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Igniting Pride and Purpose: How Self-eSTEM is Transforming Girls’ Lives in STEM Fields

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Bay Area Business Radio
Bay Area Business Radio
Igniting Pride and Purpose: How Self-eSTEM is Transforming Girls' Lives in STEM Fields
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Leah-Davis-Ambassador-logo1In this episode of Bay Area Business Radio, Lee Kantor interviews Adamaka Ajaelo, Executive Director and Founder of Self-eSTEM, a nonprofit empowering girls and women in STEM. Adamaka shares her personal journey in STEM, inspired by her Nigerian immigrant father, and discusses the organization’s programs that build digital, technical, and leadership skills. She highlights the challenges girls face in maintaining confidence in STEM, the importance of early encouragement, and Self-eSTEM’s new AI consulting initiative for small businesses. Listeners are invited to support and get involved with Self-eSTEM’s mission.

Adamaka Ajaelo is an Oakland native, mathematician, and STEM trailblazer with an unshakeable passion for the social, emotional and economic empowerment of young women of color.

She is the Founding Executive Director of Self-eSTEM, a non-profit organization on the mission to ignite pride, purpose, and possibility among BIPOC girls and women through STEM by providing culturally relevant education, training & mentorship, and a network of support to thrive within the talent pipeline.

Since 2014, Self-eSTEM has unleashed the brilliance & self-esteem of 1,325+ girls through STEM. Celebrating 10 years of impact, she is on a quest to ensure BIPOC women are recognized as top talent and innovation in STEM.

She pivoted out of tech from her role as a Director of Strategic Workforce Planning & Analytics at Visa, and where she provided insights and recommendations influencing global workforce plans and talent development strategies.

She has worked at large companies such as Kaiser Permanente, Cisco Systems, Workday, Meta (Facebook) and Adobe in the areas of Finance, Workforce Planning & Analytics and Business Continuity. She has 17+ years of experience in the areas of Finance, Operations, People Analytics and Workforce Planning for top global companies.

She has managed a budget of $110M+, shaped a $5.0B global tech workforce through talent insights, and is an Angel Investor via Pipeline Investors. Adamaka received her B.A. in Mathematics from Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA and her M.B.A. in Finance and Leadership-Management from Holy Names University in Oakland, CA.

When she is not working, she enjoys attending Warriors basketball games, wine tasting and traveling.

Connect with Adamaka on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

  • Empowerment of girls and women in STEM fields
  • The mission and history of the nonprofit organization Self-eSTEM
  • Overview of the Early STEM Immersion Program for girls aged 7 to 17
  • The need for diversity in innovation and technology
  • Initiatives to address digital and AI literacy gaps in education and small businesses

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in the Bay area. It’s time for Bay Area Business Radio. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Bay Area Business Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Adamaka Ajaelo and she is the executive Director and founder of Self-eSTEM. Welcome.

Adamaka Ajaelo: Thank you for having me. I’m excited to be here. Lee.

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

Adamaka Ajaelo: Yes. So Self-eSTEM is a nonprofit organization that was founded in 2014 with the mission to ignite pride, purpose and possibility among girls and women by providing digital, technical and leadership skills that strengthens and sustains their Stem identities. The organization was really started throughout my own journey of navigating the Stem pipeline, going from high school into college and really seeing sort of the gaps in the the ecosystem of providing supports for young girls and then often girls from what I call untapped and overlooked communities. And so my background is in strategic workforce planning and analytics. And what I had in my career is really an understanding of where companies are going. What are they looking for in talent? And so with self-esteem, it’s really reverse engineering that that talent pipeline in that funnel to ensure that they have the skill sets not only to to thrive in these Stem fields, but also to thrive in the future of work, in the future of work is basically something that is continuously evolving, but it’s really evolving due to the technology advancements in particular that we’re seeing the AI fields.

Lee Kantor: Now having grown up and lived through this personally. And then did your career involve Stem? Were you involved in a career in Stem?

Adamaka Ajaelo: Yes. So my undergrad, I majored in math. So I actually became a math major by default. As I was going through my my journey, I wanted to become a civil engineer. However, unfortunately, through my experience in college of not having that support and actually having people in roles in positions actually putting up roadblocks, I then became a math major, and then I pivoted into my career in corporate America, and I was doing finance for HR. So that’s using, you know, data analytics and looking at financial data. And then when I think about my role as strategic workforce planning, that’s also using my math background. It’s around data and analytics. But the data that you’re analyzing is not marketing data or information by the computer. It’s human capital data. So analyzing information about employees and about the workforce, that’s really where I built my career of what I call the number side in the analytics and the data storytelling side of HR. And so that’s where I really built my career. Analyzing the workforce plans and labor trends for companies such as. At the time, it was Facebook but now known as meta, Cisco, visa, Adobe and Kaiser Permanente, and as well as workday.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you were going through school, elementary and high school and then college, you were still on a Stem track, right? Like you were you were the exception to the rule that was sticking with Stem. As a woman, as you progressed?

Adamaka Ajaelo: Yes. Correct. And what really kept me grounded was my childhood and upbringing. But that was also something unique. Um, so stem for me has, um, this, uh, personal connection in the sense that, um, my father came to this country from Nigeria as an immigrant to study chemical engineering, and Stem was an everyday part of my, my life. We were doing homeschooling before homeschooling, um, was a thing. And so I was really immersed in the stem, um, fields. And my father really encouraged me to not have any limits or bounds of what I could do and achieve in the Stem fields. So that really grounded me and had, uh, this support system. Although I experienced challenges in navigating my educational and career path, I knew that I had that Stem identity, uh, locked in. But when I think about the ecosystem, I thought, well, how many young girls don’t have that personal connection? And for me, I saw Stem provide this social and economic mobility for my father and my family. Um, him coming from a rural and remote village in Nigeria, coming to the United States to study chemical engineering and working for the oil companies. I saw the connection of the impact that it can have on your life. But I was also curious. I had the Stem curiosity, and so really taking a this solid foundation that I had in my childhood, also integrating some of the things that my father taught me were also incorporating, um, those activities within our programing of actually providing exposure, not just in a traditional classroom setting, but getting outside of the classroom. Seeing Stem and engaging in Stem activities outside of the classroom is also something that really helped me reinforce, um, my Stem identity. And I and I attribute that to my father really providing that grounding, um, and rooted experience early in my childhood.

Lee Kantor: Because he was it was in your household. It was you were doing this like, this wasn’t negotiable. It was just part of how you lived your life. Right? It was just it was part of the fabric of your family.

Adamaka Ajaelo: Yes. You you you are correct. Um, I remember doing math and physics problems in the living room. We had a chalkboard in my house. Um, and then there were certain days I couldn’t go outside and play. It was just a day, you know, to study. My father had the saying, there’s a time to play and there’s a time to study. The time now, unfortunately, is the time to study, or fortunately, it’s the time to study.

Lee Kantor: And then when you grow up in that kind of environment, it isn’t really, um, a discussion whether you’re going to do this or not. Like this is it’s kind of non-negotiable, right? Like you, you’re going to do this and you’re going to follow this path. And, and and it’s going to be hard and difficult and there’s going to be challenges. But this is just how we do things in this family.

Adamaka Ajaelo: Uh, yes. Um, my my father. That is correct. My father said, um, um, I also have a creative, creative side, and I share it with my father that I wanted to be an artist. And then he said, you know, um, do you know when artists make money? Um, when they die? Um, there he was saying basically mathematically and statistically that, you know, going into this career field wouldn’t be necessarily lucrative. Um, and so that’s initially what made me wanted to become sort of a civil engineer, where I can create designs, um, and, you know, using tools such as AutoCAD or create designs from a drafting table, whether I’m designing buildings or are designing some type of apparatus that was leaning into my creativity and my creative side. Um, so yes, Stem was an everyday part of my life. Yes, it was a non-negotiable in my household. But there were also some, some guardrails, um, in what, you know, sort of career paths, um, that, um, will return the best, um, will provide the best impact for, uh, the life that I, uh, style that I’m looking to live or just, you know, wanting to thrive in, in, in my future career.

Lee Kantor: Right. And then now you’re trying to create an ecosystem for young people, young, uh, girls and women in Stem that will afford them those choices. Right?

Adamaka Ajaelo: Yes. Correct. So with self-esteem, um, we are we have two tracks in our program. So we have our early Stem immersion program, which is for young girls age 7 to 17. And with that we’re providing exposure and actually training, um throughout the year, um, on topics such as robotics, AI and coding. Um, and so it’s a journey where the girls are able to come back year over year. Um, when we we kick it off with our intensive one week summer camp, and then we have fall activities, typically in robotics and math. And then in the springtime they’re focusing on digital and AI literacy. So enhancing and developing those skills, um, what sets us apart is that we’re we have this tiered approach, um, an tiered curriculum that builds upon each other, that takes them from curiosity to mastery in a certain, um, subject. Um, in addition to that, our program is multi year, so the girls are able to return year over year from age 7 to 17 until they aged out. And now we also are, um, enhancing our infrastructure for what we call our innovator sustainment program, in which it is a program for alumni thinking about the age group 18 to 24.

Adamaka Ajaelo: And with that program, it’s really focusing on, um, how do you advocate and navigate your own educational and career path? So we’re providing training on intellectual property. If you’re creating something, how do you have ownership of that? How do you advocate for yourself? Um, with, you know, if you’re in college, a higher education advocate for yourself? Um, when you think about even financial aid or just financial literacy, but also too, about networking, one of the key things that we learned and observed is that this next generation and it could be due to the information age, but there’s a gap in in the human connection and networking with people. And so we’re also showing them how do you network, how do you actually build up a community of support to ensure that you’re thriving in your your career path? So those are the two key, um, uh, programs, um, that we have, um, within self esteem. But all of this is really rooted in ensuring that they have the skill sets, the knowledge and the network and the mentoring to thrive in the future of work and whatever career path they choose.

Lee Kantor: And I’m assuming by the fact that you named it self-esteem, you feel that if you’re able to develop these skills in math and science, technology, um, that that’s going to improve your self-esteem.

Adamaka Ajaelo: Correct. Um, there is a study that shows that, um, when we think about girls, um, and we think about their ability to, uh, perform. And again, perform is, uh, subjective. But in this case, thinking about it from an academic standpoint in test scores, um, early on girls have confidence. But as they transition from more of the elementary school and to go to middle school and then middle school to high school, we see that confidence drop. And so what that tells me is that the the narrative that it’s a skills and capability issue is not true. Rather it’s a lack of confidence and it’s a lack of, uh, exposure and encouragement. There was a study that shows that girls um, or actually I would say boys are 2 to 4 times more likely to be encouraged to take more advanced math courses, um, within um, uh, middle school and high school in comparison to their female counterparts. And so with that knowledge and information, we’re really, really trying to cultivate an environment where girls feel safe, they feel seen and they feel heard. Because for me, I had that in my childhood and that really locked in my Stem identity. And this Stem identity is this internal and self-belief that no matter what it’s happening in the external world or no matter the, the messaging or, um, the signals that I’m receiving, I believe that I belong in Stem, and I also believe that I can thrive and create within, um, within the industry.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. I think that, um, when kids are young, it’s so important to really instill, um, that confidence because there was a study. I know we’re talking about Stem today, but this is about the arts. But, um, somebody told me there was a study that said that if you ask a kid, like in kindergarten, if they’re an artist, they’ll say, yeah, I’m an artist. And they draw and they do stuff. But by like second grade, only the people who know how to draw well consider themselves artists. And everybody else kind of is like, nah, like they’ve already kind of given up. And I just think it’s so important that these kind of really, um, young ages to not be a dream killer in any area and, and to be the ones that, you know, telling everybody they can do it and give them a path to do it.

Adamaka Ajaelo: Yes. I really like that, um, example that you provided, uh, with the art. Um, and it applies to any, uh, subject or area. But what I really like with that example is that it’s also, too, is how you see yourself as you’re seeing that early on. Um, and a lot of times people think like, oh, no, people, um, are having this self-awareness. Um, maybe in high school. And I said no, as young as the age of seven. Um, eight and nine. Nine year olds, they’re starting to form these ideologies in, I say, these beliefs, sometimes these beliefs are expansive, and then sometimes these beliefs are, uh, contractive that they have constraints. But the example that you just provided is like, yes. Um, what if you actually invested time? You can still be an artist, you know, um, maybe your art is something different. Maybe it’s abstract art, but they’re starting to say like, hey, I’m not good at this. And then the data shows that this typically occurs in young girls, primarily in what we talk about in the math fields as well as the computer science fields. There’s all other fields, too, underneath the umbrella of Stem, but those are the two fields in which your analogy or your example applies, um, very, uh, concretely with young girls in those two two fields. So completely agree. Providing that encouragement and that exposure and, um, and providing those pathways that will open up more girls saying, hey, I feel that I belong in Stem. And then they start to select different career paths within the Stem, um, industry.

Lee Kantor: And it’s kind of a shame because there’s such consumers of technology. You’d think they’d also want to be involved in the creation of the technology that they consume so much.

Adamaka Ajaelo: Exactly. We actually have that, uh, saying is that, um, when you think about the products that are in the world and I always say that it shouldn’t be, and it’s nothing wrong for Elon Musk to dream for the world. But if we have the same people dreaming for the world, and we don’t have that diversity of thought, meaning that we have people who are active participants and consumers of the products, um, even the digital products, project products or technical products of the world, we need everybody’s input in shaping that, because once you have one group, then innovation doesn’t happen. I’ve worked for so many companies in which they started off as a, you know, a startup, and they had all this growth and they started to plateau. And I said, why? It’s because they started to have group thinking. But innovation by definition, is almost something what we call net new. It doesn’t exist in the marketplace. So if we’re thinking about these different products and we’re thinking about, hey, I’m a company, I stand on innovation, I want to drive innovation. If you don’t have net new thinkers and net new thoughts and net new ideas, then are you truly driving innovation? There’s a misalignment in the gap. And so that’s how I also lean in aligning to your your message that you just mentioned here. Uh, Lee is telling the young girls is that we need to hear your thoughts and ideas. We need your innovation. You have to be active participants in the innovation economy and not just consumers of the products being created.

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

Adamaka Ajaelo: Um, definitely. Um, uh, one of the things that we just had, um, was this past October 4th Saturday, we had our innovator showcase. Um, and this was more than just a fundraiser, but it was a platform for students, um, in our what we call our innovators in our program to showcase the impact of our, um, our, our story. Um, and so one of the things that we are really focusing on, um, with our organization is everybody’s talking about, um, AI and the future of work is that we are really trying to address this, uh, digital and AI literacy gap. So, one, many schools are not built to teach AI skills, leaving many students unprepared for the future of work. And so with our curriculum, we designed a multi-tier curriculum that incorporates all this insights that I’ve gathered from my experience of working at these leading and global tech companies. Um, taking the insights that I’ve gained in workforce planning, data analysis and machine learning for these major Silicon Valley companies. And so what we need help is, um, really people to support us for giving Tuesdays for initiatives. What we’re trying to do is take our curriculum and expose it to all of these students, um, in the school environments and in these after school programs, um, and youth development centers. So we we definitely need support of this Giving Tuesday for people to keep us in mind. Um, the, um, with your help, we’ll be able to equip more students with the AI skills they need to support themselves. But we’re also taking it a step further. We also understand through this AI revolution, um, that small to medium sized business as well as social enterprise need also support of integrating and adopting AI into their businesses.

Adamaka Ajaelo: And so with the training that we’re providing to participants in a program. We actually want to do a multiplier effect where they can actually provide that training to small and medium sized businesses. We understand that these businesses may not have a large budget, but if we think about a cash flow of investing in integrating AI into your company, your business, this is a way where you can do it as a tax deductible item because we are a nonprofit entity, but you’re also helping the young girls, and then you’re also getting something in an investment for your own business. So it’s a multiplier effect of investing in their future but also investing in yours. And so as we think about the year end giving season, giving season and giving Tuesday being on December 2nd, um, and then year end giving of December 31st, making that investment into self esteem as we’re focusing on one, building our AI training internally, but also to how do we actually take our learnings and training to businesses, showing them how they can incorporate tools that are using AI. Can you do AI agents, which is basically automating process and workflows. And so we’re looking to build that curriculum in-house, but then train our innovators to be those AI consultants for small and medium sized businesses. But that is something how people can help us. And this aligns to our three year strategic plan to really grow and and, and and really see ourselves as a sustainable organization. Uh, I’m sorry, not sustainable organization, but as a leader, um, in the Stem and AI fields.

Lee Kantor: Now for this AI initiative, is this something that if a small business has an AI need or is it or could you isn’t using it as much as they’d like? They can go to you and you would help them create an AI strategy, and it would be implemented by some of the girls in your program.

Adamaka Ajaelo: Exactly. Lee, that is, uh, spot on. So exactly. Um, one of the, um, major trends. And we’re even seeing companies, large enterprise companies. So I’ll give an example with Salesforce. So Salesforce one started at the enterprise level. So it was for large companies at the enterprise level was to use a tool. They gradually started to say, okay, let’s have AI for nonprofits. Now we’re seeing other um, uh, software saying, okay, how do we actually take our tools and go down to the individual business level, small to medium sized businesses? Maybe it’s a sole proprietorship. Um, and they need to adopt and use AI. So exactly what you described, this is where we want to step in and say, hey, we can help you with your AI strategy. We can help you, um, uh, adopt and integrate AI tools within your business. And then also too, if there is a custom need, uh, whether it’s a custom chatbot or an AI agent workflow, this is something that we can also provide, uh, some type of solutioning. So think of us as your AI consultant for your business. Um, and our goal is to really not only Mean do internally with their organization, but ensure that other organizations are using these tools as well.

Lee Kantor: And um, if somebody wants to learn more, what is the best way to connect?

Adamaka Ajaelo: Yes. So if anyone is interested in learning more about our organization and ways to connect and support, they can visit our website at WW. Dot and that is s e e e.org. And then they can also email us at info at Self-esteem. Org. And someone on our team will definitely reach out. Um, we’re I just wanted to say that we’re really excited for this AI, um, um, initiative because we know that if businesses are not utilizing and integrating AI into their processes or into their, their workplace, um, there is a huge risk. And I say it’s a risk to, um, not necessarily their business going away, but it’s a risk to new opportunities. It’s a risk to operational efficiency. Um, and then it can also be a risk to long term sustainability, um, and potential, um, opportunity cost of, you know, not capturing, uh, new clienteles in new in new markets. So I’m really excited about this, uh, AI initiative that we, that we have.

Lee Kantor: Well, congratulations on all the momentum. And thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Adamaka Ajaelo: Thank you.

Lee Kantor: All right.

Adamaka Ajaelo: Thank you.

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

The Power of Connection: How Venture Atlanta Bridges Entrepreneurs and Capital

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Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
The Power of Connection: How Venture Atlanta Bridges Entrepreneurs and Capital
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In this episode of Atlanta Business Radio, Lee Kantor interviews Allyson Eman, CEO of Venture Atlanta. They discuss the evolution of Venture Atlanta into one of the nation’s largest venture capital conferences, new event formats, and efforts to support diverse founders. Allison highlights the Southeast’s growing startup ecosystem, challenges in attracting venture funding, and the importance of community reinvestment. She also shares advice for aspiring entrepreneurs and details about this year’s pitch competition and networking events. The episode is sponsored by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program.

Allyson Eman serves as the CEO of Venture Atlanta, one of the nation’s largest and most prestigious venture capital conferences. Venture Atlanta will hold its 17th annual event on October 8-9, 2024 at The Woodruff Arts Center and Atlanta Symphony Hall. She has more than 30 years of marketing, communications, sales leadership, and business development experience.

In 2007, she took on the role of Executive Director for the newly created Venture Atlanta annual conference. She has worked with key business leaders across the country and founding organizations Metro Atlanta Chamber, Atlanta CEO Council, and Technology Association of Georgia to build Venture Atlanta into the premier event it is today.

In 2020, she was promoted to its CEO. Now in its 17th year, the conference is the Southeast’s largest investor showcase with over 1,500 attendees including venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and senior business executives. With a primary mission to connect companies with capital, Venture Atlanta has helped launch 843 companies and raise $7.7 billion in funding, also spinning out $17 billion in successful exits.

Prior to joining Venture Atlanta, she was Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications for SouthStar Funding, a wholesale mortgage lender headquartered in Atlanta. During her nine-year tenure with the firm, she helped it grow from eight to 800 employees with 30 offices nationwide.

SouthStar Funding grew to be one of the most reputable and respected wholesale mortgage lenders in the country under her leadership. Prior to SouthStar, she worked for SouthTrust Bank as a Branch Marketing Manager overseeing the marketing platform for 100 branches across Georgia.

She received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida. She resides in Marietta with her husband and two children.

Connect with Allyson on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Evolution and growth of Venture Atlanta over 18 years.
  • Highlights of the current year’s event, including new session formats and topics.
  • Challenges and opportunities for founders in Atlanta and the Southeast region.
  • Diversity and inclusion efforts in funding, particularly for women and underrepresented groups.
  • The regional startup ecosystem and the importance of collaboration and co-working spaces.
  • Discussion on the funding landscape in the Southeast compared to other major markets.
  • The significance of community reinvestment by successful founders.
  • The introduction of a major prize for seed-stage companies at the event.
  • Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs on how to participate in future Venture Atlanta events.

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 wouldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on the show, we have the CEO of Venture Atlanta, Allyson Eman. Welcome.

Allyson Eman: Thanks, Lee. Thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to get caught up for folks who aren’t familiar. Can you share a little bit about Venture Atlanta mission purpose? How you serving folks?

Allyson Eman: Absolutely. So this is year 18. Lee. So I have had the pleasure of running this organization for 18 years, and hopefully it just keeps getting bigger and better. So it’s one of the largest venture capital conferences in the country that connects tech entrepreneurs to venture capitalists and sources of capital, and gathers together everyone who really supports entrepreneurs and helps them thrive and grow.

Lee Kantor: So, like you said, you’ve been doing it for 18 years now. What has got you excited about this year’s venture? Atlanta.

Allyson Eman: You know, what I love is that we change it up every single year. So we always try to do something a little bit different, a little bit better. So for a long time, all of our content was all kind of main stage content in the big room threw up, you know, some threw out some keynotes and panels and that kind of stuff. And this year we’re we’re a lot more focused on on bringing, bringing founder, content, investor content, content that might mean a smaller audience. So we actually have eight executives who are sharing stories with like, you know, small groups of 50 instead of 500, um, in topics like, you know, how to stretch a marketing budget and, you know, having those tough conversations with people as you grow and go to market strategies and sales strategies and things like that. And then we actually are adding a whole procurement session to our conference. And that might seem like a strange thing that we’ve never done, but we also want to make sure we’re targeting founders as they grow in their journey. So we want to help founders sell into corporates. So we’ve got a panel with Fiserv, Southern Company, The Home Depot and Inspire Brands, and then we’ve got a breakout session that has those leaders and a bunch more FIS global Georgia Department of Health, you know, several more. And of course, my mind’s blanking right now and there’s ten people, but, uh, all sorts of, uh, you know, great corporates that will that will help everyone really demystify the sales process and help people understand when is the right time to sell into those companies.

Lee Kantor: So for having done this for almost 20 years now, are you seeing anything different about a founder or the founder, a founder, a founder, or is the personality or qualities or traits of a founder different today than they were when you started?

Allyson Eman: You know what? I think founders always have to be scrappy. They always have to have grit. And I think it’s true now more than ever. You know, there’s there was years, uh, that maybe funding was, was just flying out. Everyone, you know, you look back to 2020 and 2021, there seemed to be capital everywhere. And it wasn’t hard for people. Now they’re having to be a little scrappier. They’re having to stretch their dollars a little bit more. Investors are telling them it’s going to take a little longer in between, in between rounds. So I think there’s always going to be a an evolution for founders. But what I think is great for founders, especially here in Atlanta, the evolution that I’ve seen as wow, what’s happened in Atlanta and the collaboration and the co-working spaces like Atdc, seen Atlanta Tech Village and the Russell Center and Tech Alpharetta. And you know, there are so many great resources available for entrepreneurs. And I think those those weren’t around 18 years ago, you know, Atdc was here. And obviously they’ve been been around for a long time and and an incredible organization. But now there’s so much more now.

Lee Kantor: Are you seeing kind of, um, community form around maybe underserved entrepreneurs to give, uh, folks with all different types of backgrounds the opportunity to tap into some of this startup ecosystem?

Allyson Eman: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I know there’s a there’s an event going on tonight, uh, with, with Morehouse Spelman that that’s, you know, to help, um, to help founders. We actually have an initiative that we do a dinner, uh, the last night of Atlanta. And it’s just a support female founders to to to put female founders in the room with, um, other investors and, you know, the venture capital money. Still, still. You know, it doesn’t go to women. I mean, under 2% goes to women and under 2% go to black founders. And it’s just it’s hard. And, you know, we want to do whatever we can to support those groups.

Lee Kantor: Now, when it comes to, um, creating this ecosystem that we’ve been talking about for 18 years now and, and it’s, uh, it’s grown dramatically. Are you seeing it being kind of self-sustaining where the folks that 18 years ago got funding, you know, created those kind of, uh, super large enterprise unicorn companies, are they kind of reinvesting back into the community, or is it something that they, you know, get the money and then they’re like, you know, on a beach somewhere?

Allyson Eman: Um, some definitely are. I think what what we could use is a lot more of that. I mean, obviously, David Cummings is probably the the quintessential, uh, founder who, you know, sold Pardot and opened Atlanta Tech Village and is now transforming south downtown. So, you know, he has given back so much and I think there’s definitely others. I mean, you look at tech operators. I mean, that fund was started by Tom Noonan. And you know, all the gentlemen that and people that are involved in that fund have all been true operators, which is, you know, where the name came from and they’ve all put money back in. You know, we we have a decent angel network here. I think, uh, Tie Angels has done a really good job being a great resource. Obviously you’ve got the Atlanta Tech Angels, but if we had a little more vibrant, um, angel ecosystem, I think it would help as well.

Lee Kantor: So now, um, as part of this year’s event, there’s a big prize. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Allyson Eman: Yeah. So, uh, ten seed stage companies. So these are early. These are early, folks. Pre-seed seed companies that are, uh, going to pitch on stage for a chance at a $375,000 investment. And that is an investment with four incredible funds co-founders Capital, Tye, angels, Knoll Ventures, and Front Porch Venture Partners. And actually, what’s great is one of the funds is out of North Carolina, one’s out of Tennessee, and two are local here in Atlanta. So great to see four groups coming together that, you know, generally wouldn’t work together. But we know we’re going to have another great winner, um, announced on Thursday.

Lee Kantor: And what about the region as a whole? I mean, you know, we’re biased towards Atlanta as kind of the center of the universe, but are you seeing the region as a whole kind of grow and, and be this kind of now regional ecosystem when it comes to startups and venture funding?

Allyson Eman: I’m sorry, can you repeat that? I spaced out for one second.

Lee Kantor: Um, like we talk a lot about Atlanta, obviously, but how is the region doing? How is the southeast doing when it comes to startups and, um, and venture funding?

Allyson Eman: I mean, the southeast is still getting a fraction of, of funding. I mean, there’s still no comparison to Boston to to Silicon Valley, into New York. We’re still getting a fraction. And I you know, the interesting thing is we’ve got 400, almost 450 investors coming to Atlanta, coming to invest in companies from across the southeast. Our companies are seeing great success. I mean, we’ve had three huge announcements just in the last few weeks. Price pix was one of our companies that just announced a huge acquisition. Um, uh, ad pipe just announced a huge raise. Rainforest just announced a huge a huge raise. So there are companies getting, you know, funding, but not enough. I mean, not not not compared to what you see in other other markets. We’re still not getting our piece of the pie.

Lee Kantor: So why is that?

Allyson Eman: I don’t know I don’t know I wish I wish I could, uh, could have the magic answer and wave a magic wand and everyone would, would get what they needed. But there there continues to be be a problem. And everyone always says it’s a funding problem. But you look at, you know, there’s a lot of funds here and there’s a lot of money that that comes into Atlanta, but I don’t know why are our our startups aren’t getting the money that that they should.

Lee Kantor: Is it just.

Allyson Eman: I can’t answer I can’t answer why why a VC doesn’t write a check?

Lee Kantor: Well, I mean, it’s one thing of not writing a check, but it’s another thing of writing a check somewhere else for maybe a lesser company.

Allyson Eman: Right, right. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: Um, so we don’t have an answer to that. There’s no, um, no magic wand in the 18 years of you doing this that, uh, you can, uh, kind of point to and say, hey, you know, take a look at us or like, is there anything we could be doing or is there any activity you’d like to see, maybe public private activity that would attract more funding or funders?

Allyson Eman: I don’t know, I think I think Atlanta has always had a little bit of a marketing problem that people don’t know. Everything’s here. I mean, if you look at it where the payments capital, capital really of the country, I mean, we have incredible, you know, cybersecurity companies here in Markham. I mean, we’re building in a great climate tech group here with what you know, Cox is doing and generator. So there’s so much here and and honestly Lee, maybe we’re just not telling the story. Maybe people don’t know know things. And what happens when people come to venture Atlanta is like I always hear funds from all over the country going, man, like there’s a lot of good stuff here. And it’s like, why did you not know that? You know? So I kind of always continue to think we have a little bit of a, of a marketing problem that, that we need to do a little better job shouting it from the rooftops. And, you know, I think you go out to Silicon Valley and there’s, there’s a fund after fund after fund after fund, and maybe it’s just a little bit easier to connect with them. But, you know, you look at what’s going on here. I mean, there’s events happening all the time. There’s collaborations happening all the time. So I, you know, maybe we’re just on the cusp of things, but there’s definitely more happening here, certainly, than there was ten years ago, no doubt.

Lee Kantor: And it’s one of those things, I think, that one of that helps Georgia as a whole is the diversity of our economy. And maybe that in some ways is holding us back because our economy is so diverse. There aren’t like kind of the density of standouts in one particular industry. There’s a splattering amongst lots of industries and that, you know, if there was 10 in 1, maybe that would get more attention as opposed to 1 in 10.

Allyson Eman: Right, right. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: So, um, what do you need more of? How can we help you? I’m sure the event is sold out. I’m sure that you don’t need sponsors. What do you need more of? And how can we help you?

Allyson Eman: Yeah, you know what? At this point, we don’t really need more of anything. Um, you know what? I think it’s never too early to for people to think about next year. Obviously. You know, as of next Monday, I’ll be working on 2026. So if you miss this year, get in touch with us about next year. This event happens annually. And you know what’s amazing is how many people have reached out to me in the last two days. Hey, just found out about this. Can I have a ticket? Well, no. You know, unfortunately you can’t. But, I mean, we’re we’re we’re basically on the brink of of of sellout. I mean, we’ll probably take a few people at the door, but, um, you know, we’ve got well over 1500 approaching 1600 people. So it’s definitely a pretty, pretty significant crowd. But, you know, and I asked would always be for, for investors to put money in southeast companies to look at the companies that we have selected this year. There’s a company lineup on our website. And, you know, we we did a lot of due diligence on these companies. They’re great companies like let’s help them get funded.

Lee Kantor: Now. What’s advice for next year’s aspiring entrepreneur that wants to get into Venture Atlanta next year? What is the thing that they have to do in order to stand out at Venture Atlanta?

Allyson Eman: Well, they actually have to apply. So that’s the funny thing is that we’ve got this open application process that, by the way, is completely free. It’s open all of May, all of June, all of July and half of August. And people will be like, oh, oops, didn’t see it. Well, make sure you’re following us on social media. We’re on every single channel LinkedIn, Instagram, threads X, Facebook. I mean, our team does a great job with social media. Uh, you know, make sure you are subscribed to our newsletter so that, you know, when applications open and get your applications in before the last day. You know, we get 600 plus applications. And what’s crazy is we get 400 in the last three days.

Lee Kantor: And then how many do you typically pick?

Allyson Eman: Uh, we pick about 85.

Lee Kantor: All right. So you can’t win if you don’t play right. You got to get you gotta apply.

Allyson Eman: Exactly. You gotta you gotta apply. But, you know, it’s it’s just the amount of people that have reached out. And, you know, what’s funny is, like, everyone seems to, you know, come out of the woodworks. Hey, I’m ready to volunteer. Hey, do you have discounts for this? I mean, you know, we we we’re pretty predictable. We open registration in April, we open company applications in May. Things, you know, our events going to probably be the exact same time next year. So people can pretty much plan it on their calendar.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. Subscribe to the newsletter. So you just kind of can you don’t have to think that much. It’ll remind you there’s no shortage of reminders.

Allyson Eman: And trust me, we do. Trust me, we do. But I mean, you know, for everyone that’s coming this year, we hope everyone has an incredible time. We work really hard. You know, we’ve got a great cocktail party and different lunches and different fun. There’s tons of fun events happening around the conference. I know, you know, Wednesday morning there’s there’s a founder and founder, jog. And that started, I think five years ago with like, you know, 2 or 3 people. And now there’s like 150 people that run through run through Midtown. And tomorrow one of our sponsors, Reed Smith, is hosting a pickleball tournament down in West Midtown. And we’ve got 100 investors coming to play pickleball. So there’s lots of fun stuff going on.

Lee Kantor: And if people want to connect the website.

Allyson Eman: Uh, venture.org.

Lee Kantor: Well, Allison, thank you so much for sharing your story, doing such important work. And we appreciate you.

Allyson Eman: Thank you so much, Lee.

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

Juvo Jobs: Bridging the Gap Between Local Talent and Employment Opportunities in Your Community

by

Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Juvo Jobs: Bridging the Gap Between Local Talent and Employment Opportunities in Your Community
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In this episode of Atlanta Business Radio, Lee Kantor interviews Mark Emery, co-founder and CEO of Juvo Jobs. Mark discusses how Juvo Jobs connects job seekers with nearby employment using a location-focused mobile app and video introductions. He highlights the platform’s growth, upcoming microlearning features, and partnerships with schools, governments, and apartment complexes. The conversation covers Juvo’s commitment to inclusivity, supporting users from students to retirees, and its unique approach to job matching. Mark also shares ways users can connect with Juvo Jobs for support, emphasizing their community-driven, human-centered mission.

Mark Emery is a seasoned entrepreneur and HR technology expert, with 40 years of experience in the hiring and HR tech space. A 4-time founder, he has built and exited successful businesses, becoming a well-respected voice in the industry.

He’s led numerous workshops and webinars for employers, sharing his deep knowledge of the hourly hiring space.

While his titles also include Investor and Board Member, Mark’s current passion lies in his role as CEO of Juvo Jobs, where he’s focused on revolutionizing the way hourly workers and employers connect.

Connect with Mark on LinkedIn and follow Juvo Jobs on Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Focus on geographic proximity in job searching.
  • Unique features such as video introductions to employers.
  • Two-sided marketplace connecting job seekers and employers.
  • Emphasis on user control and convenience in the application process.
  • Discussion of job types available, primarily under $80,000 salary.
  • Importance of local talent and reducing long commutes for employees.

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 wouldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on the show, we have the Co-founder and CEO with Juvo Jobs, Mark Emery, welcome.

Mark Emery: Hey, thank you very much, Lee.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about Jeuveau jobs. How are you serving folks?

Mark Emery: Sure. And thanks a lot for having us. We’re excited. So Juvo Jobs is a mobile application that when you are in the throes of looking for work or not happy with the current job that you have, you download the Juvo Job app, create a profile, and we’ll actually show you jobs in your immediate vicinity. Or if you’re traversing through town, if you’re on your way to work and you’ve got a long commute, you’re having, you know, commute issues, you just open the app and you can see work right around you. So it’s it’s geography first. And then once you tell us what type of work that you’re looking for, pay rates, so on and so forth, we help connect you with work in your immediate vicinities.

Lee Kantor: And what’s an example of the kind of work that you all have on your platform?

Mark Emery: So we have hundreds of thousands of of jobs all across the country. Primarily, I would say they’re all under $80,000 a year, although we do have some in the healthcare world, nursing and so on and so forth. That might be above that. But I would say, you know, under $100,000 a year jobs.

Lee Kantor: And are these jobs that person could kind of go in and learn pretty quickly, like it doesn’t require a lot of training.

Mark Emery: Yes. Obviously, if there’s, you know, the higher the pay range, typically there’s more specific information necessary, whether it’s education or training or some type of experience. But we do have all kinds of different types of jobs, ranging from restaurants, hotels through healthcare, leasing for apartment complexes, specialty HVAC, all the above.

Lee Kantor: And then when a person like, how are you doing? It’s a two sided marketplace, right? You have the employers on one side and the potential employees, the workers on the other side. So how does it work? If I’m a worker, if I just click on a job and I got the job, or is this a now I have an interview for the job.

Mark Emery: Yeah. Juvo connects you with the employer. So one of the things that we realize is geography especially we’ll use Atlanta. We’re both here in Atlanta is is very important. You can you can work five miles away, but it could take you an hour to get there depending on on the commute. So what jumbo does is really try to identify work within your immediate location. And then we encourage you to do a video introduction, which the employer will see. That gives you an opportunity to kind of showcase your personality and talk a little bit about how you’re different, more than just a typical application and or resume. However, we do capture all that profile information, if you will, and share that with the employer as well as your video.

Lee Kantor: So is that something? If I go on and there’s three opportunities, I have to do that three times. And then the next day I go on. Or next week I go on. I have to do it again three times.

Mark Emery: Nope. You create one profile. Um, and or one video. And through that video, you’re actually you can scroll through and look at multiple questions and decide which two questions you want to answer. And you’ve got about 15 to 20s to answer each one of those questions. But no, it’s it’s one profile. And we’ll share that with, uh, the multiple employers that you ask us to connect you with.

Lee Kantor: And then how how are you like, what’s the difference between this and, say, a job board or something where you, you know, put your name in the hat and you’re in a portal and then it sends it out to a bunch of places.

Mark Emery: Yeah. I appreciate you asking. So number one, we just don’t send your information out. You request to be connected. Now. We will push those jobs to you. So one of the things that Juvo did very differently was we do not expect our job seekers to come to our website or come to the app all the time and look for work. You can come there once. Create your profile one time and then tell us what type of work that you’re looking for, or how far away you want us to look for jobs for you. And then we’ll push notifications to you about the opportunities that you pass that day, or earlier that week, or what’s in your immediate vicinity. Now, obviously, you can go on and look at it. Um, but it’s it’s very, very different. Um, we don’t like I said, we don’t expect you to fill out an application or a resume per connection request. Inevitably, our job and we feel very passionate about this is to give you the best opportunity to get an interview. You do not work for jeuveau. We do show you their W2 jobs, um, from all these different employers. It’s not like you’re trying to find a gig, um, job or anything like that, but it’s W2 work both full time and part time, and our job is to try to help you get the best opportunity to show your personality and tell that employer why they should interview you.

Lee Kantor: Now, since it’s a two sided marketplace, is there a fee for both sides or is it just the employer pays?

Mark Emery: Yeah. No no no no there’s no fees for job seekers at all. At any point in time. There’s no ads in the app. We’re not trying to upsell any of those kind of things. That is not uh, no, our our business is just to help connect you with work opportunities in your immediate vicinity.

Lee Kantor: So now, what advice do you have for job seekers out there right now that are kind of struggling to find the right opportunity? Like, what’s the best way to leverage Jeuveau?

Mark Emery: Well, first thing I always tell people is it’s always easier to find a job when you have a job. Um, so and there’s a lot of people who are not happy in their current roles, um, or looking for a higher paying work opportunity or, you know, in a lot of cases with us, something that they don’t have such a long commute for. So, um, we always say, first of all, get a job. Uh, second of all, try to find a better job at whatever point that it’s necessary for you. We also have a lot of our job seekers who work multiple jobs. Uh, because they may have, you know, pick up for hours here. Um, on a weekly basis. I work for this company. That’s my primary, that I work 15 hours a week. You know, you mentioned your sponsor, Kennesaw State. We have, um, hundreds and hundreds. And I don’t know what the numbers are of, um, students who look for work around campus during, you know, whatever days that they’re on campus and are in class, and they may live 15 miles away and want to work when they’re not having to go to campus, find a job close to where they currently live. So, um, again, we’re all about trying to be convenient and helpful to the job seeker.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, as you probably know, I interview a lot of business owners all over Atlanta and all over the country. And, um, and, you know, talent acquisition and reliable talent is usually on the top of their to do list. And the things that keep, uh, typical business person up at night. Um, what would you say to maybe a franchisor or a franchisee in a local market? Um, how should they at least consider leveraging, um, jeuveau? Because I would imagine this solves one of their biggest headaches. Yeah.

Mark Emery: So there’s a couple of components to it. And I’ve been around the block and in the business for, uh, many decades. Uh, and I’ve had millions of people get hired through our technology. Um, you know, I would say to employers, first of all, be human. Um, in today’s world, with AI and everything else, it’s easy to throw yet another tool, um, in front of job seekers when the reality is a resume or an application does not meet your customer service needs, it does not ring the register, uh, in terms of servicing your customers. So I would I would always encourage employers to really try to, um, understand the people and be flexible with the people that they want to hire because there is a tremendous amount of good willing talent out there. You just have to be able to be flexible with it and run your business around it. You know, a lot of people all the time are saying, well, this is the way I do things. Well that’s fine. Um, the workforce today requires a little bit more flexibility. And, you know, we should strongly suggest you do that now with jumbo and employers A lot of times commute creates a lot of problems. People showing up late. Uh, I got stuck in traffic. So we really take proximity very seriously. And that’s one of the primary things on our app that we utilize is finding talent local to your business. If you got to be there, they need to be there.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, you’ve mentioned several times proximity and the importance of proximity. Um, when looking for employers, looking for workers and for workers looking for opportunities, how did you kind of land on that as being really a key point of differentiating a key point of differentiation for Jeuveau, and you’re really emphasizing it in your, um, kind of value proposition.

Mark Emery: So the reality is, my last technology company, we had millions of people get hired through it all around the country from thousands and tens of thousands of employers and in my own household. My youngest daughter was driving almost 14 miles to go to work on a Sunday morning, and she would get home early because she worked in a breakfast place and it wasn’t busy. And I said to her, I said, you put more money into your gas tank than you going to and from work for that two hours that you were there. And we got in the car and we drove between here and her employer, and there were like 13 different restaurants that were closer to where, where she lived to home, where she would have spent less money, less time on gas, getting there and then working with hundreds of thousands of employers. We always hear, oh, well, I’ve got a I’ve got these screening tools and I have all these things and keyword search and now AI in place. And I always say to someone, well, let’s assume that you used all those screening tools. Let’s say that you’ve gotten through that whole process. You’ve actually got that person on the phone, you did an interview and you love them. It’s a $18 an hour job, $17 an hour job, and you think they’re a perfect fit. I have one more piece of information for you. So first of all, would you hire them? And 90% of the time they say, absolutely. You know, barring a bad background check or something, I say, here’s one more piece of information. They live 15 miles from your place of employment, and almost 100% of the time there’s this long pause and they go, no, that’s not going to work. So in reality, that is the most important thing. Almost every time when you talk to an employer, it’s location first. So that’s where we decided to focus first. Secondly, it was the video personality matters. The what we’re looking for in people matters, and we’ve tried to bring that human element back to the back to the process.

Lee Kantor: So when you’re talking to your. So let’s get into kind of the ideal fit for you when you’re looking for, um, the people to use jeuveau and I’m sure, you know, getting all the individual mom and pops that, that makes a lot of sense. But if you’re going for, uh, franchisees or groups or organizations have multiple units, how who who is kind of your ideal client in regards to that when it comes to somebody who is a multi unit, um, company or has a has multiple offices, what what’s the avatar for you for an ideal client.

Mark Emery: So really any location based business, um, is an ideal client for us. We go to market primarily through partnerships, where we’re integrated into a lot of technologies that that those employers already use, for example, payroll systems. Um, but when an employer is looking to come to us directly, obviously the more locations they have, the more we can be helpful. Um, our typical employer isn’t somebody who’s got 3000 employees in one location only. Um, you know, we work with organizations. You had mentioned the franchisors or franchisees that have tens, hundreds, thousands of locations around the country. That’s really where we’re able to be extremely effective, not just for the employer, but for the for the job seekers and the people in those communities who might not know that the that a particular employer or job opportunity is one block off of Main Street, because when you go to a job board, you start searching, you. Scroll page after page after page. And they’ll show you. They’ll tell you, hey, this job is five miles away. Five miles or within the zip code. Well, in Atlanta, the zip code of Dunwoody is the same as the same zip code as Stone mountain. In some instances, that could be two hours in the car.

Lee Kantor: Now, you talk about the importance of partners. Um, who are the ideal partners for you?

Mark Emery: So we work a lot, um, on the the job seeker side. We work a lot with organizations like Kennesaw State, um, for profit universities, uh, community schools. We work a lot within, um, the counties like City of Atlanta is a great example. We do a lot of work with, um, the school system there as well as, um, apartment complexes. The number one reason that somebody leaves one apartment and goes and rents from another apartment across town is because of work. It’s almost 50% of the reason that there’s apartment turnover. So we work a tremendous amount with apartments to say, look, keep your people local, help them pay rent. And we’ve had we’ve got story after story after story of success stories on helping those apartment ownership groups lower the late rent notices and increase the retention on their apartments.

Lee Kantor: So buy the apartment then can offer like, hey, here’s a heads up, here’s these places are hiring just that are nearby.

Mark Emery: Yep.

Lee Kantor: That’s a that’s a super clever way of, um, being sticky in your brand, in their, in their business making keeping their client the clients client happy.

Mark Emery: Well. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: Um.

Mark Emery: And then we try to be. We’re very much a common sense. Um, which obviously is.

Lee Kantor: It’s not always common. That’s right. Well, I think that you’re you’re really kind of looking at it through the lens of, you know, through the people using your service rather than what’s best for my service. So you’re, you’re looking at it through what’s going to be most useful and helpful for them, and then we’ll figure it out.

Mark Emery: Yeah. Another quick example is, uh, you asked about, you know, how are we different than a job board? So we heard all the time employers talking about how nobody reads my job descriptions. I’m wasting my time interviewing people and all these other things. And I realized, okay, well, with video, we help the job seekers. And if nobody reads the job description on a job board, how do you fix that? And they would say, well, I put it in bold and put it at the top that nobody reads. So we just implemented video for the employer side where they can actually tell the person what they’re looking for. Hi, this is Mark. You know, I work here. It’s we’re excited to to to talk with you. You have to work Fridays. You gotta work Saturdays. We work hard. We have a lot of fun. But we’re, you know, we’re a great environment. Now, the job description can be a part of my, for lack of a better term, posting. But what we have found is now employers. Nobody has to read the job description. You can tell them what they have to do.

Lee Kantor: Now how is your company? Um, kind of leveraging AI. I’ve seen some people in the, uh, out there using AI as maybe the first interview where the first interviews with an AI kind of chatbot or an AI avatar, that’s, that’s kind of doing that first pass.

Mark Emery: Yeah. So we use AI more, not as a, for lack of a better term, our service. We use it to be more communicative within our own organization to help us scale. I mean, we’re closing in on over 12 million job seekers on our on our network. Um, so we’re using it internally. We don’t feel that pushing it out in front of the employer or the job seeker today truly adds value. What we’re trying to do is make sure that that employer and that job seeker are able to communicate back and forth to each other in the most efficient way. So AI has a place right now. We don’t feel that it’s in a in a position to truly add value to either side, necessarily, without impeding the process of getting to talk to each other.

Lee Kantor: So now, um, in your growth, you you mentioned kind of, um, launching from Atlanta. Are you in all 50 states or are you nationwide at this point?

Mark Emery: Yes. Yeah, absolutely. And have been for for quite a few years.

Lee Kantor: So you’ve been doing this a while and you’re already serving a kind of a lot of, uh, a lot of the United States. And then are you at the point, um, like, where are you kind of in the growth of the company? Obviously it’s not a startup, but are you looking for more funding? Are you like, what are you looking for? And how can we help you?

Mark Emery: Well, to help support the growth we are actually doing, um, an additional, um, capital infusion to the business. Um, you know, our goal, we have a roadmap of micro learnings, you know, with having millions and millions of people on the platform, we know that we can help these individuals with micro learnings by knowing what type of jobs that they’re looking for, knowing what areas that they live in geographically and knowing what employers look for. So we’re going to be building within our ecosystem, of which I mentioned to you, the the apartment stuff, where we’re able to help deliver micro Learnings to say, hey, you know what, Lee? You’ve been on the network, here’s some jobs that you if you take these five, five minute video courses and take a little test, you might get a certification that helps you make 2 or 3 more dollars an hour. Um, you know, Lee, you love your job. Here is daycare options that are available between where you live and the job that you go to. So we’re expanding our ecosystem, if you will, and being able to find additional partners, uh, to help us do that is always, always, um, something on our horizon and something we’re looking for.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned kind of, uh, Kennesaw State University and college students. Um, are you also making this available to high school students? I’ve seen a lot of employers now targeting high school students and giving them a path to employment.

Mark Emery: Uh, without a doubt. You know, the blessing of what we do is that we’re able to help at whatever age or state of life that you’re in. Um, you know, we look at it and go, there’s age, there’s state, and there’s status. You and I might be 25 years difference in age. We might work at the same organization doing somewhat of the same thing. But I might be a young parent with five kids. You might be a single person who’s never been married and is living the dream. So we’re always, um, enjoying the opportunity to go to the high schools, go to the colleges. Uh, demographic we have is the over 60 year olds retirees who want to get back into the market. And when we go to those high schools, a lot of times we’re there at night. And we’ve had high school students bring their parents over because their parents either need another job or a better paying job, or a job that’s closer to to where they live. So they don’t, you know, the kids aren’t home by themselves as much because of the commute. So it is we are blessed to be able to help regardless of age, state, or stage of life.

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

Mark Emery: So they can go to Juvo Jobs.com. And we have, uh, you know, a contact us button there. Um, on the app, we have multiple ways to communicate, whether it’s through the intercom system within the app or, um, go on ratings. We reply to all ratings. We are always, you know, our email address of support at juvojobs.com, juvo360 is our corporate email address, so we would we’d love to hear from anyone with ideas, specific things. We have a whole department. That’s our what we call seeker support. If we don’t have an employer that you want to work for, you can reach out to us and we have a team who will actually reach out to that employer on your behalf to try to help you get an interview.

Lee Kantor: And that’s juvojobs.com.

Mark Emery: That’s us Juvo Jobs.

Lee Kantor: All right, Mark, well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Mark Emery: Lee. Thank you for taking the time. And we appreciate the efforts that you bring for both the the local community and the business community.

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

Flourishing in Leadership: The Four Principles of Growth, Authenticity, Meaning, and Excellence

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High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Flourishing in Leadership: The Four Principles of Growth, Authenticity, Meaning, and Excellence
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In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee Kantor interviews Sophia Toh, executive coach and author of The Game of Life. Sophia discusses her transition from corporate finance leadership at Procter & Gamble and Kraft Heinz to founding Illuminate U Coaching. She explains the differences between mentoring, coaching, and sponsoring, and shares practical advice for new managers and executives. Sophia also highlights how coaching empowers individuals to unlock their potential and drive positive change in organizations. The episode concludes with ways to connect with Sophia and access her coaching services and book.

Sophia Toh, is a CFO-turned executive coach, leadership trainer, and keynote speaker, dedicated to empowering individuals to achieve excellence and flourish.

She currently serves as the National Board Chair of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and as a director on the global Professional Coaches Board of the International Coaching Federation (ICF).

With over 30 years of business experience—20 of those in corporate finance and strategic leadership roles at Procter & Gamble and Kraft Heinz—she has served as a three-time Vice President and two-time Business Unit CFO. She now leverages her expertise, experience, and empathy to meet her clients’ needs.

A bilingual executive and team coach, she is credentialed as a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) by the International Coaching Federation (ICF). She is also a proud 21-year member of the Institute of Management Accountants, holding the designations of CMA, CSCA, and CFM.

She trains on a wide range of topics, encompassing areas such as psychological safety, leadership in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) world, emotional intelligence, decision-making, thought clarity, executive communication, team leadership, and life excellence.

She holds multiple degrees and certifications in finance, accounting, strategy, nonprofit leadership, and diversity and inclusion. She is certified in Gallup CliftonStrengths (her top 5: Strategic, Activator, Achiever, Positivity, and Maximizer), Hogan Assessments, the Four Stages of Psychological Safety™ framework, DISC, Enneagram, and 16-Types.

Currently, her life is centered around her “3M” focus areas: Making Memories, Meaning, and Money (derived from fulfilling work). She cultivates quality time with family and friends, actively volunteers and leads efforts to serve global, national, and local communities, and continually strives to grow her career as a coach, trainer, and speaker.

She offers complimentary coaching sessions for laid-off employees and free mentoring sessions for employees of nonprofit organizations, first-time people managers, and undergraduate or graduate business students.

Her philosophy is simple yet profound: Our greatest impact comes not from the paths we walk alone, but from the trails we help others blaze.

Connect with Sophia on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Insights and themes from Sophia’s book, The Game of Life
  • The importance of authenticity and personal growth in leadership
  • Practical advice for first-time managers and the significance of a coaching mindset
  • The value of coaching in overcoming mindset challenges and enhancing leadership effectiveness
  • Different coaching delivery formats and client profiles
  • Common challenges faced by executives and when to seek coaching
  • The role of coaching in fostering positive workplace culture and organizational change

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: 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 Author and Executive Coach with Illuminate U Coaching, Sophia Toh. Welcome.

Sophia Toh: Hi, Lee. How are you doing?

Lee Kantor: I am doing well. I am so excited to learn about your practice. Tell us about Illuminate U Coaching. How are you serving folks?

Sophia Toh: Yes, yes. So my name is Sophia Toh. T O H. I am an executive coach and my company’s name is Illuminate U Coaching. I’m also a leadership trainer, and I also spend a lot of time in the nonprofit sector. And basically what I do is I coach executives, but at the same time, I also mentor a lot of early career professionals and business students as well. And now separately, on top of that, a lot of coaches do training, leadership training, and I do that too. So I work with companies to help train their executives and also the people leaders so that they they can become better, better people managers and people leaders. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: So what’s your backstory? How’d you get involved in this line of work?

Sophia Toh: Yes. So I have a close more than 20 years of corporate experience in corporate finance and accounting. I spent 15 years with Procter and Gamble, and when I left, I was the CFO for their chief financial officer for their one of their subsidiaries. I also was the, uh, was the VP and CFO of one of the Kraft Heinz, uh, 5 billion business units. So I spent 20 years in corporate. And when I left, I decided that I wanted to actually leverage my experience and also what I learned in leadership to help coach the executives, because I definitely believe that this is a job that is not only fulfilling personally to me, but can also create positive ripple ripple effects to actually benefits the workplace, because I believe good bosses will create a positive work environment for the people. And then they’ll people will in turn deliver for their business, and business will help to improve the environment.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you were at Procter and Gamble, did you get to have coaching yourself? Had you ever experienced being coached?

Sophia Toh: Uh, yes for sure. Now at Procter and Gamble, I actually mentor a lot of, uh, people. I joined Procter and Gamble in my mid 30s, which is kind of unusual. I was an exception because Procter and Gamble is famous for promoting from within, where they hire people out of college. But I joined Procter and Gamble as an experienced new hire. So when I joined right away, I got assigned a few, uh, younger employees as my mentees. And I’ll say, over the course of my career at Procter and Gamble, I probably mentor more than 50, between 50 to 60 mentees at Procter and Gamble, and when I was there, I also received coaching training. Right before I left. So. So at the time, right after the pandemic was ending, I decided that I’m just going to transition into coaching. They will allow me to flexibility for my time at my life stage because I’m a I’m an empty nester, so I want to live in a career with flexibility and also allow me to give back to nonprofit world. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: Now, for organizations that are deciding between a mentoring program and a coaching program, can you share a little bit about the trade offs of each of those, since you’ve got to experience both of them?

Sophia Toh: That’s a great question. That’s a great question. Yes. Uh, the A company can have both. Definitely. Um, so Procter and Gamble has very robust mentoring program, but they also have in-house coaching program that are very beneficial to their the employees too. And the way that you think about the difference between mentoring and coaching is that mentoring is more, uh, the mentors are serving more as a guide by sharing their experience, uh, with the mentees, somebody who has been through the, the kind of the grind. And so who can share advice to the mentees and coaching in a strictest sense of the definition of coaching is actually co-create with the the coach will co-create with the coachee so, so that they can figure out, uh, an action plan to work toward their goals. So coaching as a coach, I believe that everyone is creative and full of resources, but I’m just there serving as someone who serve as their external thought interrupter to try to ask questions, to help guide them, to come up with an action plan that they own themselves. So you can see, uh, giving advice and then coaching is more serving as a partner with the person to to work toward their goals.

Lee Kantor: So when you have a mentor relationship, is there kind of maybe an unsaid or unspoken expectation from the mentee that you might help them get promoted or find new opportunities or grow kind of within the organization?

Sophia Toh: No, because you actually brought up another relationship, which is sponsors. So a mentor will give advice. A sponsor will be somebody who advocates for that individual, maybe creating opportunities for them or give them promotions to, uh, promotion opportunities or also recommend them for like projects or programs that they may get involved in. So a sponsor is different from a mentor. A mentor may become a sponsor, right. So you can have many years of relationship with someone as as mentors and mentees. And then maybe you trust this individual, and then you feel like, okay, I’m going to help this person to get a job or a promotion or recommend them to someone else. So it can be. So most of the time it’s either or a mentor or sponsor. But a mentor can evolve into a sponsor. But there shouldn’t be any expectation that your mentor has to help you to get a job or to to help you promote it.

Lee Kantor: And that’s probably very important for the mentee to understand kind of the the what are the expectations of a mentor relationship versus a sponsor relationship?

Sophia Toh: Yes. Yes. And I have helped quite a few companies to put in mentoring programs. And typically I actually do train the mentors and mentees to set the expectations so that they are clear going into the relationships, because there shouldn’t be expectations that your mentor has to help you to get a job or to get promoted. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: So now let’s talk a little bit about your book, The Game, The Game of Life. Um, what inspired you to write that?

Sophia Toh: Yes. So I have been doing a lot of, uh, like, talking engagement, speaking engagement and training, and I have actually been leveraging the concepts. So when I actually put my hand on the book and start writing, it actually wasn’t that hard at all. It didn’t take me a lot of time. The the idea comes from Aristotle’s, uh, eudaimonia concept. Eudaimonia means, uh, flourishing or living. Well, human flourishing. So typically we think about the survival mode, and then we are surviving, and then we move from surviving to thriving. Thriving is more personal wellness, but flourishing is actually a concept that is a step above thriving, where not only are you thriving as an individual, you’re doing well. As an individual, you’re also helping your environment to get better and help others to get better. And I love that concept because I do. One of my values is service. And so when, uh, when I learned about the Aristotle’s concept, I started to think about, okay, I can make this into an acronym, The Game of Life. So game G stands for growth, authenticity, meaning and excellence.

Lee Kantor: And then when you started writing about those concepts, um, it came pretty easy to you because I guess you were living these principles.

Sophia Toh: Oh, yes. For sure. Uh, because I do think my friends will say that I’m someone who lives with joy, and I’m always who has a zest in life, even when I’m facing adversity in life. I do think that for the most part, when I think about making decisions in life, I actually look into these four areas. Um, like, am I growing in? Am I growing with something that I’m working on? Uh, is it authentic to me? Does it does it fit with my values? What does it mean to me? The meaning of it. And then I always give it my all and then give it my best. So that excellence part is where I figure out how to give it my best once I choose to do something or invest in something.

Lee Kantor: When you started your coaching practice, did something occur early on that gave you kind of the inkling that, hey, I’m going to be good at this. This is I’m definitely kind of living into my values. This is allowing me to kind of be the best me, and it really is aligning with my skills and values.

Sophia Toh: Uh, yes. For sure. So what I did not mention was that before my corporate career, I was I owned a restaurant for six years. So people will say that you have a job or you have a career, and then you have a calling, right? And if I think about my three stages, the three types of careers that I have had, my restaurant career probably was a job, and then my corporate career was probably a career that I paid very much intentionally trying to grow it and develop it. And then what I’m doing right now gives me so much joy and fulfillment that I dare to call it a calling. And if I think about how it came about, I. I’m from a big family. I’m the oldest of six children. I have 52 cousins who are all younger than me. So I feel that all my life I’ve been playing this mentor and coaching role, and then I mentor a lot when I was at P&G and also Kraft Times. And then I got my coaching training. So I definitely feel that it’s a natural progression for me to move from a mentor to a coach and really enjoy what I’m doing right now.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you share a story that maybe illustrates the impact a coach can have on someone. Uh. Can you? You don’t have to obviously name the name of the person, but maybe share the challenge they came to you with and how you were able to help them get to a new level.

Sophia Toh: Yes, yes. Um, so lately I have just coincidentally because I coach executives, but I do have people who are on the verge of becoming executive or in the top talent pool or hypertension pool, where both of them told me that they didn’t want to make it to C-suites. And I said, why? Uh, so both of them told me that they’re going to have to sacrifice their work life balance and harmony. They’re going to give up so much sacrifice to get to that level. So what I was able to help them to challenge the assumption that if you if you make it to C-suite, you’re going to be giving up your personal life. It’s actually to help them to rethink the their scope and also the authority that that can have in impacting the cadence and business. Operations in their company, where they can actually now have the power to design a system within the company that is going to actually make life a lot easier for everyone within the system. For example, because this is from my personal experience to, for example, let’s say you need normally you have ten reviews before you submit your budget to the C-suite. If you’re in a C-suite, you can actually now make the call and say, I only need five reviews. I don’t need ten reviews, right? You actually do have that authority and autonomy. Now that you can make the call to help make the life easier for the whole ecosystem within your organization. And for them, that is that that was the paradigm shift, right? Because where before they thought that there would be part of the system where from their vantage point right now everyone is suffering personally because of their position in the C-suite. Now, they felt empowered because they know that I can actually make something that will work for me and for many people.

Lee Kantor: Now, is that something that maybe people don’t realize how much agency they have and how much control they have over things, that they just kind of go with the flow and they don’t really, um, you know, take the control that maybe they do have access to.

Sophia Toh: Yes. Yeah, absolutely. That’s why I believe coaching is so important. Yes. Uh, because most of the time we’re just going with the flow and we’re so busy in our life, we don’t slow down and actually ask ourselves tough questions, or we don’t want to ask ourselves tough questions, right? When you’re working with a coach, a coach because somebody who is not you, right, who doesn’t have that internal conversations that you’re trying to convince yourself not to do something So somebody who can actually ask questions that can help you to unlock that disempowering belief that you may have about something or about yourself.

Lee Kantor: Now, within your book, do you share some of the life lessons that kind of you have personally kind of gone through it?

Sophia Toh: Yeah, yeah for sure. I didn’t realize how much I shared until my, the my friend who wrote the preface, uh, for me said that it was part memoir. I was like, did I share too much because she just mentioned memoir? I definitely share a lot of the stories about myself, because I do think that, um, not only am I sharing techniques, tools, things are different ways to think about different topics. I’m definitely using myself as the example who has lived through, uh, the, the, uh, the techniques, the tools and the, the experiences that I have shared in my book. Yeah. So it’s very personal to me. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. So what is. Do you mind sharing one of those lessons with our listeners?

Sophia Toh: Okay. Uh, so let me think about a fun one. Uh, so a is authenticity, right? Uh, people always talk about how you want to show your whole self or your authentic self to the world, but not necessarily. You probably want to share your authentic best. Uh, not not necessarily the, the the the whole self. Right. So I share an example where when I was in my 20s, I went to a restaurant with, uh, karaoke and, uh, I love children. And there were two children there in the midst of people singing karaoke and having dinners. And because I wanted to entertain those two little kids, I went on stage to sing the, uh, the the song Do-Re-Mi from The Sound of Music and started to belt out the Showtune channeling Julie Andrews. And everyone was looking at me with their eyes open. Everyone just stop and like, what is she doing? Uh, so from so that was, uh. So I still cringe, uh, now that I’ve thought about this experience, uh, and, uh, and but I believe that we can be authentic, but we also need to pay attention to the context and the environment that we’re into. And authenticity is not so much, uh, just showing the world everything that you have, but really an a habit or practice on how you can express yourself in a way that is aligned with your values. So depending on the environment and the context, you can still be authentic in a way that doesn’t really, uh, show up as, uh, how do I say it? Unusual right to the environment. Yeah. So I probably would still do the same thing because I wanted to entertain the kids, but I probably will give some warnings to the to the people at that restaurant.

Lee Kantor: Now, a lot of your work is around folks maybe in transition or maybe their first time being managers. Can you share a little piece of advice that might help that first time manager, um, kind of get the most out of their role?

Sophia Toh: Yes. Uh, I actually have more than one, but I. So when you think about someone transitioning, uh, from being an individual contributor to a people manager is a rite of passage for them, because where they used to be rewarded on their technical expertise, they now actually have to rely on someone else to do the job for them. So. So it’s a scary transition. It’s a rite of passage. So what I have, uh, kind of, uh, mentor and also coach a lot of the, uh, early career professionals and also some executives, too, who may have come from individual contributors background but got promoted really quickly. Play is that you have to remember that now that you are managing someone, you actually have to spend time to get to know that person first. You want to go slow, to go fast, and also you. You are now playing almost like a coach role to help develop that person. Because if you successfully can kind of unleash the potential in your direct reports, you now are actually empowering yourself to to do bigger things. You now have, uh, developed expanded brands for yourself to right. Someone else can also think alongside you that can actually expand their thinking. So I do think that a big transition for, uh, being, uh, a individual contributor to a manager is really understanding that you are now you cannot be a know it all. You are now actually working with this individual here you where you actually have to spend some time understanding them to go slow. Then you can go fast with them. Because once you turn them into someone who is unleashing the potential, you are actually growing capabilities that you can help yourself as well. So it’s a win win. It’s a win win solution. It’s a triple win solution because it helps the company and organizations too.

Lee Kantor: Now how do you deliver your coaching? Um, do you work primarily with organizations that bring you in to do talks or trainings, or do you work one on one with folks? How do you deliver your, uh, coaching?

Sophia Toh: Uh, both. So if I think about, uh, I do a lot of one on one coaching, but I also do, uh, training, uh, with organizations. I sometimes I do, uh, team coaching and group coaching, too. And, and many times my training comes with, uh, the options of one on one coaching. So let’s say if I’m training people on a certain topic, I will offer the organizations, let’s say ten, uh, 30 minutes, uh, coaching sessions for people who participate in the in the training to sign up with me, because a lot of the time you go to a training, it’s one size fits all, and then your situation is different and uniquely yourself. And they need some follow up coaching session. And typically I actually do offer one on one coaching after my training, but separately I do. I do have a lot of one on one coaching that I’m doing with executives. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: So what, um, is kind of that ideal client profile from you. You mentioned nonprofits. Are there types of companies that, um, your work kind of gravitates towards?

Sophia Toh: Uh, yes. Uh, I do want to say yes. I do have, uh, some nonprofit clients, but for, for the most part, my clients are coming from, uh, from corporates. Because of my 20 years of experience in corporate, I have a lot of corporate clients from finance and accounting. Engineering design. Actually all over the board. Actually, I have coached for more than 1500 sessions since I left corporate, and it’s pretty. I would say that it’s pretty diverse in terms of the functions that they are in, uh, and industries to and, but for the most part, I do think I get a lot of, uh, finance and accounting clients because they, they feel that I understand their life and also and also from different functions to HR, design, engineering, um, just because of my tenure in corporate.

Lee Kantor: And what is the challenge that they’re typically having where they’re like, I better call Sofia.

Sophia Toh: Um, getting over their mindset, uh, let’s say, uh, perfectionism. That is a big one. Um, and it ebbs and flows depending on the hot topics in the, uh, in, the industry to. So I will say two years ago is returns return to office. And now I do want to say that there there is a common theme across, uh, organizations that are typically matrix where people have to, um, streamline their communication, uh, unclear roles and responsibilities. So many times I’m helping my clients to really helping them to manage the, uh, the complexities within the environments. And many times influencing is a big one influencing up, influencing down, motivating their employees. So just typical typical topics that, uh, an executive will have to be worried about. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more about your coaching or get a hold of the book, what is the best way to connect with you and learn more?

Sophia Toh: Yes. Well, they can connect with me on LinkedIn. Uh, Sofia to s o p h I a t o h, and I’m the one with the Chinese characters on it because I put my Chinese name on, uh, on on LinkedIn. And they can also go to my website. Uh, illuminate I u m I n a t e dash u the letter u dash coaching c o a c h I n g.com.

Lee Kantor: And then the book is at the Game of Life book net.

Sophia Toh: Yes. Yeah. So the the website for the book is the Game of Life book dot net. Yes.

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

Sophia Toh: Yes. Thank you so much, Lee.

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

Lee Kantor: Thank you.

Turning Vacancies into Vibrancy: Woodvale’s Vision for Urban Revitalization

by

High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Turning Vacancies into Vibrancy: Woodvale’s Vision for Urban Revitalization
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In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee Kantor interviews Bashir Mansour, VP of Acquisitions at Woodvale, an Atlanta-based real estate private equity firm. They discuss the challenges facing commercial real estate due to the pandemic, rising interest rates, and remote work trends. Bashir explains Woodvale’s innovative efforts to convert underused office and hotel properties into affordable multifamily housing, addressing urban housing shortages. The conversation highlights the complexities of adaptive reuse, the importance of walkable infrastructure, and Woodvale’s commitment to revitalizing urban communities through practical, impactful real estate solutions.

As Vice President of Investments at Woodvale, Bashir Mansour leads the firm’s deal sourcing, evaluation, and execution efforts, while also managing capitalization efforts, securing equity and debt, and fostering investor relationships.

At Woodvale, he has executed $300M+ in transactions, deploying $150M+ in investor capital across acquisitions, developments, and investments. His team applies institutional-quality analytics while maintaining an entrepreneurial approach.

Before Woodvale, he worked in hotel renovations and construction across brands like Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, and more. A Georgia State University Robinson College of Business graduate, he remains active in GSU’s Panther Immersion Program, mentoring students in finance, policy, and tech.

Bashir is passionate about delivering innovative, high-impact CRE investments while generating strong risk-adjusted returns for investors.

Connect with Bashir on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Current state and challenges of the commercial real estate market
  • Strategies for converting underutilized commercial properties into multifamily residential units
  • Addressing the housing shortage, particularly affordable housing, in urban areas
  • Complexities and challenges of adaptive reuse projects in real estate

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 Bashir Mansour, who is the VP of Acquisitions with Woodvale. Welcome.

Bashir Mansour: Thanks for having me. I really appreciate you and appreciate your audience today. I’m honored to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about Woodvale. How you serving folks?

Bashir Mansour: Yeah, absolutely. I’m Bashir Mansoor, VP of acquisitions at Woodvale. As you mentioned, I’ve been with the firm for over five years now. And Woodvale is a real estate private equity firm based in Atlanta, Georgia. We specialize in solving challenging issues with an anchor and commercial real estate. We have a variety of different assets under our portfolio, and we play in a variety of different segments. We are asset agnostic, as we like to say, which means we’re not focused in one specific segment of commercial real estate. But we are focused across the board where we find uncommon opportunities. Our objective is to create impact through our projects and also generate return for our investors. So we’ve been in business in Atlanta for five years now as a consolidation of a variety of preexisting real estate ventures over the course of the last several decades, in fact, dating back to the 1980s. So Woodville is really a family business that spun off into a real estate private equity shop that has about, like I said, half $1 billion under management today.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you explain to our listeners a little bit about maybe the real estate market and a macro standpoint? We hear a lot of headlines about a high interest rates and how they’re impacting residential real estate. But can you talk about how it’s impacting commercial real estate.

Bashir Mansour: Absolutely. So in order to to paint this picture effectively, Lee, I need to take you back about five years to the Covid 19 pandemic. It’s a thing that we we all look forward to never speaking about again, but unfortunately we’re still in a position where that history is relevant. So in 2020, when the Covid pandemic hit, we saw a pretty wide level retraction in public markets and private markets, including, you know, in the stock market being down about 30% in 2020. The same was true for real estate values and real estate transactions. And in fact, this was pretty much the case across the board even in small businesses. A lot of your audience today may recall, you know, the way that we the way that we were shopping, the way that we were dining, the way that we were traveling, everything was changing. And so this had a tremendous impact on real estate, because real estate really is the backbone of the country, of our small businesses and our large businesses as well. And so in order to combat this, you know, economic retraction and the risk of really a wide set economic recession, that would have been, you know, pretty catastrophic. There was a lot of free stimulus pushed into the market, about $5 trillion over the course of a couple of years.

Bashir Mansour: There were there was also a reduction in interest rates from about 2% at the base level. And the base level was really what you would think of as the rate that the Federal Reserve sets as the minimum. And typically your interest rate is a spread or a yield that the bank sets over that base rate. So for your audience members, they probably remember interest rates in 2019 were about 5% into 2020. Those interest rates came down with the reduction that the Federal Reserve made from 2% to zero. Those interest rates ended up being somewhere around, you know, 2 to 3%. So a lot of your audience, in fact, may own homes that they bought in that period, and they’re locked in at those low interest rates. Well, that sort of economic stimulus, uh, plus, uh, the lower interest rates cause a lot of robust economic activity. Um, and especially in the real estate segment, which pushed values way up. Just generally speaking, we had a historically high period of inflation. It was the highest since the 1980s. And in order to combat that, inflation, which was becoming a real issue, if it was not, uh, maintained or if it was not controlled, um, the Federal Reserve then raised interest rates in the most aggressive rate hike cycle since the 1980s as well.

Bashir Mansour: So interest rates at the base level went from 0% up to about 5.5%. So that, as you can imagine, is really challenging anybody with an adjustable rate mortgage or anybody with commercial real estate debt that originally had their debt at around 2 or 3%, was now paying somewhere between 7 and 9%. So in some cases, their cost of borrowing capital tripled. And that had a remarkable impact on the economy and on the real estate market in particular. We saw it because of that transaction volumes decline about 60 to 80% over the course of 2023 into 2025. And in the market, you know, we were hearing a lot of survive until 25 and a lot of kicking the can down the road in terms of commercial real estate loans that were coming due over the course of the last couple of years. And so today, we are really in a unique period of time where transaction volumes are still low and it’s caused some impact at the value level as well.

Lee Kantor: Now, wasn’t there also kind of a systemic change in the sense that the work from home kind of trend became more firmly established with at least the younger generation of workers that that that became something that they preferred rather than going back into the office. And a lot of companies said, you know what? Why are we holding on to this real estate when no one’s in the office?

Bashir Mansour: Absolutely. The work from home, uh, you know, the rise in popularity of work from home changed the way that we do everything. And it’s impacted, uh, not just, you know, the way that we work, but it’s also impacted the way that we live. It’s impacted our urban landscapes. And so, you know, today, uh, analysts are projecting that over the course of the next ten years, up to 30% of the office inventory could be obsolete. And in fact, today in Atlanta, um, we have a 24% vacancy rate, which is higher than the national average of about 20%. Now, the interesting thing there is that while these buildings are roughly, you know, 76% economically occupied, meaning there’s a lease for 76% of the property, they’re actually only being utilized somewhere around 50 to 60%. And so the physical occupancy is a lot lower. And that has caused a tremendous impact on property values. It’s caused a change in the way that our our cities feel and the way that they operate. And so it’s led to a lot of challenges. It’s led to a lot of, you know, different, uh, a lot of different dynamics that we weren’t used to before. Some of these are positive because it means that people are more flexible. Um, and there are benefits to the, you know, to the family, at the family level, at the, uh, you know, employee level. But also, you know, to our, to our downtowns and our midtown’s, um, and you can see this in some cases in Atlanta, activity has kind of slowed down and there’s, uh, not as much foot traffic, which means that the small businesses and the people that are these, you know, entrepreneurs that are running restaurants or retail shops out of these downtowns and midtown’s aren’t seeing as much activity. So this has had a tremendous effect on the real estate segment as a whole and on the economy as a whole, but especially in our urban landscapes.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, there’s a lot of talk of well, if all of those buildings are only kind of half utilized, maybe we can turn some of those into residential or home. But it’s not that simple to turn an office building into, um, you know, condos. Right? Like, it seems like on the surface it may not be that difficult, but with the plumbing and where bathrooms and things like that, it becomes a lot trickier.

Bashir Mansour: Yeah, you’re exactly right, Riley. Uh, you know, the prospect of changing a office building into a residential building is challenging. Now, it’s something that I think, you know, we need to really take seriously. It’s something that we certainly are taking seriously here at Woodville, but it’s something that you can’t underestimate. Uh, today in the United States, we’ve got, uh, by some estimates, about a 5 million, uh, home shortage. Um, the period that we mentioned earlier, right after Covid, when interest rates were really low, allowed a lot of people to get into properties and lock in really low interest rates, and that has caused a slowdown in turnovers of homes, which has resulted in an even tighter supply crunch in available homes for purchase. Um, and as the combination of that dynamic plus, uh, the higher cost of of interest rates and the higher cost of borrowing capital has also led to a slowdown in new construction starts, which means that new homes are being built at a far less frequent rate over the course of the last five years. What we’ve seen in Atlanta is that properties, multifamily properties, which are essentially just apartment buildings, are being built with smaller footprints and smaller unit sizes. That’s a product of charging a higher rent per square foot and in other words, a more profitable business model. But what we have is right now the the inventory on the market does not supplement effectively. We believe the families that are made up of 3 to 5 people that need a place to live in our urban environments, and that’s been a challenging issue.

Bashir Mansour: So we see an opportunity at Woodville and converting office assets and converting large conference center hotel assets into multifamily properties. And we think that that is a real opportunity. Now, it takes a lot of careful execution and calculation. We’re working with some of the best architects and engineers to identify what the solutions are. Not every building works. In fact, the vast majority of buildings do not work for this. Like you mentioned, there are challenges in plumbing, challenges in the mechanical systems of the building and in the layouts. In some cases, you know, a square, a box that that is, you know, 10 to 20 stories tall doesn’t necessarily work because of the challenges that you have with the layout. So we’ve been working to identify that solution, but we think that if we can get it right and we feel that we have a model that does get this right and will be, you know, ready to to launch that in Q1 of 2026, we think we can really make a great impact and get those people who support our urban landscape, who support the city of Atlanta and other Sunbelt cities into the city, living a comfortable life where they can work, live and play. And we think that that’s going to change the dynamic of our downtowns and midtown’s today.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there an opportunity to kind of rethink what a home is like, for example, in some of these buildings that are difficult to retrofit into a traditional condo? Can you create or would there market, would the market kind of see as palatable something more like a dorm setting where it’s shared bathrooms? Well, instead of trying to recreate individual bathrooms that you just say, okay, this is a shared bathroom situation and there there might be a portion of the population that would be okay with that if the price was right. Is there any kind of outside the box thinking when it comes to, you know, doing things like that or creating these tiny home communities where it’s a much smaller footprint, but maybe in some land that isn’t being utilized, um, that you can put a bunch of them there and create kind of the density you need of people who are residents so that you can support kind of the small businesses that are around there, instead of just saying, oh, it becomes a ghost town after 5:00.

Bashir Mansour: You know, those are those are two great ideas. Lee. And I think that they both have merit. Now, what we have been discussing here at Woodville, and I credit our founder and managing partner, uh, Rahim Charania, who, uh, founded Woodville back in 2020, and all those other businesses that were consolidated under Woodville. Um, he’s a he’s a great guy and a dear friend and a great mentor to me. Um, he likes to say that we need to reimagine our, uh, vertical real estate and think about it the way that we’ve thought about our horizontal real estate development over the course of the last few decades. So what that means is mixing in different utilizations into high rise office buildings or in general, high rise buildings in urban infill markets. Um, and reimagining what a a home looks like. And there is an opportunity to turn buildings, uh, to turn, uh, you know, these buildings into micro housing, which is sort of, you know, along the lines of what you mentioned, where you have smaller units and shared restrooms. We think that those can effectively support the workforce housing demand that’s out there and get people into the city right now. Uh, those who don’t earn over $60,000 a year have a really tough time affording to live in Atlanta.

Bashir Mansour: So that’s that’s a challenge. And I know that there has been a lot of progress made in the city over the course of the recent years, thanks to both public and private efforts, but there are opportunities to scale that, that progress. Um, we think, however, that instead of going smaller, there’s an opportunity to go larger. We think that, like I said, you know, those families that are 3 to 5 people who can’t afford to live in the city today or who don’t have enough space to supplement them because a lot of the new inventory that’s been pushed into the market has been studios and one bedrooms, we think there’s an opportunity to build larger units for those folks, and that could solve some of the challenges that exist today with revitalizing and adapting some of these office buildings by creating larger footprints at a more affordable rate and not having to do as much mechanical and plumbing and electrical work, because you’re not trying to stuff as many studio units into a building as possible. So we do see that as an opportunity. We think that that that’s where we’re where we’re going with our, uh, new vehicle that’s going to launch next year. And that’s what we’ve been working on with our teams.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you educate us a little bit about kind of affordable housing? That’s something that is an important topic. And you kind of touched upon a little bit. The part I don’t understand about affordable housing is are you trying is the objective to just make the rent affordable for a renter, or is it is it to make, um, an equity opportunity affordable for an owner? Um, because those are two different things. Like are you just trying to find opportunities to give a person a low rent in order to live in an area you’re encouraging people to live in, or are you really trying to help somebody build wealth so that the the it’s going to appreciate over time? Like, like we’re seeing that even areas that are maybe on the edges, um, get bought up by investors and then all of a sudden they’re not affordable anymore to the people who previously lived there, but they are creating wealth for the people who own them.

Bashir Mansour: Absolutely. You know, with our focus currently under this fund that we’re planning to launch, we’re really looking at our urban landscape, and we’re really trying to drive value for folks who need more affordable housing solutions. We do see an opportunity in converting assets into condos rather than converting them into apartments and selling. And so it’s a unique dynamic, and it really depends on the building. Uh, there is a need for both affordable, uh, uh, home purchases and, and affordable rents. And so we see an opportunity in both markets. Um, right now we are really focused on identifying the right, uh, engineered system for conversion. And then depending on the market that you’re in, depending on the costs of the land, depending on the cost of the asset, which has to be tremendously low when you’re buying these assets and priming them for conversion, you have to really get in at a very low basis in order to make the deal work, so you could afford to do all the adaptive reuse construction that comes along with that strategy. But we see an opportunity for both something along the lines of developing condos, sort of like those, you know, small homes that you discuss, those, you know, miniature home communities that have been popping up around the outskirts of metro Atlanta. We see an opportunity to provide a similar solution in, uh, you know, adapted office buildings and adapted, uh, hotel conference center assets that were built in the 1960s, 1970s.

Bashir Mansour: These are really class B and class C properties. Um, and so we are trying to provide a, uh, less rent restricted, uh, opportunity for these folks to, uh, rent spaces in our, in our urban environments and provide that at a rate that’s below, uh, ami and, you know, make it so that they can afford to rent those spaces that they currently cannot afford to rent. Um, because of the, you know, premiums on market rate. But we also think that there is an opportunity if you can develop for the right dollar figure and if you can find the right building to build units that people can actually purchase and help them build some equity. So, you know, we are we are really a developer by nature. And so we are looking at this from the lens of a real estate developer. And there are a lot of nuances. And we work with a lot of excellent third parties that help guide those nuances in terms of, um, you know, the laws and the credits and everything that surround, uh, surround that type of solution. Um, but at the moment we’re really focused on engineering the right physical solution for this problem.

Lee Kantor: And so, I mean, you’re going into areas that maybe aren’t the most desirable today, but with the hopes that you’re you’re on an edge that can become desirable and eventually will appreciate. So it will create value and wealth for all those participating. That’s sounds like philosophically where you’re at.

Bashir Mansour: Yeah, you know we are. I wouldn’t call these areas, you know, undesirable. I would say that we really are focused on desirable markets and, you know, strong.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m saying you’re on the edge of, like, the opportunities are on the edges right there. Not in where everybody is.

Bashir Mansour: Right. You know, in some cases they can be. Um, depending on the property, uh, depending on the location and depending on how cheap you can buy that asset. But to your point, for the most part, where you get those really great discounts or where you get that really great basis on an asset is a little bit, you know, it could be it could be, uh, depending variable. But in some cases on the outskirts of, uh, you know, the urban core, um, in secondary markets, in class B and class C properties, a lot has to do with the actual building. And so in the office segment, we’ve seen what we call what we consider a flight to quality where folks have been, you know, cutting down large leases and moving to fully amenitized buildings, class A properties. And that’s left a lot of the, you know, 1960s to 1970s, class B and C properties in these downtowns or in these cbd’s, which are central business districts, empty. And we think that the opportunities lie in those types of properties. So we really are working on developing a unique solution that, uh, it lands somewhere, uh, right. You know, right in, in, in the right area that you want to be in, uh, and provides the right amount of space for the end user, for the renter or for the home buyer.

Lee Kantor: So now what markets are kind of playing this, right. Are you are you seeing other opportunities around the country, like, like what parts of the country are kind of leaning in the right direction when it comes to, uh, you know, taking advantage of these opportunities?

Bashir Mansour: There are, you know, select developers in every market who are tackling these issues. Well, I think Atlanta has seen a tremendous lift in this, uh, you know, in this space over the course of the last several years. And there are some, you know, large players in the Atlanta market. We we are really focused on the Sunbelt United States. Um, these are not incredibly high density markets, but they are markets that have seen tremendous appreciation over the course of the last five years. And, um, you know, relatively high amount of inflation, which has led to some of the restrictions that we see, uh, in housing and housing affordability. So we we really like the Sunbelt. Woodville, uh, plays in its backyard. We understand the Sunbelt states. Well, uh, we have assets spanning from Georgia all the way west to Texas. And so we like those markets. We see an opportunity in those markets, uh, where there’s high vacancy permeating the office market. And so we are really focused on the opportunity where it presents itself and we’re looking in the right areas. But we think that for now, our focus remains the southeast US.

Lee Kantor: Now, what’s your opinion about, um, things like the Beltline or or mass transit, or the opportunities for some sort of way to move people in a Non-car like manner, whether it’s density for walking or density for, uh, you know, riding a bike or getting around without a car. How important is that?

Bashir Mansour: I think it’s incredibly important. Um, one of my favorite books is a book called Happy City by Charles Montgomery that talks all about our urban landscapes and our urban environments, and how important it is to have walkability and public transit access. And in in the case of Atlanta, the Beltline has been just a complete game changer, um, in the way that we, you know, uh, maneuver around the city and the way that we get around. It’s brought a lot of commerce, uh, to the Midtown area and to, uh, the West Side. And I know that it’s expanding. It’s been a really big game changer and why it’s very widely impactful, Tactful in the city of Atlanta, so that’s been incredible. I think that there are plans to expand that, you know, is what we’re hearing. And we know that, uh, it’s been, you know, a big a big piece of Atlanta’s growth over the last several years with, you know, property, uh, appreciation in those areas and new small businesses coming up all over the place. So we, we really we really love the Beltline. Um, we’re huge fans of that concept. And we think that, you know, once it’s complete, it’s going to be just incredible for the city.

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

Bashir Mansour: Uh, you know, Lee, we are always open to finding, uh, brilliant minds who want to talk to us about these solutions. Hearing people’s concerns, hearing the challenges that they face. It’s a big part of how we’re trying to structure our product on the, uh, you know, new housing solution that we’re planning to launch next year. We would love to get in touch with renters, with folks who are looking to establish some equity, you know, hear about their challenges, hear what they’re looking for. We would love that. For for those of you who are interested in contacting us, whether it’s about, uh, those topics or whether you’re an investor or anything of the sort, you can find us at WW Woodville, or you can add us on LinkedIn. Uh, just by looking us up at Woodville. We’re highly responsive and we always welcome, uh, great conversations and collaboration.

Lee Kantor: Well, Beshear, thank you so much for sharing your story, doing important work. And we appreciate you.

Bashir Mansour: Thank you so much, Lee. This has been a pleasure. I appreciate you, and I appreciate the audience today. Thanks. And, uh, I really appreciate it.

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

The Future of Home Services: Embracing AI and Integrated Solutions with Housecall Pro

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Franchise Marketing Radio
Franchise Marketing Radio
The Future of Home Services: Embracing AI and Integrated Solutions with Housecall Pro
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In this episode of Franchise Marketing Radio, Lee interviews Roland Ligtenberg, Senior VP of Innovation and Co-founder of Housecall Pro. Roland discusses how Housecall Pro’s mobile-first software empowers home service professionals—like HVAC, plumbing, and electrical trades—with integrated tools for scheduling, invoicing, payments, and customer management. He highlights the platform’s in-house AI features for tasks like call answering and bookkeeping, rapid adoption among small businesses, and the measurable growth users experience. The conversation explores how Housecall Pro’s technology streamlines operations, enhances customer service, and supports the success of independent service providers and franchises.

Roland Ligtenberg is a co-founder of Housecall Pro, the best field service management platform serving over 45,000 home service companies.

Housecall Pro’s comprehensive suite of features, solutions, reports and state-of-the-art AI capabilities empower home service professionals to save time, sell bigger jobs and provide best-in-class service so they can discover new opportunities to grow and effectively outpace the competition

Follow Housecall Pro on LinkedIn and Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Skilled trades jobs are “standing jobs” – AI complementary, not replacement
  • Developing AI team members for non-competitive advantage tasks:
  • Call handling
  • Scheduling
  • Invoice chasing
  • Data analysis
  • Goal: repurpose human talent for complex, nuanced work
  • New CSR AI can answer calls for pros

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Coming to you live from the Business RadioX studio. It’s Franchise Marketing Radio.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of Franchise Marketing Radio. And this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have the senior VP of innovation and Co-Founder of Housecall Pro, Roland Ligtenberg. Welcome.

Roland Ligtenberg: Hey, thanks. How are you, Lee?

Lee Kantor: I am doing well for folks who aren’t familiar, can you tell us a little bit about Housecall Pro? How are you serving folks?

Roland Ligtenberg: Sure. So Housecall Pro is a software designed and used by all kinds of different home service professionals that are doing residential work. So think HVAC, plumbers, electricians, power washers, garage doors, septic cleaning, you name it. Anyone that services someone’s home that provides a house call, uh, we are the software for them, so we help them.

Lee Kantor: Go ahead.

Roland Ligtenberg: I was gonna say we help them. Everything from scheduling, invoicing, payments, build their websites for them. We’ve got AI, we’ve got all kinds of fun stuff. But essentially, you know, we handle a lot of the back office and also some of the front, front of house stuff as well.

Lee Kantor: So what’s your back story? How’d you get involved in this line of work?

Roland Ligtenberg: Uh, well, that’s a really long story. But, you know, we started this company about 12 years or so ago, and when we first started it, we were really looking for, um, a way to connect, uh, home service professionals with with homeowners. And what we found while we were building that as that, no one was building software for the trades. Um, definitely not mobile friendly. And so, uh, we launched Housecall Pro back in 2015. Uh, but we’d all previously worked together at a company called Qualcomm. And, uh, and that’s kind of where it grew from.

Lee Kantor: So it grew as kind of a SaaS, uh, technology, uh, solution for folks in this industry.

Roland Ligtenberg: That’s right. Yep. So it’s it’s software as a service, you know, it’s a it’s a monthly subscription. And, uh, you know, for us, we keep on developing and and releasing new features and new ways to help our pros either save time or, or make more money or both.

Lee Kantor: Now, was anybody in kind of the founding team, a tradesman?

Roland Ligtenberg: Uh, so one of my co-founders, his dad was a painter, uh, growing up, um, you know, his dad was. And then, you know, I had a painting business in college, but none of us were tradespeople. You know, we all came from that technology world, uh, which is kind of our profession. And, you know, specifically the mobile, mobile tech side of things, which is where, you know, most of our pros that are always out in the field, out and about. And so back in 2013, when we started the business, you know, that was maybe iPhone, I forget what version it was, maybe 6 or 5 even probably even less. Um, and that was when things were still relatively new and there was enough, you know, compute power and processing power to be able to deliver a solution like this where you can run the entire part of your business just from your back pocket. So that’s that’s how we came to market.

Lee Kantor: Now, was there any kind of initial hypothesis that you had about what they would need or want, and then you kind of learn differently after kind of putting it out there for the market to decide.

Roland Ligtenberg: Uh, you know, we just stayed really close with our customers in the early days. We would do, uh, lunch and learns with them every single Wednesday at Fuddruckers, and we’d invite them to come and they would show us, uh, the app they were using. And then they’d say, hey, I wish you could do X or Y. And we just started building it, uh, by just listening to our kind of our customers. But we knew that if we helped strengthen the relationship between their customer, which is the homeowner, and themselves, by providing just a more clean, efficient, transparent way to communicate, then that would be the the first step, the first kind of the thesis, if you will, uh, to allow them to run a better business.

Lee Kantor: Now, what kind of percentage of the people in trades are using kind of a technology solution like this as opposed to, you know, having a human being answer the phone and write things down, you know, kind of old school.

Roland Ligtenberg: Sure. So I’d still say a majority of the people that come to Housecall Pro are coming from what I call pen and paper, but it’s a little more advanced than pen and paper at this point in 2025. They might be using like Google Calendar with QuickBooks and maybe square or like, you know, like a MailChimp or.

Lee Kantor: So they just cobbled together kind of their own solution based on tools they’re comfortable with or familiar with.

Roland Ligtenberg: Yeah, exactly. And they’re not using something, which is what we were called, which is like a field service management solution or a CRM. And so, you know, most people are still coming from some sort of legacy system, but I will say that, you know, in the last ten years or so that we’ve been in the market, it’s changed dramatically, where in the beginning it was just everybody. There was just nothing. And now, you know, there are solutions out there. They’re still not all the pieces, but we try to make it so that we’re more than just a software piece. We have a full solution. So we have, you know, if you want a bookkeeper, we’ve got bookkeepers, we’ve got an accounting solution, we’ve got a payroll solution, we’ve got a call answering solution, both humans and AI, you know, we’ve got a lot more other things other than just, you know, the software in your pocket to help them run their businesses.

Lee Kantor: Now, are all those ancillary services stuff that’s all in-house of House Call Pro or is that something where you kind of have a partner network or you built a community around your core service?

Roland Ligtenberg: No, that’s all within House Call Pro. So it’s all in one place. You don’t have to connect things together, which is the the beauty of it. And I’d say in particular to for, uh, you know, franchises that use us and all those, those types of businesses, just having everything, uh, all in one place, uh, really helps streamline things rather than having to figure out how you connect things, and data is not going in the right place, etc. so all of that is in-house right at house called Pro, which is one of the value props that we offer.

Lee Kantor: So that was kind of a mindful point of differentiation that you said that everything’s going to be kind of in-house, and that way it’ll be less confusion and it’ll be more seamless.

Roland Ligtenberg: Yeah, I think our pros have always just told us, you know, it’d be nice if it was all in one place. But the ability to do that, you know, you have to become quite a big company to.

Lee Kantor: Right. Exactly. It’s a double edged sword.

Roland Ligtenberg: Yeah. To build all of the things. And so, you know, you really because we service, you know, 55 different trades. There’s different uh things that each trade needs. And so you really have to kind of really figure out across all what are the basic necessities and then customize each little thing a little better. Uh, a trade by trade basis. So, so it makes sense for HVAC. So it makes sense, you know for for cleaning company. So it makes sense for a pest control company for example. And so those are things we’re continually working on because you know there’s just so much opportunity here. Just even United States alone and Canada, which is what we serve now.

Lee Kantor: What what are kind of the main features that people like? The main benefits are they’re kind of a top 2 or 3 that people are like, okay, once this is, you know, the 80 over 20 rule, if we get this, then anything else is kind of a bonus.

Roland Ligtenberg: Every company is a little bit different why they come to us. But I’d say, you know, the core part of Housecall Pro is the customer relationship component, which allows you to schedule, invoice and accept payments. And it’s really keeping track of all the people out in the field, making sure that the jobs and things that they do are going well, making sure that you’re able to monetize them and collect your payments. And then at the end of the day, pay your guys. So, uh, that full loop is, is the primary, uh, set of usage that Housecall Pro has. That’s where we started, you know, and being able to do it from both the mobile and the web is another big differentiator. A lot of people say they do mobile, they have a mobile solution, but it’s kind of an afterthought tacked on. When we started the business, we were mobile, mobile only. So that’s the difference. And the reality is, is if it’s hard for the folks out in the field to to use the app, they’re not going to add the notes, they’re not going to add the tags, they’re not going to do the things they need to do. If you make it easy for them, then becomes just kind of second nature, just like any other tool they have in their in their tool bag. So that’s the real differentiator. Is that kind of that mobile first approach really that ease of use. Everything’s got a design that’s very familiar. And so the training, even for people that are coming from something like pen and paper or some other system, there’s not a lot of need to, you know, all right, we’re gonna spend a couple months learning how to do this thing, you know, and they can get up and running the same day.

Lee Kantor: And then it works for, uh, you know, kind of one man bands as well as, like you said, franchises.

Roland Ligtenberg: Yeah. So we, we service, uh, even before it’s a one man band. You know, we service folks that are doing work on the side, you know, that or have other jobs and just looking to get in the trades or, you know, they’re working for someone else, you know, and so it can start even before their, their own official company and then all the way up to, you know, really big franchises, um, you know, in the US that everyone would recognize. And so for us, we really try to focus in that, that 0 to $10 million a year business range. That’s kind of our bread and butter right there. And so for each trade it’s a little bit different in terms of employee size. But that that represents probably 95% of the US home services market. And so those are the folks that we really try to serve. And and previously we’re underserved. You know, from a software perspective.

Lee Kantor: Now, is that group kind of one of the last bastions of mom and pop individual, just small, uh, players that haven’t been gobbled up by maybe private equity or these larger entities.

Roland Ligtenberg: Uh, I would say that some are already participating, you know, within that band on the private equity side. But I would say in general, the, the people that we try to serve, you know, are family owned and operated and that kind of stuff. And so I think that, you know, when when you’re out there and you’re shopping for software, there’s some other software out there that’s more like Salesforce and very enterprisey and very expensive and hard to maintain and clunky, and you can configure the heck out of it. But, you know, you.

Lee Kantor: You gotta hire a consultant to configure it for you.

Roland Ligtenberg: That’s right, that’s right. And then and then us, which is just like, you know, you can self serve. We’ve got an onboarding team that can help you do it. If you’re somewhat savvy you can do it. It’s whatever you know you kind of need. But I would say, you know, our primary user is, you know, someone that probably, maybe even has a husband and wife team, uh, with another family member, son or daughter working for them, and then a couple of technicians under them and a couple of, you know, trucks on the road. And those are the ones you actually want in your personal home. You know, I would not want a Benjamin Franklin in my home or, you know, I wouldn’t want, you know, a Roto-Rooter or something like that where they don’t really have a connection to the community. I want someone in in my community that sponsors my kid’s little league, uh, whose name and face I can shake hands with that I know will do a good job, uh, and will come back, you know, in case anything is wrong. That’s who I really want to have come. And those are our customers.

Lee Kantor: So that was kind of your avatar when you started. And then obviously, over time, it evolved into some of these larger entities.

Roland Ligtenberg: That’s right. Yeah. And so the larger entities, if you think about it, they’re still small entities. There’s just more of them. So it’s not as if it’s like this, you know, $100 million private equity owned, you know, massive, you know, plumbing company, you know, in the area. Um, but uh, but franchise typically are still smaller locations that are sub $10 million. So it really is kind of those community fail, um, types of shops that, that use Housecall Pro.

Lee Kantor: So early on, you mentioned AI, how how does AI kind of work in your system? And, uh, you know, I know it’s a hot button issue for some folks. I mean, I think that this area is probably an area where it’s not as hot button issue. But can you share a little bit about your take on AI and how you use it, and how your folks and your users can use it?

Roland Ligtenberg: Sure. It’s funny that you mentioned that as hot button for us. It’s really not. It’s, you know, Home Services is very well insulated and complimentary with AI because AI is really good at taking jobs like your job and my job, which is sitting jobs. Right. But not very good at taking standing jobs where you have to crawl.

Lee Kantor: Exactly. They haven’t figured that. I haven’t seen Elon Musk work on that robot that goes underneath in the crawl space yet.

Roland Ligtenberg: Yeah, I saw that. I saw that robot Optimus Prime or whatever his name doing kung fu. But I still think going from kung fu to crawling and crawl spaces and all that kind of stuff and not breaking stuff is going to be a whole different level. So I think, you know, by and large, people will want to welcome other people into their homes to help them troubleshoot. And, you know, they’re all unique things. So I think on our side, uh, the our AI strategy has been around what kind of team members can we enable for our customers, our pros, so that they can focus on doing what they do best, which is the work in the field. And so we have a slew of different team members you can add, but one of our most popular ones is our CSR AI, which answers the phone. A lot of times our small businesses, you know, they they want to be able to not have to worry about the phone after 6 p.m., you know, or on the weekends, uh, or even during the day, because they might be in the crawl space with zero service. And they, you know, they don’t want to miss that call. And so our CSR, AI will handle the calls for them. It’ll book the calls for them. It’ll reschedule things, uh, if there’s existing customers, it has all the knowledge of the work that’s been done. So our CSR is one of our popular ones. But just to kind of give a flavor, you know, we have a coach AI that helps coach you with your business.

Roland Ligtenberg: We have an analyst that helps you with your numbers. So if you’re trying to figure out, oh, you know, how much commission do I have to pay Lee for the month of October here for all the water heaters he’s installed, you can ask a question in natural language versus having to be a CSV Excel junkie to try to pivot the tables to get to what you need. Um, you know, and from from there we have, you know, an accountant. Um, we also have all kinds of different, um, eyes more on the kind of the sales side and bookkeeping. So, uh, within Housecall Pro, you know, our, our AI team members allow our pros to, to really focus on what they really want to do versus things that they might have to be doing today, but they don’t want to be doing. Um, and so rather than having to hire a full time human, you know, you could either delay that for a little bit because you’ve got a great AI sidekick here instead of inside of pro, or you just maybe don’t need them anymore. And so then you can really focus on on building up, you know, and hiring technicians and training them, uh, rather than having to figure out how to run an office staff or, you know, bring an accountant in-house. You know, those are all things that maybe might not be needed in the future.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you tell your folks about, uh, these customer service reps that are virtual. Is that something? They’re like, oh my God, where’s this been all my life? Or are they like, I don’t know about this. Like what’s kind of the like take the temperature of the room when you’re offering something like that.

Roland Ligtenberg: Yeah. I think there’s a couple different, uh, I’ll call them maybe like cohorts or baskets. There’s those that just adopt it right away because they’re already using AI. They’re already using ChatGPT. They’re doing whatever, you know, um, even in their personal lives. And so those ones are just no brainers and they’re like, oh my gosh, thank God this is here now. And and the value is, is, you know, there’s a lot of different answering AI things out there. But this is fully integrated into your Housecall Pro data that no other, you know, AI could, could access. And so it’s just a lot smarter. It has a lot more context. And if you know anything about AI. Ai is all about giving it the right context. Um, and then you have another group which maybe starts off a little slower. They might say like, hey, you know what? Maybe we can have the AI handle just after hours because I’m not answering those calls anyways. Those are going to waste. And everybody knows, you know, if someone’s out there calling, if someone doesn’t pick up, they’re not leaving a message. They’re probably going to the next one, the next one until someone picks up, you know. And so I still would say, uh, almost a majority of our pros, uh, are using, uh, one or more of our AI team members already in their business. And really, it’s been just about maybe like a year and a half or so since we first started releasing our AI team member. So the adoption has been really, really great. But I think it’s because, you know, people use Housecall Pro to help their business become more efficient. And if there’s more ways to make your business more efficient, why wouldn’t you do it right?

Lee Kantor: You’re open to that. You’re more open to it as if you as opposed to if you just kind of heard about heard about it on the internet or something.

Roland Ligtenberg: That’s right. And look, it’s already connected to all of your data. So there’s no setup. And that’s oftentimes the other barrier of entry where, you know, you have to train it and you have to give it to your SOPs and you have to spend time with it. You have to babysit it. And, you know, there’s just all this other overhead that normally comes with, you know, if you’re using third party AI tools. And so with Housecall Pro, it’s just all bundled in your in your account. You can click it on and it’s there. It’s just sitting in kind of the right rail side of your house called Pro Account. You can chat with it just like you chat with another team member. You just, you know, if you’re using slack or teams or other things, you do the At symbol and then you just hit up whichever team member you want, which is, you know, either human or AI.

Lee Kantor: Now when the human is calling in. So this works for like a phone call, like if somebody makes a phone call, uh, an AI can answer the phone and, and answer, I would imagine kind of basic questions.

Roland Ligtenberg: Yeah. I mean, it answers almost any question really. And that’s the beauty of it.

Lee Kantor: Well, it’s not fixing anything, right. Like it’s taking a message or it’s booking a scheduling a call or is it actually triaging? Hey, water is pouring into my basement, you know, what do I do?

Roland Ligtenberg: It’s it’s it. It will not. It’ll give very light advice. Um, because, you know, the the hard thing is, is that for a lot of home services, you may be like, there’s no heat or there’s water here. And so you know the symptom, but you don’t know the root. You don’t know what’s really happening, you know, as a homeowner. And that’s why you’re calling. And so, you know, Ray will be able to detect whether, hey, is this something I need to escalate is something we’re going to look into the future. You know, where the time slots do we have availability with the technicians, all of those things. So it’s handling all of the kind of the upfront triaging as you kind of put it, but it’s not actually going out and fixing anything itself.

Lee Kantor: Right. And it’s not giving advice to, oh, you see that red knob? Turn it to the left like it’s not.

Roland Ligtenberg: It’ll just give basic advice, maybe like shut off the water to your house. You know, anything else that you might expect, right. Uh, you know, and any one out of plumbing business that’s answering the phones to say, hey, Lee, go turn off the water at your house right now. Hold on. We’re gonna send someone out, you know?

Lee Kantor: And then then the pro gets to decide, hey, if it’s at this level, you know, put it through to me and I’ll talk, you know, I’ll get. Can they get on the actual line there or do they have to call him back?

Roland Ligtenberg: Yeah. We’ve got different, different loops, different ways that that our pros want to configure it. Sometimes they want to get one of our humans a loop. So we have humans that can also answer the phone so we can triage to there if they want to have it patched directly to them. That can also happen if they’re not available to be patched, you know, or um, afforded to. Then it just goes to take a message or book a time in the future. So it’s just it’s however, you know, our pro wants to configure it. Think about, you know, if you were to hire someone just coming out of high school, what would you tell them to do? And that’s probably the level of intelligence that it’s at right now. So it’s it’s definitely good enough for this job.

Lee Kantor: That’s amazing. I mean, you guys are just really found an important need and really filled it elegantly. Congratulations on all the success.

Roland Ligtenberg: Thank you. Yeah. I mean, our mission is to champion our pros to success. So anything we can do to help them become successful will make us successful. And from there, everything else stems, you know, our product decisions. You know, how we build our team, uh, to better serve our pros. What kind of, you know, features and add ons they might need or want? Um, but, you know, with that as the basic mission, it helps, uh, orient the entire company to, to make sure we’re always serving our customers.

Lee Kantor: And that’s a great lesson for anybody listening right now when you have that clear, true north. Decisions aren’t that difficult. It’s either helping you get there or it’s not.

Roland Ligtenberg: And the beauty of it, too, is that if you’ve got employees that are new or might not know what to do in a certain situation because there is no process, you just have them reflect back on the mission. Is this championing our pro to success? Right? If it is, they’ve got the full autonomy to go do it. Um, they can always be, you know, uh, what’s the phrase? You know, ask for forgiveness, not for permission. Right? Um, if you know, if they’re following the mission, then that’s totally the right direction they should be doing.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff. Well, um, any advice for a pro out there that, uh, might be struggling in a day to day basis? Do you, like, share marketing, like, best practices? Because I would imagine some of your I mean, you must learn so much from all of your clients out there all around the country. Um, is there some do you give advice like that? Like sharing? Hey, this is working in Portland. This might work here in Wichita.

Roland Ligtenberg: Absolutely. I’m glad you I’m glad you mentioned that. So, uh, both our coach and analyst AI and our marketing AI can help our pros price better, for example. And they can let them know, hey, are they kind of under the curve, you know, or are they at the higher end of the curve? Uh, are they priced appropriately for any given line item? Uh, or our AI learns from successful marketing campaigns inside a house called Pro, you can send out, uh, email blasts, you know, to your homeowners, you can send out text blasts to your homeowners, uh, or campaigns, I should call them. And, um, those those you can generate and type yourself, or you can have our marketing AI help draft them. And so our marketing AI knows what converts really well for whatever given industry in a particular area. So your AI and this is what’s unique about Housecall Pro. It’s not just learning from your account and what you’re doing. It takes into account the 100 million jobs on our platform, with 50,000 pros all across the United States and what they’re doing. And so you kind of get this hive mind effect or this network effect, where you really get the best of the best and you have access to this knowledge independent of even being told it, because it all lives in the AI mind. So that’s what’s really unique, and I think helps a lot of these pros. And if they’re out there struggling, like am I pricing too high or pricing too low, they can just ask analysts or coach AI, hey, what do you think I should price this thing at? And it will, it will tell you where you are in that curve for that area, which is a really unique and interesting feature.

Lee Kantor: So what do you need more of? How can we help you? Do you need more pros? Do you need more, um, funding? Are you looking to go public? Like what is your what do you need more of?

Roland Ligtenberg: Uh, we just need more people to help. So if there are any pros out there, if you’re in the residential home services space and you need or you feel like you’re using something that maybe isn’t quite optimal, or you’re really looking to figure out, how do I implement AI into my business? Come check out a demo of Housecall Pro we have. You know, you can just go to the home page. You can always text me directly as well. My cell phones (858) 215-1512 and I can connect to one of our a couple thousand employees here that we have now to, to help you based upon what you’re looking for and housecall.

Lee Kantor: Com they can go online and find you and I’m sure in all the socials Housecall Pro is the way to get there.

Roland Ligtenberg: Yeah. You can just search us or you can search for for my name as well. I’m pretty easy to find and track down, but we’re here to help you. If you want to do a demo, we can do a demo. If you want to just set it up yourself, you can set up yourself. There’s a free trial, so, you know, if you feel like you’re tech savvy enough, you don’t need anybody to walk you through. You can get started today for free and just go play around with some stuff. So yeah, feel free to reach out to us or to myself if you feel like you know you’re looking at 2026 and thinking, what else can I do different here? How can I grow? On average, our pros will grow about 35% in the first year. And so that’s, you know, some growth that that happens because people uncover a lot of inefficiencies. Um, and they also uncover a lot of costs that maybe they might not need to have or the AI can help them with. And that’s what we’re here for.

Lee Kantor: And if you’re an emerging franchise or who is in the trades, this is definitely a group you should be connecting with. Housecall Pro Roland, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Roland Ligtenberg: Thank you, Lee, for having me on. This is a pleasure talking to you guys and best of luck to everyone else out there listening in.

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

The Art of Thai Massage: Healing, Community, and the Future of Franchising

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Franchise Marketing Radio
Franchise Marketing Radio
The Art of Thai Massage: Healing, Community, and the Future of Franchising
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In this episode of Franchise Marketing Radio, Lee Kantor interviews Nuttha Goutier, founder and CEO of Sabai Thai Spa. Nuttha discusses the spa’s authentic Thai-inspired experience, unique massage techniques, and community-focused approach. She explains the decision to franchise after 20 years, detailing the preparation, systemization, and support for franchisees. Nuttha describes the ideal franchisee profiles, the spa’s membership program, and additional wellness offerings. The episode highlights Sabai Thai Spa’s commitment to cultural authenticity, customer well-being, and expansion through franchising, inviting listeners to learn more about joining or visiting the spa.

Growing up in a Thai village without running water or electricity, Nuttha Goutier saw healing as part of life, not a luxury. Days spent gathering herbs with local healers and learning from her grandmother taught her that wellness was about community, presence, and simple daily practices.

When she moved to Canada, she was struck by how spas often felt sterile, rushed, and focused on transactions instead of connection. She dreamed of creating a space where guests felt welcomed like family, somewhere that could bring the sensory richness of Thai hospitality to a new place.

Nuttha opened Sabai Thai Spa to offer guests more than a service: from warm greetings to calming scents, every element was chosen to help people slow down and feel cared for. The immediate response from the community confirmed the need for a spa that offered genuine warmth.

Over nearly two decades, she has expanded Sabai Thai Spa into a franchise recognized for its immersive Thai-inspired environments and consistently attentive service.

Connect with Nuttha on LinkedIn and Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • From Thai Village to a lifestyle of wellness: Redefining self-care through cultural roots
  • Keeping soul in the system: How to franchise without losing heart
  • Building a brand as an Asian woman in western wellness

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Coming to you live from the Business RadioX studio. It’s Franchise Marketing Radio.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of Franchise Marketing Radio. And this is going to be a good one. Today I am speaking with the founder and CEO of Sabai Thai Spa, Nuttha Goutier. Welcome.

Nuttha Goutier: Thank you for having me here. I’m very happy to share the conversation with you and the listener.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn about Sabai Thai Spa. Can you tell us a little about it?

Nuttha Goutier: Yes, Sabai Thai Spa is a Thai inspired concept. That file with myself and my husband took over 20 years ago in 2005. It’s through my vision to bring the Thai inspired concept here in Canada There that when people walk in on the first step, they’re coming in, they will feel like a tiny spot to Thailand without getting on an airplane. The five senses were taken care of. The sight, the sound, the touch, the feeling and the taste, and all five senses were taken care of. This warm greeting, it just makes it more warm. It feels like as you visit someone at home that bring you back, you know, to Thai to Thailand house, traditional Thai house, the over 2500 years ago. And then just the whole journey become more like a journey explorer. Experience that stay with them is not just transition of just clinical style spa, right? Is that what I want to bring is an experience and a journey and cultural. The warm, the welcoming, the truly care for others. And that’s what my vision for over 20 years ago.

Lee Kantor: So what are some of the things that are are different that are going to happen at the Sabai Thai spot? That wouldn’t happen at another type of spa.

Nuttha Goutier: It’s a spa in in here in North America it’s more like clinical, right? It’s just you went to clinic or super, extremely luxurious spa. And for us it’s just boutique spa. That totally different. It’s just the site that you come in the first step that you feel like you’ve been transported is just the warm teak wood feeling and just the custom music that we actually we have our own music that you come in, that follow your heartbeat and have the Thai accent into it. Just a high hospitality of Thai cuisine greeting and also the the smell of aroma of Thai herb that you’re coming in. And the touch is the a technique of signature tie style technique that we have in our treatment and the taste of ginger tea. That’s the whole experience. It’s just quite different than the regular spa. So with the modern comfort.

Lee Kantor: So a Thai massage will be different than a Western massage?

Nuttha Goutier: Yes, the technique of massage is different in Thailand. It’s over 2000 years ago. We do a lot of pressure points combined with stretching, breathing exercise. While you get a massage as well. You get a lot of mobility, movement on your body and stretching and the long stroke with massage. The massage itself is quite different technique already, but the theme, the whole journey, the whole experience are quite different.

Lee Kantor: And and you use something called a hot herbal compress that’s used in a Thai massage.

Nuttha Goutier: That is the hot herbal compress. Is it the system itself so separate serve itself. Type massage is usually just a pressure point combined with stretching with meditation like lazy man yoga. Easy to say. Like, you know, you’re just laying there like someone doing yoga and stretching for you and massage.

Lee Kantor: And then at what point did you decide to franchise this concept.

Nuttha Goutier: After 20 years in a business? I really like to share what we have done here in Canada for 20 years. My first goal is to share that journey, to share the experience. When I opened it, people really, really appreciate it. And all the customers coming in, they’re just like, wow, this is what we need. We need to see them everywhere, need that. You know, it just I feel belonging. I feel truly cared for. I able to reconnect to myself. It’s a space that that’s so unique that we need everywhere that make me thinking to open more location We got a lot of consumer really want to see more. And my goal before is to open the space to create a sense of community, because I would like the people that work in there is feel belonging their friend because they see each other more than a family when they work together, long hours and years and years. That’s my main thing that I want to do, is to create a space that people feel belonging, feel like home and joy full at work and enjoy. And that’s what I would like to see. And I’m so happy that we able to do that. And now because of that, it just it I just want to see more of that to create the community everywhere we go for the customer, for the staff and for the community, for the community itself.

Nuttha Goutier: We involve with the local community. We help a lot with school, the location, local organization, event, charity, reality, it just you name it, we’ve done it all. And also we every massage we plant three, every product we sell, we, we plant kelp in the ocean to clean ocean to plant tree. It’s just something that. Because where I grow up, I grew up in northern Thailand, in the middle of nowhere, that we don’t have power, no running water, no electricity, and then the center of the community of truly care for others so, so strong, and people will come in and help you to build a house without asking. People will come and help you to harvest your cough, your rice, your farm. It’s just people just showing up and then caring and helping it just so strong. And when I come here, I want to bring that sense of community everywhere. People are working the local, the community and also make people feel good every single day is I think it’s a good thing to do, right?

Lee Kantor: Yeah. Now, Have you started selling the franchises? Are there other franchises out there?

Nuttha Goutier: Yeah, we have two franchises now that in construction, and they will be opening soon, and we have a few more in dropping coming up. And this is just the almost a year now after we launched our franchising. We spend a longer time to preparation and go to our protocol, the training. We try to have robust training on, you know, like a train, like a training marketing sale and everything. Just what we have done in 20 years. We have done a few protocol and marketing and training and just 22,005, 2008, 2013, 2017 that when I literally go into a system, okay, how can we system, system everything. And we did that one on 2017. The planning for our corporate growth, right? We plan to open more, but because of Covid hit, we pull out all those expansion on a Covid year. But we did open a template location in 2020. That’s the model that we set. Either way, we go the direction of corporate expansion or franchising. This is a model, right? We calculate on that foot traffic for the staff, for the customer, the flow. And then the whole concept is all done in the 2020 with the Covid years.

Nuttha Goutier: And then in 2022 we opened two locations to test our system. You know, one we planning with someone with fully experience, fully trained and then get them to follow the system and we try another one, okay. Hire someone new and young and haven’t done anything, never done any management system before, and just pluck those two in and get them to follow the system right. Actually, we test it out and both work beautifully. And then when 2022 is confirmed that our system is ready for franchising, and after that, we go through with the franchisee consultant, strategic planning and uh, enhancement of uh 20 2017 protocol that we have done. We improved that whole system again, just the back end support, marketing support, accounting support, HR support and sales support. All the learning elements, support that we spend about two years just preparation for growth, that we want to be a strong support and we want to be a good franchisor. You know, we want to do something, do as good as we can, and we nail those down and then lay it November 2020 for that when we launch our franchise opportunity.

Lee Kantor: Now, what is the ideal franchisee, um, look like to you? What type of characteristics or traits should an ideal franchisee for Sabai look like? Are they hands on or is this an investment they can do passively, or do they need to be there at the spa?

Nuttha Goutier: We have two options. One is owner operator that who wants to run in and answer the phone and be in the spa. And the other model is for investors who want to get multi-unit operator and open. 310 2040. And we have those two systems for them to choose from. For us, because I have done for 20 years, the owner don’t have to be there if they follow a system. We have a management training that people can send people to take a management course with us, and then they can just, you know, we help them to how to hiring, how to do training and how to do all the paperwork and maintain and managing people. I work on the business on my first year that I’m in the business already. That’s why when after I working on the business for so many, many years under, I think actually first a few months, because at that time I want freedom. I said at that time it’s just not too young still, you know, 20 something. I just opened the first location. I just want to travel to Thailand. I want to go for a hike 2 or 3 hour a day, you know, want to go yoga two times a day? And I actually put the people in place.

Nuttha Goutier: I have the manager in. I hand the key over to them, I trust them, I believe in them. I have very, you know, believe in people. Right. And I always thinking about system. How can I get people to do this without me being in there? I always okay, you know, they have to do certain thing. They have to wear a uniform the the way, the greeting, the way answering the phone and all the way to follow up the customer. The whole journey, thinking about the whole customer journey. And actually I done that without the business planning. I didn’t go to business school it just because I would like to have freedom. At that time, I just created the whole system, the protocol, uh, in 2005, just for me to have freedom of running a business, I still want to enjoy it. Running business. I want to be the owner that have freedom and enjoy my time, and also able to take time away from work. It creates my flexibility of working hours for myself.

Lee Kantor: And one of the things that’s unique to your spa system is the idea of membership.

Nuttha Goutier: Um, we have, uh.

Lee Kantor: A person can be a member, and I’m sure they can go in and order different services a la carte, but being a member has some benefits, right?

Nuttha Goutier: Yes. And of course, membership. They have all the perks. You know, they get a membership rate to get the discount rate on the product, and frequently the mainly is when you commitment to be a membership. It just the commitment of being a self-care that people will come more often. Our goal is not just transition. Our goal is look at the whole of that person. We want them to be healthier, better, a better version of themselves and enrich their life and promote the longevity. That’s that’s our whole value. We want to see our customer to become a long life journey. Healthy, right? They come in legally. We recommend them, you know, to to have a good routine and come back to the spa every week to get massage. It’s possible. Routine is is a need. It’s a must thing to do. Uh, we have customers that book every Monday. The rest of the year, people book every two weeks the rest of the year. Some people book once a month the rest of the year. We want to see people come back legally. When people come back legally, they feel really connected to themselves and they know what truly mattered, what actually body needs, what actually body will tell you. Actually, I need a massage legally to calm my mind, to feel good, to loosen up the muscle. Untie the knot. And then after, when they’ve done that, they go home. They feel good at the moment. But when they go home, they become better version of themselves. Better dad, better mom, better partner. And also a more clarity at workplace as well. And then after that they’re thinking, oh, I have to eat more healthy and go for a hike or walk or get exercise legally, become routine and then they become more healthy overall.

Nuttha Goutier: Just health. And for health and wellbeing, for a PBA membership, usually we have option that people can just sign up for legal and monthly membership, or people can prepay the membership of, uh, 6 or 12, or some people even get 20 or 30 or 40. Right. And just like I’m just here we go pay membership. I’m planning to come to some people come two times a week, right? And they said, okay, just just get me pack it up. 20 membership. And that seemed to help to remind them to come more often. And also we have the legal price that people want to try it out. They can come in and try it out and and a lot of times what I learned in the North America here, people very ambitious, right? People have a go getter ambition and they want to do a lot of things so busy. And they did not take the moment for themselves. And they get overwhelming, overstressed and then also feel guilty to take care of yourself in here. I don’t know why so many times. No, you don’t need to feel guilty to care for your health and well-being. If you look after yourself, get massage legally, care for you, you probably extend your life for 10 or 15 years. It’s worth it. But during the whole journey, you’re healthy. Preventative of future sickness too. It’s a good thing to do, and you have to treat like you have a meeting and go to your condo and book it for yourself. It’s just the past. That past is a healthy past that everyone needed.

Lee Kantor: Now, in addition to massage, you also do some skin care treatments as well.

Nuttha Goutier: Yes, we do facial and we also have our own skincare line called smile. Essential that people can have that home with them after massage or facial, that they can continue for self care at home.

Lee Kantor: And if somebody wants to learn more about the franchise opportunity or learn more about the spa. Is there a website that they can go to?

Nuttha Goutier: Yes. sabaifranchise.com or sabaithai.com. or they can reach out to me on my LinkedIn Nuttha Goutier, N U T T H A, last name G O U T I E R.

Lee Kantor: And then Sabai is spelled SABAI.

Nuttha Goutier: SABAI. Yes, Sabai.

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

Nuttha Goutier: Thank you so much for having me on here. I’m so glad and be honored to be here.

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

Transforming Challenges into Opportunities: The Yuloff Creative Approach to Business Coaching

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High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Transforming Challenges into Opportunities: The Yuloff Creative Approach to Business Coaching
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In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee welcomes Sharyn and Hank Yuloff, co-owners of Yuloff Creative. The Yuloffs share their journey from launching their business to becoming trusted marketing and business coaches. They discuss their hands-on approach, offering both group masterminds and private coaching, and highlight the importance of clear messaging, consistent marketing, and active networking. The episode features practical advice, success stories, and insights on leveraging chambers of commerce, accountability, and writing books to help small businesses grow and avoid being the “best kept secret.”

Hank and Sharyn Yuloff bring a very unique perspective to clients who wish to have their marketing efforts reach new focus.

Hank is a targeted marketing tactician with a background in advertising and public relations who has helped small businesses get bigger for over 35 years.

Sharyn’s path went through the business affairs and human resources departments and is an online marketing expert.

Their company, Yuloff Creative Marketing Solutions, offers complete traditional and technological marketing plans for small companies who never thought they could afford a Chief Marketing Officer.

The couple teach several small business breakthrough bootcamp intensives each year for small groups of businesses. They also have a coaching program where each week they work two-on-one in person and virtually with owners of small businesses on sales, marketing, HR and systems. Their clients call them their Business Easy Button.

They are authors of eight best-selling business books, with two more scheduled within 24 months.

The couple hosted almost 400 episodes of a podcast program, called “The Marketing Checklist View Cast,” and appear as the marketing experts in a yet-to-be-released entrepreneurial video series featuring Brian Tracy called Live Your List.

As tools for small business owners to increase revenue and profits, the Yuloffs created a hybrid ‘Do-It-Yourself plus private coaching’ marketing mastermind program called The Small Business Marketing Plan and offer free coaching at HowToGetThereFaster.com

They describe themselves for clients as the Business Coaches Down the Hall where they work for you, think for you, create for you, figure it all out and hand it to you.

Follow Yuloff Creative on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Marketing strategies and challenges for businesses
  • The evolution of Yuloff Creative and its founders’ backgrounds
  • Coaching approaches, including group mastermind sessions and private coaching
  • Development of a modular marketing course for budget-conscious businesses
  • Importance of writing books as a marketing tool
  • Clarity in messaging and audience targeting for effective marketing
  • Consistency in marketing efforts and the need for ongoing engagement
  • The role and relevance of chambers of commerce for small businesses
  • Accountability and commitment in business growth and marketing
  • Success stories demonstrating the impact of coaching on client businesses

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 the co-owners of Yuloff Creative, Sharon and Hank Yuloff. Welcome.

Sharyn Yuloff: Thanks, Lee.

Hank Yuloff: Hey, Lee, how are you, man?

Lee Kantor: I am doing well. So excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about Ulvwf creative. How you serving folks?

Hank Yuloff: Uh, we’re our clients. Call us their easy button. You know, we hold them accountable, hold their hands when they have questions about marketing or sales or HR or systems or. Heck, one of our clients the other day needed a new housekeeper. So we went on social media and got her a bunch of leads. You know, we’re kind of the, the, the help they needed. It.

Lee Kantor: So what’s your backstory? How’d you get involved in this line of work?

Hank Yuloff: Uh, you want to go first?

Sharyn Yuloff: No, no. You started the company.

Hank Yuloff: Yeah.

Sharyn Yuloff: You have to go first.

Hank Yuloff: I 29 years ago at Thanksgiving or. Gosh, we’re almost at dinner. 30th anniversary. We are. Uh, we were one of those families that went around the table. And, you know, what are you thankful for? And when it got to my turn, you know, mom’s running. I said, well, mom, you know, Sharon, me married. Awesome. And I’m passing it on to my sister. And she said, well, wait a second, Henry. You know what? She uses the full name. That’s like, oh dear, this is how’s work? And I had just had I was a regional manager for a national company and the national sales manager just quit. And the owner was putting his son in as the new national sales manager. His son had no sales experience, was like three months out of college. So my life was about to become hell. And my mom said, well, what would it take for you to start your own company? And I kind of flippantly said, well, I need a new fax machine because the one I own, you know, the one I have, belongs to the company. She looked at my dad, said, write him a check, which was her way of saying, you know, it’s time to jump in, kid. And two weeks later, uh, my, you know, my business started. Uh, then you fast forward 12 years. I begged and begged Sharon.

Sharyn Yuloff: Sure.

Hank Yuloff: To to leave entertainment industry and, uh, join me in what had turned into a coaching business, uh, instead of a commercial product business. And it’s gone from there. The last the last 12 years, I’ve gotten to work with my best friend, uh, and my my life partner. And we no longer have to have the. How is your day, dear? Conversation.

Lee Kantor: So, Sharon, what was your, uh, you know, what were you doing before you got involved with Hank.

Sharyn Yuloff: I was, uh, HR director for, uh, comics to film company that also did 3D conversion.

Hank Yuloff: Um.

Sharyn Yuloff: Yeah, it was it was quite intense. Uh, and before that, I was doing something similar in financial and then entertainment before that. So mostly office and HR management. So I kind of brought that same thought process to the coaching. So not only now do we get well our clients get Hank’s marketing and sales brain, but now they also get HR and office systems.

Lee Kantor: So is that where people are beginning their relationship with you? They come in with some sort of a marketing or sales challenge usually.

Hank Yuloff: Yeah. Or they’re stuck. They’re either they’re they’re a new business getting started in their stock or they’ve been in business a while and they’re really good with what they do. But, you know, maybe sales are stuck or, you know, don’t know what to do with this AI stuff or my website, you know, kind of sucks or social media, something is off and they want to fix it and we’re there to help them fix it.

Lee Kantor: So let’s start giving some advice for the folks listening. What are your kind of go to marketing moves when you meet a stuck company?

Hank Yuloff: Well, first we want we want to see what you’re doing and and are you are you do you have the right message? Do you know who your audience is? You know, if that isn’t dialed in, you know, you ask some people, well, let’s use chiropractors as an example. You know, chiropractors say, well, yeah, I can work with anyone with a spine or a dermatologist, anyone that’s got skin or and not always the case. You know, they that that, um, you know, they have a specialty in working with sports injuries, you know. Okay. Well, let’s let’s dial into your, your audience. It’s going to be a lower age range most likely. Or maybe you’re working with seniors that that still want to stay active. So who’s your target audience. And let’s get that dialed in then. All right. We’re going to need to put your message out. Where are those people hanging out. You know, you continuing that example, um, seniors that are active in sports are not generally on Pinterest, you know, so we’re not putting your messages there. Uh, but where are they playing? So our goal is to find out, you know, what they want their life to look like. Who are they awesome with? And let’s find let’s find the right place to put your message. And then are they being consistent? You know, we hear all the time. Well, I blogged once or I was on I was on one podcast.

Sharyn Yuloff: I joined the chamber, but I never attended anything.

Hank Yuloff: Yeah, we hear that all the time. Hear that all the time.

Sharyn Yuloff: Yeah. That does.

Hank Yuloff: Yeah. I read an ad once. It didn’t work. Well. Okay. Was there an offer? What did the ad look like? I mean, where did you put it? I mean, there’s so many different factors. Your marketing can go askew in a lot of different ways. Uh, we know that from from marketing our own company. We’re still in the game, uh, promoting ourselves. So every day we’re we’re in there working on ourselves. So we’re, we’re used to playing with our clients and saying, okay, this is what we’re doing, and let’s look at what you’re doing and let’s, you know, let’s, let’s chart a path. It’s not really a marketing plan, but it’s more of a path because things can change.

Lee Kantor: Now when your clients are working with you or are having a hard time understanding, is it as a coach where you’re kind of asking questions and giving them ideas, or are you a marketing agency that’s kind of rolling up their sleeves and then, you know, okay, let’s here’s some creative for for the ad you should run.

Sharyn Yuloff: It’s kind of a combination. Most of the time we’re coaching, if especially if they’re part of our group coaching program, if they’re a private coaching client, then there’s a lot more deliverables on us, and that could include us giving them ad content. For example, if you’re part of the group coaching program and you want to run an ad, we’d say, give us your best shot. What would you put in the ad? What do you want there? And let’s talk about how is that the best use or do we need to make a change? If we’re a private coaching client, then we design the ad. We already know who your ideal client is. We already know what the headline should be. We already know all those things, so we’ll just assign it and let’s cut to the chase.

Lee Kantor: So how do you run the group coaching? Is it like a mastermind or is it, you know, kind of more of a coaching session?

Sharyn Yuloff: It is mastermind. It is mastermind style. I mean, they certainly get our opinion, but we do ask the hive, so to speak, um, you know, their thoughts, especially if there’s someone in the hive that is their ideal client customer referral partner. Then we try to get that specific opinion.

Lee Kantor: So do you run multiple groups?

Hank Yuloff: No, we do it. It’s it’s Monday afternoons. Uh, we we block out Monday afternoons. Uh, we start at 3:00 eastern and we go until they’re done. Uh, most of the time it’s about an hour, hour and a half. But we’ve had a couple sessions that went even longer, uh, and a couple of sessions that go shorter. But we block out the entire afternoon if clients show up and they they want to work on things. Well, that’s what we’re there for. Uh, and and it Monday afternoon is like one of our most fun times of the week.

Sharyn Yuloff: So until they’re until they’re all still complete.

Lee Kantor: And so this is this could be for businesses. They might be competitors. It could be just anybody who drops in that’s a coaching client.

Sharyn Yuloff: Yeah. As long as they’re a client.

Hank Yuloff: Yeah I mean it’s like we have a couple of different, uh, promotional product companies that are clients and we have investment advisors that are competitors. Yeah, we do, but we approach it. If there are competitors in the room, you know, one of the things we’re training customers, in fact, any business owner, um, you couldn’t no matter what business you’re in, you couldn’t, uh, what. Right. All the insurance possible, uh, in the promo world, you.

Sharyn Yuloff: Couldn’t.

Hank Yuloff: Sell everyone. So you might as well understand and be friendly competitors with those people. Look, we couldn’t coach every small business owner that needs and wants coaching. And that’s why we’re glad that there’s a whole lot of great coaches out there, because, look, we’ve we’ve had conversations with some people and we’ve been able to say, you know, we’re not the right ones, but we have we we know somebody that might work better for you. And it’s learning to approach things from a, not from a scarcity point of view, but from an abundance, an abundance point of view. There’s plenty of business out there, folks.

Hank Yuloff: And collaboration.

Hank Yuloff: Yeah.

Lee Kantor: So you mentioned private coaching. You know, one on one and group coaching. Are there any other kind of coaching, uh, deliverables that you offer?

Hank Yuloff: Uh, okay. Can can you keep a secret, Lee, and not tell anyone?

Lee Kantor: Absolutely.

Hank Yuloff: Okay, everyone, stop listening for a minute. I’m just going to tell Lee something. Um, we’re we’re working on a marketing course. Um, it’s it’s going. The deliverables will come in different modules where they, they watch the video, have an action guide and send it to us, and we coach them through email and an occasional phone call. We’ll look at their answers and say, all right, this person’s way off track. We need to just call them and work on it. Um, we’re we’ve decided we want to do that a little bit because, frankly, there are some businesses that can’t afford coaching. You know, even our group coaching, which is only a few thousand dollars a year. Uh, they can’t afford it. And we wanted to come up with something that new businesses or businesses that are truly struggling need some help. So we’re putting that together. Okay. You can you can let everybody back in the room now.

Lee Kantor: Okay, I, I pressed record.

Hank Yuloff: Okay. Awesome.

Lee Kantor: Um, so now as part of your marketing and the way you position yourself, you, uh, invest a lot of time in writing books. Can you talk about how that came about?

Hank Yuloff: Wow. Okay. Um, well, I’ll try and leave all the swear words out. We had a coach, um, and he’s and and God love him. He was absolutely right. He said you need a booking, and I’m one of those coaching clients. I am not the best client. Let me tell you, if you’re trying to coach me, honest to God, I’m not the best. And I kept saying, no, no, no, no, I don’t want to need a book. I don’t want to write a book. And he finally said, look, I will put you on stage at one of my events in front of 300 people to sell your book and sell your coaching if you have a book done by. They gave me a date, so I was one of those people that you see in the movies. I’m sitting in front of my computer, cursor blinking, you know, white screen. Okay, what am I going to write about? And to shorten that story, the first book was 49 Stupid Things People Do With Business Cards and How to Fix Them. Uh, finish the book. Book goes bestseller on Amazon. I handed it to my coach. I said, here, and he looks at it like, well, that’s nice, he’s going through it. He said, so where’s the, uh, where’s the workbook that goes with this? I’m like, what the hell do you mean? He goes, well, you just spent 160 pages telling me my business card sucks. Why don’t you tell me how to do it right, genius? Okay, fine. So then, you know, back to the blinking cursor. And next book, 80 Simple Ways to Master Your marketing. Still, haven’t I? Still. We’re eight books in I still haven’t written a workbook on how to write a business card, create a business card, but we now have a book up for overwhelmed and overthinking entrepreneurs. Uh, one for people that are partners in business, uh, a sales book. It really comes down to we like creating content, and we needed a place to put it other than on our blog.

Lee Kantor: So you recommend your clients take that same strategy?

Sharyn Yuloff: We do.

Hank Yuloff: All the time.

Lee Kantor: So? So a book in a small business, you think a book is a must have? Not a nice to have.

Hank Yuloff: Um, I could make that argument. Um, look, people, when you watch all the all talk shows and quite often they will have. Hey, our next guest is the author of the new book, you know, and people want to learn from the person that wrote the book on the subject. They want to hire the person that wrote the book on the subject. And we we are not saying you’re ever going to get rich from your book. Your name is not Stephen King. You’re not you know, this is a sales tool, and we show our clients how to use their book and leverage their book to get on podcasts. And, you know, all the different things that a book can do for you.

Lee Kantor: So what are some other tactics that you recommend clients take if they want to stop being that best kept secret?

Hank Yuloff: Um, number one, be consistent. Definitely, uh, you know, put in your calendar time to market, you know? Okay, I’m going to block out X amount of time to write a blog. I’m going to block out this amount of time. I’m going to either a virtual or an in-person networking group. Um I’m going to block out time to follow up. Wow, that doesn’t happen a lot. Follow up with prospects. Um, I’m going to block out time to make referrals for people. Now you can go through your social media and connect to people that might want to know each other. You know, hey x and hey y, I see you two do this and this. You might be great trading partners. Why don’t you have a conversation? And the first thing that they’re going to be able to talk about because they don’t know each other really is you. So why not again, come from that, that point of view of not scarcity but abundance and connect people that might be able to do business together, you know, and, and you create your plan and block it out in your calendar. This is time to market my business. It’s time to work on my business. And we don’t see that very often. Uh, it’s one of the things we we frankly have to train our clients quite often on how to do it.

Lee Kantor: Is there a story you can share that maybe illustrates how working with you helps somebody get to a new level? Like maybe share the challenge they came when they started working with you and how you were able to help them kind of get to a better place.

Hank Yuloff: Sure. Um, do you want to tell?

Sharyn Yuloff: I was thinking of Angie. Yeah. She’s the first one that came.

Hank Yuloff: Yeah. That’s a great story.

Hank Yuloff: I like that, um, so, Angie, it was a nonprofit. Came to us. She was kind of stagnant. Uh, she runs, uh, halfway houses for folks that especially seniors that are struggling in northern Arizona. Um, and she had, like I said, she was kind of stagnant. So we made a recommendation that.

Hank Yuloff: In fact, this was this was she was a client for a couple of years, and we kept making the same recommendation. And in the third year, she finally said, okay, I’m gonna do it. And yeah, and it added $60,000 of profit to her bottom line. In the first year, it was just from doing one little thing.

Sharyn Yuloff: When she was afraid her clients would push back on. She was. That was her hesitancy, and it turned out there was no pushback. It was totally welcomed and super easy.

Hank Yuloff: And and sometimes it’s just we see for our clients what they don’t see for themselves. Uh, we’ve got two clients right now. In fact, three that. Their their business to business type sales. And not none of them had been members of their local chamber of commerce. And we said, all right, this is you should join your local chamber. And we laid out, here are the steps, and here is how you dominate in a chamber. And here’s what it’s going. You know what the investment is going to be. And we’ve led them each down a path. Um, none of them saw themselves as being a chamber member, being active because they were all all three of them are are tremendous introverts. Um, and fast forward two and then three years for each of them. And they’re all on the board of directors of their chambers. And now it’s a. A regular gold mine for them to generate revenue. It’s something we saw for them and we took them at their. Their pace, you know. But if you go back to the beginning, none of them, you know, all three of them pushed back on. It’s like I could never.

Sharyn Yuloff: I’m never gonna do that.

Hank Yuloff: I could never do that. Like, okay, that’s fine. I’ll tell you what. We’re just going to take this one little step, you know, go to this one little meeting, do this one little thing, and we’re their cheerleader and and holding their hand and, you know, sometimes virtually, sometimes really in person and some it’s got to be honest, y’all need to believe in yourself a lot. You know, uh, and a lot of people just don’t. And that’s sad. But, you know, if you give yourself some grace, Um. And understand, sometimes you’re gonna stub your toe and it’ll hurt for a minute, and you’ll feel better, but you can do it.

Lee Kantor: So any advice for those people? Like, is a chamber, um, kind of a must join in your opinion? You talk a lot about chambers, like your first book was chamber kind of adjacent. And and this example is a chamber centric is like, well.

Sharyn Yuloff: We’ve built our businesses on chambers and many of our clients, not all, but many have. It depends on who your audience is, right? Our audience is small business owners. So where are those small business owners hanging out? Many of them are hanging out in chambers of commerce.

Hank Yuloff: If you’re let’s say you’re let’s say you’re a manufacturer, uh, chances are, you know, with national distribution, chances are you’re only a member of your local chamber of commerce because, you know, politically, uh, you want to know all the people that are making decisions in your neighborhood and in your city and your town and your county that could affect you. So from that point of view, it’s great, but you may not generate a lot of revenue from it. It’s protecting your tax dollars. Um, so you have to have a very specific reason or reasons for joining. Um, you know, but but no, it’s not for everybody.

Lee Kantor: But it’s for a lot of people. A lot of people. I mean, because I have a bias. I’m very pro chamber. My the studio we’re talking in right now is in the Chamber of Commerce, actually. So I work very closely with my Chamber of Commerce.

Hank Yuloff: So Lee, let’s talk chambers for a second. Um, I am of the opinion that most chambers are are dead and don’t know it. Um, they’re not doing what they need to do to get Gen Z and younger millennials involved. And, you know, we’re we’re in one here in Maryland. Salisbury. That’s incredible. But there are others in our area. It’s like, why do you exist? So the chamber has to stay relevant, you know? They have to be active politically. Um, you know, promoting the the business point of view. Uh, heck, there’s one there’s one in northern Arizona. The Flagstaff chamber is incredible at what they do. Um, but again, other chambers in northern Arizona we see are just flailing. So it does it does make a difference. And before you join, uh, you know, take a look at what they’re doing. Uh, take a look at their membership. What? How often are they meeting? What other activities? Uh, who’s on their board? How big is their board? You know, so not all chambers are alike. What do you think on that?

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I agree and and where I live in Atlanta, in the metro Atlanta area, there was a lot of smaller chambers that were very kind of, I don’t want to say almost neighborhoody. And there’s recently the chamber that I’m in has been part of this consolidation of kind of joining them all together. So it’s more efficient and, and it’s, it’s serving more people better. Uh, because it was hard for them to get kind of corporate support when there’s so many little ones and these big there’s, you know, there’s billion dollar corporations near where I live. And they it’s hard for them to participate, uh, in these even though it’s in their neighborhood because they’re too small. But if they kind of join together, which they have, and they’re kind of continuing to expand and they change the name to reflect this kind of more of a region than a, you know, a town.

Hank Yuloff: Very smart. Did you notice that in the smaller chambers that, uh, within each board there was a little bit of ego going on?

Lee Kantor: Oh, that was the that was holding them all back. It was the same, you know, the one old guy that’s been there for a hundred years that this is how it is until I’m done here, basically.

Hank Yuloff: Yeah, that’s we’ve always done it this way.

Lee Kantor: Right.

Hank Yuloff: Yeah. See you Atlanta Los Angeles. I mean, you’re gonna see the same sort of thing, I think, in a lot of different places. I totally, yeah, totally understand.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. So I’m a big proponent of the chamber, but it is, you know, it’s a bureaucracy. So whenever you have a bureaucracy, you have politics and you have challenges in that area.

Hank Yuloff: Yeah. Uh.

Sharyn Yuloff: Well, and they have to they have to attend. It’s not enough to just join the chamber. And then at the end of the year.

Lee Kantor: Right. And where’s my. Yeah, that. Yeah. That’s what I mean. That’s true for any business organization. It’s not an ATM machine where you put money in and expect money to come out. Just because you put money in like it doesn’t work like that.

Sharyn Yuloff: I mean, many of our, our clients before before we started working with them, they have that same feeling. Right. Well, I didn’t get any business in the chamber or I didn’t get any business from social media. Well, were you there? Did you do something other than just post? Were you involved in groups? Were you actually active? Because if you’re not active, people aren’t going to they’re not going to buy from you if you’re not actively there.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. It’s the work part that scares people, I think.

Hank Yuloff: Well, yeah. Goes back to my answer. You are you are you putting in your calendar to market you and and doing the work, you know, all of the different things it takes to market you. Um, and we see a lot of clients before, you know, a lot of clients have stayed with us for years because it’s, you know, I know I’m going to have to face you on Monday or whatever day their coaching call is. I know I’m going to have to answer to myself, you know, through you as to what I did this week. And, you know, yeah, we’re we’re not taskmasters, but we are.

Lee Kantor: Well, you’re accountability partners and and that’s an important component because people lie to themselves all the time, but they also keep appointments. So, you know, you got to leverage that to your advantage.

Hank Yuloff: We’ll text a client. We’ll text different clients all the time. Hey, how’s this going? Looking forward to our call on Thursday. How’s this going? Just just look, I’m not there to to to get them out of bed in the morning, but I sure am going to remind them that they they they owe it to themselves and their families. Um, that’s why they started their business. They want a better life. All right, let’s let’s make it happen.

Lee Kantor: Well, if somebody wants to learn more about your practice and get into one of your groups or read one of your books, what is the website? What’s the best way to connect?

Hank Yuloff: You know.

Hank Yuloff: Um, best way is for us to give you a half hour for free. Uh, our calendar is how to get there faster. Com. Uh, it’s not a sales call, you know? Here’s our sales pitch. Ready? Um, our our program is. You can find it at, uh, company Marketing plan there. That’s like 5 or 6 seconds. The other 29 minutes, 50 something seconds this year. Um. When you go to how to get there faster, it’ll ask you a few questions so that we can, like, look at your website and what are you doing online. And we know you a little bit so that our time together will will be the highest and best use for you. Uh, but we love giving half hours of time to to small business owners. Uh, we learn about different industries that way, and it’s kind of fun for us.

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

Sharyn Yuloff: Thank you Lee.

Hank Yuloff: Absolutely. Thank you man.

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

Coaching for Culture: How Ver Co is Shaping Leadership in Diverse Industries

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High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Coaching for Culture: How Ver Co is Shaping Leadership in Diverse Industries
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In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee Kantor interviews Jessica Gonzalez, Executive Coach and Founder of Ver Co. Jessica shares her journey from corporate consulting to coaching, discusses the importance of professional credentialing, and explains how her firm helps organizations enhance leadership and culture. She highlights the transformative power of the Enneagram personality framework in both individual and team development, emphasizing its role in fostering self-awareness, effective communication, and organizational growth. The conversation offers practical insights into leadership development, coaching best practices, and the impact of tailored talent strategies on business success.

Jessica Gonzalez is an Executive Coach and the Founder and CEO of Ver Co., a boutique leadership development and talent strategy firm.

She has nearly 20 years of experience in program management, organizational development, and strategy consulting across a variety of industries and within a wide range of organizations, from non-profits to startups to Fortune 500 companies. She is passionate about helping create leaders and teams that inspire people to do their best work.

She is an ICF-credentialed coach (PCC-level) and has certifications in multiple different leadership and team development frameworks (e.g,. Enneagram, The Leadership Challenge, Energy Leadership, Design Thinking). She has been featured in Authority Magazine and was recently named as one of the top 15 coaches in Austin, TX in 2025 by Influence Digest.

Connect with Jessica on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Leadership development and its significance in organizations
  • The role of executive coaching in enhancing leadership effectiveness
  • Transition from corporate strategy consulting to coaching
  • Importance of professional credentialing in coaching
  • Types of clients and industries served by coaching firms
  • Impact of coaching on organizational culture and employee engagement
  • The Enneagram personality framework and its application in coaching
  • Understanding core beliefs and motivations through the Enneagram
  • Strategies for fostering effective communication and collaboration within teams
  • The integration of coaching tools and assessments in the coaching process

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 an executive coach and founder and CEO of Ver Co., which is a boutique leadership development and talent strategy firm. Jessica Gonzalez, welcome.

Jessica Gonzalez: Hey Lee. How’s it going?

Lee Kantor: It is going well. I am so excited to learn about your firm. Tell us about Ver Co.

Jessica Gonzalez: So Ver Coo, as you said, is a leadership development and talent strategy firm. We offer executive coaching, workshop facilitation, strategy support, Offsites things of that nature to help leaders essentially be more effective in their roles.

Lee Kantor: So what’s your backstory? How’d you get involved in this line of work.

Jessica Gonzalez: So my background is in strategy consulting, and I was also in program management. And I really loved working in corporate. And until I didn’t, until I reached a point of a bit of burnout. And I looked at my boss who is a VP and sales and account management, and I was like, you know what? I actually don’t think that I want to be you when I grow up. And so an opportunity came up to work for my church, which was a hard pivot. Um, something that I never anticipated. Uh, but I so I left corporate, went to work for my church. That was a transformative experience. And while I was there, I looked at my calendar, and I realized that so much of my time was being spent meeting one on one with people who had asked for time to share Error. The challenges and struggles that they were experiencing. And here, some wisdom, some tough love, because the reputation that I had developed was one where I would create safe spaces for people to share and then mirror back to them. This is this is what I’m hearing. What do you want to do about that? And so once I had that realization, I thought to myself, I feel like I could monetize this skill. Classic Enneagram type three of me. And so I launched this little life coaching side hustle back in 2017. And then it just grew organically by word of mouth. I never marketed, I didn’t have a website for a long time. It’s just that my clients had such a positive experience that they, you know, told all of their friends and their coworkers and whatnot, and it just grew from there to the point where I could go full time at the beginning of 2022, and then at the beginning of this year, 2025, I made a new pivot with the firm to move away from just being, you know, a solopreneur who’s just responding to whatever comes to me to actually building out a a more full fledged business with a bunch of other coaches and consultants that I can pull in to longer term, broader scope work.

Lee Kantor: Now, prior to you being a coach, had you been coached before? Was there kind of a seminal moment when it came to coaching where you’re like, okay, I can do this. I have the skills. I’m doing this anyway. Or was this something that came after you made the decision to kind of get into the coaching game?

Jessica Gonzalez: I hadn’t been coached in a formal capacity. You know, I had had multiple mentors and really great bosses who had modeled coaching to me. I’d been in a lot of therapy, but it also just was more of an intrinsic, intuitive skill set. Like, I’m a deeply curious person, I desire to understand, and I also very much value meaningful connection. And so my my normal way of being in the world is to just hold space and really listen to what other people are saying, what other people are saying, for the purpose of helping them see something that they have never seen before. That unlocks a possibility that they never considered before and allows them to take action they would have never thought was possible. And so actually, the name of my company, Ver Co, Ver, V E R is the Spanish word for “to see”, um, because that fundamentally is what we do. We help people see things differently in a way that has a material impact.

Lee Kantor: So at some point, though, you said I have to get credentialed or was there something that came, you know, maybe that wasn’t the first move that you were thinking. I can just kind of this is how I am. This is my nature. I can, you know, I can do this. But at some point you thought, I need some structure or some understanding of kind of the process of coaching.

Jessica Gonzalez: Yeah, for sure. So I definitely just went rogue in the beginning, which I don’t necessarily recommend, but it worked out for me. Uh, so, you know, I was building out my practice while I was working full time. And then there was a moment where my, uh, family took me from California to Texas, and I was supposed to continue working in a contract capacity for my last boss. But then she ghosted me, uh, for a while, and what I thought I was going to be doing suddenly seemed like it wasn’t a possibility anymore, and I was. I remembered the exact moment when this happened. I was driving down the street in Pearland, Texas, and the thought came to me of, why wouldn’t you be pursuing the thing that brings you the most joy? And the thing in which you feel most aligned, which is coaching. And in that moment, I was like, I’ve never considered that that would be a possibility before I went home. I looked up, uh, coach training programs. I found the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching, also referred to as iPAC, and I enrolled that day and started three weeks later. So it was this kind of whirlwind experience and it was an incredible program. It normally takes a year. I really hustled and completed it in ten months, and it was a life changing experience. Actually go through the program and then I felt much more equipped and had new frameworks that I could then bring to my clients. So I do definitely recommend getting both certified and credentialed. If you are wanting to pursue coaching in a more professional capacity.

Lee Kantor: Well, so what do you think the biggest kind of, um, benefit of going through a credentialing program rather than just kind of winging it? Did it help you with that framework and structure? More? I would imagine kind of some of the skills that you were just intuitively good at, and it just came pretty naturally to you.

Jessica Gonzalez: Yeah, I would say there’s a couple of things. One, it was helpful to be affirmed in the fact that I am intuitively skilled at this profession, right at the, the, the, um, both art and science of coaching. Um, but I think that, uh, coaching in a way that is aligned with ICF ethics and competencies is quite important. Right. Coaching is an unregulated industry, and I think that as professionals, it is on us to operate in a way that is as professional and sort of within the context of guardrails as possible. Right. So the ICF, the International Coaching Federation, is our governing body that we have. So I think it’s helpful and important to align with the ethics and competencies that they’ve articulated. And then the third thing is that the the frameworks that I learned through the iPAC program have been extremely helpful to me as a person and then also to my clients. So learning the the tools and resources and frameworks, um, help to build out a more solid offering.

Lee Kantor: Now, does it help when you’re kind of working with corporate clients when they see an ICF certified coach or credentialed coach, is that something that gives them, you know, okay, I checked that box. Then I don’t have to worry about this person rather than coming in without that credential. Is that something that organizations ask for or expect?

Jessica Gonzalez: So I think it really depends. If there is an organization that is hiring external coaches to become internal coaches, they absolutely have a requirement that you’re at least ACC certified or credentialed through the ICF, if not PCC. You know, if you want to work for a coaching company like Betterup, for example, you have to have an ICF credential. I have never been asked about my credential or credibility by an individual leader who is hiring me, right? If I have a VP at a large corporation who has heard about me, they have never inquired about my credentials. And part of that is because of the reputation that precedes me. Um, but also, if you’re not in the coaching world, you don’t really know what you should be looking for or expecting. So I think that it really depends on the context in which you’re coaching. Sometimes it’s required, sometimes it’s not.

Lee Kantor: Now, what types of organizations do you work with? Um, you know, what’s kind of their problem they’re having right before they call you and your team?

Jessica Gonzalez: So I work with a wide variety of industries and organizational sizes, simply because of the way that most of my business comes to me, which is referral. Um, it has been concentrated in, uh, the healthcare space, in tech, and then in nonprofits. Right. Just sort of organically, um, come to those sort of three verticals. Uh, and there are really five primary reasons that people call. One is because they need to reset or establish for the first time their strategic drivers. Right? So vision, mission, strategy, culture, KPIs, etc.. Um, we just finished doing a talent strategy project for a professional services firm who has really wanted to scale and hasn’t been able to scale at the level they wanted to. And in our conversations with them, it became clear that they needed to take a step back and look at and establish for the first time a talent strategy so that they were aligning their human capital with their overall corporate strategy. Um, the second reason is when someone is promoted from an individual contributor to a new manager role. So many organizations do not have any support or do not offer any support to new managers. And it does such a disservice to those new managers, both in their new manager role, but then also as they progress in their career, because the skill set that gets you promoted is is the opposite skill set that you need to be successful. And so will come in and we’ll help to upskill and train and coach new managers to be effective leaders. Um, the third reason is when teams have a high potential employees that they want to invest in so that they can reach the next level in their career and we can, you know, do overall programs for that, or we can do one on one coaching to help bring them to the next level in their career.

Jessica Gonzalez: Uh, the fourth reason is if companies don’t do the first three and then they start having problems, right? Their, their their employee pulse scores are decreasing. And, you know, HR complaints are being lodged and good people are leaving the company. They’ll bring us in to diagnose what’s really happening here, and then create a plan to close the gap between where they are and where they want to be, so they can reestablish or perhaps establish for the first time, psychological safety and productive working environments. And then the last reason I would say is, um, when a senior leader just needs a safe space to process the struggles that they’re experiencing and then work through them with an objective, trusted third party, right? Like, as you probably know, the higher you get in an organization, the fewer safe spaces there really are where you can be like, I actually have no idea what I’m doing. Even I’m even though I’m the leader of this company. Uh, and so being able to create that, that neutral, safe space for them to share what they’re struggling with enables them to actually proactively solve some of the things that they’re struggling with. And then, of course, there’s many other reasons. Um, you know, I just want to do an off site. They want to do a team building thing, but those are probably the five most critical, um, that we hear from our clients around.

Lee Kantor: Now, are your is your work primarily in larger organizations, enterprise level organizations, or do you work with small teams or solopreneurs or, you know, a five person, uh, you know, ad agency?

Jessica Gonzalez: I would say they’re primarily with larger organizations, right? Like fortune 500 companies. We do some work with, you know, more boutique professional services firms. And then because I worked for church, um, I also, you know, personally have had many, uh, church clients where I’m coaching, um, you know, the lead pastors of our startup church or the lead pastors of a church that was never planned. I would have never in a million years imagined that I would be doing that work. But, you know, I, I got one one of my very first clients was this a married couple who were leading a church, a new church, and they had such a positive experience that they told everyone in their network about me. And then all of a sudden I had all of these church clients. Um, so that’s sort of a niche part of the business as well.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, can you share a story about what it was like to work with you, maybe share the challenge the organization had and how you were able to help them get to a new level? Obviously don’t name the name of the organization, but just the the problem that they were dealing with.

Jessica Gonzalez: Yeah for sure. So one of the clients that I had been working with in various capacities with team building, um, they had done a, a pulse survey where, you know, an employee pulse survey with their team and something that they do twice a year, every year. And for the last multiple rounds, their, uh, their pulse survey scores were decreasing. And then when they were sharing those results with the team, it came up that people were feeling a lack of psychological safety. And that felt very surprising to the senior leaders of this team. And through further investigation, they found that there were a handful of of individuals who were driving most of the experiences of psychological safety or lack of psychological safety. And so they brought us in to coach, one on one, the individuals who were identified and then to teach, um, the, the broader team, a particular framework for understanding how their, their individual and collective, uh, interpretations of situations were creating a certain feeling in the environment, right? Because our beliefs create our feelings, our feelings motivate our behaviors. And and then the combination of our beliefs, feelings, and behaviors creates a certain kinds of kind of energy.

Jessica Gonzalez: And so we were able to teach this team this framework, which then gave them a tremendous sense of agency to actually shift the felt experience and the overall level of productivity on the team. And then through the one on one coaching, we were able to shift all of the leaders who had been previously identified as creating psychological safety issues, to a point where that was no longer true, where everyone on the team was able to say, I no longer feel psychologically unsafe, and I, in fact feel psychologically safe. Um, And one of the one of the individuals that we had coached. At the end of that engagement, they said there is a significantly different felt experience on the team now, like the vibe is completely different. Um, since we’ve done this work and obviously whatever the the felt experience is, the culture of the team influences the team’s capacity to be productive, work together, effectively, collaborate, and ultimately achieve the goals of the organization. And so that was a really gratifying experience to be able to see, like a wholesale shift in the culture of an entire team.

Lee Kantor: And that’s an example where if maybe they didn’t have coaching, they might have just got rid of a couple people and then said, problem solved.

Jessica Gonzalez: Or. Yeah, well, and this is a fairly conservative organization where getting rid of people is quite difficult, so it’s more likely that good people on the team would have quit and the the problematic people would have continued causing problems.

Lee Kantor: Well, I mean, the impact of coaching is so real, and I just wish more and more organizations would kind of lean into it and at least try it out.

Jessica Gonzalez: 100% agree.

Lee Kantor: Now, early on, you mentioned it was kind of offhandedly, but this is a subject I’m kind of curious about and I’m learning about. Uh, you use the phrase Enneagram. Can you explain that to our listeners? I don’t know if it’s as kind of widespread as people, uh, as as as it could be, but can you share a little bit about what an Enneagram is and why it’s it might be useful for your organization to learn about it.

Jessica Gonzalez: For sure. So the Enneagram is often described as a personality typing assessment, but it is not that in its entirety. It describes nine archetypes of human beings and their associated ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. So there are nine different types, and each type describes a particular personality, but it’s so much more than the personality. It actually describes the ego structure of each of these nine ways of existing in the world. Um, the word nia is a Greek word. It’s actually two Greek words. Nia is the Greek word for nine, and gram is the Greek word for something written or drawn. So the word enneagram actually refers to the nine pointed symbol that’s associated with the framework. And, you know, having been in the professional development, personal development and spiritual development space for a long time, I have had exposure to many different assessments and the Enneagram Am, along with energy leadership, which I learned through Ipek, um, is one of the single most helpful and compelling frameworks that I’ve ever encountered. Because once I know somebody Enneagram type, I’m an Enneagram teacher as well. Um, once I know somebody’s Enneagram type, I have this whole playbook into understanding what is motivating them at their deepest, most intrinsic level. You know, often at a subconscious or unconscious level, they are not even aware of it. Uh, but I know that it exists. And then we so much of the work that I do with my clients is getting to the thing beneath the thing. Right? Whatever it is that they bring to me or bring into their coaching. Um, it’s it’s almost never about that. There’s always something deeper and learning their Enneagram type, which we do in all of our one on one coaching, we always do an Enneagram type interview, so we figure out what their type is.

Jessica Gonzalez: Um, so much of the coaching process then becomes helping them understand how those core beliefs that are associated with their type are showing up in every part of their life. And in all of the organizations that we have taught the Enneagram to, and they’ve really adopted it and integrated it into the fabric of their culture. It has had a material impact on the the organization’s culture, because the Enneagram gives you a shared language with which to understand one another and why each of you show up the way that you do, and what the best way of working together and giving feedback and communicating, um, and motivating and inspiring each person on your team will be. It’s like being a parent if you have more than one kid. Generally speaking, you probably have to parent them a little bit differently depending on who they are and what their little personalities are. It’s the same thing as a leader, right? Like, every person on your team is going to be a little bit different and or materially different. So when you know the Enneagram type of every person on your team, it becomes a playbook for how you can optimize your interactions with them and best motivate them. So I very much recommend that teams consider learning the Enneagram. But if you’re going to do that, I think it’s really important to go deep with it and not use it as a means of just a fun one off team building event, because then it becomes about stereotyping and then it becomes corporate astrology, and it’s not leveraging the massive amount of wisdom and insight that the Enneagram has to provide.

Lee Kantor: And then when you’re doing your coaching, you sometimes include this as part of the your your playbook.

Jessica Gonzalez: No, we always do. So we we always do an Enneagram typing interview with our one on one coaching clients. And we always do an Energy Leadership index assessment, which is the framework associated with Ipek, um, at the beginning of every um, engagement as well.

Lee Kantor: So that so that everybody can be kind of on the same page, language wise.

Jessica Gonzalez: 100%. Yeah. And it’s just like they immediately will know so much more about themselves than before they did their typing interview, and we will immediately know so much more about them than before. Um, we did their typing interview.

Lee Kantor: When you do the Enneagram for an individual, if they have a family, do you offer it to their family as well?

Jessica Gonzalez: Um, I have not offered it to their family, but I do give them some recommendations on, you know, books that they can bring in or how they can start that conversation with their family.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff. Well, congratulations on all the growth and momentum. Uh, if somebody wants to learn more, I have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team. What’s the website? What’s the best way to connect?

Jessica Gonzalez: Yeah, our website is WW Dash. So that’s v e r dash c o.com. You can always email me directly as well at Jessica at com.

Lee Kantor: All right. Well Jessica, thank you so much for sharing your story doing such important work. And we appreciate you.

Jessica Gonzalez: Thanks so much for the opportunity to share, Lee.

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

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