Business RadioX ®

Thomas Carroll With Homrich Berg

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Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Thomas Carroll With Homrich Berg
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Thomas Carroll, CFP®, Principal, President, and Chief Executive Officer at Homrich Berg, has remained a consistent player throughout Homrich Berg’s growth and M&A in Atlanta.

His expertise in wealth management makes him an expert in fiduciary fee-only client service as part of Homrich Berg’s practice management strategy.

Connect with Thomas on LinkedIn and follow Homrich Berg on Facebook and Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Executive management, leadership, and trends related to the wealth management industry
  • Homrich Berg’s fee-only fiduciary approach as a registered investment adviser (RIA), impact on their clientele, and their efforts in supporting the local community

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program, the accelerated degree program for working professionals looking to advance their career and enhance their leadership skills. And now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Thomas Carroll with HB Wealth Management. Welcome.

Thomas Carroll: Lee. Thanks for having me. Excited to be on Atlanta Business Radio with you today.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about your firm. How you serving folks?

Thomas Carroll: Yeah, happy to do it. Hp Wealth Management, also known as Hamrick Berg. We’ve been in business for 35 years, celebrated our 35th anniversary in October. We had a great month of celebration. We are a fee only independent wealth management firm that was was founded by Andy Berg and David Hamrick 35 years ago. And, you know, we’re still serving clients in a comprehensive way. 35 years later, like we did when we started the firm. So we’re an $18.5 billion asset under management Ria, with around 4000 clients and families that we serve every day.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you educate the listener what it means to be fee only?

Thomas Carroll: Yeah. Happy to. There are different ways that investors can access, you know, wealth management services. And ours is if the only way, which means that the only fees that a client would pay. Our firm would be to provide them advice. Its advice fee. That advice comes in different forms. It can be investment advice. It can be planning advice, estate planning and insurance planning, just all sorts of comprehensive services. But we do not make any any commissions. There’s no, you know, trailer revenue. We’re not selling a product in any way, shape or form. We are simply just getting paid to provide good, sound advice to the clients that we serve.

Lee Kantor: Now, does that mean that the that I have to do the trade or I have to act on your recommendation, or is that something that you also handle?

Thomas Carroll: Yeah. Great question. Now we are a full service firm. So so so we are able to execute, you know, do the trading, you know, through the custodians that we work with and have discretion in ultimately executing on the advice that we ultimately recommend to our to our clients.

Lee Kantor: Now does that interaction? Does that mean I talk to you once a year and you kind of rebalance? Are you talking to me quarterly or can I call you whenever. You know, my, um, brother in law has a great idea, like, like how does that interaction and service work?

Thomas Carroll: Yeah, it’s all of the above. And it really just depends on the client preference. I mean, there are some clients that, you know, that call us when they get the investment idea at the country club and want us to want us to look at it. And we do that a lot. There’s some folks that are happy to meet once a year. There are some folks that we talk to probably once a month. Um, and so it’s just a client preference is ultimately what drives the cadence of the communication. And then our advisors ultimately will execute whatever makes the client comfortable. Um, so it’s really, really up to the client.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, what would be kind of your recommendation for somebody who maybe has worked at a corporate job and hasn’t had a formal relationship with a wealth advisor before, and they’ve just been, you know, dumping money into maybe a 401 K or something along those lines is kind of autopilot. And now they’re getting close to retirement, and then they got to, you know, make more, um, decisions because they’re about to go through a transition. Can you explain to our listener, like, what does that conversation look like when you’re talking to somebody who comes from that background?

Thomas Carroll: Yeah. Look, I think just generally the, you know, part of the question is, you know, should a person of that profile be seeking professional advice around their financial lives? And, and the answer to me is, is is absolutely yes. Um, you know, the financial world is very complicated. Uh, you know, investments, integrates with taxes, which integrates with, you know, how a person of that profile might, might set up their estate plan. And there are lots of different pieces. How the insurance piece works in a in a good plan. How do you how do you appropriately budget your cash flow? How do you prepare for, uh, children’s educational expenses? All of these are pieces to a large puzzle. Uh, and it’s more it’s challenging for someone who’s not focused on doing it every day to understand how all that intersects. And that’s where a financial advisor comes in, not just to advise on investment assets, but but also to integrate all those other things that I just mentioned into a comprehensive plan. Um, you know, for me, it’s I’ve heard the analogy used from time to time. It’s it’s like a it’s like a doctor, you know, we are a doctor for financial advice. You wouldn’t go, uh, you know, kind of try to diagnose your, your, your own health issues. You’re going to go to a medical professional who’s, who’s going to help you with with the medical issue. It’s the same thing in finance in the financial world. So I certainly encourage folks with that profile that you just mentioned to to to seek out a professional adviser to help them achieve their financial goals.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned kind of, uh, comparing it to a doctor, but in some cases I have a cardiologist, I have a, you know, a rheumatologist, a pulmonologist. And then I have kind of a general practice person. Are you kind of the quarterback? Are you? My general practice, or are you just kind of a specialist in one kind of leg of the stool?

Thomas Carroll: Yeah. So like, we are the general practitioner, uh, the lead advisor that serves our family serves as that general practitioner. But but we have subject matter experts on staff on our team who would who would focus on a, uh, you know, the specific discipline that’s needed. So if you needed a cardiologist in our, in our, in our nomenclature, if you needed someone to help you with an estate plan. We have an estate planning specialist on our team. Uh, who who would, you know, Go do the deep dive into estate planning. So we do have those subject matter experts in our firm that support the work that the lead advisor does as the general practitioner, so to speak.

Lee Kantor: Now, what about the CPA? Do you have a CPA on your team or do you partner with CPAs?

Thomas Carroll: Yeah, so we do. So interesting little history of our firm. We were started by two, uh, ex CPAs. So so the tax work, the tax planning is, is a foundational part of our business. Always has been and always will be. What we are not just to be clear, is we are not we are not a firm that files tax returns. So so we work very closely with, you know, CPAs on behalf of our clients to to have those CPAs ultimately do the tax filings that are required. But we take a pretty active role in in getting that CPA prepared to file that return. So so we do a good bit of tax planning. It’s a core part of our of our of our service offering.

Lee Kantor: So it doesn’t matter really the CPA you’re kind of CPA agnostic from that standpoint, but it’s important for the client to permission you to to talk to each other so you can get on the same page.

Thomas Carroll: Yeah, that’s a great way to describe it. In fact, we have a we have a tech platform that really enables the partnership with, with the CPA community, that allows us to kind of share information seamlessly through a tech tech experience. And so we are able to kind of provision rights for CPAs to go in and download data and, you know, things that they need to to effectively, you know, complete the tax returns.

Lee Kantor: Now, are you seeing any kind of trends in the wealth management industry regarding kind of this robo investing and the young people there are so many young people, it seems, that are really attracted to just kind of going online on their phone and then doing some type of investing. Um, and if if you see that trend, how does that impact the services you provide? Is that just something that young people you think will just outgrow and then move to more traditional relationship with wealth management? Or is this something to keep an eye on?

Thomas Carroll: Yeah, I think it’s something to keep an eye on. I do think that as as these younger investors that you’re describing, uh, go through life stages, accumulate more wealth, get married, start having kids. Uh, life gets more complicated. And and financial decisions, uh, have larger ramifications. Uh, and so, so I think that you will see, folks, um, you know, I think gravitate to more professional advice over time. However, one thing that I don’t think is going to change with, you know, kind of a trend to keep an eye on is the way that those clients want to consume their experience. Right? So so their parents may prefer to come into the office and, you know, put on the sports coat and, you know, come, come in and meet in person. Um, you know, the clients that you just described, you know, they’re going to want to interact digitally with their advisor and they may still want to come in and, and break bread and come into the office and do all that stuff. But but you, you know, advisors need to have a robust digital experience that allows for those clients to be able to see their data and see their portfolios at the tip of their fingers. And so so we certainly are working on that to make sure that as this next gen of, uh, you know, comes into more wealth, as there’s a tremendous amount of wealth that’s going to be transitioned, uh, to, to younger generations that, that we can meet them where they want to be met. And that’s through digital enablement.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you see any kind of unintended consequences to this new I don’t know, it’s it’s new to me, but it seems like everywhere I turn there’s ads for gambling, online gambling and sports betting and things like that. Does that is that something that is impacting the way people trade or see trading stocks or investing in the markets, or is there any kind of maybe false equivalence when it comes to people seeing themselves gambling and betting and, you know, investing in the in the markets?

Thomas Carroll: Yeah. Look, certainly there could be some unintended consequences there, you know, through the democratization of gambling and the availability of it. But, but and that could equate to maybe trying to market time and, you know, you know, buying and selling stocks and all that stuff that, that is not a long term, sustainable and successful strategy. You know, so so we, you know, preach very much to to our clients and prospective clients that the most important point that is to have a plan and to stick to it, uh, and, and we will we will rebalance as opportunities present themselves. But but we don’t, um, position ourselves as market timers and, um, you know, in fact, there’s a lot of research that shows that, you know, that’s very, very difficult to to be successful over time with the market timing strategy and in time, in time invested in the market is much more important than trying to time the market. Uh, and that’s a really key part of a relationship that we have with our clients.

Lee Kantor: Now, how do you work with your clients when it comes to the Decumulation? You know, they spend decades and decades accumulating and being disciplined and, you know, and they learned about the importance of compounding and and all this stuff is happening and and now it’s time to start taking money out. And for some people that psychologically is very difficult. How do you help them with that?

Thomas Carroll: Yeah. Well we are we are an advisor for all stages of life. Um, you know, from, from the accumulation phase through the, through the accumulation phase or the spending phase. Uh, so, so so we play a very important role in advising clients, you know, how and when to start taking required minimum, required minimum distributions, you know, off of their IRAs or 401 K’s. Um, you know, we certainly help clients thinking about transitioning money to their children or their grandchildren. Um, you know, funding, you know, grandchildren’s education, whatever it may be, that that is certainly using the assets that they accumulated and those decisions, all of those decisions have important tax implications. So we’re very much advising, you know, clients through that process. But but making sure that we’re being mindful of the tax dollars that that are being spent through that process as well. But but very important part of the relationship that we play in, the families that we serve.

Lee Kantor: Are you seeing any trends when it comes to, um, maybe giving more money to their children and grandchildren sooner than maybe historically? Back in the day, they would wait till they passed and then their transfer would occur.

Thomas Carroll: Yes. That is definitely something we’re seeing more and more of. And what I like to the way I describe it is, is I think that, that the, the givers of the wealth. So the, the wealth creators generators want their heirs to be informed, uh, more so than maybe a generation ago. So, so we are spending, you know, more and more time, um, educating the next generation of wealth or the wealth inheritors about what it means to to come into that wealth, what it means to be a good steward of that wealth. What the family goals are in, in, in, in, in, in what they want to accomplish with that wealth. So, so more and more families of wealth are setting up, you know, charitable organizations or donor advised fund, and they’re getting their kids involved in that. So, so that they can, you know, you know, be more informed when ultimately that money, you know, comes to them down the line. So, so a lot more education that we’re doing and spending time with younger generations educating them about all things around money and wealth.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you have a feel for what’s causing this shift like for like a generation ago, it was just very normal to just when when I died. That’s when my kids get the money and we didn’t think twice about it. But now, like you were saying that it seems like some of the transfers are happening sooner, you know, so you can see the joy and you can see how they’re using the money rather than wait till after you’re gone. Is there something that happened that’s causing this, or is this just there’s so much wealth now out there that they can afford to do this? Um, yeah.

Thomas Carroll: Look, I think that there’s this phenomenon that, that that wealthy families are more aware of now than maybe in the past. And that’s this phenomenon called shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations, uh, which ultimately means that, you know, there’s a generation that creates the money, and then there’s a generation that basically spends the money, and then the and then the third generation is back to not having any money. And so I think that that that trend and knowledge of that is, is is a is an outcome largely of people just, um, being given money, being given money and not being prepared to know what to do with it. So, so more families and frankly, more advisors like our firm are taking a role in making sure that the shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations phenomenon doesn’t happen. And when you have informed heirs, uh, you know, they’re more likely to have a successful outcome in, in the wealth that is bestowed upon them. Also, just candidly, it creates opportunities for life experiences with family members, you know, you know, being able to share in a charitable, uh, you know, donation or, you know, go to a charity event as a family. Um, you know, it just it allows for a happiness factor to occur that you mentioned. And I think families are enjoying that opportunity, you know, now, now more so than ever.

Lee Kantor: Now.

Lee Kantor: If somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on your team, what is the best way to do that?

Thomas Carroll: Yeah. That’s great. Uh, happy to visit our website, ComicBook.com. Uh, there is, uh, all of our contact information is is on the website in the contact us, uh, section of the website. Our phone number is there. You can call and, uh, you know, get connected to an advisor on our team. Uh, or you can email us through through the website, ComicBook.com. And, uh, we’d be happy to, to talk to anybody out there, any of your listeners that are, that are thinking about seeking a financial advisor.

Lee Kantor: And that’s h o M richburg.com.

Thomas Carroll: That is correct.

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

Thomas Carroll: Thank you. Lee, I really appreciate you having me today. I’ve enjoyed the conversation.

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

Pete Joseph With Skutch Media

by

Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Pete Joseph With Skutch Media
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Pete Joseph is an accomplished executive with a career spanning over two decades in the media and entertainment industry. Before starting Skutch Media, he held key roles at Live Nation, Atlanta Motor Speedway, The Madison Square Garden Company, GMR Marketing, Clear Channel and Cox Media, developing his expertise in business development, sales, marketing, and brand development.

A former musician, Pete considers himself a modern day renaissance man. And while he still enjoys music & working with musicians, he spends his free time these days cooking, watching Motortrend, and learning about city planning.

Connect with Pete on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Professional content creation and marketing for small to mid-size businesses
  • Why business owners should consider a video podcast/content engine
  • The big digital marketing myth
  • Website maintenance/SEO as digital “cleaning”

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program, the accelerated degree program for working professionals looking to advance their career and enhance their leadership skills. And now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Pete Joseph with Scutch Media. Welcome.

Pete Joseph: Hi, Lee. Thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about your firm.

Pete Joseph: So scooch is a small boutique, full service media agency with a specialty in podcast creation and production.

Lee Kantor: What’s the backstory? How’d you get involved in this line of work?

Pete Joseph: It’s odd. So we come from. There’s two partners. It’s my wife and I. Both of us have over 50 years of marketing experience myself. I come from the land of kind of entertainment background, partnerships, sponsorships, artist relations, some activation agency in my background as well. My wife comes from kind of the exact opposite in the sense of a media background strategy. She’s worked for some, you know, of the, you know, the big holding companies out there, publicists. She was a publicist for many years. So we have a lot of media. And kind of that sponsorship background is where we started the company with. But the idea of where scooch kind of came from. We just didn’t want to be like any other agency, you know, just kind of have your media. We can place it for you. Nothing wrong with that. I just wanted to look at something a little different. So we came up with this idea of creating content engines is kind of what I like to call them. A lot of people might say podcasts or pod shows and different types of things because they don’t really know what to call things anymore, or they kind of labels things a podcast in a sense. But I think where scooch kind of took the change was we had this kind of personal love of doing kind of shows, kind of a podcast esque shows. So we decided to turn those kind of client facing to where we said, hey, what if we were able to give clients the ability to shoot their own podcasts, but then again, utilize those podcasts to cultivate them into now your short form content to feed your social content platforms. So that’s really where scooch kind of got its start. It was looking at it from not just being that agency that can take care of your media for you, but also being that agency that can create that media for you too. So it became a mom and pop one stop shop.

Lee Kantor: And then who? What’s the profile of an ideal client for you?

Pete Joseph: For us, it’s it’s honestly anything. We’re pretty open. We do very, very well in the medical field just because we’ve. It was kind of one of our first forays into what we do. But we’ve been doing a lot. We’ve seen a lot of we just kind of had our first work on some pre-production with a couple of professional athletes for some, um, some ideas that they’re working on. So we’re that’s a whole new foray into this, which I was very, very excited about. I didn’t really quite see that going. So we’re seeing everything from the business owner that’s coming in with, you know, so much as it kind of I have my business, whatever that business might be, I need to figure out a way to market it also from the creator as well, the independent creator that’s coming to us and saying, I have an idea. So our marketing or our client could be basically, if you have an idea or you have a market, a business, you need to market.

Lee Kantor: So if like, what’s an example of a medical professional is like somebody in plastic surgery or is it just a general practitioner doctor?

Pete Joseph: Funny you say that because plastic surgery would be perfect for what we do. But our one of our our first actually our foray into this was we did a thing with um, our first client is, is well, chiropractic and it’s a chain of chiropractic kind of in our area that was just looking for a way to spice up their content and their, their social, their social was getting kind of, you know, stuck in trends, stuck in some different stuff. And what we came up with was, let’s create a pod show for you video podcast that we can bring in specialists so we can become a medical, um, resource. And so what we did was we started that over a year ago. He’s been going strong with that. They just finished their first season. They’ve had on everything from hormone expert experts to other chiropractors to personal injury attorneys to physical therapists. So it’s become this awesome hub. What we’re seeing from his clients and all the people that come in that now follow him on his socials are wow, this is so different. I’ve never had somebody kind of offer this with their service as well.

Lee Kantor: Now I have a question about kind of the nuts and bolts of this. So this they’re a chiropractor. That’s their day job. They’re also now stars of a show. Yeah. That’s their side hustle I guess. Or is their or their investment in marketing? Yeah, yeah. How do you help them kind of take the content and then, um, leverage it so it helps them achieve the outcome they desire, which I would imagine it’s either there there’s a couple choices. They either want to be famous or they want more clients or both.

Pete Joseph: Well, it’s kind of comical. You say that because that’s what we had the biggest problem with in the beginning when I brought this, because when we first started working with iswell, um, doctor Mayor Kara, that is the, uh, the owner of iswell, I brought this idea to him and I said, hey, listen, mayor, like, I think this would work. He’s like, man, I am not. I’m not a movie star. I’ve never done it. I’ve never been on camera before. And I’m like, please trust me. Like, I think I can coach you through this and get you into it. Just if you believe in me and you believe in the process and believe in, you know, the power of some good editing and some great film work, we can make a really good series for you. And in the beginning it was a little harder. But we knew going into that it would be. So what we saw with him was he kind of came in. It was very at the beginning, a lot of question and answer type stuff, things that were easier for him before we just dropped him into, um, having to interview people. And what we noticed was by, you know, episode 3 or 4. He kind of just fell. He just like, hey, man, it’s just like having a conversation. You forget everything’s there. I’m like, exactly. There it is. And what has become with him was he’s noticed, man, that the client retention is wonderful because it gives them more something more than when they just leave my office. Like they got their adjustment. They, you know, they got their massage in. They they may be a little stem, uh, therapy and then they leave, but now it gives them a reason to kind of for us to touch them after they leave a little bit more therapy for them to think about it.

Pete Joseph: Yeah. It’s wonderful. So it was helping them to retain clients, but also what he’s starting to see now. It’s the calls coming in from people saying, hey, how do I potentially sponsor your podcast? Or how do I get involved in your podcast? And it’s like, now he’s coming to us with questions like, do you think we could do a line of things like, could we promote it through this? Like it’s really opened up him in the sense of, I think how he looks at what he can be like, I don’t think he ever saw himself in the way of like as being a, you know, in the sense promoting his own show and having his own show. And what makes this easy for you is that all you have to do is show up and film, show up and film and listen to us. If you have a marketing budget and it’s something that you can do, we can handle every bit of it for you. All you have to do, we can coach you through it, we can film it, we can edit it, we can batch it. We can put it to your social media. We can do the SEO for it. Everything that that needs to be done, that’s where it becomes side hustle is a little bit of an understatement, because you really just have to show up and put it all in our hands.

Lee Kantor: Now, being in the industry for as long as you have, are you seeing maybe a transition? There was a time where, um, you know, being a technology company was kind of an outlier. Only a few people were technology people, and now every business is a technology company and is leveraging technology. Do you think the same thing is happening with content that everybody now is a media company, whether they want to or not, because they have to put out content that’s authentic, that’s, you know, professional that is consistent. So in essence, you’re you’re having to also wear a hat of a, of a media company as well.

Pete Joseph: Absolutely, absolutely. Like, I mean, just off of social media’s alone, how do you not have to market in a sense? Right. That’s the overall arching term. Correct. Like, how do you not have to market if you own any type of business and use those platforms? So everybody has to and that’s kind of why we have we built such two in our initial thoughts was it’s kind of your marketing agency. Like you don’t have to carry a marketing staff. You don’t have to worry about, you know, how, man, I have to bring 3 or 4 people on and now do this and handle this stuff and blah, blah, blah, bla bla bla. If we open up tomorrow, who’s going to do our buying? Who’s going to do this? Scooch kind of at the beginning was a lot of that like, hey, we can just kind of come in, you can plug us in, which is what a lot of agencies are. And then that’s when we noticed they need content, too, like they can’t you what are you going to place? What are you going to do for them. Like you can’t just or it’s farming it out to six other places and that’s where yeah, we made it easy for them to say, you don’t have to worry about anything like you can capture it for you. We can create it for you, we can ideate it for you, and we’ll do all the other stuff that full service marketing agency do. So it yes to your question, yes. You have to wear many hats are my goal is to be the hat rack for one of those hats. So you could just kind of, you know, basically pay us to take that hat off your hands.

Lee Kantor: Now walk me through what an engagement looks like. Because like you said, these people aren’t professional media people. Typically, unless maybe you’re evolving into some of your clients being that and they just want to get better at it. But if you’re a lay person and you’re like, you know, like your friend, the chiropractor, you know, he’s a chiropractor, that’s what I do. And now you’re saying, okay, I’m part of my value that I’m going to provide is I’m going to upskill you into being a professional content creator and will ease you in over time. Um, so can you talk about what it looks like to onboard? Because I would imagine you’re answering a lot of questions and allaying a lot of fears in those first conversations.

Pete Joseph: Yeah, I’d say it’s it’s more it’s more fear and apprehensive and apprehensive. Yeah. Being apprehensive. Um. They come it’s really a trust thing. Usually that first what we like to do is the first episode we try to do with anybody. One there’s usually pre-production built into it, like, what’s your idea? What do you what do you want to do? How do you have a vision. So they know who we are before any of this happens. We’ve worked for a couple of weeks together on their their idea. Their concept. Uh, we also have to build their graphics and stuff for the show. So they’re they’re intimately known. So they’ve already got like they’re excited. Right. But it’s more always about what am I going to look like? How am I going to how do I sound? Big ones always sound. Everybody’s always worried about, oh, I don’t want to hear myself. The oddest thing. It’s so funny getting headphones on people is the most bizarre. Like they just. No, don’t need those. No. Well, it’s not for you. Trust me. And then the minute they put them on, they hear themselves. It’s the transformation is completely different. So I think it’s easing them in to just being in front of the lights, being in front of the cameras, letting them know that it’s okay to mess up.

Pete Joseph: Like you can mess up like we can edit this, like we can work with this. It’s a show, right? It’s okay. This isn’t live, you know? And it’s small. It’s very, very intimate. It’s myself, my wife. That the person, the guest. Um. It’s calming. It’s a very calm, relaxing environment. There’s nothing. Uh, like I said, there’s no time. We don’t put time constraints on stuff like. And a lot of it, they’re going into it. They know if we’re helping them do the show and we work through their questions with them early, and then it’s a lot of coaching. I was I was a child actor. I was a SAG actor when I was a kid, so I did a lot of acting myself. So it’s just like I said, it’s a lot of it’s getting them to, you know, get out of it’s an interview. Try to get out of them, the interview, like what they’re trying to get out of that person. You know, it’s don’t make it just about like their Wikipedia page. Try to make it go a little bit in depth. And it’s a lot of training. But number one, first and foremost, it’s just the way I think we’re able to make people feel super comfortable because they’re not walking into an intimidating situation.

Lee Kantor: So what is the pain that ideal client is having before they contact you? Are they frustrated with their social media or their marketing? Are they is their growth kind of stalled? Like, what is it they’re going through? Where Scotch is the is the answer to their prayers.

Pete Joseph: What we’re seeing is a lot of people coming, and they don’t. They’ve either. It’s two people. I’ve had this idea for a podcast and I don’t know where to start or some type of like content show, or I have one and I want to level up. Like I need multiple angle camera shots. I need better sound. My sound doesn’t sound right because I’m going through my computer sound over Riverside. Um, I it’s a business that they just kind of really want. Um, the, the social media. So that’s kind of what we’re that’s really the people that we’re seeing a lot of. Um, uh, but yeah, that’s kind of where that’s, that’s what we’re seeing kind of really kind of see, that’s the our ideal for that.

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

Pete Joseph: Uh, what do we need more of? Well, you know, it’s the it’s always more and more, more and more clients. You know, we can always do more. And I think it’s just it’s for us. We we like to be, um, small, to make sure we can put as much hands on that we can with our clients. You know, we don’t want to be overburdened to the sense where we lose that personal touch. We pride ourselves on incredible content. We always say that when we shoot, what we shoot is just the first part. The real magic is what we do with after your content is done is shot. So it’s our batching, it’s our social, it’s our SEO work. Um, it really is. That’s where we can make you shine. So for us, it’s, you know, hey, if you have a unique idea out there and you want, you have you just don’t know how to really take it to that next level. And you want to work with people that kind of understand and are understanding of how this works and that you are new to it, or you’re a business leader like, you know, let us know.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team. What’s the website? What’s the best way to connect?

Pete Joseph: You can just reach out to us at media.com. Just go in there, fill out the, um, kind of the, uh, there’s little question and answer form. Fill that out, go from there, and we’ll just get back to you and we’ll kind of come in, have a little kind of a quick meeting, kind of see what your thoughts are and, uh, put together something on paper for you. But it’s a real, real simple process. Um, we’re super open to talk to anybody.

Lee Kantor: And that’s SKU t c h m e d I a.com.

Pete Joseph: That’s it.

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

Pete Joseph: Thank you so much, Lee. Let us know every time you want us on.

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

Larry Williams and Kyle Tothill With Technology Association of GA

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Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Larry Williams and Kyle Tothill With Technology Association of GA
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Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) drives innovation among Georgia’s technology community, inspires tech leaders, and fosters inclusivity through four foundational pillars: connect, promote, influence and educate.

TAG serves more than 30,000 members statewide through regional chapters in Metro Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus, Macon/Middle Georgia, and Savannah. TAG hosts more than 150 events each year and serves as an umbrella organization for 18 professional societies. Additionally, the TAG Education Collaborative (TAG-Ed) is dedicated to developing Georgia’s workforce to meet the needs of our technology industry.

Larry K. Williams has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of The Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) for almost a decade.

He also leads the TAG Education Collaborative (TAG-Ed) benefiting workforce development across Georgia, and the National Technology Security Coalition (NTSC).

A lifelong leader in economic development, Mr. Williams has worked across the U.S. in policy, programming, finance, government affairs, and international relations.

Williams is a founding member of Fintech Atlanta, and Venture Atlanta, plus serves as a member and supporter of the Metro Atlanta Chamber, Georgia Chamber, Atlanta CIOs Advisory Council, the Partnership for Inclusive Innovation, and the Atlanta Rotary Club.

Connect with Larry on LinkedIn.

Kyle-TothillAlong with being TAG’s 2024 Board Chair, Kyle Tothill is the Co-Founder & Chief Revenue Officer of Collective Insights, is an accomplished entrepreneur and executive leader with a strong foundation in growth enablement. He is focused on driving organizational success and building high-performance teams.

Co-founding and partnering in three successful Atlanta-based business services firms, including eHire, LLC, Make & Build, and Collective Insights, Kyle’s career is marked by the successful launch of four professional services companies and a software firm.

His expertise spans across recruiting and talent acquisition, enterprise technology, and business transformation consulting services, underpinned by a strategic approach to overcoming obstacles and desire to achieve.

Connect with Kyle on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • TAG 25th Anniversary

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program, the accelerated degree program for working professionals looking to advance their career and enhance their leadership skills. And now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Larry Williams and Kyle Tothill. Larry is the President and CEO of Tag, and Kyle is the tag board chair. And we’re here to celebrate tag’s 25th Anniversary. Welcome, gentlemen.

Larry Williams: Delighted to be here. Happy to be.

Kyle Tothill: Here. We appreciate you.

Lee Kantor: Well, before we get too far into things, I’ll kick it off with Larry. Larry, how has tag’s role in supporting Georgia’s tech ecosystem evolved over the last 25 years?

Larry Williams: Lee, thanks for that. And, uh, delighted to be here and talking to you. You know, 25 years. I don’t think there’s a bigger testament to the evolution of Georgia’s technology community than if you just drive up and down I-85 and I-87 and 75. That connector, the way that our skyline has changed and Tag has been with our community every step of the way. If we think about all of the economic development that’s happened here over the last 25 years, and especially over the past couple of decades, all of that economic development has been driven by technology and innovation. So if we think about everything that’s going on, we’ve been with this community every step of the way and excited about what’s happening. So we used to have to really think about what we were telling the world about why Georgia is a top technology state. Now the world knows and the world has come to us. You know, when you see an NCR, Cisco, Microsoft, Google, etc. on our skyline, it has been absolutely transformational. So we’re excited to celebrate this 25 year journey that we’ve been on. This is an excellent year, but we’re also excited about what’s coming next and the next 25 years. And one thing that I can assure you is that tag will be with this community and this technology community every step of the way.

Lee Kantor: Now, before we look forward, let’s look back. Can you share some of the most significant achievements or milestones that have been accomplished?

Larry Williams: Lee, you got to go back. I mean, you know, you got to go back to the Hayes modem. You’ve got to go back to Scientific-atlanta. You know, when people when all this stuff was just really just starting. But I think, you know, the people who remember putting up the, you know, a phone handset on a little cradle and listening to it beeps and beeps and bursts to communicate just so that we could, you know, send a little basic message. But that was all transformational. If I think about the milestones of our cybersecurity community, you know, Georgia has been part of the evolution of information security now, what we call cyber security. Every step of the way back, you know, you might remember mainframes, you might remember network internet security. Well, before we called it cyber security, that all started right here on Georgia Tech’s campus with the Department of Defense. And that was that gave us the ability to create great companies like ES that later sold to IBM, Secureworks, that became part of Dell Secureworks, Airwatch, which was the first mobile cybersecurity application that Apple led onto its iPhone platform. It is the application that put the BlackBerry out of business. So this really just is testimony that in Georgia, we have been every we’ve been part of every evolution of these critical technologies. That’s right. You know, we didn’t just be you know, we didn’t just become part of the fintech community. We were processing checks and we figured out how to digitize that process. That’s why we have 70% of our debit credit reward card transactions processed right here in Atlanta and Georgia. Kyle, you’ve lived this. What do you think the next ones are?

Kyle Tothill: Well, the next ones, you know, the questions about the history and the milestones. You know, you talk about the internet revolution of the late 90s after the Olympics is really what what started to drive a lot of this technology innovation. And Atlanta was an enterprise hub. It was a place where technology came to be sold to to buyers. And over the last 25 years, we’ve really become innovators in that regard, as opposed to just buyers, just economic buyers of technology and users of technology and the and the the ecosystem has really developed from a very small micro regional technology hub into a global hub of innovation. You know, 25 years later and you can start off with the internet boom, you know, then the cloud boom, the mobile boom, the big data boom. And here we are now on the precipice of, you know, the AI boom. And then, of course, there’s stuff that’s coming. Yes. That question, Larry, when you start thinking about quantum, you know, quantum is the next, you know, the next big thing around the corner. So we have organizations here in Atlanta that are heavy and steeped in driving innovation. And each one of those areas, you know, and it’s been really, really exciting. The amount of growth that’s happened in the last 25 years in this community is remarkable. And it’s changed people’s lives, quite frankly, changed the trajectory, the trajectory of the state.

Larry Williams: Well, said. Kyle and Lee, I’ll just add one thing. You know, poisoning for the next 25 years is critically important. You know, Kyle said it. You know, we’ve worked so hard at being a top five technology state. Georgia is today a global hub of innovation, and we are driving innovation. We’re coming up with new products, next generation of ingenuity. And as we move to and through this world of AI and into the quantum verse, one stat is that Georgia Tech has more of its graduates working in artificial working in AI, working in artificial intelligence than any other major university in the United States. That’s ahead of Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, MIT. We’re at the top now.

Lee Kantor: Looking forward, how does Tag plan to continue to foster this innovation in growth mindset and give them the industry leaders, the tools and the resources to help them get to where they want to go?

Kyle Tothill: I’ll take this one, Larry. Sure.

Kyle Tothill: So.

Kyle Tothill: So what tag is going to do is what it historically has done, which is educate, bringing people together, making them aware of the use cases being the scaffolding, right, by bringing people together and connecting the community. And I think that’s what Tag has done historically extremely well. It has created a community. It is the infrastructure by which the technology community aggregates, connects, learns from each other. Right. We have a really strong platform to promote Georgia and to promote the technology innovation in Georgia. And ultimately, you know, Tag is going to continue to do that and including developing the workforce, bringing more people into the technology workplace and being more inclusive, we’ve got a huge initiative around workforce development that I’m sure Larry will talk about in just a minute, but we plan to be able to bring the resources together, connect the ecosystem, make sure that people are learning together, learning to use cases, learning new technologies, meeting each other. And we know that a connected ecosystem does way better. And we’ve got the proof point for that in the last 25 years. We’re going to take that to the next level as we go through the next 25.

Lee Kantor: So okay, let’s start talking about how does Tag work to address the challenges of the workforce development and talent retention? Because at one point, people were learning in Georgia and leaving Georgia. And now with the advent of so many businesses here, I would imagine we’re retaining a lot more of the talent. And especially after successful exits, a lot of the people are sticking around and want to help grow the community. Can you speak to that?

Larry Williams: There are so many more opportunities now for people to stay here, to build their careers, to raise their families and to reinvest in the community that that they benefit from. So the companies. So just in general, when we think about economic development and the great success that we’ve had in this state, you know, yesteryears people used to move to where the jobs are today in age. Companies are moving to where the talent is, and that’s why all those companies are coming here that we mentioned before. They’re coming in droves. They know the quality, the high quality talent that we have here. So today in age, workforce development is economic development. And so how are we going to stay at the forefront? Well, we’ve got to meet the demand for the jobs of the future. And so we’re looking at what is what is it going to be like for our workforce to work in an AI world? So not everybody’s going to be the creators of new, um, artificial intelligence applications. But there are so many people that are going to master the tools, and they’re the ones that are going to be the builders of new products, new innovations, uh, build new companies, help our existing companies stay at the forefront of innovation. And we’re going to make sure that people have those skills, and it’s going to be a combination.

Larry Williams: It’s going to be, you know, some traditional four year degrees or people that go, you know, for post-graduate work. But we’re also going to accelerate and make sure that we can upskill people through nontraditional means, through experiential methods that might not require four year degrees, that might be, you know, training certifications, um, two year programs. Lee, right now we have just launched, uh, technology apprenticeship program. We’re the only technology organization in the southeast that has a registered apprenticeship program that’s going to give our companies a competitive advantage, because it’s going to be it’s going to be an ability to bring in some really smart, talented people, give them on the job training and experience, and with the idea that they’re going to retain that talent to be a part of their workforce moving forward. So those are one ways. The other is making sure that we get everybody in the state connected to the great prosperity that technology and innovation is bringing to this state. There’s lots of people, um, if we think there are people that can be trained in an upskilled, we’re going to do that and give them the tools that they need to be a part of this great workforce.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you talk a little bit about, you know, they say a rising tide lifts all ships. And that being the case, the southeast has really kind of expanded into technology around Georgia. Like you have Tennessee, you have Huntsville, you have the Carolinas, obviously. How does that impact what’s happening in Georgia? Does that, um, attract more people, or are people spreading around and thinking of the southeast as the place to go? Not necessarily just Georgia?

Kyle Tothill: I think that Georgia really acts as the hub, and those are the spokes. I mean, if it seems obvious, if you just look at it on a map, but, you know, there’s a lot of innovation that’s starting to happen in those submarkets or those regional markets as a result of the success that we’ve had in Atlanta. So Atlanta is a key to the regional economic development. So when you put all those layers together, we are the key, right? And as we go, they go in a lot of ways. And I think that we share the prosperity. Atlanta or Georgia has an unbelievable port and logistics system, a fantastic aerospace, uh, you know, industry, unbelievable fintech, you know, telecommunications infrastructure, data center, uh, retail. We are very, very diverse. Um, and I think that allows the regional markets to take advantage of that. And frankly, having them grow helps our community grow. So it’s one big infrastructure, one big ecosystem. That’s how I look at it. Larry, do you have anything to add to that?

Larry Williams: 100%. Right. It does. I mean, we you know, if you look south of DC, you know, east of Dallas, there’s nothing like Atlanta. There’s there’s, you know, love these other markets. And I’m glad a lot of them are thriving and experienced success. But Atlanta really is where it is in the state of Georgia. And our regional economies as well. Um, people are recognizing the importance of the southeast and our technology and innovation economy. Um, I think there’s always been a lot of relevance. At least, you know, you know, for a long time. And, um, now people are really seeing it and, um, seeing that we are as competitive or more competitive than some of the traditional markets, especially those on the West Coast, because those companies are moving here.

Kyle Tothill: And I think the consistency of our activity is really cemented that. So tag’s been around for 25 years. Chamber’s one of the top chambers, right. This community has had success for a very, very long period of time, and we’ve had the infrastructure to be able to promote that success. So we’ve been telling the world, we’ve been inviting the world. We’re bringing the world to Atlanta through conferences and through through the Georgia Technology Summit and through some of our outreach, uh, you know, global outreach opportunities like Fintech South is a global event. So, you know, I think the big, you know, pole, right, is that we’ve actually been focused on extolling the virtues of this, and that’s why people are recognizing it.

Lee Kantor: Now, how does other how would you recommend other organizations, educational institutions, government agencies or other businesses collaborate with Tag? What’s the best way to connect with you in terms of, okay, let’s figure out a way to better serve the ecosystem. I know you’re the hub, but what how how can other organizations plug into you most effectively?

Larry Williams: You know, we have so many. We have so many options, Lee. And we have so many partnerships and so many great, um, collaborations as it is and certainly, you know, tag online. Org is a way to get us connected. You can reach out to me directly L yeah. L Williams at tag online.org. You can find us and we can get you connected. You know between our 18 societies that really focus in on so many different areas, whether it be fintech, cybersecurity, digital health, cloud, CRM, artificial intelligence, all of these topics are very important, and those are also ways to get more specifically involved in some areas of interest and help build those contacts. But government relations are extremely active both at the state and federal level. Um, you know, people were always looking at ways that we can collaborate. Yesterday, Kyle and I were meeting with the the national director of cybersecurity, which is part of the white House, looking at how do we make sure that we have resilient businesses that can help and collaborate with government to make sure that we’re protecting our cybersecurity, protecting our infrastructure, and make sure that we continue to have great commerce and that we’re, you know, we’re part of the solution in fighting the bad guys, because the bad guys are going to keep coming at us when it comes to cybersecurity threats. So we want to make sure the good guys keep winning. So those are just some examples of the collaborations and then plus our workforce, our universities, our technical college system of Georgia all are welcome.

Lee Kantor: So looking ahead, what are Tag’s primary goals and objectives for the next coming few years? Is there anything you’re looking ahead towards? You mentioned quantum. You mentioned AI. Is there any other trends or anything else you’re working on?

Larry Williams: Well, you know, just and we’ve been talking about these things. It’s it’s number one for the next 25 years. I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen 25 years from now. But here’s what I do know. There’s some great key opportunities for us near-term. And I think that’s what you’re asking me here in the near future. So, yes, um, we have I think in Georgia, we have a unique opportunity to be at the forefront of artificial intelligence and the opportunities that it’s going to be that it’s going to bring, and that’s whether it’s creating new companies, uh, mastering the tools that are going to help propel and create innovations within our current companies, but also the thought leadership that we have for the policies that we need. Um, around AI, um, that can happen at the state legislature, um, as well as some of the thought around. You know, what are the the laws? What are the, um, um, policies that we need, the policies that we. Need to be in place. We’ve got Emory, we’ve got Georgia Tech, we’ve got other Georgia State. We’ve got people with great minds thinking through what these implications are. We can be. At the forefront of writing all of this and setting the standard not only for the country, but the world.

Kyle Tothill: Yeah. And I’d like to I’d really like to add that, you know, one of the big priorities for us is really to. Continue to bring people into the technology ecosystem that that aren’t necessarily there today. We. Have got to expand and open our aperture to make sure that the entire population of our great state or the region or people that want. To come here, have an open door to get engaged. Right. And that’s one of the things Larry. Mentioned earlier, which is we have over 200 events a year. We have 5 or 6 major events every single year. We have a lot of opportunities to invite people into the conversation, and I think that’s a huge, a huge priority as we move forward is we’ve got to have the people and we want people to know that they can get a career in technology. They can take advantage of that, you know, and they can easily plug in. We are very hospitable and wide open for that.

Lee Kantor: Now, how do you allay some of the fears that people have when there is, um, conversations around AI and how disruptive it’s going to be, how it’s going to replace jobs and things like that? How do you kind of create that bridge to help people make that transition most effectively?

Kyle Tothill: I think that’s a very difficult challenge because it has its moments of fear with all of us, you know, and it happens often. But, you know, you have to take the assumption with folks that change is going to happen. Right? And it’s better to to understand that change is coming and that they’ve got to adapt and overcome, right and change. And they can use AI and, you know, humanity together is going to create a lot of opportunity and that their skills have to grow and they’re going to have to be pushed. And that’s just the way that it is. But assuaging fears is more about highlighting opportunities, right? When you have opportunity in front of you and you’re able to see a pathway to seize that, then the fear disappears. If we’re afraid, we won’t seize that or see that opportunity. And I think that’s what our job is to kind of extoll and show to the broader community through our society events, through our events, that there’s a lot of AI out there that’s going to help people really grow, that’s going to help businesses get faster, better, and it’s going to help those stakeholders, you know, accomplish their goals.

Larry Williams: Notably, AI has been around for a decade, and people have been utilizing it in certain ways, whether they know it or not. So now it’s, you know, emerge and now it’s, you know, at the kitchen table as part of the conversation. Um, so Kyle’s exactly right. So it is raising awareness about, you know, what the world is going to look like that. The other is actually giving people skills, making sure that they’re prepared. When I when I said, you know, we have the opportunity to have the most relevant workforce for the future right here in Georgia. We can drive this. People will want to copy what we’re doing because we will get it right. So when we talk about people knowing what they can do with AI and utilizing it as a tool, um, they’re going to be excited about the future. They’re going to be excited about what they can possibly do within, you know, their own scope of work as it is today, or how they can build new companies to address new, um, new products, new services and new innovations. So, yes, change is hard. We’re going to work through this change, and we’re going to make sure people get connected to it. And we’re at the forefront of the whole innovation economy.

Lee Kantor: Is the education. Um, you mentioned that Georgia Tech right now is at a at the forefront when it comes to AI, people learning about AI, is it trickling down into high schools, middle schools, elementary schools? Is there any type of initiatives that are just starting? These are digital natives, you know. Are we doing anything to help educate them and get them on these tracks earlier on?

Kyle Tothill: They’re the ones educating us. Just to be perfectly frank. Uh, talk to talk to an 18 to 22 year old and ask him how often they use generative AI, and they’ll tell you a lot. Um, but but ultimately, you’ve got to show those business use cases. You’ve got to get those folks connected to, you know, buyers and users of those AI, you know, initiatives. And, you know, Larry could talk a little bit about our Stem education policy and what we’re doing with tag ed to help get that deep down into, you know, some of our high potentials that are in high school and college.

Larry Williams: Yeah. So there’s lots of things that are happening at the industry level. You know, people are right now creating workgroups about how can I improve efficiencies within the workflows. Um, and they’re what they’re doing is really experimenting with the tools that are available, and that’s very important. You know, what can I do if I, um. Um, if I utilize this tool to help do an analysis of, of of a, of a spreadsheet, a very deep, broad spreadsheet, and things that were taking hours of a human’s time were able to do in seconds, quite frankly. And they can point out, you know, key elements or trends within large data sets. This is important. It’s, um, it’s it’s learning how to ask the questions correctly so that you can start to get the relevant information you want. As far as getting it down. Yes. Our educators are doing several things as well. Um, you know, um, at our schools and our Stem, they’re inviting people to start playing with these tools, see what we can do. And here’s what’s important. As people are playing, and especially our younger people are learning to play with these tools, learning how to utilize these tools, what our educators are really doing a good job of is saying, okay, that’s what you learned via just asking a question. Now, how do you put your own thought into it? How do you interpret that data? What experience do you have that can put some unique perspective or some unique context to it that makes what you do is important? Um, uh, as a human, as a lifetime learner, and not just look at something, ask a question and regurgitate, uh, the outcome. This is going to be extremely important about how we utilize these tools moving forward.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more, connect with tag and learn about all of the great things that are happening in the tech ecosystem here in Georgia, what is the website? What is the best way to connect?

Kyle Tothill: It’s w w w tag online.org and there are a lot of events you can register for. Um, and we’re excited to have anybody and everybody that wants to learn find an opportunity to plug in.

Larry Williams: But most importantly, December 4th, we are having our silver Jubilee December 4th at the foundry. Uh, in the West Side. Super, super excited about this. This is our second annual gala. It is black tie. It is elegant. We are going to celebrate our second annual Lifetime Achievement Award winner. It was John Yates who many people in the technology industry know. We’re going to be announcing the next one. And so it’s something that if you’re in the technology community, you need to be at our Silver Jubilee on December 4th.

Lee Kantor: And they can learn more at Tag online. Org.

Larry Williams: That’s correct.

Lee Kantor: All right. Well Larry and Kyle, thank you so much for sharing your stories today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Kyle Tothill: Yeah. My pleasure.

Larry Williams: Lee, thanks for your friendship.

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

Jon Reid With Tier1 Management Consulting Group

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Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Jon Reid With Tier1 Management Consulting Group
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Jon Reid has over 25 years’ corporate business experience, including SOX IT, Project management, Real Estate, Sourcing, Internal audit, Training, and Accounting. He is proficient in project management, evaluating internal control systems, process mapping, budgeting and forecasting, international procurement, analyzing new business, and business plan development.

He also has experience in business operations, regulatory compliance, Diversity and Inclusion & Sarbanes-Oxley. Recent career highlights include the following:
 Sr, Project Manager — Engaged to ensure compliance and production of internal control reporting requirements for Public & Private Sector clients. Produced process maps for financial reporting functions and identified risk and control matrices to be tested for compliance. Responsible for process overview documents, key performance indicators, and development of compliance requirements by function, for both Finance and IT. Assignments with Mirant Corp, PTEK, Interland, MedAssets, Superior Essex, Scottish Re, GE, CCE.

As Executive Partner of Tier1 Management Consulting Group and owner of Allen Reid Enterprises LLC, Jon specializes in Corporate Leadership, Diversity Training, Skill and Team Building, Small Business Development and IT project Management. He is responsible for the daily operation of the business, which involves project management, interacting with the business community, policies and procedures, SOX, Corporate Compliance, coaching and speaking to Entrepreneurs and Real Estate Investors.

He does Business Training for corporate businesses, start-ups and existing mid-size business owners. In addition, Jon builds relationships with bankers, lawyers, public sector entities, marketing and social media professionals to develop additional resources for business owners. K.L. Scott & Associates provides innovative ideas and solutions to our clients.

Jon also runs the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion practice and has certification from Cornell University in Diversity & Inclusion. Co-host of The Citizens Experience Podcast.

Connect with Jon on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Real Estate development
  • Small business growth
  • Why small businesses need processes
  • Project Management
  • Investing in Real Estate

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program, the accelerated degree program for working professionals looking to advance their career and enhance their leadership skills. And now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on the Land of Business radio, we have John Reid, who is the managing member with Tier1 Management Consulting Group. Welcome.

Jon Reid: Thank you. Thank you. I’m glad to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, I am excited to learn what you’re up to. For folks who aren’t aware of tier one, can you share a little bit about mission purpose? How you serving folks?

Jon Reid: Yeah, so I actually started tier one a while ago to do two things. So think of a silo and you have your small business that’s two silos, one producing one stream of income. The other silo producing another stream. So the first stream is project management business services, helping small businesses and midsize businesses with their processes. If they want to scale, to grow their processes, that they have to change. So one side of my business is mostly project management related state, local, federal government. The other side of the business is more real estate development, teaching people how to be real estate entrepreneurs, how to develop communities, how to build, how to fix and flip, how to, you know, enhance your communities that you live in by real estate investing. Invest. So I have two different silos within the same business model, if that makes sense.

Lee Kantor: Sure. And when you’re working with your clients, do you share with them this strategy? Because in some ways, a lot of businesses focus on one thing and try to be, you know, kind of lean on their superpower. But it sounds like you have two superpowers.

Jon Reid: And I actually keep them separately. So I call myself an alchemist. And, you know, some people say, well, what does the alchemist do? Right? But typically, an alchemist is someone who transforms things for the better. So when I’m talking to corporations or state and local federal governments, my focus is to transform their processes into something better. So I keep all that separate. If I’m doing real estate development, that’s to a different market, a different industry, a different group of ears and eyes. So I have, you know, how we always talk about having an entity, but then having a DBA. So I have two distinct models, but I keep them separate. But I have the knowledge, though, to manage the two because at the end of the day, it’s all about how do you manage projects, right? Be it corporations, federal, state and local government, or real estate development? That’s why that’s how I look at it.

Lee Kantor: All right. So if you want to start with the project management side, let’s talk a little bit about how you’re serving that the group of people interested in that. Who is the ideal client. You mentioned business owners but you also mentioned government. So do you help business owners work with the government or do you help the government with their projects or both?

Jon Reid: Um, it’s sort of both. So I’ll give you a perfect example. With state, local and federal governments, I come in and I help them develop their like a strategic plan. So say they want to do a strategic plan to improve a specific process, say accounts payable or accounts receivable or, you know, auditing. So we, my team and I, we come in, we assess where they’re at currently, and then we make suggestions as to how they can actually be more effective. And that could be using Lean Six Sigma processes or project management processes. But at the end of the day, it is for them to be better process oriented and more efficient. So I do that with state, local and federal government. For small businesses, it’s a little bit different because sometimes small businesses are looking to get government contracts or they’re looking to grow their small business. So we help them in terms of, hey, this is what your foundation should look like. This is the things that you need to do in terms of marketing, legal, accounting. So we help a lot of small businesses in that aspect of it. And then one industry I did not mention to you at the beginning was, um, universities and institutions of higher learning. We help a lot of institutions develop a one year or a five year strategic plan to either increase Retention increase. Recruitment. Increased. Graduation rates. Uh, you know, based on other successful universities. So in that, um, aspect in terms of I call that the private sector, which is, uh, you know, small businesses, companies, universities and institutions, and the public sector is, of course, state, federal and local government. Does that make.

Lee Kantor: Sense? Sure. Now let’s talk a little bit about small business. That’s what a lot of our listeners are, small business owners. Um, is there some advice you can share or some do’s and don’ts when it comes to helping a small business grow? Like what are I would imagine at the core, you’re a believer in process and systems and that that’s instrumental for success. And if you could share some advice or some tips when it comes to building out the right systems and processes to help a small business grow.

Jon Reid: Yeah. So so the number one thing is what access to capital, right. All small businesses have that, that that dynamic. Right? That’s the conundrum. How do we access capital if we’re a small and growing, if we’re a startup or we’re a mid-sized corporation and we need working capital? So number one is access to capital. So when I talk to small businesses, we try to set the foundation up first. Do you have a simple accounting program involved? Do you have, uh, legal, uh, people on your team? Do you have marketing and business development people that can help you out? So number one key is to make sure that the foundation is firm and set first. A lot of people go into trying to get access to capital to grow their business, but they haven’t set the foundation up. Accounting software systems, uh, marketing, business development. And then with the advent of social media, there’s a software that can point push blasts out for you. 3:00 in the morning are all your social media platforms, right? Which is really huge. Like, I’m more seasoned now, and I realize the importance of social media. So one of the advice that, uh, the advice that I typically give people is make sure the foundation is set up first. Your back office stuff before you then go get access to capital. And then if you get access to capital, make sure that your business plan is up to snuff. If your business plan is not up to snuff and you can tell how old I am, right? I’m saying up to snuff. But if your business plan is not, um, doesn’t make any sense. It’s going to be harder for you then to convince someone to loan you money. And so I try to teach individuals that small businesses to make sure that back office and foundations and processes are set up. Now when you go to get access to capital, you have it, but then you need to manage that access to capital appropriately so that now you can grow your business.

Lee Kantor: Now how do you help in the project management side of things like getting the right foundation? That’s important, but how to make sure that not only, uh, once you agree to whatever that process is, to make sure that it’s happening like it’s supposed to. And and there’s some accountability and there’s some compliance. How do you help in that regard?

Jon Reid: So one of the things I do as a PMP project management professional is now you’ve got access to capital and you’re in the day to day operations. Are your operations actually doing what they’re supposed to be doing, like are as you as the entrepreneur or the management team, are you spending more of your time in the weeds just trying to make it happen, or are you or do you have the processes set up so, you know, number one, is it. Let me put together just a quick project plan to the task. And who’s responsible. Here we are. We have this this money. We have a couple of clients. How do we manage that effectively. What tasks do we do individually? How do we ensure that we’re not spinning our wheels ineffectively to actually send the girl to business? Because we may be doing the steps that we need to do to maintain the business. Right. But you’re not actually growing and and the the exit plan for any business is to grow that business such that you could then sell it. Um, get rid of it and then move to another, um, idea that you may want to do, or another business that you may want to do. So we help in terms of setting up the project plan, identifying the task and the resources that you may need to grow, and then ensuring on a monthly, semiannually basis that, hey, let’s we address this and see if we’re hitting our mark and our KPIs, key performance indicators. If we’re meeting our key performance indicators after six months, okay, we’re doing things right. If not, then they may need to, you know, talk to a consultant, someone like me that can say like, listen, here’s your processes. This is what you said you were going to do. But your current your current state says you’re doing this now.

Lee Kantor: Is there a mistake you see over and over when you’re working with teams when it comes to this type of project management? Like, you know, we set a goal and we’re not hitting the goal Is the mistake usually something predictable or is it something? Every time it could be a different thing.

Jon Reid: It just depends. So, you know, you have to go in and do like a. They’re not forensic audits but like an audit. Like if the, if the manager owner managing member principle is doing a lot of the work itself, that means that he doesn’t have time to actually go out and then get more business. He doesn’t have time or she doesn’t have time to do business development. And you need business development to grow your business. So you have to evaluate, okay, well, who’s doing what, where and when. Right. So it’s almost like an audit. So if I find, for instance, say it’s me myself and I’m the it’s my small business or I’m the CEO of a midsize business, but I’m doing finance, marketing, legal, human resources and everything. I’m not actually growing my business because I need to go out and shake some hands and talk to some individuals and grow the business. That means that you need to depend on the individuals who are on your team, right to do the things that they’re supposed to do and tasks to do, right? So I always tell people, you have a you you have a square, you have a square of people in your in that you work with, but everybody’s not in your circle.

Jon Reid: So that means you have to be evaluate the people in your circle. Are we doing what we’re supposed to do to grow this business? And that’s across small businesses, medium sized businesses and even large corporations. I used to be the CFO at one of GE’s and GE, GE capital’s businesses years ago when I was younger, and what we always used to do was like, let’s set a project plan, let’s identify tasks, let’s see where we are, let’s evaluate how we can then grow and spin off and make our jobs a lot more easier. You’re familiar with Jack Welch, right? One of the greatest leaders of any of the corporations, uh, in the country, he used to always employ people he said was smarter than he was. And I thought that was that was that was huge. Just getting out of college. I’m listening to Jack Welch. I’m in GE’s financial management program, and he said that he’s not the smartest guy on the team, but he hired the right people that can help the business grow.

Lee Kantor: And that takes a level of confidence and humility to be able to pull that off.

Jon Reid: Correct. Exactly right. Now you have to depend on your team.

Lee Kantor: Now let’s talk a little bit about the real estate side of your business. Um, what are you working on now? Is there some development going on that you’re working on?

Jon Reid: Yeah. And I’ll give you a quick story on that one. So when I used to work for GE, like I said, GE capital, they moved me down to Alpharetta area to help run their data center, a big IT financial data center. Um, and I met a guy individual who was like, Jonathan, you need another source of income besides your corporate job. And I’m like, no, no, no, I’m good, I’m good. I’m I’m you know, me and my family are good. He’s like, listen, if you want to invest and then grow wealth for your family. Real estate is where you do it. So he you know, he showed me how to start investing in real estate. Fast forward, we started doing free seminars and teaching individuals. How do you invest in real estate effectively so you don’t lose your shirt? Because a lot of us investors at the time, we were doing real estate, but we were losing to at the same time. But it’s a learning experience. So we started teaching people how to do real estate effectively and we did it for free. We we taught this for free. So I started doing a lot of just fix and flips is what they call it, right? You go in, you help a community out by identifying eyesores, buying the eyesore, fixing the eyesore up and then providing an opportunity for a family to buy that, that, that particular house. So I started doing that on the, you know, on the side. And then I got to realize, wait, hold on. I’m teaching people how to do this. I’m doing this on the side.

Jon Reid: Why can’t we then expand this to more effectively create development opportunities in underdeveloped areas. So then I started doing new construction projects. And so now I’ve got a series of new construction projects I do, and also still some fix and flips. I call them where you just buy and renovate and sell. Um, so I’m actually then, uh, helping areas grow by developing them more effectively for the communities. So I have, uh, a couple of projects in Stone Mountain Brookhaven, um, a couple of new constructions that I’m about to do in the West End area of Atlanta, but all for the goal of creating value for the community. Right. And so and I still mentor individuals who still want to get involved and dip their toe into the real estate market, but they just don’t know how to do it. So I still mentor people in that aspect of it as well. And then on our larger end, there are individuals who want to do commercial development. There’s a group, for instance, uh, I’m talking to in North Carolina. They want to develop a 18 home community for, uh, underprivileged and underserved communities. They have eight acres of land to build on, but they need to do a feasibility study. So once again, I utilize my financial background with GE to create a feasibility study to see and determine whether they should embark on this process or not. So should you build 18 homes? Should you build nine homes? Should you build an apartment complex? So I helped the commercial side out in terms of doing feasibility studies, if you will.

Lee Kantor: Now, are you still bullish about the Atlanta or metro Atlanta real estate market, even with the high interest rates? Well, you.

Jon Reid: Know, oddly, the interest rates are actually coming down. Um, and that was a big bane of our existence over this last year, because when the interest rates go up, your pool of buyers go down. And just to be truthful and transparent, a lot of the homes that I had for sale, I hadn’t reduced the prices on them to now get to ensure that the people who are buying them can actually afford to buy them. So. But if you looked at recently, the fed has now cut the rates a little bit. So it’s more reasonable for buyers. So it’s still it’s not a seller’s market anymore. It’s a buyer’s market. So there is opportunity. But you have to concentrate on your location and the price point of what you’re entering into. So and then as you know, we’re coming into a new political environment in which is unsure right now. So right now there’s just some uncertainty over the next six months about what’s going to happen. In my opinion. The good thing is that the feds have reduced the rates. So for buyers, they’re still programs out there for down payment assistance, which is good, has to be in the right price point. So, um, it’s just like with anything if there’s always an opportunity, but you just have to educate yourself on what that opportunity is. It’s going to be in flux in the next six months. But I’m glad to see that the interest rates are going down for the buyers.

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

Jon Reid: Well, I think what I, what I do and what I’m not good at is more business development. Uh, I talk about helping people to get out of the weeds, but because I have these two silos, I’m more involved in it than than what I can, what I should be. But, you know, I have enough. I have some team members that have got me utilizing more technology, uh, project management technology, like Monday.com. Small business owners can look at that too, or slack for communicating with your team members instead of just traditional email. Um, and so, so utilizing technology and then getting our name out as to how we can help small businesses, medium sized businesses, large businesses grow, I think is the impetus for me like to put the the right foot in front of the left foot, if you will.

Lee Kantor: So what is the pain that this small, medium sized businesses are having now where tier one is the solution?

Jon Reid: So so like I said that I call myself the Alchemist. There’s a lot of people call me that because we actually transform things for the better. Um, we had a contract with the Library of Congress, and we introduced a new software program for them to stop doing things manually and, uh, and, uh, inundated and redundant processes. So a large government agency. Right. We actually help them by helping them transform by utilizing software effectively small businesses. We help them get access to capital. Medium sized businesses. We look at their processes and we say, listen, your goal is to grow. How do you scale effectively so that you can take on the growth? Right. So you may be doing things the same way you have done for the last two years. But now because you’re in a growth mode as a medium sized business, you want to make sure that your processes are in place, that you can now grow effectively without all the pain. So that’s how tier one actually helps companies in terms of all those different industries, um, better enhance themselves for, for the, for the better.

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

Jon Reid: So my website is actually is www.tr t e r the number one mgmt dot net. My email is uh, I’ll say it and I’ll spell it. John at tier one management.com which is j o n at t I e r the number one mgmt dot net.

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

Jon Reid: I appreciate you too, for taking advantage of, you know, talking to small businesses and helping them grow.

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

Gene Kansas With Gene Kansas | Commercial Real Estate

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Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Gene Kansas With Gene Kansas | Commercial Real Estate
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Inspired by his vibrant New Orleans roots, Gene Kansas is an award-winning cultural developer, preservationist, and social entrepreneur, passionately advocating for history, culture, and community through conscientious and thoughtful development. HIs work is driven by a deep commitment to honoring the past while fostering meaningful modern-day connections between people and places that positively contribute to society.

His company, Gene Kansas | Commercial Real Estate, specializes in culturally conscious projects that elevate the unique character of buildings, neighborhoods, and their shared history. Notable achievements include the historic preservation of the Atlanta Daily World Building in Sweet Auburn, recognized by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as the #2 Win in the United States in 2015. This project stands as a testament to his dedication to supporting the legacies of historically significant sites and the importance of preservation.

His upcoming book, ‘Civil Sights’ (UGA Press, 2025), with Dr. Jacqueline Jones Royster as cultural editor and author of the afterword, and Gary M. Pomerantz authoring the foreword, further illustrates Gene’s interest in collaboration and commitment to positive social impact. Driven by the critical need for preservation in the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic District, he connects readers to the people and places of Sweet Auburn, sharing stories of those who fought for equality, hoping to preserve their legacy and ensure vital lessons are not forgotten.

As founder of Constellations, a civic and socially based shared workspace in Sweet Auburn, he created an award-winning cultural center where community engagement and empowerment thrive. He is also the creator and host of the award-winning Sidewalk Radio on AM 1690 “The Voice of the Arts”, a show that explored life in the modern city through the lens of history and the context of community, featuring more than 170 guests over its five-year run. Additionally, Gene and Dr. Royster co-created the radio show “Building Memories” – running for three seasons – in partnership with Georgia Tech which explored the historical consequence of space while focusing primarily on African American history and heritage.

Gene’s numerous accolades, including the Ivan Allen, Jr. Legacy Award and the Alonzo F. Herndon Business Award, highlight his contributions as a leader in the fields of preservation and development. As a sought-after speaker and published author, he generously shares his insights and expertise, inspiring others to engage in cultural projects for public good. With his unwavering passion and dedication to honoring history, and a mindset of paying it forward and giving back, he continues to shape the landscape of Atlanta and beyond, meaningfully impacting people’s lives now and in the future.

Connect with Gene on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • What is historic preservation
  • A case study on Sweet Auburn
  • The making of Gene’s new book ‘Civil Sights’
  • Adapting historical buildings for modern use
  • Inspiring future generations to preserve history

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program, the accelerated degree program for working professionals looking to advance their career and enhance their leadership skills. And now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Gene, Kansas, and he is the founder and CEO of Gene Kansas Commercial Real Estate. Welcome.

Gene Kansas: Thank you Lee. It’s always good to be with you.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m so excited to chat with you to get caught up. You’re doing some really important work. But for folks who aren’t familiar, can you talk a little bit about your work?

Gene Kansas: Absolutely. I’ve been in Atlanta 29 years. I’m from New Orleans. I believe who we are as kids is who we are as adults. I’ve always been a writer. I’ve always been an entrepreneur. Today, the primary medium for sharing stories and connecting is the built environment. So real estate and do that with a cultural focus. I also have a book coming out called Civil Site, which is about the people and places who came together to make history in Sweet Auburn, which is birthplace of the civil rights movement right here in Atlanta. Have a civic and socially based shared workspace in Sweet Auburn as well called constellations, and really focused on trying to make a positive difference in the world through people and places and programing.

Lee Kantor: Now, could you educate us a little bit for folks who aren’t familiar with the sweet Auburn area and why it’s so important for Atlanta and the region?

Gene Kansas: Absolutely. Well, I mean, the historical consequence of sweet Auburn cannot be emphasized enough. This is, you know, literally the the birthplace of the civil rights movement. So if you think about the the rights that are promised by the Constitution that weren’t being, you know, fully delivered, then you think about millions of people around the world and leadership right here in downtown Atlanta, Martin Luther King, you know, John Wesley Dobbs preceding him, Ella Baker, Congressman John Lewis, Bayard Rustin, Septima Clark, Rosalind Pope, so many others that came together to make the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 possible. That happened here. And the thing that’s both fascinating and also tragic is that since 1976, when the Sweet Auburn Historic District was designated a historic landmark, since then, 47% of the buildings have been lost. Part of what we do with my company is historic preservation. So to understand that not only are we losing historical fabric, but we’re also losing the ability to have a conspicuous cue for a conversation about the importance of place. And in this place, we’re talking about the lessons that can be imparted from the civil rights movement.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, I’ve been able to travel to a variety of different cities around the country, and some cities do a good job of incorporating kind of historical buildings and landmarks within the fabric of their downtowns or in certain areas. Why do you think that some communities embrace this, while other communities just want to tear it down and, you know, put up parking lots and parking garages and brand new shiny buildings?

Gene Kansas: Well, it’s a great question. And and it’s also a complicated one to answer because there’s so many different factors out there in the world. I mean, as one example, you know, you could have a city interested in growth and that’s not necessarily bad. Um, Atlanta has been, you know, a city on the rise for a long, long time. It’s part of our DNA is progress, um, and moving forward. Um, but in some cases that can lead to consequences that aren’t. Necessarily beneficial. And it’s not just the preservation of buildings. It could be, you know, let’s say, um, green, green space, our tree canopy. But with downtown Atlanta and I think a lot of other cities around this country, you had, um, you know, let’s say a negative consequence of white flight. Um, this was especially in the segregated South. So, you know, you you have places that were thriving business centers like downtown Atlanta, um, thriving commercial and cultural centers as well. But when people move out and they’re no longer a population to go to the restaurant or support the hotel or occupy the office space, then you have an economic issue, and if something is not creating value, then it’s not really motivating for others. And when it comes to the case of cities and neighborhoods, that can lead toward, um, basically, you know, issues with value and, and people trying to figure out what can be possible. And sometimes that leads to demolition. Sometimes it leads to what’s called demolition via neglect. And that’s a big part of what’s happened in Sweet Auburn is by building sitting vacant, um, they end up crumbling. Um, so that is just one answer out of many.

Lee Kantor: Now, when there’s an a companies like yours that come in and see kind of the value that’s there and maybe isn’t obvious to other people, how do you go about preserving some of the history, but still make it viable for business to be done.

Gene Kansas: Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, there have been a lot of other people, um, and companies that have been involved in this effort and locally, um, there are preservation organizations such as the Atlanta Preservation Center, the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation. There’s also the Atlanta Urban Design Commission, which is interested in historic preservation and acts as an oversight body through city government for this. Nationally, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, plus a lot of stakeholders in sweet Auburn from, you know, uh, the the churches here, um, from the King Center. Um, other historic places. Now, as someone who is an entrepreneur and a historic preservationist, who also is a writer. I’m very interested in the story, and the stories that come from Sweet Auburn are magnificent. They’re inspiring and and frankly, they’re incredible. And so if those can be shared and connect with people just like you do on your show, that that creates some form of value that’s motivating motivation that can result in action. And so the action might be for people to to come and use the space or rent space. Longer term constellations, which are mentioned earlier, is a great example of this.

Gene Kansas: This is a building at 135 Auburn Avenue. Um, it was built in 1910 as a book warehouse. It’s called, um, the Southern Book Building. And, um, this is a place that has a period of significance in the 1960s when in 1963, the the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, um, had their offices there. And to be able to to be a part of the history now through historic preservation and new contemporary programing at the Southern School book building. Um, we’ve got people who come in for, let’s say, a day. We’ve had over 80 weddings here. We have people who, um, rent space long term. One of the groups is called Music and common. Um, music and common does, um, racial reconciliation through songs. So they bring together communities and conflict. They write songs together, they perform songs together, they communicate. And there’s a healing there. The reason they’re here is because they have, you know, an interest in in a meaningful connection and presence to the sweet Auburn Historic District as a leader in civil and human rights. Um, but this is just one example.

Lee Kantor: Now, in your upcoming book, Civil Rights, um, you mentioned the importance of storytelling throughout this conversation, but is there a story within that book that you can share that kind of illustrates your interest in the area, and also maybe makes this come alive for the listener?

Gene Kansas: Absolutely. So there’s a building called the Daily World Building, and this building is a historic site in journalism. Um, it it is also a place that has a, a rich history even before the modern day civil rights movement so built in 1912. In 1918 it was home to the Virgil Coffee Company. Starting in, I think, the the 20s and then into the 30s, um, it was sad. Sat on the dividing line of black and white Atlanta. There were apartments there. They were integrated apartments. Um, then the 1940s and specifically 1944, the Ponciana club opened. Now the Ponciana club was a jazz joint that featured folks that you, your listeners will know, such as Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Little Richard. So there’s this jazz history. And then, um, there was a group in 1944 that moved in as well, called the district five Girl Scouts. This is Atlanta’s first black Girl Scout troop. These young Scouts who became women are an exceptional example of leadership. And one of those scouts is a woman or a young girl named Rosalind Pope. When she was a senior at Spelman, she became the principal author of An Appeal for Human Rights, which was a civil rights manifesto that was published in 1963 that sparked the Atlanta Student Movement, which helped spark the national movement, which really made success in the civil rights movement possible. No one knows who she is because, frankly, women have been excluded from history and especially, um, women of color. And so in I guess around this time last year, um, I got a call from the city of Atlanta Cultural Affairs saying that the Girl Scouts wanted to do a mural in downtown Atlanta to help celebrate the history of district five.

Gene Kansas: And did I know of any walls that could be used? Because I was in a fortunate position with our company to lead the historic preservation of the Daily World building, which had been hit by a tornado in 2008. Um, I bought the building with a partner of mine named Ben Dupuy, uh, led a preservation effort, and because of the historic preservation of the building itself, we had a wall. We were able to work with the Girl Scouts to have the mural honoring district five, featuring Rosalind Pope on the side of this building. And so we’re getting to talk more about a story now, but let’s just say that someone didn’t have the ability to to listen to this show or know much about the building if they see a 50 by 30 foot mural, public Art for Public good. And they’re interested in it today. You know, with mobile technology, they can quickly, you know, look up what is the story here? And when they do, they’re going to find something, um, of a caliber of inspiration that’s really hard to get in everyday life. So what might that mean for a Georgia State student? You know, walking by, there’s 37,000, uh, people at Georgia State University on the downtown campus. Um, what might that mean for a young scout of today who goes with their troop and sees what they think is just a work of art, but really an ideal and an example, a shining example of what’s possible. These are the types of things that are possible through historic preservation of the building. I would argue, though, maybe even more importantly, is a more ethereal or artistic preservation, in this case the preservation of women’s rights.

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

Gene Kansas: Well, if anyone is interested in learning about the people and places that came together to make history and sweet Auburn through civil rights, please, you know, go online. Um, this is forthcoming from UGA press and co-published with Georgia Humanities, will be out in February of 2025. The website is civil sites, dot com and sites are spelled s I g h t s civil sites com. Um. Learn more. Preorder the book. Um come down to sweet Auburn. Um, you know, do some cultural tourism and um and just if so inspired share it with others.

Lee Kantor: And then can you share the kind of coordinates for constellations if they’re interested in your shared workspace?

Gene Kansas: Absolutely. Thanks for asking. It’s constellations dot community. We have space for lease long term. We also host meetings and events. So think holiday party, think book club, milestone events, um, reunions, uh, any type of um meeting or event if you want to be in a place that’s beautiful and also has a rich history, um, please visit us.

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

Gene Kansas: Thank you so much for having me.

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

James Bruni With GBG Idology

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Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
James Bruni With GBG Idology
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James Bruni is the Managing director at GBGIDology, an industry leader in identity verification, AML/KYC compliance, and fraud management solutions that help businesses establish trust, drive revenue, and deter fraud. He oversees IDology’s growth and innovation throughout the Americas while ensuring strategic alignment with global teams and enabling customers to seamlessly and securely verify identities anyplace in the world.

Throughout his 25-year career, he has developed a reputation for building high-performing teams and strong cultures that successfully drive top-and-bottom-line results.

Before joining GBG IDology, he was the Managing Director for SHL Americas, demonstrating his ability to navigate and lead international operations. His impressive career includes senior executive positions at global organizations, including LexisNexis and Thomson Reuters, where he honed his skills and acquired a deep understanding of the intricacies of the technology sector.

As a global sales and business development executive, James is renowned for his accomplishments in transformations, operational execution and the successful growth of public and private equity-owned businesses. His strategic vision and dedication to excellence make him a key player in shaping IDology’s future, aligning capabilities, and driving success for customers and team members in the Americas.

Connect with James on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • About the Atlanta headquartered GBG IDology and what makes it a market leader in the Americas
  • How long has the company been based in Atlanta and how has it grown over that time
  • What is the volume of fraud – cost of fraud
  • What does fraud cost the average business

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program, the accelerated degree program for working professionals looking to advance their career and enhance their leadership skills. And now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have James Bruni with GBG Idology. Welcome.

James Bruni: Good to be here. Thanks, Lee.

Lee Kantor: Can you, James, before we get too far into things, tell us about GBG ideology. How are you serving folks?

James Bruni: Yeah, sure. We’re, um. When the largest identity verification onboarding businesses in the world. We’re about a $400 million company globally. We do about 210 million transactions daily, and we’ve got over 20,000 customers globally. We’ve been around here in Atlanta, Georgia, actually for 20 plus years. But GBG globally has been around for 30 plus where what I’d call financial technology company. We take data and mix it with software and help organizations be more efficient and effective in their onboarding of customers, making sure that they onboard good customers, better customers, better paying customers, and try to do the best job of minimizing fraud, making sure we keep the bad apples out.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you talk a little bit about the history of the company here in Atlanta?

James Bruni: Oh, sure. Yeah. It was started 20 years ago by an entrepreneur that identified the opportunity for identification, digital identification. And it, you know, so, so often, so many companies will build on fancy what I call marketing but but ideology literally built one customer at a time and over 20 years built 100 million plus business. And about three years ago they were acquired by the GBG, which is a global organization. They had a tremendous presence across the globe, and they really wanted a strong presence in the US, and they had an aggressive acquisition strategy and acquired ideology. We’re rebranding GBG ideology. But, you know, the core culture and the core business is right here in Atlanta. But of course, we service what I call the Americas, US, Canada and South America, Central America now. Quite a.

Lee Kantor: History. Yeah. And when? When it was acquired, it was obviously a land based firm that was acquired. Why was it important to kind of stick around Atlanta?

James Bruni: Yeah. No, really. Good point. They wanted to get in North and South America and ideology was had a tremendous brand, had a great culture and had a reputation, a really strong reputation. They also bought another company out of Boston, and then they bought a company out west in Northern California. So over the last couple of years, really, I was brought in to integrate those three businesses. But the core of our business, we still have we have three offices. We’ve got one in New York, we’ve got one in Boston. But our core North American, or what I would call America’s office, is based here in Atlanta. For the hard working people, the talent that we’ve got here. And it’s a real core part of our overall culture, not just GBG ideology, but globally.

Lee Kantor: Now, uh, recently, I’ve had the opportunity to be part of something called Fintech South, which is a big fintech conference that’s been in Atlanta for many years. And I remember talking to somebody that was coming internationally who came down for that event, and they were telling me that when they were telling their friends at their company, oh, I got to go to America for this event. And they were kind of surprised that the event was in Atlanta. Can you explain to folks out there why things like, uh, Fintech South and ideology. It makes perfect sense to be based in Atlanta because a lot of fintech is done in Atlanta.

James Bruni: Um, our biggest segment, um, uh, just in generally our biggest customer segment is, is banking and financial technology. Um, and I think we’ve got a rich history here in Atlanta of financial technology companies starting and building and growing. Um, and I think it has a lot to do with the tremendous with the talent and then also the, the business environment. So for us, of course, we are across the Americas, but it’s amazing the amount of customers that either have core businesses here as their corporate office here, or they have a big presence of talent. Um, so that really lends itself for us being here. Um, and we’re growing. We’re 1200 employees globally, but we’ve got 350 here in the United States with over 130 right here in Atlanta. So, um, as we grow, um, this is a great opportunity for us to look for individuals that have the skills, the talent and really want to fit into our overall culture.

Lee Kantor: Now, one of the ways that you serve the community is, is with your annual fraud report. I think it’s on its ninth, uh, ninth edition this year. Um, can you share a little bit about some of the insights that were gleaned from that?

James Bruni: Sure. Um, this is a report that, um, uh, surveys people not just in the US, but across, across the, across the world. And, um, a few, a few sort of quotes and stats is that generative AI poses a huge threat to business to businesses. Today, uh, 45% of all companies are worried about Jen. Jen generation AI’s ability to create more synthetic identities. Um, also worth mentioning that 74% are concerned about potential for Sif to increase. Um, uh, a quote around fintechs is 58% of fintechs reported suffering a data breach this last year and suffered some or extensive, uh, financial loss. So we’re seeing fraud. Um, um, and another example is we’re seeing fraud, um, double and triple 45% or 45% increase on the average value of a fraud transaction occurred over $5,000. So this is a report that we’ve got baseline’s going back nine years. Um, and it’s really helping our customers as they adjust, um, and as, as they evolve. And how do they and how do they properly fight fraud?

Lee Kantor: Now, as, um, pretty much every company that exists Exist today is a technology company in some form or fashion. Um, how, um, how much does fraud cost? Like what? Like we’re seeing an increase in fraud. But what is kind of the amount of money we’re talking about? Because I would imagine obviously it varies from firm to firm, but if, if that high of a percentage of firms are experiencing fraud, the cost is real and the impact is real. So can you give us an idea of what the cost of the fraud is?

James Bruni: Yeah. For sure. Um, according to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, um, they estimate that about 5% of total revenue is being impacted by by fraud. Um, 45% of businesses said and they attested that transactions have increased, um, to over $5,000 of fraud. Um, and then what’s even more interesting is that 28% of executives that are running companies don’t feel that they truly understand the real impact of fraud, so they’re trying to do everything they can to get additional, um, uh, clarification visibility. Right. And, um, since 2019, we’ve seen that fraud transactions and we’ve got the metrics for that have doubled.

Lee Kantor: So can you explain how GBG ideology, um, helps an organization kind of protect itself from this type of, uh, kind of cyber challenges that are existing today?

James Bruni: Yeah, sure. Um, I mean, the threat is, I think, really twofold, right? I think we’ve got customer trust. Um, and then we’ve got securing financial and data impact. And I think they go hand in hand. And what GBG has is we mix our content, which is either data or documents, with our software, to help to help organizations onboard customers, um, in a safer way and ensure that they’re onboarding customers that aren’t fraudulent. Um, and there’s a fine line between the friction that it takes to ensure you have a, a good customer. Um, and that process, um, that organizations go through. But if you have meaningful risk based consumer onboarding journeys, you and have the right tools, you can unlock revenue, um, fight fraud. And then also in many situations, um, um, maintain compliance. Um, so many of our, our customers in the fintech and just elsewhere have compliances that compliance regulations that they always want to also want to adhere to.

Lee Kantor: So then your service is not just protecting your services is to kind of unlock data to make your customer more aware of opportunities as well.

James Bruni: Yeah, the idea is to drive revenue, right? Um, organizations want, um, uh, customers that are willing to pay and can pay and that aren’t fraudulent. And that’s what we try to do, is we try to unlock and ensure that the individuals that are coming into your organization are real good paying customers. And that’s what we want to do.

Lee Kantor: And then what is kind of the pain that an organization is having right before they, uh, partner with GBG ideology?

James Bruni: Yeah. Good. Good question. Often it’s either, um, they had a fraudulent, um, uh, prospects come on. And, um, pretend to be somebody else and then caused some type of fraudulent activity, um, where they’re either stealing product or stealing, um. Um, some type of financial, uh, um, takeaway. And then in many situations it could be reputational. Also data breaches, for instance. So getting into an organization’s system and we can help and fight both.

Lee Kantor: So a lot of times they’re coming to you after something bad has happened. They’re trying to triage it and to get beyond it.

James Bruni: Um, I think there’s in some organizations there’s compliance and and based on compliance, they want to ensure that an individual is a certain age if they want to, say, be in the gaming industry or if they want to order alcohol online. So in some sometimes it’s, it’s, um, compliance. And we’ve got the, the tools that will help those organizations onboard and adhere to in compliance. But at the same time bring on as many strong customers as they can to really drive revenue. And then in some situations, it’s it’s it’s strictly to ensure that they’re fighting against fraud and, and any type of revenue that could go out the door because of that fraud.

Lee Kantor: Now, if you were to, uh, give advice to folks out there when it comes to fraud, is there any low hanging fruit they can be doing themselves proactively in order to, you know, protect themselves even a little bit?

James Bruni: Well, I sort of mentioned this, but it’s really having a risk based, um, customer onboarding journey, right? That and make sure they have the right tools, um, to unlock good revenue. Um, but then also be able to fight honestly to fight fraud.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, what is kind of if you looked in your crystal ball, what are you looking forward to as, uh, as we wrap up this year and get into 2025?

James Bruni: No. I’m really. I’m really excited. Um. Uh, GBG ideology. Um, we’re a fast growth business. We want to, um, continue to, um, take advantage and and take care of our customers. Um, over the last year and maybe a year and a half, I really focused on integrating the businesses that GPG acquired here in the Americas. And we created a great solution. We’ve got data and we’ve got documents, and we’ve got great software that work together to do that exactly for our customers. So we’re focused on taking care of our top customers. And then at the same time, um, we have an aggressive, um, go to market strategy to go out and find existing or new customers for us. We’re in we’re in the healthcare space. We’re in the fintech space, as I mentioned, banking space, gaming events. Um, and we have got a lot going on and I’m really excited. A lot of opportunity, particularly here in Atlanta where we’re growing our Atlanta team. We’re looking for solution engineers and, um, and people in technology and people in sales. So it’s an exciting time to be here.

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

James Bruni: Yeah, just do a quick search for GBG ideology and jump on the website. And there’s opportunities where you can reach out to us, um, for either job opportunities and also services.

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

James Bruni: Thanks, Lee. Great to talk to you. Great to spread the word. Thank you.

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

Dan Clark with Westfall Gold

by

Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Dan Clark with Westfall Gold
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Dan Clark is the CEO of Westfall Gold, a fundraising consultancy and experience design agency that serves organizations passionate about advancing good. By leveraging the power of gathering, he has helped its clients raise more than $2 billion to fuel life transformation.

Previously, he served for 15 years as a vice president at Convoy of Hope, which is now one of the largest charities in the United States (#33 on the Forbes list), and in local church ministry before that.

Dan and his wife, Heather, have been married for 25 years, and have three amazing kids to show for it.

Connect with Dan on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Dan’s journey that led him to become the CEO of Westfall Gold
  • His experiences that shaped his approach to leadership
  • Services that Westfall Gold offer and types of organizations they serve
  • How does Westfall Gold’s approach differ from traditional fundraising methods

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program, the accelerated degree program for working professionals looking to advance their career and enhance their leadership skills. And now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Dan Clark with Westfall Gold. Welcome.

Dan Clark: Thank you. Lee, appreciate the invitation. Glad to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. For folks who aren’t familiar, can you share a little bit about Westfall Gold? How are you serving folks?

Dan Clark: Yeah, so Westfall Gold serves nonprofit organizations who are advancing good by helping them engage audiences of high capacity givers. We are we describe ourselves as an experience design agency and a fundraising consultancy for organizations that are passionate about advancing good.

Lee Kantor: So what’s the backstory? Can you share a little bit about the origin story?

Dan Clark: Sure. So our founder, Bob Westfall, a little over 20 years ago, he was the chief development officer at a nonprofit organization in the Atlanta area, and he was charged with a task of raising a significant amount of money in a rather short period of time. And the president and CEO of the organization at the time, he said, Bob, I, I can’t go do a road show with you. You’re going to have to find another way. So Bob said, you know what? How about we bring all of the donors to you and let’s host an event. And that became the the inaugural edition of Westfall Gold’s major donor experience. And 600 events later, we’ve served hundreds of nonprofit organizations, different sizes, sectors over the last 21 years. But it all got started out of that necessity. And we see organizations large and small still today benefiting from that approach. There’s a lot to be said for gathering groups of people, homogeneous, like minded leaders that have a passion for the the cause and the mission of the organization.

Lee Kantor: So in the nonprofit world, is that or the fundraising world is that unusual? Is that not how most of them go about doing fundraising?

Dan Clark: Well, I can’t speak to what most are doing. Our focus is on the major donor segment. Specifically, it is the one numerous outlets have reported over the last couple of years that it is the one donor segment in America that’s actually growing, while others are shrinking. The major donor audience is actually growing. And the I think the other factor that we have our eyes on is really going back to 2006. There’s been a consolidation in giving. You have a smaller percentage of people who are giving a larger percentage of the dollars. It used to be like 8020, the Pareto principle. You would see that played out in most nonprofits, 20% of the donors are giving 80% of the money. And then we went through the economic crisis. And 0607 you had the early 20 tens, it started to shrink. And you come out of the pandemic, and we’re now in a 90 over ten environment. For most nonprofits, 10% of the donors are giving 90% of the dollars. And if economists are right, and we continue to see a widening of the income gap that dynamic is going to become only more and more real and more consequential for donor funded organizations if they do not have an effective major donor engagement strategy. It’s going to be difficult times, and we see those who who are succeeding in this arena. They are thriving even in our current times. And those who are absent of that strategy, you know, they’re fighting to survive.

Lee Kantor: Now in the fundraising world, is there a kind of an amount of donors you have to have in order to have to use the Westfall Gold methodology, like, do you have to have, you know, a thousand donors so you can peel off that 10%? Or do you can you do it with even like a startup nonprofit?

Dan Clark: Yeah, we’ve served organizations large and small, some that are, you know, in the top 100 list largest charities in the United States and others that are just getting started. So there’s range and we offer a variety of options, and we’re looking for what’s the best fit for the client organization, whether it’s a weekend long experience, maybe it’s a one night event. It could be a week long cruise. We do those too, but what’s important is that we take the time at the beginning of every conversation. Even before we enter into a contract with a client, we do a screening of their file to try to determine whether or not they are ready to be successful. With this approach, we don’t want to take anybody on as a client that we don’t believe can be successful. So it it can be relative to the number of donors that are in their file. It can be, uh, it can be based more on the capacity of a, you know, small number that just have a tremendous capacity to give. And if we can get that group in the room and move the needle in the right direction, they’re going to be very successful.

Lee Kantor: And can you help a brand new nonprofit that doesn’t have kind of that database of former donors, like, begin the process and get those initial donors to help them launch?

Dan Clark: Yes, we absolutely could. And that is common for us, will be approached by younger and smaller nonprofits that have a lot of vision, and we’re cheering them on. And we would tell them, you know, you’re not quite ready for an event yet, but we can help you get ready. And so that’s another area of service for Westfall Gold, and that is development consulting. We have a team of veteran major donor fundraisers who have led different development shops at different nonprofits around the country and in their earlier years. And so we bring that expertise to those smaller nonprofits and help them develop their ground game and build the infrastructure and the strategy that’s necessary to position them to eventually host that large gathering where they’re going to really move the needle in a big way.

Lee Kantor: Is there any advice you can share for those emerging nonprofit brands to get them jumpstarted? Is there some kind of low hanging fruit they can be doing now to get them ready?

Dan Clark: Build relationship, major donor fundraising, in fact, all successful fundraising. We believe it is. It’s not transactional, it’s relational. And when you can move away from transactional giving to relationship based giving, that changes everything. And it’s the only way to be successful with major donors, in fact. And so my encouragement to those smaller organizations is do the hard work, start now doing the hard work of building true relationship with the family of supporters that you have around you. And relationship will. It will go the distance and it will ultimately win the day.

Lee Kantor: Now, what are some ways that nonprofits can incent the donors? Is this is something that, um, you you have to have kind of like the, the tiers, like platinum level or gold level or is this something that you kind of create bespoke, um, incentives for these top donors?

Dan Clark: We create bespoke experiences, not incentives. Um, again, incentive would take you back into a transactional relationship. Um, you’re going to give this and you’re going to get that. And that’s not at all what we’re trying to do in our environments when whether it’s a one night gathering, a weekend long or or a week long event, what we are endeavoring to accomplish is to build community and to inspire trust and to deliver a compelling case for support. And those are the things that ultimately draw people in and lead them to give at a transformational level. And there’s important components there. Um, building community. People want to be part of a winning team. They don’t want to feel like they are the only one who is funding this endeavor. Funding this mission, they want to know that there are other successful, like minded people who see the same thing they do, who see the same opportunity. And when they look around the room and they see people who have experienced success like them, and they’re choosing to invest in this mission, this organization, they feel even greater confidence about their own decision. And again, you’re talking about relationship there. They are going to have opportunity to grow in relationship with like minded individuals and grow in relationship with the organization.

Dan Clark: Inspiring trust is creating a deepened understanding of what the organization does and how they do it. Business people who have the ability to give significant dollars. They care very much about your business plan that they have not Become successful by being sloppy in their decision making or their. Investments, and they care deeply about how you’re going about. Accomplishing your mission. They care about your financial governance. Practices. They want to know about your fiduciary controls. And so we. Surface that information in a proper context. And we inspire a trust. Both in the organization and its leadership. And all of that is part. Of delivering a compelling case for support where you are, you’re delivering an intellectual case, an emotional case and the transformational case. And that is ultimately what gets people across the finish line and moves them to make what is often the largest gift they’ve ever made in their lives. It’s understanding the impact that that a dollar is going to make, or $100,000 or $1 million. The impact that these dollars are going to make in the life of a person and sharing that story effectively really creates that transformational case that, um, gets people across the finish line, like I said.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you maybe share a story of one of the experiences you helped an organization do and, and really differentiate how that experience is different than, say, a gala or some of the events that are more traditional?

Dan Clark: Yeah. You know, there is a there’s a place for the the one night gala events and we support those. And we’ve had we’ve had great success even recently, we partnered with a, um, organization, a nonprofit in the Denver area this summer and helped them raise just over $5 million in one night. I’m not going to mention names here to protect client confidentiality, but it was a name that a lot of people would recognize. Um, opposite end of the spectrum from that one night event, uh, we have we have clients that we serve in hosting week long cruises where you are taking a group of maybe 100 or more couples and you are spending a week together, maybe in Europe or Alaska, maybe even the Caribbean during winter time. Everybody loves to get away from the cold, and that is a that’s an environment where you get to really become family with your donor audience, because you are sharing multiple meals together throughout the week. You’re enjoying entertainment on the ship, on shore, different excursions that people will participate in that that extended period of time. It just creates a proximity that allows for natural and sincere relationship to be developed. And again, that’s the that’s the big win here is when we move people from transaction to relationship.

Lee Kantor: Now you mentioned that this your services for all nonprofits. But is most of your work done in certain niches, like do you focus on faith based? Do you focus on like, chambers of commerce, medical? Do you have kind of a specialty?

Dan Clark: I wouldn’t say that. We have a specialty. We have a track record of serving many faith based organizations. We serve a number of universities, uh, medical research foundations. We have just entered into serving hospitals. And we’re we’re excited about the opportunity to serve, uh, organizations that are advancing good in many different sectors. So we’re, uh, we’re kind of arms wide open.

Lee Kantor: So now, um, right now, you are the new CEO. Can you talk a little bit about how you got there?

Dan Clark: Yeah.

Dan Clark: So I joined the Westfall Gold team, uh, almost three years ago. It was January 1st of 2022. And prior to that, I was in the client seat for 11 years. I spent 15 years serving as vice president at convoy of Hope, a humanitarian organization that now is, according to the Forbes list, the 35th largest charity in the United States. They do disaster response and international development, meeting the needs created by poverty and hunger. And we hired Westfall Gold back in 2013 to help us engage an audience of major donors. We had, uh, taken several, uh, attempts at the plate and a lot of swing and miss. We had just not been able to figure it out. And we had we had experience doing events and we, you know, felt like we had the the competency that was needed. But again, we had not we had not discovered the sweet spot. And we there was nothing we had done that we wanted to repeat, I’ll put it that way. And so we got introduced to Westfall Gold and their approach. Honestly, Lee, it pushed us outside of our comfort zone because it represented a significant investment more than we had ever chosen to. Invest to create an experience like this for major donors. And, um, I’ll go ahead and eat the humble pie here and give you the expanded version of the story. So we we told Westfall Gold, you know, we we like what you’re you’re what you’re offering here. But few things make us uncomfortable. We don’t think we need this, this or this. And Westfall gold was real gracious. Um, Bob Westfall was the one serving us at the time.

Dan Clark: And, you know, he said, hey, we we hear you. Um, we we’ve gone on the record. This is what we believe is best, but nonetheless, we want to work with you guys. We’re going to we’re going to try to make the best of what you are comfortable with here. And, um, you know, we’re cheering you on and, hey, maybe we’ll learn something. And so we, we did that first event. And honestly, the the results were entirely underwhelming. We invested about $150,000 and raised $450,000. Now, you might say that’s that’s 3 to 1. You know, that’s good. We didn’t lose money, but we were looking to raise millions of dollars. We needed a greater harvest. And so we kind of felt like, you know, big whoop. Um, and that led us to a gut check moment internally with our management and board. And we said, all right, if we’re going to do this again, we need to do it the West Hall way. We need to follow their counsel and just run their playbook. And so a year later, we we did that. We increased our investment. It was about 600. 650,000 invested to pull off that first event. And we ended up raising just shy of $3 million. And that was really when the glass ceiling was shattered for us. And, um, that return on investment that we experienced at that first event is consistent with what Westfall Gold has delivered for its clients over the last ten years. We’re over ten years. Our ROI is consistently 5 to 1 or better. And in fact, last year our average return on investment was 6 to 1 in 2023.

Dan Clark: And this year it’s been even better. Um, the the giving results in 2024 have been record breaking, and we will probably set a new record for total dollars raised this year. We raised $316 million last year. And we’re we’re on pace to eclipse that here in 2024. So it is not a small investment for that kind of experience. And again, we offer a variety of options. But the ROI is tremendous. And there really is not anything else out there that we were able to find. When I was at convoy of Hope that could deliver that kind of return. I mean, I wish my 401 K could do that. Um, so, you know, we convoy, we did that first event and, you know, 3 million. And then the next year we did it again. We deepened our investment, got more people in the room. We almost doubled the return. And we just went on this, this rocket ride over this ten year period where we started adding multiple events a year, we’d do a spring event on the West Coast, a fall event on the East Coast. We started adding summer events, and at this point, convoy is still a client of Westfall Gold, one of our most valued clients, and we will do 5 or 6 events for convoy next year. Um, and I can tell you that it was a it was a significant factor in the growth trajectory of the organization. Westfall. Gold helped us really figure out how to engage this audience of high capacity givers and do do so, um, uh, you know, in a way that it really it created a family, a family that wanted to invite their friends.

Dan Clark: And it just kind of feeds itself at a point. Um, and you just keep leading with big vision. Um, you know, what’s important on the other side of the equation though, Lee, for your nonprofit leaders who are listening is you know, what matters at the end of the day is that you do what you say you’re going to do, that you under-promise and overdeliver and that you operate with the highest levels of integrity. We can help you raise lots of money, but if those things aren’t true about your organization, your results in year 2 or 3 or, you know, whenever they’re ultimately going to shrink because people are going to see, hey, you’re not living up to the promise. Um, so those are important factors. And convoy of Hope is one of those organizations that, uh, operates at the highest levels of integrity, does what they say they’re going to do and always under promises and over delivers. And I think that was a part on the other side of the equation that led to convoy success. But I got to experience that, um, that ride for about ten years and was approached by Bob Westfall a few years ago. Um, asked me if I would consider becoming his successor. He was ready to step into retirement and this for me. Lee was an opportunity to help other organizations experience the success that we did at convoy of Hope, and so far it’s been a lot of fun.

Lee Kantor: Now, how do you help the nonprofit that might be struggling with the maybe the optics of, hey, we’re going to invest a lot of money on this special experience for the wealthiest people that are in our community. And it it’s not really part of your core work that you’re doing on a day to day basis, that you’re focusing on relationship building and nurturing these high net worth folks, um, that aren’t really the community that you probably serve. They’re a portion of it, but they’re really the funders of it. So how do you help the organizations reframe the optics of that?

Dan Clark: Yeah. Um, we would often help them identify someone in their network that could help underwrite part or all of that first event. Uh, but ultimately, what this is about is ROI for every dollar that you invest in gathering this audience, you’re going to get $5, $6, maybe more back to fuel the work that you just described. Their whatever their core mission is. I mean, fundraising is a it’s a necessary endeavor for any nonprofit. And there is a dynamic here of you don’t just reap what you sow, but you reap based on how much you sow. And it’s kind of like that story I shared from our beginnings at convoy with Westfall Gold. Um, you know, we sold, we sowed sparingly, and we reaped a small harvest. When we sowed more generously, we reaped a much larger harvest. The $3 million first event. And, um, you know, now, that same event, you know, ten years later, is raising tens of millions of dollars, um, each year. So it’s, uh, there is a there’s a correlation there that is is important to pay attention to. It’s a it’s a bit of a risk reward. You have to be you have to have the courage to take a smart risk in order to earn that generous reward. And we would help again, identifying for year one, um, someone that can help underwrite it and in, in full or in part usually what happens though is after an organization experiences that return on investment, um, it’s, you know, they’re saying the same thing I am today. It’s like for every dollar we put in, we’re getting five, six back. There’s there’s no place else we can do that.

Lee Kantor: Now, what’s the pain these nonprofits are having right now that Westfall Gold can help them get to new levels like have they plateaued or is there, um, is it getting, you know, they’re they’re generating less and less donations. Like, what is the kind of the pain point they’re in where Westfall gold is the right move for them to make?

Dan Clark: Yeah. I can’t speak to what every nonprofit is feeling, but what I can say is that Westfall Gold is, uh, prepared and poised to help them more effectively engage major givers that are in their network or even just identify. And that’s usually the starting point for us, is helping them, bringing some tools that we have access to, uh, to the table and helping them identify people that are already in their file or in their network that have significant capacity to fund their mission. And they’re just not even aware of those people. Um, and so that is that’s the usually the starting place. And that is an exciting series of conversations, because these leaders then see how much potential there is right in front of them. Um, we in fact, did a study, uh, just a couple of years ago and found that when we examined the donor files of our clients across all sectors and sizes, that only 7% of the people who had major giving capacity were actually giving at that level. Everybody’s thinking about, you know, how do we go find the next, you know, million dollar donor, but there’s 89% potential just living within their existing files. And so that’s the first step for us. It’s to help them surface and understand who’s already giving to their organization that they need to be more effectively engaging. Um, if they’re only giving, you know, $100 or $500 or $1,000 a year, but they could be adding some zeros. Um, it’s likely that the only reason they’re not doing so is because they have not been engaged effectively. So we’re prepared. Uh, we’ve got a long track record of success helping organizations effectively engage major donors. We are experts in leveraging the power of gathering. And so we can combine those two muscles. We talk about them like two muscles, two biceps. We we can lean into just the consulting and development work absent of an event, or we can blend an event into the model. And of course, that is where we’ve seen the greatest success over the years.

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

Dan Clark: Yeah. Invite you to check us out at Westfall gold.com w e s t f a l l gold.com. And you can learn more about how we can serve you, your organization and set up a time to connect with our team.

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

Dan Clark: Thank you Lee.

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

Yaryna Hotlib With Nana Fund

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High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Yaryna Hotlib With Nana Fund
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As the CEO of Nana Fund, Yaryna Hotlib is dedicated to supporting veteran-owned businesses, focusing on helping entrepreneurs navigate the funding side of business.

She advocates for targeted financial support, particularly for military spouses, and promotes the importance of access to data and industry benchmarks for informed decision-making.

Nana Fund bridges the gap between small businesses and funding, offering tailored solutions for grants, loans, and venture capital.

Connect with Yaryna on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Shifting Support to Years 2-5: The need to focus resources on helping businesses survive the “valley of death” rather than just supporting start-ups at the launch phase.
  • Challenges in Business Loans: The lack of a standardized business credit score makes it difficult for small businesses to secure loans, leaving community banks unable to help.
  • Military Spouse Entrepreneurs: Recognizing military spouses as an economically disadvantaged group and the need for targeted support in their entrepreneurial journeys.
  • Importance of Data Access: Small businesses need access to industry data and benchmarks to make informed financial decisions and improve survival rates.
  • Bridging the Funding Gap: Addressing the funding gap for businesses too small for venture capital and ineligible for traditional loans.
  • Community Banks and Lending Barriers: The challenges community banks face in offering loans to small businesses due to high risks and operational complexities.
  • Long-Term Financial Infrastructure: The importance of a financial ecosystem that supports businesses beyond the start-up phase to ensure long-term success.

Transcript-iconThis 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.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Yaryna Hotlib with Nana Fund. Welcome.

Yaryna Hotlib: Hello, Lee. Thank you so much. It’s such a pleasure.

Lee Kantor: Well, I am so excited to learn about what you got going on. Tell us a little bit about the Nana Fund.

Yaryna Hotlib: So Nana Fund is essentially my dream of how can I help small and medium sized businesses and especially startups, to get funded and survive through the Valley of Death. The fact that we do even have this phrase, Valley of death, always seemed to me very weird and unfair, because we are all and I mean a lot of governments, state program, accelerators, etc. there are so many incentives which are tend to help businesses to get started, to launch, to survive through the first year, but there is almost nothing out there for the business owners which will help them to get through the second year, up to fifth year, to scale, to thrive and many, many cases, business owners who are just on their year or two are not eligible for loans or a lot of incentive support programs. And yet somehow they need to find their way. How are they gonna build their business? So in my humble opinion, it is super easy to start comparing to survive through many, many years. So this is why I’ve built Nano Fund. Essentially what we are doing. We are scraping the internet. We are analyzing all the available on the internet. Funding opportunities starting from grants through support programs, incentive programs, accelerators, pitch opportunities, tax credits, loans, essentially everything. We are collecting it all in one huge database, then analyzing it, and we are showing to our users only those opportunities. They are eligible to apply right here, right now, and that are tailored to their needs and specific profiles and all that we are doing for free. So that’s why that was essentially my dream becoming true.

Lee Kantor: Now, for the folks that are out there listening, from what I’m hearing you say is to get something launched. There’s a lot of resources and a lot of energy in helping a person get something from the idea stage to something, but it’s once you have something, it gets a little trickier to find funding to get you to maybe that escape velocity. You need to have a thriving business, and that’s where you’re building kind of a database and resources to help that, um, entrepreneur get what they need so they can sustain their business.

Yaryna Hotlib: Yes, absolutely. It is hard enough to build something, but it is much harder to find your first client, your first 100 clients and all of that with a little or maybe sometimes no funding available for you.

Lee Kantor: So even if you have a great idea, if you don’t have the funding behind it, it may never kind of even have a chance to succeed because you don’t have enough resources to sustain kind of that initial stage.

Yaryna Hotlib: That initial stage. Honestly, I tend to believe that you will be able to get through if you do have a great idea. And if you do have a at least some resources to execute it because ideas I mean, everybody has an idea, um, but to be able to execute it well, that might be a little bit more trickier, but just to execute it, just to create some kind of a proof of concept, something small and working. Especially nowadays with the rise of AI tooling, it is possible and it will not be that expensive. But to survive through the stormy timing when you will need to get to your break even point to become profitable. That’s where everything becomes much more complicated, to say at least. And you’re going to need it all. You’re going to need, uh, additional funding. You’re going to need help from your friends and family. You’re going to need essentially everything, including a little bit of magic, just to make that work.

Lee Kantor: So what advice would you give an entrepreneur when they’re in that stage and maybe they’re frustrated? Um, what type of information do they need? What type of benchmark should they have been able to achieve in order for them to get the funding, they’re going to need to get to this next level.

Yaryna Hotlib: It really depends on the type of business that you’re trying to build. But and I mean, there are tons of different, um, types of funding. Maybe you’re building a venture backed type of business, which means just to give the the glimpse of what I’m talking here about, if you know exactly how you can get to $100 million in ten years and you will be able to show this pathway triple, triple, double, double. That means that year over year growth should be like triple triple and then double double. That’s still okay if you can clearly show that path. If you do understand how you can get there, maybe you will be eligible for the venture funding, and you can go and talk to investors. In many cases, we are building so-called, um, well, basically not unicorns, let’s put it that way. Uh, or lifestyle businesses as the venture capital is going to name it. And just to again provide the understanding you can make 200 millions a year and still do not be the venture backed type of a business. So first of all, you really need to understand what type of business you’re building. Uh, who are your target audience? How are you going to sell? What are the financial projections? And the very good source, in my opinion, where you can take a look at the benchmark to get some understanding might be the Risk Management Association.

Yaryna Hotlib: Uh, I would encourage you to go to check to visit their webinars because again, what they are doing, they are collecting data within the last 30 plus years about all the businesses, industries, locations, etc. and they have the brief information regarding revenue, profit at different stages at different type of companies. And therefore, you will be able at least to figure out whether you are getting there or you are still has much more to work on or to think about. So it is very important, in my opinion, to figure out where you are and then compare it to the others and where you are from the point of view of those who might have become your possible funding sources, whether it’s going to be investors, banks in many cases, most probably community banks, if we are talking about small businesses and startups. So you just need to realize who might be, uh, of your support within the next period of time. Does that make sense?

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I’m just trying to get granular for our listeners. Like, you know, the vast majority of businesses out there are not going to be the unicorn, the billion dollar businesses, the vast majority are going to be the people that are trying to put food on their table for their family. They’re trying to have a nice lifestyle for themselves. The person who, you know, I don’t want to say it’s necessarily a lifestyle business, but it’s a business that’s generating, you know, maybe 5 or 6 figures a year for that entrepreneur. Is there an opportunity for that individual to benefit from your Nana fund?

Yaryna Hotlib: Absolutely. We we’ve built Nana fund essentially to support those folks. 90 plus percent of of all the small and medium sized businesses will be seen as the lifestyle businesses, and they still going to need all the support available out there, especially when we are talking about funding related stuff.

Lee Kantor: And I understand that one of your niches are veterans and their spouses.

Yaryna Hotlib: Yes, absolutely. That’s our first goal. To support veterans and military spouses who own the business, who are just starting to think about that, who are in their transition. And for us, it is very important to make sure that we’re going to be equally supported to both categories, to the veterans and military spouses, because I tend to believe that that is still a big problem, that in many, many cases, when we are talking about military spouses, there are still not being seen as the economically disadvantaged group of entrepreneurs, even though there absolutely are. And they need as much support as any other minority owned businesses. And of course, as much support as veterans needs.

Lee Kantor: So are there funding opportunities if you are a veteran or a spouse of a veteran? Are there things that are uniquely available to you?

Yaryna Hotlib: Uh, unfortunately, not that much. There are not that much of funding which are uniquely crafted to support, uh, only veterans or even smaller amount, uh, support military spouses. There are still tons of funding, uh, available for the businesses in general. And in many cases, unfortunately, when I’m talking to especially veterans, they tend to forget about the fact that they are much more than just a veteran. What I’m talking here about, for example, if the veteran is building a trucking company, right? So from the perspective of the, let’s say, community bank, he’s not only a veteran, he’s also operating in the logistic and the logistics industry, for example, in Illinois. So maybe there is. That’s the case. There are not that much of funding available solely for the veterans in Illinois. Now, you can take a look on the funding available for the logistics companies in the Illinois and also bring on the table the fact that you are a veteran. Does that make sense?

Lee Kantor: Yeah. So it’s the combination and you help them kind of look at all the assets that they have available to them selves that they may not kind of appreciate, or they might take it for granted.

Yaryna Hotlib: Yes, exactly. You’re absolutely right. We are taken into account when we are analyzing our business profiles, all the factors, not solely the fact that you were veterans or military spouses, but everything your industry, your zip code you’re operating in, all the demographic details and your need in funding because it is going to be the, uh, the site of the opportunities we will be able to show my my differ, um, depending on the amount of funding you’re looking for. Because, for example, if you’re looking for $10,000, that’s one story. But if you are looking for a million, that would be the completely different story.

Lee Kantor: So walk us through what it’s like. Say I’m looking for funds for my business. Um, I go to the website. Is that correct? I go to Nana Dot fund, um, to access the website. Yes. And then? Then what happens next?

Yaryna Hotlib: Then you will be asked a couple of questions. Uh, you’re going to need to finish your onboarding. That’s how we’re going to build your profile. And having the information, which we’re going to ask throughout this profile, will be able to provide you access to the different types of funding. As soon as you’re going to finish the profile, you will be my apologies. You will be directed to your personalized dashboard, where you will be able to see, uh, all the funding opportunities splitted into three major categories loans, support programs, and grants. And you will be able to choose whatever you’d like to. You will be able to go to any category, pick the option you like the most and just apply for it.

Lee Kantor: And so there’s no obligation, um, there’s no fee for this. This is all stuff that you’re just doing to serve that community.

Yaryna Hotlib: Yes, there is no fee for that. That’s absolutely right.

Lee Kantor: And then so once I do that, then the financial institutions, then I just start negotiating with them or working with them.

Yaryna Hotlib: Yes. For now that’s the case. But we are working with the couple community banks. We are negotiating currently to make sure that we will be able to provide to our users completely seamless process. What does that mean? That after you will Well on board and prepare all the needed documents with the help of nano font. Because just to give you the example I’ve just seen, how does the personal financial statement look like it is? Seven page document you need to fulfill to be able to apply for the commercial loan, and it is so easy to make mistake and or even couple or a lot of mistakes while you’re fulfilling the document. And according to official statistics, business owners are spending or wasting around 25 hours to fulfilling the document. So we are currently building the digitalized way to fulfill the document much easier. And as soon as you will get it along the other side of documents such as your balance sheet, PNL, etc. basically the typical set of documents, you will be able to apply them directly to the bank, which means that the bank will be able through Nanappan directly collaborate with you, and the amount of time both sides are going to need to spend will be decreased significantly. So I would encourage everybody just stay tuned. And like within the next two months, we’re planning to launch these opportunities and provide the direct access to community banks.

Lee Kantor: Wow. That’s going to be amazing. And so that’ll be a nationwide.

Yaryna Hotlib: Yes, we’re we are working nationwide. Um, and we are providing access to all the sources without basically paying a lot attention to the specific industry or, and location regarding community banks. Uh, most probably not going to be for the very beginning. Uh, nationwide, we are talking currently with the couple of community banks from the Texas, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Maine. So these four states are going to be our pilot projects.

Lee Kantor: And then, um, so the service it one services kind of do it yourself and that’s no charge. And then you’re building this more robust do it with you service where you’ll help the person with their forms and get all the paperwork right.

Yaryna Hotlib: Yeah, absolutely.

Lee Kantor: Wow. That’s amazing. So right now where can people go to learn more? What’s the website again?

Yaryna Hotlib: It is Nana dot fund as simple as this.

Lee Kantor: Nana dot f u n d. You just go there and you can, um, begin immediately. Right? You can get some information right away.

Yaryna Hotlib: Yes, absolutely. You can begin immediately. As soon as you’re going to be ready. Just give it a try. Check it out. What’s going to be the funding sources available for you? And I would encourage also folks who are thinking about, uh, scaling their business to the different state or whatever. Also to go and check there is the opportunity through the update your profile, just change the location and check it out. Whether money is available out there in case of yes, which support programs can help you to scale to the different location, or to build your business out there without spending way too much energy. Or if you’re thinking about moving because I know that there are, especially after Covid, we can see a lot of moving around the country. If you’re thinking and you’re not sure what might be the best location to open your business or to move your business to, again, I would encourage you just to go pick that specific location you’re thinking about and check what type of support is already available out there, what type of support you can get, and you can start to build up that relationship even before you’re going to move, to make it just easier for you.

Lee Kantor: And then the amount of money we’re talking about here, is it like a thousand to a million or like, what’s the range of, uh, funding available?

Yaryna Hotlib: So if we are talking about grants, in most cases, that’s going to be up to maximum 20,000. I would say if you are talking about pitch competitions or, uh, the accelerators, the amount of money going to be ranged from 10 to $100,000. That I’d say was the maximum amount I’ve seen. If we are talking about support programs, in many cases they are. They are not about just providing you money in many cases. Uh, the incentive of the support programs is to help you save money. Just to give you an example, if you go to or you are operating in the child care space in Colorado, Colorado will help you to do the reconstruction in case if you need it. And they will cover up to 80% of the, uh, all the expenses of this reconstruction work or in state of Maine. If you’re gonna or you are operating in a logistics sphere, they’re going to cover up to 25% of your utility bills. So these are like types of programs which are helping you to save some money, or for example on, um, on job training, also going to cover the costs up to the specific amount of money for you to go and to train to obtain different type of certificates. And that might be starting from 2005 hundreds anywhere up to uh, seven, 7500 per one employee. So it really depends for loans. Again, if we’re talking about SBA startup loan, there’s going to be around, um, uh, $50,000 and up to even half a million. So it depends from the type of the company and from the type of the funding you’re looking for.

Lee Kantor: And then just by going to Nana fund. You can play around and see where you stand and what’s available.

Yaryna Hotlib: Yes, absolutely. You can see right away how many grants, support programs and loans are currently available for you and we are updating our database. We are doing all the analysis and scraping every week, and as soon as we will find anything eligible for you, you’re going to get the notification. So there is no need essentially to spend unnecessary time. Once you will have created the profile, we will take care about all the rest.

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

Yaryna Hotlib: Thank you so much for having me. It was an amazing conversation.

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

Kristin Marquet With Marquet Media, LLC

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High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Kristin Marquet With Marquet Media, LLC
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Kristin Marquet is a notable PR specialist and branding expert with over 1 million Instagram followers and extensive media coverage. She founded Marquet Media in 2009, an award-winning firm known for blending traditional PR with modern digital strategies.

As the creator of FemFounder, she has empowered thousands of female entrepreneurs with invaluable resources and support, helping them navigate the challenges of entrepreneurship.

As an expert, she has landed covers on magazines like CIO Today, Style Surge Magazine, and Luxe Living Magazine. Featured in Rolling Stone, Forbes, Fast Company, and MSN, she is also an acclaimed author with an Amazon bestseller and a sought-after speaker, appearing on Fox News San Diego and PIX News 11.

With three Stevie Awards and initiatives like The Brand Bootcamp: Clarity & Cohesion Workshop, Kristin continues to inspire and elevate business owners with her practical insights and commitment to sustainable practices.

Connect with Kristin on LinkedIn and follow her on Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Defining Your Brand’s Vision and Mission: Practical Steps for Entrepreneurs
  • Practical steps and exercises your listeners can use to clarify their brand’s vision and mission
  • Overcoming Branding Challenges: Real-Life Success Stories Inspiring case studies and the lessons learned from overcoming branding obstacles
  • Maximizing Media Exposure: PR Strategies for Small Businesses
  • Tips and techniques for gaining media coverage and making the most of PR opportunities
  • Creating a Cohesive Brand Identity: Tips from a PR Specialist
  • How to ensure every aspect of your brand is aligned and consistent
  • Exclusive Preview: Inside the Brand Clarity & Cohesion Workshop
  • A sneak peek into her upcoming workshop and the valuable insights it offers

Transcript-iconThis 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.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Kristin Marquet with Marquet Media. Welcome.

Kristin Marquet: Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here today.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about your firm. How are you serving folks?

Kristin Marquet: Sure. So we are PR and branding firm based here in New York City. We’ve had the firm for about 15 years, and we work with a number of clients across a variety of industries. But I would say primarily 80% of our clients are female founders and in style space. So fashion, beauty, wellness, fitness, kind of anything that falls under that gamut. And we also in 2017 started an offshoot called Fem founder-ceo. It started off as a blog that had five readers, but over the last let’s see. Wow, seven years, we’ve built it into a full scale media company with about a million readers a month now and a half a million email subscribers, where we provide not just female founders, but but small businesses and startups with the resources they need to either launch or scale their businesses truly, without really having to spend a ton of money. Because at the end of the day, let’s admit it what startup that is funded privately or from the founder’s pocket? You know, resources have to go a long way. So we just wanted to try and give them access to free resources or low cost resources so that they can really grow their businesses.

Lee Kantor: Now, how have you seen the industry evolve over the years, and especially the blurring of the lines between advertising, especially paid in any form or fashion, social media, PR how have all of these kind of marketing tactics blurred?

Kristin Marquet: It’s a great question. And being in the industry for as long as I have been when I first started, you know, PR was strictly a lot of it was media relations, meaning that you were going to pick up the phone, call a journalist, pitch the client, or pitch the company that you’re working for in-house to try and get a story to run, or at least facilitate some type of introduction. Email wasn’t really email. Pitching wasn’t really appropriate. You know, it was in the early 2000. So email was still. I mean, it was around, but it wasn’t nearly as prevalent and pervasive as it is today. And social media didn’t exist, so we could just take social media out of the equation for a second. So PR a lot of it was media relations. Like I said, you know, communication was either face to face or over, over the telephone and even sometimes by fax, if you can imagine that. You know, I don’t remember the last time I used a fax machine. It was probably, you know, 20 years ago. But with the emergence of social media and digital media, particularly blogs and online magazines, the lines have actually become blurred very much. Um, it’s interesting, a lot of blogs and smaller publications offer sponsorships, advertising, but in the form of native advertising or advertorials. So the content looks like it just kind of fits in with editorial. Um, this is before digital marketing and digital media became a thing. Uh, you know, obviously advertorials and advertising still existed, but all those things had to be marked.

Kristin Marquet: Whereas today, even though they’re still supposed to be marked as advertising or sponsored content, um, a lot of the times publications, um, blogs and even social media influencers don’t, for whatever reason, kind of follow that protocol when you know anything that’s paid for. Um, if it’s an endorsement that needs to be disclosed up front. So those are just a few ways that that, um, you know, PR has really changed in how digital media has really kind of flipped the industry on its head. Um, with us being a boutique PR firm with a small team, we really focus on true digital editorial content. You know, we are not an advertising agency. If a client wants to take out an ad in an online magazine or a print magazine, you know, we’ll help facilitate that. But that’s not what we do. You know, we’re getting our clients that third party endorsement. And to that end, we use analytics to help drive our messaging, um, and really focus on, uh, kind of media sentiment, positioning and things of that nature. Um, so back when I first started in the industry, you know, none of these digital tools existed. So that’s another thing that has made PR so interesting and a lot easier to gauge and determine what the return on investment is. So that being said, um, I’m finding the industry much more interesting and a lot easier to work in versus, you know, when things were everything was done manually, so to speak.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re working with your clients, what is kind of the pain point they’re coming to you with? Is it is it usually kind of a lack of awareness? And they think that if we have our brand out there, more, more people will become aware of it. Therefore, more people will buy whatever we are selling. Or is it, um, you know, more in terms of I need sales. So, you know, I don’t care if they know who who I am, but as long as they click the e-commerce button and buy something, we’re good.

Kristin Marquet: Great question. And we so throughout the years have gotten inquiries for both. But what we really focus on being PR, we focus more on the top of the funnel, um, getting prospects to know about a company or a person or a product or a service or a piece of software. Um, if a client needs help converting a lead into a customer, we can certainly help with that. You know, we’ve done a ton of funnel optimization and funnel development, but really, PR is the mechanism that drives brand awareness, visibility and getting teaching consumers that a specific item or company or person exists. Um, and getting them to click um on a website and click through a website and learn about whatever it is the client is trying to sell.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re working with maybe somebody who’s new to these types of tactics, how do you educate them into taking, I think, a little bit of a leap of faith of, hey, the more people that are aware of you, if we position this correctly and we put it in front of the people who are your ideal prospects, this is going to pay off over time as opposed to some people who have that, you know, more transactional, uh, thinking where they’re like, look, I need every time somebody clicks, they better be considering buying something where brand awareness is kind of a longer play.

Kristin Marquet: Mhm. Yeah. No you’re you’re absolutely right. And I think that’s, that’s kind of where the PR kind of, you know the practice of PR kind of like falls off. But for us you know we, you know I’ve been in the had the company for 15 years and worked with over 1000 clients throughout those years. So when it comes to educating a prospect on why they should hire us. Obviously, if it’s the right fit and I know that we can deliver value to them, you know, what it comes down to is two things. One, case studies proving that we’ve actually done it before, and two, um, giving them references so that they can go vet us out and talk to, you know, as many clients as we’ve worked with in the past or however many clients that we have on the roster at the time. So it really it’s just being honest and up front and saying, listen, if you’re looking to get sales, you need a full marketing suite, all right. Um, if you’re looking to get brand awareness and get your name out there, then PR is the place to start. And it’s just being honest and transparent and educating people on the differences between PR and advertising, PR and digital marketing. Pr and social media. Right? Um, because if a client comes to us, um, and they hire us and they expect us to do X and we aren’t performing, you know, they’re going to get upset and it’s going to make us look bad. So at the end of the day, it’s about managing expectations and telling them what we are going to do for them to help move their business from point A to point B. But yeah, you know, if they’re really just looking for sales, they’re going to need a full marketing suite. But they’re looking to get that third party endorsement, you know, in major media or trade media or digital media. Um, as long as the the industry is the right fit, then obviously then PR is the right avenue to explore.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you have any advice or any tips or low hanging fruit that the listener can take action with today. When it comes to clarifying the brand’s vision and mission and being clear, like you mentioned, the importance of being clear about certain things, and I think this is a great place to start to be clear on what the brand stands for and who it’s for.

Kristin Marquet: Exactly and why it exists, and ultimately what you’re looking to accomplish and who you serve. Right. Um, so the vision and mission are one is aspirational, one is a little bit more long term. But, um, what ties into those two are your value prop and exactly who you’re trying to target. Um, once you know who your customer is, what service, product, or service is going to fulfill the need in that market, right? Um, and why a journalist or the media should be interested in covering you, which comes down to two key components. One is newsworthiness, and that could be the launch of a new product or service, or a new hire or anything, um, that is going to that’s worth announcing. And the other part of that, or the second part of that is credibility. What makes you credible? Is it your education? Is it your experience? Did you go through a transformation like why should the media end up listening to you? And that’s really what it comes down to. You know, you have to be newsworthy. You have to be credible. You have to know who your consumer is and what you’re going to be serving in the market. Why it’s different. It doesn’t necessarily have to be revolutionary or any unique, but it has to be different in some sort of way. And, um, why people should care. I mean, that’s that’s what it comes down to. You know, this isn’t rocket science. Um, those are the the the key components to getting PR, leveraging it, and getting your name out there.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, part of I think the heart of this is something you mentioned of really understanding who your ideal customer is, um, and getting clarity around that. Do you have exercises or ways to help your clients uncover maybe opportunities that they didn’t see or to get clarity around this? Because if you miss that, you miss the whole ball of wax there.

Kristin Marquet: Yes, you absolutely do. And we do. And it’s coming up with a consumer, uh, persona. Right. Or a person that you think will benefit from your product, service or piece of software or book or whatever it is. Um, look at what your competitors are doing. See who they are serving. See how you can serve that target better. Um, or if you have something that doesn’t really exist, um, but you can see that there’s a demand for it based on other products that are out there that are missing the features that you want, that your product or service offers. Um, that could be the appropriate target market. But it really comes down to creating a persona, one person per product or service and going after who they are. Look at where they hang out on social media. Look at where they get their news. Um, do they watch TV? Do they listen to the radio? Do they listen to podcasts? You know, um, look at news consumption and put together almost a personality based on what a composite of all those people are. And once you end up having this, this persona, it becomes so much easier to pinpoint who and how you’re going to serve this person. I know that sounds a little abstract and vague. Um, but I do have a couple of resources on the founder website that I can direct people to if if they’re interested in learning more about how these exercises work. Um, but it’s, it’s taking some time seeing what exists out there, um, and ultimately who the consumer is that is going to purchase from you.

Lee Kantor: Now, maybe this would help, but if you shared a little bit about how femme founder was born. Like, was that when you started? Were you like, I’m a PR firm for everybody. And then you’re like, well, I feel passionate about this group, so let me just do this blog. And then, you know, it kind of takes a life of its own over time. Can you share a little bit about how you kind of found that niche of female founders and, you know, some of the activities you did to just stumble upon that, or was it or was it something that you, you know, from, from go you were like, okay, I’m all in on female founders. I don’t care about anything else. And that’s my niche.

Kristin Marquet: No, no, no. So when I first started my, my firm 15 years ago was serving a bunch of different niches. And then I figured out, okay, this is not going to work. Burnt out. And it was just the growth was too much, you know, it was working legal, uh, you know, financial services, fashion, beauty, all this craziness. And, you know, had team members that specialized in different areas. But like I said, it just it got too much. So what I did was I sat down with the team and really kind of refined who our consumer, so to speak, or who our customer slash client was. And I figured out where our strengths were, which were in the which was in the lifestyle space. Um, in terms of gender, it didn’t really matter, uh, what the client was, but over, I want to say from 2013 to 2017, we had received a number of inbound inquiries from small businesses or experts that wanted to hire a PR firm, but were just starting out and didn’t have the resources. So that’s actually how Femme Founder came about. It was I wanted to provide a resource for small businesses or startups that were female run, female operated, female founded and give them all of the resources they needed so that they can manage their own PR strategies and campaigns in-house. Because, let’s admit it, most small businesses can’t afford to spend 5KA month on hiring a PR firm. So I just wanted to make our resources. Um, and knowledge and expertise available to that target. Um, and, and that’s how FEM founder was born.

Lee Kantor: And then that, to me sounds transferrable to a lot of firms where if they come in with a heart of service, we know what our superpower is. How do we become useful and of service to our the people that are most important to us and let’s lean into that. And then if you do that relentlessly, I think good things are going to happen over time.

Kristin Marquet: Agreed. Agreed. But it all goes back to clarity. And it all goes back to figuring out exactly who you want to serve, what your strengths are, um, what you can offer that is different in the market and, um, figure out exactly who it is that you want to target. And, you know, each each product or service can have 1 or 2 personas, but don’t try and sell 1 or 2 products to, you know, 5000 different types of people, because that’s that’s where companies have a tendency to fall short. And then that’s where messaging gets lost and communication just kind of falls by the wayside. Specific. Clear. Strategic. And also make sure that whatever you are doing, you’re going to be able to measure.

Lee Kantor: Now is there.

Kristin Marquet: A simple I’m sorry. Go ahead.

Lee Kantor: Is there a story you can share? Maybe with a client you don’t have to name the name of the client, but that makes this come alive in terms of maybe share the problem they came to you with and how you were able to help them get to a new level.

Kristin Marquet: Sure. Yeah. So we actually had one wellness expert who we had worked with over the years. Um, she started off as a celebrity makeup artist. And then over the years, her brand evolved into fitness, fashion, wellness. Um, so that’s kind of how she became a wellness expert from just focusing in the beauty sector. Um, when she had come to us, she had no idea who she wanted to serve in terms of who she wanted her client base to be. She didn’t know how to take all of her experience, all of her accolades, and package them into something that would be attractive to potential customers because she didn’t know who it was that she wanted to serve. After she and I sat down and had multiple meetings, maybe 3 or 4, we came up with a whole new messaging platform, brand positioning, and then figured out that one person that she was going to target and that one person or that one consumer was women that were 45 and older, that were premenopausal, that were, um, starting to gain weight or had gained weight from, from these hormonal fluctuations. But wanted to lose at least 10 pounds that needed help with weight loss. Keeping it off, fitness, accountability. All this and um, she now her name is Taylor is actually the go to person, um, for wellness for women that are over 45 that need help with weight loss, weight maintenance, healthy eating, accountability, and fitness. Um, and but it took multiple meetings to figure out exactly who this consumer was, um, and why she should serve them. And, uh, now, like I said, she’s the go to person. She’s been featured in Mindbodygreen. I mean, it’s just just trying to think of all the places that she’s been featured. Uh mindbodygreen. Live. Positively elephant Journal, um, the times, uh, a bunch of places. And, um, she has a thriving business now. And it’s great for her because this is this is exactly what she wanted to do, but she just didn’t have any clarity and guidance on who to serve and how to get there.

Lee Kantor: That’s a that’s a great story. Thank you so much for sharing that. Is there. Um, for the listeners, is there any, um, things that you have going on that they should know about any events or workshops that you’ve got that people can take advantage of?

Kristin Marquet: We don’t have any in-person events, but we always have virtual workshops on Founder-ceo. We’re actually going to be at every Thursday. They get updated, so tomorrow we’ll be able to go to a Founder-ceo backslash workshops and be able to see all of the PR and branding, um, webinars and courses that we’re going to have for the month of October into November.

Lee Kantor: And then if somebody wants to connect with you and learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team. Is there a website for that? For the PR firm.

Kristin Marquet: Actually marked company, it’s very easy market company and that’s it. And then they can just kind of scout through, scoot through the website and see if there’s anything there and just shoot us. A message on one of us will be more than happy to to connect.

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

Kristin Marquet: Thank you so much for having me. I really enjoyed this conversation.

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

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