Business RadioX ®

Louis Bernardi With BritePath

by

LouisBernardi
Association Leadership Radio
Louis Bernardi With BritePath
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BritePath

LouisBernardiLouis Bernardi, Founder & Benefit Optimization Officer at BritePath.

Lou has been in the benefits arena for 30 years and he’s seen it all. The displacement of indemnity plans by Managed Care, Community Rating, The Affordable Care Act and the deterioration of employer-sponsored health plans. But things are looking up and a healthcare revolution is underway!

Lou is proud to be among the first 150 advisors accepted into Health Rosetta; an eco-system of forward-thinking advisors and solution partners that share his passion for helping people and businesses customize health plans that enhance benefits, improve outcomes and reduce costs.

Lou is also involved with Aspirational Healthcare, the Talent Champions Council, and is a Forbes Business Council member.

Lou is the innovator behind BritePath, the benefit strategy that flattens the curve on health insurance costs. BritePath helps benefit decision-makers reset their expectations with advanced analytics & insights that make them and their members more informed health care consumers capable of changing the trajectory of the cost and quality of their employer-sponsored health insurance plan. Pay More, Get Less is replaced by a High-Performance Health Care Plan that allows them to finally start Winning.

Connect with Louis on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • A Benefit Optimization Officer
  • The Health Rosetta
  • Obstacles that prevent plan sponsors from building a high-performance health plan
  • The first step a benefit decision-maker (HR Director/CFO) should take to get back on track

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Association Leadership Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:17] Lee Kantor here another episode of Association Leadership Radio, and this is going to be a fun one. Today on the show we have Lou Bernardi and he is with BritePath. Welcome, Lou.

Louis Bernardi: [00:00:28] Thank you. How are you doing, Lee?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:30] I am doing well. I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about Bright Path. How you serving folks?

Louis Bernardi: [00:00:37] So Bright Path is an independent insurance agent here, agency here in New York. This is our probably our 25th year in business. And we go by the name the DBA of Bright Path the past few years, because that’s really kind of serves as both our our our call to action, our our benefits strategies. And we wanted to put that out there front and center.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:02] And then your role there at Bright Path, I know you’re a founder, but you also are called the benefit optimization officer. Can you talk about that?

Louis Bernardi: [00:01:11] Yeah. So benefit optimization officer, I coined that phrase within the past year. You know, I was a general agent for about 25 years, which essentially means I was a brokers broker helping other brokers serve their clients employee benefit needs. And I just really know I wanted to rebrand myself and I wasn’t happy with the terms that most people use. Broker, consultant, advisor, because I really didn’t feel that that fit what I was trying to do, which was be more of a something almost like an outsource CFO. I want to be that outsourced blow or boo that works very closely with HR directors, CFO CEOs. I like to call them benefit decision makers because there’s some there’s some tricks to the trade and tools and and knowledge that they they simply really can’t get on their own. You have to really dig deep. And so that’s really kind of serves as a rebranding for myself. And it’s it’s taken off.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:11] And it sounds like it’s kind of almost a mindset shift in how you’re viewing your organization in terms of it’s not a the services in the transaction. This is a relationship based service that we’re partners and trying to really help each other symbiotically, you know, get to a better place.

Louis Bernardi: [00:02:35] You know, it’s even more than that. I tell people all the time, it’s it’s taken me 30 years to get five years of experience. About five years ago, I had the almost by accident came across the prices, the prices of health care versus the cost of health care. And I was pretty surprised and I realized pretty quickly that, you know, there’s a lot of deception in health care and health insurance. The consumer is completely left in the dark, although there are some new laws that that mandate transparency and frankly, the health care system, the hospital monopolies that exist in most cities like Atlanta and here in New York, they’re not complying. And they and they they benefit significantly by keeping the consumer in dark, you know, in the dark. And, you know, we want to expose that. I’m part of several different organizations that are really committed to creating a more informed consumer, both of the employer and and their members. You know, when you when you purchase insurance from your employer, you’re called a member. But when you go out and use it, you’re a patient. And patients don’t have any clarity either.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:45] So as one of those organizations, health.

Louis Bernardi: [00:03:47] Rosetta It is health. Rosetta Aspirational health care, talent, champions council, free market medical associations. These are all different organizations that are similar in nature. They, they are, they are made up of benefit advisors or Booz like me, as well as thousands of solution partners, CPAs, insurance payors, health care systems that are really committed to helping to create a more informed consumer that can that can help to drive down prices instead of this perpetual pay more get less than that we’re used to.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:28] Now as a business owner, you have a lot on your plate just from that. Why was it important for you to get involved in these kind of associations and organizations almost for the greater good of the whole ecosystem?

Louis Bernardi: [00:04:44] I If it weren’t for organizations and the collaboration that I get, the sharing of knowledge, the sharing of experiences, this would be going so much slower than it is. The honest truth is that there’s a lot of people more advanced than than me and my agency there throughout the country. And we get together virtually we get together several times a year in person. And we we share stories. We share successes, mostly what’s working, who who which of the vendors actually can perform to their promise. Right. At the end of the day, this is about making sure that the consumer is is getting better access to health care, that they are able to identify where the best care is. We want to be. We understand that we need to be extremely proactive about that. It’s not about just giving people a website and saying, here, go here and look for yourself. You know, the consumer needs assistance. It’s been 25 to 30 years of grooming and dummying down a consumer where we just simply know, even myself, as as a health care user, we act differently. We accept that there’s no information. We don’t do that in any other aspect of our lives. So these organizations help really speed up that the ability for us to help our clients and prospects achieve better results.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:15] Now, you mentioned that in the last few years there’s been a noticeable shift. And can you talk about like the difference between today and five, ten years ago?

Louis Bernardi: [00:06:28] You know, unfortunately for a lot of people, it’s not much different. But for those people who are. Aware that these conversations are happening. You’re not going to get these from the status quo. There are so many misaligned incentives in health insurance and health care that the people that most trust to help them make these decisions, they’re not digging deep. They’re not finding alternative solutions because their compensation goes down. And that’s that’s a big part of what we do. And what we’re committed to in these different organizations is complete transparency, including compensation. But, you know, there definitely are significant signs that change is happening throughout the country. If you. I’m also a Forbes Business Council contributor. And when I talk to those people who follow the money, they can see behind the scenes that where investment, private equity money is going. And all of the signs show that there is a real huge shift happening behind the scenes in health care and whether the consumer is ready for it or not, it’s going to happen. I think more importantly, five years from now, the choices, the plans, the the type of services and expectations of the consumer are going to be very, very different.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:48] Now there’s a quote by Jeff Bezos that says, Your margin is my business or something along the lines of that. Is it happening because of technology and just the more and more transparency that if there’s a lot of margin or there’s a lot of what technology might deem as waste or ways, that margin, I think, is the fairest word, that there’s ways to squeeze some of that out. With the advent of technology and sharing data and and ultimately for the consumer, I would hope get better outcomes in less time.

Louis Bernardi: [00:08:30] Technology. Really? Yeah. Technology is absolutely at the forefront of all of this. One of the know people argue all the time about the Affordable Care Act, but one of the real good things about the Affordable Care Act was the mandate of and the release of information on all claims, both from private and public companies. So we can see using that data and technology companies are the only one ones that can take those billions of claims and make sense of them and and help point people in the right direction. But what they really exposed and because of the transparency legislation that’s already started, it’s not about margins. It is absolutely unfathomable what insurers and the health care system and particularly on the pharmacy side, what they’ve gotten away with is hidden profits. I, I tell people all the time, I kind of kind of explain it as if it’s an English muffin on the outside. It’s nice and flat. It’s got some cornmeal on it. You know, it looks like one thing when you cut it open. All of those nooks and crannies are where hidden profits, unreported income for the health care system, for the insurance carriers, for the pharmacy benefit managers, their way of doing business is really disgusting when you think about how the toll it’s taken on businesses and their employees and it’s not stopping the data now will become more publicly available. And I think that the health insurance and the health care system, there’s signs that they’re starting to turn on each other because they know someone’s going to take the fall for what these prices will expose. And they’re actually trying to become one another. Insurance carriers are getting into the health care business by acquiring different entities, and health and health care industry is getting into the insurance business. You know, they they know that these hidden profit centers are going to start drying up. And their goal, obviously, is not to lose that income. They need to replace it with other forms of income. And so they’re kind of cannibalizing each other.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:38] Now, I’ve heard some stories when they start kind of making it visible, some of the pricing that like one procedure at a hospital could be hundreds of dollars. And then in the same state down the road, it could be tens of thousands of dollars. Or like you’re saying, with the pharmaceuticals, the cost could be pennies and then the charge could be thousands of dollars. It’s so disparate. Now, the the people who are charging a lot, especially the pharmaceutical companies, saying, look, we have to charge a lot for the winners because we have so many drugs that don’t work out. And part of the R&D, we’re investing millions and millions of dollars. So we have to have some wins in order to incent us to keep playing the game. Like, what do you say to to that?

Louis Bernardi: [00:11:31] Well, there’s no question that it costs a tremendous amount of money to take a medication to market and that there’s many that they invest billions of dollars probably into that never go to market. And we have to give them that right. We want to advance medicine. There’s there’s no doubt about that. But the the other ways that they are manipulating the price is that they’re manipulating the formulary drug lists to maximize profits, something called rebates where pharmaceutical manufacturers will pay a rebate, a significant we’re talking in some cases, tens of thousands of dollars per month. That goes back to the pharmacy benefit manager, which are owned or or are owned by insurance carriers. They’re basically the middlemen of pharmacy benefit managers, really. The the the the broker for medications. They’re getting significant rebates. They’re keeping part of it. They’re passing, let’s say, 70% of that rebate back on to the insurance carrier. That’s unrepeatable income. So common medications like HUMIRA and STELARA, they’re twice what they need to be. And there’s no there’s no reason for that. Right. If insurance companies in the health care system really were trying to do what their main page of their website is, work in the best interest of their patients and their members. That wouldn’t be necessary. You can make a really good living being an insurance carrier or the health care system and still do it in an honest way, in a transparent way and win business because you’re working on the best interest of your members and patients.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:12] Now, do you think that also some of these challenges we’re having in health care are that there’s a lot of regulation around things like, you know, the amount of hospitals in the state that’s very regulated. They tell you how many they can have and how many they should have or the ability. To get drugs over in other countries and then come here. I mean, there’s a whole industry now of people traveling to other countries to get medical procedures done because it’s so much less expensive than other countries.

Louis Bernardi: [00:13:42] Mm hmm. Well, medical tourism definitely is big business, especially for really large employers that self insure and have a little bit more flexibility and say where. Where they’re because they’re paying the claim and you know there’s no there’s no question that things can cost more money here in the US because of regulations. But. There’s there’s. I’ll give you an example, because we have access and some insights that most people don’t. The whole health care system has evolved so significantly. It used to be independent doctors, independent hospitals, because they needed leverage over the health insurance companies who were kind of nickel and diming them with their fee for service rates. They needed leverage, so they merged initially horizontally. Hospitals merged with hospitals and then they merged vertically. They had to take over other parts of health care all the way down to the gatekeepers. And now they use those primary care doctors, those those poor primary care doctors who are who are really suffering just as much as employers and members. And there’s a significant shortage because there’s such little money in primary care and they pay such a they are such an essential part of health care that’s missing today. But they use them to drive people to where they can maximize their profits. So at a hospital, something like an MRI that costs about $200, their self reported cost, they will charge five, six, $7,000 for and only because that number is completely artificial. Your typical insurance carrier gets, let’s just assume a 50% discount and they want 3000.

Louis Bernardi: [00:15:22] So you have to charge six to get three for a $200 procedure. And as you mentioned before, right next door, there might be an independent facility that would perform that same mry for six, seven, 800. And if you’re paying cash, it could be as low as three or $400. The truth is the cash price can be significantly less if you call an advance and say, hey, I don’t want to use my insurance or I don’t have insurance, but if you just show up and you go to that hospital where you’re typically going to be driven or steered towards, they’re not going to feel bad sending you a bill for $7,000, whether you have insurance or not. And that’s that’s just wrong. The consumer needs to know, especially for things like radiology, where they can get the most bang for their buck. The the health insurance plans that so many people are walking around with today are not the five or $10 co-pay variety that they had 20 years ago. You have families walking around with $14,000 deductibles that are still paying a pretty significant amount out of payroll to have the privilege of having the responsibility of paying their first 14,000 of their family’s health care expenses. That’s that’s just not acceptable to me and so many other advisors in the country. And we really want to make a stand and do something about that.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:46] So what can people do to help?

Louis Bernardi: [00:16:52] People, employers, patients. They have to demand more. They have to. They have to challenge those that they trust to help them make these decisions. The focus has to be taken off of insurance. The problem is that the consumer has been groomed to think there’s nothing they can do about it, that the claims are the claims, and that what they’re doing is they’re buying insurance. You’re not buying insurance. You’re buying access to health care for your employees. That’s the investment you’re making. And when you stop thinking about the insurance and you start thinking, am I getting the right health care? And you have that conversation with your trusted advisors, you’re going to find out really quickly if that person even knows what you’re talking about. When you go shopping for a house, you’re not buying a mortgage. You’re using a mortgage to finance the purchase of that house. When you’re buying health care for your employees, you’re financing it with the insurance. And that’s the way the mindset of the employer has to change to. And if you’re a patient, you have to ask first. You have to be your advocate. You have to understand that the health care system is built right now under the managed care fee for service model to maximize profits. That’s not to say doctors are bad people, but they’re they’re great people. They don’t they only get about $0.26 of every dollar of what’s spent on health care. And that’s that’s just not acceptable.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:14] Yeah, this is I mean, we’ve created so much complexity in the system and and unintended consequences of actions over the years. It’s just a really difficult challenge to navigate today with almost, you know, almost having to blow it all up and start again from scratch.

Louis Bernardi: [00:18:36] Yeah. You know, the truth is, is that if you have the proper plan design that’s built with incentives and this is this is not something every employer can do depending on your state, you can’t self insure, but you don’t have to self insure to still think of yourself as a consumer and use technology and apps and and build a plan that rewards people for making the right decisions. There’s there’s tons of companies and we work with several of them where your typical high deductible health plan that an employer might fund with an IRA type of mechanism. Right. Because they’re want to pay less insurance and they’re willing to make a bet that their employees health care costs that they would have to fund is less than that premium savings. So they’ll be a net plus. You can wrap something around that and give your employees a tool and incentivize them in a positive way to use that resource that is going to point them not to where the care is the cheapest, to where the quality is the best. And the hidden secret within health care is that the best care costs less. It really does. You just have to be willing to have that conversation and start thinking about yourself as a consumer and challenge challenge the whole system. That’s that’s what will change when the consumer takes their business elsewhere. Those people that hold the reins have no choice but to change with it. And that’s that’s that’s imperative.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:00] So how if you look into your crystal ball, how far away are we from having a health care system that works more efficiently and effectively?

Louis Bernardi: [00:20:11] I mean, it’s already happening, but, you know, just not quite for for quite enough people as possible. I believe that the managed care networks and the carriers that, you know, today, we call them the Bukas, the large five insurance companies, they will be operating very differently within the next five years. I think that it’s possible that networks will disappear again and that insurance carriers will go back to being the payers of health care, the processors and the administrators, just like what a TPA is to a self-insured employer. Because the because the value that insurance carriers are providing today just isn’t there. And they’ll be challenged by the consumer who’s going to want to see that transparency. And there their pyramids of wealth that they’ve built are going to start crumbling on that.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:04] Well, it’ll be thanks to folks like you who are kind of looking out for the greater good and being part of organizations and associations that kind of have their eye on a true north that’s helpful to more and more people.

Louis Bernardi: [00:21:20] Absolutely. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:22] And if somebody wants to learn more about Bright Path, what’s the website?

Louis Bernardi: [00:21:26] So a website is w w w bright path. That’s b r i t e p a t h.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:36] All right, Lou, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Louis Bernardi: [00:21:40] Thank you. Have a great day.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:41] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll be back next week with another episode of Association Leadership Radio.

Aly Merritt With Atlanta Tech Village

by

Aly-Merritt
Startup Showdown Podcast
Aly Merritt With Atlanta Tech Village
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AlyMerrittHeadshot1Aly Merritt is a former copy editor with a residual addiction to journalism, and is currently the Managing Director of Atlanta Tech Village. She was previously the Head of Community at SalesLoft, an Atlanta-based sales engagement software company, and in past Lofter lives, she’s also been a part of customer experience, support and product management, as well as Chief of Staff.

She has spent the last decade of her career working with the Atlanta startup community to advance both local startups and Atlanta itself on the national stage, with a special focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, and contributes to their growth and culture by connecting startup hubs, VCs and organizations across the city. She also works daily to build a network of strong women in business and tech in Atlanta and across the country.

Aly previously organized and emceed the ATL Startup Village, a bi-monthly meetup to generate publicity, visibility and potential investment for startups in Atlanta, hosted at Atlanta Tech Village. She sporadically spends time writing about tech and the startup community on her blog, AlyintheATL.com.

Aly lives in Atlanta with her husband, Alex (who is an attorney and therefore very challenging to argue with), and their infant son and two cats (who don’t argue at all — yet). She still is unable to reconcile herself to the Oxford comma.

Connect with Aly on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This EpisodeAtlantaTechVillage

  • Collaboration/opportunity in the startup ecosystem (ATL & regional)
  • Transition to tech with a non-tech background

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:00] Welcome back to the Startup Showdown podcast, where we discuss pitching, funding and scaling startups. Join us as we interview winners, mentors and judges of the monthly $120,000 pitch competition powered by Panoramic Ventures. We also discuss the latest updates in software Web3, Healthcare, Tech, FinTech, and more. Now sit tight as we interview this week’s guest and their journey through entrepreneurship.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:43] Lee Kantor here another episode of Startup Showdown, and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor Panoramic Ventures. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Startup Showdown, we have Aly Merritt with Atlanta Tech Village. Welcome, ALy.

Aly Merritt: [00:01:02] Thank you so much for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:03] Lee Well, I’m excited to hear your story and how you got involved with the Atlanta Tech Village. But before we get started, can you just share for the listeners who aren’t aware of Atlanta Tech Village Mission Purpose, how you serving folks?

Aly Merritt: [00:01:18] Yes, absolutely. So we are the fourth largest tech hub in the US. We focus primarily on startups with proprietary technology. We provide and allow faster access to talent, capital and ideas by supporting our just under 1200 entrepreneurs in 103,000 square feet.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:37] And then how did you get involved?

Aly Merritt: [00:01:40] Oh, this is this is a longer story. So I’ll try to truncate it a bit for you. This is probably my fourth or fifth career because unless you’re as far as I can tell a brain surgeon, your career, nobody’s career is just a straight hockey stick. Right. But most recently, I spent the last eight years at Sales Loft, which is a startup that came out of Atlanta Tech Village initially. So when I joined Sales Office eight years ago, they were on one of the yet to be renovated floors at Atlanta Tech Village, and I sort of grew up with them. We eventually outgrew the space and move to Regents Plaza where we have several floors. And you can tell I’m always a lawyer at heart because my pronoun is still we for sales loft in many ways and I sort of kept in touch with Atlanta Tech Village. It’s near and dear to my heart. The serendipitous interactions and the ecosystem here is really important. And then I ran the Startup Pitch competition for the last five years Atlanta Startup Village, and at some point there was a opening, and David Lightman and David Cummings very kindly reached out to me with an extremely vaguely bullet, pointed email and said, We have this position called Managing Director. Would you consider it? If so, what is? No. And I was I was sort of like I mean, yes, because when David Cummings makes you an offer, you don’t say no. But I also was very honest that I said, I don’t know anything about running a building, you guys. And they write back, Yes, you do. You ran the office team and were chief of staff at sales. Often it’s almost exactly the same. And it turns out that they were correct. So that’s the truncated version.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:26] Well, I think that Atlanta Tech Village is one of the the most generous gifts that any entrepreneur has ever given the city. And I think it has taken the startup scene to a new level and has kind of raised the bar for others in the city to give back and to and to build the community that David has built and his team has built. But now the tech village, like you said, has kind of left a mark and left ripples that go way well beyond Atlanta. Can you talk about how it has expanded from an Atlanta centric startup hub to what it is today?

Aly Merritt: [00:04:05] Yeah, well, and I think the important thing to note is that Atlanta is at the heart of what we do. We are here for the Atlanta ecosystem. One of the missions for Atlanta Tech Village. We had several and one of them is to help make Atlanta a top five startup city. So it’s bigger than just a TV itself as a hub. It is the city as a whole and it’s really become more of the region, right? The Southeast. How do we help drive entrepreneurship, investment startups in tech in the Southeast? And we’re lucky that we have first mover advantage in a lot of ways when to your point, David, coming so generously took that money from selling Pardot to ExactTarget instead of buying a small private island with $99 million, he invested in a building and built what he wished he had had when he had been starting Pardot. So we we try to take the visibility that we have, the reputation that we have to bring people into the city and into the southeast as a whole and benefit more than just Atlanta Tech Village to benefit the other incubators and ecosystems and entrepreneurs in the cities and in the rural areas in the Southeast.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:20] And can you talk a little bit about that collaboration and the ability to bring people together and create this sense of community? Because I think that is part of Atlanta’s secret sauce and what separates us from a lot of other areas, and that does give us a competitive edge. Can you talk about how just. That spirit of generosity. I mean, that that takes a level of humility and generosity to want to create a culture like that. Can you talk about how that kind of comes alive at Tech Village?

Aly Merritt: [00:05:54] Yes, absolutely you are. The soapbox that I like to get on actually is the community aspect and the collaboration that happens. One of my favorite things about Atlanta Tech Village itself, and then I’ll sort of expand that is the serendipitous interactions that happen. So you can get on the elevator in our club level and be talking to somebody about a project that they’re creating or service they’re creating. And by the time you get off the elevator on the fifth floor, somebody else on the elevator says, That sounds really cool. I think we have something complimentary. Let’s talk about I want to buy it or we should do an in-kind swap or something like that. And you get off with a new customer or a new partner. And I think that that’s that’s at the heart of what we do is how do we how do we collaborate with each other? It’s one of ATV’s core values, which is pay it forward, as well as be nice and dream big. And so those sort of coalesce into a collaborative approach to everything that it’s not just about you and what you’re doing, it’s about the community as a whole. And I think that this is evident in the fact that when you talk to people who come to us from other spaces and other other communities, other towns, other states that maybe are a little more competitive, one of the things that I’ve heard more than once is that when people in Atlanta say they’re going to introduce you to somebody, they actually do it. And that’s not how that happens in many other cities, because it is about bringing everybody together. And one of the things I like to use a lot is a rising tide raises all ships. So while we at ATV have a focus on proprietary technology, first of all, we’re not the only tech hub in the city or in the region.

Aly Merritt: [00:07:38] And there’s there’s plenty of room for all of them. There’s no reason for us to get territorial. Every ecosystem in the city, for example, has a slightly different focus or a different niche that they’re really good at. And there’s no reason for us to try and reinvent that. We need to cross collaboratively support it. So if you have a focus on tech, for example, you also have Tech Alpharetta, north of town, which has a focus on technology as well. And they serve an entirely different group, especially with Atlanta being as spread out as it is geographically tech. Alpharetta has more of an incubator model and have a little different focus for their tech. Atlanta provides more than just one space at D.C. out of Georgia, Tech has a focus specifically on technology as well. But they also have the skill set of they work within an academic institution that also more easily understands how to play nicely with governmental entities, for example, and they understand rules and regulations in a different way than some of the rest of us, and they’re able to provide that to their startups. You’ve got the Russell Center for Innovation, which is down next to HBCUs, and their focus is black entrepreneurship. So there’s lots of different spaces in town that are doing amazing things with a slightly different focus, and there’s no reason that we can’t all collaborate together on something bigger than ourselves. And there are some some things coming down the pipeline where Atlanta as a whole is going to be publicizing some of this behind the scenes collaboration that’s been happening for a little while now.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:09] You use the word community, use the word everybody. How do you kind of mindfully and purposefully create a community that does include everybody? And there’s a lot of underserved entrepreneurs out there that sometimes have a harder time plugging into communities like this one. How does a tech village kind of go to the market and welcome all?

Aly Merritt: [00:09:34] I think that’s a great question. And also a good point is that people like to talk about diversity, equity and inclusion, but a lot of times they may mean just one thing on the surface that they initially think about. So ATB itself does that in a couple of different ways. We ourselves have a pre accelerator that is specifically focused on underrepresented founders and we do two cohorts a year, typically 8 to 10 people you apply to be in it. And sometimes the founders are as early stages. They have an idea that hasn’t even made it to the back of the napkin yet. And we provide the resources and access to our mentors and advisors and the community here to start driving that idea forward with them. And at the end of the cohort, they receive non-dilutive capital from several of our key sponsors, specifically to give them the ability to move forward with that idea on a more level playing field that maybe they didn’t start out with because I don’t know about you, but I don’t have friends and family that can lend me $15 million for a pre-seed round. And most of our founders do not have that either. So how do we start? Along that playing field. So that’s how we internally do it. Externally, I think that it’s a bigger discussion around the concept of trust. And this is something I’ve spoken at with Jay Baily at the Russell Center at length is he and I talk about the idea of getting to know each other because that’s when you build trust and that’s when you also know what resources are being offered across town. And so he and I are sort of driving some collaboration efforts with the rest of the ecosystems in town, because there’s more to it than just coming to Atlanta and stopping at Atlanta Tech Village.

Aly Merritt: [00:11:15] So starting to create more of a welcome package kind of concept with new entrepreneurs and new investors coming to town so that they can see at a glance what’s happening in all the different spaces. And just because, again, we’re not the right fit. When people ask me about Atlanta, especially if it’s outside Atlanta, I was just at Miami, in Tech, in Miami at a tech conference, and I spoke to several startups and I said, you know, I don’t know that we align, but Atlanta aligns for you. And here are the directions that I would suggest you go. And then I made intros to those specific locations for those additional people. You’ve got locations like the gathering spot in town, which has a heavier focus on creatives and artists. You’ve got the Lola, which has a focus on women and female presenting people as a safe space. And so finding these pockets and being able to celebrate what they are providing and being able to make that more and more visible. So when you talk to me at Atlantic Village, if you’re in town for a tour, these are all spaces that I mentioned and ecosystems that I mentioned because I want there to be visibility. And then you have Startup Atlanta, which does a great job with the Startup Ecosystem Guide that identifies all of these different opportunities in town and is starting to build out as part of that welcome package. Being able to see at a glance where some areas that you might find your tribe are as well as making the entire ecosystem welcoming to anyone coming in.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:41] Now, if the person out there listening isn’t a tech person but is interested in tech startups, is there a place for a non tech? Entrepreneur in this ecosystem?

Aly Merritt: [00:12:56] Oh, absolutely. I am not a technical entrepreneur. I can’t code I. I have been working in a startup for eight years without an actual technical background. My undergrad degrees are basically art and writing journalism and graphic design. So I’d say two things to that. First of all, people do view tech the way I’ve just described it as being a software engineer and coding. And that’s not necessarily true. Technology is in almost everything now that we do in an entirely different way. Technology is wrapped up in what SCAD and its students are doing at the Savannah College of Art and Design in terms of 3D printing, for example, or augmented reality or virtual reality. But there’s also the aspect that just because it’s a technical company doesn’t mean that they aren’t people facing. You don’t do business with companies, you do business with people. And so your support team is important. Your customer success team is important, your sales team is important. These aren’t technical people per se. These are people skills. They’re softer skills. And so wanting to be a part of the, quote, tech community doesn’t mean you have to be a software engineer.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:07] Now, is that message, do you think, trickling down to young people, even at the elementary, middle school, high school level where they can see a startup as a path, a career path for them rather than a traditional, oh, I’m going to go to school, go to college, get a job.

Aly Merritt: [00:14:27] I think that’s an interesting question as well, because I think especially with the rise of things like boot camps and virtual auditing of classes, those have started changing the way people look at the traditional career path. And we are seeing quite a few people now who are getting jobs directly out of high school instead of going down this traditional university career path, if you will. And I was actually speaking with a larger corporation here in town that said that what they’re doing now is looking at recruiting, not just early stages of college and not even just high school, but trying to figure out how to partner with junior highs and middle schools to specifically get in there to help train students in areas that will lend themselves to technology but don’t necessarily have to be technology themselves. Again, there’s a lot of things going on, on the creative side that roll into technology. Video games are very visual, but there’s technology that drives that and you need both halves of that brain to happen. I think that that is starting to be more visible in the way that schools are training people. We have some high schoolers coming through actually tomorrow to go to our pitch practice event, and most of them aren’t technical high schoolers, but they are in the entrepreneurship program at their high school. And I think just the concept of entrepreneurs as creating your own business around something that you’re passionate around is starting to change. The commentary is that it doesn’t have to be a technical startup, it can be many other things.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:03] Yeah, I think that that’s critical for young people to open their mind to the idea of entrepreneurship as artist, in that they each create something from nothing and that there is a place for them in this world and this ecosystem, even if they don’t feel confident with their math and science skills. There is a place for great communicators, great writers. There is a place for them in this community. And I think it’s important for them to open their mind to that as a career path and explore it. And I and I am happy to see that a lot of educational institutions are kind of bringing in entrepreneurship early on in the education process. And just thinking like an entrepreneur pays benefits and that’s transferable down the road.

Aly Merritt: [00:16:50] Yes, absolutely. And you said something interesting just now about specifically communication as a skill set. And I think that’s a skill set that’s been potentially undervalued for a long time. But people are starting to realize that that’s very important. We see a lot of technical founders who are looking for a non-technical co-founder specifically. They want somebody with a marketing or a sales background. Because of that communication piece, you can have the best idea in the world. But if you can’t communicate what it is to an investor, you aren’t going to get funding. If you can’t communicate that in a business plan, you’re not going to get a grant or you’re not going to be able to take out a loan from a bank. All of those things center around good communication and sometimes that’s verbal and sometimes that’s visual, and sometimes it’s a blend of both. And I think that having the art and writing skill sets, if you will, as I mentioned, that’s that’s my background having those are more important sometimes than being able to actually do the execution of the coding. Now a successful startup has both. If you are a technical product, you need it to work, but you also need to be able to make it visually appealing. User experience and user design is built around what are the intuitive paths for people, for your customers, for your users, for utilizing your service, your product. Because if it’s too hard or too complicated, they won’t use it. That’s one of the reasons that iPhones go over so well, and that’s one of the reasons that people with toddlers have their toddlers swiping. And because it’s intuitive, they understand how an iPhone works and it makes sense to them in a way that something that was very technical would not.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:27] So what’s your favorite part about mentoring startups and entrepreneurs and early stage folks?

Aly Merritt: [00:18:33] Oh gosh. The passion that people have for these different segments of life that I didn’t even know existed. Being a startup, being a startup entrepreneur and running with something that is so important to you is incredibly moving. It’s inspirational. I love talking to entrepreneurs who have put everything that they have behind this really amazing idea because it’s important to them that they see a problem and a solution for that problem and they want to share it and make life better. So many entrepreneurs see a problem that they had and they want to figure out how to keep other people from having to experience that problem. They want to fix it for somebody else. And it’s a very interestingly altruistic motive in many ways. I had this issue and I don’t want anybody else to have to face that issue. Let’s fix it.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:22] Yeah, I think generosity is at the heart of a lot of. Nors and and and I don’t know if the layperson understands that or appreciates that.

Aly Merritt: [00:19:31] Well, I think entrepreneurs are if you’re not in the startup and tech community, you view entrepreneurs as the extremely successful people that, you know, that have come out of a startup space. But there’s so much more than that. Those extremely successful people, by the time you see them, there’s money involved. And so they see it as what, you started a startup to get money, which is great. We all like money. It provides many wonderful things in our lives. But a lot of startups don’t become the uber successful and I mean that level. They’re not Uber, they’re not going to be the next even part of it, but they are going to be something that changes lives in a different way, even if it’s just the lives of the team that’s working on that product, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:20:13] Or the family of the entrepreneur or the community where that family lives. I mean, the lifestyle.

Aly Merritt: [00:20:19] Small businesses are extremely respectable business model. There is no reason that you have to look at your business and think, How do I scale this internationally?

Lee Kantor: [00:20:28] Amen to that. Now, how did you find out about Startup Showdown?

Aly Merritt: [00:20:34] So this is a completely shameless plug for the former LAUGHTER Network, because Tammy McQueen, the VP of marketing at Panoramic, is a former lady. Laughter at heart or all kind of still offers. And she is one of the most amazing and dynamic marketing professionals I have ever met. She has vision that she communicates beautifully and she creates these wonderful experiences. So when she mentioned that she was doing this new startup showcase concept, I kept thinking, That sounds really fun. And I bet if Tammy is behind it, it’s going to be a really amazing scale. It’s going to really provide something that changes the lives of entrepreneurs. I’ve run a lot of startup events and startup pitch events. I’ve helped at a lot of them. But Startup Showdown is providing an enormous amount of capital in a very real number that makes a difference for the winning companies. $100,000 every month is what they’re giving away, if not more. And that is a significant number that can really take a startup from where it is to very far down the line in the next level. So when Tammy mentioned it, I immediately said, I would love to help, how can I help? And she asked very graciously if I would help mentor some of the startups. And of course I said yes, because how can I not? So I did two rounds of startup mentoring for Startup Showdown.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:58] Now, any advice for Startup Founder that’s listening right now? Like what would be kind of your do’s and don’ts?

Aly Merritt: [00:22:06] Oh, gosh, I have so much advice. Let me try and truncate that. The first thing is, is you should know the people in your industry, especially people locally. I’ve seen a lot of different entrepreneurs, you know, somebodies name or the company they’re with. They don’t recognize them visually and they will miss an opportunity to chat with them at an event that they both happen to be at. No know who your target audience is, know who your investors are, know who the people that are in your industry, they’re doing great things. Ah, and then I would, I always say this to everybody, regardless of startup, whether you’re a startup entrepreneur or just a person, is have conversations with people without looking for what you’re going to get out of it, ask how you can help them. Is there something you can provide that would help them drive their dream forward regardless of what it does for you? Because one, that’s the right thing to do. And two, it creates a trust and a network in a different fashion than just something that’s built over the monetary impact that you can have on somebody’s company.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:09] Well, Ali, thank you so much for sharing your story today. If somebody wants to connect with you at Tech Village or learn more about the events or just some of the opportunity there, what’s a website?

Aly Merritt: [00:23:20] Yes, Atlanta Tech Village dot com, all spelled out.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:23] Well, thank you again for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Aly Merritt: [00:23:28] Thank you so much, Lee. I appreciate you having me on today.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:30] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Startup Showdown.

Speaker2: [00:23:36] As always, thanks for joining us. And don’t forget to follow and subscribe to the Startup Showdown podcast. So you get the latest episode as it drops wherever you listen to podcasts to learn more and apply to our next startup Showdown Pitch Competition Visit Showdown VC. That’s Showdown Dot VC. All right, that’s all for this week. Goodbye for now.

Jay H. Tepley With Unbreakable Entrepreneur LTD

by

JayH.Tepley
Cherokee Business Radio
Jay H. Tepley With Unbreakable Entrepreneur LTD
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UnbreakableEntrepreneurLTD

JayH.TepleyJay H. Tepley is an author, entrepreneur, international speaker and passionate mental health advocate.

A lifelong geek and a research aficionado, she helps entrepreneurs overcome depression through her proven masculine-geared system of spiritual evolution. Her Unbreakable ONE program has shown many men the road to personal power and renewed hope, and is credited with saving many lives. She has spent the last 20 years teaching and coaching students around the globe.

Her charity work supporting mental health has been featured in the Guardian, The Jeremy Vine Show and BBC 1.

When she’s not teaching or writing, Jay enjoys reading about Japan where she studied and lived for a time (she also speaks fluent Japanese, and her unique novel, the Lightwatch Chronicles, begins in Tokyo).

Connect with Jay on LinkedIn. Follow Unbreakable Entrepreneur on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • the psychological cause of depression in modern society
  • It is important to do personal/spiritual development for a more fulfilled life

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Stone Payton: [00:00:13] Welcome to the High Velocity Radio show, where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you this morning. You guys are in for a real treat. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with unbreakable entrepreneur Jay Tepley. How are you?

Jay H. Tepley: [00:00:33] Hello. Yeah, I’m really good. Excited to be on this show and talking to you today.

Stone Payton: [00:00:38] Well, I almost said good morning, but it’s actually not morning for you. We have the the blessing of technology enabled conversation. You’re you’re actually located over in the U.K., right?

Jay H. Tepley: [00:00:52] That’s right. Yeah. Okay. London.

Stone Payton: [00:00:54] So when we get a business radio studio set up in your neck of the woods, as we say down here, we’ll we’ll we’ll do something live from there. But in the meantime, what a marvelous opportunity. And maybe we’ll get Business RadioX, U.K., U.K. going. So talk to us a little bit. Mission, purpose, what’s your focus over there? What are you really trying to do for people with this body of work?

Jay H. Tepley: [00:01:21] Okay. So I help male entrepreneurs overcome depression in eight weeks without medication or traditional therapy.

Stone Payton: [00:01:32] And so why the focus on on males? That was obviously that was a conscious choice. Yeah.

Jay H. Tepley: [00:01:39] Absolutely. I well, several reasons. Firstly, the system that I’ve designed is specifically focused on how the male mind works. And so it’s designed to produce the best results for the male mind. And the reason why I thought it was really important is because, as you probably know, depression is a great problem right now, but not just not everyone is exposed to it equally, so to speak. And so according to research, the rates of male suicide and depression actually double that of female and especially with entrepreneurs. I realized there weren’t many people helping them the right way because the mind of the entrepreneur is quite different from someone who works 9 to 5. It’s a very different mindset, it’s a very different outlook on life. And to me, entrepreneurs are the heroes, the new heroes of these times. And because of that, they require a different approach and a different treatment.

Stone Payton: [00:02:54] Well, I’m sure that my wife would agree with you 110%. I’ve been an entrepreneur almost my entire career. She has a very rewarding and fulfilling career with a little company some of our listeners may have heard of called IBM, and I’m sure she would agree with you that the mind of the entrepreneur is different. But if you would say more about that, in what ways?

Jay H. Tepley: [00:03:19] Right. Well, first of all, it’s the ability to push against your fear, against obstacles, against your comfort zone, something that many people feel troubled by. And also is this thing about having a mission and striving to create something bigger than yourself, to leave a legacy. So not just to pay your bills, to live your day, to die, but to actually create a change in the world.

Stone Payton: [00:03:52] So as you might imagine, in my in my role with Business RadioX and just really my lifestyle in general, I hang out with a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners and I don’t know, it wouldn’t surprise me at all, particularly as I learn more from you about this whole issue of depression, if some of them are depressed, but boy, they don’t present themselves that way, you know, like, are we particularly good at masking our depression? Well, I’ll ask that on two fronts, entrepreneurs and men. And then this is like a double whammy.

Jay H. Tepley: [00:04:24] Yes. Well, it has to do a lot with how men are brought up in our society and from a very young age. So, you know, boys don’t cry and you don’t have to either. You can’t really talk about your feelings openly. And in my observation, what happens is many men actually lose that conscious connection with their feelings. And so what I’ve noticed sometimes is someone is really suffering, but consciously they’re not fully aware of it. So there are rather telltale signs, but the person themselves thinks that everything is a rut up to a point, obviously, up until they psychologically and mentally crumble, and then they realize that something is wrong. But yes, you’re right.

Stone Payton: [00:05:20] What an interesting line of work. It’s obviously a noble pursuit, but I got to know a little bit more about the back story. What in the world compelled you to to do that? How did you find yourself in this line of work in the first place?

Jay H. Tepley: [00:05:35] Right. So I started doing this work about 20 years ago, just over 20 years ago now. I’ve been a spiritual mentor and teacher over all these years, but gradually I decided to narrow down my focus. And so the more I was seeing, obviously, what kind of people are benefiting from my teachings the most and what kind of people need them the most as well. Then naturally I realized the entrepreneurs, because I’m surrounded by that tribe, I’m an entrepreneur myself. And so I’ve realized that the entrepreneurs are those people who. Who would really benefit from what I teach, because the task that they’ve chosen for themselves quite often is very strenuous and quite often that far exceeds what they wear mentally and emotionally prepared for going up to this point. And so I’ve realized that having those tools that I’m sharing would make a massive difference for this tribe.

Stone Payton: [00:06:49] So have you through your work, have you been able to identify, kind of get at the the root cause of like, do you know, I don’t know the psychological reasons, like, why is it happening?

Jay H. Tepley: [00:07:04] There are several there are several reasons. Obviously, it’s not it would be very easy and very simplistic to say one size fits all and this is why this is what you do. But however, there is an underlying motive and underlying pattern with what is happening. And quite often, not always, as I said, but quite often with developing depression, it has to do a lot with how our mind works. And we can see our mind as a structure divided into four levels or layers. And the way those levels are designed to function are in full synchronicity and synergy. And this unfortunately doesn’t happen with many people. So you don’t need to be a psychologist to have heard about the conscious and the subconscious mind. And quite often those two don’t agree with each other. And if they don’t agree with each other massively, they start that internal war and the subconscious mind has its desires, needs and goals. And then the conscious mind or the ego has its own desires and goals usually imposed by someone else, usually copied from someone we admire, or from society, or from our peers, our parents. And so when these two are at odds, what happens is they they become an internal war. And that, in terms of war is like a friction, like a mental friction that causes a kind of a mental inflammation within. And you can you can tell it even from how the body responds to it, because inflammation on the physical level quite often accompanies depression. And so that mental inflammation is the root cause of that, what we call depression in many cases. And the easiest way out is to address that conflict and to stop that war within.

Stone Payton: [00:09:24] So let’s talk about the work itself. What does the what does it look like when you begin to try to help someone get their arms around this issue and actually help them become unbreakable?

Jay H. Tepley: [00:09:36] I love this question so falsely I teach them how their mind works, because if you want to repair something, say a machine first. You want to learn how this machine operates with your mind is very similar. So I teach them about the four levels of the mind, how this levels interact and how they want and need to be in synchronicity. So that’s step number one. And then step number two, I teach them how to make sure that the needs of your subconscious, the part that starts the war, are met. And it’s a very straightforward system where all you need to do need to learn that your subconscious basically only wants one thing. And no, it’s not disgusting.

Stone Payton: [00:10:29] I you know where my mind went.

Jay H. Tepley: [00:10:33] Yes, but everyone’s subconscious only wants one thing and that thing is personal power. I may sound really strange because in our society, in our current paradigm, the word power has a lot of negative rep. But what we need to understand and really understand to pull ourselves out of depression is that we are meant to be very powerful beings and it’s reflected in many philosophies and regions of the world where it says that we come from the source, that we are the children of the absolute of God. And when you think about it, children take after their parents. And so if we are part of that universal force that created everything, obviously part of that creative power and that consciousness is in us. And our deepest desire as human beings is to realize that power and to make a dent on the world. And again, I know that some people think, oh, but I don’t want to be powerful. And I want to say, yes, you do, Sarah, your feelings, you know this to be true, because everything we do, everything we do, ultimately it comes down to living a mark on the world. Because why do we even want to stay alive? Because we want to make a difference. Why do we want to be with someone ultimately? Because we feel that we are pulling someone into our orbit and we are creating something meaningful together.

Jay H. Tepley: [00:12:21] So, again, it’s it’s a reflection of that personal power. So for entrepreneurs creating their businesses, it’s a very pure expression of wanting to leave a mark on the world and to change something by their presence. Now, the problem is, though, that the conscious and the subconscious mind say this thing very differently. And as I said, the word power has a lot of bad rep in our society, and this is because we don’t suddenly have a different word for power to and power over. And these are different concepts. I should explain them in my book. So the power of two is the side that often gets misused and abused and has this very dark connotation in our society, because the power to springs from that inner insecurity and emptiness, and it’s the power of a resources or social power of some kind. And quite often people abuse it because they don’t have a solid standing because they are compensating for something. And you know, it’s a similar to say, if there was a very, very muscular guy sometimes who compensates with his lobes for his inner insecurity, and it’s just something that does happen. So people who crave a lot of power over those who compensate for the lack of power too, and the power too is what we actually really crave as human beings, is what we are searching for or all our lives.

Jay H. Tepley: [00:14:09] So that power too means that is the power over our internal resources, over our mind, over our internal power, our gift to manifest in the world. And when we have. To the power too. You will notice that people who meditate a lot, people who are spiritually curious or spiritually inclined, are much more peaceful and much more compassionate if they do it in the right way. I mean, if they really see the results from their practice, you can see that there is like an aura of calmness and confidence around them. And that happens because they acquire the power to. And the curious thing is that once you have this power to once you are able to consciously mold your mind and your reality in alignment with your will, suddenly the power over is given to you. But you are not that interested, because if you have the real treasure, why would you compensate? And so the lack of access to that very fundamental need, which is the power to which is our inner confidence and the and the ability to create our own reality the way we want it. This is what drives people to depression and sometimes even suicide.

Stone Payton: [00:15:39] Wow. All right. So say more about this book. In my experience, books that that complement a professional service providers work like in your situation for me what I like about it as a as as supplementing the work is it often reinforces just how to get started. And I suspect that’s one of the great benefits of your book. But say more about the book, why you chose to commit the time and energy to commit this to to a book. And I don’t know where my instincts right. Is. One of the benefits that it helps you just get get this thing going. It gives you a starting place.

Jay H. Tepley: [00:16:20] I wrote several books and you can find them on Amazon. So I am an author. And for me, writing books, well, I would say the way it started was students kept asking me the same questions over and over. And I felt actually, you know, rather than explaining that every time, it would be easier to put them into a book. But since then, I’ve written several books, and with this in particular, the idea was to get someone started from where they are. Okay, so someone may choose to work with me and that’s great. That’s one of the purposes of this book. So you can read it, say, fall in love with what I’m talking about and really think that, wow, that resonates with me. That makes so much sense. I need to take it further and explore it further. But even if someone decides to just get a little bit of help and say they want to do it on their own, this book gives you the tools to do it.

Stone Payton: [00:17:30] So as a and I did know that you’re a prolific author. So one of the reasons I was so excited about having you on on the on the show is did you find that the book came together pretty easy for you or was that a bit of a challenge taking what you naturally do and then getting it committed to paper and in a structure that the layperson could really use? Or what was that, the actual book writing process like for you?

Jay H. Tepley: [00:17:57] You used to be a quiet, quiet, insidious work. But over all these years that I’ve been rising, it became pretty effortless, I would say, because also I read articles, I read posts and social media. So I think like with everything, it just comes with experience. So the more you do something, say I was writing same, was working out, same with my mother. The more you do something, the better you become at it. And you may come to the point, hopefully when it becomes your second nature, when it becomes natural. So I know that many people are dreading to write a book because it seems like such a huge mammoth task. But for me, I just don’t. It’s just something to do. Let’s say if if there is a task to write a book, it’s just another entry on my to do list. So it’s not strenuous anymore. And I think my readers can feel it as well, because many people told me that my books are very enjoyable and easy to read.

Stone Payton: [00:19:11] So let’s let’s talk about this, this broader topic, I guess, of this personal spiritual development. Again, in my experience, some some of the most successful people that I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing and getting to know a little bit really do invest a great deal of energy in a time in their own, their personal, their spiritual well, and also their physical development. Can you speak to that some more?

Jay H. Tepley: [00:19:43] Absolutely. And I love this question. I think it’s super important for any teacher and any mentor to keep going on, on their journey and never become complacent and never rest on their laurels and always seek for something greater. Because the more they work on themselves, the more value they can offer to their students on a continuous basis. So yes, I apart from obviously I meditate every day. I also love working out. I love martial arts. And before the dark times, I used to run a light saber choreography club here in London for charity purposes.

Stone Payton: [00:20:30] Oh, that sounds fun. It’s probably great.

Jay H. Tepley: [00:20:34] I love.

Stone Payton: [00:20:34] It.

Jay H. Tepley: [00:20:36] I love it. And it’s a very good workout. And I was also teaching those guys meditation as well. And with with the lightsaber or with the sword, I used to deal with swords as well. It trains you something very important because apart from obviously developing your balance, your stamina and your physical strength, it also allows you to have a very important shift in mindset, which is to be able to stand up for yourself, because if someone is attacking you in that way, you’re forced to defend yourself. And I think it’s great for people who in their everyday life have problems putting their foot down or saying no where they should say yes. And it can be very sneaky because many people think, oh, you know, I don’t have this issue. I’m super confident this is how I run my business. That’s that’s who I am. But really, if deep down they look into the darkest recesses of their soul, they may find that they actually feel they have this imposter syndrome, which is more common than most people think. So that ties up with what we spoke about earlier, about many men not fully being not being fully connected with their emotions and with what they feel. And this is why this self searching and self inquiry work is so, so important.

Stone Payton: [00:22:10] So what are you finding the most rewarding? What are you enjoying the most about your work?

Jay H. Tepley: [00:22:19] Honestly, I for me, it’s being able to make a difference in someone’s life. Every time when someone comes to me saying Thank you, your work has saved my life. I wouldn’t be talking to you right now if I didn’t discover you in time. And it’s very humbling and it’s very rewarding. And I think I wouldn’t want to do anything else more than what I’m doing right now.

Stone Payton: [00:22:49] I believe that it comes through over the airwaves. It comes through over the video. I can see it in your eyes. We could hear it. We could hear. In your voice. So what’s next? I mean, surely you’ll be writing more books and expanding your work. Do you plan to kind of try to grow the business and scale the business, or have you kind of got that where you want it and it’s allowing you to do the the work you want to do?

Jay H. Tepley: [00:23:16] I absolutely plan on growing it internationally. The reason why I want to do it is now because of, say, EGA or the financial aspect. And I know obviously it’s important I understand the importance of it, but for me the main goal is to spread the message. And so as many guys as possible can discover this tools just when they need them. And if that’s all right with you, I wanted to share one simple technique. Please start someone off.

Stone Payton: [00:23:53] Yes, please.

Jay H. Tepley: [00:23:55] Right. So all you need to do and if you meditate already, right. If you’re done, that’s fine as well. And all you need to do is to find a quiet moment during the day to calm down a breathing and then to be able to focus fully on what you’re feeling in that moment. And most people never do that. So really, without any judgment, without any anger, without any resistance, look at your feelings in that moment and simply label them. So imagine that you are a researcher of your own mind and you have like a notepad. So everything that you knows is there. You simply write it down. So let’s say, you know, anger or tiredness or frustration or joy or happiness or being in love, just simply write it down. And after that, have a think. What are the underlying feelings in your life? What are the most dominant feelings that run in the background of your mind every day? Because those feelings ultimately create your life?

Stone Payton: [00:25:11] What marvelous counsel. And I, I think it’s important that we that we build in the time to make that happen. I, I, my business partner and I, we set aside different blocks of time to accomplish different tasks. And I think it would be wise to not just say, I’m going to do that, but, you know, block it off in your calendar. Right, and make it a.

Jay H. Tepley: [00:25:33] Habit and.

Stone Payton: [00:25:34] Do it consistently. Terrific.

Jay H. Tepley: [00:25:36] Absolutely. And the beauty of it is you don’t need that much time. You only need a couple of minutes. And no matter how busy someone is, they can only they can always find a few minutes in there. They’re even, you know, just taking a quiet time out, you know, as you’re sitting on the couch relaxing, you could do them.

Stone Payton: [00:25:59] So we touched on this earlier. You mentioned the idea of mentoring. So I got a couple of before we wrap, there’s a couple of things I’d like to get your insight and perspective on with regard to mentoring. One, I’m just interested to know a little bit more about your experience being what do you call a mentee like when you maybe had a mentor in your life and then your experience in insight from being a mentor? Anything you can offer me personally, by the way, guys, if you if you want to get some really great professional counsel at without paying for it, get yourself a radio show. I learned so much. But yeah, anything you might you might have to offer in terms of this whole idea of seeking out and fully capitalizing on either side of that mentoring relationship, I’m sure our listeners would really appreciate that.

Jay H. Tepley: [00:26:58] Okay. Absolutely. It’s my belief that mentorship is really important if you want to achieve real results. And I think I don’t need to explain to entrepreneurs why it’s so important, because obviously, if you got some great results in your business, usually it’s because you found a great mentor that showed you how to do it. And with spiritual development is very similar. And I would say it’s even more urgent because I like the saying, your mind is a dangerous neighborhood. Don’t go there alone.

Stone Payton: [00:27:36] I love that. So kind of along that same that same line, it strikes me that if you’re going to be a good mentor, a leader, that it would be it would be wise to understand that a male, particularly in the context of this conversation that you’re working with, may be dealing with some of these challenges. And so maybe be prepared to to at least acknowledge for yourself, hey, this person may be experiencing some of this. So as a result, I’m going to, you know, let that inform the way I communicate and try to help this person. Yes.

Jay H. Tepley: [00:28:16] Absolutely. So I have a very sophisticated diagnosis system and you can actually get it from my website. So if you go on my website, you can choose one of the options to get this depression self check list. The results may surprise you so because as I said, there are many different reasons why the depression like symptoms may occur in that person. And this is why I don’t believe in one fix fits all, because it can be the the symptoms are similar, but the root cause is actually different. And this is why I always run the person through that depression self checklist first and there are only seven points. So it’s pretty straightforward. But as I said, certain things are very unexpected. For many people. It’s like, really? Have I been affected by that? I would have never thought so. I think self understanding is really key to developing yourself to the point where you become unbreakable.

Stone Payton: [00:29:35] All right. And we can find this checklist right on your right on your website, which is a perfect Segway. But before we wrap and I could talk about this all day, but I have to have go I have to go meditate now that I’ve done it.

Jay H. Tepley: [00:29:47] That’s a good reason.

Stone Payton: [00:29:49] So before we wrap, let’s do let’s make sure that our listeners, if they would like to have a conversation with you or someone on your team, or they’d like to go access the book or go to the website, let’s leave them with some some points of contact, whatever you feel like is appropriate. The website, LinkedIn, Amazon let’s make sure we give them a path to make it make it easy for them.

Jay H. Tepley: [00:30:10] Fantastic. Yes. Surely you can find me on Amazon as a tablet and all my books, and you can find me on LinkedIn, on Facebook and on Twitter as Unbreakable Entrepreneur and on TikTok and on YouTube, which is where you’re probably watching this video right now. But I would say the bus and the easiest way to get in touch with me is at the back of my books, but also in all of my materials. You will have a link to my Telegram channel and if you join this channel you will have also access to some exclusive content that I share only with my students. And you will get to talk to me personally and to some of the advanced students of the course. So it can be the beginning of a really fascinating journey.

Stone Payton: [00:31:01] Well, Jay, it has been an absolute delight having you on the show today. Thank you so much for joining us and sharing your insight. This has been informative, inspiring and candidly, just a lot of fun.

Jay H. Tepley: [00:31:15] I’m glad to hear that. And thank you so much for inviting me on. The show. Has been a pleasure.

Stone Payton: [00:31:20] All right. Until next time, this is Stone Payton for our guest today, Jay Tapley with Unbreakable Entrepreneur and everyone here at the Business Radio X family saying we’ll see you in the fast lane.

Todd Stanton With Stanton Law

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Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Todd Stanton With Stanton Law
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Todd Stanton, founder of Stanton Law, has focused on management representation in employment matters since graduating from University of Georgia School of Law in 2002. Starting with labor and employment boutique Fisher Phillips, he eventually moved to Powell Goldstein (later Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner), where he represented some of the largest companies in the country. That means he’s responded to a lot of demand letters and agency charges, conducted harassment investigations, and slogged through plenty of costly discovery and document productions, depositions, and summary judgment motions. A litigator by training, he’s well-versed in the slate of employment law shorthand — EEOC, DOL, NLRB, OSHA, ADA, FMLA, ADEA, FLSA, and Title VII — and knows first-hand how much sloppy human resources practices can end up costing.

Todd’s ability to see past the inefficiencies of a dispute helps get his clients back to earning, rather than spending. His practice helps his clients identify the real, most overarching goals, then guides them through an efficient plan to get there.

Todd’s refreshing approach to his legal practice seeps into the firm’s employee-first operations. He’s most proud of the platform Stanton Law provides for other entrepreneurial and ownership-minded lawyers to build their respective practices while keeping an eye on what’s most important.

A native Atlantan and Marist alum, Todd graduated from Washington & Lee University with Honors in 1995, majoring in Psychology and with a 4-year in baseball. He married Ashley in 1999 and they have two sons. He enjoys spending time with Ash and being outside, with lots of golf and morning workouts, and prefers to do most things listening to Widespread Panic. He sits on the Board of Directors for the Boys & Girls Clubs of DeKalb County, and can’t seem to get out of running the Christmas Tree Lot at Haygood United Methodist Church. He’s greatly entertained by stereotypes being fulfilled, thinks a lot of things are funny that others might not, and respects the hell out of folks who can effectively make fun of him about things.

Connect with Todd on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Retention has to be more than a paycheck
  • Finding folks with similar values is the key to long-term relationships – clients and employees
  • Being the person with whom you’re comfortable – all the time – is easier than being someone different depending on the situation

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio brought to you by on pay Atlanta’s new standard in payroll. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:24] 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 on pay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on the Atlanta Business Radio, we have Todd Stanton and he’s with Stanton Law. Welcome, Todd.

Todd Stanton: [00:00:42] Welcome. Thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity to talk with you guys today.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:46] Well, I’m excited to get caught up. What’s happening at Stanton Law? Why don’t you let people know what your specialty is and how you’re serving the folks here?

Todd Stanton: [00:00:55] Sure. So we’re a boutique business side firm. We have 15 attorneys, including litigators, a couple of transactional attorneys, an Orissa specialist doing health and welfare and executive comp. We have a sub practice with the Americans with Disabilities Act, Trust and Estates and Intellectual Property Attorney. So we try to meet the full legal needs on the side of small and medium sized businesses. Our focus is really on trying to keep your business issues from becoming legal problems in the first place. And we have certainly been busy coming out of out of COVID. And as we’re dealing with employee retention issues and the normal slate of employment law problems, it’s a good time to be on the business side of the law.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:44] So now has the pandemic and the advent of all this work from home and this, you know, this hybrid and all this stuff, does that open up the employer for some challenges that maybe they hadn’t thought about if they had never done this before?

Todd Stanton: [00:02:01] Yes, but maybe not for the reason that you think. I think that the 2020 and 2021 really reset a bunch of employee expectations for what for what work was. And while they were forced to be at home, they they found that they could still be productive. A lot of employers found that they could still get productive employees. And now, as we’re moving back to where most folks can, if if it’s required to be at work, some folks are saying, I don’t want to anymore. So I think that that’s part of the great the great resignation that you hear as people figure it out, that they don’t need to be at a 9 to 5 job and don’t want to be able to find a job. And employers are struggling to figure out whether or not they want to be a work from home or a hybrid company. Now, from a from a legal standpoint, that doesn’t change a whole lot. If a company wants their folks to be at home excuse me, to be be in the office, they can certainly require that in most instances. But it’s more of a business problem about whether whether you’re going to be able to recruit and retain solid and productive talent if their expectation is to work from home full or part time. And your expectation is that they they report to work every day. So, yeah, it’s been a it’s been a source of friction, I guess a source of questions from employers. But again, coming at it from a business standpoint than a legal standpoint is probably going to get them more miles than treating it as a pre litigation event.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:42] Now, when the pandemic started and people were kind of forced to work from home, that the expectation was, okay, I got to work from home because I can’t go back into the office. So now when they say, hey, the pandemic is over for us, so you have to come back in and the employee says, Look, I’ve been just as productive here. I mean, I didn’t miss a beat. You know, I don’t want to go back. Is that a renegotiation or is that like. Like, is the employer allowed to just say, well, if you don’t want to come back? I think Elon Musk said, I’m assuming if you’re not here, you’ve resigned like is that is it that simple for from the employer standpoint? They can say something like that.

Todd Stanton: [00:04:24] It can be for for most of the employees. But look, you’ve talked with enough lawyers on your program. You know, there’s no yes or no answer when you’re dealing with an attorney. It’s always going to be. It depends. And in this situation, when when that instance comes up, like I said, in 90% of these cases, yeah, if the boss wants you at work, it doesn’t matter whether you would prefer to work from home. Georgia is a firmly at will state and they can fire you for a good reason. Batteries and no reason at all. And certainly not not reporting to work, as you’re told, is a good reason. That being said, if there is aa1 of several reasons that they are required, you might be entitled to work from home. There’s a law that affects employee employers with 15 or more employees called the Americans with Disabilities Act. And if there is a if the employee has a qualifying disability, they might be entitled to a reasonable accommodation which might entitle them to work from home for a for either a permanent or indefinite period of time. Certainly an intermittent time might be reasonable in those cases.

Todd Stanton: [00:05:36] Other types of medical leave for either the for the. Or their children or immediate family member might also make it such that being at home is a prudent thing to do. But at the end of the day, when we’re down to where we’re arguing about the walls and whether somebody has the right to work from home and whether they’re entitled to work from home, and the employer has to let them work from home or can make them report to the office. And many instances the battle’s already lost. At that point, the relationship might be broken to the point where things have been said or trust has been broken and that it might not work. Our advice is to try to work this out and find something that’s a win win for both parties. Understanding that if it’s a good employee, you need that work done and making the concession that they get to work from home part or full time might ultimately be the best, best business decision, the best decision for the bottom line, rather than trying to find somebody else out there, as we know, is a pretty tight labor market.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:40] Now, let’s talk a little bit about your back story. I know you came from a large firm and then decided to launch this kind of boutique firm. What was the thinking there of making that transition from kind of the, you know, that traditional I’m going to go to law school working a big firm, become a partner, you know, that you know, we’ve watched enough movies to see that play out, but you decided to kind of pull the ripcord and said, you know what, I’m going to go my own way and I’m going to make this the way that I want it to be.

Todd Stanton: [00:07:07] Yeah, I enjoy telling this story. So you’re right. My trajectory coming, going into the law school and coming out of law school was to work for a big law firm and be a big law partner. Some of that is for the reasons that most people see. I mean, they make a lot of money and for the most part lead a pretty good life. They certainly the paycheck will allow them to do it if they’ve got their other priorities straight. I did that for about nine years through two firms that I really enjoyed. Both of them treated me very well. But as I was looking at what partnership meant at a big law firm and I was asking around what are the qualifications to make partner at the large global firm where I was in 2009 and ten. And finally, a practice group leader, a lovely lady named Elaine Cook told me that I was asking the wrong question. She said, You shouldn’t be asking whether or what it takes to make partner. You should be asking what it takes to develop a practice to make partnership inevitable. And that subtle switch in thinking led me to conclude that all lawyers are self employed, and I was responsible for whether they work for a firm or not. And I was responsible for building my practice and being an employment lawyer in a big firm. I recognized pretty quickly I was going to have a difficult time building that practice in an environment with my contacts.

Todd Stanton: [00:08:34] Most of Stanton Law’s clients, even today, are employers with less than 500 500 employees. Those employers generally cannot afford those, those large law firm rates. And so I was able to decide to say, let me go service these clients with whom I already have these relationships. And and Phil, what I saw was a need. I will say that when I was looking at leaving and I talked to other lawyers who had left the big law firm nest and gone out to either small or solo or nontraditional type firms. When I asked them what they would have done differently in their and they’re leaving every one of them, 12 or 12 said that they would have done it earlier. It is just a different and in my opinion, a more enjoyable way of life to have still have a lot of responsibility, but to have authority and to have autonomy that’s that’s commensurate with that with that responsibility. It’s just a much more liberating way to be for me at least. And whether self employment is for everybody remains to be seen. But I would certainly encourage lawyers who are looking for a better balance between their work life and their their personal life to consider small and small and nontraditional firm life.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:53] But one of the big additions to your your job requirements are leadership. I got to hire. There are certain elements now that everything becomes your problem rather than you’re just kind of a cog in the machine and you can just be heads down and do what you got to do. Has that you know that part of it? Are you enjoying that part of it? Is that something that you’ve been able to, you know, build the team that you wanted to build at the speed you wanted to build it?

Todd Stanton: [00:10:26] Well, there’s enough is never enough when it comes to that. And a large part of running any business, I suppose, is chasing that overhead. Right. And finding the balance between having enough infrastructure. To generate the revenue and then enough revenue to support the infrastructure and then add more. So have I grown as fast as I would like to? Perhaps not. And certainly some days the crown is heavy, and being the boss of at a law firm and having your name on the door does pose leadership challenges. I like being around the people that we work with. One of my major tenets for both business development and with the firm is we don’t really have a work life and a a home life. We we integrate those very, very well. And so it takes a little bit of the sting out of working hard and working a lot when we’re we’re blending it with the things that we like to do anyway. That, that, that Branson, Richard Branson quote about not having a life, not having a work life and not having a play. Life is a standard around our shop. We also are a why based firm, and our why for Stanton Law is that we build and maintain fulfilling and sustainable lives both in and out of work. Our attorneys are expected to pay attention to their family obligations because they can be better employees. They’re better lawyers when they have a satisfying life outside of the office. And we emphasize that and we live it. And if I’m able to model that, that’s the most persuasive, persuasive leadership that I can I can imagine. And giving those other people space to do the things that interest them while they they make the handsome paycheck serving their clients.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:18] So now when you make the leap and then Stanton Law is you at the beginning, how did you know? Like did something happen where you’re like, okay, we’re going to be okay. This is going to work out.

Todd Stanton: [00:12:33] I don’t remember an epiphany moment like that. I mean, we’ve made it ten and a half years now. I think we’re over, you know, being self employed and running a business. I don’t know of many people who don’t have that feeling that they’re one month away from foreclosure, even though I know that’s not going to happen. I look at a horrible pal from April and I’m thinking, Oh gosh, even April 20, 22. I say, this is horrible. This is a disaster. But then we turn around and it was a great month and we’re back, right back on track. So I don’t know that there’s ever been a spot where the switch flicks and you say, I’ve made it and we’re in good shape. I know we do good work. And I know that the people at Stanton Law are all pulling together on this. But no, there wasn’t a there wasn’t a flash of light, a burning bush moment where I realized that we had crested the hump and we’re we’re able to put it on cruise control. I will say that another part about that is knowing that you have good clients and servicing them and that they will keep coming back as is really important. We our bills are relatively small compared to the larger law firms and we have lots of repeat clients coming back to us and paying very modest rates for legal services, not because our rates are necessarily that much lower, but because we’re pretty efficient and we want to keep them coming back and having a stable of loyal clients is probably the thing that lets me sleep at night knowing we’re not going to go belly up at any particular time.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:08] Well, I would think that that’s a marker that things are going okay. Another marker might be that when lawyers are saying, hey, Todd, you know, any openings, I would think that’s another marker that that people the right people that fit your culture want to work with you or these are signs that you might be doing something right.

Todd Stanton: [00:14:29] Yeah. Let me give you another example of that one that I’m really pretty proud of. So last summer, one of our I think Amy is a seventh year attorney. She had worked with us as a clerk as a third year at Georgia State Law School. And then she came right with us and became an associate. And she approached me about this time last year and said that she had gotten an offer from another boutique firm that was essentially going to double her compensation. It was going to require more hours, it would require some more structure for her, but that it was her dream job and certainly was going to give her and her husband a cushier income than what she was earning at state law and knew what was coming next. And she surprised me and she said not turned it down. She said, I like what we’re building here at Stanton Law. I believe in what your mission is. I believe in what we’re trying to do together. And so I’ve turned it down. There’s a postscript to that story that I wrote, a very, almost a viral LinkedIn post about that story and how proud I was of it and how happy I was with Amy’s decision.

Todd Stanton: [00:15:41] And about two months later, she came back to me and she said, Todd, I’ve reconsidered and I’ve decided to take that big job now. And I was obviously disappointed. And then the next postscript to that was she worked at that boutique for a week and decided it was not for her and came back to Stanton Law again. So I think that, yes, when you start to see people who are enjoying working with us and then then you see this where they tried something else and realized that that big paycheck comes at a price and that there are other things about work, other things about even being a lawyer that that compensation, a pure paycheck can’t really cover. And that’s what that’s what I’m banking on, is that if we provide happy a place for employers and lawyers to be happy, they’re going to be better lawyers. And ultimately, that’s a that’s going to be a good client retention strategy as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:33] Now, are you finding that this is a trend in in cities around the country where there’s law firms that are taking the tack that you’re taking this kind of entrepreneurial culture that’s attracting certain types of lawyers that want to do a certain type of work in a certain manner, rather than go that kind of classic route, a big firm partner, etc..

Todd Stanton: [00:16:57] Yeah, I think that nontraditional firms is how well shorthand that are certainly gaining steam. I owe a lot to Mark Taylor and Joe English at Taylor English, both of whom I had good relationships with before before starting Stanton Law. Not only by helping me have ideas and supporting the supporting the effort, but by really plowing a lot of ground and making corporate clients much more comfortable with with nontraditional firms, with lawyers who are more entrepreneurial. Leaving the. Even though the big Midtown model, Joe and Mark did a lot of a lot of work pioneering that. And I would submit that a lot of nontraditional firms in one way, shape or form had a model adapted off of what what Mark and Joe came up with. Stan does to some extent. And then there’s the other, the purely virtual firms. Fisher Boyles jumps to mind there, who offer a lot of the benefits of self employment for very low overhead. They don’t provide necessarily all the same lawyer services or benefits that a brick and mortar shop does. But it is certainly the case that having an alternative to a 1920 100 billable hour year is is attractive to to my peers, as well as a younger generation that would want something more out of a legal career than 40 years behind a desk in a in a gold watch on the way out.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:35] Now are the clients typically the folks that just can’t afford the big firms? Or are you getting some of these larger clients that are saying, you know what, let’s give some of our business to these nontraditional practices?

Todd Stanton: [00:18:49] I like this question, too. So among the big, big corporate clients that the joke around our place is that no one ever got hired. No one ever no general counsel ever got fired for hiring King Spalding. So if if there’s a company litigation, if there is an enormous transaction, certainly a marquee and a branded name with the very good and smart lawyers at reputed law firms is the safe bet. Right. And larger companies are not going to be certainly not as fee sensitive as as groups with less than 500 folks. We have been able to crack into larger companies, several large companies here in Atlanta. We count among our clients, but we usually do niche work for them. We we respond to HR complaints for one for one large company. We respond to third party subpoenas for another large client. We do internal investigations for another. So we don’t necessarily get the the company pieces coming out of that large out of those large companies. But there’s a place for us and we in our in our margins can still generate good or our rates can still generate good revenue, and we’ll still able to keep our overhead low and generate good margins. But I’d be I’d be lying if I said that our bread and butter was not much smaller. Companies from the 250 and down is where our our bread and butter is. And those groups, in most instances, do not have the the legal resources, the legal budget, in order to pay those large firm rates. That’s true. And they need somebody who is a little bit more closer to their PNL than somebody who sits in the midtown office tower. So that’s where I think that being an entrepreneurial law firm, being business owners ourselves, certainly helps speak the language of our smaller clients who generate probably about 80% of our revenue comes from clients with less than 300 employees.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:53] So if there is a business out there with less than 300 employees that wants to learn more about what you have to offer or maybe engage you in conversation, what is the website?

Todd Stanton: [00:21:05] Yeah, we are at Stanton Law LLC and Stanton LLC and that selecting a lawyer process. We’re in the middle of a LinkedIn campaign with that to interview lots of lawyers and find a fit. Don’t, don’t, please don’t pick it just on rate either too high or too low. Finding somebody whose approach matches with yours, whose advice you genuinely trust and understand from where they’re coming. That’s the most important part about finding an attorney and a counselor with whom you’re going to hopefully have a long standing business relationship. So it all fits for some. But if you’re interested in a hard nosed litigator, maybe that’s not maybe that’s not us. Maybe there’s another boutique that goes goes a little bit harder charging. You’re more interested in the business aspects of it and solving problems rather than picking fights. That’s more our speed. So I would encourage people to look at that, to certainly give us a try and kick our tires. But don’t don’t just interview us. Find the right fit for your business.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:09] Choose wisely.

Todd Stanton: [00:22:11] Choose wisely.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:12] Well, Todd, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Todd Stanton: [00:22:17] I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:19] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on the Atlanta Business Radio.

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Linda Patterson With GenSpark

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LindaPatterson
Atlanta Business Radio
Linda Patterson With GenSpark
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GenSpark

LindaPattersonLinda A. Patterson is an executive-level leader with 25+ years of experience in IT and Healthcare, formerly serving as CIO for a small community hospital in IL. Linda is the Director of Technology Training for GenSpark, a division of Pyramid Consulting, which trains underserved, early career professionals and places them with top organizations.

At Pyramid, Linda also serves as co-sponsor for the Women’s Employee Resource Group and hosts quarterly Learn with Linda sessions to help empower women. Linda is a member of the IT Senior Management Forum and the Atlanta Chapter of the National Black MBA Association. She is the author of four self-help books, a wife, and mother.

Linda and her husband, Victor, reside in metropolitan Atlanta, GA.

Follow GenSpark on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • GenSpark’s Mission
  • GenSpark Business Model
  • GenSpark Success Stories

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio brought to you by on pay Atlanta’s new standard in payroll. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:24] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a fun one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor on pay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Linda Patterson and she is with GenSpark. Welcome, Linda.

Linda A. Patterson: [00:00:44] Thank you, Lee. Thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:47] Well, I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about Jen Spark. How are you serving folks?

Linda A. Patterson: [00:00:53] Sure. I’d be happy to sell Edge and Spark. Our mission and our vision really focused on the closing of talent gaps for our clients, and that’s done by upskilling a diverse and I do underscore diverse candidate pool that helps them to reshape their workforce. And the organization is a division of pyramid consulting. It was birthed out of the heart of our CEO, Namita Tirath, and the Mehta’s desire, which we all undergird, is to assist underserved early career professionals and others with launching or relaunching their careers. And so I like to give a shout out to my CEO, Anita, all of our Ginzburg team and our entire Pyramid Consulting family.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:48] So now are you working primarily with the employer or the employee? The the student, the, you know, the high school student? College student.

Linda A. Patterson: [00:01:59] Yes. We work a lot with college students, so we work with a lot of universities. But our students may come from other verticals. For example, it could be an organization that works specifically with women or with with veterans or, you know, just a student and say, for example, a mom that is returning to the workforce and needs our assistance getting started. And then we have client partners that we work with that after the students are trained up, they employ those students.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:35] Now, is this something you mentioned? College is it’s something that you go to the high school person that is not going to go the traditional college path. But once they go more vocational path, does this give them skills to help them go and find their way in that direction?

Linda A. Patterson: [00:02:54] Yes, it does indeed. And we are looking for those students also that are on their way outside of on their way out of college. Or they have they’re fresh out of college, maybe 1 to 2 years.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:10] So it’s anybody looking for work that may not that might be struggling a bit.

Linda A. Patterson: [00:03:16] Exactly. Exactly. And we are focused on it. So it’s definitely technology careers.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:23] Okay. So everything has a technology kind of spin to it.

Linda A. Patterson: [00:03:27] Yes.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:28] Now, is there a way to help that person that maybe wasn’t the best math student or science student? Is there a place for them in this? Or like do you give them kind of a chance to kind of resuscitate maybe where they didn’t have a passion for math or science? And then now maybe with your instruction, they can kind of rekindle something or get something started.

Linda A. Patterson: [00:03:56] That is typically not our focus. We do work to upskill or reskill students according to the needs of our our customers. So we do work very closely with them in areas where it makes sense to do that upskilling. But we are primarily focused on I.T. careers.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:17] Okay. So walk me through. So you’re working with a company that needs workers. How do you help them kind of be how do you help them? You know, how are you the matchmaker that helps them find the folks they need and to, you know, to solve their problem and also help the student get, you know, this upskilling.

Linda A. Patterson: [00:04:39] Sure. So it starts with our conversations with the customers in terms of where the gaps are in their workforce and specifically what is it they’re they’re looking for to fill that gap. And so those are the cohorts that we are running through our program. And so as we’re training the student, we’re matching the students with the skillset that is required by that, that customer. And that is what we’re working to prepare them for throughout the cohort, not just in terms of their technical ability, but in terms of their soft skills as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:17] To make sure it’s the right culture fit.

Linda A. Patterson: [00:05:19] Exactly.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:21] So now I’ve seen this kind of work in a vocational and a kind of a blue collar environment where like a somebody who was needed more engine repair people, you know, donated a bunch of engines to a vocational school so they can train their students on how to fix this engine. And so then they would have people that they could hire to work. You know, in that in that capacity. It sounds similar in that regard, except you’re doing it with it.

Linda A. Patterson: [00:05:56] That’s correct. And we primarily focused on coding languages. So Java Fullstack is our most prominent coding language that we teach, but we do teach others. So yes, we’re doing this in the I.T. space.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:10] So now an enterprise level company comes to you and says, you know, it would be great if we had, you know, five more coders in Java and then you find the students that are the appropriate. So you create a curriculum that’s going to help them solve that specific problem and create a curriculum and then teach those students how to do that so they’re ready to go. And there’s a job kind of waiting for them at the end of this.

Linda A. Patterson: [00:06:39] Exactly. And so we have our standard curriculums because we know that the market is typically looking for. But then we also sit with our customers and they’re allowed to customize that curriculum to meet their specific needs so that we make sure that we’re on point and our students are on point and ready.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:59] So what would be an example of a type of customization?

Linda A. Patterson: [00:07:05] A type of customization might be a specific skill that’s typically taught in the course, but maybe that’s not used at the customer site. And so we would allow them to pull that out and put in something else that’s needed.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:24] Now, how do you find the students?

Linda A. Patterson: [00:07:28] We find the students many ways. So we are participating in all types of recruitment efforts. We are on site at the universities making sure that we’re having the right conversations with the administration staff there. We do lots of advertisements. We do also have some events in which we are reaching out to students via LinkedIn and other social platforms in order to invite them to those events. For example, to give them some idea of what coding is all about. They get a coding exercise and we make it lots of fun. We’ve also done some events such as Learn with Linda and that is me. The Linda is me where I’m teaching on certain topics such as self-esteem enhancement. And so we are running those quarterly. We invite the students to those sessions so they can learn about how to improve their self esteem. But then in addition to that, we are providing some information about Gene Spark and inviting them to join us or to recommend us.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:38] Now, a lot of these places to learn coding, there’s a fee associated with it. It could cost not a super high amount like it is going to college, but it can still cost a significant amount of money. But there’s also online ways to learn coding for next to nothing. Where does Jen spark fall in this?

Linda A. Patterson: [00:08:59] So we charge our students absolutely nothing. What we ask them to is to invest their time. We actually pay our students while they’re training with us. And after the training session is over, while the student is waiting to be onboarded, they are still paid by Jen Smart.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:18] Now, is this something the student has to physically go to a location, or is this something that can be done remotely?

Linda A. Patterson: [00:09:24] They can do it remotely. So we are totally virtual at this time. So all of our students are logging in remotely from various areas of the US.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:33] And is the the job opportunity going to be remote as well, or is that something that’s going to require them to go physically like live in a certain place?

Linda A. Patterson: [00:09:42] It really depends on the customer and the customer’s need as as we are starting to reenter the physical buildings, some of our customers are requesting that the students are on site or they may have. I have a hybrid approach in which sometimes during the week the student is on site, other times the remote, and then we have some of our customers that are still remote. So it really depends on the customer’s needs.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:07] Now, are you I know you’re training them to be skilled that that technology part, but you mentioned some of the soft skills. Is there training in that area as well to help them, you know, be able to navigate kind of the enterprise level world that they’re about to enter into?

Linda A. Patterson: [00:10:23] Absolutely. We have a very robust soft skills training program and the students are also meeting with an actual soft skills trainer who is helping them improve in that area. When we are preparing our students as well for mock interviews, we are going through with them behavioral questions so that they know how to respond appropriately. So we really work very hard to make sure that our students can communicate well, that they demonstrate their willingness to learn, that they have the ability to talk about their teamwork, that they demonstrate that they can work as part of the team. So lots of soft skills training. Imagine smart program.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:06] Now when a student goes through this program, I’ve interviewed several of these kind of boot camp kind of things in the past. These coding camps, they the rate of getting a job is extremely high, like because these companies are so hungry for this type of skill set. Is that the same thing here, that if you go through this program, there’s a very high probability that you’re you’re going to have an opportunity somewhere?

Linda A. Patterson: [00:11:32] That is correct. And the great news is, is that we these are the companies that we’re placing these students with our partners of ours. So they understand that we are making the attempt to place the students. And a lot of these students come from underserved communities or underserved situations. And so they’re partners and understanding the type of students that we are trying to place. So they really work very closely with us in that regard.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:01] Now, is there a success story you can share? Be a student that, you know, kind of got to a new level because of the program.

Linda A. Patterson: [00:12:10] Oh, absolutely. And so we have our success stories listed on our website. And I pulled a couple that I thought would speak to the work that we do at Spark, as well as the student success. And so one student said during my training, I interviewed with the Spark client and they offered me a position to get started. After completing Jim Sparks training, I was confident and knew that I was well prepared for the job and another student said it was just ten weeks when I finished my Ginzburg training and I was offered a job I had tried for so long to get a job on my own. It just feels great to make this kind of advancement so great success stories from our students. We are extremely proud of them.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:56] So when you were kind of beginning on this Jen Spark adventure, when did you start realizing, Hey, this thing’s got traction, we can really make a big impact with this?

Linda A. Patterson: [00:13:07] Well, I joined the organization in January of 2021. And so when I started we just had the Java program. And so since I’ve been there we’ve also opened up a non Java start. So I would say from the very beginning we were experiencing success. But the more that we work with our clients, they really kept coming back because of the type of top talent we were rolling out. So things picked up pretty quickly and Spark has been very successful thus far.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:41] About how many students have you put through the program?

Linda A. Patterson: [00:13:45] Oh, we probably put a good I’d say at least 500 students or so through the program.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:51] That’s fantastic. I mean, just imagine the impact that’s making to not only them individually, but them and their families and their communities.

Linda A. Patterson: [00:13:59] Absolutely. And that is definitely the goal.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:02] So what do you need more of? How can we help?

Linda A. Patterson: [00:14:05] You can help us by encouraging others to reach out to Jim Spark. They can find us by visiting our website at WW Spark Net. We are also on all of the other social media platforms, so you can find us on Twitter and Facebook, so you can really help us by spreading the word that Gen Spark is doing a phenomenal job. We work very closely with our students. We love on our students. We take what we do seriously. We are very passionate and compassionate about making sure that our students are able to launch their careers with our help. So if you can help to spread the word about the great job the spark is doing and the fact that our students are successful, that would be great.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:49] And then is this something that you’re always kind of recruiting for students, or is there like a beginning of a school year? Is this kind of a rolling curriculum that you can jump in whenever you get there?

Linda A. Patterson: [00:15:00] Yes, it’s a rolling curriculum for the most part. We do start cohort cohorts pretty regularly. So when the person speaks to a recruiter, the recruiter will talk to them about the cohorts that we have and where they could potentially fit in. And so that’s the other thing is we’re trying to make sure that it’s a good fit and the best fit for the student. But we constantly have cohorts that are running and they will let them know the start dates and end dates for those cohorts.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:30] And then how long does a cohort normally last?

Linda A. Patterson: [00:15:34] Typically between ten and 12 weeks, but we do have cohorts that are shorter. It really depends on the technology. So we have some that are six and eight weeks as well. So really just depends on the technology. But on average, I’d say 10 to 12.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:47] And then is it something that I take a test to see where I’d be most likely, you know, have the best chance of success and then we go there? Or do I just pick one?

Linda A. Patterson: [00:15:57] Yes. There’s typically an entrance exam and there is an interview with the recruiter so that we can make sure that we are having you to enter the best program.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:09] And then you mention that you’re trying to serve the underserved. Does the under-served also include maybe older folks that maybe are looking for a second act in their career and hadn’t gone down this path but might be curious about it?

Linda A. Patterson: [00:16:23] Absolutely. We definitely have more seasoned individuals in our program as well, and maybe they need a restart looking for the next new thing to do. We invite them to be a part of us as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:37] Well, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Linda A. Patterson: [00:16:42] Thank you, Lee. We appreciate this opportunity.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:46] And that website one more time is Jen Spark Dot Net Jeans, PRK Net. Linda Patterson, thank you again for sharing your story.

Linda A. Patterson: [00:16:56] Thank you, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:57] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We will see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

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Turner Wyatt With Upcycled Food Association

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TurnerWyatt
Association Leadership Radio
Turner Wyatt With Upcycled Food Association
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UFA

TurnerWyattTurner Wyatt is the co-founder of four award-winning sustainable food organizations: Denver Food Rescue, Bondadosa, Fresh Food Connect, and Upcycled Food Association. He was named one of the Top 20 Emerging Leaders in Food and Ag, and the waste industry’s 40 under 40 award.

He is a Fink Fellow and was chosen by the Mayor of Denver, Colorado to serve on the City’s Sustainable Food Policy Council. Turner currently serves as the CEO of Upcycled Food Association.

Connect with Turner on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Food waste
  • Upcycling
  • Impact of upcycling on climate change
  • Upcycling as a win/win for consumers, businesses, and the environment
  • Upcycling certification

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Association Leadership Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:16] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Association Leadership Radio. And this is going to be a fun one. Today on the show, we have Turner Wyatt with the Upcycled Food Association. Welcome.

Turner Wyatt: [00:00:27] Turner Thank you. Lee Glad to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:31] I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Before we get too far into things, tell us about upcycled food. I’ve never even heard of that before. Can you share a little bit about mission purpose of the association and what exactly upcycled food is?

Turner Wyatt: [00:00:43] Yeah. You’re not alone. Most people have not heard what upcycled food is, which turns out to be kind of a problem. And I like to say that upcycled food is the easy way for everyone to prevent food waste with the products you buy. And right there you’re already seeing why it is a problem. Probably most people know just inherently now. Food waste, huge issue. It’s like 30% of all food goes to waste. Roughly $1,000,000,000,000 of food goes to waste every year. And according to project drawdown, preventing food waste would be the single most effective solution to global warming. So it’s a big problem. And upcycled food is kind of the big solution that allows anyone to help contribute to food waste prevention every time they walk into the grocery store. And so upcycled products are new products nutritious, healthy, useful products that are made with otherwise wasted ingredients. It’s as simple as that. So. So our organization. Yeah, go ahead.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:01] Well, I’m just trying to get clarity. Like, it seems like the recycling people have, like, good PR people, so that that’s a word that’s kind of common. People understand it upcycling. I mean, I think I’ve heard it in some nonfood related things, but this is the first time I’m kind of connecting dots on how it pertains to food. So the the premise is that food waste is happening. We are all aware of that. It isn’t just that. Okay. Too much on my plate tonight for dinner and I’m throwing some of it away. It’s happening at all stages of the production of food.

Turner Wyatt: [00:02:36] Correct. Yeah. And even if you’re perfect, even if you’re the stickler that that sneers at the guy next to you who takes one bite of his sandwich at the restaurant and sends the rest back. Don’t we all hate to see that? Well, even if you’re not that guy and you don’t have any waste in your own refrigerator, you label your refrigerator and you shop a few times a week so you don’t overbuy. And you do all the things that and you compost, right? You do all the things that we can do at home to prevent food waste. Even if you’re perfect 100% of the time, there’s still a ton billions of tons of food waste that are happening out there elsewhere in the supply chain that have nothing to do with what you consume inside of your home. Until now. Right. So until now, until upcycled food, your impact on food waste was bound to the fore walls of your kitchen, of your home. And now, with upcycled food, it helps you prevent food waste that’s helping happening elsewhere in the food supply chain, elsewhere in the world. Because it turns that otherwise wasted food into a new product that you can buy. So a couple of examples. Everyone always asks for examples. So here’s a few. For every beer that you produce, there’s a ton of wasted spent grain. So the beer brewing process really isn’t just one ingredient that you get out of that beer. You get at least two. You get beer. And then you get spent grain. And you get a lot of it, like billions and billions of pounds every year.

Turner Wyatt: [00:04:17] And it’s really nutritious stuff. You can make all kinds of stuff out of it. You can make flour and you can make chips and crackers and anything that you can make flour out of. You can make barley protein. And Molson Coors and AB InBev have both gotten into the barley milk industry to be a part of the hugely growing plant based milk industry. And AB InBev in particular just invested $100 million in a in a new barley milk processing plant in Saint Louis. So it goes to show that businesses have a huge incentive to prevent their waste, obviously. That’s like one of the acute tenets of business. Reduce your waste to zero if possible. And what this new movement is doing is it’s showing businesses, hey, consumers who we all know are increasingly concerned about the sustainability of the products they’re buying. Will buy, actually want to buy. Most of them want to buy products that are made out of otherwise wasted food. And isn’t that great? Because all these big companies are making big. Really aggressive statements about what they’re going to do about climate change by 2030. By 2035, we’re going to be carbon neutral, all this stuff. They have no idea how they’re going to get there. Leigh. But as a food business, you can get there by commercializing your otherwise wasted food. And we Upcycled Food Association are a support network. We’re here to make sure that when you do create an upcycled product, you’re successful.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:06] Now, when you’re leading an organization that has kind of this kind of education and awareness challenge, that to me it would come with its own set of challenges by itself. Just that challenge of people don’t even know that this is important and there’s and this is not it’s a dream that could come true if more people were aware of it and just kind of, you know, we get the word out a little bit about it now in the industry, I would imagine, like you said about business. Business people don’t like to just accept the fact that, oh, well, we just have to throw all that away. And that’s just the way it is. I mean, creativity. Creatively, aren’t they always trying to kind of extract extract more value out of all their assets? And then in this case, they don’t want to look at the view their waste as as waste. They want to view it as a potential asset in some form. Like, so was this already happening internally? And it just there wasn’t kind of the awareness in the consumer’s mind, at least that, hey, why don’t we just make an effort to at least start purchasing some of this stuff?

Turner Wyatt: [00:07:17] Mm hmm. So, of course, Sara Lee. And that’s and that’s a good point and a good question. And in some cases, companies are doing things like turning it into animal feed or turning it into fuel or just composting it. Those are all good things to do. The worst case scenario is that the food goes in the landfill. So yeah, in some cases they’re doing something. And what our movement is all about, highest and best use. How can you, if you’re sending it to like a pig farm now? But it’s something that could easily be commercialized into a raw ingredient that could be used in human cosmetics or companion pet food even, or food for human consumption. That’s a much higher value. And so if we can kind of institutionalize this this concept of highest and best use, always looking for highest and best use, that’s what’s going to make this industry more. The excuse me, the whole consumer product industry, but particularly the food industry more successful.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:21] So having that true north but having that true north is kind of that changes the paradigm at that point. Right, exactly. So now we’re no longer just trying to use it, you know, in any way we can. Now we’re saying, you know what, let’s rethink this. Here is something. We’ve been using it this way. Maybe there’s a better way to use it. And that’s part of the association, is to educate them and say, hey, you know what, you people have been doing this this way. Have you ever thought about this? Because this you know, this smaller company over here was doing this with the stuff you’re throwing away or you’re using in this manner.

Turner Wyatt: [00:08:58] And and it really is the small companies that are leading the charge. We have about 200 businesses across 20 countries or so. And most there’s a handful of them that are the big CPGs, Dole, Mondelez, Target. Del Monte US foods, the biggest food companies in the world, but most of them are startups. And so they’re the ones innovating. And and I want to go back to something that you that you asked about before. Just to reiterate, there’s another reason that that we that we have to kind of be pushing on this for businesses to take hold of this. I was recently talking to a growing Oatmilk company. Their venture capital backed and their charge from the top is make as much oatmilk as possible. You know, we’re between fundraising rounds. It’s a super competitive space. Make as much oatmilk as possible. And obviously when you create oatmilk, what you also creating a ton of oat pulp. Many millions. Billions of tons probably. And so. There’s also it’s not just, yes, businesses should be inherently seeking out efficiencies and seeking out innovation to reduce waste. Just from a financial perspective, but because of the competitive nature and the financial pressures that a lot of these companies are experiencing, sometimes it’s just not on their radar. We’ll figure that out later. We’ll figure that out five years down the road and five years later, they’ve ended up wasting just an obscene amount of this ingredient that they could have been commercializing all along. But it wasn’t a priority. So what we’re like you said, it’s a paradigm shift for businesses to rethink what’s the highest value and best use of this ingredient that we can that we can use right now. And consumers want that. Consumers want to see businesses act more sustainably. The reason that we’re here is that 99% of consumers agree that food waste is a problem. Right.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:14] I mean, that’s just common sense, right? Like. Like it’s a duh. A total moment, right? Where you’re like, of course, no one wants to waste anything if they can possibly help it.

Turner Wyatt: [00:11:25] Help, help out his kids. Don’t waste food. Waste food. Right.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:29] Right. And and so and and then sadly, there’s, you know, food insecurity issues that are happening, you know, while we’re wasting all this food. So it’s just it’s the the food isn’t going to the right places at the right time is part of.

Turner Wyatt: [00:11:43] Ultimately it’s going to come down to. Absolutely. Yeah. And I was the executive director of Denver Food Rescue for seven years, which is a hunger relief food security, health equity nonprofit in my hometown, Denver, Colorado. And we did a lot of that work. And the reason that we started upcycling was to just make ourselves more financially independent. We had all this excess bread. Well, let’s turn that into something that we can actually make money off of so we don’t have to beg these foundations and high net worth individuals for the money that we need to do something that we all benefit from. Right. Because food security is a huge issue and so is food waste. And these are these are things that 9090 5% of people want to do something in their own lives about food waste. Where where do we ever see that kind of alignment in society? With something, especially with something environmental and especially with something environmental that makes businesses more money, which is usually an oxymoron. Right.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:42] It sounds like you’re you’re doing the right thing at the right time. It’s just a matter of making more people aware of it that it’s it becomes so there’s something actionable that people can do in order to solve the problem.

Turner Wyatt: [00:12:57] Right. And the reason we think that an association is the right way to do that is, is this okay? You’re absolutely right. We need to educate more people. 80% of people would want to buy more upcycled products. So the vast majority of people are interested in buying more upcycled products. But right now, less than 10% of people even know what upcycled products are. So there’s a huge consumer education gap. We as an organization are pretty small. We’ve only been around for two and a half years. Any of our companies know. Some of them are really big. Most of them are really small. And but together, know any one of these companies that might have one, five, $10 million in sales a year, they have 15, 25, 50,000 followers on social media. And that’s a small company. So when we use our collective voice and we align this industry to all be saying the same evidence based messaging that works with consumers to answer their questions about what upcycled food is and help increase access to upcycled food systematically as a collection, as a united front. That’s where we’re going to see this industry shift. So we’re really excited about our model because it’s a community organization where we’re not doing anything unique. All we’re doing is bringing this group of businesses together and amplifying their voices so that collectively they can help to close that education gap and tell a lot of people about just what is upcycled food and what’s the power of it, and how delicious is it and where can you buy it? And when you buy it, you should feel good about yourself because you’re preventing food waste and everyone loves that.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:55] So now when you were launching this concept, when did you start getting clues like, Hey, this is something that is going to work and that we’re getting traction by the right folks and that that’s making a difference.

Turner Wyatt: [00:15:09] Well, before we even formally organized. The Association, everyone who we were talking to, all these upcycled food companies were saying, Oh, I’ve thought of this. We need to create a certification. This is such a good idea. I thought of a association for upcycled businesses. We need to create a standard for product certification. Everyone was saying that and so we knew from before we even started the company, like, okay, there’s something here because the people with the lived experience of the problems that we would ostensibly be trying to solve are all saying that they’ve thought of creating this type of business to solve those problems before. So we knew we were on to something right off the bat. We started working towards a product certification and. Today we have the world’s first and only third party verified product and B2B ingredient certification for upcycled products. It’s called upcycled, certified and within. We just started it less than a year ago. And within its first year we expanded it internationally to Canada from the US. Within its first year, we started a partnership with Spins where SPINS is tracking upcycled certified as a spins is a big retail level sales data provider that count what people are buying and how much of it at grocery stores. So they’re tracking upcycled certified as an attribute. And what we’re seeing is that. Sales of upcycled products are growing by anywhere from 400% over the last 12 months in some channels, all the way up to 1100 percent in other channels over the last 12 months.

Turner Wyatt: [00:16:54] So huge growth here. And what the certification does is it allows us to kind of consolidate all this data about the industry, because for any SKU, any product that applies, they have to tell us, here’s how many pounds of food waste are being prevented as a result of that product. And so collectively, we can say, okay, there’s been about 250 products that have been certified so far, 250 upcycled certified products thus far. Together, those products are projecting to prevent more than £840 million of food waste this year. And if they are growing by 1100 percent next year, it’s going to be a lot more. By the way, we’re also certifying a lot more. So it it appears, you know, as consumers, especially after the pandemic, care more and more about the sustainability of the products they’re buying and the way that people are treated who are involved with the production, distribution, retailing of the products that they’re buying. This is aligned with the the way that consumers want grocery stores to be providing for them. And so, yeah, I mean, we’re two and a half years in, we’re less than one year into upcycled certified and we’re just super, super excited for what the future might hold.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:18] Yeah, I would think it would even go beyond the actual upcycled product. If I was a manufacturer, I would be saying, Hey, we manufactured this thing and it also spun off these 14 upcycled products. Like, you know, on my product that wasn’t upcycled. I’d be bragging about how because of us making this, we already created these other things, already making it everywhere.

Turner Wyatt: [00:18:42] Right. Well, look at AB InBev. They just bought. They just invested $100 million in a spent grain processing facility. Another another example that Barry Callebaut is a member. They the world’s largest chocolate supplier. One in five chocolate products is Barry Callebaut chocolate. And when you produce chocolate, which is made from cacao seeds, what else do you produce? You produce a ton. Millions of tons, actually, of cacao fruit. There’s a delicious white fruit that sort of envelops every cacao seed, which is what you ferment and dry and turn into chocolate. And so they have created this whole new brand around. They call it whole fruit, chocolate around utilizing that ingredient of the cacao fruit. And you’re seeing all kinds of companies using cacao fruit now. And it’s like it’s my my prediction would be it’s going to be one of these one of the next trendy superfood ingredients that you’re going to just find it everything. So, yeah, I mean, companies are saying, well, we’re already producing this stuff. Finally, the consumer attitude is in a place where we can rationalize commercialization.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:02] Yeah. It must be so exciting for you to be kind of on the forefront of this and be working with so many nimble startups that are playing in this space, as well as these established brands that have kind of the, you know, they they spill more product than these startups create in a year, you know, and so together that they’re trying to solve this big problem. I mean, it must be so exciting and rewarding for you.

Turner Wyatt: [00:20:27] Totally. I mean, my my dream I say this all the time. My dream is let’s get 0.0001% upcycled ingredient inclusion in Oreo. Right. Right, exactly. Like some of these products are so scaled up, it doesn’t matter if you put like a drop a micron of upcycled ingredient in in each Oreo cookie, we sell so many damn Oreo cookies that that would prevent a ton of food waste.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:00] Right. The impact is so ginormous. You can’t even. It’s hard to even kind of picture it in your head. But that’s that’s what it takes, though, is that you decided to be the change you wanted in the world and you’re making it happen. Congratulations.

Turner Wyatt: [00:21:15] Thanks, Lee. Thanks, Lee. Really appreciate that.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:18] And then for folks out there that are the leaders of an association like this, when you’re trying to kind of create this energy and this excitement around, it’s it’s not that it’s a new idea, but it’s new to a lot of folks. Is there anything that you like? Is there a mentor? Was there some inspiration for you to to be the one that is kind of pushing for this change?

Turner Wyatt: [00:21:42] For anyone out there listening that could be a mentor. I think I could use one now. This is this is the fourth food waste related organization that I have I have founded and the previous three have done. Very, very well. But this is the first association. And so, you know, sometimes it feels like we’re rowing a boat downstream and we’re just trying to just stay above water. And this concept is just so good that we’re kind of riding the coattails of of the concept. And here I am at the helm of it. And. You know, it’s yes, it’s really exciting. And also, I have so much to learn and I just try to stay humble every day and open to feedback and open to improvement because it is. It’s a different world when you have 200 plus 220 members that are all competing with each other and they all have their own businesses like this is their livelihood. And so it’s really it’s a huge challenge, but a huge opportunity because, like you said, these are the businesses that have the ability to scale up the scale up these solutions over the very short time frame that we have to address some of these problems. Yeah, it’s worth it.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:12] It’s 100% worth it. And it’s and I hope that these larger companies see these smaller companies not as a threat, but as a partner and can really make a difference in those smaller companies livelihoods and lives and make a big impact in this challenge that you’re facing. I mean, I think that this is about collaboration and working together rather than feeling like we’re competitors and this is somebody that’s nipping at our tails. I mean, I think that this is a time for everybody to collaborate.

Turner Wyatt: [00:23:44] Absolutely. Yeah. That’s the only way we’re going to get it done.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:48] So if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on your team, be a member. Like, because the members, I would imagine, are everybody related to the food industry, right? Manufacturers, distributors, you know, marketers, every.

Turner Wyatt: [00:24:03] Ingredient companies, CPGs consultancies, researchers, retailers.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:09] Does it go down to like even restaurants or restaurant owners and things like that? Or is this more in the manufactured food space?

Turner Wyatt: [00:24:17] We don’t have I mean, we don’t have a ton in the restaurant space right now, but I would love to go there because chefs are natural up cyclers. Right. Any special you’ve ever had from a restaurant? That’s just.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:27] Exactly. They’re the.

Turner Wyatt: [00:24:29] King.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:30] They think of this every day. This is something that’s top of mind every day.

Turner Wyatt: [00:24:34] And they’re also cool. And if you can make upcycled food really sexy and delicious in a cool restaurant, that’s another way to get it to catch on.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:45] Right, and to get the consumer to be aware of it. Hey, upcycling, that’s a thing because we do it and then it translates into into these other areas as well. So yeah, that’s a great idea. And so the website is upcycled food org.

Turner Wyatt: [00:25:00] Upcycled food dot org. We have a pretty strong LinkedIn presence. Those you on there have a pretty strong Instagram presence for those of you on there and just reach out or like like all associations or like many associations I think were it’s a community organization. We’re just getting started. We’re building this movement, we’re open to feedback and we want to collaborate with as many people as possible. So I look forward to hearing from people.

Lee Kantor: [00:25:28] Well, once again, congratulations on all the success thus far. And you’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Turner Wyatt: [00:25:35] My absolute pleasure, Lee. Thank you so much for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:25:38] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on the Association Leadership Radio.

Eyal Benishti With IRONSCALES

by

EyalBenishti2
Atlanta Business Radio
Eyal Benishti With IRONSCALES
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IRONSCALES

EyalBenishtiAs Chief Executive Officer at IRONSCALES, Eyal Benishti pioneered the development of the world’s first self-learning anti-phishing email security solution that combines human intelligence and machine learning technologies for automatic prevention, detection and autonomous incident response to cyber-attacks in real time.

Under Eyal’s leadership, IRONSCALES has filed four patents for anti-phishing and email security solutions and secured three funding rounds from K1 and Israel’s RDSeed totaling more than $20 million. IRONSCALES has received numerous awards, including Frost & Sullivan’s AI-Powered Email Security Innovation Award and Best Enterprise Email Security Solution by the Cybersecurity Breakthrough Awards.

Connect with Eyal on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • About IRONSCALES and the company history
  • How COVID impacted enterprise cybersecurity
  • Impacts of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine on global cybersecurity
  • Today’s phishing attacks
  • Trends/growing risks that will affect enterprise cybersecurity?

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio brought to you by on pay Atlanta’s new standard in payroll. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:24] 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 on pay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories today on the Atlanta Business Radio. We have Eyal Benishti with iron scales. Welcome.

Eyal Benishti: [00:00:41] Actually happy to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:43] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about iron scales. How are you serving folks?

Eyal Benishti: [00:00:48] So I was in Antiphishing in a security company while helping organizations to protect their mailboxes against the most sophisticated kind of social engineering and email scams out there. The business seemed compromised, the fake invoices and the ransomware of the world.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:08] So now email’s been with us for a minute. Has the attacks on our email become more sophisticated.

Eyal Benishti: [00:01:16] Constantly evolving and morphing at scale? The phishing that we now form five and even two years ago, very different from what we see out there these days. I think that actors are becoming much more sophisticated. The level and the sophistication level of of the IS is increasing almost daily. And obviously they’re jumping on every opportunity in order to create new scams and looking for constantly looking for new ways in order to loot people to click on links, open attachments, wire money, buy gift cards and all these great things that we can find out these days.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:57] Now, for most technology firms, it’s that balance of making the customer experience so easy and seamless that they continue to do business. But on the other hand, you need to have the security and protection so you feel safe doing these transactions. How do you help companies kind of thread that needle between speed, efficiency and safety?

Eyal Benishti: [00:02:22] It’s a good question. So like I said, our goal is to make sure that people stay highly productive but safe at the same time, especially with the kind of stuff that they can find in the inbox. The way we deploy our technology and the way we kind of others, the email phishing problem is, is in a way that we want to increase users kind of confidence with whatever is in the inbox. So we teach them and train them to how to spot phishing, and we give them with real time insights regarding what’s in the mailbox. So if we find something not necessarily malicious but suspicious, we will just place a human readable kind of panel that can kind of guide them to what we think they need to to look at in order to make sure that they’re first and foremost interacting with the with the right person or the person that they think that is sending them. The email is actually the person behind behind the humor. So authenticity and trust in the standard identity is one of the main things that we are trying to fix. The second, obviously kind of a deep inspection into whatever is inside is email form links, attachment, the language that that the sender is is using in order to try and find kind of known patterns and and schemes in the sense of like, you know, threat actors are using in the email for these days like, you know, sense of urgency, greed and other kind of common things that we can find out there. And then our machine to detect.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:04] Now is the type of phishing that you’re dealing with. Are you working only at kind of the enterprise level? So you’re only working with the largest of the companies in their corporate accounts? Or is this something that trickles down to just like an entrepreneur or a solopreneur, an individual?

Eyal Benishti: [00:04:23] We are working with companies all sizes, from small shops to large and very large kind of enterprises, including the Fortune 500 of this world and and even managed service providers. So for people that provide I.T. and security services to other companies, we have kind of an offering for them so they can leverage on our technology in order to protect smaller organizations that normally don’t have a security staff or any security knowledge whatsoever. But in today’s world, they as well may find itself as a victim to social engineering and phishing attack, because the nature of these attacks today are very, very automated from what we we see out there. So there are a lot of spam play kind of attacks and collateral damage that can be done even for this one organization is pretty severe. So we want to make sure that we can protect them or again, provide the tools, capabilities and technology for their service provider in order to protect them instead.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:31] Now, when you’re working with the larger firms, it’s important that your work does trickle down to the smaller firms, because a lot of the ways that I would imagine the bad guys penetrate the larger firms is through relationships with smaller vendors and folks that they might not have their guard up as. Hi.

Eyal Benishti: [00:05:51] Exactly. I think the main challenge here for us was how can we provide an enterprise grade technology to meet and even small organizations out there? Because like I said, threat actors are targeting everyone these days. They’re looking for the low hanging fruit and sometimes or in most cases, the low hanging fruit. So in the shape of a smaller organization that that is still conducting business with significant amount of money. So convincing someone in a 100 people shop to wire $100,000 to the wrong account can be devastating for for these organizations, even more than to the larger enterprises out there that can suffer some financial loss. But for smaller organizations, it can be fatal and can basically cause them to go under in some cases.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:43] Now, what’s your back story? How did you get involved in this kind of work?

Eyal Benishti: [00:06:48] So my background is know I before I was because I was a security researcher, malware analyst, engineer, so I was kind of studying malware and helping other security vendors to build a better technology in order to stop malware. At the gate, I realized that most of the most of the bad stuff is basically coming by via email. And I thought that the way we are testing human security or the way organizations are currently dealing with email security is lacking in many in many aspects. Are not only using filters and technical controls in order to stop bad stuff, but most of the stuff that I was researching that was, again, very sophisticated, was not necessarily known to be bad. And I saw companies that are struggling with that. And to add to that, the fact that this kind of technology was very expensive and stuff that only larger the larger organization could could afford, because it’s not just the price that you need to pay in order to license the software is to the fact that you need full time employees to be able to kind of work with the tool in order to configure and and do whatever it requires in order to achieve this kind of level of protection that they were hoping to achieve. And from this research and basically it was kind of coming the idea of, hey, let’s build something that is more powerful than what is out there, that is looking on modern fishing and animal security and in a different way, easy to deploy, easy to manage, and affordable not just to large organizations, to the larger organization, but to to the smaller ones as well. And with this mission to build the most powerfully simple email and messaging security solution, I started a company and we built something that we are very proud of.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:44] Now, is there anything actionable you could share for folks listening right now? Is there anything they could be doing for themselves on their team to make them a little safer.

Eyal Benishti: [00:08:55] Actually? And by the way, one of the things that we all felt for free these days is what we call our starter package. And the starter package is is allowing organization smaller, smaller and large organization to basically do one of the most fundamental but important things, which is train the employees, make sure that your employees is kind of equipped with the knowledge and skills to to detect phishing, but not only to, you know, be in the know regarding how what is phishing and how to to avoid falling victim to one of those, but to report back to to the organization, to the security team or to the IT team that they found something that is suspicious in the mailbox and give the company the chance to kind of deal with it quickly before people that normally are not that great in spotting phishing will fall victim to the attack. So triennial users change behavior. Make sure that people know that they are part of the solution. Make sure that they know that they can never 100% past on the technical controls or whatever kind of security solutions are currently in place. And they need to stay vigilant.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:03] And it is one of those things that if you tell everybody on your team that, hey, periodically we’re going to send you a test to see if you’re going to click on something that you shouldn’t click on. Maybe it makes them a little more aware of everything, and you create a culture that gives them permission to like, Hey, call me back. I got this email. I’m not sure really is you. Like, you have to have a culture that’s accepting of that type of skepticism so that they don’t inadvertently just click on something because, you know, the email makes it seem like it’s super urgent.

Eyal Benishti: [00:10:38] Exactly. We said that, you know, phishing and social engineering is like it’s a human and machine problem and therefore we need a human and machine solution. So the more you kind of drive this message inside the organization and make sure that they know they are part of the solution, the more you kind of do, the more people will change their behavior, feel part of the solution, contribute more to to collect intelligence and help the organization be more secure. And, you know, if you provide with immediate, immediate gratification and to use tools in order to automate that, they would actually like it. It’s becoming a little game that that we are playing every day. Like, you know, spot the fish, bowl the fish and help us stay more secure.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:23] Now, do you find that that some of this is a generational challenge, that maybe young people who don’t kind of enjoy either confrontation or face to face conversations or calling people that they’re more apt to press, you know, on an email or to click a button on an email.

Eyal Benishti: [00:11:42] I think. Generally speaking, we know based on the hundreds of thousands of phishing campaigns that we’ve launched with our solution, it’s very hard to kind of put people in a in a bucket or a box, like based on generation or what have you that you’re trying to use maybe to segment the population. It’s more about, again, sending the message, make sure the people understand the importance, and then you will be shocked to maybe to surprise to to realize that some of this generation will spot the fish that was missed by technology. And sometimes it’s even the most senior people in the organization that normally you wouldn’t expect them to kind of participate in the game, that they click on the report fish button that we put in their outlook or Gmail and help you spot something that could have caused the company a great deal of money or this goal, whatever was behind that specific scam. So, so now just sending them all as as your defense layer set expectation and provide training and tools for them to be part of the solution.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:55] So now what was kind of the impetus to move the company to Atlanta?

Eyal Benishti: [00:13:00] Oh, it’s a good question. First, Atlanta is a great place. So we started we started the US kind of operation here in Atlanta. It was the first few folks that we hired were based here. I was visiting them a few times. I took the place like I vowed to do, like Atlanta as a place. And when I was kind of contemplating, well, should I move with with the family in order to to build our headquarters in the US, Atlanta was the easy first choice for me. Great talent, great people, great weather, great hub. It’s very easy to kind of, you know, jump on an on a plane and get to almost anywhere in the US and outside of the US in in one leg. So it was very compelling.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:51] Now, did the pandemic and the work from home kind of trend that’s occurring, did that make your job harder now that a lot of folks are working out of their home and it’s kind of a less protected ecosystem than maybe a company or a business that was having servers that maybe you can control and protect a little better.

Eyal Benishti: [00:14:14] Actually, it really helped to kind of. Help us as a business to push the message that companies need to start thinking out of the box, which means there is no there is no longer the perimeter that they need to protect. The perimeter is everywhere. The perimeter is wherever your employees are and whatever they are using in order to do the day to day business or the importance of training, you are giving them the tools and understanding that work hours changed. People need to attend to other stuff because we were all caught unready with schools and some other stuff in our lives that that changed dramatically the moment the pandemic hit. The fact that actors are actually leveraging on the fact that we are not sitting in one office and cannot step to offices to the left and ask the person if he actually asked us to do this specific thing that just came by by email. So again, like I said, Dell using and leveraging every opportunity that to create new schemes and and things that will help them monetize or achieve whatever they are after. So in the pandemic, the need for solutions like our skills increase the understanding that we can no longer kind of just chase known threats because that’s all changing every day as a way to protect our organization. It’s no longer valid. It’s no longer the kind of way we can architect our security and company around. All this really contributed to the fact that companies and obviously the transition to the cloud and more and more companies were kind of, you know, changing their infrastructure and moving more services, including email to the cloud, really have to kind of drive our message out there that things have changed. And Dell for legacy the legacy solutions or the old way of thinking about security is no longer valid and we need to make a change.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:24] Now, is there any kind of unintended consequence? Maybe that is an obvious to a lay person with the conflict between Russia and Ukraine? Is that is there some impact on global cybersecurity because of that conflict?

Eyal Benishti: [00:16:40] We? So theoretically speaking, yes, because there is always the collateral damage, even when nations are kind of, you know, exchanging punches back and forth. Obviously, some sectors are more vulnerable than others were in these kinds of war situation. Obviously, fishing is. It is a way that even nations are using in order to try and achieve their goals and an agenda. I don’t see any kind of imminent or specific risk, but I’m sure that we will see companies kind of being breached as part of this kind of conflict or the cyber cold war that we are currently experiencing between the different nations that are involved in the current conflict.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:35] So you mentioned that you have a service on your website about training that you help, you know, at no charge or low cost people train their people so they can be more informed and and make educated choices when it comes to clicking on an email. Is there any other type of kind of a way to get to know your company without fully going working with your company?

Eyal Benishti: [00:18:00] So you can go on our website. It’s ion skillz dot com. We have a lot of collateral and content that you can download listen to in order to learn more about. First the problem and then our solution and how we approach it. And we think that it should be solved these days and you can always reach out to us. We have some forms and contact us if you have any questions. We are always happy to answer those questions and help you with your challenges.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:34] And the challenge is real. And the like you said, these people who are doing this, this is their job and this is they’re treating this like a real business. Right? They’re whiteboarding this this is a team effort. They’re trying to penetrate an organization. They’re working together. They’re collaborating. This isn’t a kid in the basement with Red Bull and some Cheetos. Right.

Eyal Benishti: [00:18:57] Cybercrime is about $60 billion kind of business a year. Now it’s an organized crime. No longer kids. In other words, although some of them are going on the dark web and buying phishing as a service kids for one or $2,000 installing it and, you know, and phishing companies for for profit. But the vast majority of cybercrime today is well organized. Well, well organized.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:31] And this isn’t something you can sleep on. This is something you have to be proactive and and be working on every day, especially, I’m sure, if your business is in the business of, you know, e-commerce, health care, fintech, those kind of businesses that are dealing with a lot of personal information and a lot of money.

Eyal Benishti: [00:19:52] At the end of the day, 95% of all the breach cyber, which we read about in in the news, started as an email phishing. So it should be the number one priority. Like if you don’t have anything in place currently or you’re using kind of building securities or some default out of the box stuff, I would highly recommend to kind of address this issue first and foremost, because again, it’s the number one vehicle, number one tool that the bad guys are using in order to get to us, to our organizations.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:27] Well, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you. And the website one more time is Iron Scales within ESPN.com. That’s correct. All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

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Marlon Williams With Atlanta Blockchain Center

by

MarlonWilliams
Atlanta Business Radio
Marlon Williams With Atlanta Blockchain Center
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MarlonWilliamsMarlon Williams, Founder and CEO at Atlanta Blockchain Center

A business and community leader with a passion for innovation and philanthropy, Marlon has technical, business, and nonprofit leadership experience that serves his companies and their leadership teams well. He is the founder of cloud-based software service Qubicles.io, a co-founder of the Telos.net blockchain, and founder of Starter.xyz, a leading launchpad, incubator and investor network for blockchain-based projects. Marlon is also a partner at Starter Capital and founder of the Atlanta Blockchain Center, an initiative wholly funded and operated by Starter Labs.

Some of Marlon’s past experience includes chair of the inspector general office for the WAX blockchain, board member of the South Florida Digital Alliance, STEM Advisory board member for Miami-Dade County Public Schools, and President of the Society for Information Management (SIM) SFL.

Connect with Marlon on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • The origin story of the Center
  • The goals of the center
  • ATL for blockchain technology

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio brought to you by on pay Atlanta’s new standard in payroll. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:24] Lee Kantor here. Another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a fun one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor on pay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Marlon Williams and he’s the founder and CEO of Atlanta Blockchain Center. Welcome, Marlon.

Marlon Williams: [00:00:44] Hi. Happy to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:46] Well, I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us before we get too far into things. What is the Atlanta Blockchain Center?

Marlon Williams: [00:00:54] Sure. The goal of the Atlanta Blockchain Center is to be the catalyst for Atlanta’s emergence as a premier hub for blockchain innovation. I believe Atlanta has a lot of core pillars and its infrastructure that warrants it being on top of the list for blockchain innovation. And our purpose is to help bring that out of the city.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:20] Now, is the center an actual brick and mortar facility or is it a virtual online meeting place?

Marlon Williams: [00:01:27] It is. It is. It’s actually a physical location. A couple of minutes down from the Atlanta Tech Village in Buckhead or across the street from House Steak House. I heard that it’s one of the best places for steak. I haven’t tried it for myself as of yet.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:45] One day. One day. Now, tell us about your kind of vision of the center as a meeting place where folks interested in blockchain will all come together and kind of collaborate. Is it a co-working space? Is it places for events or all of the above?

Marlon Williams: [00:02:01] Yeah, all, all of the above. So it’s going to be a a membership based community, but we will operate it as a DAO, which is a decentralized, autonomous organization. I’m sure it’s something that we can tie discuss further in the future, but it’s going to be a DAO co-working space, which means that the community gets a voice in how we operate the facility. We’re going to be inclusive, diverse. But the idea is to sort of birth and nurture future developers, founders, executives in blockchain, and just have a co-working space that serves as the home for a group of students or enterprises and anyone with some sort of interest in blockchain, whether they’re building the next Google on blockchain technology, or they’re just an enthusiast who is interested in blockchain investments. The purpose of the center is to provide that that home for those individuals. We’re also going to have a consistent number of events on a weekly basis. There’s going to be discussions around cryptocurrency, investing. Blockchain and the general use of blockchain and nfts and a plethora of topics that covers the technology and just being that one one stop blockchain resource in Atlanta.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:33] Now, for folks who aren’t familiar. Crypto and NFT get a lot of the headlines when it comes to blockchain. But we’ve been at Business RadioX, we’ve been talking to folks in the fintech side for many, many years, and blockchain has has been very important in the fintech community outside of crypto and nfts, just in the way that they do what they do and in supply chain and things like that. Can you share maybe some of the maybe not so obvious to the layperson ways that blockchain is being leveraged by business, big and small, and it’s been been being used for many years. This isn’t like new to them.

Marlon Williams: [00:04:14] Sure. Sure. And you’re absolutely right. I think when people hear blockchain, they think bitcoin and cryptocurrency and nfts and believe that that’s all to it. But it’s much more than that. You know, Atlanta has one of the top cryptocurrency payment processors called Bitpay, which kind of falls into that same narrative of everything being sort of related to finances and investments. But there are applications of blockchain for real estate. Right. There are a few companies that I know of in Miami, like Prop Tech and others that you property and others that are trying to streamline the process of buying a home. Right. And providing just innovations around or experiments, rather, around how titles are issued and just how the entire real estate transaction sort of happens in the future via blockchain technology. There are other experiments with with voting because one aspect of blockchain that’s a benefit is the transparency and trustless ness of it, meaning you can trust the technology, there’s no intermediary that requires you to sort of get their permission or be censored. It’s pure technology. So there’s some experiments with with voting on blockchain. Some other governments are looking at the performance feasibility studies for how do we improve digital identities in a way that allows us to run programs like, well, welfare programs, Medicare, etc., Medicare like programs utilizing blockchain technology.

Marlon Williams: [00:06:21] So imagine if you’re a welfare recipient that currently gets cards and so forth. Imagine that being much more streamlined and managed digitally and being accepted across vendors. Seamlessly. I mean, there are a lot of ways to improve just inefficiencies in many systems. There are evaluations of blockchain technology in health care and how that can help improve, provide accurate and up to date data for physicians and their patients. Right. Again, streamlining an antiquated sort of industry that has been somewhat struggling to innovate over the last 20 years from a technology perspective. And I know because I spent a little bit of time in health information technology, royalties is another area. You know, there’s a huge issue with creatives and receiving proper payment and timely payment with their providers and partners. Right. So if you’re creating a movie or music and film, etc., any sort of artistry that requires royalty, blockchain technology can streamline that and pretty much guarantee your payments. Your royalty payments will be received in a timely manner without any sort of human intervention. And the list goes on. But there are a lot of various experiments with the technology well beyond financial applications of it.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:14] Right. And then the I mean, I think it’s a double edged sword in that the headlines are on crypto and nfts and things that seem to be in some people’s minds as is this for real? Is this a fad? Is this a trend? Is it real? I think that people feel confident in blockchain as a technology, but any given crypto coin or token or NFT individually, you should have some skepticism.

Marlon Williams: [00:08:43] Oh, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I, you know, don’t promote the financial sort of aspect of of the blockchain of blockchain technology because there is just a ton of information out there about it. However, I do think that there’s an opportunity for. Four proper sort of investments. Right. And taking advantage of it while while it’s still a very small asset in most of our portfolios in terms of allocation. Right, there is an opportunity to earn utilize in the cryptocurrency and nfts, etc., but you’ve got to be extremely diligent about it. You’ve got to go in thinking that you could potentially lose whatever you put in. So I always tell others never invest in cryptocurrency more than what you’re willing to lose. And I also recommend investing in the large what we consider the large cap coins like Bitcoin, Ethereum, the ones that are sort of the pioneers of the space that are highly utilized and have have sort of gone through a lot of the vetting, even approval by the SEC, the Securities and Exchange Commission, as being there’s not being a security that they’re crypto, that you can actually invest in trust loosely, you know, without any sort of third party manipulating it or you have some influencers promoting it because they have a huge bag that they dump on you. That’s sort of what’s playing in the industry now, particularly with the smaller low cap coins, but I rarely recommend those, only recommend them if you’d like to just gamble because that’s essentially what what it is if you’re not supporting Bitcoin or theory and some of the larger projects that have kind of led the space over the last 12 years.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:09] Now, you mentioned that you set the Atlanta Blockchain Center up as a DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization. Can you talk about kind of the thinking behind that and what does that mean for the members moving forward?

Marlon Williams: [00:11:24] Yeah, I’d love to. I think part of our goal at the center is to demonstrate what a future C Corp or SE Corp or LLC would look like when blockchain technology is applied. There’s one such experiment called a decentralized autonomous organization where individuals who own, let’s say, a token, a membership token or an NFT would be granted access into this community. And the community collectively is the one sort of making decisions about, you know, things like what sort of what’s the next location we should open, you know, should we change the artwork on the facility? You know, should we change this? The model for how the facility is is operated daos are essentially a decentralized means of bringing people together to run a community organization or entity. And that’s why we’re going to operate the center as part of as a partial DAO. I call it a partial DAO because someone has to pay the bills, right? Someone still has to get things going. So there is going to be a centralized authority and decision making for some key aspects that we’d like to eventually decentralize and place into the hands of the community to decide.

Marlon Williams: [00:13:10] But being part of the center would give you at least some semblance of what a DAO is, even if it’s on a very basic level, that that instruction, I think, is very important for what I believe a lot of organizations will be organized as in the future, where paying our staff in cryptocurrency stablecoins. I know a lot of folks listening who may know Stablecoins don’t want to hear that word right now because of the recent disaster with Terra USD, but the stablecoins that we offer our staff for payments as you as the USD coin, which is backed 1 to 1 by US dollar and other real assets. So it isn’t an algorithmic stablecoin that can destroy, you know. Hard, hard, hard earned money. But again, the idea is to introduce the. Concepts and various applications of blockchain as part of our operations at the center so that members can get a one get an idea of what that could look like in the future and just become proficient in the technology, which is what part of what we’re we’re out to do.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:40] So now when you decided to go that route and they use Stablecoin as a way to pay your folks, is that go, you know, on the other side too? Are you paying your vendors with stablecoin as well? Or like you have to only work with people that are kind of bought into this, this kind of stablecoin as a currency. Like are you paying like your coffee folks in Stablecoin or when you’re buying coffee for the center?

Marlon Williams: [00:15:04] Well, that’s the idea. I would tell you, we’ve been renovating this facility since March 1st. And the the only vendor I’ve been able to convince to receive pay in crypto so far is the artist that did the mural on the wall. You know, the contractors, the guys coming in doing painting and floors. I mean, they are so far behind. But I believe we’ve succeeded just in the process of working with them and talking to them about it and just saying, Hey, guys, this is a way that you could you could have received pay. And here’s why. It is something that you should look into in the future. So there was a very educational process that was kind of conveyed on various painters and floor guys and other handy men and women. So I think it wasn’t all in vain, but the physical workers we weren’t able to convince.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:11] But I mean, but it goes to the mission of the center is the more activity you do and the more you kind of walk the walk, then eventually you’re going to win some of them over, if not all of them. Absolutely. Like, it’s not a hypothetical. This is you’re doing it in real life with real people and their real livelihood. So, I mean, good for you. I mean, kudos to you for this.

Marlon Williams: [00:16:35] Thanks. I just think it’s very important technology. And I got to I got to tell you, when I when I moved here from Miami, I’ve been here officially a year, but I’ve been sort of back and forth since 2019 evaluating whether we make the move here. And in Miami. It was, you know, every time I go back, which is once a month, there’s a ton of activity happening. I mean, there’s so many that because I was part of the community as it was building up the crypto scene years ago. So every time I go back, there’s just so much to do. I’ve got to decide who, which thing am I going to go to while I’m here? And then I come back home to Atlanta and it’s complete opposite. There’s like maybe something happening in three weeks. Maybe this is going on. You know, there’s talks about this. There’s like the technology is too important for city to not have a, you know, at least one or more entities that are being the community leaders promoting it, getting folks to wake up and realize that this is Web 3.0. You know, this is email when everyone said that no one was going to be sending emails, you know.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:58] Yeah, I’m from Miami as well. And I’m pretty and I’m pretty I’m aware that in Miami, the mayor has gone kind of all in with crypto and has really made an investment and has been pretty vocal about it where but I noticed that you’re not you went blockchain, you didn’t go crypto. And I think that that is plays to the strengths of Atlanta because Atlanta is is about finance a lot of it and a lot of technology and blockchain is the umbrella that everything is underneath. And I think that that’s that’s a great strategic move.

Marlon Williams: [00:18:34] Absolutely. I agree. Because, again, it’s a lot more than than just crypto. And we need to educate everyone on that fact. But I started looking at the data just studying Atlanta from an economic perspective. I’m realizing it’s, you know, consistently in the top ten, while Georgia is a top ten state producing as part of the GDP in the US. Right. I think last year it was the top eight most performant economy in the US. Looking at the educational infrastructure here, looking to the community, looking at the fintech, you know, presence, the fact that there’s really 70% of debit and credit card transactions goes through the infrastructure in Atlanta. I mean, that’s that’s just nuts. You know, when I started looking at those stats, I said, why isn’t there larger presence of blockchain? There are a lot of things happening, by the way, just in silos here and there, but just not to the degree that I thought it should be. And that’s sort of why we open the center.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:51] Well, if somebody wants to learn more and, you know, become part of this adventure, where do they go?

Marlon Williams: [00:20:01] Well, you can visit us online at ATL. Blockchain Intercom. And that sort of gives you a pretty good overview on who we are, what we’re doing, and how to contact us. So that’s the best place to reach us.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:19] And then is the center open? Is it open for business right now or it’s opening soon?

Marlon Williams: [00:20:26] We’re opening June 13th. We’re going to have our ribbon cutting ceremony, 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, June 13th. We’re going to have Mayor Andre Dickens come in to give a greeting. I’ve got a few friends in what we call OGs in the space coming to Keynote and talk about why Atlanta is ripe for blockchain innovation and going to have food and drinks and music and people can tour the center. Take a look at the art on the exterior, the interior and some of the stuff that we’re that we’ve got planned.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:06] And then can you go online right now and become a member? Like, is there a fee to join? Like what? What how does that work?

Marlon Williams: [00:21:14] There’s no fee to join. You can go online and become a member at the website. Blockchain, etc.. There isn’t a fee to join for the remainder of 2022. So our focus is really just on launching and getting traction and things going. 2023 They will most likely be some sort of membership fee to be to reserve space at the center. And again, those are decisions that we’ll make as part of our decentralized organization with the early adopters. So that would be a good time to to become a member and with very little upfront investment.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:57] Right. And and that’s ATL Blockchain Center dot com is a website.

Marlon Williams: [00:22:03] That’s correct.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:04] Good stuff. Well, congratulations on all the success, Marlin. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Marlon Williams: [00:22:09] Thank you, Lee. I appreciate.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:11] All right. This is Lee Kantor will see y’all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

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Shanna Beavers With Off Your Plate ATL

by

Cherokee Business Radio
Cherokee Business Radio
Shanna Beavers With Off Your Plate ATL
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This Episode was brought to you by

The Innovation SpotAlma Coffee

 

 

 

 

Shanna Beavers, Owner at Off Your Plate ATL

As an accomplished people manager and trainer, Shanna has trained over 200 servers, bartenders and managers, managed high performance sales teams and scaled businesses with the belief that success depends on the way we treat the people around us. Today she owns a fast growing cleaning organization with a focus on elevating client and employee experiences.

Connect with Shanna on LinkedIn.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Cherokee Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Stone Payton: [00:00:22] Welcome to Cherokee Business Radio Stone Payton here with you this morning and you are in for a real treat. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Off Your Plate ATL Ms.. Shanna Beavers, how are you?

Shanna Beavers: [00:00:37] I’m great. How are you?

Stone Payton: [00:00:38] I am fantastic. I mentioned to you before, right before we went on and I’ll say it again here on air. I thoroughly enjoyed your presentation at 1 million cups a few weeks ago.

Shanna Beavers: [00:00:49] Thank you.

Stone Payton: [00:00:49] What an interesting business. I’m sure it has some of its challenges and maybe we might even talk to a little bit of those, but what an interesting business. Let’s start there. Mission, purpose. What are you out there trying to do for folks?

Shanna Beavers: [00:01:02] So I’m trying to provide a bit of a different cleaning experience for homeowners and families, basically trying to put more of an emphasis on reliability and quality since it’s kind of an issue in the industry.

Stone Payton: [00:01:18] Well, I got to tell you, over the years, my wife and I have had some help come in a couple of times a month, and it seems like it always starts out great and then maybe the cleaning might drop off a little bit, but more for us, we’re not quite that fastidious. I don’t guess it was more like the couldn’t make the schedule. Yeah you know can’t make today can we make tomorrow. You know daughter sick grandma died whatever. And it’s not that you don’t want to be sympathetic, but you sort of at least in our case, we have to clean up a little bit before the people.

Shanna Beavers: [00:01:49] Yeah. Yeah.

Stone Payton: [00:01:50] Is that part of what you’re doing?

Shanna Beavers: [00:01:52] That’s very common cleaning. In fact, that’s one of the things that I request, because when we’re going into a home and we’re unable to, the schedule is important. But when we’re unable to get what we need to do done in that specific amount of time, a lot of times it’s because we’re picking up things and we’re tidying. So that’s actually a separate or an additional service for us. So if you don’t want to tidy, you don’t have to. We’ll do it for you. But we need to book that in.

Stone Payton: [00:02:17] Got it. And just a little light at the end of the tunnel. For those of you who are neck deep in your career. Holly and I are empty nesters now and it is a little easier to get picked up now than it was five or five or ten years ago. So what compelled you to to get into this business?

Shanna Beavers: [00:02:33] Well, I can’t say I was compelled necessarily. I kind of just fell into it. I was laid off in 2019 after kind of a long career, and I just wasn’t able to get another job. Took me like two years interviewing for positions that were, you know, equal or even lesser than what I had. And it was a very weird experience for me because I’d never had that issue before. So I really had to take a step back and kind of say, okay, what? You know, what is the message here? What am I, what am I doing wrong or am I doing anything wrong? So I just started cleaning houses as a way to help contribute to the the life that we had built. Based on my previous job, you know, we had bills to pay. So I started doing that and then it almost kind of got out of control. It really was just a way for me to go make money mindlessly and listen to my music and just reflect, you know, while I was working. So just one thing led to another and my schedule was full and I needed help. And since I’m a natural entrepreneur, I was like, okay, well, we’ll see where this is going to go. You know, I’m I’m I’m a sales person. So when someone says, well, you give me a quote, I’m like, yes. And then I sell it. And I’m like, okay, now I’m going to have to figure out what to do about that.

Stone Payton: [00:03:53] Now, did you have some entrepreneurial background before this or.

Shanna Beavers: [00:03:56] Yeah, yeah, I did. So before the the time before the job where I was laid off, I spent about 15 years in the restaurant industry, so I worked my way from host to server bartender manager and then eventually owned my own restaurant. And along the way I also had on the side meal prep delivery service long, long before you could get your food delivered to you in the mail and a catering company. So yeah and I’m a my father owns his own business has since 1999 I’ve worked on and off in it. And so he just set such a great example for me and taught me things along the way. So it just kind of came naturally.

Stone Payton: [00:04:34] Yeah. So it’s. So it’s in your blood. Yeah. Yeah. So you were already pretty familiar with or at least had some, some disciplines and some some muscle memory for setting up operations and your sales and marketing and your budgeting and all that, all that kind of stuff.

Shanna Beavers: [00:04:48] Absolutely. Yeah. And really most of it, even though it wasn’t, I guess it was kind of an entrepreneurial thing. A lot of that experience really came from when I started working for my dad officially the second time, and he wasn’t a manager. He was he’s an entrepreneur, you know. So there’s a difference between working on the business and working in the business. And he didn’t like working in the business, so we let him go off and speak and bring back all the leads. And I ended up basically just taking over and. Performing each performing in each department, setting up systems, hiring people, training people, and then just basically running the company while he was traveling and and feeding us.

Stone Payton: [00:05:31] What marvelous foundation for launching your own business on the launch. Anything in particular that surprised you or did it pretty much go like you thought it would go when you were getting this off the ground?

Shanna Beavers: [00:05:44] I’ll tell you what has really surprised me and I guess it I don’t know. I worked in the employee engagement industry, so I spent a lot of time working with people, hiring people, training people and teaching managers how to keep people happy for retention purposes and career growth. And it’s been extremely difficult to find people to work. So that’s been kind of a struggle for me is I kind of pride myself on, you know, being a good leader and being able to find the right people. In fact, that was something that my father felt I was really, really good at. And so, yeah, it’s been a real struggle right now trying to get people to work.

Stone Payton: [00:06:24] So how does the whole sales and marketing thing work for a business like yours? Do you do you like advertise on billboards or print or are you just out at networking meetings? What’s the best path or do you know yet?

Shanna Beavers: [00:06:37] So yeah, it actually I know what brings me the most from a lead and client standpoint. Networking is really great. I find that that is that works really well to get my name out there and get others that are able to refer to know about the business. And then a lot of it comes from Facebook honestly. Just really, yeah. People in local groups saying, hey, we need someone to come clean our house. Do you have recommendations? And friends and clients will get on there and will recommend. It’s not just they don’t just jump in. You know, when I see the recommendation, I’m purposeful about reaching out and trying to set something up. But that’s that’s where it really comes from.

Stone Payton: [00:07:18] So there’s one that I’ve been more of a voyeur a couple of times. I’ve recommended some folks that because I know they do good work. But this group, Cherokee Connect. Yes. Yes. Okay. And I mean, I see people, my buddy Justin Allen over at Retail Plumbing, he gets recommended all the time.

Shanna Beavers: [00:07:36] Yes, yes. Yes.

Stone Payton: [00:07:38] So that’s an example of a group like that.

Shanna Beavers: [00:07:41] That’s an example. It’s a good example. I get a lot of recommendations in that group.

Stone Payton: [00:07:44] I’ll be doing so. They’re doing a good job over there. So what are you enjoying the most? What are you finding the most rewarding at this point?

Shanna Beavers: [00:07:52] Two things I find rewarding. One is the feedback that I get from clients when we come in and we clean and they feel the relief of having all of that off their plate and no longer having to worry about, Oh gosh, we’ve got company coming, the house is a disaster, blah, blah, blah. Or, you know, just being exhausted from the week of working full time, taking care of kids and all of that, and then they don’t have to spend their weekend cleaning. You know, we come in, we take care of it, and they can do what they want to do with the time that they’ve got back. And the other part that I find really rewarding is the growing of the business part. I’m a social person, I love networking, I love talking with other business owners and learning what’s working for them and what’s not working for them. So that’s I’m really enjoying that part.

Stone Payton: [00:08:40] Now are you finding that opportunities are beginning to surface to expand beyond how you initially defined your core business?

Shanna Beavers: [00:08:49] Yes, and in fact, in a way that I wasn’t really expecting. So we talked at the at 1 million cups about how I was kind of diversifying a little too much. So I love to cook. So I was trying to bring back that passion for like meal prep and then organizing. And I’ve just I got some really good recommendations about focusing, so I’m no longer doing meal prep, no longer doing organizing.

Stone Payton: [00:09:12] You really took that to heart.

Shanna Beavers: [00:09:14] Yeah, 100%. Okay. Yeah, I took that to heart. But what’s happening? That’s really strange. Not I guess it’s not strange. It just wasn’t what I expected to be doing. I’m part of a few Facebook groups that have thousands and thousands of other cleaning business owners internationally, and I find that they’re struggling with basic business issues. So I’m in there and I’m helped because that’s what we do. It’s these have been literally the most supportive groups on Facebook I’ve ever been in these cleaning groups. Wow. So we’re getting in there and we’re like recommending things and helping each other out. And I’ve got people that are literally just reaching out to me and messaging me and saying, Can you help me? I need you to help me coach my people. I need you to help me figure out how to hire people I don’t know how to price. I’m not confident in my pricing, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so I’ve got like six people that I’m having these conversations with and I kind of, you know, talk to my dad a little bit. And I was like, I feel like I should do something with this. You know, I don’t I’m trying to impact the cleaning industry by setting an example of what a reliable. Quality company is, you know, I don’t want to let the schedule control how we’re handling our clients. I want the clients to control the schedule, so to speak. So I’m thinking I’m going to have a bigger impact on the industry if I’m teaching other cleaning business owners how to do the same thing, so how to raise their professionalism, how to be confident in their pricing. Because one issue that we struggle with is clients don’t treat us as business owners. So that’s a struggle. But a lot of that is how you present yourself and how you present your business in the marketplace.

Stone Payton: [00:10:56] Yeah, what a what an interesting opportunity. I we’re going to have to visit again in a few months and you’ll have to tell me if you chose to genuinely pursue that and how and how it’s going. But I get the sense you would be really good at that.

Shanna Beavers: [00:11:13] I would enjoy it.

Stone Payton: [00:11:14] I see your eyes light up when you do. So let’s back up a little bit. You were talking about quality and timeliness. How would you articulate what differentiates you in the market place? Because I get the sense that you genuinely feel like, hey, we really are different.

Shanna Beavers: [00:11:31] Yes, I do. I really feel like that I’m different. And I know a couple other businesses in the in the area that are also trying to operate this way and trying to be different. One of the ways that I am setting myself apart is, as I said, scheduling. Sometimes we let the schedule control what we’re doing because we want the company has to make money, right? We have people to pay, we have expenses, we have clients to keep happy. And we try to squeeze in as many houses as we can and put as many people on the job as we can. And that is where you get the, oh, I need to reschedule you or oh, you know, we can’t show up today. And, and next thing you know, the clients are unhappy because they’re preparing and they’re ready for you to be there and you’re not showing up. So the way I do it differently is I build a schedule around my team, so I bring on a team member and then I quickly book out their schedule. But they go to the same house every week or biweekly. They get to know the client, they know the pets and the kids and what the client likes specifically. And I try to keep the same cleaning specialist with the same client. And then as I find someone else that wants to work that I can, you know, give an employment opportunity to, I bring them on, I say, give me two weeks and then I build out their schedule.

Stone Payton: [00:12:50] Yeah. So where do you see this thing going? Are you going to try? There’s this one thing we talked about which I’m really excited for you about. I think you’re going to be great at that. But in terms of growing the core cleaning business as it is right now, are you going to continue to try to grow it or are you got it in a nice little place.

Shanna Beavers: [00:13:07] Or I feel like I have it in a nice place now. I would like to grow it. I mean, it’s still very small and I feel like if I’m not attempting to grow my business, then I’m not necessarily experiencing all the same things that these other business owners are experiencing. So I want to really make sure that if I choose to add this other thing on, which is kind of against what they recommended, but if I choose to incorporate this, I do want to continue to build. I’m not sure if I see myself with multiple locations and a fleet of cars and and all of that kind of stuff. I look at the expenses we take on a little differently than than that. But I would like to have you know, I’m I’m hoping that within five years, it’s about a $1.5 million business.

Stone Payton: [00:13:55] Wow, that sounds fantastic. It sounds ambitious to me, but.

Shanna Beavers: [00:13:59] Yeah, yeah. Well, that’s what you have.

Stone Payton: [00:14:00] To be, right.

Shanna Beavers: [00:14:01] Exactly. You’ve got to have big goals, you know?

Stone Payton: [00:14:04] Yeah. So you mentioned your father and the influence that he had on your mindset and your skill set and all of that. Have you had other people that you would characterize as mentors in your life and kind of part two of that question have you had an opportunity or chosen to take advantage of the opportunity to be a mentor to some other folks? You’ve already begun to mention it, so I guess the answer to that is yes.

Shanna Beavers: [00:14:29] But yeah, so I, I am, you know, working on, I guess you could call me a mentor to them. I don’t I’m not real sure the relationship hasn’t necessarily been defined right. But I am open to bringing people on that do want to start their own cleaning business there. There is so much work here and not as many good, reliable companies as we need to fulfill the work. So I am more than open to having bringing somebody on and just I’ve got kind of a step by step program already planned out like this is this is a six month program we’ll get you launched because that gives me predictability and then I can bring somebody on to replace them. And then we’ve launched one other cleaning business in the opportunity that is trying to make a change in what’s going on. So that’s that’s one thing, mentors. As far as I mean, I’ve had mentors throughout my life. There is one I mean, there’s I have multiple people that I kind of go to, but there’s one person that’s in the industry that she probably would say, No, no, I’m not your mentor. But I do go to her. She her name is Emily Cox, and she owns Just Peachy Cleaning, and she has just been an amazing person when it comes to how do you do the cleaning part of it, you know, like okay, pricing and all of that kind of stuff. So she’s been a huge help to me with that.

Stone Payton: [00:15:55] All right. So let’s help out the layperson a little bit who because I got to tell you, I don’t feel competent at all to have a conversation with a potential cleaning service that I would ask the right questions, that I would look for the right things. Can we give them a few tips or some some questions to ask?

Shanna Beavers: [00:16:13] Absolutely. Yeah. So the first question I would ask is come see my house. We do a lot of online quoting and we don’t get to see what the house actually looks like. And we all have a different idea of what level of cleanliness is. Right. Right. So, you know, I understand that not every cleaning business owner can do that every time. But I have definitely been burned thinking that I was going into a situation that was going to be a four. And I get in there and it’s like an eight. Oh my. And that really adds on to the amount of time that you’re spending in there. It may not seem like it, but it really does. So have someone come look at your house. That way you can get proper a proper quote and you don’t run the risk of having the price raised on you when they get in and they see the home and they’re already there. So then you’re kind of you feel a little trapped. Some people are comfortable saying no, some people are not. That’s just something I’m not comfortable doing. Yeah, definitely. You know, you do want background checks. You want to know that these people have been vetted.

Stone Payton: [00:17:12] Yeah.

Shanna Beavers: [00:17:12] You know, if you have pets and you love them like your kids and you’ve got kids, you want to know that they’re going to come in and they’re going to be nice to your pets and nice to your your kids and all of that. And let’s see. The other thing is, I would honestly focus a little less on price only and focus more on exactly what are you going to be doing and what value am I getting for that price. So the value is we’re going to show up on time every time. And if we’re running late, we’re going to let you know, you know, you’re going to get great communication from us. We’re going to be treated just as any client should be treated, not just we’re going to show up on these days and never talk to you the whole time. You know, if that makes sense, you’re bringing someone into your home and you need to know that they’re going to mesh with your family and your lifestyle.

Stone Payton: [00:17:59] You have such great energy, such tremendous passion. I mean, I know they can hear it over the airwaves. I can I can just I can feel it right here in the room. And I particularly see your eyes light up when we talk about that that other effort of helping the business. And of course, from the training and consulting world, my mind goes immediately to certification, right? Like certify them to be. I don’t know. Yeah. Shana certified. I get the lapel pin.

Shanna Beavers: [00:18:25] And all that.

Stone Payton: [00:18:27] But you’re human, surely. You know, sometimes you run a little bit low in the tank. Where do you go? And I don’t necessarily mean a physical location, but where do you go for inspiration to to recharge your your batteries? How do you do that?

Shanna Beavers: [00:18:42] Well, I recharge by spending time with my daughter and my husband. I really have found that if I if we just kind of sit on the couch together and I hold her hand or something, I get this weird, just kind of energy, if that makes sense. And I don’t mean weird, it’s just kind of a strange experience. She calms me and I like that I do have a physical place, the beach. So yeah, I have to go to the beach every year at least once. And it really is kind of a, I guess you could say, a spiritual experience for me. I just I sit in the sand with my feet in the sand, in the water, and I just kind of zone out for a little while. And by the time I’m done with a trip at the beach, it just I come back and I just have so much energy. So anything that has me spending time with my family or friends really is is what I do.

Stone Payton: [00:19:31] Fantastic. You’re not the first person I ask that question a lot. You’re not the first person who has said the beach. Yeah. And I thoroughly enjoy enjoy the beach. And I just went to a Kenny Chesney concert not too long ago. So he’s kind of like that beach. Yeah, yes. Yes. So that was a lot of fun. All right. So if our listeners would like to reach out and have a conversation with you or someone on your team, maybe about having you come clean their house, but maybe about maybe they’re in the business and they would really like to have a conversation on that front. Let’s leave them with some points of contact, whatever you think is appropriate, LinkedIn, website, email, whatever. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Shanna Beavers: [00:20:08] So I do have a Facebook page. It’s off your plate ATL. You can find me there. I also have a website and that is also off your plate, a Telkom. My phone number is there. You can submit the. Contact form. And I would say you could call me, you can text me, but I have a spam filter on my phone. I can’t figure out how to get off so you can text me at 7069709375. If you leave me a voicemail, I don’t know when I’ll be able to see. Get that.

Stone Payton: [00:20:36] All right. Before we wrap, I wanted to get your input. We actually we talked a little bit about it before we came on air, I think. But the million cups experience, what was that like for is this something you would recommend to other entrepreneurs?

Shanna Beavers: [00:20:47] 100%. You have to do that. So, yeah, I don’t think there’s a point in anybody’s business where they can’t use some feedback and it’s something that is not only did did it work for me from a feedback perspective, but as I laid out my presentation, I ended up answering some of my own questions. So it was a really good experience for me and for anybody that’s doing it. I have a I have a little bit of advice when you go in there, be open to what you’re hearing and try not to argue back and say, Oh, well, we’re doing this and we’ve done that and we’ve done this because then you’re really not listening. So even if you have kind of already tried something, just absorb it, say thank you, that kind of thing. And that to me, if you if you handle it that way and you get out of your head thinking, well, we’ve already tried all these things, you absorb it and process it better.

Stone Payton: [00:21:43] Fantastic. All right, one more time. Let’s leave. Let’s leave these folks with some contact info.

Shanna Beavers: [00:21:47] Absolutely. Off your plate. Atl, Facebook, off your plate, ATL or text 7069709375.

Stone Payton: [00:21:57] Well, thanks so much for coming. And this has been a delight visiting with you and I’m quite sincere. Let’s do this again. And particularly I want to hear about this other effort if you get it going.

Shanna Beavers: [00:22:07] Absolutely. Yeah, I’d love to.

Stone Payton: [00:22:09] Fantastic. All right. Until next time, this is Stone Payton for our guest today, Sarah Beavers and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you next time on Cherokee Business Radio.

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