angishields, Author at Business RadioX ® Page

BRX Pro Tip: The Email Marketing Metric that Matters

February 14, 2025 by angishields

BRX Pro Tips

BRX Pro Tip: The Email Marketing Metric that Matters

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BRX Pro Tip: The Email Marketing Metric that Matters

Stone Payton: And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, when it comes to email marketing, what is the best way to make sure that it’s effective?

Lee Kantor: Yeah. I think that when it comes to any type of marketing and email marketing specifically, there’s so many different metrics, and it’s really, kind of, honing in on what is the metric that matters. And a lot of folks, kind of, when it comes to email marketing, lean on open rate as the metric that matters. Like how many people are opening the email that you’re sending. And while I think that’s important and that’s kind of table stakes that you want people to open your emails, that means they were looking forward to them, I think a more important metric, when it comes down to actually where business is getting done, is the click through rate.

People have to click on things. Your readers of the emails have to click on things within the emails you send. If they’re not clicking on anything that you are writing about or recommending they go to, then you have a problem. So, you have to figure out ways to increase the value of what you’re saying or sending them to, so they click on something.

So, now, how do you go about increasing the value? I think the best way to way to increase value is think about what it is that you’re sharing and make that information or content so good that they have to click on it. And in some cases, that might make you have to feel a little anxious or uneasy that you’re giving away this much good stuff. And that’s really kind of the sweet spot. You want to feel like, “Man, should I be doing this? Because this is some really good stuff,” and that’s kind of where you want to be when it comes to creating content for email. Because you have to remember, the reason you’re sending these emails is because you want these people to remember you when it’s time to buy what you’re selling. And if you’re not providing enough value, they’re not going to do that.

So, put your value in there and increase the value to the point where you’re feeling uncomfortable. And a little fun fact or a little maybe something that’s surprising that if you add a PS below your name when you’re like, “Thanks for reading,” and then you put your name, and if you put PS, and then put a link in there in the PS, you will find that that has a surprisingly high clickthrough rate. So, try putting in a link there as well.

Cooking Up Success: Lela Dinakaran on Family, Marketing, and Catering Success

February 14, 2025 by angishields

Greater Perimeter Business Radio

Cooking Up Success: Lela Dinakaran on Family, Marketing, and Catering Success

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On this episode of Sandy Springs Business Radio, Rachel Simon is joined by Lela Dinakaran , Vice President of Marketing for Georgia Foods, which operates Bojangles. Lela shares her family’s journey, starting with her father’s immigration and the opening of their first Bojangles location in 2004. Now, they operate 46 locations, primarily in Georgia. Lela discusses her evolving marketing role, the challenges and successes of launching catering services, and the importance of digital marketing. She highlights the collaborative relationship with Bojangles corporate and the innovative strategies that have driven their franchise’s growth and success.

As a second-generation Bojangles franchisee, Lela Dinakaran oversees all the marketing strategies for her family’s 44 franchise stores in Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia.

This includes brand promotion, brand awareness, driving catering sales, digital sales, and other revenue drivers.

Connect with Lela on LinkedIn.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here with Rachel Simon. This episode of Sandy Springs Business Radio is brought to you by Connect the Dots Digital. When you’re ready to leverage LinkedIn to meet your business goals, go to Connect the Dots. Rachel. Hi. How you been?

Rachel Simon: Good. How are you?

Lee Kantor: I am doing well. So excited about this show.

Rachel Simon: Yes. And it seems like winter has come back to us.

Lee Kantor: I know, just for today.

Rachel Simon: Just for today. Uh, yes. So I’m super excited about today’s show as well. And I met our guest when I went up and visited one of the other Business RadioX studios up in Gwinnett, and she was a guest on there, and I was like, oh, well, we have to have her on the show here. So we have with us today Lela Dinakaran. And she is the vice president of marketing for Georgia Foods. But we know Georgia Foods better as what they are doing business as, which is Bojangles.

Lee Kantor: I’m excited. Welcome.

Rachel Simon: Welcome.

Lela Dinakaran: Thank you.

Rachel Simon: So, you know, I’m so happy to have you on the show today because I thought you had such a great story about your business and sort of. It’s a family business. So tell us about it.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. So I’m a second generation Bojangles franchisee, really proud to say that I love the Bojangles brand. I grew up with it. So our story starts back in 1984. My dad emigrated from India to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, uh, on a tennis scholarship to go to college. And he is craving Indian food. Food that reminds him of home, flavorful food, food that has a little spice to it, level to it, a little kick. So he is recommended to stop into a Bojangles by his roommate and he walks into this restaurant and he has a bite of the dirty rice and the chicken. And honestly, the rest is history. He decided at that point that he was going to own Bojangles, and he opened his first location in 2004. So I was a very little girl, but I vividly remember walking into his first location and having our chicken supremes and honey mustard and fries, and I was hooked after that. I love Bojangles, I love eating the food, love talking about it. And fast forward to today alongside my dad and my brother. We own and operate 46 Bojangles locations. 35 are in Georgia, so and I run the marketing for all 46. So I am everywhere all of the time.

Rachel Simon: So is that in the franchise world, like a typical number of locations to own within a company? Or is it like on the high side, the low side?

Lela Dinakaran: It’s so we’re the fourth largest franchisee in the system. So definitely on the high side, I’d say there are probably a lot of franchise groups out there with just 1 to 2. But Bojangles is all about growth. So I mean, why stop at one, right?

Rachel Simon: I mean, who doesn’t love fried chicken?

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. And biscuits.

Rachel Simon: And.

Lela Dinakaran: Biscuits and tea.

Rachel Simon: I think it’s so interesting. And first of all, like, kudos to that roommate for saying, you know, oh, there’s no maybe there’s not a lot of Indian food options in Myrtle Beach, but check out this southern fare. Yeah. And I think it’s actually amazing that it just satisfied that need so much for your dad.

Lela Dinakaran: And I think it’s really full circle because at that moment, my dad was searching for something that reminded him of home. And then fast forward 40 some years, Bojangles is my home. It’s what reminds me of home, you know, being from North Carolina. But yeah, very proud.

Rachel Simon: I grew up in North Carolina.

Lela Dinakaran: I did born and raised.

Rachel Simon: Okay. And then how how long have you been in Atlanta?

Lela Dinakaran: So I moved down to Georgia in 2019. I actually moved down right after I graduated college to a little town called Eatonton, Georgia. Um, I don’t know if you’re familiar or super. It’s a retirement community. So I was like 22 living in a retirement community. Um, so you can kind of imagine how fun that was. Um, so when we wanted to, like, go out and do something fun, we would drive up to Athens, Georgia. Okay, so big UGA, go dawgs. Uh, so I actually live in Athens, Georgia. When the opportunity came in 2021, I was getting married. Um, and we were like, let’s just move to Athens. So we bought a house there and have been kicking it ever since.

Rachel Simon: Oh, I have a UGA student currently, so.

Lela Dinakaran: Okay. So you know all about Athens.

Rachel Simon: Very fun town.

Lee Kantor: So now, um, now that you’ve been in the franchise business for so long, have you kind of explored Indian franchises? Because now there’s more Indian food franchises.

Lela Dinakaran: There are. We haven’t. We’ve like I said, we’ve been all about Bojangles since the beginning. Um, so that’s kind of just what we’re sticking to.

Lee Kantor: So you’re just the the thinking is just keep expanding the Bojangles.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. So when I started with my dad, uh, the goal was 50. But we’ve gotten there very quickly, Um, from 2019, we started with three locations in Georgia, so went from 3 to 35. Uh, so the past five years of my career have been literally insane. But yeah, the goal is just to keep growing and keep expanding.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re as a marketing person, how does kind of your role change, you know? Is it different marketing for 3 to 50. Like is it the same activity. You’re just doing it hyper locally in each of those markets.

Lela Dinakaran: So definitely when I started it was very hyperlocal. Um, while also looking for ways to drive the business increase foot traffic. So one of my first ways of doing that was discovering catering. Um, I think we all know what restaurant catering is. It’s these high ticket items. Um, and just a great way to grow your revenue really quickly. So I discovered that in a hyper local level in Milledgeville, Georgia, and, um, kind of funny story I was so I started with the business working as a crew member in Milledgeville, Georgia.

Lee Kantor: One, that’s a college town.

Lela Dinakaran: That’s a college town. Yeah. Um, and then one odd day, the phone rings and it’s the local prison, and they want to place an order for 500 dinner boxes, and they want it in, like, two days time. Um, that was a huge order, as you can imagine. I wasn’t going to say no, but in the back of my head, I’m thinking, how the heck do I put this together?

Lee Kantor: We’re going to be working 24 over seven.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. So I was like, I’m just going to figure it out. And to be quite honest, we failed the first time and we failed the second time. But I was determined and by the third time, like they finally gave me a third shot at this order. I got it right. And then I was like, how do I do more of this? And then just kind of grew catering from there. And now it’s just been scaling revenue drivers like catering, but also in the digital sense. So delivery through DoorDash, Uber Eats and through our app as well.

Rachel Simon: So was yesterday a big day for Bojangles? Oh yeah. The Super Bowl.

Lela Dinakaran: So yesterday’s a big day. But something kind of fun about Bojangles is that we’re great hangover food, and today is pretty much National Hangover Day. Um, so we are going to going to be especially busy in the digital world today.

Rachel Simon: Hmm. Interesting.

Lee Kantor: Now, part of the, uh, appeal of franchises, are there systems in place? Were there not systems in place for catering from Bojangles? Is that something that you had to kind of figure out on the fly?

Lela Dinakaran: Great question. Um, as a brand, we did not have a catering platform. It was kind of like any customer could walk into a Bojangles and order catering. We just weren’t calling it that. So I kind of started to, you know, find this, this low hanging fruit, if you will, like this idea of like, this is what we could kind of expand into. Um, and then just kind of figured out the operational tasks behind it.

Lee Kantor: And so you had to figure that out. Yeah. As an individual. Yeah. So did you get any help from the kind of the franchisor?

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. I mean, um, we did get some support, of course, but I was just kind of paving the way and just kind of figuring it out as I went.

Rachel Simon: That’s so interesting. So when you’re marketing and all of these different for all of your different locations, I mean, do they each have their own manager? Like, how does it work? And then, like, how do you meet the needs of each specific store based on what they’re doing in their community?

Lela Dinakaran: Absolutely. So every store has a general manager. Um, and I guess for me, I always make it a point to be in my restaurants at least four, four days a week, if not every day, because that’s where the magic happens. That’s where I’m seeing my customers come in, and that’s when I can talk to my managers and figure out what’s working for them and what’s not, and what opportunities they see because they’re in their restaurants 50 hours a week. They could see a need that I might be missing. Um, just because I’m not there as often. So definitely a lot of communication, a lot of boots on the ground.

Rachel Simon: Yeah. And so obviously, if you’re living in Athens and now you’re down in, you know, Atlanta today, are you hitting the road to see some of your stores while you’re here?

Lela Dinakaran: Oh yeah. Absolutely. I am making the most of being here in the city today.

Lee Kantor: Now, what is that ideal target for that catering order? Because like you said, the catering orders are big orders. You know, that can make your day one catering order.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. So typically, uh, a catering order can range from 250 to $500. Um, those order, those are on the smaller end. I’m using air quotes for those listening. Uh, the smaller end of catering orders. I’ve done orders as big as, like ten, $20,000. Um, and as far as, like, the target market.

Lee Kantor: Is that more of a B2B play?

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. So it’s all those bigger orders and the thousands are B2B. Um, and I guess that’s where I’ve definitely started to carve it out, because usually when you think of catering, you’re thinking of your personal events. So like Super Bowl yesterday, if you were having a party, right. That’s a catering.

Lee Kantor: People.

Lela Dinakaran: Right.

Lee Kantor: So this is a it’s similar but different.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. It’s very similar but different. It’s I carved out this, uh, food for work idea. Um, food for prisons if you will. Um, so.

Lee Kantor: It was built on that.

Lela Dinakaran: First.

Lee Kantor: Customer, right?

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah, it was built on that. And then just from there, found this need of a lot of employers to incentivize, um, coming back into the office will start offering a paid.

Lee Kantor: Lunch on Thursdays.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. So that it was tapping into places like that.

Rachel Simon: What about, like, events? Do you have a food truck? Is there, like a food truck?

Lela Dinakaran: The food truck is coming. Um, I definitely think it’s another avenue I will explore. But, yeah, that’ll only continue to grow this, uh, external, uh, source for us.

Rachel Simon: Yeah. Because I’m thinking again, I have one, uh, one of my kids is a senior, so all the grad party stuff starts, you know, talk happening, and then I’m like, oh, you know, lots of people love to do food trucks for.

Lela Dinakaran: Those kinds.

Rachel Simon: Of parties. So Bojangles food truck.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, that’s is that kind of a franchise? Like, how does the franchise owner look at a food truck?

Lela Dinakaran: So it’ll just be something that we kind of add on.

Lee Kantor: So that’s again, you kind of going yeah. Rebel here. Yeah a little bit.

Lela Dinakaran: Again. Just kind of boots on the ground figuring it out as I go. So I do currently have a food truck, but it’s in the process of getting a lot of TLC right now. Um, so right now I’m in the process of finding somebody to fix it up for me. So if anybody here listening, does that hit me up.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, when you’re so when you’re going about your marketing, I’m just curious about the franchise or franchisee relationship, because this, to me is always one of the challenges when you’re a franchisee, because a lot of times the franchisor doesn’t want you to kind of be rebellious like this. They’re they’re like, hey, we have a system. This is what you bought. It was a system. How are you working with the franchisor on these initiatives? It sounds very collaborative that they’re okay with it. Are they taking your best practices and then sharing it with the network?

Lela Dinakaran: Yes. So they’re taking my best practices and sharing it and kind of growing on it. We have a great relationship with corporate. We’re with them at several times in the month. Um, so anytime that I’m innovating, I’m innovating alongside them. So it’s not something I’m doing separately on my own. We’re a team and we’re in this together. And our vested interest is just growing the brand.

Rachel Simon: And so with that, like, have you seen some of the things that you’ve created and sort of done in Done in your stores. Kind of move into some of the other franchisors?

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah, definitely. So catering is definitely one of them. So just you know, speaking about hey guys, there’s this huge opportunity out there. We just need to be tapping into it and looking for these customers. Uh, and then more than that, it’s how do we execute catering. So just speaking on all all of those things.

Lee Kantor: From an operational standpoint.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. From an operational standpoint.

Lee Kantor: So the sales there’s a sales standpoint to a marketing. So you have to make them aware that you even do this right. So there’s some of that. But then once you have the order, like you said the first time of 500 that we’re not ready for 500, most of these stores, right. Yeah. Unless there’s systems in place.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah, exactly. So it’s just making sure that it’s really just a communication game. Um, and, you know, just being being able to walk the manager through how to do it. Um, and then just also just being a sounding board, too.

Rachel Simon: So as you’re expanding your stores again, trying to get to that 50, which seems like you’ll be there very, very.

Lee Kantor: Soon this.

Rachel Simon: Week.

Lela Dinakaran: Right?

Rachel Simon: Like, are you looking for existing properties that are, you know, like a shell of a fast food restaurant that can be turned into a new store?

Lela Dinakaran: All of the above. I think we’ll just go where the best opportunity is for us.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, when you’re expanding into other markets, how does that how does that go? Like, are you I know Georgia has an area. Do you have a territory? Yeah. Is that how it works?

Lela Dinakaran: We do. Um, and we’re always exploring, you know, new markets that we could enter into. But again, that goes back to the relationship that we have with corporate. It’s very collaborative. And they’ll work with us and making sure we’re making a good investment.

Lee Kantor: So they might make a recommendation. Hey, this came up like maybe somebody didn’t make it and they would offer it to you.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. Yeah. So it’s really all opportunities. You know it could be building from the ground up. It could be acquiring a new location.

Rachel Simon: So when you were younger, I mean, did you, uh, envision yourself going into the family business? Or was this sort of, like, a surprise to you?

Lela Dinakaran: It was a surprise. So I always when I got my first job, it was in restaurants, and I loved working in restaurants. And then I went to college and I majored in business. And then I was also going to major in public health because I thought that I wanted to manage hospitals. Uh, and then I had to come to Jesus moment and realize I don’t even like going to the doctor. So why would I run hospitals? And even throughout college, I was always working in restaurants and just loved hospitality. And I love food. Huge foodie. I love talking about food and creating food. And then my dad just kind of came to me one day and was like, I think you would be really good at this. This is kind of what I’m envisioning for the company. Like, would you consider coming on board? Um, and I definitely had to think about it because it’s family business, right? I’m essentially just, you know, merging the professional world and the family world together. But yeah, I was like, sure, let’s do it. And I’ll just like I said, figure it out as it comes.

Lee Kantor: Now, are all the kids in the business?

Lela Dinakaran: So my brother is five years older than me, so he’s in the business. And then we have an older sister, but she’s on the health care side.

Lee Kantor: So now is she is that create any kind of family? I don’t want to say friction, but just kind of issues like the holidays come up. You’re like, you know, a bunch of you are talking about the business and one person’s not like, is there any weirdness?

Lela Dinakaran: So we um, great question. We are all huge Bojangles fans and all very invested in the business. So I’ve never felt like, you know, the dinner table conversation is split in half. I think even when work comes to the dinner table, everyone is equally interested.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there any succession issues like as it’s your father? Was the founder of it? Is there any plan to one of either your brother or you to take?

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. So my brother and I both currently own this business. So, you know, there that is the succession where it’s already in place, and right now it’s just in terms of growing it and, you know, keeping it going.

Lee Kantor: Now, was there any kind of, um, like how did that come about? So when your, your dad said, okay, I’m done or I’m easing out. And now.

Lela Dinakaran: So my dad loves his job. I don’t think he’s ever going to retire. I think he’s going to be all very hands on in the business until, you know, he can’t anymore.

Lee Kantor: Right. And then. So what about, like, when it comes to decisions, how do you break ties?

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. I mean, we’re always making decisions together. So I’ve never felt like that’s an issue.

Rachel Simon: No, it seems like I mean, because, look, there’s some family businesses with lots of challenges in the in when it comes to succession planning and sort of internal conflict. So it seems like through your mutual love of Bojangles, you’ve really managed to.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah.

Rachel Simon: You know, avoid those challenges.

Lee Kantor: Well, in America, there’s not a lot of multi-generational family businesses like in Europe. That’s pretty common. Not pretty common, but it happened. There’s hundreds of year old businesses that have been passed on in America. For whatever reason. It’s unusual to, you know, make it even to the third generation.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. No. So I think it’s like 70% of business of family businesses fail in the second generation. Very scary statistics. But I think that’s why we’re so driven to make it work because we know the odds are against us.

Rachel Simon: Yeah, I think I mean, I’ve worked with several clients who are either kind of in family businesses or touch them in one way or another, and a lot of it is around those challenges around succession planning or expectations of the second generation taking the business over without that, those people necessarily wanting to.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah.

Rachel Simon: Um, and so the fact that you and your brother are so, uh, you know, passionate about continuing to grow the business is, is really very cool to see.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah, definitely.

Lee Kantor: Now, how do you, um, there I’ve interviewed some people that are with a multi-generation, uh, fast food restaurant. And one of their strategies as they got into the the third generation was to encourage the younger generation to get jobs outside of the industry, to bring best practices in. Are you is there anything along those lines, uh, between you and your brother, uh, thinking to explore outside, you know, maybe complementary businesses to bring that learning into the business?

Lela Dinakaran: I think that’s definitely a possibility. Like I said, when I was in college, I was working at all sorts of different kind of restaurants, one of them being chick fil A. Um, and it was not like my family was like, don’t do that. They were actually encouraging me to go for what you just said, to learn best practices and learn more about the industry.

Rachel Simon: Yeah. No, that’s I mean, it’s you have to learn from your first of all, you have to learn from your competitors.

Lela Dinakaran: Right, exactly.

Rachel Simon: Um, and we know there’s more than enough of a of a need and a desire for good comfort food.

Lela Dinakaran: Oh, yeah.

Rachel Simon: Right. Oh, yeah. Um, one question I had, I guess on the marketing side is like, what is an example of one of your favorite, uh, campaigns that you’ve put together?

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. So recently we’ve been launching a lot of new menu items. I’ve really enjoyed kind of seeing that come together. Last year, we launched Bird Dogs. Uh, bird dogs is our Chicken Supreme, which is our chicken tender on a hot dog roll that’s toasted with pickles. And our Carolina gold sauce, which tastes like a honey barbecue sauce. Uh, such a delicious product. Um, I really loved testing that. We tested it in Atlanta several times, especially at the Atlanta United games. Um, and really just saw a lot, got a lot of positive feedback for it. So we’re like, let’s put this on the menu as a limited time offer. Uh, it’s coming back again this year, so be on the lookout for it. But I love seeing that come into fruition. And I love hearing the customer feedback and also watching what kind of demographic it’s pulling in and seeing if it’s bringing in any new consumers.

Rachel Simon: So when you’re testing at a United game, do you have a like a stand in the stadium or are you outside at the tailgates? Like how does that work?

Lela Dinakaran: So we were in the Home Depot backyard tailgating area right outside Mercedes-Benz. So huge foot traffic area. And we just set up a tent. Um, and it was just like, you know, advertising. We’re giving out free food. We had a bird dog sign and just asked people we had three flavors that we were testing. I think we did a buffalo, a ranch, and then this, uh, Carolina gold sauce. And everyone got an option to pick one. And it was just like, give us your feedback. And that’s kind of how we we canvased.

Rachel Simon: Oh, well, that sounds like fun. I mean, who doesn’t want free food?

Lela Dinakaran: It was tons of fun. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: So let’s get to the the beginning of that. So you have an idea that you want to test or do some sort of focus group? Yeah. And then some companies would just hire a focus group company to do this and a conference room. You decided to kind of go out into the real world with your own eyes and your own kind of thing. Can you talk about how that came about and how you were able to execute something like that?

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. So to be quite honest, I think Atlanta United came to us with a possible sponsorship opportunity. Um, and then as that was coming to play Bird Dogs was coming into the story. So we were like, maybe there’s something here. And we knew we knew like the demographic loosely of the people that are going to the Atlanta United games. So we knew that there could potentially be some crossover, some match, some interest. So it kind of just flourished from there. Um, and then obviously got into the conversations of like, can we test products at our booth? Where would the booth be? Um, you know how keeping track? Because that’s an.

Lee Kantor: Important component.

Lela Dinakaran: Too.

Rachel Simon: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I’m sure doing these various, like, activations in the real world are, um, outside the stores give you a lot of information.

Lee Kantor: But it can be can be chaotic if you don’t have good systems in.

Rachel Simon: Place. But probably also great for brand exposure because there might be people that have don’t have a store near them and then are like, where is the closest Bojangles to me now?

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah, definitely. And you know, when you’re doing it just out in the public, it’s unbiased. Whereas a focus group, I mean, I’ve never done it that way, but I’m assuming there’s a little bit more bias there.

Lee Kantor: Right. You have a different person is involved in a focus group than just kind of in the wild like this. You’re getting a real person in a real. They don’t have kind of, uh, pre biases. Yeah. They might come in a focus group because there’s like professional focus group people.

Rachel Simon: Right. But also I’m assuming that like the attend the people who are signing up to participate in a focus group, if they know what it what it’s for. They, they have a feeling of like, oh, I would like to.

Lee Kantor: Eat and they’re getting paid.

Rachel Simon: For.

Lee Kantor: It. Getting paid for it. So they could have biases.

Rachel Simon: But if you ever want to you know, since you’re based in Athens, if you ever want a group of 150 50 college students to test your food. I can set you up with my.

Lela Dinakaran: That is very good to know.

Lee Kantor: A bunch of beta testers are available.

Rachel Simon: They would be. They love free food.

Lee Kantor: Professional shoppers.

Rachel Simon: Right? I mean, when you brought some food up to the other show where we met and there were some these, like, amazing cookies that I brought back to my family.

Lela Dinakaran: The blueberry cookies.

Rachel Simon: Oh my God. I was like, Bojangles makes the best cookie. Yeah, ever.

Lela Dinakaran: So something fun about our brand that we’re starting to step into. Um, we are known by a lot of people for our Bo Berry biscuit. Um, I think it’s a very, um. I think it’s a big part of our breakfast brand. So we want to own this segment that we have and really dive into it. So we’ve just been expanding on that product line, one of them being the Bo Berry cookie. So we launched that. A couple of my stores still have it. So if you’re in, um, the Gwinnett County area into Atlanta, definitely stop by a store and try Bo blueberry cookie. However, I also have blueberry cobbler on my menu right now. It’s a limited time item, but definitely stop in and try it. It’s a the bottom is a Bojangles biscuit, and then we do a blueberry, um, compote on top with a icing drizzle.

Rachel Simon: And as I remember, all those biscuits are made by hand.

Lela Dinakaran: Oh, yeah. All of the biscuits are made from scratch.

Lee Kantor: Right. That’s one of your different.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah, that’s definitely something that puts Bojangles on the map, especially in terms of our competitive edge. Our biscuits are made from scratch. Their buttermilk biscuits. If you walk into the back of our kitchen you’ll see flour clouds. It’s all real ingredients. And they’re made from scratch every day.

Rachel Simon: Yeah. And I think today people, uh, care about that more and more. Yeah. They don’t want to know. They don’t want food that’s coming from a freezer. They want food that’s being actually, like, prepared.

Lela Dinakaran: Exactly. Yeah.

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

Lela Dinakaran: Um, I mean, this this is great. I love, you know, getting to talk about catering. We want to cater all of the events. So you know.

Lee Kantor: So then let’s walk through what that looks like. So who. So this one of these companies here in this building right here might be hey, we want to do lunch for our employees. So how would they just call a store. Like how do they even begin this process.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. Great question. So if you’re in charge of, um, ordering, catering for a big group, your next meeting, all you got to do is go to catering. Uh, choose your location, and you can place a catering order on there and pay for it. And you can also get it delivered as well.

Rachel Simon: And what’s the turnaround time? How much?

Lela Dinakaran: So we just need 24 hour notice.

Lee Kantor: And that’s for like you said it could be 500. Yep. So you got the systems down. We got the systems down.

Lela Dinakaran: We know how to execute. We’re just waiting for the orders.

Rachel Simon: So that could be a great breakfast incentive for a company right.

Lee Kantor: So it’s any day part right?

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. Any day part. But that’s not all. You know of course there’s businesses that need catering. But let’s also talk about like the personal parties, like the Super Bowls. Um, the Valentine’s Day, if you’re doing something, you know, at your house, um.

Rachel Simon: Grad parties.

Lela Dinakaran: Grad parties, all of that we can do. I’m actually doing a prom up in North Carolina like an after prom party. Um, and we’re also getting into weddings, too. So. Really? Yeah. So Bojangles will be everywhere.

Lee Kantor: So now when you do something like that, is there is it just the food part you’re handling or is there. Oh, I got some wedding decor that we throw in there.

Lela Dinakaran: So we don’t do any decor. But I do offer serving staff as well if that’s something the customer wants.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff.

Rachel Simon: Yeah. I mean, it seems like there is a multitude of, uh, applications for where Bojangles could be consumed. Right? Whether it is and again, on the party side and the individual, you know, within your home, whatever you’re doing or potluck or something like that.

Lela Dinakaran: Mhm.

Rachel Simon: Super easy to pick up.

Lee Kantor: Now Rachel before we wrap. Um, you know, we always like to go to you for a LinkedIn tip. Is there any kind of LinkedIn advice for a franchisee of an organization?

Rachel Simon: I mean, I think that, you know, if you’re not already doing it, whether you specifically or just if especially in these areas of like, uh, food, people love to talk about food. Every one, uh, on LinkedIn needs to eat three meals a day. Um, but there’s probably people who don’t are not even thinking about, uh, Bojangles as, as an option for some sort of, like, company incentive. And so I would just start talking about and showing pictures of setups at different, uh, corporate, you know, events that you’re catering to sort of get people to go, gosh, I never thought about that for our corporate events.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah, that’s a great idea.

Lee Kantor: Is it something that her she can, um, teach her managers to have kind of AA1 One voice.

Rachel Simon: I think it depends on, um, what their. If they have a following. So your managers, you know, there are people I they may not necessarily be on LinkedIn or be super active. So it may be better coming from you or from your brother or from some people, like higher up within the organization. Um, since you can build relationships with those corporate decision makers. Yeah. Um, but pictures, I think of your general, of your managers. It’s a good it’s a good shout out for them. But then it also gets people aware of like, this is a product and a service that we.

Lee Kantor: Because they may not even be aware that.

Rachel Simon: 100%. Yeah. 100%.

Lee Kantor: And like.

Rachel Simon: Look a beautiful platter of like delicious fried chicken is gonna be very appealing and go, oh, that looks really.

Lee Kantor: Well, especially if you get the person who was the client to do the pictures and say, Thanks to Bojangles for catering this thing.

Rachel Simon: Oh for sure. Yeah, there’s just a lot of good applications to help build help. Just enhance that brand awareness, for sure.

Lela Dinakaran: Definitely.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff. Well, one more time, the, uh, website. Best way to connect.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. So catering.

Lee Kantor: Com and then just bojangles.com to find the location.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. Bojangles.com to find the location. And also, uh, use our app. Our app is great. You can get 20% off your first order. Uh, so definitely download that app too.

Lee Kantor: Does that kind of ping you reminders or specials or.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. So you’ll get push notifications. You’ll get all all the things you need to know about Bojangles will come through on that app.

Rachel Simon: And who doesn’t like reward points, right.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah.

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

Lela Dinakaran: Thank you.

Lee Kantor: All right, that’s a wrap. Uh, this is Lee Kantor for Rachel Simon. We will see you all next time on Sandy Springs Business Radio.

About Your Host

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

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

Connect with Rachel on LinkedIn.

Roslyn Young Daniels with Black Health Matters

February 14, 2025 by angishields

High Velocity Radio

Roslyn Young Daniels with Black Health Matters

00:00 /

Roslyn Young Daniels is the Founder and CEO of Black Health Matters, a groundbreaking platform dedicated to improving health literacy and addressing health disparities in African American communities.

With over 20 years of experience in health education and strategy, Daniels has built an impactful ecosystem that connects individuals to resources for managing chronic diseases and achieving better health outcomes.

Her flagship initiative, the Black Health Matters Summits & Expos, has become the nation’s largest forum for Black health, attracting over 10,000 attendees and delivering essential education and tools to underserved populations.

Under Daniels’ leadership, Black Health Matters has experienced tremendous growth, spearheading initiatives like the Clinical Trials Corner and partnerships with organizations such as Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., to promote health equity.

Recognized with numerous awards, including the Digital Diversity Network’s Social Entrepreneur Award, Daniels continues to drive meaningful change in healthcare access and education while empowering Black communities nationwide.

Follow Black Health Matters on LinkedIn, Facebook, X and Instagram.

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 morning. You guys are in for a real treat. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast founder and CEO for Black Health Matters, Roslyn Young Daniels. How are you?

Roslyn Young Daniels : I am great, Stone. Thank you.

Stone Payton: Well, I have really been looking forward to this conversation. I have a ton of questions, Roslyn. I’m sure we won’t get to them all, but maybe a great place to start would be if you could share with me and our listeners mission. Purpose. What are you and your team really out there trying to do for folks?

Roslyn Young Daniels : We are trying to help people find that roadmap to better health. You know, Stone, I have a story that is very much like many people’s story. I lost my beloved grandparents too soon. And what is the saying is that grandchildren and grandparents have a common enemy and that’s the parent. So my grandparents spoiled me. They doted on me, but unfortunately I lost them too soon. And so many Americans can say the same thing. The cause of their demise was something that was probably, um, if they had had regular care, I would have had them around. And neither of them lived to be past 65 years old. But I have these cherished memories, and that just stuck with me. So I wanted to do something, and that at some point in my life where people that I loved, I wouldn’t have to worry about losing them sooner because they would be around, and that future generations would all be able to celebrate and cherish them.

Stone Payton: And you chose a career path that would eventually definitely facilitate that. But tell us a little bit about about that journey, if you would.

Roslyn Young Daniels : Yeah. So understanding you know, I again, I was just so upset and that happened. The loss of my grandparents happened when I was 17. So then fast forward when I, I guess I was in my early 40s when it was decided that pharma could advertise to consumers. And I got really excited about it because I understood that for many who never had a conversation or thought about health outside of a waiting room, they would now see it on the television. So then I said, you know what? Understanding that certain segments of the population bear the burden of disease, most who might be able to make my this my life’s work. And so my goal was to address the medically underserved and provide them tools and information that can help them guide and navigate towards a healthier life.

Stone Payton: So. So why do we have that that gap? And I don’t know if this is the right term or not. Like like health literacy or health knowledge. Why do we have that gap in the first place? You think.

Roslyn Young Daniels : You know, unfortunately, people of color in this country just don’t do as well in the medical system. Um, when we look at the mortality rates, what we see is that women who live in a certain zip code or families that live in a specific zip code do better than others that live in a poorer zip code, or a black zip code, or an Hispanic zip code or, you know, in a community that has Indian residents. So or I should say Native Americans. So that really is a factor in how people live or how long they live. For me, when the Affordable Care Act was passed, I was really enthusiastic because access is everything. And so through that, I launched Black Health Matters to be the North Star for thousands who wanted to be healthy, but really just didn’t know how or where or what to do.

Stone Payton: Well, I’m getting the distinct impression that that that the, the, the the deck is stacked against some of these, uh, underserved constituencies for sure. But I wonder, does that also reinforce or help create and then Reinforce like also these these cultural challenges like you come to mistrust the whole system. So that just feeds on itself as well. Is that an element?

Roslyn Young Daniels : Definitely an element. But at the end of the day, 80% of what you do is going to really make the difference in how long you live and the quality of your life. Your medical intervention is really 20%. It’s what you do every day. Mhm. And again, that’s 80% of the wellbeing practices that you adopt are really important because that’s what’s really going to carry you over. So if you understand that you need to exercise, that you need to eat nutritious food, that you need some level of mental rest, mental health, all of these things that you need to hydrate, you need to sleep 7 to 8 hours a night. So if you’re putting those things into practice on a regular basis. You’re going to do so much better than those who don’t do that. So we want to solve for what we can solve for. So again, we want people to understand how to live a healthier life. Put better practices in place so that when they do come into the medical system, they’ve got that fighting chance.

Stone Payton: All right. Let’s dive into the work a little bit. What are what are the mechanisms you use to affect this kind of change? I’m I’m thinking probably a great deal of education, but talk about talk about the work itself.

Roslyn Young Daniels : Yeah. So we launched with Black Health Matters. Com which is a leading health and wellness wellness website um that focuses on self-reflective content. And it features more than 30 channels on all types of chronic disease from cancer, diabetes, heart disease. We have information on relationships, nutrition, cooking. So I think in total, we probably have 5000 plus pages of health related content on the website. And that’s where we base the majority of our work because knowledge is our. And it’s so often, you know, you want something that you know, is going to speak to you and connect with you based on your cultural experience. And that’s what’s really going to help make this and make that information authentic. And that’s what the Black Health Matters website does. So then from the Black Health Matters website, we then went into creating newsletters. And so we for and I encourage everyone on the broadcast to register for a Black Health Matters newsletter by going to W-w-w health Matters.com. And that’s where we publish the health news of the of the day. We also follow national health observances. And so that February is heart Month. So we’re going to give you all kinds of tips on heart disease, fitness, nutrition, you name it. So we follow the services. And we also have a laser focus on chronic diseases that impact Black Americans. Most often certain kinds of diseases just don’t get the same level of oxygen. So we’re going to take that deep dive on lupus, a multiple sclerosis, on heart disease, endometrial cancer. And so while these may seem, you know, fairly clinical and pretty severe, there’s always hope as long as you stay open to what science has to offer. And that’s what we package in the Black Health Matters newsletter.

Stone Payton: Well, I’ll tell you what I find attractive about that is it sounds like you have and continue to aggregate the information, provide one portal that that I can go to, to, to get this information as opposed to you’ve done the hard work, right. You’ve done the and and you’re on top of it and continue to assemble that information and and disseminate that information. I, I find that very, very attractive. Are you getting some help or. Well, are like the major health organizations and people in the health care community, are they embracing this or are they bristling with this? What what are those relationships like?

Roslyn Young Daniels : Yeah, we do have an editorial team. And so we have contacts that all the advocacy organizations. So whether it be the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Association, American Diabetes Association, um, some of the smaller advocacy groups. Um, they, we all we we look to elevate what they’re doing, and they have experts that they share with us for the content that we’re writing. Our website is really focused on evidence based content through that is and coming through, um, information based on scientific rigor. So we’re not going to cover crystals, for example, or we’re not really going to cover, um, things that are slightly out of the range of an evidence based report on how to manage a chronic condition so people can feel that this is the information that’s important, that will stand the test of scientific scrutiny. And this again gives some gives our patients, our audience, our caregivers a leg up on managing chronic disease and implementing preventative strategies.

Stone Payton: So at this point in the evolution of your work, what are you finding the most rewarding? What’s the most fun about it for you these days? Rosalind.

Roslyn Young Daniels : Oh my goodness, I think I have fun every day. Um, I could be on the. I could talk with you forever soon about that. I, I what is the what’s exciting for me right now? Um, and then I know we’re going to talk a little bit about the Black Health Matter Summit is that we feel like we’re turning a corner. Um, people are very responsive. You have to understand. Can you imagine, Stone, that? You know, social media is so incredibly important, especially if you’re a website publisher. And so when we launched, the best way to get your content shown to a wider audience is to place it in a chat group and stay on Facebook. Um, and what we would find is that when we would do that, groups would report us to the Facebook gods and we would lose our ability to share that content. So we were inserting ourselves into women’s chat about hair, lifestyle and beauty, but we had health related content for that. Um, and they would be. Oh. Black health matters. Who are they? And we would suffer the ramifications of that. But now we are highly engaged in social media. We’re able to insert information in a variety of different ways with a variety of different communities, and that really is very rewarding. So again, if it’s a chat group on Facebook and they’re talking about hair and beauty, well, we’ll talk about the science of hair or the how nutrition can help make you more beautiful. So or how your attitude, your mental health can make you more beautiful. So that’s incredibly rewarding to us. Um, and so we’re also having my team is also just amazing. Um, and that they too have this vision to help combat the social determinants of health so that folks can, you know, live a healthier life. So being able to able to work with like minded people every day is just the gas, so I enjoy that.

Stone Payton: Well, I can tell, like I could definitely hear it in your voice and I know our listeners can as well. But yeah, say more about these summits and expos, because I feel like that’s maybe a key cornerstone for your work. Yeah.

Roslyn Young Daniels : It is. And that’s another thing that just I can well up, um, in terms of talking about the summit, but through my journey in working, um, kind of like an outside of the healthcare system because I was originally a marketing person, a sales person, and I supported organizations that like the, um, Association of Black Cardiac or Cardiac Cardiologist or the National Medical Association. And so through that, I got a chance to go to scientific meetings. And, uh, that’s where, you know, papers are written, breakthroughs are shared. Um, and while I don’t have a scientific background, probably failed all my scientific classes.

Roslyn Young Daniels : When I would attend those meetings, I could tell when a physician or scientist was stoked about a new breakthrough that was going to help a patient live five years longer, or there would be less of side effects on specific therapies. Um, and so the way that they presented the passion around which they presented connected with me as a layperson who knew nothing about health. I said to myself, if I could replicate that same level of passion and put these experts in black communities so that they could speak directly to patient populations. And as we know, black Americans have some of the highest, um, health disparities in this country. So the need is great. So if I could just marry the two, I might have something unique. And so, of course, you know, folks are like, well, is your audience really going to sit through six hours of six.

Roslyn Young Daniels : Six hours of, uh, clinical presentation? And I would say, I don’t know, but I have to try. And that’s how the Black Health Matter summits were born. We replicate what you would find at any important scientific gathering. And we but we give it a cultural flair so that it feels like you’re at the Bet Awards. Um, our events are free. They’re open to the public. And we’re fortunate and that we’re able to, um, curate a world class faculty that’s committed to health equity when they speak to the to the attendees there. They’re just the level of attention on that stage is. You could hear a pin drop. They are so excited that they understand everything that that scientist has to say. Um, and that is some for many, a breakthrough that if they can get it in this environment, they most certainly can get it when they go into a medical office. And that doctor may not be as warm or forthcoming, but because they’ve gotten confidence from coming to a BHM summit, they feel that they can address the physician and get what they need.

Stone Payton: I’m going to put my business hat on here for a moment, because I’m beginning to to believe maybe you can validate this, um, that health disparities like this can have a real impact on on businesses. The bottom line, if my people are experiencing this, or a subset of my people are experiencing this, this could really have a negative or conversely, a very positive impact on the business if addressed properly. Is that accurate?

Roslyn Young Daniels : Yes. The business and the country. If people are having strokes at 40 and they’re unable to work great or have a livelihood, then they may have to then go on public assistance and the state or the country or the nation would have to start to provide for them. So yes, there are policy issues all around helping people live healthier. Um, so yes, there is definitely a relationship between keeping people healthier longer so that they can provide for themselves, um, so that they are not or have don’t have to, um, rely on state subsidies and those types of things in order to live.

Stone Payton: You are clearly so creative, so energetic. You have a you have a lot of irons in the fire, as my dad would say. But, uh, one of them that that I came across in my notes is this clinical trials center. Can you speak to that a little bit?

Roslyn Young Daniels : Yes, yes. So, you know, it’s so important that people of color participate in clinical trials. And I know they get a bad name. And and a lot of folks will say, oh, I don’t want to be tested on, but, you know, everything that we eat, everything that we currently take has been through a clinical trial that includes your aspirin, your Tylenol, your Robitussin. So there are certain diseases, right, that impact certain groups. More men have higher rates of prostate cancer. So in order to solve and come up with therapies that work, you’ve got to work on all different types of of ethnicities because the DNA, all of that is, is slightly different. And so you want therapies that can work on and be effective for the broadest possible population. And so for so long their drugs were only, you know, tested on men. So now over time it’s evolved. And women are now participating in clinical trials. And now we have to get people of color. Black folks represent, uh, what is it, about 13% of the population, but are only 5% of them are participating in clinical trials. So those numbers do not make sense. Um, it also limits the number of therapies out there. Women who have or men, women and men who have lupus for years. Uh, there were only like 1 or 2 therapies out there when the predominant audience for lupus is African American. So we have to want to push science to create therapies to help us, but we also have to be a part of the solution by participating. But Clinical Trials Korner will serve to expose our attendees at our Black Health Matters Summit to what is available to them in terms of, um, new health advances.

Roslyn Young Daniels : You know, the best thing about it. And, you know, I don’t want to take it to the extreme, but if you’re in that Hail Mary situation, that breakthrough on that clinical trial could really make the difference in keeping you here longer. Um, also, you know, clinical trials help you in terms of the care you receive. So often, people of color are suspicious about their doctor that their doctor really care. Are we you know, patients will say, well, am I getting the same level of care as if I lived in a, you know, very expensive or affluent community. And my hospital is is urban. Am I going to get the same level of care with a clinical trial? You’re going to get a that and above the standard of care. There is so much regulation around a clinical trial. The government has standards. The state, FDA, everyone. You’ll have more eyes, more services, more information. Plus then you may get paid. They may transport you to and from. They will work at your convenience so you may have more television telemed visits. A nurse may come to see you there. There are more services provided to support people who participate in a clinical trial than not. So it’s a great opportunity to get better care to be seen by, I would say, some outstanding physicians and scientists, so it’s a good deal. So we encourage people and our audience to be informed, just don’t make a rash decision and say, oh, I’m not participating. You are missing out. And you want to make a statement of participating so that future generations can benefit from what you’ve done. So we we are pro clinical trial participation.

Stone Payton: And you’re giving people you’re educating people about those opportunities. I think it’s marvelous how you’re leveraging these summits, the expose the the website. And you’re just you’re your advocacy for, uh, this group of, of clearly underserved people. I, I’m going to switch gears on you a minute, Rosalind, and ask you a little bit about passions, interests, pursuits outside the scope of the the work that we’re talking about. My listeners know that I like to hunt, fish and travel. I like introducing people. You know, all my courses are around introducing other people to the joys of the of the outdoors. Anything outside the scope of this work that you have a tendency to, to nerd out about and maybe get away from it now and again.

Roslyn Young Daniels : Oh, I make my husband crazy because I am a smooth jazz aficionado.

Stone Payton: Oh, I love it.

Roslyn Young Daniels : We’ll travel for smooth jazz concert. So I love getting on the road. Um, and traveling to hear some of my favorites. Um, being there for the weekend. It’s just so energizing. So, um, that’s that’s definitely one of my passions when I’m not working.

Stone Payton: Fantastic. I’m so glad that I asked.

Stone Payton: So I believe that that that February and and we are having this conversation in February is both Black History Month and American Heart Month. And it does help create some awareness for prioritizing health. I wonder if we could leave our listeners before we wrap with a couple pro tips, maybe around how to best leverage all the resources that you and your organization are providing, or some just some things going back to early in the conversation, just day to day things to keep in mind and to do or not do but and look gang. The number one pro tip is tap into to Roslyn and her team’s work. Get on this website. Take advantage of these resources. Reach out and have a conversation with Roslyn or someone on her team. But to to keep them sated between now and then. Roslyn, let’s leave them with a little something to chew on.

Roslyn Young Daniels : Well, you know what, Stone, I have to say just one more thing about the Black Health Matters Summit, which will happen on February the 22nd at the Loudermilk Conference Center from 8 to 3. And the address is 40 Courtland Street Northeast in Atlanta. First of all, that summit is virtual. So wherever you are in the country, you can tune in. Registration is free. Once you come to our summits, you’ll eat breakfast. You’ll have lunch courtesy of Black Health Matters. And we’re excited. Most importantly, on site, we offer a blueprint for wellness screening. We will screen you through Quest Diagnostics and an organization called Choose Healthy Life. We will screen you for 28 conditions. That includes, you know, your thyroid, your cholesterol, um, screening you for diabetes, you name it, vitamin C, vitamin D deficiency, all of that for free. Um, and so that as an attendee, you will have a booklet, a guide to keep with you for perpetuity as you go and see your regular physician. You’ll have a document that you can say, what about this? And what about that? And why can’t we get these scores better? So we’ll have that as a game plan.

Roslyn Young Daniels : We’ll also have mental health screenings. Um, we’ll be administering Covid flu shots. Rsv shots. So all of that is there for everyone who wants to come. And again, it’s free. My last point would be what said care if you’re not feeling well. If you’re a person of a certain age, if you’re not feeling well, go to the doctor. And and we have a program called Speak Up. So often physicians kind of have this God complex, and they’re only going to spend a certain amount of time with you. So make sure you’re prepared for that call. And if you ask them to explain, pause, make them speak and spend more time with you. Um, because that’s really what they are supposed to do. And if you’re not getting that type of care or that type of interest. Then find another doctor. So stick with your gut. You know, it was so funny. My father, when we used to take him for a medical appointment, he would say, don’t tell the doctor anything. That is the worst advice.

Roslyn Young Daniels : That that one can have. Because, again, he just didn’t trust. Doctors were just troublemakers. So let’s be let’s have that growth and that positive mindset and let’s see what, what science and, and healthcare can do for us. Because again, we’ll be armed. And we know that health matters. So be strong and be persistent.

Stone Payton: And speak up I love it. All right. What’s the best way for our listeners to tap into your work, continue to to take full advantage of all of these opportunities and resources. So let’s let’s leave them with some coordinates to do that website, whatever is appropriate.

Roslyn Young Daniels : All right w WW black health matters. Com and my mailbox is Rosaline r o s l y n at Blackheath Matters.com.

Stone Payton: Well, Rosaline, it has been an absolute delight having you on the broadcast. Thank you for your insight, your perspective, your enthusiasm. You are doing such marvelous work. You and your team for so many. You obviously are having a profound impact on some people that could really use the help. And we sure appreciate you.

Roslyn Young Daniels : Thank you.

Stone Payton: So my pleasure. All right. Until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Rosalind Young Daniels with Black Health Matters and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying, we’ll see you in the fast lane.

Damon Joshua with Rent.

February 13, 2025 by angishields

Tech Talk

Damon Joshua with Rent.

00:00 /

As President, Damon Joshua leads the Rent. organization and sets the strategic vision and roadmap for continued growth at Rent., ensuring Rent. continues to meet the ever evolving needs of the multifamily industry. Damon’s customer-first values, coupled with his competitive drive and strategic acumen, make him a perfect fit to lead Rent.

Damon’s career spans 25 years across various industries, including notable positions at MarketSource, Vertafore, Cisco, Verizon, and UPS, where he was responsible for managing multi-billion-dollar revenues and leading sales teams of 1,500. His diverse background provides him with a unique perspective to innovate and drive Rent.’s growth and product strategy forward.

Damon’s appointment marks an exciting chapter for Rent., and his dedication to driving value and efficiency for both clients and renters alike ensures that Rent. will remain at the forefront of the industry, delivering unparalleled experiences and solutions. Damon was appointed President in May of 2024.

Connect with Damon on LinkedIn.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for another episode of Tech Talk with your host, Joey Kline.

Joey Kline: Happy Friday everyone. Another great day for a Tech Talk. We have got a great one for you. Today we’re going to be chatting with Damon Joshua, who is the CEO of Rent. Damon, how are you doing?

Damon Joshua: Fantastic.

Joey Kline: So when I say rent, because I know it is stylized rent with a period after that.

Damon Joshua: Yeah, right. Yahoo! Remember, Yahoo had the, um. The exclamation,

Joey Kline: Exclamation point,yeah. That’s right.

Joey Kline: Hopefully you guys don’t go to the same fate as Yahoo!

Damon Joshua: No, we just stuck with the period.

Joey Kline: Yes. Anyone looking it up online? Rent period.

Damon Joshua: Yeah, just rent.com.

Joey Kline: Rent.com. There you go. Okay, so, uh, let’s get into it. What does Rent.com do?

Damon Joshua: Well, a couple of things, but mainly we’re what we would call an ILS, which is an internet listing service. So when you’re out looking for properties, mainly single family properties, um, we’re a repository for all those things. You need an apartment building or looking for a place to rent, or there be a, you know, multifamily unit or, you know, maybe an over 55 or, you know, college housing or, um, maybe it’s a home. You come to our site, we’ve got the most listings out there, uh, or, you know, one of the top 2 or 3 places to get listings. And we’re going to display that, uh, that property for you and hopefully allow you to go click on a button and set up a tour and go rent.

Joey Kline: And so this is look, I remember when I was doing this maybe 10 or 15 years ago when I moved back to Atlanta, right? I used Craigslist to find the apartment. Okay. Right. But the world has evolved.

Damon Joshua: It has.

Joey Kline: Yes. Yeah. And so how does someone looking ensure that the party on the other end, the owner of the property, the owner of the home, is a reputable and safe entity with whom to do business.

Damon Joshua: Well, you know, there’s good old Google out there, but you know, our job is to really work with the communities that list with us and ensure that, you know, it’s somewhere that people actually live. And there there’s certain standards that each community has that really regulate that more than we can do. But our goal is really to list them all, make sure that we capture places that people are going to actually want to rent. And then we put those out there so that you have the most information that you can get at your fingertips when you’re actually making that search.

Joey Kline: And so your platform essentially connects the owner of a property, the potential renter of a property. And from there, it’s a kind of on them to consummate that relationship however they see fit.

Damon Joshua: Yeah, absolutely. And we’ve got tools to shepherd it along. Right. You know, our goal is once you start to look and you narrow your search down, we’re going to have tools within our app or within our online tools or our online, you know, computer based connection to really help you figure it out. So if you can imagine you’re looking at a place, it’s empty. We’ve got tools that virtually stage it for you so you can see what it looks like with furniture or with, you know, a bed in the bedroom and those kinds of things to help you. Right. Evolve it and figure it out as you go along, so that you can get yourself in the place. Because most people don’t want to spend a lot of time doing it. They want to find some place quickly and get moving.

Joey Kline: Oh, so that’s interesting. So you have dimensions and then you can basically virtually stage furniture for someone to understand. How does my existing or future stuff fit in this place?

Damon Joshua: Right, yeah. Because everyone doesn’t have a fantastic imagination, right? So yeah, you know, you’re looking at a at a space and you’re trying to figure out, is this going to work for me? Um, maybe you’re you’re moving from a very large living room, and you got to decide. Well, this one’s smaller than what I had. The bedroom’s bigger, but this is really close to where I work. Can I make this work? Yeah. You know, and then all of a sudden, you see, you kind of virtually stage it and you see some things, and you go, okay, I can make this trade off.

Joey Kline: Do you all have metrics on how long it takes the average person to search for a new place?

Damon Joshua: Um, more around how long they, uh, metrics. We definitely look at that, but but the real metric is how long it, um. They start.

Joey Kline: Okay.

Damon Joshua: Right. So it used to be people started, you know, 30 days before they looked to move, because that was when you had to give notice on your lease. Sure. And now we’re starting to see that move out to almost closer to 90 days. Yeah. Right. Because you have to give more lead time. And so we’re starting to starting to see searches begin sooner. Mhm. Um and we can see because they save you know, their the information in the app and those kinds of things. But you’re starting to see the search start sooner. So um that just means that people want more information. You know they’re, they’re you know folks attention span is obviously gotten a lot shorter over the years. Um, but our goal is to allow them to, you know, when you’re looking, you can save it and keep, you know, come back to it later. And then, you know, we’ve leaned into AI to start to remember what you looked at and serve you up the things that will probably, uh, you’ll want to see.

Joey Kline: Right. So even if you don’t set up that saved search, which is available on many different websites from yours to, you know, if you’re looking for a car, right. The the system remembers what you have done and will offer it up to you, even if you haven’t necessarily set it up yourself.

Damon Joshua: Absolutely. All right. We’re moving in that way to really, you know, help you once again cut down the search time, get to where you want to get to, because that’s what our clients want ultimately, right? They’re they’re interested in getting you to their place. Our job is to help you get there, too.

Joey Kline: Uh, obviously a lot of companies are investing in AI capabilities, and I’m always curious whether it is in-house, a specialist actually working on that for your team, or whether you are partnering with an outside vendor to build those capabilities into your technology.

Damon Joshua: Right. It’s it’s, um, it’s a little bit of both. Right. We’ve got teams in-house that are obviously working on. I just mentioned the virtual staging. Um, there’s all kinds of applications that are available. Um, so you may buy or lean into a platform that already exists. Open AI is one. A lot of companies are leveraging that platform to do things. Um, but then you can also build out your own. So you may take that as an open source platform and then build upon it. Um, but we’ve got teams of engineers that are actively looking at a multitude of ways to make our product better or our website better, or make the experience better for a user who’s coming to figure out what they want to do. We leverage it for our our our business partners who are displaying the multifamily units. Um, and they want their units or their particular properties to stand out. So how do we, you know, leverage both sides of the coin? Yeah. And we use AI to do that. And I think we’ll continue to lean into it. Um, more and more, um, as the technology matures. Today it is not. Um, it’s interesting. It’s not, you know, changing the world yet.

Joey Kline: It’s not a panacea.

Damon Joshua: It is not.

Joey Kline: Yes, yes. Uh, yes, I find that it tends to be, you know, you hear it on earnings calls and you hear it on podcasts and, um, you know, interviews of how’s this going to change the world? And I’m not trying to be a cynical naysayer, but it just feels like a lot of speculation and a bit of drinking the Kool-Aid. I’m not at all implying that there is not a lot of potential there, but I don’t think anyone who claims to really know, I don’t think, has any idea what they’re talking about.

Damon Joshua: There’s a there, there. Yeah, but you’ve seen this over time. Digital transformation. You’ve seen you know, you’ve seen a lot as technology moves. You know, there’s a there’s a tend to establish that this is a thing. And then there’s a run up on that particular technology where there’s a ton of spending, and then you have to implement and execute. And and then you either get the benefits that everyone said you would get or not. Typically you don’t get the full benefit of it with this particular one. I do think it’s a game changer. We have started to see companies change their go to market strategies and even their, um, you know, resourcing strategies or companies have come out and said, hey, um, Salesforce said we’re not going to hire any new engineers. We will. We are at the number of engineers we will ever have. Yeah.

Joey Kline: That’s that’s.

Damon Joshua: Significant.

Joey Kline: Right? Yes.

Damon Joshua: So there are real, um, there are real effects, um, out there in the marketplace, uh, with AI and, uh, as you said, it’s not a panacea today. Sure. Um, but I think that, um, I think I just saw a statistic that most of the, the large companies. So Amazon and the companies that are, you know, Microsoft that are in the space are going to spend over 100 billion in just in evolving the technology this year. So that’s a large investment. Um.

Joey Kline: I have absolutely no doubt that it will make a significant impact on our world. I think what I’m referring to is that when you hear someone who’s not specifically Andy Jassy or Tim Cook or Sam Altman, like, actually opine about this, it is outside the industry. Yeah. I just, I, you know, take it with a grain of salt.

Damon Joshua: Yeah. It’s top of the pyramid. Yeah. Right. Yeah. You know, is a is a mid-size or SMB going to realize, uh, what those guys are talking about today? Probably they’re going to need help figuring it out and figuring out how to apply it to the things that they do day to day. And, um, so I think there’s probably opportunity for companies to go out and assist. Yeah. So you can figure out, hey, you know, how do I leverage this? How can I work faster and smarter and more And more efficiently. There’s probably a big gap for the big, big companies that are doing really cool things and everyone else.

Joey Kline: So okay, let’s let’s dovetail this into your own talent and your own hiring. Right. Has I guess we could apply this to a number of different functions. Right. Whether it’s sales, marketing, finance, technology. But you know, you have you’ve recently taken the helm. Have you been there for a year, less than a year.

Damon Joshua: A little bit less than a year.

Joey Kline: Less than a year. Okay. So you come in, you have a vision, right? You have a vision for culture. I’m sure you have a vision for team. Okay. Talk to me about how your vision for team actually gets implemented in your hiring practice. What type of people do you look for. And maybe it’s different across different functions.

Damon Joshua: It is. But let’s just talk in general. Right? You want your culture is important. That’s my job right? There’s a lot of folks that count money and, you know, figure out what products we need to bring to bring the market and, you know, how are we going to market those products and how are we going to sell it? I have teams of people that do that, but ultimately you want to make sure that you have the right people on board because you can’t do anything if you don’t have folks with the right attitude that that are willing to buy in. Because at the end of the day, you’re going to ask more than probably at a given time, uh, we might be compensating you for. Right. I need you to want to and be willing to put in for the cause. And so you, you know, my my role, my, you know, my job is to to lay that out for the folks that are already there, such that they have a really good understanding of what I feel is going to take to win and what’s the most important thing. And then you lay that you you then apply that to our hiring practices and work with our recruiting teams and teams such that we put in place things to tease those. Those attributes out in candidates. And you make sure that that is the main thing. So you work with your senior leaders and your mid-level leaders so that they understand, hey, talent is great, but we need these 2 or 3 qualities that will override, uh, if there’s a jump ball that’s going to override, uh, maybe some of the, you know, someone may have a great talent, but, you know, if their attitude is not in the right place and their willingness to work and their their understanding of how we go to market and how we do business and how we want to do it matters.

Joey Kline: It does. And there are some things that are just non-negotiable, right? And that can be disqualifying, even if everything else seems right. Um, I don’t know who I heard this from, but I was talking to someone and they were. I don’t think the insight inside is revolutionary, but I think that the simplicity is, um, is insightful. So, you know, someone for a senior leadership role came in on paper and in presentation. Just great. Said all the right things, right. And at the end of the day, when this person left, the hiring manager went to the front desk, um, and asked, you know, how were they? How did they treat you? And basically said, you know, somewhat like a servant and not terribly kind. And that was that. That’s it. Right. You can tell a lot about people, um, by what they do when they think that no one important is looking.

Damon Joshua: Correct.

Joey Kline: Yeah.

Damon Joshua: Yeah. Um, that’s a great. I’ve heard that before. Yeah. And look, my, uh, my leadership style and philosophy is we’re all. We got different jobs. They all serve different purposes. But we all go home. We all get up in the morning and we go do a job, you know? Until you own your own business. And that’s the way I conduct myself, you know. There’s no oh, look, I’m Damian DJ, whatever you want to call me. Um, but when you, you act that way, you know, if you go into my office or talk to any of my teams, I spend just as much time trying to better understand what they do and how they do it, because that matters. Once again, I’m going to need them to lean in at some point. Yeah. And if they feel like they they matter in the grand scheme of what we’re getting done, probably going to get a little bit more out of them. Um, and all the teams that I’ve built over the, you know, 30 plus years I’ve been doing this kind of work, specifically in performance based organizations.

Damon Joshua: You can beat the hell out of someone. You’ll get them for a short amount, you know, a short amount of time. They’ll be scared. They’ll be They’ll be active. They’ll jump when they see you. Yeah. Doesn’t last. That’s right. And? And you get to understand how people work and how they tick. You make them feel like and believe that you care and you understand them, you know, below a surface level engagement. And they really feel that they’re tied to the cause. You start to see performance really jump by double digit percent, right? That’s how I like to build teams. That’s how I build culture. That’s how the organization starts to really get lift. Yeah. And you can conquer so many things. So it takes diligence. It has a real, um, you have to make sure your senior leadership team understands that. What the most important thing is, um, they’ll tend to want to look at numbers a lot of times. And those things, and those are important. But the culture matters. And that’s my job to to hit hit home with that.

Joey Kline: Yeah. I mean the role of the CEO really is, to a certain degree, kind of chief cheerleader. Chief culture officer. I think that it’s, um, so much can be drilled down to very simply, don’t be a jerk and express empathy.

Damon Joshua: Yeah. It at a, you know, to start. Yes. Yeah. But it really is. You need to take time. And, you know, one of the things that did way back in the day, we used to hand out note cards, hand out note cards to all the managers. And I’d said, you go out and you fill out these note cards about your people. You should know name. Is there a significant other? Do they have kids? What are the kids names? What are the hobbies? Is there any significant changes in their lives in the last 12 months? Right. And so I gave him a real, you know, a limited amount of amount of time, and they looked at me like I had five heads. I’m like, here’s these three by five note cards. Go find out because every person’s different. Not everyone. I don’t want to get in their business. No, you need to get in their business. Because when you’re asking or you’re having a conversation that matters to them, right? You know, we’re all trading time for money when it matters to them. You can understand why the answer is coming back the way it’s coming. Yeah, that matters. Right? Um, you can get five answers that are all the same, and they all mean something different.

Joey Kline: I bet that in your position you have just because you’ve built, as you said, performance based teams, really all your career. Um, how is it? Harvey. Mackey. Harvey Mackay. This is the guy who owns the envelope company in Minnesota, right? So amazing. Sales leader. Yeah, right. One would think envelope company. That’s kind of, you know, kind of kind of dull. Um, he has several incredible sales books, and one of the things that I’ve taken from, um, him and, you know, the these are the type of books where, you know, you don’t absorb everything if you take 1 or 2 things away, benefits your life. Um, for every customer of his, he basically had a sheet very similar, you know, birthday, religion, background, school, kids. Um, it’s just incredible how much those things matter. It’s it’s a it’s a little thing that can make a big difference.

Damon Joshua: Yeah. It’d be. It’s probably a field we should add in in the CRM, you know. That’s right. To really understand your customer. Yeah. Um, but for me, it starts with the employee. Right? I want to make sure that I understand the team really well. And, um, you know, like I said, people think that’s soft stuff, and, uh, but you find out I will outperform you every time if everything’s the same. And I’ve got the same set of rules. My teams are going to kick your tail up and down the street every time.

Joey Kline: Well, I think that and I’ve come to this conclusion very firmly over the past couple of years. And it’s it came more from sort of the difference between a fully remote job, um, versus, you know, one that is more around a team. If all you have to offer an employee is a dollar sign, that’s not really, at the end of the day, it unless it is a extraordinarily large dollar sign, right? There comes a point where it’s just not sticky enough. If the only thing that someone is getting from work is a paycheck, then that becomes a, then your company becomes a commodity and it becomes very easy for that person to switch at very little cost. If there are other things, more the soft stuff, as you’ve said, which I, you know, think is very important, right? If someone gets way more than just a dollar sign in their bank account from what they do and the people they’re around, that’s a way to build build a truly sticky employee.

Damon Joshua: Yeah, there’s plenty of data out there that says that, right? That if all things are equal, pay falls down to the fourth or fifth most important thing. Yeah. And there’s tons of data that talks about, you know, people leave because of their manager directly.

Joey Kline: Huge.

Damon Joshua: That’s true too. So, you know, you put it all in a mixing bowl. Um, yeah. You can’t be in the bottom 25 percentile of pay, but let’s just say you’re in the 50 percentile of pay then. Yeah. How do I engage? How do I make sure that people, you know, believe they understand what they do? Does it matter? So that’s why you spend tons and tons of hours and money on surveying your people to really get an understanding of how well you’re connecting with them. Um, those things are really important, and I’ve seen companies that I’ve been with where we didn’t do really well at that, and we actually made a deliberate effort to change it, to engage, to ask one more question. We I’ve seen us say we’re going to ask one more question. We’re going to ask, do you see a difference here? We literally asked people as we engage with them. And then on the surveys of next year, we saw a significant uptick. But more importantly, we saw our churn come down. Like we saw people leaving voluntarily come down.

Joey Kline: Yeah.

Damon Joshua: That’s huge. Um, which, you know, that’s an expense to a company to go out and, you know, all that stuff and find new find new employees.

Joey Kline: Yeah. Um, I’d love to talk about your background a little bit and how you got here. Um, I am I also do want you to tell the story of your first gig because it’s it’s. I just think it’s fantastic. And I think it’s a really interesting lesson for, uh, young people being thrown into a crazy situation. Yeah, but just, you know, give me the, uh, the the elevator, uh, version of it.

Damon Joshua: Elevator version? Yeah. Uh, man. Um, I have, uh, I have done everything. You know, I kind of came the circuitous route, so. Yeah. You know, from growing up, uh, in Atlanta, originally being from New York, but growing up in Atlanta and, um, just kind of bopping around. Been on my own since I was 18 and, um, you know, really having to figure it out at a young age and, you know, going to college and playing ball there, uh, at West Georgia, which was a great experience. Really learned about team. When you’re on a team like, you know, and doing those things. Um, and then just, uh, you know, I’ve been in logistics business, I’ve been in it and telecom and. Human resource business. So you get an opportunity. I’ve had an opportunity to see how things have been done across a wide variety of, uh, of different roles. Um, you know, I’ve had people tell me, even in a management role that, you know, you don’t run things we do and, and, you know, go read handbook page, you know, section nine five. And once you read that, then you can come talk to me. Yeah. Uh, which is always interesting. So, um, you know, my career has just allowed me, uh, through all those different zigs and zags. Uh, as you said earlier, you pick up nuggets along the way, and you may not. You know, someone’s interviewing me, and you go, I don’t I don’t really understand how working in logistics, uh, may tie to a sales role. Oh, there’s, you know, give me a minute and I’ll tell you. Right. But it just it gives me a perspective. A lot of times when I’m sitting in a room and we’re trying to either sell something or make a make a decision. I had just had I’ve seen it done so many different ways that I’m going to more likely be open to, and push the team to think about something a little bit more creatively than just how it’s always been done.

Joey Kline: I think that the circuitous route and obviously I have to, you know, maybe I’m biased because I have somewhat of a similarly securities route. Um, but the more experiences that you have, the more people that you have been, um, exposed to, the more organizations that you’ve been exposed to, both good and bad. It just informs you in a way, that staying at the same company for 30 years never will.

Damon Joshua: Yeah. And look, if you if you’re one of the you know, I mean, I think that that the person that stays at a company 30 years is, is, you know, back in the 70s that was a thing and now it’s not. Um, but it still happens. You know, there are companies out there, um, that, that have folks like that. There’s almost a blind bliss, right? Right. That if you go somewhere and it’s the only thing you’ve ever known. Um, you know, there’s, uh, there’s a bliss to that. Um, and, uh, I think it’s interesting, but for, you know, I didn’t get that same lot. And so you make you got to make do with what you have. And, um, I definitely have, uh, have been able to capitalize on it. Um, and I, you know, I’ve had some really, really good experiences and more importantly, kind of back to what we were talking about before, some really good mentors along the way that have helped me cross chasms and get me to places and have taken chances on me along the way. And so, um, I’ve felt always in those instances that, you know, I got to repay those guys.

Joey Kline: Yeah, I think the, the pay it forward, uh, instinct is, is enormous. Yeah. Um, there’s a lot of people that Help you along the way that get nothing out. Well, seemingly get nothing out of it right now. Once you do it yourself, you know that you do get something out of it, right? It fulfills something inside of you. But in the moment, you know, if you’re 25 and, you know, trying to get someone who’s far more senior than you to coffee, you know, in the moment it seems like you’re getting the lion’s share of the value out of that. And I think what you learn is that that is the way that we all know to pay it back, because it was done for us.

Damon Joshua: Absolutely.

Joey Kline: At a certain time.

Damon Joshua: Absolutely. Yeah. I do it all the time. Yeah. You know, I get people reach out and they’re trying to figure it out. And, um, I absolutely feel indebted to.

Joey Kline: For.

Damon Joshua: Sure people who don’t even know that I feel that way about them or what they did for me, that I absolutely have to do, that I don’t even feel like I want to do this. This is a have to do. Sure. Um, because you never know. It might be something you say that gets someone motivated? I’ve had that happen where I just had a conversation with someone over a lunch. Yeah. And they just changed my whole perspective on something that I might have been thinking about at the time. So I think it is very important. And that’s how we, you know, you put the seed in the ground and I might be that droplet of water. Yeah. That’s right through. Right.

Joey Kline: Yeah. I think this goes to the sort of, you know, you make you make your own luck in the world, right? Um, you know, you put yourself in enough situations and this can apply to business. It can apply to friendship, it can apply to dating. Right? You put yourself out there enough, and eventually the benefits come back to you.

Damon Joshua: Absolutely.

Joey Kline: Um, I want to go back to the the company or the product a little bit. So you have, you have sort of a, um, a dual sided marketplace in essence. Right. You are serving two different ends. And I think that that you have obviously the ownership group landlord that is listing a property, and then you have the user that is actually interfacing with your platform to find a property. Um, one pays you. One does not. And so I’ve just always found that fascinating. The I don’t know, the engineering, the marketing, the design conundrum about having this place that is designed for two separate interactions. How do you think about that? Is it complicated? Is it liberating? How do you solve it? I just opine, if you will.

Damon Joshua: It’s complex because both sides need each other.

Joey Kline: Mhm.

Damon Joshua: But from a design perspective they’re totally different. One side is a B2C typical B2C kind of thing right. You know I need to have a app and a website that’s both attractive. Um It’s engaging. We need to make sure that, you know, when a person clicks on Rent.com or apartment Guide.com or, you know, any of our other sites, Redfin.com. They’re engaged. They’re able to come in easily, navigate, uh, see the inventory that they need to see, um, or that they’re interested in, um, that they have buttons and places and all those things that matter. Uh, because of once again, our attention span is lickety split. So I got to make sure that you see what you want to see, and it’s engaging. Yeah. Well, that’s totally different than a property management company or ownership company who needs to be able to get data out of the people that are searching for their properties and get leads from us and, um, that interact with our user tool, which is Just totally different than our consumer tool. And it’s totally different as it relates to how we interact with those property management companies, to be where they are, to understand the things that they’re dealing with as a business. So our marketplace is a B to C marketplace, which I have a team of people that need to think about what a consumer wants to see and how they want to operate. That also needs to interact with a B2B customer and think about how they think about business, how they make money, how their margins are affected by using a product like ours, how they get the most bang for the buck, and how we more efficiently help them with their marketing spend. Yeah.

Joey Kline: Yeah. It’s um, and you sort of you can’t you can’t necessarily afford to have employees that only deal with necessarily one side of the business. Right? I’m sure that there are some depending on their function. But you really need someone if they’re going to be a long term value to the team, I imagine, to truly understand both of those needs.

Damon Joshua: Right? So my senior product guy, Nishant, he has both, right. But then the team is split. Yeah. So there is a B2C team, and then there’s a B2B team that has to look at how we interface because as we go out and sell, we’re not selling to the B2C side. I’m selling to the B2B side. And so there are a long list of things that they would like to see. And they’re not asking us for buttons on our website. They’re asking us to, you know, how can we more effectively generate traffic to their property. That’s what they want. How do I how do I get more people? How do I get more eyeballs to this? You know, this new property that I’m opening or, you know, something that they just took over? Or maybe it’s a small mom and pop and they really want to compete better with some of the other properties in the area, and they want to show up higher in the Google ranking, or they want to show up on Facebook or Meta or, you know, other tools. Other, excuse me, other mediums. How do they do that? Well, we come in and we sit down with them and help them with that. Totally different than you going in the App Store, pulling us down, you know. Rent.com, right? And that experience, those are two different things. So I do have someone at the top okay, that straddles both. But then those teams just kind of have a different mindset for how what matters most. And then we have to blend them together so that one does serve the other. I do get enough traffic such that then a B2B person or that person in the PMT, as we call them, property management company, would want to pay for those eyeballs.

Joey Kline: Okay, so so let’s talk about the PMCs and your strategy for going after them. Are we talking about the mill creeks and gray stars of the world? Are we talking about the single family rental community are we talking about? Uh, you know, uh, someone owns a couple of vacation homes. All of the above. What is the outreach and sales strategy look like?

Damon Joshua: Yeah, it is all of the above. And because he who has the most, um, you know, properties wins, right? You’re. If you come to my site and you’re standing in front of a building and you put you type in an address or you, you geofence it and you say, hey, look, give me something in this area and it doesn’t come up. You’re going to come out of my site and you’re going to go to my competitor’s site. Yeah. So inventory matters. He who has the most inventory wins. Mhm. That’s the first thing. And that means that you have to have a strategy for the stars and the assets of the world, the largest groups as well as the midsize and the smaller ones as well. And so we have a strategy to engage all of those individuals. Viduals someone who may just have a rental. Yeah. And they want to put it on their to large companies that really have a large footprint. And we want to make sure that we are in lockstep and engaging with them so that their properties are on our site.

Joey Kline: Are these large companies? Are they are they hedging their bets and advertising on multiple different sites? Yours and your competitors in order to get scale? Or are they typically saying, we’re going to dedicate ourselves to this one medium?

Damon Joshua: No, they use multiple. Yeah. They’re promiscuous. Yeah. Yeah. I’d love, I’d love to to to have him single threaded. Yeah. And I’m sure our competitors would as well. Um, but, you know, it’s similar to, um, the wireless industry. Mhm. And you know, you can say, well, I’m a T-Mobile guy, a Verizon guy or AT&T guy, but I really think it depends on who has the best service where I live. Um, and sometimes you can have a service and it just doesn’t do well at your office or where you live versus another carrier. In our business, it’s similar in certain markets, in certain places, um, our advertising just outperforms others and sometimes others outperform ours, right. And so the strategy for a lot of those companies are I’ll use multiple. And the data is so good. Now you can figure out who does what. Well, and we, you know, advocate for ourselves in those particular situations to tell people that, you know, we’re a top performer across the country.

Joey Kline: Yeah. So so to that end, as you look forward a year or two years, what’s on your plate for making sure that you, you remain a top performer and that you, you know, eclipse those that are maybe nipping at your heels.

Damon Joshua: We have got I mean ultimately it comes down to your Google ranking, making sure that we’re driving eyeballs to our site because without that you don’t. The B2B buyer was not going to purchase what you’re selling. So we’ve got to be relevant. And so that’s being a thought leader, making sure that we have inventory and working with property, um, you know, the aggregators and the property management companies to ensure that we have as much of their properties on our site as we can possibly have. So you got to be relevant. Yep. Um, and once you do that, then it’s just a matter of going out and really executing against, um, that inventory. So you got to make the ROI worth it, right? You know, where’s the value? So make sure we’ve got the inventory, make sure that the people who are with us stay with us and then go out and get as many new businesses on our platform as we possibly can. Yeah, right. You do those three things, and it sounds really simple. A lot of work that goes into it, a lot of folks that are working on it. Yeah. But you do those three things you things you have. You’re going to have a really good company in a lot of success.

Joey Kline: Um, let’s the sort of the unseen character I feel like on this show in the background. Um, a lot of companies is the city of Atlanta. Okay. And obviously now we live in a world in which we have national or global businesses, right? There’s no boundaries. That means that we only are working with people in the state of Georgia. But, um, you know, a lot of technology companies find being headquartered in this city in the state invaluable. And I’m always curious, from a leadership perspective, how do you use the city and its people and its talent to your advantage? Where do you see it fitting in with your company?

Damon Joshua: That’s a great question. Um, and one that I’m biased on. I am most.

Joey Kline: People on here are.

Damon Joshua: Yeah. Well, you know, I think it depends on the town you live in, but I think Atlanta just offers up, uh, one of the more unique settings in the country, and I’ve lived in a couple of different places and gotten a chance to get the most of the major, I guess 32 NFL cities. Yeah. Uh, the diversity of talent is fantastic. And that means whether you want sea level, whether you want tech level, whether you want service, you’re going to you’re going to have a really deep pool of individuals to choose from here. You have a great educational foundation that will continue to to pump out talent. Um, some of the top, uh, historically black colleges are here. Uh, you’ve got Georgia Tech right downtown that’s just pumping out, um, great innovative, um, students all the time. You’ve got Emory in town, you’ve got, uh, just a myriad of educational possibilities. Georgia State, uh, just finished paying them for my daughter. So hail hailed the Georgia state. Um, but you have a great base. And those are really big schools that put out a ton of talent. And then you look at the weather and you look at the, you know, the, um, the opportunities, you know, the number of companies that are both in tech and other spaces.

Damon Joshua: Yeah. Um, you know, largest logistics company in the world is here. The largest, you know, soft drink company is here. Um, there’s so many things. Um, no matter what you want to do that offer up, um, diverse opportunities for a young person or someone who’s trying to make a change in their career to come to and find that I think it’s just a very unique place. When you’re a person like me who’s looking for diverse talent. Where else would I want to go? Yeah. Now I’ve got teams. I got folks that are all over the country, and we’ll continue to pursue that just because our business calls for it. I have to be where the apartments are. Sure. Right. But for having a headquarters here, I think that I have an advantage. And when I talk to other leaders, you know, there are a lot of great cities in this country. But I’ll put Atlanta up against most of them anytime.

Joey Kline: Yeah. I mean, look, obviously, again, we’re we’re drinking each other’s Kool-Aid. Um, and look, I think that it is a, it’s a convergence of happy accidents of fate as well as actual planned strategy, that this place is what it is and is kind of firing on all cylinders as we speak.

Damon Joshua: Yeah. Good leadership. Yeah, I’ve seen it. I’ve been here a long time. Yeah, yeah, I’ve seen some of the mayors and moves that are made. You know, you think about the airport opened up in 1985. It’s the largest airport by gates, um, in the world. Um, most, most flights in and out. Well, what does that do for a town like this? It allows this gateway to the world, and you get access. And so, you know, if you’re starting a starting a business. And those are the things that matter. Yeah. If you’re relocating a company, those are the things that matter. I need to be able to get anywhere in the world really quickly. You can do it from here. Those are decisions that were made years and years ago that were gambles. You know, you’re taking out tons of municipal bonds to go build or, you know, go start up a project like that. Um, but it’s paid spades. It’s paid in spades time and time again. So those are small examples. But really good leadership has got us to a really good place.

Joey Kline: That one in particular I love because like, think of how audacious that was at the time, right. You know, I think we all just sort of take for granted that at the Atlanta airport, like is and has always been, you know, this isn’t that long ago that Atlanta was just, you know, kind of a little regional, you know, redneck town that, you know, flip of a coin. Birmingham could have grown bigger than we are. And the mayor wants to go and take on this project and be the most busy airport in the world for little old Atlanta. You know, um, you got to dream big. Yeah, those guys dreamt big.

Damon Joshua: Yeah. They did. Yeah. And they made the right bets. Right? And that’s what leaders do. Um, you got to be willing to say yes when others are saying no and be convicted about it. And those those leaders, you know, the Ivan Allens and Mayor Young’s and, you know, uh, Maynard Jackson and those leaders had the conviction and they knew or they felt in their spirit that this was these were decisions that needed to be made. Um, that’s how you end up getting the Olympics. Olympics in 96. Um, which was, you know, the greatest of long shots probably needs to go up there with the, you know, the US hockey win in 84. Yeah. Um, that’s that’s what kind of win that that was that really put Atlanta on the map internationally. And we’ve never looked back. And um, and thus I get to sit here and drink from that really large well, uh, of talent, of outlook, um, of optimism that that city brings.

Joey Kline: Yeah. Couldn’t agree more. Yeah. Um, really enjoyed the conversation, Damon. If anyone listening wants to learn more about you or about Rent.com, how do they get in touch? Where do they go?

Damon Joshua: Well, you can look me up on LinkedIn. Damon. Joshua, I’m out there. Uh, I don’t, you know, I haven’t posted as much as I normally post in this role yet. Uh, that will change. You’ll start to see more content coming out from me there. Yeah. Um, Joshua, at Rent.com, I always take an email, but, um, I really appreciate the time. I mean, this has been a fantastic conversation.

Joey Kline: Thanks for coming on. I appreciate you taking the time.

Damon Joshua: Absolutely. Thank you.

Kerri Burchill with North Star Coaching

February 13, 2025 by angishields

High Velocity Radio

Kerri Burchill with North Star Coaching

00:00 /

Kerri Burchill, PhD helps leaders in messy, dynamic situations slow down to go fast.

Leveraging her international work with leaders and her academic studies, Kerri has mastered her coaching to focus on helping leaders slow down to go fast.

She is a leadership and development trainer, provides individual and team coaching and is on the keynote circuit.

Take Kerri’s Leading Out of the ASKhole Trap quiz.

Connect with Kerri on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

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 North Star Coaching, Kerri Burchill. How are you?

Kerri Burchill: Oh, I’m so pumped to be here. Thanks for having me on.

Stone Payton: Oh, it’s an absolute delight to have you on the broadcast. I got a ton of questions. I know we’re not going to get to them all. Uh, but, you know, I think a great place to start would be if you could paint a little bit of a picture. Give us an overview, if you will, of me and our listeners. Mission. Purpose. What what are you and your crew really out there trying to do for folks?

Kerri Burchill: Yeah, absolutely. So my my tagline, which seems to be ever evolving as I kind of learn more about my audience and their needs, but I help leaders and teams slow down to go fast and achieve ambitious results. So I kind of talk about the day to day firefighting. The spin. Just the world is so fast paced and sometimes we just are constantly dealing with the surface things we never really get to the bottom of what that spin is to figure out the stuff that needs to happen. So we really do the leadership work that makes the difference and achieves those ambitious goals.

Stone Payton: I gotta say, at first it sounds a little counterintuitive, right? Slow down to go faster, to do some of your clients, especially in the early going. Do they bristle with that at first?

Kerri Burchill: It’s I mean, on one hand, they’re like, oh, that sounds lovely. Slowing down. And on the other hand, they’re just like, I can’t like I can’t take four hours away with my leadership team and dive into this work. I can’t this or there’s, you know, even if they commit to the four hours, they’re are often pulled out like it’s so hard to slow down and and yet they recognize that they need help doing that.

Stone Payton: So what’s the backstory? How did you get into this line of work?

Kerri Burchill: Yeah. Oh my goodness. Right. I sometimes just like, get butterflies. Uh, where I am and where I came from. So I’m a middle school teacher originally. Uh, quickly promoted into leadership roles, and then my partner and I are unable to have kids. And that sort of gave us some freedom that maybe families don’t have. And we we put a couple of rods in a fire. I applied for a principalship on a NATO base in Belgium, and my partner applied for med school, and we sort of said, you know, whatever happens, we’re just going to roll with it. So long story short, I say we did med school, um, which really resulted in that nine period time of my partner doing medicine, of me working in three different countries, six different cities and nine different jobs. And I really honed in on leadership. I saw so many places that were really, um, functional and dysfunctional know, and started to look at this whole idea of slowing down and what value that can give and how people show up when they’re spinning and going really fast. And yeah, so worked in, um, healthcare at the end of med school, finished a PhD, did a master’s, you know, more education as well as experience, and then thought, geez, I really want to do this on my own. I really want to help, uh, a diverse population, different industries. The concepts are the same. Leadership is challenging no matter where you are. That’s where I just want to find my sweet spot. And so I stepped out of corporate America, and here I am.

Stone Payton: What was that transition like? I have to believe it would be a little intimidating to go from that corporate environment because you’re. Yeah, you have to you have to practice your craft, but you’re also running a business and you got to go get the business to to practice the craft. Right?

Kerri Burchill: Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes I think like I started in a unionized public middle school setting and now I sort of negotiate prices and, you know, Just really stretch myself in ways I never would have ever thought I would have done when I was in that really sort of tunneled, um, education career. You know, you teach, you become assistant principal principal like, it’s it’s it’s pretty planned out for you. Um, so, yeah, I, I was nervous at first in 2018, I was feeling really, um, frustrated with the rate of change of the organization I was working in. And just to try to find a sunny spot I incorporated had a couple of clients just on the side, very transparent with my boss in the corporate setting. And, um, realized like, maybe, maybe I’ve got some talent in this area. Maybe there’s a need for how I can help people slow down. And so over time, you know, I kind of got busier and busier. And then we moved to San Antonio a few years ago and I just said, ah, let’s try this full time and, and just see how it goes. So it was a slow play. Uh, and I wish I would have done it sooner, honestly.

Stone Payton: So when, uh, with your affinity for education and knowledge and being a life learner, did you decide to get formally credentialed, like, go through some sort of coaching certification process to get ready for this?

Kerri Burchill: Yeah, you know, I did. And when I’ve got 15 years of post-secondary education, 11 of them full time student. And when I think of those 15 years, probably my most applied and I’d say valuable training was my coach training. So I got it back in 2008 when we had, um, just left Canada, where I was teaching. And the the only reason why I even knew about coaching is because when we decided to to move and start med school, I started interviewing people that I thought had cool jobs because I was paralyzed. Like, I couldn’t imagine myself doing something else. I’d just. My mom was a teacher. I’m a teacher. Just was beyond me to sort of think of what I could do. And one of the people I interviewed is a coach, and her job was to liaise community members with the school kids when there was a conflict in the community that bled into the school, and she talked about her coaching skills and I thought, wow, that’s really cool. And so that was my impetus to sort of get the coach training, but I didn’t use it for a long time just because of our moving around. And I really didn’t understand how to get clients. And so it was on pause. Even though I valued it, I didn’t apply it until probably, I don’t know, eight years after I actually got it.

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

Kerri Burchill: What is all of it? So fun! Honestly.

Kerri Burchill: Um, I spend maybe 50% of my time training and development, 25% keynote and 25% coaching. And each part of that is just so different and unique. I love how these leaders are so committed to helping serve served their teams helping make an impact wherever they work. Like it’s just an honor to be trusted and be a, you know, a guide on the side with with these people doing this really dynamic work. So I’ve got police departments and city council members and recruitment companies and healthcare, and it’s just all over the place, manufacturing plants. So it’s really fun. And they’re all just so brave doing hard work. I just I think maybe that’s my favorite part is just seeing these people lean into it so much.

Stone Payton: So how do you get the clients? How do you get the new business and maybe speak to how you got the new business early on? Because it’s probably a little different than the way it is at this point in your career. But the reason I’m asking is I find that some people, a lot of people in the professional services arena, you know, that is I’ll be as gracious as I can. The greatest opportunity for improvement near term is, you know, figuring out the business side of their work. Right? Like getting getting the work.

Kerri Burchill: Yeah. Uh back. Back when I officially incorporated in 18 into now, 100% of my business has been referral. So I do have a presence on social media. I find that people look on social media to double check that I’m legit, but they’ve been referred to me from somebody, and then they kind of scope out. So I’ve never gotten business directly from social media, which is interesting. Even, you know, in all of those years. And so when I, when I first started, I remember going to a, it was one of those like networking groups, uh, like a Lions or a Rotary Club or something like that. And you had to go around the circle and sort of identify who you were. And it was the first time that I said, like, I’m Kerri Burchill and I’m a leadership coach and consultant. Like it was awkward coming off of my tongue. And after that meeting somebody, you know, networking afterwards said, hey, we’re looking for, um, somebody to put in a proposal to do some leadership development at our company. You know, why don’t you put in a proposal? I’m like, okay, yeah, okay. I go home, I Google what is a proposal? Like, that’s how little I knew. Um, but it was the connections that made it. And so I had recently attended a conference, and the emcee at the conference was just dynamic and super open. And so I actually reached out to her and said, hey, I’ve been asked to do a proposal. I don’t even know if you send these out in word or are they PDF? Like, do you have a proposal that you could share with me? And so that sort of helped me put it together. And of course, you know, one client tells another client and it just keeps going from there.

Stone Payton: So let’s dive into the work a little bit. The mechanism or probably in your case, mechanisms for executing on the work and actually getting in there and serving these folks one on one group facilitation. Like what does that look like?

Kerri Burchill: Yeah, all of it. All of it. I really love, um, Donald Miller in one of his books. Uh, Marketing Made Simple. It’s just an oldie, Goldie. I remember reading it and he and he talks in there about framing work around problem solution results. Now, of course he’s talking about marketing. As you know, I identify a problem that people have. Um, think about solutions and then think about the results. And I’ve sort of taken that a level deeper to think, what are the problems that my clients identify, not what I think I can do for them, but what the clients are ready to do for themselves. And so I it’s it’s so, um, just sometimes like, really difficult for me to be present and to stay in that slow moment with my clients because of course, on the outside, it’s easy to see everything really clearly. Um, to have those discussions either with the leaders or with the people I’m coaching with one on one, or with the team members to sort of say like, hey, in your world, what’s working well and what needs to kind of be shifted. And that’s the the starting spot of anything that I would create. Like I don’t have any canned programs or anything. Everything I do is always tailored to that environment and that group of people. So really getting them to put in their words what the problem is, and that tells me what their readiness is to do the work that, um, you know, that I see needs to be done. And they may get to the stuff that I think is important later on, and I may be surprised and learn that what I thought they needed is actually not what they needed. Once we slowed down and really got into it with them.

Stone Payton: This willingness to to meet the client where they are just sounds so wholly consistent with what you touched on earlier in the conversation about slow down to to to go fast. I would um, I would think, I know for me, uh, and I would think for others, you know, that that would require some, some discipline, some rigor, some structure, some it really does have to become a discipline. Right. But that but that does fall right in line with your value system, your ethos, doesn’t it?

Kerri Burchill: Yeah, yeah. You know, one of those I actually was just put out a poll recently on LinkedIn On what coaching skill do you think is most valuable? And the group that voted came back saying, like being present was the most valuable in a coach. And so I think mastering that as a coach, I just got my MCC, which is the highest level that the International Coach Federation gives. You have to have something like 2500 hours of paid coaching, etc., and I was not present in the beginning, I’ll tell you that, you know, I wanted to jump ahead of my clients and tell them what their problem was and tell them how they should fix it. And, um, really slowing down to kind of say, hey, this is their journey and my privilege to be a guide on this side. But it’s I’m not the driver, and I certainly don’t know all the environments and the details of their trench. So of course I should trust the client. They’re they’re living it. They know way more than I do. So just slowing down to get in rhythm with them.

Stone Payton: Do you find with some of the the people that you run into that there are sometimes some, I don’t know, myths may be a little bit of a strong word, but misconceptions, misinformation, um, uh, incomplete information about coaching as a domain that you have to find yourself educating what coaching is or can be before you can really serve sometimes.

Kerri Burchill: Yeah. All the time. Yeah. And I think people find coaching romantic because it sounds like someone’s going to come in and swoop in and tell you the right answer. And you know, you have you have coaching, which is really where the client drives the conversation. And my job as a coach is to ask those questions, to help them slow down and really figure out in their trends and their experiences with their gifts and talents, you know, where do they want to go and hold them accountable to get their therapy right? Is is more of the psychological side of things. Mentoring is where I tell you the answer. So I think where coaching, you know, kind of gets a bit muddy as you think of an athletic coach, which is definitely somebody telling you what to do, praising you when you do it well, etc.. Um, in sort of leadership coaching, executive coaching, it is very much where, you know, I can be the mirror to help you see what’s going on. But I’m not the one telling you what to do and the one sort of driving what you should do.

Stone Payton: So talk about the keynote work, because that too seems um, I, I’m enamored with that idea of getting in front of a whole bunch of people and knocking their socks off, and which is probably the wrong mindset, should probably be focused on, on serving them. But was it was it a little intimidating early on? And what have you learned from from speaking to to groups like that?

Kerri Burchill: Yeah. So interesting again like referral. So somebody was president of an association. They asked me to come to their national conference. I had 20 minutes on the stage, my first keynote. And and it just kind of blossomed and took hold from there. And so it’s the keynote has been a really great opportunity for me to flesh out some leadership concepts that I’ve been rolling around, like the spin, you know, that day to day firefighting and really this challenge that as people are caught in the spin, what they end up sort of showing are what I call askhole behaviors. ASK, askhole behavior.

Stone Payton: You got to talk more about that.

Kerri Burchill: So when I’m stressed and I’m in the day to day spin and I’m trying to get tons more done than what’s realistic, I’m going to ask people to do work for me. I’m going to ask them questions that I knew, but I kind of forgot because I’m just stressed. And I’m going to I’m going to ask them to join committees that maybe I could do, but I’m like, I’m just going to ask, right? Like, and I’m going to push all this work out when really I have the skills and talents to do it. If I slow down and got strategic around the right work and kind of the bonus work and the stuff I should not even care about. And so thinking about helping leaders in a keynote to really slow down and identify, hey, maybe I’m doing everything that asshole has asked me to do instead of slowing down and helping that asshole figure out what they need to do to own their problems and move forward. And so how you know, as a leader, how on earth am I ever going to slow down if I’m doing all of this stuff that’s asked of me all day long, like I’m doing my work and ten other people’s work? So the keynote was having, um, really helpful in kind of floating out some of those concepts and framing it in a way that that I can tell the audience is like, oh, yeah, I’m like, I’m an asshole.

Kerri Burchill: And they’ll give audience examples and the room’s roaring. And, you know, we’re we’re we’re all in it, right? We’re all spinning. We all got assholes around us. And it’s hard to slow down in those moments when somebody asks you to do something really simple or even the hard stuff, you want to jump in and help them. When really what we can be is more of like a coach, with them helping that person slow down and figure out what their path is, what variables in their environment they can leverage, etc.. Um, but you know, as servant leaders, I think sometimes we often become servants and just do it all to everyone’s risk of of burnout and lack of innovation and a bunch of unintended consequences.

Stone Payton: So you authored a book around this topic, and probably knowing you probably a field guide and all kind of and all kind of stuff. What was that? And I do want to dive into the book a little bit in the structure and how you recommend people use it, but I’ll back up a minute. What was that experience like, just sitting down and committing those ideas to paper? Like, did some of it come together super easy and other pieces more difficult, or what was that whole thing like?

Kerri Burchill: Yeah, well, I’ll tell you, it was not the original book idea. So I yeah, I was running a leadership academy where we statistically measured our soft skill development, and I interviewed people and got like IRB approval, like, very empirical sort of research. And, um, nobody was really biting. I mean, I thought it was the sexiest thing alive, right? I this was super fun. And I’m all in the nitty gritty. I’m starting to code the data and blah, blah, blah. And then somebody, a leader was complaining to me about all these people asking them to do things and ask this and finally that. They’re just a bunch of assholes. And I’m like, Bing! And so jumped really? Like, like left the first draft in the Dat. I’ve still got drawers full of these transcripts and blah blah, blah, and, um, dove into the asshole work and started speaking about it, you know, doing some webinars, podcasts. And it just took a life of its own. And I started I framed the the asshole framework. I, I trademarked the word asshole. It’s crazy. And I’ve got a second book diving deeper into some of the concepts. Um, already on the go, and you’ll laugh at this stone. The most productive space for me to write is sitting in an airplane airport gate.

Stone Payton: Wow.

Kerri Burchill: Yeah. So just learned a ton of stuff about myself that I just did not know. So I’m doing all these keynotes and traveling a little more than I might like. And I thought, well, I’ve got to make productive use of this time. It turns out that I can just I can just crank out stuff waiting for an airplane.

Stone Payton: I would think having the book, doing the keynote work, appearing on on media platforms where you kind of share your story and promote your, your work or promote the work. Uh, that’s got to really lend itself, again to the authority and the credibility. So when people do meet you in a variety of different ways, maybe they didn’t. Maybe you don’t get business from being out there in the social channels, but then they turn around and go, oh, I’m gonna go check this Carey chick out, right? And then they’re like, oh, okay. She’s. Yeah, like. Like what? I guess my question is, what has the book done for you? It sounds like it’s clearly serving other people, but it sounds like it served you as well to do it. Yeah.

Kerri Burchill: Yeah, absolutely. You know, just slowing down the theme to write the book and organize it and the vulnerability of asking my, you know, inside circle to just don’t hold back, give me feedback. All of that has been really validating and stretching. And, you know, when I, when I speak or, you know, give people the book, they buy the book. I’m looking at Amazon royalties. Like all of that just is, is so humbling to me because it is just simply about helping people navigate the messiness of leadership today. And that’s my that’s my big goal.

Stone Payton: I bet you’re finding as you write, as you speak, as you facilitate, as you deliver the one on one work and the group work, I bet you find that doing the work while you are certainly serving them. I bet you continue just to solidify and crystallize your own thinking and explore new ideas. It’s it’s it’s a virtuous circle, my partner would call it.

Kerri Burchill: Yes it is. I’ve got a book club that I’m working with right now. And when I listen to them kind of talk through how they’re applying some of the concepts and wrestling with it, I mean, that’s that’s really a big impetus for book number two. Like I see where book number one introduces the concepts and goes over the ethical framework and the six steps. But I see the need for those really challenging employees or team members or bosses. You know what? What? Maybe not what, but how can some of the concepts in book number one leading out of the trap really lead into book number two, to really empower leaders more with those extra challenging circumstances that we all feel a bit paralyzed to deal with.

Stone Payton: It’s interesting that you mention the term book club, because one of the things I’m envisioning, while I certainly may get a tremendous amount of value from reading the book or listening to an audio version of it or visiting with you, I would think as a member of a of a management team or some department, if we were all reading the book in parallel, and then we gathered periodically to talk about how we are applying or questions we have about, you know, how that how that’s applying in Stone’s world that I’ll bet you that I’d be willing to bet that peer to peer exchange around this as a catalyst would be could be extremely powerful. Yeah.

Kerri Burchill: Absolutely. And it creates a shared language. Um, so, um, the groups that I’ve done book clubs with, they, they, they tell and come back and report to me that. No, we were spending in a meeting last week and we said, we’re spinning. And then they all laugh and they say, Kerry would be so proud of us. And so it’s powerful because there is a shared language. And then, you know, one of the big things that I, I hope I underscored in the book is that asshole behavior comes from a good place. You know, the employee that’s kind of being a pain in the butt is is doing so because they care and they’re committed and they’re spinning and they don’t have a strategy to sort of manage that. And so it’s when book clubs come together, management teams and they read the book. It’s it takes away some of the blame that that can kind of creep in and gives people a safe place to sort of say, yeah, I’m not managing how much I care right now. And so that behavior wasn’t great. And the other person could be like, yeah, because you’re spinning, it’s okay. And you know, we it just gives a framework and some tools and language to neutralize what can be sort of blaming and judgy.

Stone Payton: So I don’t know when or how you find the time, but, um, passions, interest, pursuits outside the scope of the, of the work we’re talking about. You know, a lot of my listeners know that I like to hunt, fish and travel and introduce other people to out, you know, to the joys of outdoor, uh, living, if you will, anything you nerd out about like that.

Kerri Burchill: Yeah. Gosh, I, I love running. I’m currently nursing a tear in my hip so that I can do the Oslo, Norway either half or full marathon this fall. That’s super fun. And I recently joined a synchronized swimming club.

Stone Payton: Oh, my.

Kerri Burchill: Yeah. So never, ever done anything like that. Um, so learning and gosh, some people in my club are over 70. These women are exceptionally dynamic. So that’s a that’s a stretch for me. And I’ll tell you, synchronized swimming or artistic swimming, like they call it now is as much body as it is brain. If you can’t figure out your your surroundings upside down, you’ll lose the position. And so it’s really fascinating experience to just have your brain on fire while you’re trying to do these fun ballet flips and stuff. It’s crazy.

Stone Payton: So here’s my prediction. Just getting to know you a little bit and knowing how you have your your senses attuned to what’s going on around you. I’ll bet you if you haven’t already, you’re going to you’re going to learn things from that experience out, you know, in that world, and you’re going to turn around and at least speak on it. Say something in your keynote. It wouldn’t surprise me if you write a book, bring it to your consulting. That’s that happens, right? That kind of thing happens.

Kerri Burchill: Absolutely. There are tons of parallels with synchronized swimming and leadership. You bet.

Stone Payton: Well, I can I can see a lot of analogies with being upside down and losing your orientation.

Kerri Burchill: Already spinning.

Stone Payton: Uh, Kerry, before we wrap, I’d love to leave our listeners, if we could, with a I call them pro tips. Just something that you want to noodle on. Might be a do or a don’t or a good read, or just some things you’ve learned after, you know, maybe, you know, getting some scar tissue over the years and having some, some, uh, some success stories. And look, the number one pro tip around any of these topics is, uh, reach out and have a conversation with Kerry or somebody on her on her team. But, uh, yeah, let’s leave them a little something to chew on.

Kerri Burchill: All right. Two things that come to mind that I just sort of think as, as sort of themes in my work that will resonate for your audience, too. Number one, the do keep showing up because you never know when it’s going to blow up. So while work may seem slow, or you may be fretting about business like just be you and just keep showing up because your consistency will have it blow up one day. Second thing, you’re the whole package. So don’t start paying thousands of dollars for this program and that program and this service and that service and a million other things, because you feel a bit deficit, you’re the whole package, and you have the skills and the resources to rock whatever you want to do. And so really with a critical eye, engage in some of those extra programs that will make sense, but not all of them, and not as much as you think you need because you’re the whole package.

Stone Payton: I am so glad that I asked. That sounds like marvelous counsel. So what’s the best way for our listeners to continue to tap into your work, get their hands on this book, maybe have a more substantive conversation with you or or somebody on your team? Let’s let’s leave them with some coordinates.

Kerri Burchill: Yeah, absolutely. So everybody can find me@Kerri.com, and I have an asshole trap quiz. That’s two minutes and fun that people can take to kind of assess where they’re at in relation to the asshole trap. Yeah, I’m on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram.

Stone Payton: Well, Kerry, it has been an absolute delight having you on the show this evening. It’s a thank you for your insight, your perspective, but most of all, your enthusiasm and your in your heart for genuinely serving people and helping them, uh, escape the asshole.

Kerri Burchill: Yeah. Gosh, it’s two like minded people talking together, and you’ve just been an awesome host. Thank you.

Stone Payton: Well, it is absolutely my pleasure. All right, until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Kerry Burchill with North Star Coaching and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you in the fast lane.

Celebrating Women of Color Business Owners: How Music Education Shapes Future Leaders

February 13, 2025 by angishields

Women in Motion

Celebrating Women of Color Business Owners: How Music Education Shapes Future Leaders

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In this episode of Women in Motion, Lee Kantor talks with Sharon Shaheed, founder of Piano Play Music Systems. Sharon discusses her background in music education and the unique approach of her program, which starts teaching children as young as 19 months and involves parents in the learning process. She highlights the importance of patience, the role of technology, and the benefits of music education for children’s development. Sharon also addresses challenges in music programs and emphasizes community support. Her vision aims to empower children through music, fostering self-confidence, teamwork, and essential life skills.

Sharon Shaheed, the visionary Owner and Founder of “Piano Play Music Systems, Inc.,” is a highly qualified professional. She holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Xavier University in New Orleans, LA, and a Master in Music Performance degree from Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, LA. Her teaching career began at Southern Louisiana University, where she introduced innovative group piano classes to undergraduate students while pursuing her master’s degree.

After her graduation, Ms. Shaheed made a significant impact as an elementary music teacher in Tampa, Florida. Her contributions were instrumental in the revision of the Hillsborough County Elementary Music curriculum, leaving an indelible mark on the educational landscape.

In 1987, fueled by a passion for music education, she established Piano Play Music Systems, a pioneering business renowned for its educational piano methodology delivered in a classroom setting. In February 2002, Piano Play Music Systems became an S-Corporation residing in Sherman Oaks, California. In 2017, Ms. Shaheed opened a secondary location in Pasadena, California.

Ms. Shaheed, the creative force behind the “Theory-based” method, is the author and designer of the PPMS Books, which are crafted for teaching group piano classes to children as young as 19 months. Her overarching goal is to impart a quality, comprehensive teaching methodology and educational products that make learning music a joyful and nurturing experience for children.

Connect with Sharon on LinkedIn and follow Piano Play Music Systems on X and Facebook.

Music Provided by M PATH MUSIC

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

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

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

Sharon Shaheed: Hello. How are you guys doing?

Lee Kantor: We are doing great. I am so excited to learn what you’re up to, tell us about Piano Play Music Systems. How are you serving folks?

Sharon Shaheed: Piano Play Music Systems is a music educational program that starts kids on a journey for learning music at the ages of 19 months on up. What makes us kind of different from other music programs, we also start this journey with parents. So, the journey is not just only with kids, but parents along with their kids are also on this journey to learn music.

Lee Kantor: So, what’s your backstory? Have you always been involved in this line of work?

Sharon Shaheed: You know, it kind of comes through family generational learning. Both my parents were music educational people. They worked in the school system. And my grandmother was actually a music teacher as well for the community. So, it’s kind of like in the background of my life, yes.

Lee Kantor: So, what kind of got you focused in on kids?

Sharon Shaheed: Well, when I came out here to California from Florida, I wanted actually to kind of pursue my first love, which is songwriting and trying to pay for bills in California, which is kind of expensive coming from Florida. So, I got involved with a children’s program that taught music, and it kind of fell from there, kind of saw the curriculum of what they were doing and thought of how could I expand that idea to make it a little bit more nurturing and more enjoyable for kids. So, that’s when I decided to use my songwriting background, my music educational background, and kind of discover and write these books that I did for the children that I would use at Piano Play Music Systems now.

Lee Kantor: So, how did you get your first clients?

Sharon Shaheed: Well, luckily, it kind of happened not expectedly. The program that I was with went bankrupt, and so the clients that I had developed through that program, I just kind of integrated to my program. And from there, we just kind of took off. You know, it kind of went from one group studio and then became my studio, so I didn’t really have to advertise, as you would say, but I still do. But word of mouth from those parents kind of helped me develop my program that I have now.

Lee Kantor: Is there anything different about your program than maybe some of the more traditional educational ways people teach piano and music?

Sharon Shaheed: I think so. I really do think so. One of the things I wanted to bring in was cultural learning. Learning of different cultural songs and making sure kids understood that background. Also, I wanted to focus on having kids to understand how important it is not only to learn music, but to build their character, understanding of self-empowerment, to also work with teamwork, how to work with a team of kids, a team of people, problem solving and stuff, problem solving overall in their learning, and how music can be integrated with their studies and how that works.

Sharon Shaheed: So, my program is built on stories. We tell stories and we have stories that are related to the songs. And then from there, they learn how to not only play, they do ear training, we do theory, and we do performances. And of course, as I said before, when I started, parents are also asked to participate, so they’re learning, too, so they understand what kind of challenges that their kids are going through by the challenges that they have to do in learning music. So, I think that’s what puts us over the differences between other schools, parents have to participate and learn as well.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you find that, like, piano, is that something that anybody could learn if they have the right teacher? Or is it just some people are just kind of musically inclined?

Sharon Shaheed: What I want to erase in everybody’s idea is that everyone’s talented. It’s how you basically introduce it to a person. Everyone has certain disabilities when they’re learning, and some people don’t. I mean, certain people have challenges, and certain people have other areas that they don’t have challenges in. But the challenges other people have become something that another person can appreciate. And another person’s challenges can be appreciated and learned by someone else’s.

Sharon Shaheed: So, everyone has the ability to learn music. They just have to get the patience. That’s is the hardest thing, learning patience through learning anything. Some things don’t come as easy, but if you learn how to do it differently, for instance, in our classes, you don’t just sit at the piano. We play games, physical games where you have to kind of step on the keyboard on the floor, and kind of learn through body movements, body language.

Sharon Shaheed: Singing, we do a lot of singing in class so kids can learn and parents can learn through singing. A lot of people have good ears. A lot of people have can learn music quicker through the ears, and some people don’t learn through the ears. We incorporate ear training.

Sharon Shaheed: So, we do a variety of learning skills so everyone can take their challenges and make them strengths, and their strengths become other people’s challenges. And so, that’s the kind of balance that we really work towards in our learning and our programs.

Lee Kantor: Now, what kind of is the the reason most kids get into music? Is it the parents are saying, “Hey, this is important. We want you to be part of this”? Or the kid is kind of raising their hand and saying, “Hey, I want to learn how to do this.” Is it driven by the child or is it driven by the parent mostly?

Sharon Shaheed: It’s kind of both sometimes. Times have changed so much in terms of the way we view education. I think parents do see piano as being important or music overall being important in children’s lives, whether they can afford it or not. I think they look at it as being a creative aspect of a child’s development. And children look at it as being “I want to learn piano. I want to learn music because it sounds good.” So, it can be both scenarios, both parents wanting the kid or sometimes the kids wanting it themselves.

Sharon Shaheed: But the overall experience is, is that once they get into it, that’s when the challenges come. Do I still want to learn this information that I thought was fun? Or do I still want my child to be creative when it’s really challenging in terms of it’s not just fun and creative, but it involves time, and that sometimes is not always exciting. It’s not a quick learned activity.

Lee Kantor: So, how long does it take an average person to kind of get good enough that they get kind of hooked?

Sharon Shaheed: You know, everything is based on how much you practice. Everything. How good a driver are you? It depends on how much you drive. And even then, how much you pay attention to details. How good of a business person are you? It depends on how much time are you involved in the business and all the aspects of what you’re learning to be better at that business. So, how much you are involved and how much interest you’re involved in, that makes the timing of how a person’s going to develop. It’s not how talented they are. It’s how much time they put into that information that they want to get out of.

Lee Kantor: So, there’s no shortcut on this. Like, it’s one of those things where if you want to be good at it, you better be investing some time into it.

Sharon Shaheed: Yes. And don’t you want to be invested in anything that you want to be good at? How good the job that you do, how much investment do you do? The more investment you do on your job, the more steady you do on your job, the more open you are to learn about the differences and the things that you can create, that’s how good you are.

Sharon Shaheed: And that’s the whole kind of the process of learning this at such a young age is to get the child to understand that you can be good at anything. It’s just are you willing to sacrifice in terms of getting good at? You know, the time, the mental development, the study, the overall mistakes that you do and finding those mistakes are not really mistakes, but they are just growth intervals in your life. So, yes, I think that’s really very important for kids to understand and parents to understand that it’s not an easy thing.

Lee Kantor: Now, in a lot of schools, they’ve been cutting music and art programs, do you find that in the case in California where you’re at, where this kind of in some ways is an opportunity for firms like yours to really help the parents and the children who want to learn music?

Sharon Shaheed: I think they’re cutting the programs because they’re looking at it as being a creative program. And it is also a creative program, but it’s also helping the child in a lot of areas that they are not really focused on. California is very lucky because we do still have music in the schools, but it’s not necessarily a program that they are pushing for every kid to have.

Sharon Shaheed: And so, the financial burden that most parents have to go to private industries like myself is what I’m hoping to change. I think everyone should have the opportunity to have music or have an ability to study music, not for the creative side, but for the approach of education, of learning certain things like to strengthen their attention spans, to organize their task, how to put things in organizational task learning, how to be not so distracted in learning, being able to focus on a lot of things that school kind of tends to have problems with.

Sharon Shaheed: So, using music as a tool to help balance those certain areas and everybody’s learning, and especially kids when they’re in school, I think that’s what the attention should be on why you should have music in school, not only for the musicality of a child, but to help them to learn the difficulties that a lot of kids are having in learning subjects overall.

Lee Kantor: Right. I think that a lot of times we miss out because you can’t kind of quantify it like you can in a math score. This is more of an intangible, but it helps in a lot of ways that it’s harder to measure maybe directly, but I think there’s a tremendous benefit in having a child learn something like music that can spill over into other aspects of their learning day.

Sharon Shaheed: I totally agree with you, totally agree with you. And the more we get into technology and changing that way of learning, kids aren’t having that hands-on opportunity to develop. You know, everything is spontaneously having to learn. They are forgetting the patience that it takes to learn.

Sharon Shaheed: And the good thing about music, you’re not graded on how great you are. You’re pretty much graded on the mistakes that you can learn to fix. That’s how you become good. Like you take a score in math, if you make a mistake in math, that’s your grade. But if you make a mistake in music, the most important thing is how can you fix that mistake and learn from that mistake. So, you’re not necessarily graded on the mistakes you made, but you’re graded on how you can improve those mistakes that you made.

Sharon Shaheed: And I think that’s one of the things that has to be kind of looked upon as being important, building a child’s self-confidence and self-empowerment, not through the mistakes that they make, but generating the idea that mistakes can be good because it’s a learning opportunity to figure out what you did wrong, or how to improve that learning aspect of what you’re trying to do.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned technology a little earlier, is there a way that you can leverage technology when you’re teaching the piano?

Sharon Shaheed: Oh, totally. Piano engages in all kind of aspects of defining the strategies, how to depict strategies and understand certain ways of communicating that strategy into making it creative and stuff. We’re working on changing the subject a little bit, but we’re trying to use our music program to change it into an app for kids to learn how to play music through an app. So, which might be a little cheaper and more advantageous for parents to be involved in if they can’t physically come to your location or physically pay for a lot of the things that tends to be a lot of problems.

Sharon Shaheed: But using technology to discover music through an application of an e-learning program that they can kind of at least get started in learning. So, trying to use our program to kind of gear out to try to work certain things that both the kids can use at home or maybe in the school system. So, that’s one of our biggest goals that we’re working on right now, technology, how technology can be used to help kids creatively learn and still have this opportunity to work through their education process.

Lee Kantor: Now, why was it important for you to become part of the WBEC-West community? What were you hoping to get out of it and what have you gotten out of it?

Sharon Shaheed: You know, I tend to be kind of not engaged in learning socially what’s happening with other community businesses and stuff, so being a part of the program now has allowed me to not only get my program out into other communities, other businesses, but to also see how their businesses are being challenged too.

Sharon Shaheed: I think through COVID, I mean, there was a lot of growth in learning about my business and also seeing other businesses struggle, and what are they doing to do to change their businesses and improve their businesses’ awareness. And so, I think that has been the biggest thing, reaching out to the community of businesses run by women, run by different areas in the businesses, different types of businesses, and try to find out their challenges and kind of figure out what their challenges could do to help me improve my problems, too, as well.

Lee Kantor: Now, your business has grown to be one of the largest, I think, privately owned music schools in Southern California. Has there been anything that you can look back to and say, “You know what? That was super rewarding. I know I’m making an impact.”

Sharon Shaheed: You know, when you see your students graduate from high school and go to college and do really well in college and come back and start giving back into the community, I think that’s one of the biggest things that I feel honored to have been a part of. Seeing the changes in the child. Seeing children progress from not knowing how to empower themselves to seeing them empowering themselves, I think that’s one of the biggest reasons why I’m still doing this is because of the fact that I see a lot of good that we do with our programs at Piano Play.

Lee Kantor: So, what do you need more of? How can we help you? Do you need more students? Do you need more school systems to talk to? What could we be doing to help you?

Sharon Shaheed: We always need more students in terms of helping our business financially to grow. But I think the biggest thing is trying to change the mindset of our community to see why music is important, to change it and to have them understand that it’s not only about being creative and talented, because we are all talented in different areas, and to study music is not to develop the creativity of a musicality mentality, but to develop the empowerment of who that person is and how they can use what they have learned in music, and use it and to diverse themselves into anything that they love to do. I think that is the message that I want to bring to the community, that music is very important.

Sharon Shaheed: My program that I teach at Piano Play is possibly the most important program because it starts at such a young age, at 19 months, and that it involves, again, the parents learning that child’s ability to develop while they’re developing with their child, and I think that’s what makes us different.

Sharon Shaheed: So, to get the word out about my program and how it can help the child as well as the parent in learning the importance of their growth, not necessarily the musical growth, that’s going to happen anyway, but just how the child is going to be empowered, feel successful in making mistakes, learning how to work with other kids, being team players, being creative in their own little ways, finding who they are through the process of learning music. So, yeah, I think that’s one of the biggest messages I would like to send out to the community.

Lee Kantor: Now, if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, what is the website? What’s the best way to connect? Maybe social media?

Sharon Shaheed: Okay. So, we have a website at www.pianoplaymusic.com. You also can email us at info, I-N-F-O, @pianoplaymusic.com. We have a Facebook page at Piano Play Music Facebook page. And you can kind of reach out to get us there, our direct number at our business is 818-789-6110.

Sharon Shaheed: We have a great team of teachers. We have six teachers on staff, including myself, and we have two office managers, and we’ve been in business for over 37 years, so we are pretty well-developed in the community and willing to open our hearts to help anyone to figure out where directions that they would like to go with their child in a music educational setting.

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

Sharon Shaheed: Well, thank you, Lee Kantor, for having me here. Without you, I wouldn’t be able to express myself on how much I love what I do.

Lee Kantor: Well, it definitely comes across. Thank you again.

Sharon Shaheed: Thank you. Thank you, sir.

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

Gaby Evers with GBF Translations and Colby Passman with Southwestern Advantage

February 13, 2025 by angishields

Cherokee Business Radio

Gaby Evers with GBF Translations and Colby Passman with Southwestern Advantage

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Brought to you by Diesel David and Main Street Warriors

Gaby Evers is the founder of GBF Translations, a Spanish translation and interpretation business based in Woodstock, GA.

With a strong background in immigration and medical fields, Gaby has years of experience helping individuals and businesses navigate the complexities of cross-cultural communication. She offers professional services in translation, interpretation, proofreading, and cultural consulting, ensuring that her clients’ messages are accurate, culturally relevant, and impactful.

Passionate about bridging language barriers, Gaby works with small businesses, organizations, and individuals who want to connect meaningfully with Spanish-speaking audiences. Her expertise includes reviewing and proofreading websites, marketing materials, and important documents to guarantee not only linguistic accuracy but also cultural resonance.

Whether it’s helping immigrants communicate their stories or assisting businesses in expanding their reach, Gaby brings a personalized, detail-oriented approach to every project.Gaby’s mission is to bridge language gaps and ensure everyone has a voice.

When she’s not working on translations or consulting with clients, she’s often exploring new ways to serve her community or strategizing creative solutions to make language accessible to all.

Follow GBF Translations on LinkedIn.

Colby Passman is a graduate of The University of Mississippi in Integrated Marketing Communications with a minor in Business. He’s a top salesperson and team leader for Southwestern Advantage.

During his five years with the company, he’s grown his business as a freshman to now producing over $260,000/yr in revenue.

While in college, Colby served as the founding President of the Public Relations Students Society of America (PRSSA) at Ole Miss.

Colby enjoys playing guitar, mountain biking, and watching Ole Miss athletics in his free time.

Connect with Colby on LinkedIn.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

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

Stone Payton: Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of Cherokee Business Radio. Stone Payton here with you this morning, and today’s episode is brought to you in part by our Community Partner program, the Business RadioX Main Street Warriors Defending Capitalism, promoting small business, and supporting our local community. For more information, go to. Main Street Warriors and a special note of thanks to our title sponsor for the Cherokee chapter of Main Street Warriors Diesel David, Inc. Please go check them out at diesel david.com. You guys are in for a real treat. We’ve got a couple of guests this morning. But first up on Cherokee Business Radio, please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Southwestern Advantage organizational field leader, Colby Passman. How are you, man?

Colby Passman: Stone, this is so much fun. I’m really happy to be here.

Stone Payton: Well, I love it. It beats the heck out of working. I get to visit with interesting people who are passionate about the work that they’re doing. I want to learn so much about who you’re serving, why you’re you’re doing it, and how. But let’s open up with a bit of a picture, a primer for me and our listeners. Mission. Purpose. What are you and your team really out there trying to do for folks, man.

Colby Passman: Yeah, absolutely. So, um, personally, in my life, I feel I feel called to, to create leaders. Um, the my company’s mission statement. That’s a big reason why why I work there. And the mission is to be the best company in the world at developing skills and character to help young people achieve their goals in life. So the company, southwestern, it’s been around for 160 years. It’s the oldest internship in the nation. And what we figured is that if we want to be the best at developing skills and character. So basically, to achieve personal growth, the only way to to grow is by stepping outside of your comfort zone. So the summer internship that I get to recruit for it is known as the Navy Seals of College Internships. It’s definitely the hardest thing I’ve done up to this point in my life, but one thing that gets me through is it won’t be harder than marriage, right?

Stone Payton: Maybe. So. You have personally participated in the intern program, and now you are, uh, leading recruiting for this thing?

Colby Passman: Yeah. Yeah, I started my freshman year. Um, I use it to pay my way through college, so was able to graduate from Ole Miss debt free.

Stone Payton: Um, really mamas proud.

Colby Passman: So.

Stone Payton: Oh, yeah. Oh, we gotta swing back around and figure out how you how you did that. Because that’s huge. So at this point of your career and I know it’s a, you know, a little longer in the tooth than our guest here this morning. It’s, uh. But you have a career now. What’s the what’s the most rewarding, man? What’s the most fun about it for you these days?

Colby Passman: Yeah, man, it truly checks all the boxes in terms of, you know, entrepreneurial with the flexibility of schedule. And, um, I always say money’s not the most important, but it’s definitely top five. Um, for me, Stone, it’s truly the impact. I mean, outside of, um, you know, being a Christian and choosing to serve the Lord. Um, you know, working with this company, it’s been the best decision. Also the most impactful decision in my life. So the fact that I can extend that impact to others through this really challenging, um, sounds cliche, but truly a life changing Experience. Um, that’s what fires me up and gets me out of bed in the morning.

Stone Payton: So what is a day in the life of Colby? Like? I know you shared with us before we came on air that you’re about to take a trip and go to this career fair, but what’s a maybe typical is not even a good word. But what’s a typical day week look like for you?

Colby Passman: Yeah. Typical. Yeah, it’s always changing. So I definitely do travel a lot. Um, yeah. I mean, the goal is to to wake up at 5 a.m., go, um, go straight to the gym in the morning. So I’ve been doing pretty good about that recently. Um, I cook my own meals. I take cold showers every morning because it keeps me disciplined and start starting my day getting outside of my comfort zone. Um, but, yeah, I mean, in terms of recruiting, um, prospecting can look, um, it can look different for different weeks. Sometimes I’ll like for, for today example, I actually have a meeting right after this with the president of, um, the real estate club at Kennesaw State. And the goal and what I expect is that, um, she’ll have me as a as a guest speaker. I have a speaker bio and I speak to different clubs, so that’s one kind of recruiting method. I do career fairs and basically with all the names that I gather up, I’ll, I’ll call them and then send them some informational videos and interview kids and the kids I select for my team, I, I train them until, until May when the summer starts. And that’s kind of that’s kind of like like football season, so to speak.

Stone Payton: And so what does that process look like? Uh, a kid, you, you find a kid at a career fair or through a university system like that, or however you find them and you’re having that initial conversation. I know you have these group presentations, but when you’re sitting down with with a kid, uh, how does that conversation go? Walk us through that a little bit.

Colby Passman: Yeah, that’s that’s a really good question. And, um, you know, with the the degree of challenge of the internship, I don’t really view myself as someone that’s necessarily like hiring people, but instead, since it’s entrepreneurial, you You know, um, if a student comes and works for me with the summer, I’m also working for them. So at the end of the day, I’m really just looking to form a partnership. More of a business partner, someone to do life with. And, um, it all comes back to the personal growth. So of course, with the conversations, I have a lot of it. With it being an internship is about career goals and how this could help them professionally, but more so what fires me up and and the main reason why so many students will do this is because they just have a burning desire to become the best version of themselves. So a lot of times I’m asking questions like, you know, let’s say 60, 70 years from now at your funeral and, you know, grandkids and coworkers and, you know, all your friends are there, how do you want to be remembered? You know, when when people are talking about you and someone comes up and gives the eulogy? What specific character traits are they going to use to describe you and those character traits they talk about? I tell them that’s what this summer internship is for, whether it’s integrity or Integrity or perseverance or empathy or, you know, love, reliable, you name it, growing in those areas. That’s that’s what this internship is for.

Stone Payton: And so what can an intern expect to, uh, to, to see and hear and do over the course of this thing?

Colby Passman: Yeah. I mean, in terms of expectation, expect to fail a ton, expect to fail a ton and to get rejected. The, um, the way we go about accomplishing our mission is teaching students how to start their own miniature franchise over the summer. So it’s kind of like starting a chick fil A. So we give students a product to sell and the product that we’ve we’ve been selling for 160 years. It’s educational material for families, um, families with kids in school as well as, um, biblical material and then, um, a leadership program. But our students, they, um, you know, we’ll knock on doors, we’ll do social media marketing, what we manage all of our own accounting and product delivery. Pretty much the full blueprint of running a business. And on average, students work about 80 hours a week for 12 weeks straight. I mean, it is like entrepreneurship bootcamp.

Stone Payton: Wow. So mentors along the way. I know the answer to this has to be yes just by virtue of what you’ve described already. But can you speak to the role of of mentors in your life so far as as they’ve helped you navigate this, this terrain? It’s got you’ve probably had some tremendous experiences in that regard.

Colby Passman: I truly have. And if you look at the alumni network of, you know, people that did southwestern when they were in college, I mean, just to name a couple. Mike Johnson, who’s, you know, the speaker of the House of Representatives, did this for four summers when he was in college and actually came to our company’s headquarters in February and gave a live keynote. I couldn’t make it for that. I was living in Austin, Texas at the time, but a lot of my friends got pictures with him. We’ve had seven former governors, including the current governor of Oklahoma right now, multiple people on the Forbes list, including John Yarbrough, who created the algorithm that makes slot machines turn. Oh, my. It’s insane. I mean, the people that do this job are truly movers and shakers. But in terms of my personal experience with mentorship, I’ve been told that you want to you want to put yourself in three buckets, one where you’re seeking mentorship from someone else, one where you’re you get to run that race with other people. And then the last bucket is being in a position where you can pour into others. And through this job, I’ve just been able to have my two feet firmly planted in all three of those roles.

Stone Payton: Okay, you got to talk to us about graduating debt free. I am operating under the impression that being a part of this thing of yours. Oh, yeah, it was a huge. It was a huge contributor to that. Yeah.

Colby Passman: Yeah. I mean, this this past summer, the the average intern made right at $12,000 for their work done over 12 weeks. So.

Stone Payton: Wow.

Colby Passman: It’s crazy. And our averages have gone up over the the years since my first summer. But I made about $10,000 working in Alabama. My first summer doing this, I made about 20 grand in South Carolina. My second summer went up to Michigan. After my junior year of college. I made about 30 grand and then made another 30 grand in Illinois after my senior year. So over the course of four four summers in college, I made about $90,000.

Stone Payton: That’s impressive.

Colby Passman: Yeah.

Stone Payton: So what’s next for you? You’re going to continue to expand your reach. Is this a, I guess, to be like a launching pad for a, for a different type of career, or do you really know yet?

Colby Passman: Yeah. I mean, specifically, no. I mean, my goal is to always be in the entrepreneurship realm. I’d love to to always have southwestern as a source of income and then, um, be able to sustain, um, a good amount of money with, you know, less amount of time and then start, start new business adventures. But, um, truthfully, Stone, I’m just gonna, you know, be obedient to the Lord. And, you know, if he tells me to go somewhere else, then. Then I’m gone. And if not, then I’ll. I’ll stay here for a while.

Stone Payton: But this presents the flexibility to to serve in that capacity and run another business or pursue other entrepreneurial ventures.

Colby Passman: Yeah it does.

Stone Payton: Wow, man. Sounds like a good deal.

Colby Passman: Yeah, I’m really thankful for it.

Stone Payton: So I don’t know when or when or how you find the the time, but, uh, passions, pursuits, interests outside the scope of this of this work. My listeners know that I like to hunt, fish and travel. Yeah, it’s pretty common knowledge now. Uh, that that passion for the outdoors has, uh, has launched a project to build out a boat, uh, that’s wheelchair accessible so that we can get disabled vets and people with mobility issues out enjoying the outdoors, fishing and cruising and all that. So, uh, everybody, at least in Cherokee County, knows what stone’s up to. Anything you nerd out about outside the scope of this, uh. This work.

Colby Passman: Oh, man. I like to do for having fun. That’s a great question. Um, man, I love playing guitar. I’ve been playing guitar since a young age, so that’s definitely a big part of, uh, of my identity, I would say. Um. Love travel. Love outdoors. Backpacking. Um, yeah, I, I’m trying to think if there’s any, like, weirdly authentic things that I like to do, but, um. Yeah. Big music, big outdoors, and that’s that’s pretty much it.

Stone Payton: Well, it sounds like you could still hang out with us. You don’t have to be in a wheelchair to get on on the SS freedom. That’s the. The name of the project is SS Freedom Adventure for all. Uh, but, uh, you know, there’s plenty of us that are not in wheelchairs that are going to be enjoying it, too. So it sounds like we can hang out. Sounds like you would enjoy boating and fishing and all that stuff.

Colby Passman: I’d be happy to hang out anytime with you.

Stone Payton: All right, so let’s go back to this intern program and break it down a little bit. Um, how would you describe, like, who would be a really good fit for something like this? And what are some maybe yellow flags or red flags or like, hey, this might be a nice person, but this is not the right program for them, you know?

Colby Passman: Yeah, I think the biggest thing for me is just people that are competitive, you know, um, get it? That definitely isn’t a factor. I was never the biggest fan of school myself. Um, hence pursuing entrepreneurship. Right? But yeah, people that are competitive, I mean, I, I, alongside everyone else, um, truly view this job as, as a sport, you know, so someone that can just really get excited about about doing the hard things. I would say not only that, but people that just don’t want to don’t want to be average in life. Um, I mean, this job, like I mentioned, it’s the hardest thing I’ve done up to this point in my life. So it definitely takes a lot of drive and ambition to really embrace yourself of 12 weeks straight of delayed gratification.

Stone Payton: Um, you spoke earlier about failure as, uh, that’s just that’s part of it. Can you speak more to that personal experience and philosophy, apparently, of the of the organization and what you try to teach these kids about falling down and getting back up?

Colby Passman: Yeah, man. Thanks so much for asking. Um, I mean, just just some, some stats that I had on my resume after my first summer of doing this, I gave, um, 3500 cold calls all in person, all in a different state to complete strangers I’d never met before in my life. Um, 3500. I gave probably 800, um, selling presentations. So those are people that were open minded enough to say, yeah, just let me let me listen to it. And then within that I probably had about 200 customers. So on average, I mean, my first summer doing this, I probably talked about 50, 50 strangers a day and pitched myself on the idea of spending a couple minutes to to hear my sales pitch. I’d probably have about, you know, 10 to 12 a day do that and maybe 2 or 2 or 3 customers within that. So I’m getting told no close to 40 times a day. Wow. Or more than that. I call it vitamin no a little bit. Every day is good for you.

Stone Payton: Vitamin? No, I like that. You’re going to hear that again. I’m going to use that.

Colby Passman: Yeah. Copy it. Um, but at the same time, Stone, that’s one thing that, um, made me kind of fearful before going into this, um, because I didn’t like failure. I’ve always been a perfectionist. I was really good at sports and the best one on my team, and just had a lot of success from a young age in high school, middle school, things like that. But at the same time, I realized that, you know, while I hate getting rejected, it gets under my skin and I take it personally and I just do not like failure whatsoever. This isn’t something that I want to always struggle with, so to speak. So I’m sure you’re probably familiar with exposure therapy, which is if you’re scared of something, the best way to get over that is just to just to do it. So, um, I kind of viewed this my first summer as a 12 week investment of just facing all of my fears. So then that way when I’m 30 and married and have two little kids, their dad is just a complete total stud who’s not not afraid of failure or rejection anymore.

Stone Payton: Yeah. All right, so if I’m a kid in this program, I’m going out there, I’m getting a little scar tissue. I’m getting good at the presentation. I’m sure at some point, uh, am I am I coming back to home base and getting a little bit of a recharge, and I’m able to communicate back and forth and get some direction before I have to shake the dust off and, uh, or the blood off and march back out there.

Colby Passman: Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for asking. I mean, we could not do this job without accountability. So, yeah, I mean, every single day, our students, they track all of their stats with how many prospects they talk to, how many sit down customers, um, you know, the amount they, they bought from them, so on and so forth. But we track all of our stats, and every single night we have about a 10 to 15 minute long coaching call. And we we coach based off of the stats, you know, because the data doesn’t lie. So we’ll do that every single night for 72 days straight all summer long. And we don’t work on Sundays. So Sunday will have a 4 to 5 hour meeting where we’ll give some general coaching based on the group’s needs as a whole. But then within that we have what’s called a PC. We call it a personal conference. So for about 30 minutes, each one of our first year students would sit down with one of the experienced people, like me or another person, for about 30 minutes, look at their numbers, look at how they’ve been doing with marketing, checking their business expenses. I mean, just really hands on into the detail coaching.

Stone Payton: And so they’re looking at expenses in the whole thing. So they really are running a business. It’s not just like go out there and you be the sales rep for my thing. They really it’s well I think you used the word franchisors. They’re they’re basically out there running their own thing.

Colby Passman: Yeah. Essentially. I mean our students are ten, 99. Every penny they spend over the summer is, you know, a business expense.

Stone Payton: Right, right. I love it. I mean, I can see why it’s. You characterize it as the Navy Seals of, uh, of internships.

Colby Passman: Yeah. I mean, it is not for the faint of heart, but, uh, I love it. It fires me up.

Stone Payton: So, based on that experience, I want to ask you this first. Tell me more about the people they are. They are serving who they are selling the product and service to. Who is their prospect?

Colby Passman: Yeah, that’s a that’s a good question in terms of families over the summer. I mean, short answer is just anyone that that has kids, you know, because we have, um, you know, some, some early learning products for families with babies like, you know, learning books and like, fun educational apps to get kids really excited about learning.

Stone Payton: Mhm.

Colby Passman: And then for the older kids, we have products that are kind of like SparkNotes or CliffsNotes that are just designed to save kids a ton of time with schoolwork. So the kids that hate school, that don’t want anything to do with it, they love it because they get their homework done easier, and the kids that have really high goals that excel, they’re usually the ones that are busy with sports and other extracurriculars. They really like this because they study a lot, and then they get their work done easier. And at the same time, we have Act and SAT prep alongside some material that helps with AP exams.

Stone Payton: Nice. All right, before we wrap up, I’d love to leave our listeners if we could both with, I call them pro tips. Right. Just a couple of things to to to noodle on. Be thinking about do or don’t. And as a product of what you’ve learned so far and maybe in the vein of kind of both sides of the table, if, if you you’re young, you have some aspirations about doing your own thing. You really are willing to put yourself through the ringer a little bit, as it were. But maybe also for those of us who may want to create something to serve a constituency like that. What should we do be doing in terms of creating a, you know, a program around, you know, like the Business RadioX Youth academy. You know, like, if we really wanted to help people. Like, what have you learned? Um, so a pro tip or two just for people to be thinking about and look, number one pro tip, guys, is reach out and talk to Colby, and we’ll make sure we get his contact info here in a little bit. But something to be thinking about.

Colby Passman: Yeah. Thanks, man. I can answer that a million different ways truthfully, but, um, and the book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey, he talks about, um, private victories, perceived public victories. So, you know, I think, um, in terms of, you know, building momentum, obviously, you know, the hardest step is just taking the first step. I, um, I heard the other day that every mile begins with a step, and it’s so true, but in terms of, um, of. Yeah, just building that momentum. I mean, the reason why I’m, you know, waking up and going going to the gym at 5 a.m. and, you know, taking cold showers and just truthfully doing everything I can to put myself outside of my comfort zone is because I know that I can’t excel in work and excel with creativity or really anything if I’m not taking care of of my inside. You know, if if that makes sense.

Stone Payton: It does. And part of what I’ve drawn from the conversation, as someone who would like to invest in young aspiring entrepreneurs is, um, you got to give them some room to, to to scrape their knee a little bit. And then when they come back, you know, maybe have the discipline and the rigor and put the responsibility on them to, to not only absorb the lesson, but to return the learning to the organization so that everyone can can benefit from it, but create that environment where it’s, uh, it’s okay to fail, you know? Now, if you keep making the same mistake over and over and over, then you might need to free up your future. Right. But but if it, uh. I mean, so that’s what I’m taking for the for my. And look, this is a great way to get some really good coaching insight from people who are very well accomplished in their domain. Uh, free. Get yourself a radio show. You invite smart, passionate people in the studio, and they teach you a lot.

Colby Passman: Yeah, I love that stone. And I guess the, uh, as we’re wrapping up, the last thing I want to say, um, whether you’re Christian or not, I mean, there’s so much value in in what I’m about to share. And this is, um, I hold this this, you know, these next couple sentences more dear to my heart than anything. Um, this is my favorite quote ever. It comes from the book of James verse. It’s chapter one, verses two through four. He says, consider it pure joy when you face trials, because the testing of your faith produces perseverance. So let perseverance finish its work so you can be made mature and complete, not lacking in anything. And basically what that means to me is no matter how we slice it, the obstacle is the way. You know everything that we want to accomplish in life. It’s truly on the other side of fear and what’s holding us back. There’s so many analogies for it. You know, diamonds are formed under pressure. And, you know, I mean, if you want to make a sword, the process of that is you stick it through the fire and you beat it up, and the finished product is you have this beautiful, just really sharp, high quality, just work of art, really nice weapon. And, uh, that’s pretty much what the summer program is. And that’s just how I live my life. Um, you know, the obstacle is the way.

Stone Payton: The only regret you have left me with this morning is I wish I would have turned on the video, because I would love for our listeners to see the youthful face that just shared that incredibly mature wisdom, not only articulate, but right on target. That is marvelous. All right. What’s the best way for our listeners? To learn more, tap into your work website, LinkedIn, whatever you think is appropriate. But I want to make sure they have some coordinates to connect.

Colby Passman: Man, I give my phone number.

Stone Payton: Yeah, absolutely.

Colby Passman: All right. Cool. Yeah. Cell phone number is 601 443 1488. That’s my cell phone number. That’d be the best way. I mean, of course I have an email, which is C passman@southwestern.com. Um, I’m actually giving up social media for 2025. That’s my.

Stone Payton: Oh.

Colby Passman: My that’s my thing for the year. And it’s it’s been so fruitful up to this point. It’s been I can’t recommend that enough. But I am on LinkedIn. So Colby Passman and uh, I guess outside of those three methods, I’m, I’m pretty much rogue, unless you want to write me a letter.

Stone Payton: No. Colby is easy to get to and easy to talk with. I guarantee you. Well, this has been marvelous. Hey, how about hanging out with us while we visit with our next guest?

Colby Passman: Uh, that’s exactly what I want to do, stone.

Stone Payton: Perfect. All right, next up on Cherokee Business Radio. We have with us with GBF Translations, Gaby Evers. How you doing?

Gaby Evers: Oh, I’m doing all right. How are you?

Stone Payton: I’m doing well. And I’ll just apologize. That’s that’s a tough act to follow.

Gaby Evers: I know I don’t wake up at six in the morning or five, so I’m already apologizing in advance.

Stone Payton: So GBF translations. Mission. Purpose. Uh, tell us about the work.

Gaby Evers: Um, so basically, working with small businesses, um, trying to bridge that gap. Um, so the Spanish speaking community can be reached, um, not only by, you know, small businesses trying to work with them, but also, you know, small businesses themselves. Um, because, um, a professional translation is different that someone just being bilingual. Um, I have worked with other bilingual people who have their small business, but they need that professional, you know, touch.

Stone Payton: Yeah. Well, I want to talk more about the virtues of a professional translation, as opposed to some of the other things that, uh, we might be tempted to to lean into, but. How did you get started? What were you doing before this?

Gaby Evers: Well, I mean, I’ve been translating and interpreting since I was in elementary school, so I’m originally from Mexico. So when I taught myself English in elementary school, I sort of became the go to person for parent teacher conferences, not only for my family, but for others. So it just was something that I did. And then, as you know, I went to school and college and started working in corporate America. It was just something that I started to do, you know, in a more professional level. Um, I think the joke is always, you think you know, Spanish until you have to translate or interpret like a business document or a legal document, and then all of a sudden you’re like, do I actually know this language? Um, so when I started to sort of learn that, um, aspect of it. Um, I was doing, um, I worked at law firms. I worked, um, with, um, within the medical field. Uh, at some point I was freelancing and doing, um, translations and interpretations through agencies. Um, but I learned that I wanted to be the one who decided what projects I could invest in and who I could work with. Um, when I moved to Woodstock about two years ago, I saw the need, and it just sort of became, uh, a little something in the back of my mind, like, maybe I could do this. Maybe I could do this. And then this year, I was like, well, I just have to go for it, because if I don’t do it, I can’t, you know, I want to say that I did it. Whether this goes into a different direction, whether I fail or not, I want to say that I did it.

Stone Payton: So how has the transition been? I have to believe it’s had to be a little bit little bit intimidating coming from a corporate environment where there are maybe some more knowns. And now not only do you do you have to be a practitioner and be good at practicing the craft, but oh, by the way, you, uh, you got to run a business. You got to get to business, right? What’s that transition been like?

Gaby Evers: Oh, absolutely. I mean, it’s been terrifying. Um. Very exciting. Um, I wish I had, uh, taken that, uh, book camp that Cody has spoken to us about, because that would have been handy right about now. Um, but I will have to say that everyone here in Woodstock has been so nice, so welcoming, so willing to sit down and share their knowledge and share their wisdom. And a lot of it has been with other small businesses or entrepreneurs who have been in the same shoes as I am. Um, so it’s definitely challenging, but very exciting, especially when I get to see sort of my work come to fruition. So, for example, I just finished collaborating with a small business. They do a chiropractic and um, their intake forms needed to be translated into Spanish. Mhm. Um, so I did that and then shortly after they were able to collaborate with uh, a law firm. So now they’re, they are Spanish speaking clients are now going to be coming to them. Uh, and so having that tool and having that already translated in a way that will make sense for, for these new customers, it’s, it’s like a full, full circle moment. Not only do I get to help this small business, um, get more people and, you know, uh, succeed in that sense. I also get to help the, the people that are going to be coming in and maybe aren’t sure, you know, how that practice works or how things work in general. Now, there that that is translated in a way that they understand it. It’s given back to the community, and it’s a full circle moment for me.

Stone Payton: Yeah. All right. Let’s talk about me for a minute. It’s my show. Okay. So I’m connecting dots here, right? So I think I mentioned to you a couple of times that young professionals of Woodstock, it would be fun to have a Spanish speaking show, and that would be fun to pour in, and that would be a way to invest into the community. But now that I hear you talking about how that can open up a whole new world and potentially other markets to you, let’s let’s walk through a hypothetical use case, like if we had a Spanish speaking show and we had people coming in here, um, and having conversations like this, but in Spanish, we probably would draw more people tapping into the work. There might even be more people that would be wanting to be on the client side of our world and, and have those interactive business people interviewing business people with conversations. And it might even open up a world where someone’s running a business radio studio in Austin, but they at least have that added texture to it. Or maybe they just have a whole Spanish speaking. Like we could actually have studio partners that are doing some Spanish speaking. I mean, it can just it can keep unfolding, right?

Gaby Evers: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that’s the beauty of it. Um, when I first moved here, I noticed that there would always be like some art festivals or something going on in Woodstock. And I, you know, I made friends with my neighbor, and he had been living here for five years at that time. He had no idea that any of that was going on. Um, you know, he didn’t see any signs. It wasn’t really posted that much. So for him, it was like, oh, I didn’t know that that was there. And then, you know, being able to let him know what’s going on, it just kind of sparked that idea that if we could sort of bridge that gap, if we could, you know, make it so communication is easier. I mean, you tap in into so many things. Um, when I went to, uh, Puerto Rico for, uh, sort of to help, uh, with the conference, I noticed that, you know, obviously the people there spoke English, but there’s just a connection that happens when, you know, you meet someone that knows you know, your native tongue or just it’s just that cultural togetherness that comes and, you know, just being able to find that, especially here in Cherokee County, I feel like it’s always exciting when when I meet somebody else who’s also, you know, an entrepreneur who’s also Latino, who’s also Latino, and it’s just like, oh, this is togetherness. That just makes it just makes it a different experience.

Stone Payton: I’ll bet. So I know there are a great many myths, misconceptions, a pretty good sized body of misinformation around how to use this platform to help people and make money. The work we do at Business RadioX. I got to believe the same as is true for you. Are there some? Do people have some pretty odd and off the mark ideas about about translation and the value of the services, or how to go about it or the and maybe speak to the differences in, you know, me hitting a translation app or me engaging Abby to rewrite our Business RadioX Academy so we can train Spanish Business RadioX studio partners?

Gaby Evers: No, that’s a that’s a great question.

Stone Payton: I hey, it took me a minute to get it out, but I thought it was a fantastic question.

Gaby Evers: Um, no, I mean, I think that that’s the number one thing that as I’m trying to, um, you know, sell this business. Um, also educating people on what exactly it is that I do and how it works and, and what it actually means. So first off, I think that the first thing is, um, so translations versus having an interpreter, it’s different. So translation has to do with like written words. So anything that’s in writing basically. Whereas interpretation it’s spoken. So whether, you know, it was a workshop and. I’m translating for whoever or interpreting for whoever’s speaking, that would be. The main difference. And then second, you know, with AI and Google Translate. They’re great tools. But to rely on them completely, you, you you can get yourself in trouble. And I’ve seen it, uh, not only, as you know, um, a consumer or just walking around and seeing these mistakes, but I’ve seen it when I do consultations and I’m like, do you know what that actually says? Is that what you were trying to say? Um, and so having that cultural, um, nuance and knowledge makes a difference because, you know, you might be thinking, you’re saying one thing and then people read it and you’re offending, You know, half of Latin America.

Stone Payton: Ouch. Well, you don’t want to do that. So let’s walk through a couple of use cases and you don’t have to name names, of course, but, um, I so that we can really understand the breadth of opportunity for tapping into into your expertise.

Gaby Evers: Yeah. So not only, you know, having, um, marketing material, for example, made from scratch, um, translated and having that. So when you are posting things up, like, I know for, uh, Cinco de Mayo, there’s times where businesses will, you know, Google Translate things. So it’s easier trying to reach the Spanish speaking community. Um, but they’re not saying or communicating what they really want to say. So people might just disregard that and be like, oh, that’s not for me, even though it’s in Spanish.

Stone Payton: Oh, ouch. You might actually have the opposite effect.

Gaby Evers: Exactly.

Stone Payton: Oh, wow.

Gaby Evers: So having that a professional, you know, take a look at it, uh, can make a difference. So, um, maybe even on your website or your social media. Um, as we are seeing that more, um, speaking Spanish speakers are, you know, they’re a big force, not only in for business, but, I mean, they’re here and that that matters. So you’re tapping on a whole new base that, you know, people aren’t reaching. Um, something that I noticed here in, in Woodstock specifically. Um, and I’m sort of grateful for it. There’s no one else that’s doing what I’m doing. So it’s it’s interesting because not only am I growing with people and educating them sort of from from scratch, but because I’m the only 1 or 1 of the few ones here, it’s like, well, so what do you do? You know, um, so to get back to the answer, I tend to wander off. Yeah, but it’ll be perfect then. Um, so. Yeah. So not only that, but also, um, I have had the opportunity on just creating things from scratch, uh, whether that’s, uh, at a, in a medical field, uh, a clinic or, um, like I mentioned, the chiropractor. Uh estheticians things like that, where, you know, people tend to forget about it, but these are services that people need. Um, and so when someone sees something that is meant for them, that is translated in a way that they understand it, uh, with the cultural knowledge and nuance that they understand, they’re more likely to be like, oh, well, let me see what that’s about. And then from there, you know, word of mouth is very it’s very important in our community. And when they feel like they found a place that they’re comfortable in, that they can go to, they tell everyone. And then all of a sudden you have all these people that you maybe didn’t realize that we’re there, or that you thought you were reaching out. But the material that you were using wasn’t, wasn’t properly for them.

Stone Payton: So, uh, on the whole sales and marketing front, what have you learned about that? How is that going? I know in our work we work with a lot of professional services providers. And again, while they may be really skilled at their craft, often a hole in their swing or let me, I’ll be gracious as I can. The biggest opportunity for improvement in their business is the front end of that pipeline. Just having like these discovery calls, these initial conversations. Um, is that a channel? Have you cracked the code on how are you getting the new business, Gaby?

Gaby Evers: Um, a lot of it has been word of mouth. Um, like I said, I did wish that I would have taken that, uh, course.

Stone Payton: Bootcamp met Colby a couple years ago.

Gaby Evers: Yeah. Because, I mean, getting those those no’s can be very, very hard at first. Hurtful.

Stone Payton: Hey, it can be hurtful for those of us that haven’t been tough enough, like Kobe and his crew.

Gaby Evers: Um, but not only that, I think the other part is that I see it’s like, oh, if I could just fix it. If I could just do it, then, you know, it’s almost like a like an itch, right? Like I see that it’s wrong. I want to fix it, but they don’t see why it’s wrong or they’re like, well, no one has had an issue. No one has been offended. It’s fine. I’m like.

Stone Payton: Yeah, because they don’t know who did who they turned away or didn’t attract.

Gaby Evers: Right, exactly. And even though, um, like I said, Google Translate and I, they’re great tools, but to just solely rely on them, you know, you’re missing out so much. And I mean, it can definitely get you in trouble. Um, I think the other, um, part of it is although, like I said, I am, I see that I’m the only one working specifically with small businesses, um, and sort of translating marketing and documents, not just, you know, doing the interpretation, which is some of the stuff that I have seen. Um, you know, like when I looked on Google Maps. So just trying to get myself out there has been a challenge especially, you know, I moved here, I didn’t really know anybody. But this community just opens up to you and they want to see you thrive and they want to see you succeed. And I think that that’s part of the reason that just sort of pushes me forward to continue to help other small businesses, because it’s like there’s a whole group of people you haven’t tapped in. Let me help you. And so when I see those moments, like I mentioned earlier with the chiropractor, that’s sort of what, like, keeps me going. Um, and as someone who, you know, has been in a position where I felt like things weren’t for me or they weren’t in a way that I could understand them or that they were reaching out for me. You know, I want that. I want the representation. I want people to see things and feel like, okay, so I’m part of this too. I am wanted in this community, in this business, not, you know, to sort of allies themselves from us. So yeah, that’s what keeps me going.

Stone Payton: Well, I gotta say, my experience, at least we really do have that here in Cherokee County. And I think in Woodstock in particular, we do have a, a group of people who small business people who are genuinely invested in everyone’s success and are very quick to pour into our work the causes that are important to us. How about for you, community and causes? You touched on it, but, uh, anything in particular that you’re really trying to rally behind? Uh, right now, like, is that a group of people that you’re trying to reach out to and maybe serve them as well? Um, and or or do you have your own, like, uh, wheelchair friendly boat project like me or anything like that going on?

Gaby Evers: I wish I had a boat. Nope. Oh.

Stone Payton: Well, you got one now. You come visit with us.

Gaby Evers: Um, no. I don’t know that I have a specific, um, thing. I think the mission right now is to serve, uh, the Spanish speaking community. And the way that I see that I can do that is by, you know, offering my services and trying to reach, you know, everywhere. I’m trying to be in the city of Woodstock. I’m trying like, every document that, you know, needs to be translated in Cherokee County to, to be translated, even if it’s not me. Mhm. Um, although I don’t see anybody else, but even if it’s not me, uh, I think that that’s what what I care about so much that it gets done so that people can see it and be, you know, informed or feel welcomed.

Stone Payton: Hey, I like that. Let’s send when we get this published, let’s send this interview to Michael Caldwell. Tell him to get on the stick. We want everything in Spanish and like Gaby Spanish not I Spanish.

Gaby Evers: Actually, I spoke to the mayor.

Stone Payton: Oh. Did you?

Gaby Evers: Okay, I did. I had spoken to him during the, um, the IT meetup, and he he was so great.

Stone Payton: Um, I’ll bet he’s just a good guy. He is. Amen.

Gaby Evers: I mean, this honestly, after that state of city speech, I was like, I need to live in Woodstock. I feel so, so patriotic. Um, but he did mention, um, you know, talking to the Woodstock, uh, police department. And so we’re have that kind of in the works. Um, also trying to work with, uh, the Parks and Rec. Jamie has been so helpful. So, you know, it’s in the works. Sure. Um, I’m putting my little seats out there, and I can’t wait to see that come to fruition.

Stone Payton: I’ll bet. All right, so what’s the best way for our listeners to connect with you? Small businesses that may very well have need, uh, desire for your services, but also and also those of us who, uh, just want to help and, and, uh, and want to continue to learn more. What’s the best way to connect with you?

Gaby Evers: Uh, so our website, uh, if you sign up for the newsletter, you can get, um, tips and exclusive, um, offers, uh, mainly tips, um, on, uh, mistakes to avoid so that your translations are proper. Uh, but if you go to Translations.com, that’s the best way. Uh, my phone number is also (470) 215-1321. And you can also send me an email, uh, Gaby, at translations.com. Um, I am trying to get on social media more, although I wish that, you know, social media wasn’t something we relied on so much.

Stone Payton: Well, Colby’s going to be no help there. He laid it down.

Speaker5: I did get off TikTok, so that was my big thing last year.

Gaby Evers: Uh, before, you know, it was banned, I was off TikTok. And honestly, that helped a lot. It gave me time to read a Read a lot. I mean, I was already reading, uh, but it just gave me time and peace of mind that I didn’t. I didn’t think I could have, um, I think I’m trying to go more the authentic route and just be myself.

Stone Payton: Good for you. Well, Gaby Colby, this has been an absolute delight having you join us in the studio this morning. Thank you for your insight, your perspective, your enthusiasm, and some inspiring conversation. Uh, you guys are doing great work. And keep it up. We sure appreciate you.

Gaby Evers: Thank you for having us.

Colby Passman: Thanks. Thanks, Don.

Speaker5: It’s been fun.

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

BRX Pro Tip: Two is Better Than One When Hiring Salespeople

February 13, 2025 by angishields

BRX Pro Tips

BRX Pro Tip: Two is Better Than One When Hiring Salespeople

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BRX Pro Tip: Two is Better Than One When Hiring Salespeople

Stone Payton: Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, we’ve come to believe that when it comes to hiring salespeople, two is better than one.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I think there’s a lot of reasons behind that thesis, and here’s a few of them. When you’re hiring salespeople, that’s a big step in any organization, especially when you’re hiring your first salesperson. And when it comes time to hire that first one, I would really consider hiring two instead of one. Here’s a couple of the reasons why.

Number one is from a motivation standpoint, having two salespeople can create a friendly, competitive environment where each of them are pushing each other to perform better. So, I think you’re going to get better results right out of the gate when you have two people kind of on the job in this area.

And number two is accountability. Now, you have a number in your head where you think these people should be, but now they’re going to have actual numbers. So, now, they can benchmark their performances against each other. And this is going to ensure that neither one of them is going to get complacent. And then, maybe in your head, you undershot or you overshot what can be done. And now, you have two people out in the wild actually doing it, and you’re going to get a better gauge of what really is possible. So, accountability is an important part.

And the third one that I think is maybe not thought of enough is you’re doing some risk mitigation because if one salesperson underperforms or leaves, the other one’s there, and that’s going to ensure continuity on your team and in your business. So, there’s some risk mitigation when it comes to hiring two instead of one. So, when it’s time to hire some salespeople, always think of them in twos, not ones.

From Service To CEO: A Veteran’s Journey

February 12, 2025 by angishields

High Velocity Radio

From Service To CEO: A Veteran's Journey

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Sean Loosen is a New Jersey native who graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point with a B.S. in Economics and Systems Engineering, and later served as an Infantry Officer in the U.S. Army, including a deployment to Iraq.

After his military service, he worked in sales leadership roles in Rochester, NY, while earning an M.B.A. from the Simon School of Business. In 2020, he joined PDS as a consultant and was later named President, CEO & Owner in 2022.

Connect with Sean on LinkedIn.

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 morning. This is going to be a good one, gang. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast, CEO with PDS Optical, Mr. Sean Loosen. How are you, man?

Sean Loosen: Stone I’m doing great. Thank you for having me on here. It’s an honor.

Stone Payton: Well, it’s a delight to have you on the broadcast. I got a ton of questions, Sean. I know we’re probably not going to. Not going to get to them all, but I think a great place to start would be if you could paint for for me and our listeners, kind of an overview, mission, purpose. What is it that you and your team are really out there trying to do for folks, man.

Sean Loosen: We’ve got a great mission at PDS Optical. I talk about what our team over and over. Uh, our mission is to provide high quality, affordable prescription eyewear to our veterans each and every day. And so we’re in the business of providing prescription eyewear. We do a lot of business with the Veterans Affairs. And so veterans across the country, as I’m talking to my my people, I’m always trying to emphasize our mission and just try to put that front and center. What’s unique is, uh, at PDS, you know, it’s it’s funny, I talked about the P, the D and the s. I remember talking to one of my lab directors when I first started, and I was like, hey, do you know what the P and the S stand for? And he’s like, I’m sorry, I don’t. And so and I was like, all right, that’s fine. We can change that. That’s a great way to fix that. And and so it goes with our values there. We take pride in the work that we do. We have respect for the dignity of our veterans that we serve, and we have a commitment to exceptional service. So it’s really unique that it’s in our name there. And we’re proud of what we do each and every day. We get to help veterans, uh, see more clearly. So it’s a great mission.

Stone Payton: Well, that is so much more insightful, robust and inspiring than than what crossed my mind when you mentioned it. I was thinking pretty darn special.

Sean Loosen: Well, you know, I think that’s what my lab director may have said at the time. And so it’s, um, but, you know, it’s it’s, uh, it’s great that we have that in our name. And, uh, we did a whole rebranding, I think, uh, over the past two years. Our name prior was PDS consultants, which just doesn’t really ring optical. Uh, I remember I joked, we think we would send stuff sometimes to the VA hospitals and they would get stuck in the wrong corner because they wouldn’t send it to the optical shops. You’re like, who’s PDS consultant? So, uh, we did a rebrand and just really just had to reemphasize the PD and DSS and then our mission of what we’re doing each and every day, and we’re proud of that.

Stone Payton: So tell us a little bit about your personal backstory. My instincts are it wasn’t a straight path. Often it’s not. How did you find yourself in this role, man?

Sean Loosen: Yeah, it’s sort of a winding path here to to where I’m at today. Um, but, you know, I’m. I’m a military veteran myself. I’m an Army West Point graduate, uh, graduated in early 2002. And so commissioned as an infantry officer. Um, had a great time in the military. Uh, you know, did did a tour in Iraq. Uh, served in Alaska with the Stryker brigade there. And so I was at a crossroads in my military career. I was fortunate to get hired for, um, special forces. I went to a selection course. There’s more steps after that. So it was either go continue on in the military or get out. Um, and I ended up opting to get out and then found myself in, um, uh, working for a for a fortune 500 insurance company in Manhattan. Um ended up working there for a little bit and then moved up to Rochester, New York, where I live today. Um, for was supposed to be a short stint, but, uh, I met a girl there, and, uh, that that girl is my wife today, and, uh, we’ve got four, uh, beautiful young girls. And so I was with, um, my prior company for 15 years. Uh, great. Great, uh, experiences there. Sales leadership roles there. And then, um, so my father kind of jumping around here, my father ended up, uh, uncle started up, uh, actually, my uncle started up PDS late 90s, 1998, I think. Um, and I say, uncle, it’s I’m it’s in parentheses. He’s really not, uh, a blood relative.

Sean Loosen: He’s just, uh, my dad’s best friend growing up from Brooklyn. It’s one of those type of relationships. They’re stone. So, um, and so, uh, Rich Murray is his name. Started it up back in late 90s and, um, you know, kind of grew from one contract slowly, um, with eyeglasses and then, uh, to 2 to 3. And then fast forward to 2019, they ended up, uh, acquiring, uh, a lab where they were subcontracting out. And, um, and it kind of because it kind of grew and got bigger and bigger. And at that point, my father and Rich were in their early 70s, were looking to, you know, find a succession plan. And so they they started talking to me and, and, uh, kind of here I’m at, you know, I got, I got involved as a consultant sort of learning the business, uh, early 2020. Um, and then unfortunately, my, my father, uh, got Covid in 2021 and, um, passed away from that. And so that sort of, uh, accelerated the whole process of me stepping in, uh, as CEO in 2022. 22. So I’ve been with, um, I’ve been in this role coming up on three years and sort of, you know, meandering path, um, you know, wasn’t, wasn’t looking for this, really, but, um, it’s a it’s it’s a great opportunity, obviously. Again, our mission. I’m proud of what we do. Um, we got great people. Um, and, uh, it’s just, you know, I wake up every day being grateful for what we can do.

Stone Payton: So my uncle Rich was Uncle Jeff. So I know exactly what you’re talking about, having that kind of relationship. But he’s Uncle Jeff, you know? That’s just who he is.

Sean Loosen: Everybody’s got that. Yes. Um, yeah, we’ve got that in our family now here too. So it’s. Yeah.

Stone Payton: Uh, a great deal of leadership responsibility in that journey. Uh, so coming from and through that, have you developed, uh, a philosophy of leadership, a set of working disciplines or an are an overarching philosophy.

Sean Loosen: Yeah, I think that’s that’s a great question, Stone. I think just having a military background, um, the way I’ve always approached a leadership philosophy is just, you know, mission first team, always that sort of mentality right there. And, um, meaning, you know, keep the mission front and foremost, but obviously understand that there’s a balance. And so you can’t get your job done without having, uh, good people, uh, in the right seats, in the right place, doing the right things. And so, fortunately, you know, I when I stepped into the company three years ago, we’ve we had a lot of people in the right seats. And, you know, we’ve got a great operation going here. And so I’ve always tried to lead that way. Um, just making sure. And I think I said this earlier on, like I always I’m like on repeat mode. Sometimes I’ll talk about the mission and just keep trying to weave that into any type of story I’ve got on, whether it’s staff meetings or, um, talking to our team. Just, you know, how it relates to what we’re doing. Our mission of serving veterans and providing high quality, affordable prescription eyewear to them each and every day.

Stone Payton: So at this point in your career, what are you finding the most rewarding? What’s the most fun about it for you these days?

Sean Loosen: That’s a great, uh, you know, it’s, uh, there’s a lot really. You know, I think, like I mentioned, we we, we help veterans, see, like, you know, I’m a veteran myself. Um, we get thousands of, uh, of of compliments from veterans that we’ve served and just talked about how, you know, the great things that we’re doing for them each and every day. And, you know, I’ll read that that feedback from all our, um, VA’s that we’re working in, um, you know, the challenge of, like, how can we kind of get better and better each day? We’re constantly challenging our team to not be complacent. Um, we’re making changes within our team to, you know, just improve around the edges and just try to get better and better. Um, and so it’s just completely rewarding in those areas. And then just being around our team itself, like we we continue to, as I mentioned, just, uh, enhance our team and get better and better. We’ve created some new director roles within our operation this year, and it’s just exciting to see some of this, this talent. Um, you know, take the next step and, and help keep delivering on our mission.

Stone Payton: Well, I’d like to dive into this mission and values thing a little bit. And this is being a little bit selfish because I think this is going to help me personally. And look, gang, if you ever want to get a lot of really great free consulting from bright, dedicated, passionate, proven leaders, get yourself a radio show. It’s a great way to get some help. But but I’ll confess to you, Sean, I’m a pretty creative guy. So, like, I can come up come up with a, I can craft a, you know, a good written representation of our mission and values, and I can make it look sexy on the walls and all that. But when it comes to tactical execution, like, what do I do on a Tuesday morning to live into this mission and espouse these values? What have you learned on that front? Are there is there some discipline, some rigor, some structure to that that you employ?

Sean Loosen: We just as I mentioned, like I will try to talk about it. Um, we’ll just keep it front and center, like with our team there. Remind our team. So, you know, we’re in the manufacturing. Um, so part of our role is manufacturing. So we’re making the eyeglasses and and just talking to our, making sure our leaders are telling our, uh, people that are putting together those eyeglasses, hey, that’s going for a veteran there. Like, that’s going to help them see better. Like just reminding them of the why of what we’re doing. Um, and then also, uh, another part of our job is we have opticians working for our company too. So they’re they’re the boots on the ground. They’re the ones meeting with the veterans, helping them fit those eyeglasses, talking about, uh, their needs for eye care, etc.. And so just again, like making sure that they, they have that ingrained in their heads of like, it’s just not we’re just coming. We’re just punching in the clock and then getting out. No, it’s it’s what we’re doing is a noble, uh, service for our veterans each and every day. So it’s, you know, it’s tedious. Uh, again, like, which is why I mentioned I, I’m, I’m always just sort of repeating it over and over the why. Uh, but I think it’s effective, too. Um, especially for me too, because sometimes you can kind of get pulled into other areas. Um, but when you recenter yourself back into, uh, the why and the mission of what we’re doing, it really helps and just sets us on a good path there as a company.

Stone Payton: Now, you stepped into or I’m operating under the impression that you stepped into a successful operation Serving people, providing opportunity for for the, the the folks who get the job done to to live with some purpose. But but you’ve really built this thing. Not you alone, but you. You’ve been able to help facilitate some pretty serious growth and scale. Can you speak to that a little bit?

Sean Loosen: Yeah, it’s it’s so yeah, I definitely stepped into this company with, um, with us being a market leader within our operations. Um, but it was also like at a tricky time, too, because as I mentioned, in 2019, we, uh, acquired the labs. And so, you know, I could we were we weren’t, in my opinion, we weren’t fully operating as one. You know, it was you have a lab in Kentucky. We have a lab in Florida. And they were calling themselves, you know, the Florida Premium Lab, the old name. And the Florida Kentucky Lab was calling itself. Correct. So I was like, no, let’s let’s get away from that. We’re all we’re all PDFs, right? So it’s PDFs, Kentucky PDFs, Florida. And just really trying to bring us all in as one. And then, um, you know, as I mentioned too, like the mission, the core values just re-emphasizing those things, like, we I don’t know if we really had a lot of those, um, values in place and just talking about that with our company. Um, so just, just those are the little things that I’ve been trying to do with, with, with stepping in. But yes, I’ve been very fortunate to step into a very, um, successful, um, company there. But again, like, we’re we’re not complacent. Uh, we we constantly challenge ourselves. How can we get better and better each and every day? And, um, and we’ve got a great team, as I mentioned, in place. Um, it’s not only myself as an owner. We have three other owners that have been within the, you know, 60 plus years of optical, uh, experience there, too. And so, um, very proud of proud of what we could do.

Stone Payton: So how does the whole sales and marketing thing work for an organization like yours? It’s a different world than, of course, that I’m in, but I got to believe there’s still that responsibility. Um, and an important part of the organization to go out there and get the work. Keep the keep the work. How how does how does all that work in your world?

Sean Loosen: Yeah. So it’s, uh, a lot of the business that we’re doing is the government contracting side. So it’s very formal. Uh, there’s, you know, an RFP that’s pushed out there. Um, and so we’re a veteran owned business. Uh, there’s there’s only a couple other companies that can bid on these types of. So they set aside these these, um, these contracts for companies like myself. And so we’ll get in there and we’ll, we’ll try to figure out how we can deliver the best value to, uh, the government there. And um, stepping back from that too, they, they the way they set it up, it’s, you know, based on, uh, visions, they’ll call it veterans integrated service networks. And so it’s basically a couple of states compiled together there. Um, and, um, it’s it’s they look at pricing, they look at service, they look at, uh, your past history. And, um, so we try to deliver the best in, in, in those kind of three areas there, uh, where we could, uh, win the contract there too. And so, thankfully, you know, we’ve been able to do that. Um, and we again, continuously try to figure out ways where we can be creative to deliver the best value to, uh, to the to the government.

Stone Payton: Well, what I’m hearing is for all the differences, and surely there are in in your world and securing the business and the world that I come from. But I’ll tell you what it sounds like it’s true for you guys, too. There’s just nothing that sells. Like doing good work.

Sean Loosen: Yeah. No that’s, that’s, that’s, that’s well said. Right. Like so we you know we were in a lot of the hospitals. Now I think we’re in over 40 states right now. And uh, you know, we’re constantly, you know, measured on, uh, how we’re doing, you know, whether it’s, uh, customer feedback, uh, turnaround times. And so we do get a lot of good feedback, which is great. And so we, we use that to help us win, uh, future contracts there too. So, um, and it just goes back to kind of what I’m saying, like, we’re not, uh, yes, we have a lot of the market share now, but we’re not complacent. We’re constantly trying to figure out ways that we can get better and better and, um, enhance our customer experience and just, uh, just help veterans and, um, continue to deliver on our mission there.

Stone Payton: Well, this won’t be any surprise to you, but a hard learned lesson for me in growing our little business. We were focused so heavily for a little while on metrics that matter. And our whole media model is different than most people. And then it finally dawned on us, you know, a good way to to get a really firm grip on metrics that matter is let your clients tell you.

Sean Loosen: That’s that’s.

Stone Payton: Great. That matter?

Sean Loosen: Oh yeah. That’s that’s that’s huge right there. So I, I, I agree with that 100%. So it’s like we they tell us like so we’re told what the metrics are that um, but we also try to create some for ourselves too, that, you know, can help us. And so it’s um, we’ve you asked before, like, you know, some of the things that I’ve been trying to implement with in stepping into this role, like, you know, KPIs. And we’ve had some of them, but they’re sort of like, you know, not officially, formally, uh, being measured and internally. Externally. Yes. We’ve always been doing that with the, the Vas, but, um, you know, we’re just trying to push ourselves with KPIs in different areas, and it’s been really fun. Like, we’re just we’re just getting better and better each day.

Stone Payton: So I know the answer to this has to be yes, but I’m going to ask anyway. Have you had the benefit of one or more mentors to help you along the way as you navigate this terrain? Everything from making the transition from military life to civilian life to, you know, running a company to scaling a company. Have you had some mentors that that have helped you along the way?

Sean Loosen: Absolutely. Oh, yeah. You can’t do this on your own. Like, you know, again, like full transparency. I stepped in to being a CEO three years ago, and it’s like, all right, like, how am I going to be CEO? And so I would reach out to other folks that have are running companies and try to, you know, pick their brains and, um, you know, constantly try to read and improve myself there. So you have to have a strong network of of people there that you can rely on. Um, and actually just this year I’ve joined, um, something called the Ypo Young Presidents Organization. And, um, I’m excited. I’ve heard that, uh, you know, been very transformative, uh, for a lot of, uh, other CEOs out there. And so I’m excited for, uh, that opportunity there, too. It’s it’s one of those things where you can sort of talk to other CEOs and try to pick their brains on challenges that they’re dealing with and, and, um, you know, learn. Um, it’s a collaborative environment there. So, um, to answer your question, yes, mentorships, mentors. And I’d like to give back to myself when I can. Um, uh, and helping others too. So.

Stone Payton: Well, let me ask you about that. Um, passions, pursuits, interests outside the the scope of the work that we’re talking about. I, uh, a lot of my listeners know that I like to hunt, fish and and travel and that I have some causes that are related to enjoying the outdoors that I like to participate in. Anything you nerd out about outside the direct scope of this work?

Sean Loosen: Uh, you know, I’m pretty invested in the company, obviously, but, um, yes, you have to find that work life balance. As I mentioned to you earlier, I’ve got four young girls, so they’re, you know, they’re ages ten, eight, six and four. And so they definitely keep my wife and I pretty busy with soccer or boxing or, uh, you know, birthday parties running around. So, um, it’s it’s great though, uh, with, with our young kids, uh, and our busy life and me personally, I try to I work out, you know, I think that’s a good thing for me to, uh, to do and just sort of rebalance yourself there. Um, and I work, try to work out with friends, too. I think that’s good. You know, combining the two. I do boxing with some With some friends. Uh, and, uh, in the summer, I’ll try to get out in golf, too. And, uh, you wouldn’t tell by my scores, but I’ve been trying to get out there and play.

Stone Payton: So four girls and a CEO. I think you ought to write a book about time management, man. That’s that’s impressive.

Sean Loosen: I agree. It’s good though. Uh, I you never know what’s going to happen in our house this morning. I was up early trying to get a workout in, uh, before our our, uh, talk here. And I came down to my four year old was watching TV on the couch, like, I’m like, what are you doing? It’s five in the morning, so I don’t know how long she was up there doing that, but it’s. Yes, it’s definitely they definitely keep you on your toes, which is fun though.

Stone Payton: So I am not a veteran. Uh, I’ve had an opportunity to visit with a lot of veteran entrepreneurs. We’re trying to build out a program, actually, to get some of those folks involved with, uh, our expansion with Business RadioX. But but help me understand, and I’m and I’m sure there’s a segment of our listenership that maybe have not directly served. I got to believe that there are some unique challenges for veterans as they enter civilian life and, and as, uh, as many want to become entrepreneurs or, or leaders can can you speak to that a little bit and just help me get a little better feel for the challenges they face? Because I want to I want to figure out how to help. And I’m sure a lot of our listeners do as well.

Sean Loosen: Yeah, I think, um, that’s a good question, Stone. Uh, you know, it’s hard because, uh, speaking from being a veteran, obviously, like I ended up going into the, you know, corporate world there for when I first got out. But it’s it’s sort of daunting, like, you know, when you’re in the military, you’re this is kind of all, you know, and it’s, uh, it’s an incredible organization, you know, esprit de corps. Um, and then, you know, and I’ve got friends that are just making or have just made the transition from 20 year careers plus out this year. And it’s like I was just trying to tell them, like, hey, you guys are invaluable to any organization, you know? Um, so it’s just sometimes like, not having that confidence. Um, just because you don’t know what’s out there. Really. Um, and, you know, again, I was, as I mentioned, like telling some of my friends that just got out after long, uh, 20 plus careers. Be confident because you can come into any organization and instantly help or you, the things that you’ve done in the done and seen in the military. You could create your own business here too.

Sean Loosen: So, um, again, like, I didn’t know that I’d be where I am today. Um, I was perfectly happy where I was prior. Um, but, um, you know, owning and running your own operation is is tremendous there, too. And something I’ll just share, too, is I was a part of, um, a group called, uh, Bunker Labs. I think they changed the name to Institute for veterans and military families. Um, but it’s a it’s a CEO circle, uh, cohort group that you get connected in with for a year run by JP Morgan. And so that was a great opportunity for me to sort of learn and connect in with some other CEO, um, veterans or spouses of veterans and just learn about their businesses. So there’s a lot of resources out there to help with that, that transition. Um, and that was that was helpful for me just hearing these stories. Um, you got to the culmination was Jamie Dimon, the, you know, the head of JP Morgan ended up, um, speaking with us for, you know, almost an hour. Um, and that’s just tremendous there. And, uh, great learning opportunity for me.

Stone Payton: So what’s next for PDS Optical, man? What’s on the horizon next six, 18 months? Months out.

Sean Loosen: Yeah. We’re, you know, continue to do what we’re doing. Um, keep keep, uh, keep at that. You know, keep the contracts we have. Try to get the ones we don’t have. Um, we’re also trying to, uh, to to to get into, you know, some other areas there to some, like, supporting communities. Um, and so what we try to do is if we can give back financially or time wise, it’s to support other veteran initiatives that that goes along with our, our mission and our values as a company. And, uh, something exciting that we’re going to be a part of. Uh, we got selected to be a, uh, it’s called the Lone Eagle National sponsorship, um, for the Honor Flight organization. And so our PDS is underwriting the, um, the trip for 25 veterans. Uh, we did something within our, our company to see if anybody can get some other, uh, veterans that they, they want to send out to this. And then we’re going to just push this out nationally though too. So that’s going to be in April. We’re really excited about that. Um, you know, affording 25 veterans, uh, The opportunity to go to D.C. for Honor Flight, and we’re just continuing to look to do other things like that, too. Uh, we did a fun, I call it I like to work out. So it was a fun run in November, uh, called the Gratitude Run. Five-k, uh, to support veteran initiatives and veteran awareness there, too, which was pretty cool. Um, so just more and more things like that as a company, and we take the feedback from our people. We’ve surveyed our team to see, like, what types of, um, organization, veteran organizations they want us to support. And, um, we’re listening to them. And so we’re looking to continue to do more and more of those, those types of events there to support communities that we serve.

Stone Payton: What a marvelous opportunity to have your people rally around a specific initiative like that. I’ll call that a pro tip, right? I mean, that’s, uh. Yeah, that’s it’s interesting. And I personally have just come to believe that’s the way the universe is wired. But you know, if you can lay your stuff down and go, go help work on somebody else’s problem or cause, uh, I don’t know, there’s a great deal of emotional compensation, but it also somehow you get served in the end as well, don’t you?

Sean Loosen: Oh, absolutely. It’s great. Again, I keep I think I’ve said the word mission probably 50 times on this, this call here today, but, uh, it’s I’m serious about what we do. And it it just sort of centers us around what we’re doing, and, and, uh, like, veterans are at the foremost of what we do, so.

Stone Payton: Well, speaking of pro tips, uh, before we wrap, I would love to leave our listeners with a couple of, um, pro tips, and it could be around anything that we’ve talked about. But you’ve been there, you’ve had the experience. I’m sure it wasn’t all, you know, butterflies and unicorns. You probably have some scar tissue, but I don’t know, a couple of lessons learned or a couple of things for our people to be, you know, just thinking about as they aspire to, to lead and and or build their build their own thing.

Sean Loosen: Yeah, I think that’s I love that question. Um, I’ll give you two here. I’m a big, um, uh, Marcus Aurelius and stoic, you know, uh, big reader there. And one of the big things for meditations is control. What you can control. So, like, that’s a good way to operate, you know, not only in business but in on the personal side as well, too. So, you know, if there’s something that happens to you, you know, try to ask yourself, can I control that? All right. No. And it just it’s a good way to operate there and to sort of, um, helps you spend the time and energy in the right places there, too. So, um, that’s one I’ll share. And then the second is probably pretty basic, and I’ve kind of hit on it here too, is just, um, you know, I’m fortunate we’ve got a great team in place. And just make sure you surround yourself with good people on the business front. Um, and, um, you know, it makes your job tremendously easier, like, we’ve we’ve, um, as I mentioned, we’ve kind of been changing things around a little bit within our company and adding some more positions in and, and it’s just been great, uh, to help there, um, and just surrounding yourself with the right people. And that goes to on the personal front as well, whether it’s, you know, friends and support systems there to and, um, it’s just having the right people around is good for you.

Stone Payton: I’m so glad I asked. I think that’s marvelous, counsel. All right. What’s the best way for our listeners to learn more? Connect. Tap into your into your work, whatever you think is appropriate. Website LinkedIn. But let’s let’s make sure we give them some coordinates.

Sean Loosen: Yeah, absolutely. So our website’s, uh, you know. Um, for myself, Sean Lawson, you can find me on LinkedIn. I do check that. Um, and so those are two great ways to to connect in with the company and myself. And I’d be happy to, you know, talk to anybody that reaches out to me on LinkedIn there. Okay.

Stone Payton: Well, Sean, I have thoroughly enjoyed the conversation. It was invigorating and inspiring. Thank you for your your insight and thank you for what you’re doing. You’re you’re impacting so many in such a deep and profound way. And we we sure appreciate you, man.

Sean Loosen: Thank you so much again. I appreciate the opportunity. And, uh, it’s been a pleasure.

Stone Payton: Well, the pleasure is all mine. All right, until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Sean Lawson with PDS Optical and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying, we’ll see you in the fast lane.