you do? How do you carve out time for yourselves? And this is exactly what she told me. She said, on Fridays I, I block out two hours of time every Friday for 14 years. I had these two hours blocked off every Friday. For 14 years. Everybody knew there were two hours. They didn’t know what she did with her two hours. So I said, well, what did you do? She said, well, sometimes it was just for me. Sometimes it was meeting a friend for lunch. Sometimes it was, you know, going to get my hair cut, whatever. But two hours every Friday for 14 years. That’s when you’re strict with your calendar and people will say, well, you know, I can’t do that. People overbook me. No, no, you lock it, lock it. If somebody has access to your calendar, if you have a, you know, an associate an a a an admin. Lock it. Nobody can touch those two hours. There’s nothing in those two hours that somebody has to get to you. And if it’s that important, they know how to call you. So two hours every Friday for 14 years. That’s what you did. I mean, I always say be strict with your calendar.

Trisha Stetzel: Yes. We have to be ferocious with our time, right? We just have to own it. Judy, I know it’s we’re at the back end of our conversation. It went by so fast, but I do. I would love for you to share one of your favorite stories. And oh, by the way, it doesn’t have to be your Ted talk. Everybody’s going to go watch your Ted talk after this because we’re all curious. Uh, but tell us one of your favorite stories, Judy.

Judy Hoberman: So when I first started in financial services, I was the only female. I checked a box when there there was no boxes to check. Okay. That’s. So this is in 1990. There were no boxes, but I checked the box because I was female. Nobody wanted me there. I was just divorced. I had two children. It was 100% commission, no guaranteed income, nothing. All I had was a little bit of moxie. Nobody wanted to train me. Nobody wanted to do anything. And I had to get licensed. And you can’t sell anything until you’re licensed. So I would beg. I would beg agents to take me out and let me see what they were doing so that I would know. Right. And so, um, the only way they would let me do that is if I booked an appointment for them. Not that it was their appointment. So anyway, long story short, that’s what happened when I was ready, when I was licensed and everything else, um, I had to go out, but I knew what I would do and I knew what I wouldn’t do. But here’s the kicker I hated what I was doing. The reason I hated it is because I didn’t know what I was walking into. I didn’t sell on the phone. The only thing I sold on the phone was an appointment so I could walk in and somebody wouldn’t qualify anyway. But every day I would say, I hate what I’m doing, I hate what I’m doing. I have to drive here. I have to go there. One morning I looked at my kids. I had two kids, and they were, you know, they were young. And I said to myself, these are the two most amazing humans in the entire world, and my only job is to protect them. And all of a sudden, it was like the cartoon with the light bulb above your head. It was like.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. And I thought.

Judy Hoberman: If I could protect them, I could protect everybody. So from that moment on, my mindset changed from I have to to I have the privilege of. And I said to myself that morning, I have the privilege of protecting other families. From that moment on, Trisha, that exact moment my career took off, it took off. I went from, you know, trying to figure this out by myself to not caring if nobody was going to help me because I knew the right way to do things, building relationships and communication. And all of a sudden everybody wanted to work with me, and all these people that didn’t have time for me were like, well, how did you sell that? And why are they staying on the books? And so I became not only, you know, salesperson for me, but I became the field trainer. I became the coach. I became the mentor. All of that because I changed my mindset. And that was the exact moment when I knew if I could protect my kids, I can protect everybody else. And that was it.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow. And now we see the rest of the story. Judy, it is so exciting. I’m so. I feel so blessed to have met you. I’m so excited that you came on to have this conversation with me. Me too. For everyone who’s listening or watching, please know we didn’t even talk about this. That Judy is a best selling author. You need to go check out her Ted talk. And Judy, if people want to connect with you directly, can you remind them how to do that.

Judy Hoberman: Either on LinkedIn and it’s Judy Huberman, and you’ll see me once you click it on, you’ll know it’s me, because there’s a whole bunch of stuff there. And if you want to talk directly to me and me only, email me Judy at askart.com. And again, no one touches my email but me. Seriously, nobody answers it. It’s only me. So if you want to tell me something that you don’t want anybody else to know, I’m a really good listener and my vault is locked.

Trisha Stetzel: And vault is locked. Judy, thank you so much for your time today. I look forward to the next time we get to have a conversation like this. It was absolutely beautiful. Thank you.

Judy Hoberman: Thank you so much for the opportunity I appreciate it.

Trisha Stetzel: Welcome. And that’s all the time we have for today’s show. Join us next time for another amazing episode of Houston Business Radio. Until then, stay tuned, stay inspired, and keep thriving in the Houston business community.

BRX Pro Tip: More Mental Models

May 23, 2025 by angishields

BRX Pro Tips

BRX Pro Tip: More Mental Models

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BRX Pro Tip: More Mental Models

Stone Payton: Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips, Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, from time to time in our conversations with Business RadioX Pro Tips, we have talked about mental models, say more about that.

Lee Kantor: Mental models are super important to learn about. There’s so many out there and there’s a variety of which that, obviously, you heard. We talked recently about Occam’s Razor, that’s a mental model. And there’s lots of them.

Lee Kantor: I thought today we can share a couple more that are razor oriented, Hanlon’s Razor and Arena Razor. Hanlon’s Razor says, basically, don’t attribute any malice that’s happening to you. Don’t take that personally. It’s probably more likely it can be explained by stupidity. That’s kind of in a nutshell what Hanlon’s Razor is.

Lee Kantor: And what this does is it’s a tool, kind of, that helps you just have more empathy and it can improve your decision-making. Because a lot of times your first move is okay, something bad happened. This person is doing that because they got something out to get me, and it’s something aggressive or something that is personal like that. When in reality, a lot of the times something that has happened could be better explained by just someone making a mistake or doing something idiotic.

Lee Kantor: And I think if you can move your thinking away from they’re doing something mean to me to they made a mistake or they didn’t understand everything, that’s more empathetic, and I think that you’re going to be better served making that your assumption rather than anything mean spirited. Because a lot of times, this kind of jumping to conclusions based on emotional reactions, a lot of times it can really be a confirmation bias where you’re just kind of assuming, based on your own biases, their intentions, when you really don’t know what their intentions are.

Lee Kantor: So, the Arena Razor mental model says that when you’re faced with two different paths, choose the path that puts you in the arena. And the arena in this case represents situations where you’re going to take a risk, you’re going to face a challenge, you’re going to actively engage in some growth exercise rather than staying on the sidelines.

Lee Kantor: And what this does is this encourages you to be more courageous and take more action. And most people in life, sadly, err on the side of not being courageous and not taking action. So, this is kind of a reminder that when you’re faced with two different paths, pick the one where you might get punched in the face. You know, this is the one, take a chance, take some action.

Lee Kantor: And when you’re doing this and you’re stepping into those kind of environments where you have skin in the game, even though it is uncomfortable, even though it is intimidating, that’s where growth happens. Growth happens in the arena. Growth doesn’t happen in the stands. It happens when you’re kind of taking a risk and doing something that might be great or it might not, and you’ll learn something.

Lee Kantor: So, mental models like Hanlon’s Razor and the Arena Razor are there for leaders to kind of lean on to help them navigate life and make better decisions.

Comcast RISE: A Lifeline for Small Businesses in Nashville’s Underserved Communities

May 22, 2025 by angishields

Nashville Business Radio

Comcast RISE: A Lifeline for Small Businesses in Nashville's Underserved Communities

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In this episode of Nashville Business Radio, Lee Kantor speaks with Mike McArdle, Regional Senior Vice President of Comcast, about the Comcast RISE program. This initiative supports small businesses, particularly in underserved communities, by providing technology upgrades, educational resources, and monetary grants. McArdle discusses the program’s origins during the COVID-19 pandemic, eligibility criteria, and the comprehensive support offered to winners. He shares success stories, emphasizing the program’s positive impact on Nashville’s small businesses and community. The episode concludes with a call to action for eligible businesses to apply before the May 31st deadline.

Mike McArdle is the Regional Vice President of Comcast’s South Region, which includes Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee, Business Alabama reports.

In this role, McArdle leads a multifunctional team of more than 3,500 members, including operations, customer experience, business strategy and development, sales, marketing, finance, human resources, government relations and community investment.

McArdle started his career at Comcast in 1996 as a customer account executive and progressed into roles including senior VP of national customer care for customer experience strategy and operations and senior VP of customer care and customer experience for Comcast’s central division.

Follow Comcast on Facebook and Instagram.

Episode Highlights

Overview of the Comcast RISE program and its objectives
Importance of small businesses in local communities
Origins of the program in response to COVID-19 challenges
Eligibility criteria for businesses to apply for the program
Support offered to winners, including technology makeovers and educational resources
Success stories of previous program winners and their community impact
Role of small businesses in fostering vibrant neighborhoods
Comcast’s commitment to community investment and engagement
Additional initiatives by Comcast to support digital access and resources
Call to action for eligible businesses to apply before the deadline

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Nashville Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Mike McArdle, who is the regional senior vice president with Comcast. Welcome!

Mike McArdle: Hey, Lee. Thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m so excited to be talking to you about this great program Comcast is doing called Comcast RISE. Do you mind sharing a little bit about it.

Mike McArdle: Yeah definitely. And thanks for giving us the opportunity to get the word out. Um, we’re really proud of this program. And it’s part of a whole package of things we do to be invested in the communities we serve, like Nashville. Um, we’re bringing Comcast rise to the Nashville community specifically to support small businesses, because we know how important it is to have thriving small businesses. They are the foundation of the communities we serve and where we live and work and play. And this is all about supporting small businesses. And Nashville was one of five markets across the country that we serve, um, picked to do this program. Um, so we’re really excited about it and had an amazing kickoff a few weeks ago. And, uh, want to get the word out.

Lee Kantor: So what was the genesis of the idea, uh, to serve the community in this manner?

Mike McArdle: Yeah, it really, um, culminated at the height of Covid. Um, I think we can all agree probably the most impacted parts of our communities were small businesses in Covid when we had to shut down and, uh, shelter and, uh, deal with the, the pandemic. And that was really the genesis of, uh, Project Rise in 2020 to support small businesses in our communities, and we’ve continued to advance the program and deploy the program every year since. Um, across the country. And it’s really a comprehensive package to help small businesses thrive. And what I’ve learned, and having been involved in this program for a few years, uh, there’s tons of great entrepreneurs out there, great ideas, great innovations, and just a ton of hard working people that want to change their life. Um, and they just need a little bit of help. And that’s what we’re doing. And we have a number of facets of, uh, of the program that are directly geared to supporting small businesses.

Lee Kantor: So let’s kind of get into the weeds a little bit about the program. Like, um, who is open to participating and what kind of qualifications make a person kind of go through the process and be successful?

Mike McArdle: Yeah, great. Great question. Um, so we will be selecting, um, from all of the applicants. And again the application process is open until May 31st. So the clock is ticking. So for any of your listeners that are interested, get into our portal at Comcast Rise Comm and begin the application process. Um, this is targeted at small businesses, um, independently owned and operated small businesses with less than 100 employees, um, in the eligible zip codes in and around Nashville. Um, and they need to be in business for at least two years. So a couple of very targeted small business, um, criteria. But I can tell you, for those that are selected, um, it’s a comprehensive package of support that include, uh, a technology makeover, uh, support with, um, production and media and actually running a um, ad spot for 90 days. Excuse me, 180 days. Um, and then educational resources. So getting them connected with business consultation, training, um, as well as a monetary grant and coaching sessions. So really a comprehensive support to these businesses, and we’re really excited to bring it to Nashville.

Lee Kantor: Now, is this something that they have to be already a Comcast customer, or is this just if they meet the criteria then they can apply.

Mike McArdle: Yeah, they have to meet the criteria. We love for every one of them to be a Comcast business customer. And um, they’ll have opportunities to get our services through the program. Um, but it’s not limited to that. And it’s really about being in the eligible areas. And, and in this year, being in Nashville, um, because it’s such an important market to us.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned that this has been around for a while. Has it been in Nashville for a while?

Mike McArdle: Um, it has not been in Nashville specifically, but, um, during our kickoff, um, we used to run this nationwide and select from across the country, and we actually had some prior rise winners that are in Nashville. Um, that, uh, came and spoke. Um, this program, the way we’ve modified it over the years is we’ve added, uh, that list of things that the winners get. We’ve added to that list every single year. Um, and we’ve started to target 100 applicants and winner, 100 winners from specific cities like Nashville. Um, so it’s, uh, it’s pretty exciting that we continue to grow the program and continue to provide more availability in specific cities like Nashville. And, uh, the stories we hear from prior winners are just transformative. Um, in fact, um, we had, uh, Tremaine Crook, who runs a business, uh, punches and bunches, um, at one of our recent events promoting, uh, the application and Project Rise in Nashville and really talked about he was a former winner when we did it across the country in total. And, uh, he talked about the impact that it had with the technology makeover, how he’s using that technology, um, and even how it opened up a whole new revenue stream of virtual training and, um, supporting students before, Or, um, the training program actually doing their homework, um, and kind of building a blend of, um, continuous education after school program and bringing them in, um, to his business. So it was really, really impressive story. Um, and we even had slim and huskies. You may be familiar with.

Lee Kantor: The, the pizza chain.

Mike McArdle: Huskies. They’re they’re a former winner as well. And they helped us kick off the whole program a few weeks ago.

Lee Kantor: And so there’ll be a hundred winners in Nashville.

Mike McArdle: That’s correct, that’s correct. So, um, we select 100 winners from each of the cities, each of the five cities across the country. So, um, most important thing is, uh, get your application in. The clock is ticking. You know, we got ten days to go. Um, we want to make sure we hear from all of the small businesses that are looking for for help. And we’ll be awarding 100 winners in the city of Nashville.

Lee Kantor: Now, how did you kind of determine the, uh, like you mentioned, it’s for select zip codes. How did you determine the the geographic areas that were going to be eligible for this.

Mike McArdle: Yeah. We, um so every year it’s a it’s a it’s a fun process across the country. As you know Comcast we we serve all over the United States, um, and tons of major metropolitan areas. Um, I’m responsible for, um, essentially all of the southeast and um, areas like Atlanta, Charleston, South Carolina, little Rock, Arkansas, obviously Nashville, Knoxville. Um, and we we go to our leadership and tell our story about why each of these communities are important to us and why we want to invest there, uh, invest with this program. And Nashville was, um, the area that we submitted because of the growth in that area, because of our relationship with the city and with the mayor. Um, and, um, candidly, we have our own employees that live and work there and serve our customers. So it’s a it’s a thriving area, as you know. Um, and that’s why we made the case to bring it to Nashville. And we’re really proud to, uh, to be able to do that and invest locally.

Lee Kantor: And then you’re, uh, there’s an emphasis on these kind of underserved communities.

Mike McArdle: Yeah. I think it’s, um, it really is about building up communities. And we know one of the best ways to build up communities, excuse me, is to support small businesses. Um, if small businesses are thriving, that means the local restaurants thriving. Uh, the local gym, uh, the local art store, the retail store. That just makes for a really vibrant community. And, you know, that’s a big part of what we’re looking to do here is support, um, you know, help our communities become what they want to be. And that’s a growing areas and that’s that’s good for business. Um, but it’s also, for me, one of the reasons why I’ve been part of Comcast for almost 30 years, um, I think we bring a unique approach to, um, this public private partnership and the partnership with our communities doing programs like Rise. Um, we also have a comprehensive set of programs to invest in the community. We call it Project Up. And that includes our Internet Essentials program. That includes investing in what we call lift zones, actually enabling high speed Wi-Fi and community partners. So think, um, community centers, continuous education training, um, locations. So so we do a whole host of programs. Project rise is just one facet of that.

Lee Kantor: And like you said, the impact is real. Um, if you can help one of these entrepreneurs get to a new level, it not only impacts their business, their employees, but they could impact their family and their community as well. So it’s really a multiplier effect.

Mike McArdle: Absolutely. From the jobs they create from the upward mobility of their own families, expanding businesses. Um, you know, the slim and husky story was incredible. They, um, they were a rise winner and actually built a moving company. Um, but then made the decision to pivot their business plan. Sold that business and began doing, uh, the slim and huskies, um, pizza chain. Um, and they’ve actually been expanded into Atlanta, so they’ve grown to multiple locations. And that means they’re employing more people. They’re supporting more people. They’re, um, leasing space and, uh, you know, filling up commercial real estate and in the communities that they’re serving. So, yeah, it definitely is a multiplier effect. And we’re we’re just proud to play a small part in that.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned being part of Comcast for a long time, the culture to want to serve the community like that. Has this been around since the time you’ve been there? Is this a new emphasis?

Mike McArdle: No, I started in 1996 as a as a frontline agent in our call centers and our retail stores. Um, and I can tell you, one of the things that really hooked me about the culture of Comcast is this this focus on community investment. And for a long time, for, for decades, we had a program called Comcast Cares Day where the entire company would come together in our local communities and invest in, you know, fixing up a park or, um, painting a school, um, all around the country. That has evolved and become even more robust with our Project Up program that now includes volunteerism programs like, um, the ones I mentioned, but is also extended to our, um, lift zone investment with um, partners in the community and certainly Comcast rise. So it’s become it’s only become bigger over the, the 29 years that I’ve been here and which I love because I think it, it really underscores, um, how we’re a unique, um, partner and service provider in the communities we serve. It’s clearly about fast, high speed, reliable internet, which is critical. Um, and that’s our that’s our core product. Um, but I think we’re really unique in that we try to take it one step further and invest in the communities that we serve, beyond just the fiber in the ground and the connections in the home and businesses. It’s programs like this that, um, makes me really proud to be part of this company for so long.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re executing the, uh, what the winners get in those grant packages are the business consultation and the education. Are those all coming from, um, Comcast, or is that coming from the partners that are part of the the whole program?

Mike McArdle: Yeah. So it’s a combination. So you know, obviously the monetary grants and and the help with the production, um, we play a direct role in but we also work with such a wide range of partners, um, to, um, connect the businesses to. So, you know, when you think about educational resources and supporting the digital makeovers, um, it’s both, um, our experts in the company, um, as well as our investment, um, but also the partnerships. I mean, one of the the cool things about being a big organization is you work with a lot of different business partners that bring a lot of unique expertise. So that’s another benefit of the winners is they’re going to get exposure not just to us, but also to these other partners that we have, um, that work on educational resources, creative production, distribution, certainly the tech makeover. Um, and we consult with the winners on what is their need based on their business and then, um, kind of tailor that to their needs.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned a couple of the, uh, the national winners. Has there been any story, uh, that you heard of maybe in Nashville or maybe not in Nashville? That really kind of, uh, was maybe most rewarding where you saw that? Wow. This program really is personally impacting a lot of folks that this is just worth doing just for the human interest story that that comes about the impact we’re making for these individuals. Has anything stood out for you?

Mike McArdle: Well, you know, there’s so many and, um, I think the two, most recently and specifically in Nashville, are the two that I mentioned. One is to have, um, the owners of Slim and Huskies at our kickoff and hear their story about taking one business, reinvesting that, having the courage to sell it and and build a new business. You know, and largely, um, connected to their initial rise. Participation is one. And then, um, and then for Tremaine Crook, who was at a recent event, um, owner of Punches and Bunches. His story, um, and I heard from the team and kind of saw his his clip for the, the, uh, program we had just, just this week, uh, his story of not only building his business and creating new revenue streams because of the partnership with Comcast. Rise. Um, but also giving back, you know, running an after school program, um, for kids and making sure they’re getting their homework done and have the connections to do that and then going off and doing, you know, the physical activity and training and exercise. You know, for me that that that’s right there in Nashville, those are two incredible examples, right, in Nashville, two businesses that, um, you know, are really, um, growing and kind of that force multiplier, you kind of kind of alluded to. And, uh, like I said, we’re just we’re just proud to play a small role in that of helping jumpstart both of their ideas and businesses that have led to growth and led to more locations and other revenue streams. And, you know, and also giving back to the community from those small businesses as well.

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

Mike McArdle: Well, the most important thing we need is, um, getting the word out and just reminding everyone if you if you even think there’s there’s a small need for you and you qualify, go to ww.com. Get all the information about how to apply. Who’s eligible. Um and most importantly put in your application before May 31st. The cutoff is May 31st. From that point forward, um, we are then reviewing all the applications. We have an independent organization that refused that within the company. Um, and they’ll be making those selections, and then we’ll be announcing those winners, um, in the August time frame and then start engaging those winners, um, with all of the facets of, of the award. Um, so most important thing is get the word out, go to Comcast. Com and apply today. That’s the most important thing to tell your listeners.

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

Mike McArdle: Thanks, Lee I appreciate the time.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Nashville Business Radio.

Tim Fagan with 1-800 WATER DAMAGE

May 22, 2025 by angishields

Denver Business Radio

Tim Fagan with 1-800 WATER DAMAGE

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Tim Fagan is the President of 1-800 WATER DAMAGE and Blue Kangaroo Packoutz. Tim holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree and a teaching certificate from the University of Michigan, where he was Captain of the Wrestling Team.

Tim also holds two post-graduate degrees in Educational Leadership from Eastern Michigan University. Tim also holds a builder’s license as well as the prestigious Certified Restorer and Water Loss Specialist designation from the Restoration Industry Association, the highest level of certification in the restoration business.

Tim’s varied work experience includes eight years as a Sheriff Deputy, 11 years as a high school football and wrestling coach, 7 years as a high school assistant principal and 15 years as owner of Coach’s Restoration LLC before Coach’s was acquired by BELFOR in 2010.

Tim has been married to his wife Sue for 30 years. They have six children, three grandchildren, and resides in Commerce Township, Michigan.

Connect with Tim on LinkedIn.

Navigating Gender Dynamics in Leadership: Insights from an Executive Coach

May 22, 2025 by angishields

High Velocity Radio

Navigating Gender Dynamics in Leadership: Insights from an Executive Coach

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In this episode of High Velocity Radio, host Stone Payton interviews Dorothy Doppstadt, an executive coach from Surge Partners LLC. Dorothy shares her mission to empower leaders with clarity, confidence, and purpose, drawing from her extensive background in communications and leadership development. She discusses the challenges of starting her coaching practice, the importance of assessments, and the distinct approaches men and women take in leadership. Dorothy emphasizes building trust and rapport with clients and highlights the transformative power of effective communication.

Dorothy Doppstadt combines powerful communications credentials and extensive industry experience with a strengths-based approach to coach leaders across matrixed organizations in global Fortune 500 Companies. Understanding the subtleties of savvy relationship building, Dorothy uses direct feedback in powerful ways to help clients find their voice, strengthen their presence, and build stronger cross-functional coalitions for maximum business impact.

Some of the outcomes she’s helped leaders achieve include financial turnarounds of major business units, developing profitable new lines of business, and strategic shifts in employee engagement successfully lowering turnover costs. Her background spans different leadership roles as a national award- winning ABC News editor, faculty member at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and business trainer for diverse New York City employees.

Thriving on collaboration with leaders taking on increased scope, navigating transitions and organizational restructuring, Dorothy offers one-on-one executive coaching, team coaching to strengthen trust and change behaviors to drive performance, and organizational coaching to enhance the patterns and flow of communications within an organization for increased productivity and employee satisfaction.

Connect with Dorothy on LinkedIn.

Episode Highlights

Empowering leaders to lead with clarity, confidence, and purpose.
The transformative power of effective communication in organizations.
Dorothy’s journey into executive coaching and her background in communications.
Coaching approach focused on one-on-one sessions with high-level leaders.
Challenges faced in establishing a coaching practice and building a client base.
Common misconceptions about coaching and the importance of direct engagement.
Gender dynamics in leadership and differences in communication styles.
Building trust and rapport with clients as a key aspect of coaching.
The coaching process, including initial assessments and goal setting.
Recognizing signals that indicate the need for coaching among executives.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

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

Stone Payton: Welcome to the High Velocity Radio show, where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. You guys are in for a real treat. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Surge Partners, LLC, Dorothy Doppstadt. How are you?

Dorothy Doppstadt : Very nice to be here, Stone.

Stone Payton: It’s a delight to have you. So I think a great place to start would be if you could share with us just mission. Purpose? What are you really out there trying to do for folks, Dorothy?

Dorothy Doppstadt : Well, I’ve. I’ve been really kind of blessed in that in all my different ventures of work, I’ve always really believed in what I’m doing. So, you know, I’m a former award winning ABC news editor. So I always knew the power of communications, you know, to drive meaningful change. And as an executive coach, which I’ve been now for about 20 years, I helped leaders sharpen their communications, build relationships, elevate their presence, and cultivate more effective teams, which makes for happier people in the organization. So my mission is to empower leaders to lead with clarity and confidence and purpose in the hopes of transforming organizations and the people within them for lasting positive impact.

Stone Payton: Well, it sounds like noble work If you can get it, I’d love to hear a little bit more about the background in your journey to to get to this point. I bet it wasn’t a straight line, probably some some nips and turns.

Dorothy Doppstadt : Oh my goodness. It certainly was not a straight line. In fact, Stone. I had no idea I would ever be so affiliated with business. I, um, never interested me, right? I was liberal arts all the way. And yet, it turns out business is perhaps one of the most creative occupations there is. Who knew? I didn’t know, and so I never thought I would end up doing what I’m doing now, which is kind of fantastic.

Stone Payton: Well, say more about the work, a little bit about the mechanism. Is it one on one work? Is it group work? A little bit of both.

Dorothy Doppstadt : It. I just was in Utah, um, for some organization development with a wonderful agency called synergy. But usually I tend to do one on one with leaders. That’s where I find I have the most impact. And I also have found that my sweet spot is with high level leaders.

Stone Payton: So at this point in your career, in this point in the development of your practice, what are you finding the most rewarding? What do you what are you enjoying the most these days?

Dorothy Doppstadt : I really enjoy working with leaders who don’t really get their full potential. And by not getting, I mean that they might have some imposter syndrome, or they’re nervous about really being able to do the role to its full capacity and getting them to lean in more of who they are. Right. So I’m going to steal a line from Marshall Goldsmith, who’s a very well-known executive coach. When he says, I work with successful people to make them more successful. And that’s what I like to do. I mean, they’re at a certain place in their career, and they didn’t just get there by happenstance. So I could give you an example if you want it.

Stone Payton: Absolutely. Please.

Dorothy Doppstadt : Okay. Well, I recently finished a coaching engagement, usually there about six months. And, um, I, I coached a fortune 500, you know, pharmaceutical, you know, VP on her communications, how she’s showing up on her leadership presence, which is really very much interior and her storytelling. Um, and the outcome after her hard work was she was promoted to SVP and global clinical operations head leaning 11,000 employees in 50 different countries. So one of the things she was really nervous about was seeing if she could fill her predecessor’s shoes and she could indeed. Or how to speak in town halls with such diverse cultures, with people from different countries showing up. And it turned out that this she was a woman, was so agile and knew so much about the business that once she could get out of her own way and start to understand that really presenting like, say, in town halls or Or in different large scale presentations. It’s about storytelling.

Stone Payton: How does the whole sales and marketing thing work for a practice like yours? Do you have a mature enough practice now that maybe it’s not even a challenge, but early on, when you began to transition to doing this work, was it? Was it tough just getting the business?

Dorothy Doppstadt : Oh, very much so. You have to have a lot of patience. Uh, people think when they start their own business and they’ll be an executive coach, and it’s just going to happen right away. One of the first things I did and women tend to over credential themselves, men tend to under credential. In other words, when there’s a job posting, women show up over credentialed and the men under credentialed. So one of the first thing I things I did was I needed to understand business and, uh, different industries and organizational systems. So I got my, um, executive and organizational coaching certification from Columbia University, which was a partnership with Columbia Business School for business Acumen, and then also with, uh, Teacher’s College for how adults learn. We learn differently than children. And that is why consensus and getting buy in from the client or the leader with his or her team is so important. It’s everything. That’s the only way we change if we want to.

Stone Payton: That is so true. So what, if anything, do people often get wrong or misunderstand about the nature of your work? Like are there some myths or preconceived notions when they’re walking into the idea of a coaching relationship? And you have to educate through that before you can really start doing any real work.

Dorothy Doppstadt : No, I really don’t spend time on what coaching is. I, I ask during chemistry meetings, which is how it starts to see if this is a good fit for them or for the coach. I say, do you mind if we dive right in and and we start. And I tend to be quite direct from growing up in a newsroom and asking questions. And also because I work with such high level leaders, I also I do some consulting as well. They want to have support and answers because it’s kind of crazy out there. Stone, have you noticed that?

Stone Payton: I have.

Dorothy Doppstadt : Okay.

Stone Payton: A moment ago, you were talking, uh, speaking to a couple of differences in men and women, men having a tendency to not get to be far less credentialed as you’re working with business owners and high level leaders. Do you find some distinctions in men and women in the way that they just approach the work and approach these conversations?

Dorothy Doppstadt : That’s such a great question. Um, one of the things I’ve noticed is a pattern, uh, with some men who don’t understand the importance of, you know, social equity and how important it is to take the time to get to know people, to have inner personal, positive relationships. They want to get right to the to the bottom line, which is usually money. And I had a wonderful experience with this man who just made CFO of a medical device company. He was terribly shy and introverted. He never felt he had the right background to speak to board members or CEOs and that kind of thing. He came from the military where he got his education paid for. He was this brilliant person, and it was just about starting to slow down and realize that he not only had the skill sets and the ability, but if he wanted to get where he wanted to, which was to move up and get CFO. I’m just so pleased for him. He needed to have better social interactions. People think communications is the soft stuff and there’s nothing soft about it at all.

Stone Payton: Nothing I’m trying to in my shoes. And I’m not a coach or really a consultant, except to a very small group of people within our system. I’m trying to get my arms around the level of trust and confidence that you must have to endear with a prospective client, or certainly a client, to get any real work done. Can you speak to that a little bit?

Dorothy Doppstadt : Sure. Um, you have to build rapport. You have to really have the client understand you’re on their side. And so I often will say, why don’t you see how it goes for you? Why don’t you just try this? Do a yes and mindset and see what feedback you get and how it is. And actually, with this same client I was just talking about, I had him go back to his wife, whom he dearly loved and had known forever and ever asking her had she noticed any difference in his behavior? Because that’s all we have to go on is our behavior. And she said, yeah, it’s a lot better with you. She said, you seem a lot happier, a lot more relaxed, a lot more present. That made me very happy.

Stone Payton: Well, sure. So I know the answer to this question is probably yes, but I’m going to ask it anyway just so we can get on the topic. Have you had the benefit of one or more mentors along the way to help you kind of navigate this terrain of, of coaching and making a real business out of it.

Dorothy Doppstadt : Making a real business out of it? No. You have to keep in there. And, um, I tended to go to executive coaching agencies, uh, where the clients were vetted and the coaches were vetted with certain, um, credentials. And just to give you an example about how different my background was, and this this is just a little side detour, I promise, that is being interviewed for ABC News management. Never had HR get near us because they wanted certain people to be able to get into the newsroom and be reporter editors and to question authority and all of that. Whereas as an executive coach, you have to get ready to partner with the HR business partner of the client or of the organization. So that was so interesting for me. And like all things, some HR people are great. Some HR people are so-so. It just it just depends. So that was the choice that I made was to get on coaching benches so I could start to build a portfolio. Right. Because, you know, people are not going to just find me in my living room.

Stone Payton: So going back to your whole process, I’d like to dive in a little deeper if you’re up for it. So there’s that. I believe you you referred to it as as a chemistry meeting, a chemistry conversation. Can you walk us through some of the next steps in your process so we can get a picture of what an an engagement or a relationship with you might look like over time.

Dorothy Doppstadt : Sure. So the client has to choose the coach. That’s the way it works. I’m not famous enough to. I choose the client. No. And so, you know, we speak anywhere from 30 minutes to 45 minutes. I have found longer is not useful. And seeing if it’s a fit and seeing if, um, what I’m saying makes sense to the person. I just got a new engagement from a top leader in in retail that he was finding what I was saying very helpful. So once they pick you, then there’s usually this engagement where it starts with, you know, the first session going over roles and logistics and outcomes and what they want to work on then seeing if there are assessments offered with the coaching engagement. I love the Hogan. It’s I call it the white male corporate assessment because it’s it’s really tough and it certainly changed me. And assessments are so great because you can it just starts to objectify language. This is what this is saying. I’ll say to a client, what do you think? And then hopefully I can get a 360, which really builds on my reporting skills, where the client and their manager pick 6 to 8 people all around them, you know, peers above direct reports and other stakeholders where I asked them all the same four questions.

Dorothy Doppstadt : And then I write up a report and what starts to happen is that clear patterns emerge. So let’s take the the recent, um, CFO client who just got that role, which is what he wanted. There was a pattern that he needed to a soften his edges. Right. You know. Hello, Stone. How are you? Didn’t that kind of thing. And then also not just read the data, but start to take a more leadership role in starting to help change the data? So a whole different way of thinking. And then we, after we’ve gone through all the very robust feedback of assessments and three 60s and unpacking stuff, we we just start meeting one on one to speak about what matters to the client, what’s important. Do you have a presentation coming up? Would you like to work on that? Do you have a is there a kind of a communications glitch with the stakeholder you Do you want to work on that? That kind of thing.

Stone Payton: I love the way that you talk about utilizing an assessment, because I’m getting the idea that, um, maybe assessments aren’t necessarily designed to be prescriptive. Maybe they shouldn’t be prescriptive, but what a marvelous catalog. Uh, catalyst for genuine conversation.

Dorothy Doppstadt : Exactly.

Stone Payton: You’re asking them, what do you think? And then you’re opening up the conversation. Yeah.

Dorothy Doppstadt : Yeah. I mean, I didn’t even know what an assessment was. So I got, uh, certified, I think in two years in, like, 5 or 6 of them. And out of them all, except for the, um, emotional quotient to the EQ. I liked the Hogan the best for higher leaders because it’s divided into different reports of your values. You always want to go over the leader’s values and North Star. And then it’s how the leader is showing up every day, how people see him and then potential leadership. Derailers. So but between all those reports, there’s a lot of info and data to get.

Stone Payton: So I’m going to switch gears on you for a minute, if I might. Before we wrap, I’m interested to know, uh, what are you into when you’re not doing coaching and consulting? Uh, pursuits, hobbies. What do you like to do outside the scope of this work?

Dorothy Doppstadt : Well, I’m. I love where I live, um, I live in Manhattan on the Upper West Side, and so I love to go to museum and art shows. I love to go to screenings with films because I got my MFA in film. I was a screenwriter for a little bit. I loved just to walk around the city and in the parks, and I love to go up to Maine, so I have kind of a lot I do. I think I always yeah, there’s a lot I really, really like. There’s some really great shows going on now in New York.

Stone Payton: So Yeah. Sounds like you stay busy. So what are some signals? If I’m an executive, um, what are some signals that I ought to at least be entertaining? The idea of having a conversation. Having a chemistry conversation with with someone. What’s happening in my world? That.

Dorothy Doppstadt : Oh. Great question. I mean, what I have found, and I do a lot of fortune 500 companies, so they’re global and all different industries, from tech to aerospace to telecommunications to retail to pharma. I have found that you need to get along. You need to be able to play in the sandbox. And what starts to happen is they tend to run into more conflict than need it, because it’s a really hard role to be a leader, because you have to bring people along and things are changing so quickly out there. Um, it said that there’s new technology every 11 minutes. Wow. And yeah, it’s it’s it’s so crazy. And this is where the social energy and having cross-functional relationships throughout the organization is so important. Leaders who can pick up a phone and get somebody on the other end are able to solve problems and find solutions quicker.

Stone Payton: All right. So what’s the best way for our listeners to reach out, maybe have a more substantive conversation with you? Tap into your work. What’s the best way for them to connect?

Dorothy Doppstadt : Um, well, I have a website that I need to update, and I think this interview is going to make me do it. And that’s my name, Dorothy Obstat. Uh, d o double P, as in Peter s t as in Tom, A as in apple, D as in dog, t as in Tom dorothy.stat.com. It’s my website and on it you will see a way to contact me. That would be the best way.

Stone Payton: Well Dorothy, it has been an absolute delight having you on the show this afternoon. Thank you for your insight, your perspective, and your vigor for the work.

Dorothy Doppstadt : Thank you so much, Stone. It was a pleasure talking with you.

Stone Payton: All right, until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Dorothy Dobbs STAT with Surge Partners, LLC and everyone at the Business RadioX family saying, we’ll see you in the fast lane.