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Barron Segar With World Food Program USA

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Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Barron Segar With World Food Program USA
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Barron Segar is the President and Chief Executive Officer of World Food Program USA, the nonprofit charged with inspiring and mobilizing people in the United States to support the U.N. World Food Programme’s mission to save and protect the world’s most vulnerable lives against hunger.

He has more than 25 years of experience growing philanthropic and cause marketing platforms for organizations spanning global humanitarian aid, public broadcasting and finance. Under his leadership, World Food Program USA quadrupled its revenue in less than three years and has earned exceptional ratings from multiple trusted agencies for its financial health, accountability and transparency.

A leading voice on global food security, he has been featured in major media outlets including Bloomberg TV, NBC News Now, CNN, MSNBC, Forbes, The Hill, The Guardian, The Chronicle of Philanthropy and at events hosted by the Reuters, Devex, Axios, World Affairs Councils of America, and the Global Philanthropy Forum. He has led visits to field operations in multiple countries including Lebanon, Liberia, Ethiopia, Nepal, Guatemala, El Salvador and the Polish border of Ukraine to shine a light on the lifesaving work of the U.N. World Food Programme.

Prior to World Food Program USA, he served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer at UNICEF USA, with organization-wide responsibility for strategy, budget, and critical operational priorities. He led the strategic direction of the Development Division and all regional offices, raising $500 million in annual revenue.

Previously, he served as the Director of Development for Georgia Public Broadcasting, where he and his team were nationally recognized for record breaking fundraising performance. Barron also has experience in the private sector working in financial services.

For the past five years, The NonProfit Times has recognized Barron on its Power & Influence Top 50 list for leadership centered on innovation, broad sector influence and developing replicable organizational models. He is a Founding Board Member of the Elton John AIDS Foundation, serving over 30 years on the National Board of Directors. He currently serves on the Advisory Board for Open Hand Atlanta and Board of Directors for the Non-Profit Alliance.

He is a graduate of Leadership Atlanta and earned a bachelor’s degree from Hampden-Sydney College.

Connect with Barron on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • The mission of the World Food Program USA and how do they work to combat global hunger

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 Atlanta Business Radio, we have Barron Segar, who is the President and CEO with World Food Program USA. Welcome.

Speaker3: Hey, Lee. So happy to be here today. And, uh, and as you mentioned, I’ve lived in Atlanta for 26 years, so I miss all my friends and, uh, colleagues there, probably listening in today.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn about the World Food Program USA. Do you mind sharing a little bit about mission purpose? How you serving folks?

Speaker3: Yeah, sure. So I’m based in Washington, D.C., the World Food Program, USA. We’re the nonprofit arm supporting the work of the United Nations World Food Program. Our job here for World Food Program USA is to make sure that we’re advocating, uh, from a policy perspective, developing partnerships with the private sector, businesses, faith based organizations, individuals and raising awareness. There are a lot of people, unfortunately, today that are suffering because of a lack of food. So our job is to make sure that we’re amplifying those stories. And again, our work is to support the World Food Program. The recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020, largest humanitarian An organization in the world fighting global hunger.

Lee Kantor: So do you mind sharing a little bit about some of the stats, and give us some idea of the context in which we’re dealing with when it comes to hunger?

Speaker3: Yeah, sure. I would say unfortunately, we’re at a pretty unprecedented level today. 300 million people around the world don’t know where their next meal is going to come from. And the very sad part of that narrative is in two countries, we are facing pockets of of famine. And I will say that, you know, on the positive, we always have to remember that hunger was actually on the decline up until about ten years ago. And so I have a lot of confidence that we’ll be able to reverse the trend today, and we’ll be able to see hunger declining. We are seeing, by the way, pockets of hunger declining in parts of central South America. So, you know, our job, though, is to make sure that everybody around the world has access to a nutritious meal.

Lee Kantor: And then what is some of the ways that you help them have access to it? Is it bringing them food or is it helping them kind of grow their own food or provide for themselves when it comes to, you know, having the food they need?

Speaker3: Yeah. So how about if I, if I told you if I gave you the answer all the above. So one of the ways that the World Food Program works, unfortunately, right now a lot of war is happening around the world. And this is where the World Food Program will transport deliver through trucks, planes and cargo ships, food. So on any given day. Lee, this is a pretty amazing statistic. The World Food Program has on the on the go about 5300 trucks, 30 plus cargo ships and about 100 planes delivering food. So again, emergency relief supplies going out today. We also provide what’s called a cash based transfer. So where you have individuals where there are functioning marketplaces, we do temporary cash based cards, uh, so that families can go in and buy food, um, on a very temporary basis. And the other part of, of our job at the World Food Program is around resiliency. So there are a lot of parts around the world that are creating income and sustainability for their families. When you think about business and you think about agriculture in most countries, uh, most individual lives, um, revolve around agriculture. So our job is to make sure that, uh, individuals have the training, the tools, the resources necessary to grow their crops, to feed their local communities, and to take those products to the market to create income.

Lee Kantor: So when you when you’re kind of transporting some of this food, where are you getting the food?

Speaker3: So, um, I’ll give you an example and I’ll give you two different examples. One is one of the hallmark programs of the World Food Program is called Homegrown School feeding. Um, about, uh, 20 million meals last year, uh, were provided through the help of the World Food Program. But this is not, uh, the World Food Program. Putting food on a truck or a plane. You have to remember that’s really expensive to do. And that that is a last resort. But what we do is we provide funding and a lot of different, uh, context is to make sure that, uh, that communities can have the funding so that they’re working with farmers to grow the food. Communities are, um, are then rallying around to, uh, to make the food for kids. And so it’s called, uh, locally homegrown school feeding. Uh, it also provides a resiliency factor for income for the, um, the local community. Li one of the things I have to tell you is when I was in Liberia, uh, earlier this year, a teacher came up to me and said that, um, that without school feeding, uh, kids wouldn’t be in school. They said you could have all the desks and the teachers and the training and the chalkboards and the latrines, but without school, kids are working. So, um, I’m super proud. So again, that’s homegrown school feeding. The other part that I may surprise some of your listeners is that the World Food Program, through the work of partnerships with, uh, the US State Department and USDA, we buy a lot of food from farmers here in the United States, putting them on cargo ships. And they typically go to countries that don’t have the ability of growing their own food.

Lee Kantor: Now, what is the the state of the Union when it comes to the United States, when it comes to hunger?

Speaker3: So, uh, the US, um, so what I would say is we have to care about hunger everywhere, whether it’s happening in our backyard or whether it is happening halfway around the world. We should be investing here in the United States. And and by the way, the US, I think does a pretty good job. There are safety nets here in the US. So I would say, you know, you don’t see, uh, you don’t see famine, you don’t see starvation. Uh, however, you see a lot of struggles where people struggle to find their next meal. When you think about the World Food Program, our work is really, you know, I would use the word we’re feeding the hungriest of the hungry. And so what that means is we’re talking to people that don’t have access to maybe it’s a Snap program or a local community food bank. These are individuals that are facing extreme levels of hunger.

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

Speaker3: So, uh, my story actually has some ties to Atlanta. I’m very honored, uh, to be a founding member of the Elton John Aids Foundation. Li. We started that foundation, uh, in Atlanta back in 1992. And, uh, I knew Elton, Alton because of his, uh, recovery. Um, moved to Atlanta, and then he asked me to be one of his founding board members when he started the foundation. Long story short, um, through Alton’s foundation, I had the opportunity to go to the field. Um, and I met with so many individuals who were impacted or living with HIV Aids, and I saw the vulnerability of humanity and felt that personally, I could play a role, uh, around alleviating some of that hurt some of that, uh, that, that, um, the the lack of dignity that goes in to whether it’s an individual having HIV or an individual that can’t feed their kids because of school. And so I would say it’s a product of experiences, a product of opportunity. But, uh, again, through the honor of being a founding board member of the Elton John Aids Foundation, had an opportunity to go to the field, see firsthand what very few people get. And I gotta tell you, you know, I never got some of those images out of my mind, by the way. Not all negative. A lot of them. Very positive messages of hope. Um, but I really determined that this was going to be the future of what I wanted to do, and it was going to be that my life would really revolve around impact.

Lee Kantor: So when you’re working in an organization that you are, how do you. It seems so overwhelming. How do you kind of choose and prioritize where the effort needs? Like you said, this is kind of a global problem. How do you kind of decide where to put your energy and efforts and how to reach those people most effectively?

Speaker3: You know, it’s it’s probably the toughest, toughest decision again at the World Food Program USA. Our job is to support the programmatic efforts of the global organization. But I would tell you what I’ve learned is that it’s a very difficult process of deciding who eats and who does not. I cannot imagine anybody on this earth wanting to be put in that position. But there are some factors and some factors that are dependent on levels of nutrition, uh, whether it’s with children or whether it’s with families, how many days an individual or family goes without eating, uh, and general lack or access to food in those specific communities. Uh, I would also say, um, access, um, we have to have access to, uh, to feeding people. And unfortunately, today we’re living in an area where war is now, the number one reason that people are hungry and people are starving. Um, and so our job is to make sure that we also have to secure the safety of workers at the World Food Program, but it is really determined based on the hungriest of the hungry. Can we reach, can we get into these communities, can we effectively serve? And, you know, like a lot of organizations, Lee, you know, we’ve seen, uh, some cuts, uh, around federal funding. Um, we are still getting funding. I’m very grateful for that at the World Food Program. But we also have to have to look at how can we make a dollar go further. And in some cases, and in many cases, it also means, um, some people, uh, unfortunately have to go with fewer meals or in some cases, uh, not having meals provided at all. But in most cases it’s reducing the number of meals. And I would say this is where it comes to having really thoughtful partners like UPS here, um, in Atlanta, who’s helping us do more with less. They’re looking at our efficiencies. They’re looking at our transportation hubs. They’re investing in the World Food Program to help us make sure that we can reach the most number of people in the most efficient way.

Lee Kantor: So, um, what is that? Ask to the folks in the private sector, as you mentioned, that funding is a challenge. Uh, And nowadays, in a lot of areas, I would imagine that you have to lean more on the private sector and individual philanthropy. How, you know, give me the sales pitch to help them understand why this is where they should be investing their dollars.

Speaker3: Yeah. Uh, for for me, it’s a very easy, um, offering. I would say that I have always believed that we have a moral and an ethical responsibility, uh, to provide food for those who are hungry. Um, and I would also say that I’ve really been humbled at the number of, um, companies and foundations and individuals and faith based partners that have rallied around hunger. Um, I would say that we’re seeing a lot of companies that are partnering with the World Food Program who are going all in because their employees are demanding it, and their customers are also, um, really stakeholders to make sure that if they’re buying a product from a company, that that company is doing good. I’ll tell you a story that happened just last week. Um, I talked to, uh, one of our emerging corporate partners. It’s a fortune 100 company, and they just surveyed, um, about a thousand customers around what? What was important to them. And they thought that the answer would be climate or maybe education. But guess what? It was hunger. That hunger was top of mind for their audience. So they’re now going more all in with the World Food Program because they they believe it’s not only the right thing to do, the ethical thing to do. Everybody deserves the right to food for food, but it’s also good for their business that Gen Z and millennials are going to go more all in to companies that are giving back and that are supporting issues that they’re concerned about.

Lee Kantor: So how would you, um, how would you have the private enterprise, the private companies, the entrepreneurs and the business leaders out there? What’s a way, uh, that they can kind of make that decision to partner with your organization? How would you recommend that they, like you mentioned, maybe poll their customers, poll their employees, get a feel for what are the issues that are important to their constituents. And I’m sure that, uh, your organization would be on the list of that, but is that a good starting point for them to just get an idea of what issues are important to their constituents, and then have them invest some of the dollars into supporting and serving these types of organizations?

Speaker3: Yeah, I think Lee. Oh, actually, no, this, uh, more companies are leaning into food than ever before, and our job at the World Food Program USA is to really co-create, I would say, with companies, if they have an interest in the World Food Program, particularly with global food. Uh, the, the the best way is to get in touch with us. But I would also say, you know, know what’s important to your employees. And I have to say, you know, we talk a lot about, uh, about, uh, the customers. But the most important factor companies are listening to their employees and their employees want to work for a company that is thoughtful, that gives back, that cares. And hunger again is top of mind across the board for almost every company. And so, uh, I would say that, you know, yes, you want to have some data points to look at what your customers, what your employees are interested in. Uh, and then if you go to our website at the World Food Program, WFP, USA, there are lots of ways to get involved. We’ve also just launched a, a youth, uh, Gen Z, uh, a zero hunger generation program that engages Gen Zers around book clubs and and engagements with country offices and gaming and volunteerism. So I would say, and in all honesty, there are lots of ways to get involved. Some of them include just financially supporting us. Um, and then some of them, uh, involve more integrated partnerships. So I wish I had a one size fits all. But the good thing is, I don’t. Uh, I think the first step is determining that you want to be engaged with the World Food Program. You want to be engaged with solving hunger globally, and you want to have a voice in a seat at the table.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you have, um, kind of chapters and presence around the country, around the world, or is this something that’s based out of D.C. that is just kind of serving everybody virtually online? Obviously you have boots on the ground wherever they’re needed, but are there chapters around the country to get involved in?

Speaker3: You know, it’s a really, Um, great question. And I work for an organization previously that had regional offices and chapters. But I would tell you that one of my jobs here is not only to raise revenue, but to do it as efficiently as possible. So, you know, this year, our efficiency ratio, meaning the the amount of money that goes to programs, will be somewhere between 88 and $0.90 on the dollar, which puts us in the very top, probably 2 to 5% of all nonprofits in the US. Uh, we are based in DC, but we have staff, um, in multiple states. Um, so whether it’s whether it’s Texas or whether it’s Atlanta, by the way, uh, could be New York, could be California. We have staff, uh, located in various, um, cities throughout the US. But I did make the decision that we just couldn’t afford to open an office because the expense just gets too high. And my job is to make sure that as much as possible, uh, dollars go to support the programs supporting those who are hungry, or those programs that are creating resiliency and jobs to create incomes to stop hunger.

Lee Kantor: And then one more time, the website. If somebody wants to learn more, get involved.

Speaker3: Yeah. So I can’t say that too often. Right. Uh is w um dot wfp USA? Org. We just, uh, recently launched a hunger relief fund. Um, so check that out. That’s a way that companies can get involved with their employees. Um, and you know, Lee, we have a lot of companies that are interested in very specific parts of the world. So when you think about the World Food Program, we’re in about 120 countries. So you may have a specific interest in, uh, central South America. Maybe it’s, uh, it’s Gaza, maybe it’s Africa, maybe it’s India or Southeast Asia. Um, you know, there are a lot of different areas that we support that you could choose to support as well.

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

Speaker3: Lee, I’m. Hey, I’m grateful for the opportunity to to share with your audience. I know it’s an important audience, and I would I would just end by saying, I’m. I need your help. Everybody listening? Please lean in to the World Food Program, USA. Please reach out to us. There’s an opportunity to engage you. Um, the world is depending on us. Um, and, uh, we just can’t keep going at the pace we are. There are far too many people that are hungry around the world that need our help.

Lee Kantor: Well, thank you again for sharing your story.

Speaker3: Thank you. Lee.

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

Laura Ries With RIES

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Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Laura Ries With RIES
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Laura Ries is a globally recognized positioning strategist and bestselling author. Since 2022, she continues her father’s legacy as Chairwoman of RIES, guiding the expansion and global influence of the firm where she has helped Fortune 500s and ambitious startups win through bold, focused brand positioning for over 30 years.

She’s a sought-after speaker, trusted advisor, and author of “The Strategic Enemy,” her new book that helps brands of any size build a position—and a business—worth fighting for.

Connect with Laura on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • The Strategic Enemy – How to build & position a brand worth fighting for
  • The biggest branding mistake entrepreneurs make

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’s show, the topic is The Strategic Enemy how to build and position a brand worth fighting for. Our guest today is Laura Ries. She is the author of the book The Strategic Enemy and chairwoman of the company RIES. Welcome.

Laura Ries: Thanks so much for being here. For me being here.

Lee Kantor: We’re all happy that we’re all here.

Laura Ries: Yes we are.

Lee Kantor: So, um, before we get too far into things, just tell us about Reese. How you serving folks?

Laura Ries: Well, um, we do brand strategy and positioning work, of course. Known for our books for many years. This is one of many of the Reese books, starting from positioning in the 22 Immutable Laws of Branding. And so, yeah, so we work on top level positioning strategy with clients around the world, as well as give speeches and do other workshops and of course, the books.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, as most of your work with enterprise level organizations or some of these strategies, can they work for small or midsize businesses as well?

Laura Ries: Yeah, we don’t focus on any one type of business or industry or size or anything because we’re all thinking about, you know, how that brand is positioned in the mind. And the mind doesn’t matter how care how big your business is. So we have over the decades and I’ve been at this three decades, um, you know, worked with global five hundreds as well as entrepreneurs and startups, nonprofits, institutions, all types of businesses, companies and organizations to help them with their brand of what they stand for in the mind of the consumer.

Lee Kantor: Now, in this book, the strategic enemy, are you talking is the enemy. Your competition is the enemy. Something else like why? Why the word enemy?

Laura Ries: Sure. Well, you know, as I said, I mean, our focus has always been about positioning, and positioning is about owning an idea in the mind. But really the best way to, you know, get that idea in the mind. Understood is by contrasting it to something. And that’s what the strategic enemy is about. It’s that oppositional force that your brand or category stands against. Now. Yes, it could be a competitor. Many times it is. It many times is another category, right? You’re a new category and the enemy is the old category. You’ve got electric vehicles then. And we have gas vehicles. It could be a convention of, you know, the old way of doing things or a concept or an idea. It’s just something that you are against, right? It is what you say no to what you are not. And sometimes by clearly defining what you’re not, it makes it easier to understand what you are.

Lee Kantor: So if you were counseling a new brand, is this something that would be at the forefront? Are you trying to kind of really understand, you know, what they stand for and then where they fit into the matrix of the decision making process.

Laura Ries: When thinking about, you know, branding and positioning differentiation is is a core idea necessary to build a brand? Um, you want, you know, if you can be new first, you’re pioneering an idea or somehow being different than what’s already out there and available. Why? I mean, that drives interest, excitement and shows the reason for your being. And really, most times entrepreneurs, you know, they start a company because they see a problem. And often that problem is the strategic enemy that you’re there to solve. Um, Kim Kardashian, you know, she went up against Spanx, which was beige. And she her is her shapewear is inclusive of all colors and sizes because that was an issue that Kim was facing. She was having to put her shapewear and, you know, try to get it a darker color to match her skin tone. Um, and that, you know, became a core principle of what her brand stands for and what it stands against.

Lee Kantor: But when she started and she was Kim Kardashian, she wanted to stand out and be noticed as an influencer. So her strategy, how did she, um, differentiate herself at that time? At the beginning, because it’s easy to talk about a lot of these brands that we know now, but that’s not how they started.

Laura Ries: Well, Kim Kardashian, the thing, she became famous, right? She became a famous celebrity personality and in the media and Keeping Up with the Kardashians. But she also put an attached her brand and her celebrity and tried to pitch many products. Most of them are forgettable and we don’t remember. It was the one business that really, I think, connected to what she stands for and her beautiful shape, um, being, you know, a standout feature that that is very recognizable but also solved a key problem and hole in the in the marketplace itself that was not being filled by everyone else. And so you have the traditional brand Spanx. And then for a newer generation, always, you know, what the young girls don’t want to wear with their moms were and I’m a mom and I’m wearing Spanx, right? And so the younger girls are maybe wearing skims, as you know, a choice of a new generation that’s always an opportunity in branding. But here, I mean, that is one example where you have a celebrity, but that’s not necessarily, you know, part of the equation. I mean, there’s many examples. How about dude wipes? These were some guys out of college who realized, you know, the benefits of using baby wipes and said, why isn’t there a product for us, something that’s flushable, that has, you know, branding that speaks to us, that, you know, really gets the job done? And they did a tremendous job by going up against the enemy, which was the category dry toilet paper and became a fabulous success.

Lee Kantor: So if you were starting from scratch and say you’re just a professional service B2B firm.

Laura Ries: Yeah.

Lee Kantor: How would you go about like say you’re you just graduated college, you’re an accountant, you want to put up your own shingle and be a lawyer accountant. How would you go about building a position for yourself?

Laura Ries: Absolutely. One another. One of the key principles of positioning, of building a brand is having a narrow focus. When you try to be everything to everybody. How are you going to communicate that, even if it’s true? It’s very difficult, almost impossible to communicate. So a narrow focus is key. Um, it means, you know, saying no to something, being a specialist in something. And so, yes, if I was setting up my own B2B accounting firm, I would think about what what can I focus on? Right. Can is it going to be the size of the companies I serve? Is it going to be the speed of of how I serve, or am I more personal? Am I more electronic? Am I more old school? I mean, what one thing can set me apart from again, looking out about the competition? I mean, who is my strategic enemy? Is it the big firms? Right. And I’m the more personalized touch because you’re working directly with Laura, and Laura’s going to sign off on everything. Um, you know, all of those things. Or maybe I have a specialty that I only work with personal trainers, and that’s my specialty, right? Or maybe it’s doctors. Um, all of these things can be leveraged to be able to narrow your focus so you can stand for something, you can be remembered, and you could be seen as the best in class into whatever category you’ve set yourself up in.

Lee Kantor: So if you were this accounting firm. So the first step, is it assessing what your superpower is or what your interest is so you can specialize. Is that the first step.

Laura Ries: Yeah. But I think that has to be done in parallel to what else is out there in the marketplace. Because too often you’re right. You think about what’s my superpower? What do I want to do? Well, that’s well and good and important, but if somebody else already owns that space, if, you know, Larry is set up a block away and he has the same specialty I want to be in, and Larry is known by everybody, it’s going to be very hard for me to, you know, nudge Larry out unless I have something that can truly differentiate myself. Maybe I need to tweak so I can, you know, better, distinguish myself, find that open hole and opportunity that’s not being served out there that I can stand for. And hopefully, you know, hopefully I’m excited and good at it too.

Lee Kantor: So in so in concert, you have to identify what you’re good at because you don’t want to own a space that isn’t something you like or are good at, right. That’s not going to help in the long run. But you also want to find kind of the blue ocean area where there may not be somebody else right now in that space, so that it’s more affordable for you to invest resources to own that sliver rather than, like you said, go for the whole pie there.

Laura Ries: And think about it. And most times, you know, companies, um, or even people are chasing, you know, who whatever the hot brand, whatever the hot product is, right? Everyone’s jumping on to copy that instead. Sometimes the best thing is to go in the opposite direction and do something totally different. Um, I mean, even think about what did liquid death do, I mean, all water was sold in plastic bottles. Well, they went the opposite and put it in cans, right? I mean, that was a major difference. And it also set up I mean, their stance was, you know, the death to plastics, that plastics was ruining our environment and then also positioned it in cans that had, you know, a more loud and beer like marketing, if you will, so that people that you know, didn’t want to be drinking alcohol could have and hold a can that was just as cool, um, as if they were.

Lee Kantor: And they had the kind of sense of humor in the wink at, you know, water is supposed to be good for you. And this is positioned as liquid death. So, I mean, does humor work in a B2B setting?

Laura Ries: I think it can, um, you know, look at if you go back in history, look at what Salesforce did, I mean, with their, you know, end to software, no software. And they were picketing Oracle conventions and they really went all out on on talking and proclaiming how software was the enemy. Software was not the future. Um, and made a very bold stance of it. Now, listen, I mean, humor doesn’t have to be, you know, part of it, but I think the core essence is if you can stand for something, you can have, you know, fun and hopefully, maybe even visual ways to talk about it. I worked with a software development company. And what was their, you know, difference? What were their what was their focus? Well, they’re in South America and that is in fact different. It’s um, and they were worried. They were like, oh, well, you know, should we we don’t really want to promote that. We want to try to look like we’re global. Well, I’m like, you’re not you know, 90% of of your people are in South America. Your name, in fact, was South Works. And so, you know, the best thing we can do is to own it, promote it, and build that. In fact, the reputation and it has been on the rise of South America as being a fantastic place for development. It’s got time zone affinity, right? It’s not 12 hours ahead or behind, like like Eastern Europe and India. And so there was a lot of advantages. And so we honed in on that. And not only that, they went again. What else could we say no to? I mean, thinking about, you know, instead of serving your customer, what more can we give them? What can we say we won’t do? And one other thing they said is we don’t do long term contracts. In fact, we named it development on demand. So you could ramp it up. Ramp it down. You’re not, you know, beholden to anything. Um, it was totally flexible. And that was a way that, you know, for people to grasp and understand what you are is by defining exactly what you’re not.

Lee Kantor: Now, in, uh, is is the customer the same, like your company goes back, uh, a while in terms of, um, being around and involved in marketing and advertising, obviously, um, is the consumer of marketing and advertising. Are they behaving in the same way that they did, you know, 50, 60 years ago? Is that is is the brand hold as much weight and and give the consumers much confidence in a world where I can go to Amazon and buy an item with some name I can’t even pronounce in a list of, you know, similarly named, um, products.

Laura Ries: Well, I mean, there’s a lot to unpack there. So let’s start with the first thing. Um, I mean, people are basically the same, but, you know, think back to, um, you know, I as you many may know, I work with my dad for, for decades. And, you know, when he wrote and talked about the problems of advertising in the 1970s and he said it was, you know, so over, you know, there was too much communication, the over communicated society. I mean, it’s kind of laughable. We think back now to I mean, that was the good old times. There were three channels on the, on the TV. Um, but that was the start of it. In terms of initially advertising, there were so few media out there that and so few people could afford advertising. It was fantastic. Right. So if you just got some ads out with a fairly decent product or service, you know, you were golden. Um, well, those days certainly are long gone. And, you know, the reality is, is people don’t love advertising, right? They don’t want to have advertising. What? Advertising is incredibly effective and important today, even today, is as a reminder to people to remind you of the power of, of the brand, of the company, of the category. But and here’s the thing, when you mention about going to Amazon and, you know, getting the knockoff at a good price, you know, delivered tomorrow, people don’t really care about brands. That’s the fallacy. They care about categories. And it is those cat. We verbalize those categories as brands. And you know, if that brand is strong and it can be symbolic and, you know, used as an, as a, you know, stand in for the category itself, it becomes powerful. So you have Kleenex tissue, right? You have bounty paper towels.

Laura Ries: And for people I’ve been buying bounty or Kleenex is the real thing. Anything else is a substitute. Now, maybe some people do want to save money and they will. But you know, those brands have tremendous power as being the real thing and dominating those categories that in most cases, you know, they were the brand that pioneered them as the quicker picker upper or the first, you know, facial tissue and a pop up box. Um, you know, those are powerful ideas. The problem long term at too many companies is, you know, the weakening, um, by a line extension of putting one brand name on too many categories and products. That’s what some brand like Scott did, right? It was scottie’s toilet paper. It was Scott toilet paper. Then it was scottie’s tissues and paper towels and napkins. All of a sudden it just became a company name with no real power, no real emotion. It wasn’t a substitute for any one category itself, and it lost its power and really then ability to drive, you know, profits and margins and all those good things that a real brand will deliver. Um, and so, you know, we see the, you know, both of those things happening out in the world where there are places where, you know, the brands are so weak they don’t really deliver. And people, you know, will buy anything on Amazon. Um, because it seems like a reasonable substitute. Um, yet in many categories we have those strong brands. I mean, you know, it’s for me, it’s tied or nothing or bounty or Kleenex or many of these products. Um, and so, you know, that’s the real difference. And that’s the, you know, the true opportunity of, of owning something and becoming the real thing in those categories themselves.

Lee Kantor: Um, but is the younger generation as brand loyal as maybe our generation was? Um, does it does it mean the same, like, does tide mean the same to a 20 year old today as it did to us or our parents?

Laura Ries: Well, if it doesn’t, shame on tide, because what an opportunity. But today we have tide. There’s a lot of line extension tide pods for one. Is it a liquid or a pod? I don’t know. They’re confusing people. Um, you do build that mind memory of those brands. Um, and that is the challenge. Because a new generation is born, new people are born every day. And so the consistency of those brands in understanding what they stand for and, you know, continuously reminding of that, like chick fil A and the chicken sandwich and telling us to eat more chicken, you’ve got BMW, the ultimate driving machine. I mean, those are powerful ideas of companies that are dedicated to it. So it is, you know, it is in fact, a challenge for these companies to make it relevant to a new generation and continually reinforce that one key idea. But sure, I think I think the younger generation is just as is interested in brands. If those brands, um, can clearly communicate, their difference and their importance to them. But here’s the thing not all brands are going to survive, right? I mean, some brands will, you know, unfortunately, are going to pass away. I mean, we’ve seen in our lifetime, I mean, things like Blockbuster Video and Kodak film. Why? Not because the brands were sad or weak. It was those categories themselves. Um, you know, suffered a demise. Um, and those brands, as a result, were not able to kind of go on into the future because they were too entrenched by owning and standing for those, you know, deceased categories in the mind.

Lee Kantor: But it’s, uh, it’s kind of a double edged sword, though, because you can you can die on your hill. And when the when your technology has been disrupted and then you’re the last one standing, you know, advocating for, you know, the Kodak film when a world that doesn’t use film. Uh, so that’s okay.

Laura Ries: I don’t. Don’t you worry. I’ve got the answer for you. It is called giving birth to your own enemy. Companies need to launch new brands. Instead of thinking, you know, how can we use the our Kodak name on Kodak Digital, right? Or Blockbuster on Blockbuster streaming or these things? The real opportunity for companies and the one that is going to ensure their future success, is always looking for ways and new categories and new brands they can launch. Where would Toyota be if they didn’t launch Lexus? Where would the gap be if they didn’t launch Old Navy? And one of my favorites, Mike’s Hard Lemonade. This was a big success in the early 2000, as kids were turning away from from beer and looking for other drinks. This was a hard lemonade. But then what happened? We all realized how much sugar, calories, and carbs were in those things, right? This was a big problem. What did they do? Well, yeah, they did do some line extension, but then they thought of a new brand and a new category called Hard Seltzer, and they called it White Claw. White claw has dominated the market and made the company more successful than ever. That’s the exciting opportunity, not trying to, you know, maintain the past success of those brands because, you know, sometimes things do go out of fashion. Um, and, you know, you continue that and, you know, drive it as long as it goes. But the real chance is to launch those new brands and new categories, and it’s something more companies need to think about doing.

Lee Kantor: So to kind of, um, put yourself or that brand out of business or be open to like, I mean, Netflix is kind of doing that, but they kept the brand Netflix. I mean, they’re one of the few places that blew themselves up.

Laura Ries: Yes. Well, I cover the Netflix story in, in, in full in the book because it’s such an interesting case. Um, you know, they they were the pioneer, as you and I, I’m sure remember the DVDs by mail. Right.

Lee Kantor: So that but the the enemy was blockbuster. That was an easy one. They were they were following your playbook.

Laura Ries: They were.

Lee Kantor: And and then they said, you know what? I see the future and it’s not this. And then let’s just do streaming and we’ll do House of cards. And now we are this other thing here that’s even better than forget about mailing things back and forth. But that is the exception. I mean, there’s a short list of companies that did that.

Laura Ries: Well, here’s here’s the thing about Netflix. What they didn’t do was wait for streaming to be big and then jump on it. They pioneered streaming. They did streaming before anyone even thought it was a good idea. They in fact, they gave it away initially to their, you know, mail by, you know, DVD by mail customers. They kind of get them hooked because back then streaming sucked. We didn’t have good Wi-Fi. It wasn’t very good, but they had they got in the mind early with the category itself. And then they they one day when they said, that’s it, we’re going all in on streaming. No more DVDs. They just shut it down. They didn’t shut it down, but they stopped talking about it. That was the they just. Well, they try to it’s a long story, but they tried to rename it Qwikster and do all these things and they realized, you know, don’t make a whole hullabaloo about it. We just very quietly never talk about the DVDs again. And about a decade or so later, it finally shut down. All everything went into Netflix being, you know, the the streaming service and building and pioneering the category. The thing is, most companies, they can’t do it because they weren’t first. Right. So Redbox, you know, they were the pioneer of the, you know, DVDs in the supermarket, right? Terrific. Yeah, they jumped on streaming, you know, in the way after, you know, Netflix is a huge success. Jumping on later as a me too ain’t going to work. You can’t make that transition. You can only do it if you’re the pioneer. And that happens as to your to your point, very few and far between times. Um, you know, most often companies sit around like blockbuster. I mean, at the very end, blockbuster Nokia dumb phones are making a ton of money before you know, it all goes away with a shift to a new category. And as a result, a new brand for that category like the iPhone or like Netflix and streaming.

Lee Kantor: I mean, it’s hard for, I mean, any business that’s mature and has a board of directors. I mean, the person that’s signing off on taking that kind of risk is, again, a very short list. I mean, only an entrepreneurial organization could pull something like that off.

Laura Ries: It’s you you do have to have a very tough stomach. Another one that did it was Nvidia. And why? Because Jensen Huang is a you know, he’s got a stomach of iron. Um, you know a brilliant I mean he an entrepreneurial type of CEO leading that company. And, you know, they did a lot of amazing things in pioneering the GPU and the graphics processor for, you know, basically high end gaming PCs. And then what did he do? He made a dramatic shift to reposition, refocus the company on AI chips, which at the early days everyone said he was crazy. The stock price took a huge hit. Um, but he saw the future. And you know, sometimes, you know, these people like Elon Musk seeing electric vehicles. Um, and, you know, honestly bet the company’s future on it. And of course, it, you know, paid off spectacularly. Um, because in today everyone’s into AI. But, you know, Nvidia is the leader in chips.

Lee Kantor: But is this, like, kind of a survivor bias? Um, where, you know, we’re not remembering all the ones that went all in on the bad bet that didn’t make it.

Laura Ries: Well, a little, but I mean, I do think in terms of, you know, and here’s the thing, Nvidia was doing fine. Um, and I think, you know, that the GPU was, you know, a big success. Um, but, you know, even greater success. What I study is, of course, you study things that fail. But when you look at the successes, you know, what was the thing that happened? And if you look at it, it is being first pioneering. Um, you know, jumping on the bandwagon doesn’t, you know, usually lead to success. Um, line extensions don’t usually lead to success unless everybody else’s line extended to, um, you know, so that’s where you know, these rules or, you know, you can look at a case and, you know, say, oh, well, you know, if all the beer, all the beer brands were line extended. So line extension is a good idea. Well, what if there wasn’t one? Right. Um, and you see then the rise of, of brands, like, for example, athletic beer, You know, a beer pioneered to, you know, be the not the only brand that you can order. You know by name. As you know, they’ve all in on nonalcoholic, you know, rising and really making a big deal about the category. It only comes in cans because they feel it’s for, you know, active lifestyles taking it places. Um, and because they’re focused, they can really have fun with the messaging. I mean, to your point about, you know, using humor. Well, they they can go all in on it and say, why are you, you know, why are you still drinking alcohol? Don’t you want to wake up and have a better tomorrow? I mean, they can go in on it. Where, you know, Heineken zero. How can they say alcohol’s bad when, you know 99% of their business is selling Heineken with alcohol.

Lee Kantor: So that you have to have congruity like, it has to all make sense in the mind of the consumer, or else they’re going to like, call it inauthentic, or maybe subconsciously they’re going to rebel against it and not buy it.

Laura Ries: Yeah, well, you don’t stand for anything.

Laura Ries: I mean, that’s where I mean, I, you know, how do you how do you establish authenticity, right? I mean, it’s kind of this mythical type of thing. And I do think consistency is a big part of it, of, you know, being one thing, standing for it, and then of course, reinforcing it. Um, you know, for, for many years and having, um, you know, authentic spokespeople that can, you know, be the voice and talk about it. I mean, that that over time, I mean, change is what undermines it. And that’s where you see the strong reactions to companies when they make even minor changes to a logo. I mean, two great examples. You look back at when Tropicana dropped the orange and the straw. I mean, the consumers revolted. Can you imagine just for a logo and a package, it was the same orange they didn’t touch. The orange juice was still, you know, fresh from concentrate, not fresh fresh juice from the orange, not from concentrate. Right. I mean, that was a pioneering idea. And then, you know, the more recently we have the Cracker Barrel debacle, You know, where they took off the, you know, iconic. When you have a visualization of your brand of your specifically your brand name that is very well known, removing it tends to be very jarring to people. Um, and you see the results of, of the, you know, all of the consumer uproar around it.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, it sounds like a lot of your work, you’re you’re not just sitting in an ivory tower coming up with great ideas. Research is at the heart of what you’re doing. You’re you’re kind of looking at case studies and you’re understanding or you’re trying to understand what is kind of the common threads where let me connect some dots that maybe other people aren’t seeing. Is there anything that came up in your research that maybe went against what you anticipated and surprised you?

Laura Ries: It’s a good question.

Laura Ries: I mean, you definitely, you know, you definitely got to get out into the marketplace, out in the muck. I think research is important, most importantly, researching what people are thinking about right now. Um, the one thing that’s very difficult is, you know, to try to predict what people will do in the future. Um, you know, there no one knows, right? It’s very hard to say what they would do when given a choice of a new brand, for example. Um, but I’m trying to think of there’s nothing really too shocking. I mean, most of the situations, um, you know, tend to be pretty straightforward. It’s just always, um, I find the stories of these brands, um, you know, fascinating. I mean, looking back and, um, studying the history and, of course, the brands that, you know, I’ve worked with for, for, for a long times. And, um, so now I can’t think of a good story on that one.

Lee Kantor: What about, um, how Costco’s been able to build the Kirkland brand? That goes kind of against what you were saying earlier about Scotts, where there’s one Kirkland brand, there’s not. You know, the Kirkland batteries are the same as the Kirkland jelly beans. It’s, uh, you know, we all know that they’re being made by another leading producer of those items, but it’s all going under the Kirkland brand, and the Kirkland brand is kind of dominating, um, as a private label brand. I don’t know if there’s many other private label brands that are larger than Kirkland. And and it’s really driving a lot of revenue for Costco.

Laura Ries: Um, gosh. Yeah. So well, it’s well, here’s the thing.

Laura Ries: I mean, Costco is a fantastic idea, right? I mean, the warehouse approach they have, you know, they stock fewer items, um, they make all their money on the membership card, right? So they can, you know, sell the stuff dirt cheap. So you always feel like you’re getting a deal. It’s also a pleasure to to go there because there’s not, you know, 18 choices. You know, there’s basically one choice in each category or there’s the one choice and there’s the Kirkland choice. Now, here’s the thing. They’ve built Kirkland over, you know, many, many years. It’s it’s a nice, simple name. And they’re very strategic about what they go in against and up against. Right? So they pick categories where they really feel they can deliver, you know, a good quality. Um, they can, you know, match or, you know, beat expectations. Um, and have, you know, a good shot where people will, you know, be very inclined to go with the Costco brand and those things. But Costco is itself is, you know, people are have such a strong feeling about it. And because they love Costco, because they know Kirkland is Costco’s brand, um, you know, that is built a very strong reputation. And so in any case, where the, you know, big named, you know, national brand is a little bit weak, that leaves an opportunity for Kirkland. People will jump over to Kirkland, and once they then have a good experience with the product, you know, they keep going back. And people are very loyal, um, to both Costco and Kirkland.

Lee Kantor: And they’ve been able to, um, really, I think dominate and attract a younger audience. This isn’t a brand. That’s just your grandfather’s Costco. I mean, young people are flocking to Costco nowadays.

Laura Ries: Oh, my, oh my my my son and his girlfriend. I mean, they’re obsessed. I mean, that’s their daily ritual. I mean, and what a what a, you know, interesting way because it, they have, you know, been very approachable to, to the younger generation. And I think because they want to save money, there’s an atmosphere of going and shopping in person. Right.

Lee Kantor: That and and discovering that, you know, that deal or that thing that you never knew you wanted and found that that treasure hunt kind of, uh.

Laura Ries: Well, that yeah, the the experience of going and touching and sampling, um, is, is very, very strong. And I think, you know, relevant just as much to, to my generation as to the younger generation and continually to, to not only do it but and outdo themselves. Right. They haven’t gotten lazy. Right. They are continually to improve, you know, their methods, their store, their Kirkland brand. What they’re doing, all of that is very strong. Instead of, you know, trying to go out in different directions. Now, I know they have an online, but you know, that in-store experience is so critical and they do such a great job of it. Another one is Trader Joe’s. Right. I mean, they also have, you know, their their home brand kind of focus as and make it also a simple pleasurable experience. It’s a smaller footprint of store. You don’t have a lot of options. And you you know and trust that Trader Joe’s is going to deliver, you know, a highly, um, you know, quality curated brand, product, etc..

Lee Kantor: So if you were counseling some of the others in the markets, like, like how does a, uh, a Kroger or a Publix, how would you if you were counseling them, how would you, uh, counsel them in terms of differentiating versus vis a vis a Trader Joe’s or a Costco?

Laura Ries: Yeah. Well, listen, I mean, there are little bit stuck what I call in the mushy middle, right? Because you’ve got at the high end, you know, you’ve got the Whole Foods and you’ve got the premium markets. And then at the low end, you know, you’ve got the Costco which kind of is a premium low end right discount. And you’ve got, you know, the behemoth which is Walmart. Um, so you know how you know what is a Kroger right. It’s not as you know, fancy and premium as Whole Foods, but it’s not as cheap as Walmart. It’s probably a little bit more convenient. You don’t have to drive as far. But I think one thing I mean fresh for everyone I think is a is a good message and slogan for Kroger. Um, because they are the the neighborhood store. The fact that and if they they need to deliver on it consistently across all stores, but the ability to have that good pricing fresh for everyone, um, you know, is, is probably their best bet. Um, and you know, the in-store experience and making sure that that is, you know, stellar is, you know, a challenge. But maybe, you know, opportunity. Publix has done a very good job on the service angle, right where shopping is a pleasure.

Laura Ries: Again, you got to deliver on that. That isn’t, you know, necessarily easy. As you know, you don’t have enough shopper lanes or, you know, help at the checkout. Um, but that perception and the continue if you can succeed in, you know, getting that idea people remember Publix is a pleasure to shop but you better deliver when you get in there because when people don’t have that matching and there’s a disassociation, um, that can be problematic. And listen, that’s what has happened in target, right? So target had a very good reputation as cheap chic, right. You know, Walmart was always low prices but target was a little bit more fashionable, right. They had a little bit more design touch. The stores were nice and clean, a little bit friendlier. Um, but you know, as costs went, you know, we’re tough. Um, and they lost some of that focus and they had some, you know, bad customer experiences. You know, they’ve been having some, you know, tough times recently. So it’s, you know, once you own an idea you’ve got to continually, you know, keep Keep the pedal to the metal on it. Right. Continue to get get better at what you’re doing. Reinforce in what you’re doing. Um, and, you know, continuing to drive that growth.

Lee Kantor: And it’s hard when you’re tying yourself to fashion, which is so subjective and fickle. That’s a tough one. You really got to be nimble because that things change and you better be moving or else you’re you’re old news.

Laura Ries: That that is very true. It is always, uh, you know, difficult. Which is crazy because what you’ve seen recently is Walmart trying to become more fashionable. They were at Fashion Week. They do these spreads. I mean, it is just insane because the thing you cannot do is change a mind that’s already made up. And to most people, Walmart is not where you go for fashionable stuff. Cheap? Yes. Right. So you know the best brands at always low prices. I mean, why isn’t anyone ever happy with having an amazing focus and business? Why does the grass always look greener. I mean, you probably remember back, you know, Sears. What did Sears I mean, Sears was the dominant hard goods leader. Yet they were running campaigns, the softer side of Sears and trying to sell dresses and ladies fashion disaster. When you have something so strong, you’re not going to be able to change a mind. And I don’t know why companies waste their time doing it.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. For Walmart, the thing that struck that I struggle with is like, I don’t like to go into it because it’s a mess. There’s stuff on the floor. It’s just a terrible experience for me to go in and do anything in there. But I never consider them online where I wouldn’t have to deal with any of that stuff, and I would just have the good price part of it. Um, but but there’s a disconnect in my mind. Like you were saying earlier, that once it’s locked in, it’s hard to unlock it.

Laura Ries: It’s it’s nearly impossible. And, you know, the funny thing is you got to go back to Walmart because they’ve made strides in making their stores much cleaner and much more organized. Guys and you know that person. But listen, that’s why perceptions last a long time once they’re strongly in that mind. And so, you know, they’ve been really fighting to to battle back for people who did have that experience. But um, you know, they’ve done very good in store. And they really they’re trying to ramp up. And it’s interesting you say that because I, I just recently used the Walmart, um, website to buy something. I kind of wanted to do my own customer research to test it out. Listen, it was pretty, um, pretty nice experience, actually, but who thinks of it? I go immediately to Amazon. I mean, trying to change my behavior to go to Walmart, which I instantly as soon as you say Walmart, I think a store, um, is a big challenge. I mean, again, they would have had such a great opportunity for a second brand in that case. I mean, you think about, you know, you have, you know, PetSmart, which is, you know, the store where you go for your pet stuff and buy pets. But chewy is a second online brand is such a great move, right? They purchased it, but they kept it separate. Um. And so chewy is becomes the dominant, you know, online shopping experience that can go all in on that. Yet you still keep the pet stores because if you need to buy fish or want to buy your kid a lizard, we’ve got a leopard gecko. I mean, I really don’t think you can order those online. That’d be kind of weird. Not to mention the fresh crickets. The thing eats like five times a week. Um, so, you know, but, you know, keeping those separate each can, you know, do best at what it does best. Um, and that’s the opportunity that too many companies miss.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And I was saying that now there’s Chewy Vets or they’re, they’re some licensing of the brand for vets.

Laura Ries: Yes. Well there, there is. You know, there’s online docs for people. And now we’re getting these online doc brands for pets. But think about it. Do you want a pet you know, chewy doctor or do you want like a more appropriate doctor kind of website? I mean, the opportunity to go to. I mean, there’s no advantage in, you know, when online something is a click away, you can go to a specialist. I mean, the specialist has great advantage. Um, and, you know, taking that opportunity instead of companies thinking, you know, what else can we get into? Uh, what else can we leverage our brand? Instead of thinking maybe that might weaken our brand. Um, and, you know, maybe we can set up a new brand.

Lee Kantor: So when it comes to a brand and there’s someone out there listening and wants to connect with you or somebody on your team, what is that ideal customer look like for Reese?

Laura Ries: Well, anyone that has a passion for improving their positioning, building their brand, finding their focus, identifying their strategic enemy. Um, you know, I just I’d love to work with entrepreneurs, companies, um, to, you know, to really get in there and understand it, to clarify things, to simplify things. I mean, it’s a challenge to simplify, but when you can nail it, um, it leads to really great brand success and, you know, success. But to find me, I am just at com and it’s Aria com, we’ve got books, consulting, consulting, all sorts of resources to check out.

Lee Kantor: And the book, The Strategic Enemy, that’s out now. Right.

Laura Ries: It is. It just came out had the big party at the country club last week. So fun. Um, it’s been, uh, the first book I’ve come out with in about ten years. So there’s a lot of great, um, updated examples, excitement on how you can best position by first identifying that strategic enemy to position against.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff. Well, Laura, a pleasure talking to you. And congratulations on all the success. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Laura Ries: Well, thanks so much. So fun to talk.

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

Lisa M Vasquez With The Modern Menopause Consultancy

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High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Lisa M Vasquez With The Modern Menopause Consultancy
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Lisa M. Vasquez is a Licensed Menopause Champion, certified health coach, podcast host, author, and founder of The Modern Menopause Consultancy. After 40+ years in breast health and radiology, she now guides women through hormonal transitions, chronic pain, and identity shifts—blending science, storytelling, and emotional literacy.

Her podcast and coaching programs spotlight invisible struggles like burnout and workplace exclusion, helping women reclaim energy, balance, and legacy. She’s also the author of Girl in the Red: Your Hormones Are Showing, a humorous and heartfelt puberty guide that empowers girls to understand their bodies with clarity and pride

Connect with Lisa on LinkedIn and Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Her new book—Girl in the Red.

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 Lisa Vasquez. She is with the Modern Menopause Consultancy. Welcome, Lisa.

Lisa Vasquez: Hi. Thank you so much. Today High Velocity Radio show. This is very exciting and I really appreciate having a voice here. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: Well, we’re excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about the modern menopause consultancy. How you serving folks?

Lisa Vasquez: Well, this is all, um, coming from groundwork of the past five years, but the history comes from 45 years of working in radiology. I specialize in breast cancer, breast health, and mammography. I was a technologist. I recently retired a year and a half ago, and so my biggest, what I really wanted to express was amplifying the voice of all the women behind closed doors that wouldn’t go through a lot of pain to uncaptured hormonal changes, things that lab work doesn’t really justify when they’re still feeling terrible. And so because of that, and then besides the seen through the lens of disease and destruction in radiology for 45 years, the changes of the decline in women’s health, you know, when I started was the 80s. So we had a little bit more nourishment in our soils, environments, and, you know, things were happening, but not to the extent of where we are today. So this is where that started from.

Lee Kantor: So how does the practice actually work? Like what are your clients coming to you to help them with?

Lisa Vasquez: Well, so my consultancy will be about hormones testing, you know, taking higher levels of a test besides what general insurance provides, so that we get the overall look of inflammation and different changes that are happening in the body. But aside from that, I actually just joined a global wellness company, partner Co and this is like over 100 excellent nutrient replacements for our body because I found through statistics and uh, interviewing women, a lot of women do not do vitamins. And I didn’t understand that. And the beauty about this company is something I’ve searched for a long time, was the fact that I grew up in the when I was 15, a noxzema girl. And, you know, the the slogan then was, you know, be an all natural, clean, you know, beauty girl, whatever. Anyway, so that’s where my all natural started. And as I developed on my path getting into radiology, growing up with women who became like a human library through all their challenges and things, this is what led me to create this program. And so I am also certified as a breast health certification. So I am creating a bootcamp for breast cancer awareness program because we are entering that month with International Menopause Day, and this bootcamp will be speaking on the grounds of or having a high rise in women under 5040s, higher rates of breast cancer that are occurring. And so, you know, I want you to be the best at your breast. And so this is where the consulting will come in because hormones are, you know, the weight loss, the mood swings, the different feelings and changes that a woman, uh, goes through in her cycle and her cycle, I should say.

Lee Kantor: So, um, have you started, uh, actually having clients working in this area, or is this something that you’re working towards?

Lisa Vasquez: This is something I’m working toward for 2026. So after all the groundwork of the groundwork during while I was working my full time job. This was all in a creation state. And so now it is evolving into the next level. And this brings me the excitement because, uh, I’m an author. So I created my first solo book I’ve been in for. But this is my solo called girl in the Red. Your hormones are showing. So this is taking us all back to kind of zero and empowering young little ladies who are entering this, uh, hormonal, uh, kayak waters, I call it, because the shifts in the waves and how these all change. But our generations have never had real stories about menstrual cycle and what it all means. And driving that lane and being there without proper nourishment and, um, processing every stage of these changes. This is what has been breaking women, um, on the road to, you know, their longevity through the workplace. So I also support women now to date in the workplace with these conversations? Because there’s so many structures there that haven’t changed, and women’s hormonal changes really have a bigger effect in their repairing their changes of coming from maternity, all these different things. So this is just a big thing of hormones that really, uh, is the identity of a woman.

Lee Kantor: So are you available to do speaking at companies uh, to to work with some of the women and educate them about this subject?

Lisa Vasquez: Yes. These are the doors that I really want to break down, because this is where the women are really behind, um, pain behind closed doors. And, you know, with the different, uh, cultures with different disabilities, these are women that kind of hide in shadows because they don’t want to provide a look of weakness, but they’re trying to be productive, as, you know, normal and, you know, hearing about the programs that you host with your company, with the boat rides for the disability. This was I was so fascinated by that, to come into this community and understand this world. But, you know, it’s not just about, you know, women. It’s we’re all hormonal men, women. But those changes that affect us in the workplace have really put a big damage on us. And these are the women that I would see in the mammography room that were presenteeism going to work, not really being there, you know, had no sleep the nights before. Uh, you know, just all kinds of different changes, you know, the nourishment, the hair loss that was starting to appear. There were so many things that started changing. So, yes, bringing education into the corporate world is the goal, because this is where we need to really open up. And that’s where the women are, you know, to really capture them. That’s where the journey is. Those are the paths they have to cross.

Lee Kantor: Now, a lot of folks out there would like to write a book, but you obviously have written a book and been involved in other books. Can you talk about, um, how you go about the book writing process when you wrote your book, The Girl in the Red? Uh, your hormones are showing. What was your process in kind of coming up with the concept and actually getting, you know, words down and actually, you know, then actually publishing it. Do you mind sharing a little bit about your author journey?

Lisa Vasquez: Oh, no, not at all. Because this is what’s so exciting is because where I stand today, I had five year goals my whole life. So looking back at the trail, when the menstrual started at 11, I had very bad cramps. Went through a lot, you know. But we don’t know this as young girls, you know, it’s just a process. These are things. As all women, this is where all our pain starts. We have to push through it. We have to go to school. So that was the journey, finding little girls who who discover their menstrual. And this is talking to women in my generation who were hidden in the restroom when they got this sign that appeared while they were in school, scared to come out. Mother picks them up. They’re just led to be given a pad. And, you know, here’s the new hygiene way you’re going to take care of yourself. And that’s the end of the conversation. So today we have period poverty where our women and women and young girls, they don’t have the, uh, um. Skins that we use, the sanitary pads or any of that. This is a limited, but we don’t know that it could be our own friend, but she’s not going to tell us. So, uh, my my menstrual started in Mexico, my first journey there in fifth grade. And there I was, hearing the story from my sister and why she picked that moment, I don’t know. And next thing you know, I went to the restroom and there I was. I screamed and oh my gosh. And now I’m in Mexico. Love, love Mexico. My my culture, my history. But at.

Lisa Vasquez: The time.

Lisa Vasquez: Back then in 72, 1972, there was no support. There wasn’t no place to, you know, plumbing for me where I was at in the little, uh, place I was little town and, uh, you know, pads were not easy to access. So I had the experience of what that could be like. And today, to even know that this this happens to children, women. It is very sad because back then, we didn’t look at it as though I had to decide if we were going to have dinner, or were they going to buy me my pads. And today it’s a different story. And again, not nourishing correctly. I want this next generation to really evolve in health and in their wealth of health. But it all starts with understanding how to nourish this in all those spaces.

Lee Kantor: So when you had the idea and you wanted to reflect on that past and then help the younger generation deal with what you had to deal with, um, how did you kind of come up with the tone? You did this with a bit of humor. You wanted to be, you know, educational, but you wanted to cover the topic in a way that’s accessible. Can you talk about why that was the path you decided to take?

Lisa Vasquez: Well, because the first part of it all starts with when I speak, I’m never alone. I carry all the thousands of women that I’ve served in the special touch in the mammography room. Their stories is what’s created all of this in me. And so I dedicated that book with them intentionally. And then I created my characters to bring hormones into Lady Estrogen, lady testosterone and Lady Progesterone. And they all have a conversation with me because our hormones are speaking. We’re just not listening. So to really bring that out, that was the most fascinating part. There’s scripts in there. And then back then, mother and Daughters, we separate and we didn’t know. But I discovered and through what I’ve studied and seen, our distance comes because I’m on a full tank and my mother’s, you know, declining in her hormonal fuel. So we’re not seeing eye to eye. I’m puffier and she’s, you know, bleeding out differently, but we don’t know that. And she’s in a different mood from where I’m at, so we’re never going to clash. So what I want to bring back is that mother daughter story. Because of the pain that I’ve seen of these separations, even when you’re 15. These hormones are like wild mustangs, and they make you think you don’t need your mother. But we need a hug from her all the time. We need to share a moment with her and have a movie and popcorn just to see what’s happening with each other. And so I talk about that. I have skits in there with her father joining in a conversation, because I have a lot of dead girls out there. And, um, how do they start? Where do they start? You know, like, oh, no, she’s got, you know, I mean, it’s just a hard conversation. And now I made it so easy. And I’m happy to hear the reviews of people really enjoying this because there is that science education. But there is my own anecdotes of life that come out of what happened to me at 1112, you know, up until 14. Next book will be different, but that’s part of what happened in this book.

Lee Kantor: Now, are there any challenges you can share when you’re building a consultancy, like you’re doing? Um, and you’re starting from kind of ground zero, you have all this experience, but to then go out into the world and find your own path, uh, do you mind sharing some of the challenges and how you’ve overcome them?

Lisa Vasquez: Well, the first part was I came across a program that had that was created in the UK. It’s called The Menopause Experts. And, um, they had a program, so that just came. Perfect timing for me and the education. The support is global, you know, so you hear everything and all kinds of stories. So that was a big part of really kicking off this foundation. The next part of breaking down those walls is when I started the conversation of breast cancer back in the 80s. Those walls had to be broken down. Mammography wasn’t being used. People were afraid of it. They didn’t understand it. We started bringing out education, having more and more about it. So we evolved to a point where we’re at. But unfortunately now we’re having a bigger another high rise in women, young women coming with this issue. So we’re taking that education and those steps that I took to create that I spoke on, that I do speak on that still today is where I’m doing with menopause because the subject, it’s a one day issue, it’s not a disease and it comes at any age. I mean, you could be 28 and have a full, uh, full hysterectomy and be in menopause.

Lisa Vasquez: So it’s not an age thing, but when you say that, they think, oh, that’s not me yet, but it’s all of us. Again, we have hormones. There’s people we need to understand what these phases of menstrual, peri and menopause and then especially post-menopausal women, they have a conversation of believing that there’s nothing else they need to do. You know, I’m done with that. That’s it. You know, I’m good, but there’s not. There’s this drive to go for optimal health within you because one out of seven women will live to be 100. And I don’t believe in that. My list, because my father just passed away a year ago at 98 full, you know, fully loaded. He was a great guy. And, uh, so I kind of feel like my uncle, his cousin 101, just passed away this year. So it’s a it seems like my life is going to last a little longer, but who knows? You know, we want to keep the quality. We don’t know. I mean, we don’t know how long the quantity is. Where it’s going to end up with the quality is what’s important to carry on.

Lee Kantor: So is there any advice you can give a woman right now who might be dealing with menopause? Is there are some do’s and don’ts on how you would, um, kind of manage menopause?

Lisa Vasquez: Well, there’s a lot of different ways. I mean, first of all, it’s really knowing and getting chemistry baselines of your hormones. We are not taught to do this. We are not trained to do that. People find out their chemistry when they’re already in menopause. And that shouldn’t have been because just like a mammogram, we need baseline studies, and we read every year and every other year to really do a comparison study, to see the travels of where you’re at. This is what hormonal chemistry panels can do for us. Give us. I use it like a printing cartridge, right. We know when the pink and the blues are running out. We need to see that as we evolve in our life and when we see small symptoms start to show up, we kind of confuse them that maybe that’s just, you know, I’ve been up all night because my, you know, I just had a baby or something, but could there be a hormonal shift in there? There’s small aches and pains that happen, but they all mean something when they start to develop. So 20s and 30s fully loaded. We’re doing good. Uh, 40s. We start walking on eggshells because that’s when the Perry pause comes in and all a lot of signs start to come up. 50s we become, we start to come into, um, more chronological by 60 or chronologically coming into age disease. We really want to capture 50 and really bring the wellness into our nutrition, our life, you know, throughout your life. But, you know, these are the years because we’re a little late behind us. So I have the new generation growing into this, but it’s the women in my generation today They that really need this awareness.

Lee Kantor: And so you think it’s important for women of all ages to kind of know what their hormonal situation is, so they can kind of keep an eye on it as they age.

Lisa Vasquez: Yes. Because we understand today a lot of signs come from these young girls when they’re having cramps, when they’re having different, uh, things happening during the beginning cycles of their menstrual cycle. So really teaching them, just as we are taught, you know, at a point, this is your doctor at a point and go to the gynecologist really teaching them young what this all means with education. And that’s what I’m hoping that my book is going to provide is make them more curious. But it’s really empowering to really, uh, trust and self love and self care for yourself.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more about your practice and get Ahold of your book, or maybe book you for speaking or some consulting. What is the best way to connect with you?

Lisa Vasquez: Um, currently through my email help my well-being at gmail.com.

Lee Kantor: And do you have a website or do you have are you on social media?

Lisa Vasquez: Social media? Facebook? I have a Facebook group called The Modern Menopause Evolution. Uh, Instagram. Female forward evolution. That was for my younger group, for my book and, um, just my social page. Lisa Vasquez.

Lee Kantor: Uh, Lisa Vasquez. They can, uh, look you up that way. And so there’s no kind of central website.

Lisa Vasquez: Uh, Lisa, Chico, this is under construction, but it still has access to come into my group. And, um, everything that’s going to be added to that is under construction right now. But it’s Lisa who see that, and it’s very interesting. It’s a new ride for me and I’m very excited about this and especially the opportunity to really talk to the world.

Lee Kantor: Well, congratulations on all the momentum. It sounds like you’re heading, uh, to an exciting adventure here. And congratulations.

Lisa Vasquez: Thank you, thank you. It is. It really is. It’s it’s a dream come true. Helping out about women. You know what they’ve given to me. You know, just giving it all back now. Fully loaded with. With answers and solutions and, you know, making moves and proving energy. And it’s just great.

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

Lisa Vasquez: Thank you.

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

Building a Salon Empire: Lessons in Leadership and Community Engagement

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High Velocity Radio
Building a Salon Empire: Lessons in Leadership and Community Engagement
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In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee Kantor interviews Erin Mills, founder of Theory Salons in Orlando. Erin shares her journey of launching her salon just before the COVID-19 pandemic, overcoming multiple crises, and building a debt-free, thriving business. She discusses her focus on community, innovative client engagement, and team development through a career playbook. Erin also reveals plans for expansion and franchising, emphasizing the importance of maintaining company culture. The episode highlights resilience, leadership, and sustainable growth in the salon industry.

Erin Mills is a visionary entrepreneur, multi-salon owner, and advocate for women’s healing and empowerment, driven by a mission to create spaces where safety, growth, and authenticity thrive.

After exploring careers in real estate and as a stylist, entrepreneurship always felt like a natural progression for her, fueled by a passion for big-picture thinking, leading teams, and making meaningful impact. Determined to challenge the male-dominated salon industry and its often unsafe environments, she built salons of 55+ team members where both clients and the team feel welcomed, supported, and uplifted.

Known for a unique ability to find solutions where others see roadblocks, she sees opportunity in everything and inspires those around her to reach their highest potential. That mindset was tested when she opened her first salon just five months before COVID shutdowns, only to face a devastating flood weeks after reopening.

Despite starting on savings and even selling her home, the outpouring of community support helped the business not only recover, but thrive—clearing debt, becoming profitable, and surpassing $1M in sales in its first year. This resilience reinforced Erin’s belief in focusing on impact as the key to lasting success.

Beyond the salons, she is committed to helping women break free from limitations imposed by trauma, grief, and societal expectations. Having personally experienced the transformative power of creating true safety—internally and externally—Erin teaches that healing begins when we can sit with ourselves, listen to our bodies, and embrace both pain and joy.

Through initiatives like a new meditation and tapping program, she guides women through the difficult but necessary journey of rediscovering who they were called to be, offering tools, support, and a reminder that no one is too broken to begin again.

Outside of work, she finds strength and renewal in nature, running half marathons, and spending quiet moments walking at dawn or dusk to stay grounded and connected to family. Whether on the beach or through music, she draws inspiration from faith and the natural world. Erin’s core message remains powerful and clear: It’s not too late, and you are not too broken to create the person you want to be.

Connect with Erin on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • From crisis to $1M: The entrepreneur who lost everything—then built a profitable salon empire rooted in impact

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 gonna be a good one. Today’s topic is from crisis to $1 million. The entrepreneur who lost everything then built a profitable salon empire rooted in impact. Today’s guest is founder owner of three salons, Erin Mills. Welcome.

Erin Mills: Thank you so much for having me, Lee. I really appreciate it.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn more about your journey. Uh, first off, tell us about three salons. How are you serving, folks?

Erin Mills: Yes, well, we are we have two locations in Orlando, Florida. We have been around for six years. And, uh, what sets us apart is how you feel when you walk in the doors. You immediately feel like you are welcome there. This is a place I want to be, and we focus more on the small details than the big details. We have about 54 people that work between both of our locations and we’re growing every day.

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

Erin Mills: Well, I’ve been in the hair industry for 16 years, and it had been a goal of mine to open a salon, and I just happened to choose to open a salon four months before Covid started. So, as you can imagine, it wasn’t exactly the best time to start short term. But long term. Man, I sure learned a lot of lessons. When we opened, we ended up having to close for two months straight. And you know, when you’re self-funded, you’re opening a brick and mortar business that can be devastating. 80% of salons closed within the first two years. So to keep open through that was monumental. As soon as we walked back in, we came back in excited to serve our customers. We had a salon flood and actually had to close down again. So that first year was just crisis after crisis and the community really rallied around us. We raised some money to help us get through that time. And man, within that first year, not only closing for a fourth of it, we ended up being within one year, completely debt free. So it was an incredible, hard, wonderful learning year.

Lee Kantor: So what were you doing to kind of build the community and get everybody on board about the mission and what you were trying to accomplish that year?

Erin Mills: We decided, well, if they can’t come to us, we’ll come to them because, you know, say they can’t get the services they normally get. Well, I can still provide the things, some of the things that they need at home. So five days a week I was building packages to bring to clients within an hour of our salon. And I would anything that they needed, I would bring to them. We gave them the ability to buy gift cards at a huge discount, and then through those gift cards, I would pay my team. So our community knew that we were reaching out, coming to them, giving them the ability to come back in a in a discounted way, and that if they did those things, then my team was going to get to continue to get paid while we were closed down as well. And then we would have monthly community outreach lives on Instagram. So we would talk about their concerns and try to still continue making an impact in a small way, virtually. So in person and virtually, we tried to stay as connected as possible to the people around us.

Lee Kantor: And then what kind of in what way were you staying connected? Were you texting? Were you using social media or email? Like how were you actually kind of, um, making those types of connections.

Erin Mills: So we would market our social media through email and let them know exactly when our lives would be so that they could come on and join us. But all of our interactions, besides being delivering the items in person, would be virtually through Instagram. Instagram is really where our focus was, because doing a live there is so easy and people can just join right in and you can send them save the dates. So you would send out save the dates. We would send out inspirational messages through text and email, but we would meet virtually on Instagram lives.

Lee Kantor: So when the salon opened up and people were able to come in person, did that change anything in terms of how these relationships were kind of being nurtured?

Erin Mills: Yeah, it’s almost like, you know, when you have a connection with people, a lot of that connection you don’t realize is with your facial expressions. So when we came back in the salons, everyone was wearing masks. There was a little bit of a weirdness that some people felt coming in there. But the ones that stayed connected to us. I mean, man, they were so excited to be back and support us. And it felt like a reunion after reunion for all the people that we got to see over the next few months, because they, as much as we were trying to make a small and big impact on them, they were really trying to make sure that we survived this because they knew being a new business, it was not it was not guaranteed that we would still be there when they returned. Um, so I think it was became a mutual, a mutual foundation of, oh, I hope that we can all do this together. And it brought us really close together.

Lee Kantor: Now, were you able to kind of leverage those relationships to move them virtually to in person, to then them kind of referring their friends and family, were you able to kind of, you know, close the loop in that way?

Erin Mills: Oh, absolutely. I think because we focused on the impact and connection. I mean, that year we had, Um, I think the number was 582 new clients, which is a huge number that I don’t think we would have been able to get if it weren’t for focusing on the things that we could focus on, because it would have been easy to just do nothing and be scared. But instead we made sure that that connection didn’t stop. So then that entire year, everyone that came to us before referred their friends, referred their, their community. And we we still six years later, have people that come to see us from out of state because of those connections.

Lee Kantor: So, um, what led you to this second salon?

Erin Mills: Well, we quickly I think because of that impact, we quickly grew out of our small location. So I, I had a wait list of about 50 something people that wanted to work there, we couldn’t fit any more clients in. It was getting to the point to where either I opened up a bigger location or a second location, so I did both. I opened up a second location twice as big right down the road, and that enabled me to to make our impact even bigger. And within two years, that second double the size location, we were able to be debt free there as well. And we now are still making an impact. We are still connecting with our community. And now my focus is on outside of outside of our Central Florida location and hoping to expand even further throughout, um, going further up to hopefully Tennessee, Atlanta, things like that.

Lee Kantor: So when you’re, uh, kind of growing your business, obviously at first you’re trying to get clients into the door. How have you been able to really, uh, enlist your the people working at the salon to be true team members and and feel the mission as well, and want to kind of invest this much time and energy in the growth of the salon as a whole.

Erin Mills: That’s a great question. I believe communication and culture are the absolute non-negotiables that I’ve had to focus on. So for my teams, I have created a leadership team within both locations so that I am constantly feeding in from the top. And then we’re also focused on growing from the bottom up as well. So we have people that are nurturing from the top up, and then we’re growing our lowest position so that they can learn how to be leaders from the very beginning. And the mission is something that we reiterate in every single one of our team meetings, our team outings. We try to I try to bring home how important it is that how we make people feel, and the impact we make means so much more than hair. It has everything and nothing to do with hair, so it’s a continual reminder and a a teaching that not only is our mission, it’s not just words, it is ingrained in every single thing that we do, from the lowest role to the most important role.

Lee Kantor: Now, how do you give them the kind of the career path that that makes all of that effort and emotional investment and, you know, time investment kind of feel like they’re going to get their ultimate dream coming true as well as yours.

Erin Mills: Ah, that’s a great question as well. We I developed a career playbook for my team so everyone knows where they’re going. And that means from the assistance, they know exactly how they’re going to get to being a hairstylist, to get to be on a commission, being an employee based team member to one day, being an independent team member. Everyone has a level system and a career path built into that playbook. So not only is it something that they’re just having aspirations to hopefully do one day, they their levels are built in to from the beginning. They come in there, they know exactly what they need to do to reach each new level. And I also built in two days a week. I have one on one meetings with anyone on my team who wants to meet with me, and we go over what they’re doing well, what they need to do better, and they break down by the day, by the hour, exactly what they’re doing well and what they’re missing in those levels to to keep moving forward. So it’s written out. We come up with it, we have the playbook. And then I go through them individually weekly to make sure that they’re they have what they need.

Lee Kantor: Now a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with attracting and retaining talent. Do you mind sharing a little bit about this playbook? How did it come about, and what are kind of the must haves when you’re putting together your own playbook?

Erin Mills: I think when you are putting together your own playbook, you have to look at what has worked well for you and go based off of that knowledge. Because if you try to create a playbook based on something you don’t know, then it’s not teachable from your perspective. You also have to look at the people around you and the climate. You know, the climate with our industry, everything in the last five years has has gone up 400 times in price just for us to do our normal job. So when I made the playbook, it was a lot different than what it is now. And once a year I go back and evaluate everything that I’ve put in there. But it comes from my own experience. It comes from doing everything that I’ve told them to do and creating a really successful career before I ever opened the salons. Um, it comes from experience. It comes from consistency. Consistency is the number one one of the number one core beliefs as well. Second to communication and culture. Because if you’re consistent in your daily small actions and they consistently follow these things, then there’s it may take more time than they want, but it will happen if they continually follow the plan.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you find that most of the people attracted to your industry, are they looking for kind of a secure job situation where they know they’re going to get paid every week? Or are they kind of like you, an entrepreneur that’s looking maybe to take some risk and to kind of go out on their own in some form or fashion?

Erin Mills: It’s a mixture of both. There are people who have been entrepreneurs who want to come back to security because they’ve been entrepreneurs for the past, for the last 10 to 15 years, and they are really looking to move differently in the next phase of their life. Going back to having a W2 is something that I continue to hear a lot, because you don’t realize as when you’re younger, the the benefits that that can bring you going back to possibly having a 401 K, going back to having team support, a lot of entrepreneurs have been going back to stability because as you go out through your career, I’ve noticed this in people who are in their 40s and 50s stability is something that if you haven’t had that you really crave. And then the second part is people that are wanting more and they are wanting to grow more. So it’s two different people. It’s people that have had freedom and they want to come back to stability and still be excited and grow. And then the other team is people who have not been able to grow yet in their career, and they’re looking for someone to help them do that.

Lee Kantor: So when they work with you either path, you give them a way to go.

Erin Mills: Oh, absolutely. I believe. You know, I think commission salons are great when they are ran really well. I also think that most people want to know that they are not limited in their growth. So there are options for both of those in my salons. I don’t think I would never want to be limited in my own journey. I don’t I personally don’t want to do that to anyone else. But there is a structure and there is a way to go about it. So, you know, in theory salons, everyone is supported and guided. And the more that you put into it, the more that you’re going to get out. But the freedom is always going to be there and stability is our foundation.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re working in an environment where the the person that’s doing the work on the client is has an opportunity to develop a really good relationship with that individual client, how do you kind of keep the brand at the forefront so that to remind them that they’re in a theory salon, that’s not, you know, Mary’s salon, it’s its theory salon. So you know that they don’t feel like, oh, I’ll just go with Mary if she moves down the street.

Erin Mills: Yeah. Well, to be honest, a lot of people do leave when their when their stylist leaves, but then a lot of people come back. And I think the reason is, is because how when they, how they feel in the salon, how they are treated. I mean, we the eye contact, the luxury service, the way that they are provided for is not something that most people can do when they go out on their own. So even if they left with the stylist who left and maybe got their hair done a few times, a good majority come back because they were missing that all inclusive luxury feeling experience. And most people, when they spend a lot of money, want to feel taken care of. They don’t just want to, you know, go in and get something done and and be one of the second or third clients in a small room. They truly want to feel like they are the priority. They are getting an experience, and that’s what they come back for.

Lee Kantor: So you mentioned kind of growing outside of the borders of Orlando or Central Florida. Is there? Um, so what what’s kind of on the roadmap are you looking to franchise, or are you looking to just kind of have your current crew, um, if they have intentions to move or go somewhere else to let them kind of be the boots on the ground in these new locations. What’s kind of on your growth roadmap?

Erin Mills: Well, I have someone now that I’m working with to open up her location. I can’t say where yet, but, um, she has been with me for since I ever even opened the salons. And she will be the first one that will be in, uh, in culture franchise, and I’m very excited about that for her. And that will happen in the next two years and other locations. We’ve had some stylists move, and they have been wanting to open a theory where they have moved, and so I’ve built the processes to be able to replicate that. And the, um, I’ve been working with someone to franchise it, but our franchise will be in house only for this time being. So we are going to be working only with people that have worked within the theory systems to be able to ensure that the culture is the same no matter where we go.

Lee Kantor: So what do you need more of right now and how can we help right now?

Erin Mills: Oh man, I, I’m just excited to branch out into different places beyond the salon world because, you know, as an entrepreneur, you realize although it’s it’s it’s a brick and mortar business, a lot of our foundations are the same. So I’m looking for like minded people who would love to talk about what they’ve learned so that I can grow and then be an asset to any other person who has opened a brick and mortar, or who is in charge of 50, plus more people who would like some guidance, possibly in how to continue building their culture and their brand.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to connect with you or learn more about theory, what is the website? What’s the best way to connect.

Erin Mills: The website is theory. Salon.com. And personally, they can reach out to me on Instagram because I will love to connect there and all of our links are there as well. And mine is at Aaron Mills and I would be happy to connect with anyone there.

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

Erin Mills: Thank you so much, Lee. I really appreciate that.

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

Adventure Dating: Where Love Meets the Great Outdoors

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High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Adventure Dating: Where Love Meets the Great Outdoors
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In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee Kantor interviews Lisa Craft, founder and CEO of Adventure Dating. Lisa shares the inspiration behind her activity-based dating app, which connects active, like-minded individuals through shared adventures such as mountain biking and surfing. She discusses her entrepreneurial journey, challenges in app development, grassroots marketing strategies, and plans for expansion. The app emphasizes authentic connections and wellness, offering a 30-day free trial followed by a $19.99 monthly subscription. Lisa also highlights her focus on building communities and seeking brand ambassadors to grow Adventure Dating in new cities.

Lisa Craft is the founder and CEO of Adventure Dating, the first experience-first dating platform that transforms how people connect by pairing curated adventures with meaningful matches.

With a background in business operations and entrepreneurship, she has turned the dating model on its head—ditching small talk for real-life, memory-making activities.

Based in California, she blends her entrepreneurial spirit with a love for adventure, helping people break the ice in the most exciting way possible.

Connect with Lisa on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Finding the gap in a crowded dating market — and turning it into a bold new concept
  • The ups and downs of bootstrapping a lifestyle startup in a post-pandemic world
  • Why traditional dating apps miss the mark — and how experience-first models are changing the game
  • Wellness, adventure, and human connection as the new competitive edge in tech

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 Lisa Craft, who is the founder and CEO of Adventure Dating. Welcome.

Lisa Craft: Hi Lee, thanks for having me today on your podcast.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about adventure dating.

Lisa Craft: Well, adventure dating is basically an activity based matching system. So let’s say you’re available on a Sunday and you want to ride a mountain bike within like 20 miles of your home. So you’ll put in the activity you want to do, the distance and the date you’re available. And then once we have enough users on the platform, it’s going to connect you with a like minded user and basically promoting wellness and healthy lifestyles and events, and connecting two people with an authentic experience.

Lee Kantor: And then was it always did it start out as being dating, or did it start out being activities.

Lisa Craft: Its activities leading into dating so you could find a friend or you could find a date on there?

Lee Kantor: Okay, so you were defining dating fairly broadly.

Lisa Craft: Yes. Well, I you know, the whole thing came to be I was on a ride on my mountain bike, and I thought how cool it would be if you’re only available, like one day a week, to be able to do an activity with a like minded person. And that’s kind of how the whole idea came about.

Lee Kantor: So you were saying, wouldn’t it be great if I could share this moment with somebody else, and there must be somebody else who’s also I mean, I look around me, there’s people riding their bike around me.

Lisa Craft: So exactly on a random Sunday. So basically what the app does, if you’re only available on Sunday, you can choose a bunch of different adventures. I call them mountain biking. Surfing. You could go to sports games and you’ll put in the date you’re available, the distance you’re willing to travel, and then you’ll be matched with somebody with like minded interest.

Lee Kantor: Now, had you ever done an app before? Is this a new venture? Are you a technologist?

Lisa Craft: No, this is a brand new venture. I’m coming out of CPR, first aid and AED training was my last company.

Lee Kantor: Okay, so you had been. You had been entrepreneur in the past?

Lisa Craft: Yes. I started being an entrepreneur in 2002.

Lee Kantor: And then when you moved into kind of the app world, was that like, how did you kind of, um, uplevel your skills in order to find, you know, the right technologist, the right technology? It’s a little tricky using technology as opposed to kind of in real life stuff.

Lisa Craft: Oh my God, it was a journey. So basically I came up with the idea and then I have a friend here in Los Angeles and he runs a computer company. He’s an IT specialist. So I got together with him and we brainstormed, and then we hired a team of engineers in India. And that was a challenge in itself. And then, uh, it took several years, but we finally got it built.

Lee Kantor: I mean, the technology is just part of it. How do you kind of develop this two sided marketplace?

Lisa Craft: A lot of trial and error.

Lee Kantor: Were you good at creating community in your other work?

Lisa Craft: Yes. So in my other work, I basically, um, that was primarily for like a lot of different, uh, doctors and like, corporate America. And I’d go in there and I’d train. And then I realized year after year, I didn’t need to advertise because I did such a great job with the original clients that that led to, like, all their family, their friends and other associates. So I’m trying to do the same thing with the grassroots and the word of mouth with the adventure dating now.

Lee Kantor: Um, what what’s some advice for folks who aren’t as good at this type of relationship building and community building that you are. What are some do’s and don’ts when it comes to starting building a community from Ground zero?

Lisa Craft: The first thing I would do is I’d buy a.com, because that that kind of solidifies that that’s going to be your company and that’s going to push you to build the company. Uh, the second thing I would do is if somebody is not working on your team as you’re building this, you got to learn to let them go, even if they’re friends or family members. And if something feels right, it is right. You just got to keep going for it.

Lee Kantor: But how do you begin that initial outreach? Like do you start with friends and family? Do you go online to communities like how do you start evangelizing the service?

Lisa Craft: Well, Lee, I’m into a lot of sports, so I go golfing and I go to there like the regular golf courses, the city golf courses, because that’s where a lot of the younger college kids are. And I’ll be playing. And somehow, some way they come up to me and I tell them, I’ve started an app, would you like to join? And the younger kids, the college kids all say yes, and they’ll pull out their phones and they’ll sign on. I’ve surfed for over 30 years, so when I’m in Malibu or Topanga, I’ll tell the younger kids I’ve started the app. Do you want to sign on? They say yes. And that’s kind of how I’ve started this. Um, we’re going to break into marketing now, into the colleges, and we’re going to see what kind of response we can get with the college kids.

Lee Kantor: Or how are you kind of, um, attacking the college campuses. Are you finding ambassadors? Are you finding kind of brand, uh, people that are going to support the brand?

Lisa Craft: I would love to do some brand ambassadors in L.A. and then once we get LA done, what we’re going to do is we’re going to replicate it in other cities.

Lee Kantor: So how do you, like, begin? Like, could you just show up at the UCLA campus and start walking around at the quad and start, you know, showing people the app.

Lisa Craft: I’m going to show up. You bet I am. And I’ll walk around and I’ll see what they’re doing, and I. This this app isn’t for everyone. It’s for, like, uh, adventurous, active people. It’s for people that want to get out. It’s for people that want to get off their phones. It’s for people that want to get into wellness. So there’s a certain group of people that this app is geared for now.

Lee Kantor: Um, when you named it dating, uh, that could mean that people think that this is kind of a hookup app. How are you kind of broadening that? And like, did you think about the rebranding of it as, you know, kind of more activity driven and common interest driven rather than something emotionally charged like the word dating?

Lisa Craft: Yes. So it’s it is a dating app, but it’s an activity based dating app, if that makes sense. And I don’t want it to be a hookup, because on those hookup apps, People spend hour after hour hour scrolling through pictures, and half of the time, those apps don’t even work. I think if we can get two people together with a common interest, like on their first date, they’re going to build an emotional connection through the experience, and I think that will lead them to a second date and to a third date.

Lee Kantor: Now, once you had the idea, you had people build it. Um, what were kind of those early beta testers like? What were those experiences? Were you following them around? Were how were you kind of making sure delivered in the way that you wanted it to?

Lisa Craft: Lee. It took 47 tries before I was happy on the app, 47 final tries. So basically my engineers built that app 47 different times before I was happy.

Lee Kantor: So it was always you being the kind of the test case on this stuff. Or were you did you have trusted, you know, like 100 trusted friends that you were like, okay, I need you to go on this and and play with it and do you know, test it.

Lisa Craft: It was me and a few friends. And then it was the engineers in India that went on it, and we tested it out.

Lee Kantor: And when was the when was the moment where you’re like, okay, we got something. What was kind of the signal to you that they had it right.

Lisa Craft: At the end of, I’m going to say, at the end of this last July, July 2025, I knew we were ready to go.

Lee Kantor: So what occurred? Like what? What about it made it like, okay, now it’s it’s ready.

Lisa Craft: Well, the audio, not the audio. The visuals were ready. And then, um, it all, everything just aligned all at once. Everything worked perfectly. Um, the payment gateway was in place. That was another challenge. Getting that done just once we had the finished product was probably at the end of July that I knew I had something and we were going to take it, take it further.

Lee Kantor: So what does it look like for the consumer of the product? Is it free? Is there a free level or is it tiered? How does it work?

Lisa Craft: Lee it’s a 30 day free trial for anybody to get on and try it out. And then after 30 days, it goes to 1999 a month if you want to continue it on.

Lee Kantor: And um, and then so they just pay 90. There’s no kind of if you pay more then you get extra benefits.

Lisa Craft: No, I made it very simple. I want people to have fun. I want people to actually get on and get off it and meet somebody. I don’t want to string people along with a six month or 12 month membership. I want people to go out, have fun, be healthy, and create a real relationship in a short amount of time.

Lee Kantor: Do you feel like that you might be missing an opportunity of just people who want to meet friends and have people to hang out with, and do activities that aren’t necessarily dating? That way they’d stay on the app longer.

Lisa Craft: I don’t feel like we’re missing out because I feel like it’s all going to happen the way it’s supposed to happen anyway. So some people, I feel, can go on one date and they’re going to find a perfect person on that one date, and then you have other people that may need to go on 120 dates before they find that perfect person.

Lee Kantor: So a victory for you. You’ll be high fiving your team. If somebody goes on one time, they find the perfect person and they get off. That’s a that’s a victory.

Lisa Craft: That’s success. Lee. There you go. Quick and easy.

Lee Kantor: So if everybody did that, you’d be a happy person.

Lisa Craft: Very happy. And Lee, this app is built for people with limited time. It’s. How much time do we actually have in a day when you’re a busy professional?

Lee Kantor: And, uh, is it out in the wild yet?

Lisa Craft: Yes, we have it on the Apple Store and it’s in the Google Play store.

Lee Kantor: And, um, it’s primarily in the California area.

Lisa Craft: Correct. I’m starting it. Um, the approach right now is local in Los Angeles. And then once we have the audience here, basically what I’m going to do is I’m going to replicate it in other cities.

Lee Kantor: And then what are some of the cities on your roadmap?

Lisa Craft: Uh, Boulder, Colorado would be a good one. I’d like to do Moab, Utah. I’d like to go to, um, Taos, New Mexico. I’d like to go to Honolulu and Hawaii. Um, just sort of go from here and we’re going to build it. Grassroots effort.

Lee Kantor: And so are you looking for folks in those markets to kind of raise their hand and say, hey, I’d like to be, you know, your boots on the ground in these markets?

Lisa Craft: Yes, I’d love that.

Lee Kantor: Um, and then what else do you need? Are you looking for funding? It sounds like you’ve kind of bootstrapped this thus far. Or do you have any financing?

Lisa Craft: I’ve bootstrapped the. I’ve bootstrapped the whole project so far. What? I like funding. Yes. If the right opportunity comes along, I’m going to take it. But as as of now, I’m still bootstrapping and I’m we’re doing great.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more about the app you mentioned they’re at the App Store. Is there a website or social media kind of for the adventure dating as well?

Lisa Craft: Thank you for asking. We’re on Instagram, the adventure dating app. We are on the X platform for adventure dating Datin um, and we have our website at Venture Dating.

Lee Kantor: Com and that’s, uh, adventure dating.com sure is.

Lisa Craft: Thank you for correcting that.

Lee Kantor: Well Lisa congratulations on all the momentum. I know this is an exciting time and it’s a big achievement to get as far as you’ve gotten. So congratulations on that.

Lisa Craft: Thank you Lee I’m I’m loving every step of this journey.

Lee Kantor: Yeah it’s a lot of fun launching um, kind of an online, uh, app like this. This is you’re going to really be impacting a lot of folks.

Lisa Craft: Hopefully that sounds amazing. Leah, you know, I feel like everything in my life is finally, like led up to this moment. It’s amazing. And to promote, uh, wellness, healthy lifestyles, it’s amazing. It’s absolutely amazing. I’m blessed to be here today. Thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: And and thank you for being the catalyst to get more people wanting to live an active lifestyle.

Lisa Craft: Be great. And then they’ll live longer and they’ll live happier lives.

Lee Kantor: That’s right. All right. Well, Lisa, thank you again for sharing your story. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Lisa Craft: Oh that’s amazing. Thank you Leah. It’s a great opportunity I appreciate everything.

Lee Kantor: All right. Go to adventure dating. Com to learn more.

Lisa Craft: Thank you.

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

The Change Momentum Index: Your Secret Weapon for Successful Transformation

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High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
The Change Momentum Index: Your Secret Weapon for Successful Transformation
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In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee interviews Niki Saint-Pierre, CEO of NSP and Company, discusses the challenges and best practices of organizational change management. She shares insights on why 70% of change initiatives fail, the importance of execution and alignment, and how her firm helps organizations succeed with tools like the Change Momentum Index. Niki highlights a global transformation case study, emphasizes leadership engagement, and explains how NSP and Company supports clients across industries in navigating complex change, fostering employee buy-in, and achieving lasting results.

Niki St Pierre is the CEO of NSP & Company, a firm dedicated to helping organizations execute strategy, navigate disruption, and drive large-scale transformation. With over two decades of experience advising senior executives across finance, fintech, insurance, biopharma, healthcare, government, and professional services, she specializes in enterprise transformation, GenAI adoption, post-M&A integration, and workforce modernization.

Prior to founding NSP & Co., she served as Head of Organizational Change & Transformation at Perot Systems (now Dell Services), where she built and scaled the firm’s global change management practice. Earlier in her career, she held transformation leadership roles at Accenture and American Express, leading enterprise-wide strategic change and operational excellence initiatives.

At NSP & Co., she and her team bridge the gap between strategy and execution, ensuring that organizations not only design ambitious plans but implement them successfully. Using a proprietary, data-driven methodology, NSP & Co. helps clients accelerate change, integrate AI, and optimize operations—delivering sustained value today while positioning for the future.

A recognized thought leader, her work has been published on Forbes, she’s a LinkedIn Top Voice, and a frequent speaker on digital and GenAI-driven transformation, the future of work, and business integration. Her insights have been featured in Forbes, Smart Business Magazine, and industry events.

Niki holds an MBA/MPA from New York University (NYU) and is an active member of the Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP) and the Forbes Business Council. She has served on several boards, including as a Board Member of the American Red Cross and an Advisory Board Member for Grateful Giving. As a WMNtech, she is committed to advancing women in leadership and technology.

Connect with Niki on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Organizational change management and transformation

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’s topic is organizational change management and transformation, and we have the CEO and Senior Advisor of NSP and Company, Nikki St. Pierre. Welcome.

Niki St. Pierre: Hi, Lee. Pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.

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

Niki St. Pierre: Okay, absolutely. Well, I founded NSP company about roughly ten years ago. And what we do exactly, we’re a transformation consultancy and we help organizations turn strategy into sustained Gained momentum. And the reason for that is many of your listeners, they may know that about 70% of change in transformation efforts do not meet objectives. Right. Many people just say they fail flat out. Right. So there is a reason why there is such a great need for change. And what we specialize in especially are high stakes change like digital transformation, AI adoption, or cultural shifts. Right? Things that companies today are looking to reinvent themselves. And we help them through that sticky part in the middle, which is where success is made or lost, which really has to do with execution. So how do we make the vision or the strategy a reality?

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

Niki St. Pierre: Oh, my. Okay. A well, for me, it’s I was recruited and I would say I was recruited. Graduated. I would say at a time, um, when organizational change, you couldn’t even get, uh, degree, right. Or even a class for that matter. In organizational change management today you can get a PhD. So I was really starting off in organizational change with one of the top firms. And at the time it was called Andersen Consulting. So I was recruited right out of graduate school, joined them, worked with a few partners. And I would say that’s really where I really got a lot of traction and really understanding and helping them even pull together for the New York City office. What organizational change management is, what it means to clients. So have been in industry right now for well over 25 years. And what we do exactly, we really help clients and our hardest times during change. And the reason why I say this is we oftentimes are called in when programs aren’t going well. Right. Because part of our mantra and how we work, our ethos is really it’s not only about focusing on the planning. The planning is important, but how do we execute? How do we ensure that people are brought along and they truly do understand what it means? And we also leverage our proprietary Change Momentum index. And that’s something that will be rolling out a little bit more broadly and using more consistently to what all of our client projects, and engage clients with it more directly. We’ve taken what we have found to be successful over the past 25 years in helping clients where others have failed, and where change was not able to happen. And when they call us, it works, right? So really took a step back to look at what makes, um, our efforts successful, right? And bottled it in a way. Right. To ensure that we can continue to leverage that moving forward with clients more consistently.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned earlier that I think it was 70% of, um, of change isn’t meeting the objectives, or at least not in the way they thought it was when they kind of drew it up. Are there some kind of common, uh, reasons why that is so large? That number.

Niki St. Pierre: Ah. Great question. Um, I would say first off, it’s complex, right? So it’s not an easy feat. So if you think about it. Right. Oftentimes when you’re looking at changing a system and people would say, ah it’s easy. It’s just we’re just going to sometimes they’re just replacing. And even then it causes lots of commotion. Right. Even more so. So in trying to change one part for it to work effectively, It is interconnected to various different parts. And even if it’s a piece of technology, the fact that it’s interconnected with other technologies. These technologies also have different owners, right, who are responsible for the product. But above and beyond that, it also has customers. And by that I mean even internal customers. So as a result of that, without appropriately engaging everybody who’s involved, ensuring that there’s a certain level of alignment that happens and a unification of thought towards the future and the ability to maintain that throughout the execution. Right. It makes it extremely difficult for a program to be successful. In addition to that, it also has to do with the resources that are available to help the client transition From their current ways of operating to the new ways of working. So it’s very complex. Hence the 70% failure rate.

Lee Kantor: And the level of complexity I would imagine is even greater in these larger bureaucratic organizations. And to anticipate, you know, all of these unintended consequences, how this is going to impact somebody at a different level. That might be a user, like you said, a customer internally or externally. And then you have also the, um, you know, are we talking the same language when you say a word? Am I understanding the word in the way that you’re saying the word? It just it just any type of change, especially dramatic change, I would just imagine it. A lot of dominoes are falling in all different areas that people couldn’t really anticipate, even in the best case scenario.

Niki St. Pierre: Absolutely. You’re hitting the nail on the head with that. And I think for us, the offering that we bring to client really helps provide this type of support that they need are resources or highly skilled, highly experienced. We do not staff from a bench, so I don’t have consultants waiting and saying, okay, whatever the client I get, I’m going to fit your resume to match that need, right? It’s we do the opposite. It’s we understand we have a large network. Um, right now it’s grown to nearly about 100. We started off about 50. Um, for the past few years we’ve had about 80 consultants as part of our network, and it’s growing. But when we look at our offerings, we look at the strategic change leadership. Right. And how do we create that common vocabulary, like you’re saying, do we all understand what the aims and objectives are and also our roles in making this happen. Right. So our entire change strategy. Oftentimes because of the change, the nature of it, it may or may not require that we look at operations as well. Right. So this has to do with the rigor. It has to do with the operating model or the organization. Is it really designed to make the best use of technology. Um, also looking at it from a program management, we work very closely. If the client has um, program management on set, they have a PMO or if they need support or reinforcement, we can also support in that way. We also provide um, services that really helps ensure that communications are appropriately shared throughout the organization, appropriate levels of user support, and definitely the enablement part. The training part is also core so that everybody understands. But above and beyond that, what we do is we also tie into the organization’s values and their culture, and that’s really what helps make it stick.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, you mentioned a lot of times you’re called is because something went wrong. They, they didn’t have they didn’t execute in the way that they intended. Are you ever called in kind of proactively in order to put some of this good foundation in place so that maybe you can prevent some of these, um, issues that have to be triaged?

Niki St. Pierre: Isn’t that a great question? Um, you would think no, it is rare. That’s where we are hoping that clients go is you know what? Let me try to figure this out before it goes south. Right. But what happens is oftentimes, um, they get a sense that it’s going to be easy. And they look at it, they look at the technology because they are so engaged in it and they so want it wanted to happen there like this is so intuitive. It’s a slam dunk, right? I see the value so clearly. And what tends to happen is, um, sometimes people are in a room and they nod their heads, right? So they’re getting what they feel are the right signals from everyone. So they just forge ahead. And I would say those would be good times to, to call us, um, and to really ensure that they do have the right plan in place and so on. And this is where the change momentum index comes in. We have noticed this gap right between what leadership is seeing and sensing, because at the time, by the time the status report turns red, it’s almost too late, right? Because you’re losing money, the team is losing traction. So how can you get the right signals as senior leaders of the division or of a company, to know how your program is doing so that you can help to guide it and help course correct so that your programs don’t become red. And that’s the change momentum index. And what it helps clients do is realize what’s at stake. Help them understand what areas of their roadmap or their plans that need their engagement, and how to put that in place. So it not only tells you what’s not working on your program, but how to fix it in real time.

Lee Kantor: Now, how are the senior leaderships when they when they see it turn red or yellow or they’re getting nervous? Are they just ignoring the erosion of trust that’s happening organizationally? Is that something that’s just not a signal for them that they’re not even paying attention to? Because I would think that that is going to you’re going to pay a price for that over time.

Niki St. Pierre: Lee. Oh, that is such a great question. And I’d say that oftentimes it requires a certain level of emotional intelligence to take a step back and say, hey, what’s really going? What are the implications here? Right. And the high paced nature of these initiatives that we’re talking about sometimes senior management does not have the luxury of time. And what tends to happen is go, go go go go. And teams are working, you know, 12, 16 hour days. And they’re pushing really hard. And that tends to take the Predominant culture and people forcing through and powering through what needs to happen. Um, in instances where I’ve seen leaders take the time out, and that’s also one of the things that we do with our projects and programs, right? So we actually step in, we speak to management, we help them understand how the rank and file and how staff throughout their company, or seeing this initiative and the role and opportunity that presents itself. Right. And developing the communications, developing various artifacts to help Support leaders because of the breadth of what they have in front of them, the scope that they have. They need that reinforcement and support in order to effectively lead large scale change. And that’s an area where we help them make a difference. But by and large, without the appropriate levels of support, it is something that is difficult for the leaders, one to ascertain because of the busyness and the way that programs are reported on. That is one of the, I would say, key metrics that they don’t have. And again, I know I keep coming back to this, but there again is why the change momentum index providing I would say leadership with that pulse. Um, that is real time but targeted to various project teams that they may be leading how they need to truly get a sense of what’s going on when they need to interject and what they need to do.

Lee Kantor: Now, what’s happening in the organization right before they contact you and your team? What is the signal? What is the, um, sign that hey, something is amiss here. Um, maybe we ought to put some fresh eyes on this thing.

Niki St. Pierre: Okay, so great question. So we got called in at a few different points. So more often than not, I’d say about 50% of the time something has gone south really bad. So and we’re like a last resort. Okay. This program has not been going well. We are paying twice or three times. Right. Because we have to maintain licenses or we have to keep maintaining doing what we’re doing now and keeping this new system or project afloat. Um, so they really call us, right? 50% of the time when things are things are bad. Um, I’d say about, uh, 25% of the time, probably a little bit before that. Right. So some foresight. Things aren’t going well. It’s probably amber. It’s not completely red. Some areas are red right on their plan. And it’s the team that they have right now is not fit for purpose, meaning that the team needs reinforcement. Um, very dedicated, very good teams. But they need they need help, right, to really help them pull through. And sometimes it’s a mix of both internal resources and other consultants. I would say one of the differentiators for us in our resources is we tend to have very senior resources who come in with 15, 20 years of experience. Right? So when you bring that type of caliber to the table, um, combined with our methodology and our rigor of work, what you get, our impact.

Niki St. Pierre: Why? Because you get someone who can read between the lines, deal with the ambiguity. And this goes back to the point you made earlier, is, well, it may appear to be a straightforward project, but because it is so lived in and there’s probably this web right of interconnectedness on top of it, you need somebody who’s not only astute in the work, but politically astute as well, to navigate an entire global organization at times, um, to ensure that all the parts are kept whole while you’re transforming and transitioning. So that’s what we bring to the table. And at times, I’d say about 20, 25% of the time we start at the very beginning. The they have an idea, they have a vision. Right. We help facilitate, um, a session to get leader senior management aligned on the vision and strategy and the goals pull together the roadmap. So this is the ideal situation right. Then there is the roadmap. We work with them on the roadmap. Right. And then we also help them sometimes select their technology partners, help them and guide them through the the process of working with an implementer. And we continue on right supporting supporting them from an organizational change, really looking at the people side of it.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there a story you can share that maybe illustrates how this plays out in real life? Um, maybe don’t obviously don’t name the organization, but maybe the challenge that came to you with and how you were able to help them get to a new level.

Niki St. Pierre: Oh, absolutely. Um, my, there are so many initiatives. Um, let’s do a small, sizable one. Um, so this was this is for a global organization, and this was a fairly complex, um, integration technology implementation. And this was a few years back, so I don’t mind sharing more details around it. Um, so they have offices, um, in 56 countries. As a result of changes in the marketplace, their customers were asking more of them and wanted consistency and experience and more elevated experience, um, in all of their locations across the globe. So the problem that the client needed to solve for our client needed to solve for was, how do I ensure that my people have the same way of operating and working while still maintaining the local culture of their country, right? So across 56 countries And one of their end clients, right? Or I would say household names with operations throughout the world. And when you look at that senior most leader, they don’t care if you’re in Brazil, if you’re in, um, China or if you’re in London, right. When you’re giving me a report when we are working together, I want I want it to be the same way I want. I don’t want to have to decipher. Right. Country to country. Something needs to be consistent across the board and the staff internally. Also at the client also wanted to have better tools. So in working with um, the CEO, the leadership team as well as the global board, they contracted with us. Wonderful initiative. Love them. Great culture. Right. And as you can see, this was momentous because it really impacted their bottom line, given that it impacts their end clients so directly.

Niki St. Pierre: So came in understood. And even with that, huh? Going back to our points earlier, um, they had someone in the role, right, helping them as a transformation officer, um, for about five months or so did not work out. Right. So when they brought me in, they were like, Nikki, um, we need to provide results to the board in a month. We need to have a clear path forward. I’m like, do you understand the magnitude right of the ask? It’s for somebody to come in in less than a month, provide you a completely validated roadmap of what we’re doing. Right. And I shared with them like, okay, we’ll be able to give you something now how detailed or thorough it’s going to be, right? It’s going to be a swag, but it’ll be directionally correct. So came in, was able to map it out, was able to do that. Um, set up different types of um networks and structures and what I call the organizational change architecture. Right. Especially for something with this type of global scope, looked at different technologies. There was one that they were leaning towards. We decided to go with that, um, and then pull different internal teams together. My team was pretty slim. It was myself, and I think I had two others with me, and we piloted new ways of working. One of the key things is clients like to look to the outside. They like to look at what are other companies doing and things, which is good. But oftentimes the best solution for that client is what is within their organization, right.

Niki St. Pierre: What are your star performers? What are they doing? What do clients like about them? What have gotten you the positive visibility? Let’s understand that better. Let’s also look to the outside and see that how that may complement what you’re doing. Right. And then that with some of your key players within your organization, let’s forge the path forward. So that’s what we did. And then it took us about two years, two two and a half years to roll this out throughout, um, all 56 offices. But let me tell you, they embraced the change. They took the we had an entire branding and colors and schema and videos and things of that sort. And for each deployment, they would send in pictures, right, of how excited they are about the new ways of working. Right. So it really made a splash, not only due to the quality of the work products in terms of how they’re going to be working, using the different tools, the training that they receive, how they were part of the change. They didn’t feel that the change was being was happening to them. They really had a chance to contribute. They were listened to, their perspectives were taken into account, and they had various resources. Right. That gave them the source of truth. And also increasing the level of communications amongst the teams working on similar initiatives across the globe. So it was an outstanding success and it’s being used till today, the it has evolved. Even the name of the program has taken a different name, different shape, but it is still being used until today.

Lee Kantor: The the impact is real. That is a big change and I’m sure they’re feeling that every day.

Niki St. Pierre: Indeed, indeed. So it was a tremendous effort and leadership really came together on that one. Um, and to your point about having a good vocabulary, good understanding, one of the rigors that I had to put in place was a segment within their standing leadership team meetings and making this program a priority. So at first we started off, it was every two weeks, and then it grew to monthly, right where we reach a nice cadence. Um, but I think that was very, um, important to the success of the initiative is the fact that leadership took the time to make this a priority for their organization, and they reap the results.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned this is a global organization. Is that your niche? Do you work primarily with international companies?

Niki St. Pierre: Great question. I work with a multitude of of organizations. Um, so one of the key things is we tend to be very good at working in highly complex industries. Right. Um, and regulated industries. So financial services, insurance, pharmaceutical, life science, healthcare. Right. Also government, state government, federal government, um, full life cycle professional services as well. Right. Not to say that we don’t deal with, let’s say, manufacturing. We’ve done work with manufacturing companies and other companies as well. Um, and the work that we do spans right from visioning all the way to impact. But we also come in at any point along along the journey. And some of the, um, companies, they are also oftentimes just nationwide, I would say in terms of size, I would say any company around 100 to Plus employees, right? Is would be a company that we would be, um, looking to partner with and support with their change initiative. Um, if the company is a bit smaller than that, then it’s really working with the leadership team and supporting them from, um, as a fractional transformation officer. Right. To help them grow, grow their business.

Lee Kantor: So what do you need more of? How can we help you? Do you need more, um, people on the team? Do you need more clients? Um, what are you looking for?

Niki St. Pierre: Oh, isn’t that a great question? I would say, um, right now that we are scaling, um, one of the things that would be great for our growth is really more clients, right? And clients who are looking at implementing new technology, clients that are looking at their culture, clients that are Looking at reinventing themselves, right? I would say since the pandemic, it has become prevalent, right, that the ways of working overall. Right. As a result of greater leverage of technology and now with generative AI, right, has really made it an issue for every company to take a step back and look at how they’re operating. And before taking the full leap in leveraging generative AI. Right. Company needs to modernize. They need to understand their operations, understand how they can streamline things better. Right. And how do also do they need to further augment what they’re doing with their staff so that the staff is also enabled to work efficiently? So this is all the areas where where we come in. Um, we also help to facilitate change acceleration sessions and innovation sessions. Um, and these oftentimes are I would say, more mid-sized middle market companies is our solution. Offering for them is to really help them get a plan in place. Right. And we work and partner with them to implement the plan on an as needed basis for larger entities. Um, I know I’ve mentioned significantly some of these global corporations, um, when they’re looking to change and transform their is a momentous there’s a huge work plan. There’s a huge body of work, right that needs orchestrating. So it is a bit more clear and more obvious of, okay, there’s a need for change and organizational change here in terms of how to manage that, but any client from 100 resources on up still requires this capability, and we’re flexible and nimble enough that we meet our clients where they are to support them on their change journey.

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

Niki St. Pierre: Absolutely. If they go to WW. And Cocom, NSB and Cocom.

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

Niki St. Pierre: Oh, wonderful. Thanks so much for having me, Lee.

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

Enhancing Workplace Inclusion and Mental Health: Insights on Leadership Development and Organizational Effectiveness

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High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Enhancing Workplace Inclusion and Mental Health: Insights on Leadership Development and Organizational Effectiveness
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In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee interviews Dr. Ryan Warner, consulting psychologist and founder of RC Warner Consulting. Dr. Warner shares insights from his military background and discusses strategies for improving workplace mental health, leadership development, and organizational effectiveness. The conversation covers recognizing signs of burnout, the value of 360-degree assessments, and the importance of coaching at all levels. Dr. Warner also offers practical advice for entrepreneurs on building visibility, credibility, and strong support teams. The episode provides actionable tips for fostering healthier, more inclusive, and high-performing organizations.

Dr. Ryan C. Warner is a globally-recognized speaker, award-winning consulting psychologist, and decorated military Veteran. As the Chief Executive Officer of RC Warner Consulting, he enhances organizational performance by amplifying inclusion and mental wellness in the workplace.

Leveraging his expertise in human behavior, team dynamics, and organizational inclusion, he empowers  high-performing teams to achieve success by cultivating a positive and fulfilling work culture where all employees thrive.

Connect with Dr. Ryan on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Expanding your small business through government contracting
  • Entrepreneurship: Common struggles and tips to build success
  • Using emotional intelligence to excel in entrepreneurship

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 Ryan Warner, who is the consulting psychologist with RC Warner Consulting. Welcome.

Ryan Warner: Thank you for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. For folks who aren’t familiar, can you share a little bit about RC Warner Consulting? How you serving folks?

Ryan Warner: Yeah. So RC Warner Consulting is a management consulting firm in which we work with high performing organizations and leaders across the globe to improve their performance and effectiveness. Specifically, we offer training and facilitation, executive coaching, and strategic planning so that organizations can In, become the top 1% within their industry and be able to thrive. Specifically by improving workplace inclusion and workplace wellbeing.

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

Ryan Warner: So I started my career as a military psychologist. I was active duty in United States Air Force, and it was my job as director of psychological health for Air Force installation to promote the psychological well-being and workplace mental health for over 20,000 individuals on this Air Force installation. And during my time in that particular role, I engaged in a lot of consulting with high level leaders and generals to be able to reduce suicide on base, to be able to improve overall workplace well-being and mental health, and also work with high level leaders to enhance their leadership development. And I began to see this theme and this connection between workplace effectiveness and also workplace well-being and belonging. So I started my own business in 2020 because I recognized that we need to look a little bit deeper at this connection, because if we help individuals within the workplace be able to thrive, and through improving their mental health and helping ensure that they’re able to utilize their voice to make a difference in the workplace, then they’re going to be able to enhance both personally and professionally, just their overall development. So that’s that’s how I started my business. That’s my background. And, you know, that aligns with my passion as well. Just being a psychologist and using my knowledge about human behavior to go into the workplace to improve human based issues.

Lee Kantor: So what are some symptoms or signals that a leader of an organization has some issues with their people when it comes to some of these psychological issues that you’ve mentioned?

Ryan Warner: Yeah. So things in service like burnout, right. Right now research shows that in the entire workplace about 60% to 70% of individuals are burnt out and stressed out at their job, right? If we think about it, we spend majority of our adult life at work. Okay, so if we go to work every single day and feel that we’re not engaged, feel that we’re not attached to any bigger purpose, then that’s going to impact our engagement, that’s going to impact how we perform, that’s going to impact just our overall mental well-being. Right. So on the surface, we see individuals not being engaged in the work that they do. We see performance based issues. We see individuals feeling disconnected from their jobs as well. Um, we also see conflict, you know, subtle conflict, uh, communication issues. Right. Um, so all of this comes together, um, to really impact, um, the revenue of businesses as well and their overall effectiveness.

Lee Kantor: But how like if I’m a leader of an organization, how am I going to are there things that are happening that are like in my bottom line, on a spreadsheet or on a dashboard that’s telling me, hey, maybe this guy’s burnt out, or maybe this woman, um, isn’t feeling heard. Uh, do things show up? Like, am I like, how do they show up from a business standpoint, not a feeling standpoint? Or is it, is it maybe something like, um, I can’t fill this position. Maybe I have a problem with the leader, or maybe I have a lot of turnover or.

Ryan Warner: I see retention, we see retention challenges. Right. Uh, when I go into workplaces, if I constantly see people in and out all the time, then that shows, hey, there may be something going on underneath the surface, right? Um, if we’re not able to keep individuals there for a long period of time, uh, we also see, um, complacency when it comes to, uh, continuing to engage in innovation, uh, different innovative ideas. Right. And that impacts the bottom line in revenue. Um, you know, we see a lot of, uh, complaints as well. So maybe EEO complaints, uh, equal opportunity complaints related to discrimination. Uh, we also may see pay equity issues. Right. Um, so all of these business related, uh, outcomes, you know, negatively impact overall business performance.

Lee Kantor: Now, how do you recommend a leader handle somebody who maybe is performing well? And I see this a lot with salespeople. Maybe this person is a great salesperson, but he’s not a great human being in the office. How do you help them kind of manage that situation?

Ryan Warner: Yeah. So that’s tough. Oftentimes, I don’t think anyone may intentionally try to be a bad person. They just may not have those right personality traits that align with, you know, improving team dynamics. So what I typically do is we provide 360 assessments, you know, and that’s we use an evidence based measure. So we’re able to go in and say hey let’s collect feedback from your direct reports, your your peers, your supervisors. Right. Um, and in turn, they’re able to give you anonymous feedback that that can help your overall performance. So it may just be some blind spots that individuals may not even be aware of, you know? And in turn, when you bring that to light using 360 assessments, uh, in the in the ethical appropriate way, then that can boost their awareness and then they can begin to create goals to work on those issues so that they can better perform in the workplace.

Lee Kantor: So what is kind of your ideal client look like? Are they large firms? Are they smaller startups, entrepreneurial ventures? Uh, who is that ideal client for you?

Ryan Warner: So we typically work with local, state and federal government entities as well as fortune 500 companies. So thus far we’ve worked with like the United Nations, we work with the US Air Force, US Marines, uh, Cheesecake Factory, um, AMD Airbus, um, uh, and other just high performing organizations across the globe. So typically they have at least 10,000 employees or more.

Lee Kantor: And then when you come in, are you coming in to solve a problem or triage a situation, or are you coming in as a speaker? Like, how do you kind of, um, get your foot in the door in these large organizations?

Ryan Warner: Yeah. So typically, um, we engage in training and facilitation first. So that’s our foot to get into the door. So it’s not just myself. We actually have a team of 13 individuals, um, who are psychologists. They’re expert speakers. They’re trainers, um, and they’re consultants and executive coaches. Um, and typically we engage in the training facilitation related to, um, workplace burnout or leadership development or, um, solving workplace conflict. Right? Um, you know, etc. and in turn, that helps build trust. So once individuals actually hear what we have to say, uh, recognize that we are engaging and we’re bringing evidence based research and relieving them with practical tools that they can actually implement day to day to make their workplace better. Then they’re like, okay, hey, we really like what you said. Now I want you to come in and help with our strategic planning, or I want you to help engage in executive coaching with our mid-level managers. Right. Or I want you to engage in 360 assessments, you know, so we can get that data to then guide the change.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned executive coaching. Are you finding that more and more organizations are leaning into coaching, not just for maybe the highest level of people in the organization, but it’s kind of trickling down?

Ryan Warner: Yeah. So, um, actually, like we’re noticing that, um, individuals of all different levels, right, are can benefit from executive coaching. So it’s not just when you think about executive coaching, you obviously think about executives like the top of the top right, the senior managers, the individuals responsible for making the daily decisions and the business decisions. But actually, research shows if you start coaching, um, just at entry level to mid-level managers, that actually helps boost retention, that boosts engagement and that keeps individuals, you know, there at the organization. So they continue to move up and thrive, right. So, um, coaching could benefit individuals of all different levels to boost their awareness to, to boost their, their leadership development so they can continue to, to improve both personally and professionally.

Lee Kantor: So if you were, um, making recommendations for senior leadership to, uh, broaden the scope of their executive coaching program, how would you recommend them pilot maybe some coaching for those, uh, entry level or lower level people to test to see if this is something that could be beneficial for the organization.

Ryan Warner: Yeah. So we’re actually already doing something similar with the United States Marines. So the United States Marines, um, from level E-1, uh, to I think E-4, which is more entry level individuals, um, they’re given 360 assessments and then they’re given one debrief with the executive coach. So the 360 assessment would go to their supervisors, direct reports, you know, colleagues. Um, and in turn, they will review that report and then meet with a coach just a one time so they can review the results. So right there, that pilot can can really be helpful because now it says, okay, here are my strengths. Let’s figure out how to leverage my strengths. And here are my areas of growth. And let’s figure out how to close these gaps. And just with that one debrief um, they’re able to create accountability partner in the workplace. And they’ll be able to have that foundation so they can continue to grow. So right there that’s an example of a pilot that has shown to be effective in a, you know, large organization, um, that we want to continue to implement in other organizations as well.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned 360, uh, assessments more than one time. Can you talk about, um, why that’s so instrumental in your practice?

Ryan Warner: Yeah, because oftentimes feedback and organizations are unidirectional. So I meet with my supervisor. They tell me all the things I do well, I need to improve. But what about receiving that that that bidirectional feedback? What about individuals in top senior leadership roles in which, you know, they need feedback as well? Because oftentimes we notice that those are isolating positions and they may not receive that honest, direct feedback from others on how they can improve. Right. So that’s why 360 assessment. That’s one reason why it can be so helpful. Um, so that everyone is able to get that anonymous feedback. Um, so they can boost their growth.

Lee Kantor: So talk to me about how you, um, deployed that 360 assessment. Like, what does that look like? Obviously you have to get buy in from leadership to do this and get their permission that this is something worthwhile pursuing. But the individual that you’re doing the 360 on, how do you, uh, speak to them about what to expect and what, uh, that follow up is going to look like in order to kind of get the most value from that?

Ryan Warner: Um, yeah. So we first, when it comes to what to expect. Um, one fear that people may think is like, oh, this is going to impact my pay or promotion, right? So we want to make sure that it’s not utilized as a tool for that, because in turn, that that may be more detrimental. Uh, because there are ways that you can deploy 360 that are actually, um, harmful in the workplace, right? If you’re not aware and mindful. Right. So we we always give the premise like, hey, this is not impacting your promotion or pay or this is not going to be used as a tool against you. It’s used as a tool to help support you. Okay. So that communication is really important. And then that communication typically comes from a top level leadership. Right. Because when it comes from them now we’re able to actually have more buy in versus when it comes from an external consultant in which nobody knows. Right. So, um, when that’s that communication deployed within the organization, now the people you know are really engaged a little bit more. They have that buy in. Um, and then when we meet with individuals, we always ensure that we’re saying, hey, this is anonymous. We’re not sharing your information with anyone. This is confidential, right? It’s up to them to decide you know, who they want to share this with, how they want to create accountability partners. Um, and if they want to share these results with anyone else. So that psychological safety is essential so that individuals can be fully engaged.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there a story you can share when it comes to, um, the after effects of one of these assessments? Maybe. Obviously don’t name the individual, but maybe explain what showed up in their assessment and how they were able to kind of grow and learn from that and get to a new level.

Ryan Warner: Um, yeah. So I was working with a high performing fortune 500 company, and, um, there was a senior leader, and she was at this company for maybe 30 years or so. Um, and during her 30 years, she never really received direct, honest feedback. And she always wanted to know why. Right. She would ask individuals, hey, can you give me feedback? And they would they wouldn’t really give her anything, you know, meaningful. You know, just more generic. So after we deployed this 360 assessment with her, we were able to collect data from over 50 individuals. And then that really opened her eyes. People were like, hey, well, the reason why we’re not able to give feedback in the past is because this person is kind of intimidated, right? Their nonverbals. Right. Are are, you know, are kind of intimidating. Like, we don’t feel that she’s open, right? She only talks about business. We don’t really get to know the personal side of her. Right. So this was the first time she was able to receive that open, honest feedback. Um, and at first, she was defensive. Right. But then once we dove into it, she was like, okay, I can see this because in my personal life, people give me feedback and that way as well. Like I get that same feedback from my spouse, from my friends, etc.. So this really opened our eyes like, hey, it would benefit her from showing that personal side of her a little bit more. That can help build rapport, that can help, um, you know, individuals feel more open to go to her when issues come up. Right. And in turn that’s going to improve overall team dynamics. Um, and help the bottom line right. So that right there was just an eye opener that she was now able to create accountability partner with someone she trusts. She was able to just, um, schedule time with her direct reports a little bit more just to get to know you type meetings, right, that are not as business focused. And in turn, that helped just create more psychological safety within the workplace.

Lee Kantor: Is there a sweet spot in terms of number of people to include in one of these three 60s?

Ryan Warner: Um, I think it depends on the organization size and the size of team. But, um, I mean, typically at least like to get like 8 to 10 responses minimum. Um, typically, yeah, we get around get around at least eight total. Um, like minimum up to it could be 30, 40, you know. So um, the sample size, you know, may may vary depending on the organization, the team that we’re working with. But, um, you know, at least having, you know, 8 to 10 responses can, can give us a good starting point.

Lee Kantor: Now, I know you do a lot of work with large organizations. Some of our listeners are entrepreneurs. Are there any tips you can give an entrepreneur to be successful?

Ryan Warner: So I typically, um, it’s funny because every single month, uh, entrepreneurs reach out to me and they say, hey, you know, I’m curious how you started your business. I’m, you know, I’m curious if you can give me tips. You know, how I can thrive, you know, within my industry. And no matter what industry you’re in, it doesn’t matter if you’re starting a cleaning company or you’re a contractor. Uh, you know, laying concrete for the government or if you’re in consulting. Right. Oftentimes entrepreneurs, we have to take a multifaceted approach for us to reach success. So one of my mentors always said this. And he said visibility plus credibility equals profitability. And oftentimes we have that credibility, maybe through our, you know, past experiences or our degrees or our credentials, but we’re missing that visibility piece. How do we get our face out there and our name out there, our brand out there, so that individual knows us, right, um, and know of us. And once we’re able to do that, the next thing we need to do is we need to take a interpersonal approach, an interpersonal approach, and also a systemic approach. So by that I mean interpersonally I need to look within myself. What are some barriers that are stopping me from getting to that next level? Maybe it’s my self-limiting beliefs. Maybe I feel that I’m not smart enough or, you know, I don’t know enough or, you know, I don’t have enough connections, right? I need to challenge those self-limiting beliefs because interpersonally, that may hold me back.

Ryan Warner: The next thing I need to do is look interpersonally within my relationships. You know, what are the connections that I have? How can I strengthen my my preferred professional network so that I can boost my visibility and get my name out there. Right. Um, often, again, it’s not what we know is who we know. And in turn, we need to ensure that we’re connected with the right networks. Um, so we can boost our visibility. And last thing, the systemically right. What are the policies and procedures and systems that I have in place within my business that’s going to help me scale and help me thrive? Okay, so at first when I started my business in 2020, it was just me doing everything right. I was the accountant. I was the bookkeeper. I was the the sales manager. I was the trainer and facilitator. But now, as we’ve progressed, now we have certain systems in place to help give me more time, right. And give my executive team more time so that we can actually focus on the business development. Right. So putting those systems in place, being able to have a strong team around you. Right. And being able to challenge these self-limiting beliefs that may arise. That multifaceted perspective is going to help entrepreneurs thrive in whatever industry they’re in.

Lee Kantor: Now, a lot of entrepreneurs tend to be kind of lone wolves. And you said you started your business by yourself. How important is it to kind of have a mentor or a coach or somebody with kind of fresh eyes and, uh, no agenda really, as a partner in order to maybe help you with some of your, um, subconscious biases or some blind spots that you might have.

Ryan Warner: Oh, yeah. I mean, it’s essential. I mean, we, uh, you know, success is a team sport, okay? You can’t do it on your own. So, like I have, I even though I’m an executive coach myself and I coach entrepreneurs on how to get to that top 1% of their industries. I also have an executive coach myself that I meet with on a weekly basis. Right. I have mentors not only in the psychology world, but also in the risk management world. Um, I have mentors in the financial industry. Right. So you have to create a strong team around you, right? Uh, you have to, you know, get an attorney. You need, uh, mentors in various industries. Uh, you need to ensure that you get a bookkeeper or CPA. Um, so you need someone that’s going to help you with risk management, right? So, um, you need a tax strategist, not just a tax advisor. All of these individuals, you know, together, you know, when you create that strong team around you, it’s going to help you thrive.

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

Ryan Warner: Yeah, so if you’re an entrepreneur and you’re just trying to figure out, hey, how do I, you know, boost my practice, how do I do things like government contracting? Right. We know government the government is the largest buyer of goods and services in the United States. Right. Um, we focus a lot on that, and I do a lot of coaching around that. Or rather, your entrepreneur just trying to say, hey, how do I challenge myself and any beliefs? How do I take a more intrapersonal perspective so that I can, you know, mitigate those barriers? Feel free to reach out to us. Um, we have various coaching programs and various ways that we can support you. You can go to our website, WW. Consulting. You can also Google my name, Ryan C Warner. Uh, and find me on all social media platforms.

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

Ryan Warner: I really appreciate the time. Thank you.

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

Leading with Intention: Embracing a Holistic Approach to Executive Success

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High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Leading with Intention: Embracing a Holistic Approach to Executive Success
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In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee interviews Shveta Pillai, executive and leadership coach and founder of Lead Style. Shveta shares her journey from corporate consulting to coaching, emphasizing the importance of integrating professional, personal, and physical well-being for sustainable leadership. She discusses her coaching framework, offers real-life examples of client transformation, and highlights her advocacy for AAPI women executives. The conversation underscores how self-awareness and intentionality can help high-performing leaders avoid burnout and achieve lasting fulfillment in both work and life.

Shveta Pillai, an executive coach with 20+ years of helping leaders navigate the space between performance, perception, and purpose under my belt. Her clients include Fortune 500 executives, founders, and senior leaders managing high-stakes moments— restructuring, transitions, and culture transformation.

Before founding LeadStyle, she spent over a decade consulting within complex industries—energy, healthcare, and other high-pressure sectors where leadership decisions directly impact operations and outcomes. That hands-on experience informs her coaching: practical, strategic, and tailored to the realities of leadership at the top.

At LeadStyle, their mission is guiding a sustainable leadership lifestyle—how you show up professionally, personally, and physically. Her 3P framework helps clients lead at scale without burning out or losing their sense of self. This isn’t soft skills training. It’s about recalibrating how leaders live, work, and influence in ways that drive both presence and performance.

As the co-host of Identity Unveiled, a podcast that features AAPI women redefining leadership, she get to see female pioneers staking their claims. Their voices and others like them are the basis of a forthcoming book.

Connect with Shveta on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Why many high-performing leaders feel misaligned or burned out, and how this work addresses that challenge
  • LeadStyle – core concept
  • The 3Ps Framework
  • Identity Unveiled – a personal leadership platform method

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 Shveta Pillai, who is an executive and leadership coach and founder of Lead Style. Welcome.

Speaker3: Thanks, Lee. Great to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Can you share a little bit about lead style? How you serving folks?

Speaker3: Sure. So Lead Style is an executive coaching organization. This was really founded on the work that helps leaders define what I call a personal leadership lifestyle. That helps them to sustain their level of high performance.

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

Speaker3: Well, you know, I’m a I’m a high performer. I probably have three chapters to my career. I worked in business development and sales, uh, for a little over seven years, and then went and joined property and casualty insurance and then had a seven year stint in consulting at Deloitte, working in the human capital practice. And there is when I really got that exposure to working with global leaders, and my role was to help leaders and their their teams enjoy change. And as you can imagine, how many people love change. So it was a lot of working pretty deep with executives who were going to have to lead a different way. Their kingdoms that they they ruled over within their organization were changing. And that caused a lot of angst among individuals as well as their own leadership. And so that catapulted me into executive coaching, which is where I’m at now.

Lee Kantor: Now, are you working primarily with individuals who raise their hand and say, hey, I need some help? Or are organizations or maybe boards or private equity firms or groups like that calling you in to kind of triage a situation?

Speaker3: I work with organizations and individuals who reach out to me. Most of my work, however, is with organizations, and they come to me not because there’s something remedial that needs to be addressed with the with their executives. And these, again, are people that are already performing at a very high level. These are individuals with who are consistently already delivering results. They carry a big responsibility. These are people that rely are relied upon to set the pace and solve those really tough problems and to keep those things moving forward. So there’s no remedial issue per se. What we want to make sure is that they can still stay in the game, and they can sustain themselves at that level. So these are organizations that look to me to work with their executive teams or their executive individuals to help them develop the capabilities and the ability to sustain that level of high performance.

Lee Kantor: Now, why are they concerned that they won’t be able to sustain this? Are you seeing some maybe, um, trends that maybe these high performing leaders are kind of getting burned out, or they might be kind of, uh, looking to leap to another opportunity? What? What are you seeing out there?

Speaker3: Yeah. I mean, you look at studies like Gallup just recently put out a report that said that less than half of adults across developed countries like Western Europe, North America, New Zealand, Australia are thriving. And that’s the lowest since 2020. And you then couple that with workplace trends that are showing that the leading one of the leading indicators as to why people are dissatisfied at work is this loss of purpose. And so, yes, I am seeing that with these demands that executives are are under this constant pressure, is that they’re also just feeling out of sync with work and their lives more broadly. Uh, and don’t get me wrong, these are individuals that are performing at a very high level. But you can see that there’s this it’s taking a toll. And that is where I come in.

Lee Kantor: Now, are you seeing is there just kind of a misalignment in priorities as kind of their age. And maybe they are getting more, uh, secure financially? Or are they just saying, hey, there has to be more than this particular thing I’m doing? Um, and then maybe they’ll take the leap to entrepreneurship like you did.

Speaker3: Yes. Uh, all of that, um, you’re hitting it right on, on spot. There is a misalignment. And, You know, sometimes it is jumping in from corporate into entrepreneurship and sometimes it’s just staying in the corporate game. You know, I, I was a corporate junkie for a very long time and a high performer at that. And I wish I had the perspective that I have now and the way that I coach my leaders. Uh, it is not ignoring that, you know, if Covid has taught us anything is that it’s not work in life. It’s not about balance, it’s about integration, and it’s about finding that alignment so that you are leaving, leading a an integrative lifestyle that allows you to, um, not burn out and not leave, you know, whether it’s staying in the corporate track or it’s staying in the nonprofit sector, which is taking a huge hit right now. And I work with a couple of leaders in the nonprofit sector, uh, within healthcare, you’re seeing that, um, where there is this high level of of uncertainty that is driving this, this kind of existential crisis, if you will, around, um, what’s my purpose?

Lee Kantor: So how do you help your clients kind of create this harmony between work and life? Like, is this go to the methodology of lead style.

Speaker3: It does, it does. And you know, a lot of, you know, lifestyle isn’t just about developing you as a leader. It’s developing the way that you live. And when you live better, you lead better. So a lot of development programs focus only on the professional side. I coach leaders through what I call the £0.03 framework professional, personal and physical. Because you can’t truly sustain success. You know, there’s a statistic out there that says that, you know, we we spend a third of our of our lives working. Well, you can’t sustain success if you ignore the other two thirds of your life. So when I’m working with executives, we’re very intentional about identifying what are their professional aspirations, whether it’s a promotion or it’s leading my team better or inspiring whatever that specific capability is, but also tying into what’s important to them personally. So we define goals in that space and then also in the physical, which has to do with their physical and mental well-being. Um, you know, I can give you an example. I just worked with the chief legal officer, just closed out this engagement, and he worked with a very large, uh, private entity that serves within the government sector. And when I when I met with him, he was just really, really overwhelmed. Um, he was on the brink of quitting, and he was probably one of the best chief legal officers organization had seen, which is why HR approached me to work with him. After about six months. We one of the things he walked away with was realizing that, you know, he needed he needed his jogs every morning. He was an avid runner, and that was getting lost in the fray of the professional commitments and the constant political barrage he was under at work and getting and before he was running. But he was taking phone calls from the CEO, and that was interrupting his ability to really leverage that physical P, if you will. That allowed him to lead at his best when he did get to work.

Lee Kantor: So then you helped him kind of elevate that to kind of a non-negotiable priority.

Speaker3: Exactly. And that was what was surprising for him, right? He was like, you know, I didn’t realize how important running was to me. And and look, I’m not a therapist. What I want, what I am, is someone who holds leaders to realize what’s intentionally drives them. What intentionally is a formula of success for them. You know, if I just come in as a coach and my process is only focused on developing their skills as a professional. Um, you know, delegation, communications, presence. It’s almost like it’s almost a disservice to them because that when we’re not embracing the other parts of who we are, that eventually will lead to that loss of focus, that performance fatigue, uh, that burnout.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re sharing kind of that philosophy with your clients, is that like an aha moment? Is that something like they can’t be all in in their work that they like? You’re giving them permission to kind of explore these other areas of their life in order to create this harmony.

Speaker3: You know, that’s a beautiful way to put it. Yes. I am giving them permission to bring those factors into the workspace. It doesn’t it doesn’t have to live outside of the workspace. You know this it’s interesting. I think, you know, when my business partner and I started this organization. My late business partner, she and I were both corporate junkies. And, you know, we had to be kind of when we when we presented this this way, this program, we didn’t want it to be all like soft and woo woo. And I’m here to kind of bring this existential process of living life. You know, we we wanted to be very practical. And I think that’s what when we, you know, talk about the three P’s. Um, at first they’re a little bit oh okay. This feels a little bit like therapy. But as we get into the process, people realize that there’s patterns that they’re seeing and how they’re professionally showing up that is tied to what’s personally important to them. Um, they’ll also notice patterns of like, you know, the fact that I eat, that I’m not eating well and that I’m eating at my desk or I’m skipping lunch, or I’m not getting that break to to pay attention to my health plays a factor in how they are showing up professionally. And, um, it’s, you know, it’s been interesting because I think Covid, of course, has helped the the understanding of why it’s important to, to not live in this like 50 over 50, like life is on one side, work is on the other. That it really is that integrative style that helps people be successful.

Lee Kantor: Now, how do you deliver the coaching? Is it primarily one on one?

Speaker3: Uh, both one on one and in teams. So when I’m working with intact teams, uh, we will start with an experiential process that allows people to dig deep into those three areas. It’s interesting because I think when people start to see in a team within an intact team, you start to see what’s important to people outside. You start to, you know, bring that humanitarian aspect of of the people that you spend a third of your lifetime with, um, that it starts to build those, those deeper bonds. Um, and that connection that I think many people today in the world are, are craving. It starts to build that connection so that teams build deeper relationships, um, and can also better, better manage through the tough times that all teams experience at work.

Lee Kantor: Now, how do you kind of, um, make it a safe space when you’re dealing with a team and not, um, kind of, well, protect the people that maybe aren’t as comfortable sharing with the other people in the group. Uh, in order to get each of them to where they need to be, and especially in a political dynamic, a lot of these organizations have.

Speaker3: Absolutely. Yeah. You know, I invoked the Vegas clause. You know, what stays in this room? What happens in this room, stays in this room. But also, you know, again, I think any good coach will say that you kind of know how far you can push each person that you work with. Um, I’m very candid with them about, you know, sharing what professionally they are aspiring to, to achieve. Um, but the personal and physical goals that they may have, they are can be very vague about and choose not to share that over time, you will see that when you’re working with teams over a course of 6 to 9 months, that they are more open to bringing that side, that vulnerability to the team. And that’s really important because when you don’t have that vulnerability, um, then you start to see things become very siloed. Um, distrust. And so making it comfortable is my job. Right. And and it’s also allowing you always find kind of 1 or 2 people that are willing to share. And I start with them. And when they start sharing, other people feel comfortable sharing as well. Um, I have not come across the breach of trust, um, within an intact group. Uh, but I am aware that can happen. And when that does happen, um, I know that that is going to be a role that I come in and quickly, um, mitigate.

Lee Kantor: Now, in your career, you’ve dealt with so many leaders, uh, over the course of your career, has there been an opportunity to kind of build community around all these leaders?

Speaker3: Um, it’s a great question, and I’m actually starting a leadership lifestyle podcast. Um, I’ve got that’s going to be focused on building that community so that people start to really look at, not don’t look at leadership as just one kind of authoritarian or autocratic, or that there is no one set definitions. And so yes, I am now looking to I already have a podcast that I started five years ago. Um, and so I’m using my learnings from that now to build community around those leaders that have embraced the the bespoke style of having your own personal leadership lifestyle.

Lee Kantor: And then so this will be an opportunity for the leaders to come on and share what they learned. But is there also an opportunity for the other leaders to interact with each other?

Speaker3: That’s the hope. That is the hope. Um, you know, I, I have some clients that I’ve been working with for many years now and you start to see kind of this, this, this leadership lifestyle take form and people actually talking about, well, you know, my, my, my personal P is really big right now. And, you know, I’m really focused on. My kids have left college. Um, and others will be like, well, my my one are still young. So my personal P is taken over right now. And it’s interesting because they’ll start talking in those terms. Um, so you do start to see with some of my long standing clients that culture that, that the lifestyle of way of, of leading, um, taking form across organizations that I’ve been with for some time.

Lee Kantor: Um, now you talk about your work, um, spotlighting AAPI women executives.

Speaker3: Yeah. So, um, about five years ago, um, you know, I was, I, I started a podcast called Identity Unveiled, uh, with another co-founder. And, you know, to be honest with you, this was a passion project that came at a time which was, you know, my, my business partner with Lead Style. She had passed away. Um, and identity unveiled became an outlet for me to express, um, you know, to go deep into a passion and kind of let coaching, let lifestyle breathe while I while I was able to, you know, focus on something that I was also passionate about. I’ve got two young girls, um, and, you know, growing up in Texas, I will say that there weren’t women that looked like me, um, in the executive ranks, or I didn’t really know them. I didn’t know what their story was. There were some. There was Connie Chung, there was. I don’t even know, another Indian woman. I’m South Asian. That was, um, that was at the top. And so I, I started this because I wanted to bring more representation and visibility to AAPI women that had made it to the executive ranks. Uh, there we we share stories about, you know, everything from the personal side of what it took to get to where they are. Um, you know, when leaders feel seen and heard, uh, for their full identity, I think that they can step into leadership more authentically. And that’s. I feel like that’s true for all of us. Um, AAPI women today make up less than 1% of promotions, from senior VP to C-suite. Um, and they’re they’re they’re the racial group that’s least likely to get promoted. And that’s really important for me to address and create a platform that brings visibility to these issues, um, to these women that have made it to the top so that, you know, inspires my girls when they’re ready to, uh, to get into the workforce.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. It’s always when you see somebody who’s done this before you, it kind of clears the path that. Okay, it’s possible this is not just something I’m imagining that could happen. This is something that can happen. I just have to kind of learn more and maybe follow their path a little.

Speaker3: Absolutely. And I kind of take that same approach with my work at Lead Style and the Leadership Lifestyle Podcast and creating that community. I think when you see people living their life and they are, you know, you see them as these successful executives living their life, you hope that it inspires others to not live in these bubbles that will eventually eat away at their success.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, any advice you would give a leader right now that’s hearing this? Is there some takeaway or piece of advice you would share that something they could be doing right now that would, um, maybe create some of that harmony that you talked about amongst the three P’s?

Speaker3: You know, my my advice is that success without sustainability isn’t real success. You can achieve every milestone and still feel empty if you’re misaligned when. So my advice is, is to really think long and hard about, you know, what is it that’s important to you personally and what are you doing to support your physical health? I think we you know, you can you can if you don’t have your health. I think what I’ve seen and have experienced with with losing my business partner, if you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything. And so be really intentional about about setting goals across those areas, but and not just set a goal, but why that’s important to you. I think we lose sight of that. I think we put a check mark behind. Okay. I worked out today. Great. Yeah. But what does that do for you? What’s important to you about that? And that starts to connect back to purpose. You you will start to see that what’s important to you personally, what’s important to you in your in your health is showing up in how you lead and what makes you a great leader today.

Lee Kantor: And is there a story you can share, maybe, of somebody you work with? Uh, don’t name the name or the organization, but maybe the problem they came to you with and how you were able to help them get to a new level.

Speaker3: Um, well, I think I shared a story about my chief legal officer. I’ll share a different one that I worked with the CFO. Um, you know, one of the issues that an issue, but one that she was a high performing, one of the best CFOs this organization had had as well. And she had been with the organization for about four and a half years. The reason that I worked was working with her was that there were a lot of, um, demands that were going to that she need to kind of change a little bit how she was inspiring her team. We also, you know, when we were working together, we I asked her, you know, personally, what did she want to work on? And her what she wanted to work on was buying less shoes. She had a closet of 600 shoes, and it was almost an obsession that she would buy a pair of shoes almost every week. And I said, okay, uh, physically, she was a she, you know, she ate well. She’s very healthy. She did Pilates. Um, so she just needed to sustain that. So as we’re working together, um, you know, we were we were talking about what it is, you know, is lacking the inspiration with her team.

Speaker3: What’s going on there? I, you know, we were talking through some tactics, and then I asked her about her shoes, and she said, I still keep buying the shoes. And I said, okay, What the realization she came to was that the shoes was a way of getting the inspiration and feeling valued, um, because there was something happening personally for her, uh, with her partner that wasn’t that she wasn’t getting the value there. Look, I’m no therapist, but, you know, I did recommend that she see one. And she did end up seeing, you know, working with her. And her husband ended up working with the therapist. But the realization that came out of that was that that she was seeking inspiration from something else, and she wasn’t present with what it is. That was really the root of the issue. And that helped her actually figure out how to deeply more connect with her team so that she could get to the root of what inspired them. And that was a lasting form of transformation, which has she has taken with her and continues to lead with.

Lee Kantor: So getting to the why, it really is the crux of a lot of things.

Speaker3: It is. It really is.

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

Speaker3: Um, you can connect with me on LinkedIn. You can also go to my website at wltx.com. Um, and reach out to me there. Um, and, uh, you know, send me an email and we can get started.

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

Speaker3: Thank you. Lee, appreciate you taking the time to speak with me today.

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

From Home Care to High Efficiency: The Journey of Staff Hero and Virtual Staffing Solutions

by

High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
From Home Care to High Efficiency: The Journey of Staff Hero and Virtual Staffing Solutions
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In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee Kantor interviews Nick Kiridzic, CEO of Staff Hero, a BPO company connecting U.S. businesses with skilled virtual employees in the Philippines. Nick shares his journey from the home care industry to founding Staff Hero, discusses the wide range of tasks virtual assistants can handle, and highlights how outsourcing can drive efficiency and significant cost savings. The conversation covers client success stories, overcoming trust barriers, and the growing role of virtual assistants and AI in helping small to medium-sized businesses scale and thrive.

Nick Kiridzic is the founder and CEO of Staff Hero, a staffing and referral platform helping businesses across industries connect with reliable talent.

With a strong presence in healthcare and home care agencies, Staff Hero supports hospitals, nursing homes, and care providers by ensuring they have the workforce needed to deliver quality care.

He built Staff Hero to go beyond traditional staffing models, combining technology, referral partnerships, and a people-first approach. Passionate about entrepreneurship and leadership, he is dedicated to empowering organizations with the right people so they can grow, thrive, and serve their communities more effectively.

Connect with Nick on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • How Staff Hero helps businesses across different industries, especially in healthcare and home care agencies
  • The biggest staffing challenges companies face today and the approach that solves them
  • The importance of referral partnerships in staffing and how they benefit both businesses and workers
  • Lessons learned from working with hospitals, nursing homes, and home care agencies in New York
  • How technology is reshaping hiring and workforce management, and how Staff Hero stands out from traditional staffing agencies
  • Key trends shaping the future of staffing across industries
  • Leadership lessons and advice for entrepreneurs building service-driven companies

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 Nick Kiridzic. He is the CEO with Staff Hero. Welcome, Nick.

Nick Kiridzic: Hey, how’s it going Lee?

Lee Kantor: It is going great. I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. For folks who aren’t familiar, can you share a little bit about Staff Hero? How you serving folks?

Nick Kiridzic: Yeah. So right now Staff Hero is considered a BPO company, which basically is like a virtual assistant company. We help connect quality employees overseas with small to medium sized businesses throughout the United States, really focused on quality, efficiency and overall and more cost effective approach to scaling a company.

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

Nick Kiridzic: Funnily enough, my, uh, the last couple of years are actually for like ten years, I was in the home care industry as a sales person. And for people who don’t know what home care is or how how it works, and internally we have to, as a business development representative, get patients who are interested in home care services. And then inside the office, there’s a team that processes the case, and it’s a grueling process filled with a ton of follow up paperwork, chasing doctors and stuff like that. And the company was a big company, but everybody that they assigned to me to take care of all my patients were just not really panning out. And so one day after getting fed up, like my bonuses were just not, you know, meeting my standards, I just started googling online. I came across an ad that was talking about, you know, hire somebody for like 4 or $5 an hour to do whatever you need them to do. And I came across that ad, I clicked the button, I hired somebody, trialed it for a week, and I was so impressed by, you know, what I can get for for that cost. And I hired that person, paid them out of my own pocket, and lo and behold, I doubled my numbers within the next couple of months.

Lee Kantor: So what types of tasks were they doing for you?

Nick Kiridzic: So people who typically hire virtual assistants, you know, believe that maybe they might be limited to calendar management, customer support or reaching out, you know, to clients via email acting as like a general assistant or executive assistant. But I saw that they could do a lot more than that. I mean, I even got them to eventually start taking on sales. I was training them on sales and they were able to just perform as a good sales people. I’ve had them fill roles where they are doing far more complicated tasks, which involved, you know, staffing in homecare. And this is me being in homecare for a long time, but, uh, involving staffing, you know, uh, reviewing, you know, data to make solid decisions for the company. So far, more complicated things than most people are using them for.

Lee Kantor: So in your business today, are you mainly serving the health care sector and home health care agencies?

Nick Kiridzic: Most of my clients are from those, you know, from the healthcare industry, simply because connections just kind of like went a long way. And, you know, word of mouth really spread fast. But I found myself helping people in real estate attorneys, even small firms even, you know, a lot of e-commerce people are finding, uh, my services useful. And yeah.

Lee Kantor: So now you’ve so you’ve expanded outside of healthcare into small to midsize businesses.

Nick Kiridzic: Yeah, Yeah.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re approaching kind of a new market that maybe you don’t have as many contacts in as your previous one, how are you going about getting the word out and letting people know that this service even exists?

Nick Kiridzic: You know what? I think people are hearing about it nowadays. Something is telling me that alongside, you know, the the rage for AI and stuff like that, most businesses are struggling. And I feel like I could smell it. Everybody that I come across that’s trying to start a business just feels like it’s a lot more teeth pulling. So everybody’s looking for that edge and they’re thinking AI is the thing. And also virtual assistants, people are realizing that they can start a business and and it be far more cost effective than it ever has been before. So I don’t think I have to really educate too many people about it. I think, though, when I do come across like a potential sale or I’m trying to close on somebody, I try to explain to them that you know what they’re looking at can be the the next step in them growing and scaling their business.

Lee Kantor: So when you’re having those kind of conversations, what do their your prospective clients think is holding them back where your service could help them?

Nick Kiridzic: I think most businesses tend to or business owners, especially in small businesses. They tend to handle all the work. And, you know, and this goes from customer support to billing to I mean, you name it literally. They just want to handle everything. And there’s a trust issue with, you know, having somebody handle everything or anything could be like really, really, uh, a tough move. But most people realize that if they want to grow, they gotta eventually hand it off to somebody. The next part is, financially, it doesn’t make sense. Am I really going to be paying somebody $25 an hour to just handle customer support? No, it doesn’t make sense anymore. So why not maybe hire somebody for 4 or $5 an hour? Then it can make sense, you know.

Lee Kantor: So what are those conversations? You’re talking to a business owner. Maybe they’ve never worked with somebody overseas before. How do you like what’s that conversation look like? Say they have a, um. I mean, I would imagine you have a lot of people that want help, maybe in social media or some sort of marketing that they would like, maybe automated. How do you have that conversation with somebody?

Nick Kiridzic: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. So typically because when we are going about our lead generation, we’re looking for people who have a need for for support for some kind of staff. Right. You know, people like they know what they’re clicking on and they get to me somehow. But I always ask the question, I put the ball in their court. I, I asked them like, well, what are some things that maybe you’re handling, or maybe other people in your in your company are handling that are really low cost tasks. Let’s start there. Let’s start small. What are some things you can you can think of. And if they can’t think of something. I, uh, I start throwing options their way. I was like, okay, well, who’s handling, like I said, customer support. It’s a very common one. Right? Who’s handling customer support? Um, do you have a lot of, uh, issues with data management? Um, with organization? Let’s start there. No. Okay. Let’s let’s talk about your sales. Who’s handling all of your, uh, sales, who’s handling, um, outreach for new, uh, new potential customers, for new sales. What does that look like? Um, and as we start chipping away at the smaller things, I’m always looking to paint a bigger picture. Large companies like Amazon, Google, they create major divisions that are solely based of, you know, operated off of people from different countries. So I want people to start thinking that way because you can eventually have that. And then we look into like management, leadership, all that kind of stuff.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned a lot of your workforce is overseas. Are the people that are interacting with the clients also overseas or is or are there some people that are in America that are kind of the liaison?

Nick Kiridzic: Currently, our company is completely based out overseas. We don’t have one person other than myself and also my younger brother who, uh, took on, you know, he’s young and he wants to learn sales. So I gave him the opportunity to, uh, try to learn how to sell our services. Um, but that’s it.

Lee Kantor: So any inbound or outbound lead is being initiated by somebody overseas, and they’re the first line in the.

Nick Kiridzic: Yep. Correct.

Lee Kantor: And, um, who who is? Is there anybody on the team that’s kind of building community or building partnerships?

Nick Kiridzic: Yeah. So in terms of partnerships, no. But community. Absolutely. So in the Philippines it’s really important. Um, it’s really important for people to they have like a very good culture when it comes to maintaining community is what I’m trying to get at. Um, people are hearing about staff hero like crazy in the Philippines, and it’s only because I have hired people who understand how to reach out to the community and get connected with everybody, and show everybody what we have going on, the opportunity we have going on. Um, so like for them, when it comes to like social media, they really utilize social media like crazy out in the Philippines. So everybody’s seeing the same stuff. Um, I hope that answered your question.

Lee Kantor: So how about if my company wants help building community here in America? Does your team have the skills necessary to help build a community? Maybe moderate or to help? Um, my company when it comes to a more robust social media strategy?

Nick Kiridzic: Yeah. So the way I say is, if if you know how to teach it, then yes, you’d be surprised by how well learned or how educated. Um, some of these people really come. You know, they really can come in and maybe far more than just impress you, but they could take what you teach them and really run with it without coming back to you with too many questions like, look, you’re not going to hire somebody from, uh, Davao, and they’re going to come back to you and tell you they understand how certain things in Texas work, right? But if you are trying to build a community and need support, and maybe you get this person involved long enough 100%, I’ll give you actually a little example if you have a second, um, you know, if Amazon FBA was a very, very popular thing, uh, a couple of years ago where everybody was really, like running off the online arbitrage of Amazon, and it’s not as popular anymore as there’s far more, far too many loopholes, far too many barriers to entry. Um, but what I did was I paid for a course, I didn’t study the course. I hired somebody, and I paid her to study, and she studied for, like two months. And now, about a year later, she runs a Amazon FBA business under my name. So I don’t know if that answers your question in another way.

Lee Kantor: So as long as I can give good instructions, you have the people that can execute my vision with pretty hands off.

Nick Kiridzic: Pretty much. Pretty much.

Lee Kantor: Now are there, um, how good are they at AI? You know, workflows and creating AI? Are they better at taking a workflow I create and then just implementing it?

Nick Kiridzic: Well, like, you know, when I when we say like, are they better? It’s like you’re going to find people who don’t know it and then you’re going to find people who do know it. Part of what we do at Staff Hero is we have a pretty extensive, um, interview process, especially when we’re looking for, um, very real specific or skill specific, um, positions to fill. Um, just the other day, I interviewed somebody who was supposed to who’s trying to fill like a very basic admin position, but I saw that he had a lot of go high level skills, go high levels, CRM that’s very, you know, very popular for people who are utilizing a lot of AI, chatbots and stuff like that. And what I find is a lot of people who work in the Philippines that have executive assistant, uh, experience working for young modern companies. They all tend to get trained heavily on AI. So prompt writing is very, you know, important to a lot of them. Um, uh, building out CRMs and automations, learning how to use Zapier, stuff like that. I have been taught so many times over on how to do certain things, um, from somebody who just pulled that information from a previous client that they worked with.

Lee Kantor: So is that kind of one of the maybe unintended consequences? But a side benefit is that your people are getting better and better, and any new client is kind of getting best practices from all the other clients they had beforehand.

Nick Kiridzic: Yeah. Yeah, definitely in a way. But you know, I that being said, there is so much opportunity. It’s it’s quite amazing to see how many people I meet on a day to day basis, just interviewing new people where they come to me. And I just what I hear from the interview when I ask like, well, why did you leave that previous company? Or why were you fired? It just sounds like the previous company just did not know how to utilize them. They just, they they got lazy. They didn’t know what they could do with them. You know, they were they realized that this person was heavily trained, but then they didn’t know what to do with all that training, if that makes sense.

Lee Kantor: So how are you helping your clients kind of not make that mistake? Are you giving them a playbook? Are you giving them some instructions and training on how to get the most out of the service?

Nick Kiridzic: Because our company is relatively young, um, and I guess I would say I’m a little new to dealing with the customer experience. Not new in the sense like I don’t know how to deal with customers, but I’m also kind of giving a lot. I kind of act as a unpaid consultant in some way. I know what I need in my business to constantly grow, and I’ve seen what a lot of businesses fail to do. So I’m going to ask a lot of the maybe right questions to kind of uncover where we can place people to take care of a lot of the load. So, I mean, nowadays, you see, you know, a lot of these businesses that have been operating for 30, 40 years, like mechanic shops, like, for example, my father had a mechanic shop. He was still operating off of paper. If that kind of client came my way, I probably would have a hard time trying to convince him to use somebody from another country and have zoom meetings with them and then teach them how to, you know, yada yada. But, um, I am interviewing the client as well. I’m not just interviewing employees. I’m interviewing clients because the clients, because I’m looking for somebody who can not just find the benefit in hiring people overseas, but could actually use it like meaning who will actually use it and make sense of it, you know?

Lee Kantor: Now how are you selling the services? Is it in blocks of time? Is it by the hour? Like, how does someone work with you?

Nick Kiridzic: Yeah. So the service is very simple. They tell me we we determined that they have a need that we’re looking to fill. We determined that we’re looking to find somebody to take care of their position that we’re looking to fill. And we cover our company staff. We cover the payroll. We cover the HR, we cover the recruiting, we cover. If it means, um, replacing the employee. We record all the trainings. That way the client doesn’t have to do the retraining. We handle all of that kind of stuff, and the client just pays us for the hours that that the employee works.

Lee Kantor: So that’s kind of, uh. So you’re not hiring. The person isn’t hiring a person. They’re hiring, Um, your company, and then it might be a different person in six months than the first person you’re dealing with. I’m hiring staff here. I’m not hiring Bob.

Nick Kiridzic: Exactly. And I mean, that’s that points out the possibility that Bob, for example, leaves. Right. But, um, like I said, we are heavily not just client. The client experience is not the only important thing here is the the employee experience is also important here. So we’re creating long term positions. We’re looking to make sure that the client is looking for something long term as well. Obviously employees can come and go and like maybe they won’t fit what we’re looking for. But like I said, we’re hiring and then we’re training and we’re recording those trainings. Make sure that if we have to re recruit, that it’s as painless as possible.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, is there a story you can share that maybe illustrates how this can work for a small business so that, uh, maybe they came to you with a challenge, maybe. Share that. Don’t name the name of the company, but maybe what the challenge was and how you were able to help them get to a new level after working with you and your team.

Nick Kiridzic: Yeah, yeah. Okay, so, um, I’m not going to give a name, but it was. It is a home care agency. Um, they home care agencies, they have to constantly make sure that their patients are being taken care of. So it’s called it’s a staffing issue, right? Having aides available to take care of their patients. Um, people call out all the time. So in the middle of the night, at 1:00 in the morning, if an aide has to leave for whatever emergency, who does she call in order to communicate to the agency that, you know, like, I’m not going to be there, the patient’s going to be alone. So she calls it in at 1:00 in the morning. And the people that are supposed to be answering are called the on call department. Every home care agency has an on call department. Most of them are not really operating too well because they consist of people who live in the States. Um, and most people who live in the States do not want to answer a phone call at 1:00 in the morning, or they’ll be asleep, or they’ll fall asleep to the phone or whatever. The people in the Philippines, it’s a 12 hour difference. So when I came across this client’s issue, I explained to them that we can train people from the Philippines to do everything that this current on call staff does, and it will be virtually, you know, uh, you know, sixth of the costs in this case. And they wanted to test it out. They wanted to see if it would work. So instead of replacing their current team, they had them shadow along and see if they could take over some of the tasks. If there’s any, like Mishandlings, they could take over. They got trained for like about 2 to 3 weeks. And then essentially the company, the client replaced their entire on call department with four people from the Philippines. So ultimately saving themselves well over 100 $150,000 a year for the cost of $20,000 a year. Let’s just call it that.

Lee Kantor: And and there’s somebody on your team that’s kind of the account manager. Or is it always kind of interacting directly with the worker?

Nick Kiridzic: It’s always interacting with the worker. We we want to make sure that there’s not too many, you know, barriers to communication. We are placing the employees directly with the supervisor that’s going to be overseeing them, just like any company would have if I worked at a company and I had a direct supervisor, that’s who I’m going to be talking to. But we do constantly check in and follow up with the client and with the employee. We make sure that the employee is happy. We make sure we see like, hey, have you been talking to them lately? How’s work been going? Everything going well? What did you guys learn so far? What have you guys been doing? And same thing with the client. How are things with Bob? Um, has Bob been showing up? Is everything okay? Just checking in. Let me know if there’s any issues.

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

Nick Kiridzic: Yeah, the best way to connect. I mean, if you have any questions, you’re looking for help with anything staffing related or you just want to learn some more, you can reach out to me at hero.com. That’s staff Hero.com. Um, or you can find me on Instagram. Nick underscore kurincic.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff. Nick. Uh, congratulations on all the success. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Nick Kiridzic: Thank you so much, Lee. I really appreciate it.

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

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