Jacob Lapera, Author at Business RadioX ® Page

Roz Lewis With Greater Women’s Business Council

May 24, 2022 by Jacob Lapera

GWBC Radio

Roz Lewis With Greater Women's Business Council

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Roz Lewis is President & CEO at Greater Women’s Business Council (GWBC®), a regional partner organization of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) and a member of the WBENC Board of Directors.

Previous career roles at Delta Air Lines included Flight Attendant, In-Flight Supervisor and Program Manager, Corporate Supplier Diversity.

During her career she has received numerous awards and accolades. Most notable: Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 2018 Diversity & Inclusion award; 2017 inducted into the WBE Hall of Fame by the American Institute of Diversity and Commerce and 2010 – Women Out Front Award from Georgia Tech University.

She has written and been featured in articles on GWBC® and supplier diversity for Forbes Magazine SE, Minority Business Enterprise, The Atlanta Tribune, WE- USA, Minorities and Women in Business magazines. Her quotes are published in The Girls Guide to Building a Million Dollar Business book by Susan Wilson Solovic and Guide Coaching by Ellen M. Dotts, Monique A. Honaman and Stacy L. Sollenberger. Recently, she appeared on Atlanta Business Chronicle’s BIZ on 11Alive, WXIA to talk about the importance of mentoring for women.

In 2010, Lewis was invited to the White House for Council on Women and Girls Entrepreneur Conference for the announcement of the Small Business Administration (SBA) new Women Owned Small Business Rule approved by Congress. In 2014, she was invited to the White House to participate in sessions on small business priorities and the Affordable Care Act.

Roz Lewis received her BS degree from Florida International University, Miami, FL and has the following training/certifications: Certified Purchasing Managers (CPM); Certified Professional in Supplier Diversity (CPSD), Institute for Supply Management (ISM)of Supplier Diversity and Procurement: Diversity Leadership Academy of Atlanta (DLAA), Negotiations, Supply Management Strategies and Analytical Purchasing.

Connect with Roz on LinkedIn.

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for GWBC Radio’s Open for Business. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:18] Lee Kantor here. Another episode of GWBC Open for Business. And this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have the president of the GWBC, Roz Lewis. Welcome, Roz.

Roz Lewis: [00:00:28] Hello, Lee. How are you? Hello, everyone. Hope everyone’s having a great week.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:35] I am doing well. I’m so excited to catch up with you. As the president of GWBC, you’re over — all the markets GWBC serves Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, you must have been pretty busy these last several months since the last time we connected.

Roz Lewis: [00:00:52] Absolutely. You know, I thought that during COVID, you know, with all the pivoting and swiveling, that that was a challenge. But actually, the biggest challenge, I think, for everyone is how do we transition to the next normal. And so, that has been interesting. As a matter of fact, I just got back from being out of town in South Carolina at a Sonoco supplier diversity event and supplier event that was actually very good of how they’re encouraging their prime suppliers to join our organization and identify women’s businesses to do business with. So, it’s always great to have those type of corporate champions with us.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:41] And I think that’s what makes GWBC unique, for any women-owned business to have an advocate and a partner that’s helping connect you with these enterprise-level organizations. It can catapult your business into a whole new level just by being part of, you know, the team and getting involved with GWBC in your area.

Roz Lewis: [00:02:03] Absolutely. You know, and I just mentioned Sonoco, but there’s a host of corporate champions that are a part of our organization, as well as our phenomenal board of directors, our staff, you know. And, you know, we often talk about doing business with corporations, but it’s also important for our women businesses to support each other, you know. And with Greater Women’s Business Council, we have about 1100 now, over 1100 certified women businesses throughout the three states, with revenues up to almost half a billion dollars. So, when you look at that, all of that experience is really great to share in building this phenomenal community of women businesses. So, we encourage women businesses to help other women businesses too.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:57] Right. And it’s businesses of all sizes. And I think that throughout the pandemic is really where the benefits of being part of a community like that really come into — become clear, because you have the association kind of giving information, education, and the latest and the truest information to their members. And you have the women helping each other kind of, you know, collaboratively get through this pandemic together. And then, now, like you said, we’re in this new phase where it’s critical, where everybody is kind of rowing in the same direction, and everybody is helping each other get through this.

Roz Lewis: [00:03:36] Yeah, you’re absolutely right. You know, just — here’s the interesting thing, a part of all of this too. Lee, when you think about it, it’s the supply chain challenges that are occurring. You know, no one is immune to them, right? Whether you’re a large corporation, or a small or diverse business, everyone is being affected by the supply chain, including the consumer, right? So, how do we connect, get innovative, think of ways in order to bring that product or service to market?

And, you know, I constantly say our women businesses are very smart, intuitive, understand, they’re also consumers, too. You know, we can’t forget that. And they are probably one of the best focus groups for any corporation to have in understanding how do we manage all the challenges that we are dealing with today. And that, we have to realize is just a norm. It’s just different challenges that we’re facing. So, I just think this time is a great opportunity for people to reinvent themselves, look at other opportunities out there in order to grow their business, elevate their business or product or service.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:01] And I think that there needs to be really a lot of evangelizing about the importance of becoming a certified woman-owned business. It’s fine you’re a woman-owned business, but take that step to become certified so you can tap into communities like GWBC and reap all of the benefits that a member gets by being part of this.

Roz Lewis: [00:05:24] Absolutely. You know, women network differently, you know, in the sense. And the certification is just a tool. It is just so that we know that you are who you say you are as far as operating, controlling and being independent in your business. And it doesn’t mean that we don’t certify women businesses who have male partners. You know, that is fine, that’s okay. But at the end of the day, she has to have that final decision regarding the trajectory of her business and the decisions that are made in her business.

And more importantly, what GWBC provides is that environment of being able to build relationships, because that was key more than anything else in the procurement arena is your relationship with that target customer, your relationship with that strategic partner, you know, or that joint venture? All of those are very key in how you maximize your opportunity to become a supplier of that target corporation or partner with that other woman-owned business or minority-owned business or small business.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:46] And I think another-

Roz Lewis: [00:06:47] Or even sometimes — and sometimes, you’re partnering with another corporation.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:52] Right. And I think another benefit that people don’t talk about is having a place, a community of people that are going through a similar thing you’re going through, so that you can ask them a question that you might be uncomfortable asking maybe a male business owner that you can ask another female business owner that maybe has navigated that same water and has kind of gone through that before you. And you know, you don’t have to have that learning curve that is so steep for so many people. You have a safe place to kind of collaborate, and to communicate and to educate.

Roz Lewis: [00:07:29] You’re absolutely right. You know, the one thing I always remember, there’s a church marquee that I would pass by on my way home, and I’ll never forget this one statement it had on it, “There are enough mistakes that have been made. You don’t have to create new ones,” you know. And when I saw that, I thought, “Oh, my goodness,” you know. So, how do we, to your point, capitalize on all of the challenges or issues that the businesses have gone before you, and being in a safe zone to be able to talk about what your challenges are? And do they have any solutions to that, so that you aren’t trying to navigate other landmines that may be coming down the road for you? How do you prepare, you know, for them?

And so, I agree with you, too, is that this is an opportunity for you to share information about what you feel were the success initiatives. But I will also say it’s important to talk about what I call your failures, right, which is actually just failing forward. It’s another opportunity for you to understand how in going through that experience, you’re going to be able to come out on the other side just fine. And I think that’s what’s important than anything else, is people being able to look long term at how they’re going to be successful.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:01] Yeah, I like to look at failure. I try to reframe it to learning that you’re — everybody is constantly learning. And just because something didn’t work out, you’ve learned something, and how can you take that learning and move forward with it, and not let it just stop you? You know, that’s the key.

Roz Lewis: [00:09:18] Exactly.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:18] The stopping is the problem. It’s the learning and moving forward is the objective. You can’t stop. Nothing should be insurmountable. And especially when you have a community like the folks at GWBC behind you and with you, it makes it a lot easier not to stop because to me, you only fail when you stop.

Roz Lewis: [00:09:38] I agree. You know, they always say just when you’re about to give up, success is around the corner. So, those are the things you have to get up every morning. And I would tell you, that’s the one thing that I admire so much about our women businesses. They are risk takers. And, you know, they’re strategic risk takers, but they are. Anyone that goes into business is one. And the fact that they also care about their communities because they’re also employers, they’re hiring, they’re giving back their leaders, you know, in their community, but at the same time, they are also human beings.

And if COVID didn’t teach us that more than anything else, there were so many other challenges that took place, you know, with women businesses as it relates to their families and then also trying to keep their business above water, you know, as well. So, I agree with you. It is continue to get up every morning and look at it as a new day. You know, look at it as a gift in order for you to be able to go ahead, and work on that business plan, and actualizing it, so that you can also be successful.

And successful, you know, I see success is at different levels. So, it’s not always about thinking that, “I’m successful when I reach $10 million.” You can be successful at a million dollars. You can be successful at half a million dollars. You can be successful at $100,000. So, it just depends on how you view that and look at, you know, the big picture of what you’re trying to do.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:27] Now, you mentioned earlier about the community the GWBC kind of brings together. GWBC is part of a larger organization, WBENC, and they’re having their national conference here in Atlanta June 7th through 9th. Can you talk about why — first of all, that’s probably the first conference they’ve had in a few years in person, I would think. And then, why any woman-owned business should think very strongly about attending this event.

Roz Lewis: [00:12:00] Well, you know what, I’m so glad we’re talking about this. In a few weeks, yes, we’re going to be welcoming over 3000 women businesses and major corporations here in Atlanta, Georgia, at the Georgia World Congress Center. And that’s June 7th through the 9th. And you’re absolutely right, this is the first in-person conference that has been held since 2019. The last conference was held in Baltimore. What WBENC does is rotate their national conference across the country, giving visibility to the local or regional women businesses as well.

So, we’re very excited about hosting this event, and we’re actually co-hosting this with the Ohio River Valley Council. So, it’s the Women’s Business Enterprise Council Ohio River Valley. WBEC ORV is who we’re going to be hosting that with. So, Sheila Mixon is the executive director of the WBEC ORV. And so, we’re looking forward to welcoming all of these WBEs and corporations who have not seen each other in person in over two years. We’ve only seen each other in a box, you know, through a Zoom or Microsoft.

And so, I would say this is going to be an exciting time for you to come to this event. We’re doing something a little bit different than we have in the past. We have designed an ecosystem of a huge arena where there a re going to be several activities going on over the three day period. So, as far as exhibiting, it’s exhibiting all three days, so you don’t have to worry about trying to get to that target corporation in one day. You’ll now have three days to be able to access them. There will be a business networking opportunity where you’ll be networking with women businesses and major corporations from all over the country and international as well who comes to this conference because it is the largest women’s business conference in the country.

And so, we’re very excited about all the opportunities we’re going to have. There’s going to be different learning labs and stages that are going to be giving subject matter information and experts. And the arena, is what we’re calling it, the WBENC arena – excuse me – WBENC arena is going to be divided up as well into industries. So, if you are targeting one industry, you’ll be able to go in that area and talk to corporations or other WBEs.

But the other thing I want to share is the fact that we are not doing all of this without the assistance of our co-chairs who are Accenture, AT&T, The Coca-Cola Company and UPS. Those are our corporate co-chairs, as well as our WBE co-chairs, and they are Accel, ALOM, Ampcus, and BoldHaus. And so, we’re going to be welcoming all of those women businesses here.

And then, we have what’s called our Regional WBE Host Committee. And on those committees, we have here at GWBC, we have Avacend, who is led by Kanchana Raman, and she’s also co-chair. Other WBE host committee, Kayla Dang of GMI, Anita Davis of Praxis, Paula Edwards of Lexair Electronics, Marlene Kelly of Exhibit South, Sarah Webb of InTandem Promotions, Tammy Cohen of InfoMart and Alison O’Kelly of Corps Team. So, we are going to have a huge welcoming committee as well for all of the WDEs. And guess, what? You don’t necessarily have to be certified. We’re hoping that by you coming and enjoying this experience, you will see the value of why certification is a tool, a resource to give you access to the opportunities to grow your business.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:39] Yeah, this is a chance for you to get to know thousands of women business owners, hundreds of exhibitors. There’s going to be speakers, dozens of speakers. You are going to be — the people that kind of make the decisions in supplier diversity and procurement, and get to know these people, and see them face to face for the first time in years. So, if you’re thinking about owning a business, and you’re a woman, or you’re a student, or you’re anybody that’s thinking to go along this path, this is a must-attend event. This isn’t something that’s going to come along next year. They travel around the country. So, for it to be in your backyard today or even in the southeast, you’re going to have to wait a period of time for this to happen again. So, if you’re in the Southeast, I would highly recommend making the trip to Atlanta to attend this event. It’s a three-day event. And you’re going to learn stuff, you’re going to meet people, and this could change the course of your business.

Roz Lewis: [00:17:43] I agree. You know, it’s interesting that you said that. I always take it from the economic standpoint. Just think how much it would cost you to travel to meet that target customer, where you’re going to have all of these corporations and women businesses under one roof. And again, to your point, Lee, it’s in our backyard, right? It’s right here in our backyard. It’s a short distance travel from the Carolinas as well, or even the bordering states, right, of Alabama, or Tennessee or Florida. So, I would highly encourage any woman business that’s even thinking about the fact that she’s looking at expanding and growing, especially beyond the local market to attend this event. It’ll be well worth your marketing dollars.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:36] Yeah, this is — I mean, just think about it, if you just meet one contact that can give you business over the three days or learn one thing that can help your business, it pays for the whole event. I mean, it doesn’t take a lot to make this financially make sense to attend this event.

Roz Lewis: [00:18:57] No. And you will be able to identify and look online as well, you know, to map out. It’s called map your show, where you’re going to be able to even map out where those particular customers are that you’re targeting. That’s the beauty of it. You’ll get to experience pitch sessions that are going to take place, you know, as well.

The other thing, too, because I know people are thinking, “Well, wow, if all of this is happening in one space, you know, what about the noise?” Well, thank goodness for technology, we will have that taking care of too, where you’re going to basically receive an app and then earbuds, so that you can listen to the different inspiring and innovative, you know, keynote speeches that are going to take place at the different stages as you walk around.

So, again, I think more importantly, what you need to prepare for besides your capability statement is your energy level, because that’s something you’re going to need in order to navigate through the next three days. Or if your calendar doesn’t allow you to attend all three days, we do have day passes. But we encourage you to register. And registration for online closes on May 30th. So, keep that in mind. And if you miss that date, of course, we have on-site registration as well. So, please visit our website for more information about the conference, and that is www.gwbc.org for more information or wbenc.org for more information about the conference. But we hope we’re going to see you there.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:57] Yeah, G-

Roz Lewis: [00:20:57] We look forward to seeing you there.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:59] GWBC.org will get you to the GWBC website, and you can easily — on the front page is the link to get you over to the WBENC website to register for the event. And like I said before, if you’re a woman-owned business, if you are thinking about, you know, getting into your own business, maybe you’re in a corporate side right now and you’re thinking about getting into a business as a second act of your career, you have to attend this event. This is an event that can change your business. So, I highly recommend you go to GWBC.org, register for the event, and meet this wonderful community that’s so supportive, that’s so collaborative that it’s a bunch of women that are trying to help each other be better and be successful.

Roz Lewis: [00:21:48] Exactly. And, you know, one of the things, I know we’re constantly on women, women, women. You know, we have a he’s for she’s to lead. So, I want men to also understand and know, you know, this is information, yes, they can share with their wives or their significant others, their sisters, you know, or other female business partners. But, you know, this is an inclusive environment. So, we want to make sure that people understand that as well, is come and experience this opportunity right here that’s going to be held in Atlanta June 7th through the 9th, you know, this year. And again, to your point, it will move around the country. So, this would be the most economical time for you to take that opportunity to find out more about the Greater Women’s Business Council, the WBENC network of fabulous women businesses and corporate champions.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:52] Well, Roz, thank you so much for the work that you do. It’s so important to this community, to the GWBC members, to just — it’s so inspirational to be able to chat with you today and to hear your story. Thank you so much for the work you do. It’s important and we appreciate you.

Roz Lewis: [00:23:13] Well, thank you, Lee. And one more note I’m going to say, Business RadioX will be there at the conference.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:22] That’s right. We’ll be broadcasting, telling the stories of the members, sponsors and the key leaders that are going to be part of this event. So, we’re excited to be there, but this is a must-attend event. I can’t emphasize it enough. I’ve been telling so many people about it. I just hope people take advantage of this opportunity because, you know, when it comes to your backyard, this is when you’ve got to take action.

Roz Lewis: [00:23:47] Exactly, I agree. So, thank you, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:50] All right.

Roz Lewis: [00:23:51] I really appreciate it. And thank you to your audience.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:53] All right. This is Lee Kantor for GWBC Open for Business. We’ll see you all next time.

Tina Morris With AAPS

May 24, 2022 by Jacob Lapera

Association Leadership Radio

Tina Morris With AAPS

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Dr. Tina Morris is the Executive Director of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS).

She leads the staff team that supports all operational aspects of the Association and works with the AAPS Board of Directors and other Volunteer Leadership Committees on the strategic and direction-setting activities that guide the work of the scientific society. Prior to that, she was Vice President of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs at the Parenteral Drug Association (PDA).

Until 2018, Dr. Morris held several scientific senior leadership positions at the United States Pharmacopeia (USP), including as the Global Head of Biologics and Senior Vice President of Compendial Science. Before joining USP in 2003, Dr. Morris worked in the biopharmaceutical industry, with an expertise focus on analytical development and product characterization.

She completed her postdoctoral research at the National Institutes of Health. She holds a Ph.D. in molecular virology from the Medical University of Luebeck, Germany, and a master’s degree in biology from the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Germany.

Connect with Dr. Morris on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

Leading a scientific association at the interface of academia and industry – bringing the two worlds together
Leading an association in a changing association and business environment
Narrow vs. wide audience/membership
Building a scientific leadership pipeline with a diverse background

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 good one. Today on the show, we have Tina morris and she is with American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. Welcome, Tina.

Dr. Tina Morris: [00:00:31] Thank you, Lee. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:33] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about AARP’s. How are you serving folks?

Dr. Tina Morris: [00:00:39] So APS is a great association that was founded in 1989. We are an individual member based association of over 7000 members that span the entire pharmaceutical sciences, field industry, academia, regulatory and from students to executives.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:08] So it has its own unique challenges, I would guess, kind of when you’re trying to be the bridge between academia and industry. How do you kind of, you know, make everybody happy?

Dr. Tina Morris: [00:01:22] Well, that that’s the miracle everybody’s trying to achieve. Right. I always call it our our secret superpower, that we are so broad. But it’s a huge opportunity to really connect people across the career spectrum. It is a an area where we can really foster innovation because often, as you know, people work in silos and really don’t get to connect their science, their business with the folks they need to meet. But of course, it comes with its unique challenges because academicians and industry folks have their unique viewpoints, and that that sometimes creates very interesting discussions and challenges, especially when it comes to association governance sometime.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:17] So now any advice for other leaders of associations that are trying to kind of navigate a similar bridge between academia and industry or there are some things that you’ve learned that you’re like, Oh, I’ll do more of this and I’ll do less of this.

Dr. Tina Morris: [00:02:33] I think what we found with my team is the most important thing is really as as in in many situations, good volunteer training expectations, setting clarity around really what’s what the mission and the plan for the association is. We we were very fortunate that we had a we had an excellent strategic planning exercise recently. And if you end up with a good plan that everybody can get behind, it’s really, really helpful. And communication, communication. Communication, I think very important. It’s also important to have good balance in your leadership and good balance in your pipeline. Balance and diversity in your pipeline leadership is really important, but of course, sometimes also hard to achieve.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:33] Now, you mentioned that part of your constituents are students. How do you kind of include them in the pipeline and in the path to creating engagement for them at the beginning of their career so that they do see a path to stay connected and to engage with the association as they progress in their career.

Dr. Tina Morris: [00:03:55] A lot of it, of course, depends on in the academic with our academic members who are more senior to be very supportive of their students presenting at our conferences for students many times, and APS Conference is their first ever poster presentation submitting abstracts. We do also have a student support committee that really fosters the the student support and the student interaction and fellowship. We have student chapters at at many university hubs across the country. I think what is sometimes more challenging is not losing these members once they enter their careers, whatever those are. Because obviously if you finish graduate school and all of a sudden you have your first job, be it in academia and industry, you have other worries than being an association member. And so making sure that they stick with us and see the value, that’s that’s really important. We do offer a lot of career development and mentoring advice at APS. At our big conferences, we have mentoring breakfasts. We offer entry level volunteer opportunities for students to make sure that they do get connected to more senior leaders and really have the opportunity to build their own network within the association.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:35] And I think those mentoring opportunities are so important for young people to take advantage of because as they progress in their career, at some point they’re going to be the mentor. So for them to learn what a good mentor, how a good mentor behaves and how a bad one behaves, and to kind of be able to say which one they want to be, I think is super helpful as no matter what, like you said, no matter what direction their career goes in.

Dr. Tina Morris: [00:06:02] Exactly. That’s completely right. And I’m very fortunate, I have to say, that our our especially our board of directors, but also our some of our more other committees are very interested and committed to student mentoring. We never have trouble finding enough volunteers for that. More recently, a lot of conversations have circled around what we what we call nontraditional career paths, really, where people may start in academia, then they’ll jump into industry in the pharma side, sometimes jumping from the innovator into the supplier side. And what all those challenges are that now that career paths are not as straightforward as they used to be in our field. And I think there’s a lot of interest in young and even mid-career professionals to network and find mentors to help them navigate a very rapidly evolving career challenge.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:12] So do you feel that the industry and academia are kind of up for that challenge when there is this? Maybe it’s a different type of workforce in today’s world than there was pre-pandemic time?

Dr. Tina Morris: [00:07:25] Oh, it sure is. I think the the pandemic has created an entirely new set of challenges. Right. And in terms of it has made the employment market much, much more dynamic. It’s, of course, created a situation where lots of folks have worked remotely and virtually for an extended period of time. They typical networking venues and ways to connect with their peers and are not there or they’re only just now coming back. So yeah, it has, it has really changed the industry and it’s it’s changed how the associations, I think have to support their members. We have really made a big emphasis at APS during the pandemic to have meaningful year round virtual and digital offerings for our members, because that was a very challenging time. And just because you. You can have your big conferences or your workshops. Doesn’t mean you can’t just drop off the air. So we were actually since we’re on the radio, one of our one of our internal mantras was APS has to stay on the air during the pandemic. And I think our members really appreciated that.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:53] Right. And that’s what I’m I had a conversation this morning with an executive director of an association, and it was the same. These are as we come out of the pandemic, you have now the ramifications of so many remote workers now coming back and now they’re coming back not totally all the way that it’s a hybrid. So, you know, you have a whole new bucket of challenges to navigate. You know, as the the workplace has shifted so much and the value that the association brings to the table has shifted before, you know, you probably weren’t doing as much online, virtual, you know, as much as you were through the pandemic. And now that the pandemic is waning now, do you keep up that pace and the in-person like now you’ve got to find the balance there as well?

Dr. Tina Morris: [00:09:39] Yeah, for us it’s really been it’s been a fantastic laboratory and we have really developed a lot of and developed an increasing amount of value from that, not just for the interaction with our members. And in science, it’s actually extremely important to enable like a year round dialog and to be able to advance those scientific topics through different kinds of venues. And digital has been just fantastic for that. But we’ve also really it’s it’s really accelerated the way we interact with our partners because obviously we have not had a large conference during the pandemic. Our corporate partners couldn’t exhibit. And we have it’s really accelerated our transition to more a thought leadership consultative based approach where we’ve done webinars with our corporate partners, each talks and other content, and it’s enabled them to communicate with our members in a different way as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:53] Now, having gone through this and are coming out of this, how did you kind of keep everybody focused on the same true north? That was the mission of the association to begin with.

Dr. Tina Morris: [00:11:07] That’s a that’s a great question. I think we had an advantage because I think it helped that we were committed to our strategic planning exercise. So like right before the pandemic, our we had a leadership retreat in New Orleans and literally two weeks later, the pandemic hit and the board of directors and the entire association leadership stayed committed to really doing a strategic planning exercise. And it was incredibly hard. We did everything virtually. We had a wonderful facilitator, Richard Chang. But when you have those discussions during a changing environment, it really helps you focus. It really helps you focus on what are we all about, what do we need to do? And our mission is to bring scientists together across the development spectrum to really accelerate the development of medicines from from laboratory to patient. And that that was really incredibly strengthening. And it helped us a lot. It helped us focus through all the logistical and other challenges. But it is not easy now.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:27] Once you kind of land on that and you get buy in, what was the next step like? How did you kind of then have that messaging trickle down to everybody in the organization association?

Dr. Tina Morris: [00:12:41] We we have a community platform at APS. We actually have 42 online communities. Our community leadership gets together regularly and we’ve even through the pandemic, we’ve had the we’ve continued to have our leadership retreat. We did it virtually. But it really is it takes some time to for these messages to really sort of take root at every level of the organization. One of the best outcomes, I think, of our planning exercise was that we strengthened our governance a bit. We created several new committees that help the board be more effective in our governance. We created a scientific advisory committee, a DEI committee, and also really a strategy committee, which is called Horizon Planning Committees. So we’re trying to very much build continuity of thought and deliberateness into our governance. So also that there is not sort of this every time you have a board or a presidents rotation, you have these tectonic shifts in how the strategy or the path forward is interpreted.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:58] So now you mentioned DEI. Can you talk about how that’s going from a whiteboard to kind of a practice that’s happening in real life nowadays?

Dr. Tina Morris: [00:14:11] Yeah, we have one is to understand where where our members head is. And so we’ve we’ve done a survey exercise in 2020 and we refreshed that data very recently. The DEI committee also has they have liaisons in in our different committees where selections and nominations are made. And we talked earlier about assuring that we have a diverse pipeline. So for example, our nominations committee that deliberates our future board candidates, our awards committee that looks at our award nominations and our fellows committee that deliberates the candidacies for our highest honor, our designation as a society. Those committees all have liaisons from our DEI group, and they kind of they’re there. They’re following the discussions and sort of bringing back how that interaction is going. And I have to say that this has been really great because we see an increasing awareness in those groups to to really look at those slates and say, are we balanced? How can we have a better balance? I think what is what is more challenging for the long term and it’s going to really require a dedicated effort is really building that pipeline and making sure that across our spectrum of science, we really have we have members represented from diverse backgrounds. We pay much, much closer attention. When we recruit volunteers, that we blind the applications. We have a blinded application process and questionnaires so that when folks are being picked, there’s people can’t call up just their buddies or their favorite people. That assures that new voices are in the mix. But it’s a process. It’s a journey.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:31] Yeah, that’s always tricky because you want to be inclusive, but you also have to fill the slot.

Dr. Tina Morris: [00:16:38] Right?

Lee Kantor: [00:16:38] And and, you know, sometimes speed overrides being inclusive and it’s just making it a priority and just saying, no, this is not an area, you know, we have to and I love the idea of making it a blind, making it blind that way. It is, you know, kind of the fairest possible way. But also you’re not kind of just taking sometimes easy way out is go with the usual suspects that are the people that are closest to you.

Dr. Tina Morris: [00:17:06] Exactly. And that was not uncontroversial. Of course, as you can imagine, in a scientific society, we have a lot of folks who have a a deep professional network and everybody knows sort of their their set of experts in the area. But you can only keep an organization like this fresh if you really if you have mechanisms to to bring new, new voices into the mix.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:36] Yeah. And I think that that’s really wise of you to, to be aware of that because a lot of people, they don’t you have to be kind of mindful of this and and put systems in place to address it. Otherwise, the easiest thing is going me going to the person I know I can count on that I always go to. And then if everybody’s always doing that, you are getting the same kind of faces around the table where if you do it with intentionality like you’re talking about, you bring in fresh faces that keeps the association thriving and you’re adding people that aren’t necessarily always the regulars. So I think that’s fantastic.

Dr. Tina Morris: [00:18:17] Yeah, that’s one of the things we have we have implemented a couple of years ago. And I would say in general, I think it’s important to make sure that the governance mechanisms and policies are regularly reviewed. I joined APS on staff two years ago. I’ve been a member for a long time, but one of the asks from the board at the time was that all our contracts and services be reviewed that we currently have on the operational side, which is completely reasonable. But at the same time you have to treat your volunteer mechanisms the same way. I feel like because our the environment is evolving, the goals of the association have to evolve with it and you have to make sure that the governance mechanisms really support you in carrying that out, because otherwise it’s a battle every single time you make a change.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:17] So when you took over as leader, was there a moment where you were like, okay, I have a good handle on this. I’m starting to get traction. I feel like that I’m going to make that impact that I envision making.

Dr. Tina Morris: [00:19:30] It’s that’s an interesting question because my my first week on the job was already in the pandemic. So there has been not a single, quote unquote, normal day on my job. I think my my senior staff team had had a very organized plan for me for the first week in the office, and that all went out the window once COVID hit. And we had to pivot very, very quickly to to deal with the evolving situation. So I think we’ve made a lot of progress. It’s. I think in general, I never feel like I can just settle in and and, you know, things are things are on autopilot. I don’t know if anybody can do that these days in the association space, but it’s been a wonderful it’s been a wonderful journey. And there’s never a dull moment at APS, that’s for sure.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:34] Now, any advice? We talked a little about young people, but it’s so important for me to to get young people to pay attention to this, because I think associations are critical, part of a successful career no matter what industry you’re in, really, because the association to me is the center of influence that are kind of role modeling behaviors. They should be ahead of the curve. They should be the ones that are giving the best example of how to be and what you could be. And it’s a place to collaborate and to educate yourself. So I’m always for young people getting involved in their association and leaning into it. So any advice for that young person who, like you said, they get they get it. The importance when they’re young, you know, in college, because, hey, this is where all the people are in the jobs are. But once they get the job, they’re like, well, I’m busy. I got, you know, a life here. I don’t have time to go to these meetings. But what advice would you give that person to stay involved in their association and to kind of lean into the leadership opportunities there? Because I think that it’s critical for a successful career. And really that gives you a mechanism to give back and to really pay it forward in your career.

Dr. Tina Morris: [00:21:45] Right. I would say you never know what you don’t know. And I think going going out there, engaging in your association, networking with your peers sometimes across disciplines or areas, is so important because it opens your eyes to what you maybe should be doing or should be learning. And I would just say a career has many turns and you never know if that connection or that skill that you learn because you involved yourself in something that you you were able to do it. Your association sometimes may pay you back ten, 15 years down the road because you met people or you you learned a skill that you never thought you’d need. And it’s there and you have it because you’ve got involved in something that may not have been directly related to what you’re doing right now. And that’s what I that’s what I tell our members and especially scientists in some areas of pharma development get very, very deep and very narrow. And I always tell them, go, go into a track where you know nothing. If you’re an analytical scientist, go, go, listen to a clinical study, go, go, go to regulatory, do something completely different. And you may discover that maybe I should change something, maybe I should get involved with that. Maybe I should learn that. Maybe I should meet people in that space. Right. And it’s a really it’s a huge growth opportunity, both in terms of leadership, but also other aspects of your professional life. So I always encourage that.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:34] So what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Dr. Tina Morris: [00:23:38] We always we always would love to see more members, people get involved with apps. We think we really have great value to provide. We’re great association. You know, pharmaceutical scientists are not as nerdy as you think. And also we have we have a great team. I’m going to make a small pitch at the end. Two of my senior staff, Troy Davis, who’s our managing director of member products, and Eric Burns, who’s our senior director of corporate engagement. They’re going to be at the mid-Atlantic Society of Association Executives at their mid-year meeting in Philly in June. So if you have listeners who want to want to meet them there, they’re fantastic. They I would say they’re key architects in of change at apps and keeping us at the leading edge of association leaderships. So they’re out there, they’re doing a dynamic duo presentation. I can only recommend it. They’re fantastic. Yeah. Anybody who is out in our field check us out. We’re great association. I’d love to have have you on board.

Lee Kantor: [00:25:03] Well, you’re doing important work. And we appreciate you, Tina, if somebody wants to connect with you. Or learn more about the association. What’s the association’s website.

Dr. Tina Morris: [00:25:15] It’s apps dot org and on Twitter we are at at apps comms can find us on LinkedIn. I’m on LinkedIn as well. And yeah, we have I think our our website is the key to all our offerings, e-learning, our peer reviewed journals, our conferences for potential corporate partners in our space. We have a business development page. There’s a lot of resources right there at apps dot org.

Lee Kantor: [00:25:49] Well, thank you so much again for sharing your story. Like I said, you’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Dr. Tina Morris: [00:25:55] Thank you so much, Lee. Thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:25:57] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We we’ll see you next time on the Association Leadership Radio.

John Palumbo With A&W Restaurants

May 23, 2022 by Jacob Lapera

Franchise Marketing Radio

John Palumbo With A&W Restaurants

00:00 /

Brought To You By SeoSamba . . . Comprehensive, High Performing Marketing Solutions For Mature And Emerging Franchise Brands . . . To Supercharge Your Franchise Marketing, Go To seosamba.com.

John Palumbo, Sr. Director Franchise Development at A&W Restaurants

Throughout his 20-year career, he has had the great opportunity to work with some remarkable brands and companies in the QSR, Finance, and Education categories. Still to this day, the most amazing part of what he does remains to help people. The joy of watching new franchise owners gain entry to entrepreneurship is still as exciting as it was 20 years ago.

He had the great fortune to learn under some wonderful leaders and mentors. He led large teams and small teams. He developed new restaurants both domestically and internationally in both the traditional and non-traditional space. His area of responsibilities and expertise include New Development, Real Estate, and Franchise Financing.

He is truly blessed to do what he does every day for a remarkable, Legacy Brand like A&W Restaurants, the best is yet to come!

Connect with John on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

The Century-Old Franchise Brand Continues To Find Opportunities For Growth As It Nears Its 1,000th Franchise Location
Success And Growth Strategy

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:07] Welcome to Franchise Marketing Radio. Brought to you by SeoSamba comprehensive high performing marketing solutions for mature and emerging franchise brands. To supercharge your franchise marketing, go to seosamba.com. That’s seosamba.com.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:32] Lee Kantor here another episode of Franchise Marketing Radio and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have John Palumbo and he is with A&W Restaurants. Welcome, John.

John Palumbo: [00:00:43] Hey, Lee, thank you so much.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] Well, for the two people out there who aren’t familiar, tell us a little bit about AMW restaurants. I mean, this is a brand that’s been around for probably a is it over 100 years or it’s close to 100 years?

John Palumbo: [00:00:58] Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. And so you’ve heard the saying as old as sliced bread. Well, we may be older, actually. We’re over 100 years old, 102 years old now, and have reinvented ourself, like most folks do over the course of a decade, let alone ten decades. And so we’re excited about where we are today. And yeah, we are over 100 years old.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:22] So can you tell us about the history of the brand? It’s like how did it originate and how did it get to the point where it is today?

John Palumbo: [00:01:30] Yeah, sure, sure. So we we started in 1919 and it’s hard to get those words out 1919. And I started out as a as a hamburger and root beer stand. And after a few years or so, we wound up going into the franchising business. And ironically, one of the first franchisees, a little known fact, was J.W. Marriott. And so once we began the franchising of the brand, it just took off from there. And we’ve been through quite a few different iterations of this brand in terms of geography, in terms of the look, in the feel of it, in terms of ownership. And really all of it has brought us to where we are today. Lee And again, just a phenomenal brand, a legacy brand. And we couldn’t be more proud of this of this opportunity and where we are.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:35] So how does the beverage tie into this?

John Palumbo: [00:02:39] Yeah. So A and W root beer is made fresh in our stores every day. And so if you come into an A and one of our restaurants, you will get a craft beverage in a frosty mug poured out of a tap. That’s consistent today as it was many years ago. When you see our AMW in the can, so to speak, on the shelves, it’s just a different product, obviously, because it’s not made fresh in-store and and served to you as a customer and a frosty mug. So that is a real big differentiator, frankly, not just between the and canned beverage, but just really the beverage in general that you’ll get in a restaurant. It’s phenomenal. And it’s what folks most recognize about us. It’s iconic, as is the frosty mug. And it’s what, probably the single most well, not probably it is the single most recognizable attribute of our brand that folks talk about.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:44] And so that’s been around since the very beginning.

John Palumbo: [00:03:47] It has. Yep.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:48] So the which came first, the root beer or the restaurant?

John Palumbo: [00:03:53] Okay. That’s a good question. The chicken or the egg? Yeah. So kind of parallel paths, really. You know, I, I guess you could suggest the root beer. However, again, they sort of came down the same track together, neck and neck, so to speak. But certainly the delivery of the beverage and the menu innovation over, over 100 years has certainly changed. I mean, it’s changed over the last five years, you know, but what’s remained consistent is the is our beverage is our AMW root beer made it store.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:35] Now as you kind of near your thousandth, I think, franchise location, how has the franchising industry changed for you guys? Has it always you know, I’m sure at the beginning you were partnering with brands like J.W. Marriott. So, I mean, you must have been thinking big. Or from go, you know, most brands start out with, you know, their cousin two states down.

John Palumbo: [00:05:01] Hmm. Yeah, well, I wish I wish I could tell you that we had the roadmap in 1919 to where we would be today, and we knew it then, but we did. And I think our first franchisee, as I mentioned, Mr. Marriott, was it was just by happenstance, you know, and so we kind of crawled into franchising like a lot of brands do. You know, you start with a great concept and an idea and next thing you know, someone really enjoys what you’re doing. And then they want to they want to do it as well and be their own boss. And next thing you know, you have two or three restaurants and then then you’re franchising. And so truly that that path is not so unique for us as many others. But but yeah, we definitely have had a few different roles. We’ve traveled as a, as a, as a brand and as a company. And so where we are today as we are owned, owned and operated lead by our franchise partners, and that’s been for the past ten years. So it’s a very unique ownership structure, not always the case. As you probably know, we’ve started as an independent and went through a couple of different structures. And most recently before we became an independent brand, we were owned by Yum! Brands is where you’ll see some of our and still co-branded with some of the Yum Yum entities. And then ten years ago, we’ve just over ten years we are franchise community got together and with our largest international partner and brought the brand back. And so when we say we have franchise partners, we really do have franchise partners that have a voice and everything we do. And that’s a unique structure and again, a very different path than we were on over 100 years ago.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:59] So now when you are, that is a unique way to kind of do business. Can you talk about how practically that works when when all of the franchisees are the franchise owners? Is what franchise owners how does that you know, how do you do your job? Like, who’s your boss?

John Palumbo: [00:07:17] Yeah, sure. Excuse me? Yeah, sure. So we have a board, right? And so there’s elections and franchise partners run for elections to have voices and and a say on the board. And so. Rw Our restaurant support center, our executive team has a seat on the board as well, and it becomes a collaborative effort with voting privileges. And, and really it works, works unbelievably well because our, our focus every single day is how do we increase our same store sales in a profitable manner, and how do we grow our footprint and add in a responsible growth manner new restaurants that are profitable. And that’s our only focus. And our franchisees, again, have a voice in some of that. And so it’s it’s been a wonderful ride for us. We couldn’t be happier with the structure. In fact, our same store sales are up over 67% over the last ten years. So that’s pre and post COVID, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:08:25] So yeah, that’s amazing. Is that so like if I’m a new franchisee, I am also the franchise or I’m part of that collaborative group as well.

John Palumbo: [00:08:36] Yeah. And so right. So you have a co-op as a co-operative and you have a folks again get a vote in different initiatives with the brand. It’s not a simple process in terms of hiring and necessarily hiring and firing on the executive level. Right. But but yeah, absolutely. We’re going to switch out a bun or we want to change our fry manufacturer. We have our National Franchise Association on the board that will have a say and a voice in all of that. Absolutely. We don’t typically just make unilateral changes. And I’ll tell you, you know, in terms of the we have differences and there should be some good healthy debate among in any work environment. But we’re really singing from the same songbook, so to speak, because our interests are all aligned. It’s not about how much top line sales, how fast can we grow top line sales so we can generate that royalty revenue for us as a franchisor, it’s how fast can we raise our top line profitable sales. And so that’s really our focus. It’s every day, it’s what we do. We live and we breathe it. And again, it’s a structure that. It’s unique to me. I’ve been doing this for 20 years and in the QSR world, and I wouldn’t change to change it. Frankly, the structure we’re in here, it’s just it’s been phenomenal.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:12] Well, it sounds very refreshing. I mean, like because you you hear sometimes in this industry, there’s some adversarial relationship between the franchisor and the franchisee. But if everybody is in the same boat and everybody’s winning when everybody’s winning, I mean, that’s a game changer.

John Palumbo: [00:10:28] It is it is a game changer. And there’s some some some nuances, of course, to the to the structure. But but yeah, 100%. I mean, it’s it doesn’t benefit any of us to just increase top line sales without having our franchisees be profitable. And that’s intuitively you say, well, sure, of course, John. You know, but it’s not always the case. And we don’t our distribution channel isn’t a revenue stream. We don’t have rebates that come to us. It’s a very different refreshingly is a good word environment to be a part of it. And quite frankly, where the brand is growing at a rate now that we haven’t seen and it’s not by accident. But again, we’ll go in attracting the right types of franchise candidates or existing franchise owners who have been, in some cases quite literally for generations, are growing still. And there’s no bigger endorsement for the brand when you have a third or fourth generation franchisee looking to do something new and develop a new restaurant.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:42] So now do you think that other QSRs are going to follow this path?

John Palumbo: [00:11:47] I don’t know. You know, I think it’s. You know, I think it’s it’s possible. Sure. I don’t have the pulse of necessarily of some of the folks in the industry that we network with to say. But I mean, I, I would imagine it’s an option. You know.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:09] What’s it like? What’s it like when you’re talking to a franchisee and you explain this configuration? I mean, if they’ve been in the business for any length of time, this is kind of it’s news to them, right, about how this is operated.

John Palumbo: [00:12:22] Yeah, it’s a different kind of deal. Right. So it’s and to be clear, it’s the the part the ownership in the as a franchisee with our company, when we say franchise partners, again, it’s there are some nuances to the agreement which we won’t necessarily dove into in great detail in an effort not to bore everybody. But but but yeah, there is it’s a different deal when we see common stock. What I don’t understand. So I got to sign up for common stock, you know. Well, yeah, because you have an ownership stake and you have a say and you have a voice. You’ll have an elected official who will vote for your region. We have regional if you think about it as a a Congress, US Congress, you have a House of Representatives that represents a district. It’s no different than there’s voting privileges. And you vote that person in and they vote on behalf of this group of stores for different things. And, and yeah, it’s a real collaborative effort and it’s not, you know, has not gotten in the way like even one iota of growth or decision making.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:29] It’s an amazing story and it’s fascinating to me that you’re able to pull this off. Congratulations. So now you mentioned that things are are going pretty well right now. Like, can you talk about any like where I guess we’re now into the second quarter and coming out of a pandemic? What what’s kind of your growth path looking like, you know, as we move forward in this year?

John Palumbo: [00:13:55] Yeah, sure. So we again, we our same store sales continue to climb and they have again 21 over 20. And then as I mentioned earlier, 67, 67% over the last ten years. But as we come out of Q1, as it relates to new franchise growth, we have seven new awards that were issued in Q1 or franchise agreements, and we do call them awards purposely because we feel like that’s we don’t just look to sell something to someone. We want to award a franchise to someone. And and so we we have aq1. We did seven new awards and we have a very humble and very conservative growth goals when it comes to development. And so we’re actually ahead of our quarterly year to date growth, and we anticipate 20 to 25 new commitments this year and we’ll open up over ten new restaurants across the country. And for us, that’s a real good pace. It’s hopefully ten profitable restaurants that are in the right parts of the country where people want us. And so our pipeline of new openings that are on the horizon and our pipeline for new candidates I want to come into the brand are both very strong. And so we couldn’t be really we couldn’t be more excited for where we are right now. And the nice thing is there’s a lot of green grass. So as folks learn more about AMW and it’s crazy to say right at 100 years old, but there are some some folks that are just coming around at second, third generation to AMW and we’re excited to reintroduce them and their families to our brand again. And and so that’s been has been wonderful, our product innovation. So our chicken tenders are fresh, they’re not frozen, they’re hand-breaded to order. They’re the best in the industry. And I don’t say that because I’m working here talking to you, but I will tell you, they are the best in the industry. They literally are fresh hand-breaded and served to you hot out of the fryer. It’s a real difference. We’re we’re a quality proposition. We’re not a value proposition for the consumer. And that’s really resonated now.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:20] Has the pandemic changed, like the footprint of the store with the delivery, with carryout, with drive thru, like? Is anything changed from that standpoint?

John Palumbo: [00:16:29] Yeah, it’s interesting. Right. So we, we’ve, we’ve certainly engaged all third party delivery platforms and we have as you look back at some of the data kind of post pandemic, I say that carefully post pandemic. But we didn’t have a. Huge percentage of of our sales that were delivery. That said, once we reopened our dining rooms, our business came back into the dining rooms almost to in some cases, more to a higher level where it was pre-pandemic. And a big driver of that, again, Lee, is the frosty mug. Every every patron, every customer, we call them fans of the brand come up when they place an order and they get a frosty mug where they get to pour their AMW out of a tap that was made that morning. And that’s hard to duplicate out of a drive thru window. So. So to answer your question, our footprint has stayed the same, actually more 2176 square feet. That’s our building. We’re on about three quarters of an acre property. We do have a nontraditional platform. So we can go smaller. We can go into some malls where we have a first and going into a Walmart location in Rock Hill, South Carolina. But for the most part, what our brand is a is a freestanding drive thru destination. Folks that come on in and try not only our root beer float but our full sweets and treats line. And again, that’s just hard to do outside of a window. So we don’t expect to shrink down our footprint really anytime soon.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:14] So has the ideal kind of franchisee changed?

John Palumbo: [00:18:21] Yeah. No, I mean, not not necessarily really know. We have always looked for the same type of person, really. And it’s that someone who has some sort of leadership experience, it doesn’t have to be food experience. Folks who are open to learning and embracing a franchise or franchisee relationship. Someone looking to be in business for themself, not by themselves. All of that remains the same, you know, in terms of the financial DNA of our candidates. That changes a little bit. But then again, it changes really every year with every Fed increase or decrease or, you know, liquidity injection requirements in the bank, things like that, that kind of bobs and weaves a little bit. But at the end of the day, financing aside, what we’re looking for is still that someone who’s excited and passionate about the industry and our brand and and someone who wants to learn and wants to be hands on. We’re not a passive investment for sure. So so it has to be someone who really wants to roll up their sleeves and come together with a team. And and maybe it’s not the franchisee who’s the day to day, but they would have an operator with them who’s a day to day person. And so that’s kind of what we look for. So I think the profile has really stayed the same.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:49] Now, you mentioned the previous partnership with Yum, is that person that’s buying now. Do they have complementary brands that this is just added to their portfolio or are you getting kind of the the super fan? A and W I’m all in on AMW.

John Palumbo: [00:20:06] Yeah. So we get both really, which is is great. So we have folks who are multi unit candidates. In fact, we just had a discovery day yesterday with a large group over 25 restaurants and with a different, different non competing brand that is looking to do something on a larger level with AMW in the Upper Midwest. And so then we have folks, to your point, us love the brand. They grew up with the brand and maybe they’ve done something else in their life and they want to transition. Now, when they decided AMW was right for them and and then so they they came in with a one store opportunity and and that’s great, too, right? One at a time. And so we’re open to all types of structures in that way as long as that those basic requirements that get outside of the financial stability, of course. But those traits that we talked about previous, the willingness to learn and the ability to get be hands on and work with people and things like that are just super important.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:11] Now are you looking to grow only here in America, or is this kind of the world’s your oyster at this point? And you just you know, if somebody has an interest anywhere on the planet, you guys will have conversation.

John Palumbo: [00:21:23] Yeah. So one of our we do have international development and that’s actually a separate arm of AMW call us. So we have over 400 stores now internationally to do very well, actually. And so so I guess the answer is yes, we are growing internationally, but it isn’t through the US arm and we feel the interest internationally and that gets sent. Which by us partners who are one company is all still one company, but it’s just handled separately. And so yeah.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:57] So you’re in the US, you’re looking at the entire country. I’m sure you have a presence everywhere right now, right or no.

John Palumbo: [00:22:05] Yeah, we do. We have we have this this is about five states or so we’re not in yet. However, predominantly in the southeast, though, we do have restaurants scheduled to open in some of them. And so but yeah, and we’re more heavily penetrated in the upper Midwest for sure. But yes, we do have a presence in some way, shape or form throughout the US, but we have opportunities to grow our freestanding drive thru restaurant or base platform in every state across the country. And and what’s nice about that too is we when we separated from Yum! Brands and again now it’s just over ten years, we maintain the distribution contact. And so we’re we’re still part of the RSC’S, which is the Restaurant Support Center. And it’s it’s just been a phenomenal relationship. It’s the largest purchasing co op in the food world, QSR world. And so what that means to us is when we buy our ground beef or chicken, we’re buying it with the buying power of the entire system. And so that’s a little known fact. But when you talk about food costs and you’re really getting in the weeds of it all, that’s invaluable to our franchisees profitability. And so and something we’re proud, happy to be still be a part of and maintain that relationship. And it’s again, you couldn’t you couldn’t enjoy the buying power of a brand our size without the risks.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:38] Yeah, it’s a little thing that’s a big thing.

John Palumbo: [00:23:41] It’s a little thing that’s a really big thing. And also consistency through the distribution challenges and supply chain. Having some folks that are kind of ahead of the ahead of the curve a little bit on some stuff is helpful. Not that we haven’t had distribution challenges everyone has, but we were far less impacted, quite frankly, than some other folks, unfortunately. And I do mean that unfortunately even though the competitors. But so that’s a huge advantage to getting product in a door and getting it at the right price for us and for our franchisees has been invaluable with the RSC as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:19] Congratulations on all the success. If somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on your team, what’s the website?

John Palumbo: [00:24:27] Yeah, so it’s a W franchising dot com. We love to chat with some folks or certainly they can email me at Jay Palumbo at eight restaurants dot com.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:40] Well, John, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

John Palumbo: [00:24:45] Thank you, Lee. Thank you so much.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:47] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll all next time on franchise marketing radio.

Richard Hawkes With Growth River

May 20, 2022 by Jacob Lapera

Association Leadership Radio

Richard Hawkes With Growth River

00:00 /

Richard Hawkes, MBA, is the founder of Growth River LLC, an international consultancy that systematically guides change journeys to higher performance in businesses and organizations. Its practical mission is to make unleashing people-centric performance easier.

He has worked with hundreds of leaders and teams to improve clarity of purpose, collective happiness, team alignment, business growth, and competitive advantage. He sees purpose-driven, customer-focused, multi-stakeholder businesses as our best bet for solving the big problems. His recent book “Navigate the Swirl” is widely available.

Connect with Richard on Facebook and LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

“Navigate the Swirl”
Many of the approaches to getting companies “unstuck” treat businesses like machines
“High-performing teams” are the “secret agents” of transformation
The first step to take if your organization is caught up in the Swirl

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 good one, so make sure you got a pad of paper and a pencil handy because you’re going to learn some stuff and take some good notes. Today on the show, we have Richard Hawkes and he is with Growth River and he’s here to talk about his new book, Navigate the Swirl. Welcome, Richard.

Richard Hawkes: [00:00:38] Hi. Welcome. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:39] Well, I’m excited to learn about Growth River. First, let’s start there. How are you serving folks?

Richard Hawkes: [00:00:46] So we provide consulting services to take leadership teams on transformational journeys. And what that really means is we help them come together as in teams, and then we help those teams lead their organizations with other teams through radical change, restructuring the organization, digital transformation. And we touch on all of the topics related in there, especially around leadership and culture, capabilities and roles, strategies and customer experience that full dimension.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:24] So what is the type of pain that they’re having when they go, you know what, maybe we should call the growth river folks.

Richard Hawkes: [00:01:32] Well, it depends on what lifecycle stage they’re in, but very often they’re in a in a in a caught up in a situation where they are feeling the swirl of the book. The book that I’ve written is called Navigate the Swirl. And the Swirl is that feeling of being caught up in always another drama, always another priority. But do we all know where it’s really headed? Is it worth it? So, so we get brought in when teams are in that kind of a situation and they really need to be able to get their head heads above water and get on the same page with each other so they can be on a on a journey together. So that’s the pain point.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:12] So now you call it the swirl. I’ve heard a lot of folks call it being stuck. You know, they get into this I don’t want to say it’s a death spiral, but it’s it’s kind of a Groundhog Day kind of situation where it doesn’t feel like they’re making that much progress. So they’re doing a lot of work and they’re busy, as all can be. And that but but there could be kind of systemic problems. How do you kind of jump in to kind of get the lay of the land so you can help them get back to their true north, which sometimes they kind of lose track of?

Richard Hawkes: [00:02:47] Well. So the first thing to know is. Is that these are social systems, right? So people are often caught up in a swirl because leadership or management think of a company as as as a machine. Right. So so what happens is, is there’s they’re thinking, okay, so the small group at the top is kind of they’re sort of be the engineers and then everyone else is like a part. And then what happens is, is that. Those parts really need to comply with their roles and and and not really change too many things. What happens is when you’re caught up in the swirl, it’s usually because the conversations about what changes need to happen, how they need to happen, and how we’re going to do them together. The capacity for that is missing. So the first thing we end up doing, we start with is helping them understand their organization as a social system and understand how that system changes and how it changes through conversations. How do you have those conversations? What are those conversations? And then we introduce an approach called the Seven Crucial Conversations, which basically says, had the first two of those are about purpose. And well, first three purpose and focus in mindset. They’re about how do we navigate all this together? And then that takes you into other ones around roles and capabilities and interdependencies and then into strategies and implementation. And so as. Leaders and teams go through these conversations, they actually begin to create all the agreements with each other that enable them to get out of this world. And and that’s sort of how it happens. It happens person to person, individual to individual, group to group, alignment occurs, agreements are created, and you find yourself being able to get out of this world. Because the thing about the swirl is you can’t escape it alone. You can only escape it by talking to other people and figuring out a way to get out of it together, because it’s really caused by the systems within which you are all participating together.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:59] Now, is this just an inherently human situation in terms of when you have like if you’re a solopreneur and it’s just you, there’s no issue with communication, right? You know what you’re going to do? You know what you’re responsible for. There’s pretty good clarity there. Now you bring on a second person and you might have a division of labor and then that, you know, you could have some friction, but there’s clarity there. But once your organization gets to a certain size, is this just kind of built in? Like, it’s not a bug, it’s a feature of just having lots of humans together, no matter what the task is that communication is going to break down, people are going to communicate, they’re going to not have clarity and that they need to kind of reset or put kind of proactively put systems in place to help keep that part running smoothly, or else you are liable to kind of get into that swirl sooner than later.

Richard Hawkes: [00:05:55] So yeah, I mean, you’re exactly right. So there are definitely points in time as organizations grow where the complexity kind of has a leap and you need to figure out how to organize in different ways. And they definitely occur when you have one or two people. It’s a different game than suddenly when you have five. Exactly where those breakpoints are. I’m not sure. I remember somebody saying, you know, for their business, there was a breakpoint at three people and then there was a breakpoint at nine people. And then there was a really significant breakpoint when they got to be around 20 people. What I can say is that that I’ve taken worked with organizations on their entire life cycle. So I started out with one company and we started with four scientists in a lab, and over 18 years we grew that company into one of the largest global players in its space. And in the end, they had. Facilities all over China and Europe and the US. And you know, at each of these break points as the company got larger and larger. The real challenge was, well, how do we organize to handle greater degrees of speed and complexity? And the real challenge, once you get past one or two people.

Richard Hawkes: [00:07:23] The challenge is it’s always the same challenge, which is how do you get better at distributed leadership? How do we get better at all of us playing full out from the perspective of from the roles that we play, playing those roles full out, having those roles align with our own purposes and how do we play them in relationship to the other roles in the system for the good of the whole, and what is the good of the whole even mean? So that’s those are sort of the questions that come up no matter what. When you’re alone, you can answer them for yourself. Get two people together. You have to answer it for both of you. Get five people together. It’s a little harder to answer those questions. But what I can say is that unless you answer those questions, well, you’re you’re going to be unable to adapt and move and sort of fly in formation with each other. And the book lays those out. And it actually lays out that that journey as well from small company or small association to to something much, much larger. And it helps you sort of see the different ways in which you would need to organize, depending on how big the challenge is.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:39] Now, is this an issue that ideally should be handled like before you hire the leader to make sure that that everybody is on the same page and that everybody knows what is expected and what they want to accomplish? Or is this something that if you hire a leader, you can kind of move them into this proper mindset in order to be successful within the organization?

Richard Hawkes: [00:09:07] So leadership is really, really important. And so the very first of those seven conversations, the activating purpose conversation, a big part of that is actually about leadership. And you need to teams need to have leaders and the leaders need to be accountable for the team’s performance and accountable for the working environment within within the team, how the team members interact with each other. If you don’t have that, you don’t get a team, you get something more akin to a work group. But you don’t really unlock this kind of let’s work independently in a highly effective way. That typically doesn’t happen without a leader in charge. So if you’re an entrepreneur, a single shingle, and you start building a team, the place you have to really start is looking at your own, your own leadership and your own capacity to lead. And you need to start taking accountability for for building that team. And one other thing is there’s this thing called leadership clearing. And clearing is a really interesting idea. So, so way to think about it is imagine you’ve got a jungle and and, you know, in the middle of the jungle, somebody clears away the trees.

Richard Hawkes: [00:10:25] So there’s this sort of shaft of light that comes down you’re clearing. And all the people who are stuck out in the darkness of that jungle are getting attracted to this clearing. That clearing is your purpose. That clearing is is the the purpose of your organization, that thing you’re there to do together. The moment you own a clearing and people start coming into that clearing and you’re the leader, you’ve got a bunch of choices to take. You’ve got to decide, Well, how do we organize everybody to keep the jungle from devastating it? How do I make sure someone doesn’t take this clearing and hijack it for another purpose? And, you know, and how do I create the conditions for people to come into the middle and sit and bask in the sunshine but don’t help? How do I exit them? These are just the basic choices. And without that kind of leadership mechanism in place, you really don’t you can’t really build an organization or even a team.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:25] Now, as a leader of an organization or leading a team, how important is it to instill that philosophy of leadership within each of your team members to give them the opportunity to lead if they so desire, but also the opportunity to be, you know, kind of that good soldier, if that’s the path they desire.

Richard Hawkes: [00:11:48] Well. Right. So. So. So. On one end you have. The quest is for distributed leadership. So the optimal situation would be everybody is a leader and it’s all leaders, leading leaders, right? We’re all able to both be leaders and followers and we’re all able to really step up and and and lead others to to greater levels of performance that would be ideal. Usually that’s you know, that’s what you want. But usually you don’t have as many people who have that skill set, right? That’s usually a limited or a scarce skill set. So you’re on the other side of the spectrum with one leader and who’s more capable and other other folks who are less able to lead. And so what you ideally need to be able to do as a leader is find ways to develop the leaders around you so they can lead to, and that allows you to grow and scale your company. And it also ideally unlocks innovation, creativity, participation, because the whole reason that we come together to work is so that we can accomplish more together than we could alone. If the whole thing is, it’s just everyone’s just a straight extension of your thinking. Are you really creating a situation where the whole is more than the sum of the parts? That’s the that’s the promise of of leadership. So did I answer your question?

Lee Kantor: [00:13:21] Yeah. I’m just trying to get clear in today’s world where there’s so much remote work happening and people are kind of in this free agent mindset, at least where they want to have flexibility, they want to do what they want to do. Their their place of work is for a lot of people, a place of work. And they want to it’s almost as a project, the leader of a project more so than the a, you know, a part of a larger organization. They might be part of several organizations. So if the intention is to find leaders within that subset of your workforce, a lot of them, I would think, don’t want to be leaders. They just want to, you know, just give me my bag of Cheetos and Red Bull and let me do what I do, and then I’ll deliver what you need me to deliver.

Richard Hawkes: [00:14:10] Yeah. I mean, so so it’s all a conversation. So, yes, there are going to be people who want their Cheetos and Red Bull. Is that any different than people who wanted to show up at the factory and spend X number of hours a day on the assembly line and then go home and never wanted to be the foreman or the it’s it’s it’s this that that dynamic of some people wanting to be leaders and some people just wanting to be workers has existed for existed forever. I think the question is, is for those who do want to be leaders and some people, that’s actually what they want and it’s not everybody. The question is, is how do you recognize them and how do you have a conversation with them that actually allows you as a as the owner of a company or the leader of a company or of an organization to to then give those people a chance to develop as leaders.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:13] Right. And I’m not disputing that part. I think that from an organization standpoint, I would I agree with you wholeheartedly. I want all of my people to be leaders and give them the skills to be as good of a leader as they possibly can be. I mean, I don’t think anybody is arguing that. But in an organizations today and especially in associations today, there are some people that just want to get paid, do their job and leave me alone. You know, like I understand what you need from me. I will do that. And you might wish that I was a leader and that I’m excited about going down this career path within the organization and lead people and do all that stuff. But for me today, I just want to do my job and then call it a day.

Richard Hawkes: [00:16:01] So. So I think what you’re pointing to is actually another word, which is which is the word manager. Right. And it’s funny how people tend not to use that word as much today, but, you know, in a situation where you have workers, you just want to show up and just do the work. Then you need a manager to organize all of that work and to basically enable those workers to do that. And so. Right, so so that’s what you do. You just need managers. You need managers who are going to actually manage the work, organize the work, track the work and enable the business or the association or the to get a fair return on on on those those workers doing that work. I think what is what is interesting is that that I think there’s sort of a. There is a different social contract then than than than the time in which those words were really where they really come from. And something has changed about people’s expectations, about the work they do, their ability to do work that aligns with their own personal purposes and their willingness to just move and ability to just move to if their needs aren’t getting met to something else. And it feels like that might be what you’re pointing to.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:25] Well, I’m just trying to understand, because you said the optimal is everybody’s a leader, that I’m training a bunch of leaders to be leaders. And is is that if that’s the if that’s the objective, then how do you account for some portion of your workforce that really doesn’t want to buy into that, that they just want to just do what they’re doing? And is that something that maybe I shouldn’t hire those people? Maybe that’s the answer, is that, look, maybe that’s part of your problem while you’re in this world is you got too many of those people and you need to aim a little higher.

Richard Hawkes: [00:17:58] No, I think I think that’s that’s exactly right. So so but here’s the challenge. So we start this is different when you’re talking about really small companies, but as they get as they get larger, you’ve got to have people leading different areas. You have to have people leading and managing. Otherwise it doesn’t hold together. And and the question is, is how do you create roles for those folks and and and scale that so often what happens is right. So I’ll start out with one team. The team has a leader, a little company, and it’s just just us, just our management team. And then the team gets to be the organization gets a little bit bigger. And I actually now have a senior team and some sub teams, right? So the leader of a member of the senior team is now the leader of another team. And, and, and, but notice every team has to have its own has to have its own separate. Later. Right. You’ve got to have someone who manages each of these domains and is making sure that that, you know, that they’re run there’s somebody running HR or there’s somebody running finance or somebody running all of these things. You’ve got to have someone who’s leading each of them or you can’t scale an organization. It’s just the fundamental challenge. And those workers that you’re talking about could be scattered across all of that, but they have to be in the context of somebody’s team or some or somebody managing them. And and that capacity to attract people to play those leadership roles is usually the major constraint for growing and scaling companies. It’s like, that is the puzzle. That is the challenge.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:48] And then is today’s workforce kind of forcing you to kind of get out of this world faster? Because it seems to me that today’s workforce is different than even, you know, pre-pandemic workforce.

Richard Hawkes: [00:20:06] I think. I think there’s a lot of things that have changed with. With today’s workforce. I think there’s a different social social contract around what people are. Are willing to do and how loyal they’re willing to be. And I think that has that has that has changed. And I think what that means is if someone is going to be if somebody wants to play a leadership role and they’re going to be offered a leadership role. They’re going to need to take some. They have to take some choices in the company needs to take some choices that solidify that relationship in a way that maybe it didn’t need to be solidified in the past. Whether that becoming a part owner or some option to participate. There needs to be there’s a there’s an expectation that it isn’t just understood that you come and work for a company and you stay there. And it isn’t just understood anymore that some folks that that will be asked to perform leadership duties and will not be differentially, differentially compensated for that. I do think those things are are really front and center in people’s minds. I think it’s probably something that’s healthy. I think I think the clearer we can have these relationships be between employees and employers or gig economy, independent contractors and employers, I think I think the clearer it is, the more likely we are to to to actually have. Happy, healthy, rewarding relationships with each other.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:02] Yeah. I think now that if companies aren’t at least thinking about this and and having conversations about this, they’re in trouble. This is something that is it’s right in their face today. And they have to do something about it. They have to be proactive. They can’t just wait. And I think a company like yours that can go in and help them have these conversations and help them kind of see the forest for the trees, it’s not a nice to have. It’s a must have for any type of growing organization.

Richard Hawkes: [00:22:33] I think that’s yeah, I think that’s right. I mean, I think and I think there’s been a seismic shift. I think we’re just coming these trends that you and are talking about with change in the social contract between employees and employers working remotely, globalization working anywhere, the boundary between having a company where you can hire all your resources externally. I think these are seismic shifts. And what I can say in our work is that the only way to deal with these shifts is to actually talk about them. The. The most dangerous conversation for any leader to lead in an organization is the conversation around capabilities and roles. That’s the conversation where capabilities would be. These are the things my company needs to be able to do really well. These are the strengths we need to have in order to win in the marketplace and to be successful as a firm. And then the roles would be, Well, who owns what? How do we divide that up so that every key capability has an owner has someone who’s representing that in our firm, in our company, so that so that we can grow and scale our company. And the reason that’s the most dangerous conversation is it’s a place where individual aspirations crash into the needs of the business.

Richard Hawkes: [00:24:01] And then the business capabilities all suddenly seem like higher math to everybody because they’re all about, well, we need this capability because of fill in all of the rationale. And for somebody in their role, they look at that and they say, What are you talking about? I just want to make more money here. That’s not a job that I want or that’s not a role that I want to play, or why should I sacrifice that or all the things associated with that. So this is a really significant flash point. The. The challenge is to create the conditions so that you as a leader, as a team, as an organization can can navigate those flash points around people, what roles they’re playing and how they play those roles. You know, you can navigate them in a way that that everyone is aligned. And it’s not it’s not destructive conflict. It’s actually constructive, creative tension between between people. And the secret to doing that is I mentioned the seven crucial conversations, the first three conversations excuse me, the first three conversations. Activating purpose, driving focus and shifting mindset are all about. Creating the conditions so that you can have that most dangerous conversation. And then the fourth conversation is capabilities and roles, and then that takes you into streamlining interdependencies, aligning strategies and implementing initiatives.

Richard Hawkes: [00:25:30] And those four conversations are down in the weeds. That’s where everybody has to negotiate kind of the the details of how they’re going to work together and how how they’re going to actually be productive. But what I can say is, if you don’t get the first three, those leadership, those ones about leadership and culture, purpose, focus and mindset, you don’t get those right now. You’re not going to have a basis of trust that’s necessary for you to actually navigate the really tough conversations. And so most of our clients, who we work with or the associations we work with, the various organizations we work with, they’re stuck wanting to do something that’s really, really important. And they don’t have the alignment among people or the skills among their people to actually sort through all the conflicts and misunderstandings and discussions. Required to trust each other enough to take the decisions to to do that, to do whatever the thing is they’re trying to do. And I’ll just simply say that demand is increasing as speed goes up, the speed of all these changes go up. The demand for help around these kinds of conversations is just growing exponentially.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:46] Yeah, I think that the leaders of an organization have to get this foundational stuff right, because as the workforce becomes more chaotic and disjointed and remote, you have to have systems in place to bring everybody together and communicate with clarity. It’s one thing if you’re all in the same office and you see each other all the time, but if you’re spread out around the globe and you’re trying to lead and you don’t have good communication and and trust, it’s next to impossible.

Richard Hawkes: [00:27:22] Exactly. Exactly. And so an example would be of a of a best practice would be. There’s time for people to come together and really just talk about work, right? Ideally, if you can get people together physically and this doesn’t necessarily work globally, but you get maybe it’s a resume call, you would set aside time for people to actually not talk about work, but actually talk about working together, which is a different conversation. And, you know, I’m not talking about a cocktail hour, although that’s sometimes a wonderful idea. I’m really talking about pausing and and having people be able to share what is what do they need from each other? What experience are they having with each other? Where are they feeling charged and excite? They’re really positive. And where are they feeling like they’ve got some constraints. And you need to create space for people to have those conversations. Where it’s not time box like a lot of meetings are because sometimes people don’t actually know what they want to say. They need to have a little bit of space to sort of feel things out and do that. It’s really tempting in an online environment to pretend like those conversations aren’t necessary. I think those kinds of those kinds of conversations where people really connect in that way are a lot easier to do in a physical environment, in a virtual environment. I think it’s important. I’ve seen it as essential. To intentionally create them. There are lots of creative ways to do it, but I think it’s really important. I think that goes to what you’re talking about.

Lee Kantor: [00:29:11] Well, Richard, congratulations on all the success. If somebody wants to get a hold of you, get a hold of navigate the swirl, learn more about your practice. What is the website? What is the best way to do all that?

Richard Hawkes: [00:29:22] So you can go to our website growth river dot com. That’s easy. The book is widely available in most bookstores and of course on Amazon and it’s available in Kindle versions and hard copy versions. I think there’s an audio book that’s just about to come out, so that’s the place to look. And then on our website, there’s access to to quite a lot of materials to sort of dig into some of the ideas that I shared with you.

Lee Kantor: [00:29:55] Well, thank you again for sharing your story. You’re doing important work, and we appreciate you.

Richard Hawkes: [00:29:59] Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:30:00] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Association Leadership Radio.

John Ainsworth With Data Driven Marketing

May 20, 2022 by Jacob Lapera

High Velocity Radio

John Ainsworth With Data Driven Marketing

00:00 /

John Ainsworth is the CEO and founder of Data Driven Marketing. They help online course creators increase revenue by 4.86x on average.

With 20 years of experience in building funnels and a degree in Mathematics, John has conducted extensive data analysis of hundreds of millions dollars of online business to create the field of Strategic Funnel Optimisation.

Data Driven Marketing has proven this process by helping dozens of online course creators 2x – 5x their revenue, and directly drives several million a year in revenue.

He’s a guest lecturer at Greenwich Business school and has been featured on Forbes.

Connect with John on Facebook and LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

Businesses focus on content and driving traffic and most miss a crucial element of funnel optimization that makes all that work worthwhile
Three key funnel optimization strategies
Increase revenue per sale
Increase percentage of email subscribers who buy each month
Increase email subscribers

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.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:13] Lee Kantor here, another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have John Ainsworth and he is with data driven marketing. Welcome, John.

John Ainsworth: [00:00:25] Thank you very much. Glad to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:27] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about data driven marketing. How are you serving folks?

John Ainsworth: [00:00:33] What we do is we work with course creators who’ve already built an audience online that might be SEO traffic or a YouTube audience, something like that. And we help them convert people from in their audience to buying their courses.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:46] So how did you get into this line of work? What drew you to this crowd?

John Ainsworth: [00:00:51] I used to work in fitness marketing, and what we found was that we’d fill up all of our clients so we’d have kickboxing clubs or gyms or yoga classes and we’d get them full and they wouldn’t need us anymore. So I started looking. It kind of sucked because they don’t need you. They don’t pay you anymore. So I started looking for clients who would have unlimited capacity. So if we did an amazing job, we couldn’t fill them up when we found course creators. We’re just great to work with. They’re experts in their field. They love to share. They tend to have built up an audience through years of sharing free content, but they’re no good at the marketing funnel email marketing side of it, so they’re not making as much money as they deserve.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:29] So at what stage of a course creator do you typically work with? Is it somebody that maybe just left the corporate world and heard about this course creation kind of idea and said, Hey, I can do that? And I have an audience of, you know, me and my wife and, you know, my friends and I want to do this. Is that a prospect for you or is it somebody who’s already kind of been doing this for a minute?

John Ainsworth: [00:01:53] Yeah, someone has been doing it for a little while. There’s definitely a lot of people out there who work with people who are getting started. And there’s some great ones we don’t. We work with people who tend to have been doing it for a few years. They’ve been sharing videos every day, every week on YouTube, or they’ve been writing blog posts for years trying to build up their audience, and they’ve started making courses as well. And that’s the kind of point that someone will tend to be a good fit for us.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:15] And then what audience size is that point? Is it 100? Is it a thousand? Is a 10,000?

John Ainsworth: [00:02:21] We need someone to have an email list size of like ten or 20,000 to be a really good kind of fit to work with us. Some of our clients have got a bit less than that. Some of them have got hundreds of thousands. So in order to get that, they have to have an audience size effects on their website if maybe like 30,000 visitors a month, if it’s a YouTube channel, maybe they’ve got a few hundred thousand views a month. That kind of scale is the kind of people we work with.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:48] Now, do you have any advice for the people who aren’t ready for you yet but would like to be? Is there some things they could be doing to build to get to that level?

John Ainsworth: [00:02:58] I am not an expert in building an audience, but I do know that it’s a lot of work along a long, kind of hard process. One of the things I do know about it that’s a really big deal is choose really carefully what medium you’re going to use, you know? Do you like being seen? Do you like being on camera? In which case YouTube could be fantastic? Or do you hate it? In which case definitely don’t do that. And maybe you should be better off with a podcast, or maybe you love to write, or you really like that process of hiring writers, in which case blogging could be great. So if you want to get into a SEO side of things, build up an authority site, then go to Authority Hacker. They’ve got a great course about it. So like there’s different places to kind of start based on what style is going to fit for you.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:44] Now, early in your career, you mentioned you were able to fill up fitness centers. Did they already have an audience that you were able to just maximize or were you creating this filling them up from scratch?

John Ainsworth: [00:03:55] Yeah, there we were, filling out from scratch. So they already had great classes, but they didn’t have any kind of an audience, really. So what we do is Facebook ads and when you’re running a local business like an actual in-person, honest to God, somebody turns up in a specific place and something happens kind of business. Facebook ads in that area we found to be incredibly effective. So we could manage to fill up a kickboxing club, for example, with using Facebook ads, pointing people to make an inquiry tend to be for their kids. After they made an inquiry, it was somebody would text them and it tended to be in the evening because that was the time when the mums were around to look at what time their kids could do. Then they would get them to come in for a free session and then from there they would sign up. So there it was like we’re creating the whole thing from scratch. But it’s. It’s more expensive nowadays with Facebook ads, especially for selling courses.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:48] And a lot of these courses aren’t looking for a hyperlocal solution. They’re looking for a kind of worldwide solution.

John Ainsworth: [00:04:55] Absolutely. 100%. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:57] So then the strategies have to obviously be different.

John Ainsworth: [00:05:00] Yeah. Yeah. All the principles in marketing always stay the same, but the actual strategies, the tactics, the details of it vary enormously depending on when it is. You know, ten years ago it was different to what it’s like now. And if you’re doing it for courses, it’s completely different if you’re doing it for an in-person business. All of those things vary enormously.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:17] So now when this established course creator is out there right now and then maybe like you said, they’re great at creating courses and they have really compelling information that more and more people should be paying attention to. What’s the pain they’re having? Do they even know they’re having a pain if things seem to be progressing, are they just or is this one of those situations where they could be doing better if they knew some things and they don’t have to settle for maybe the slow kind of growth that they’re experiencing?

John Ainsworth: [00:05:46] Yeah, exactly. So a lot of these people, they don’t realize that this work around funnels and email marketing is the thing that they they could be doing that would make this enormous difference. What they what they do realize is they’re not making as much money as they feel like they should be doing. They feel like something’s not quite right. They tend to have heard of this funnel idea and they know that email marketing is the thing that you probably should do, but they don’t really get how it would work. So what we’re tending to do with these people is show them this is the potential of what you could have. And it’s it’s not generally something in our market that people are searching for. We’re kind of having to explain to them this is the possibility, this is where you could get to.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:24] So that first the first must have in these situations or you have to have an email list at with whether you’re kind of wringing out as much juice from it as possible, you have to have it. And you’re feeling that they’re kind of under utilizing it.

John Ainsworth: [00:06:42] 100%, 100% until utilizing it. Yeah. And generally so we need people to have an email list. We will even help them to build it if they’ve got a big enough audience. So if they’ve got, let’s say, a YouTube channel with a few hundred thousand views a month but they’ve never built an email list will help them with that part. But the email list is where you make the money from these things. That’s where the money’s in the list. And this is a phrase that’s been around for a long time, but not everybody really understands how true it is. And so what most people do is if they even if they have a list, is they will send out a promotion two or three times a year. And when they do, they have a big spike in sales. But they worry that if they do that too often, then they’re going to have their email subscribers unsubscribe, be annoyed and not want to hear from them again. And so the trick is how do you make great email promotions that you can send out that people love to receive, that contain useful content, that are a fabulous, a helpful people like getting them and make sales at the same time. And if you can do that, then you can send up these promotions much more often and you can make a lot more money from your business.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:43] So you help them kind of create that kind of content, or you teach them how they do it themselves.

John Ainsworth: [00:07:51] Yeah, we do both. So we, we work on, we have a group coaching program where we, it’s like a done with you service where we will teach people how to do it and then they have a go at it. They do their best shot, we review it, we give them feedback, help them to improve. And then we also have a service where for bigger businesses, generally, people who are like $1,000,000 a year or something where we will actually do the whole service for them, we’ll write the emails, we’ll write the sales pages, we’ll set up the automation, all of those kinds of things on their behalf.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:20] And like, what’s your kind of personal best success story in terms of they were at X and then we got involved and they were at X plus.

John Ainsworth: [00:08:32] So a couple that come to mind, we had somebody recently who was making a few thousand a month from her co sales, but she had already had a big audience and had a big email list but wasn’t using it. And we got her up to an average of about $60,000 a month within, I guess, four months, something along those kind of lines. And we’ve had somebody else who was doing maybe 20,000 a month and we got them up to 170,000. So the increases are quite fun. You know, it’s quite a dramatic increase from what people are at before.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:03] So it’s just a matter sometimes of just kind of leveraging what you already have. Like you already have what you need. You’re just not communicating in an effective manner to get the most out of it.

John Ainsworth: [00:09:15] Yeah. If you’ve already spent years building an audience, you’ve built trust with them, you’ve made great courses, but you’re just not doing this fundamental bit in the middle of getting the people from your audience into your email list. Get the email list too, by offering them other things that they might want to buy as well. Then you’re leaving most of the money on the table. So those people and there’s lots of them out there, have already done a vast amount of the work, but they just aren’t they aren’t making the most of it.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:39] Now are they’re in this kind of funnel strategies, are there. Kind of some things you can teach the audience right now, or there are some must do’s. Is there some low hanging fruit that anybody could do right now to kind of maximize the funnel that they already have at their disposal?

John Ainsworth: [00:09:56] 100%, absolutely. And this is true. Whether somebody is in e commerce or the selling courses or they’re doing a software business, it even works to a certain extent in service businesses, too. And that’s to use two different tactics called order bumps and upsells. And I’m going to talk about it from a course point of view, but you can kind of translate this to work for other other areas. So the order bump is a checkout page thing. So someone’s on the checkout page, they’re putting their credit card details in. And at that stage you have a tick box on that page where someone can get something additional. So if you’re selling somebody a course, a good one to have is an additional workbook that goes with the course. So let’s say your course is $99. The workbook might be $37 something along those kinds of lines. And about 30 to 60% of people will buy the order bump if you do it right, which adds about another 10 to 20% revenue. To that sale. And you can do this across all of your. All of your different products and therefore you increase revenue of the whole business by 10 to 20% just from this one tactic, which is crazy, but it’s true, and virtually nobody does this. It’s built into almost all checkout software, but nobody uses it.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:11] And that. And so this is just something it’s just literally one line of text.

John Ainsworth: [00:11:16] Yeah. Like it might be three sentences, you know, probably three sentences about the most you would need here. And what you’re just saying is this work, would you like to get the workbook that goes with this? It is on discount right now, 40% off if you buy it as a bundle with the with the course that you’re getting. Only time you can buy it at this price. Like that’s not exact copy, but like that’s the kind of thing that you would be saying something along those kind of lines, you’re going to add another 10%, 20% to your revenue.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:46] And it could be something that’s already part of your course right now that you’re just throwing in for free, that you just charge for it.

John Ainsworth: [00:11:52] Yeah, absolutely. As long as it’s not something that’s integral to getting the result, but something that maybe makes it quick or easier or is a nice accompaniment, you could take it out as being a bonus and add it in as an order bump, and that will tend to work really well. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:05] Now, you mentioned upsells. How does that differ?

John Ainsworth: [00:12:08] So upsells is the same basic concept, but it’s done in a different way and it’s important to understand which one is which, so that when you’re setting it up, you know what you’re doing. The order bump is on the checkout page, the upsell is on the confirmation page. So somebody has already put their credit card details in. They’ve clicked submit, maybe they got the order bump, maybe they didn’t. The next page that they see that confirmation page at the top of it, you will say your order has gone through. You’re going to have a great time with this course. It’s going to really help you to get the result that you’re after. The next step after that is going to be X. So let’s say they bought the beginner course. The, the next step is then the intermediate course. Would you like to get the intermediate course now as well? And then that is going to be a discount of 40% off right now. And it’s the only time you’ll see this offer. And about another ten or 20% of people will then buy that additional course. If you have a really good sales page and you’ve set the right offer up and all of those kind of details.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:07] So then so you’re not selling them the workbook, you’re selling them access to the next part of your roadmap for your your customer journey.

John Ainsworth: [00:13:17] Yeah. If you’re selling a membership and they’ve bought one month, you might sell them three months worth. If they’ve bought the basic course, you might sell on the intermediate one. If you’ve sold them a challenge that you do, then it might be buy three more challenges. It’s like whatever the next logical step is after what they’ve already got.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:35] So now as part of your service, it’s not only just kind of maximizing the revenue that you can possibly get from what you have, but it’s also increasing the amount of subscribers because that’s at the heart of this whole thing. Right. And I think this is an important note for the listeners. Your email list, you want to capture as many emails so you can have a personal relationship with all your people. If you’re leveraging a third party app like Facebook or LinkedIn or one of those other places, YouTube even. The relationship isn’t with you, really. I mean, it’s kind of with you, but you’ve got to move them off of that platform into your own in order to really kind of maximize the revenue you can make from these people.

John Ainsworth: [00:14:23] Yeah, 100%. Because if you have it, if you just rely on Facebook, at some point, Facebook is going to change their algorithm. And you’ve seen that many times over the last ten years, the reach that you used to have, you don’t have anymore. You could get kicked off some platform. But also email is where people make purchases from. They tend not to buy from somewhere on social. So it’s not like nobody does it, but it’s it’s a much lower percentage of people who will watch your YouTube video and then go buy something straight from that. But you can get them from the YouTube video onto your email list, the email list to the sales page and going to buy. And that that converts much better now.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:02] We know that these third parties change the rules when it suits them. Do you have any data to for the listener that doesn’t really understand this? Like if I’m on Facebook and it says I have whatever, 10,000 or whatever, 1000 friends or followers or whatever it is. In actuality, when I post something, a thousand people don’t see it. Do you know, like what percent would see anything I’m doing on that platform or LinkedIn or any of the other platforms?

John Ainsworth: [00:15:33] Yeah, I went on Facebook. It reduced and reduced and reduced and it’s an enormous thing. I think it went down from like 60% of people who were following. You would see it if they were on at the right time down to like 2 to 5%. I don’t know if those are the exact numbers, but it’s something in that kind of ballpark. It really is very small.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:54] And that’s the same for pretty much all of them. Linkedin, all those like like you could think that you’re like, Oh, I have all these followers and friends or fans or whatever, but in actuality only a minuscule amount is seeing anything you’re doing unless you pay that platform to get in front of more of your own people.

John Ainsworth: [00:16:13] Yeah, 100%. What they do to begin with is they make it work really, really well to get everybody on there and build the platform and grow the platform and make everybody want to use it. And then after a while they’re like, right when we need to start making money from it and they reduce the amount of people who are going to see your content and less you pay for it. And I think that LinkedIn is is not at the extreme that Facebook is at and, you know, different platforms at different stages with this. But everybody is you know, everybody gradually does go through that process.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:43] Right. It’s one of those examples that if you’re not paying for the service, then you are the product.

John Ainsworth: [00:16:49] Right. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:51] So then you’re going to make you pay at some point for access to the the list that you’ve built within that platform. Unless you take it offline and take control of that yourself and then communicate to these people in the manner you want to when you want to.

John Ainsworth: [00:17:08] Yeah. And the email list is the one that you own. It’s like that belongs to you and not to Facebook and not to Google and not to Microsoft or anything like this. It’s like, that’s yours. So you control that and it’s really, really important.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:19] I think it’s critically important. And I think that’s a misstep that a lot of entrepreneurs make by relying on this third party because they think they’re killing it there, when in actuality they can change the rules whenever they feel like it.

John Ainsworth: [00:17:32] Yeah. Yeah. 100% affect clients who lost massive Instagram followings over some kind of a mix up, a mistake or what have you. And they had to start again from scratch. And now what obviously we do and we’re working with them is make sure we get more of those people off onto their email list so that they have Instagram and they hear from them in email.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:53] Now, do you have any advice for people who want to increase the amount of email subscribers they have on their list? And I’m sure that this advice is good for anybody, no matter the size of their email list is today. Even if you have none, these this kind of information could help them get more. So is there some advice you have like these? Okay. These are the top tips to get more email subscribers.

John Ainsworth: [00:18:15] Yeah, 100%. So what you want to have is some kind of a lead magnet. And the lead magnet is like a compelling offer that someone gets if they subscribe to your newsletter. And so it it should be something that people can get value from very quickly. So one of the best ones that we’ve seen with any of our clients was a company called Paintball, and they teach people digital painting techniques. And what they gave away was some free brushes for in Photoshop. So if you download it, you can just upload it into Photoshop. Now you’ve got the brushes, you can use them whenever you want. You don’t have to read the e-book. You don’t have to take the course to get the value. You get it immediately. So anything that you can come up with or anything that you’ve already got that is going to be useful and valuable to your to your potential subscribers. And they would want to subscribe to our newsletter and get that kind of resource. So that’s the first step. Once you’ve got that, you want to promote that all over your website and all over social media.

John Ainsworth: [00:19:07] So let’s say you’ve got you’ve got a website that’s got a decent amount of traffic coming through already. You will put that lead magnet on the home page and you’ll put it on your blog pages. And if it’s a long blog post, you’ll put it top, middle and bottom, and you’ll put it in the sidebar as well. So you’re putting it everywhere and saying to people, This is the next step to take. This is the thing that is going to be useful to you and is, is there’s a reason why you should subscribe and then you can make a few different graphics that you would then put up. And let’s say you’ve got an Instagram following every 10th post might be promoting that free resource that you’ve got, or maybe you’ve got a few free resources and you don’t just use the same post each time to promote it, but have like different benefits or angles or have you and you make some graphics up about that as well. So put that just in lots of different places. Have a great lead magnet, tell people about it and point to it constantly.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:58] So if you do that on a regular basis, then you’re going to build your list and then maybe you’ll get to the level where you can hire the data driven marketing folks, right?

John Ainsworth: [00:20:09] Exactly. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:10] Now, the name of your company is data driven marketing. I’m sure that’s on accident. How important is it to analyze the data that every website is kind of generating and most people are probably not paying that much attention to it? Like, is there a way to use the data to really figure out what is my ideal customer? I might think it’s this person, but the data is going to maybe tell a different story and maybe I can use that data to help me communicate more effectively to the people that are resonating with my message.

John Ainsworth: [00:20:47] Yeah, the 100% is it’s not the simplest process to go through, but it’s very important. To understand this. So one of the things that we do and you don’t even have to do this from your your website’s a little easier to do it from your email list to send out surveys to people. So surveys to customers and surveys to potential customers and to different surveys we normally do. And what we’re looking to do is understand them, you know, what are their problems? What are their pain points, what are their desires? What is it that they if they bought something where they’re happy with it, what did they like about it? Did they tell other people about it and ask all these different questions? And from that, we build something called a customer avatar. And a customer avatar is a. Like a. Simplified version of your your ideal customer of the person, the most typical customer that you have. And it’s a summary of all of those different answers you have. You’re not trying to encapsulate every answer from every survey into the customer avatar. You’re trying to just create a version that allows you to think of this as a person. And then when you’re writing your emails or you’re creating your courses or you’re doing any marketing work in the future, you can imagine you’re talking to that one person. It’s much easier to imagine talking to one person than your whole audience. But if you’ve done the customer avatar, well then by talking to that one person, it will appeal to the whole audience.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:06] Now what is. Do you have an example of maybe the biggest kind of aha moment one of your clients had? Like maybe they thought, Oh, our audience is this type of person, and then you do these kind of surveys and they’re like, Well, yeah, there are a little of those, but there’s a lot more of these over here.

John Ainsworth: [00:22:24] I generally haven’t seen that. It’s much more nuanced with the kind of way that this has tended to work. What will what we’ll do in there is we’ll find out that the pain point that somebody they might understand who their audience is, but the pain point that they solve isn’t the one that they thought it was. What happens for a lot of people who are running businesses is they’re so close to the thing that they’re doing that they understand it so well that they think other people do as well. And really, other people aren’t trying to solve problem X, they’re trying to solve a deeper, more fundamental problem. So, for example, someone’s learning languages. The whole point for them is not getting better at the language. It’s, let’s say, being comfortable in a work environment when they have to travel or it’s being able to talk to the in-laws or it’s not feeling ashamed when they go to the supermarket and actually knowing the right words to say and fitting in. And that’s then the thing that actually matters to the prospect, the reason they actually buy. And once you understand that, then you can talk to that kind of pain point. You can discuss that. You can show how what you do is going to solve it, reassure the customer that you understand the situation they’re in and that you’re going to solve that problem for them. It tends to be that kind of level of stuff that people are learning now.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:38] I bet you got a lot of that insight when you had. We’re working with fitness centers because people don’t necessarily join a fitness center for the obvious reason. There are a lot more nuance to that experience.

John Ainsworth: [00:23:51] Yeah, 100%. So when we were working with trying to fill up those kickboxing classes, for example, what we’re looking at is it’s the moms who are actually doing the marketing, too. It’s not the kids who are going Now, what is it that the mom wants out of it? Why does the mom want the kid to go well, is it because they want the kid to stay fit? Is it wanting to lose weight? Be more confident? Is it they want to get them out of their hair for a little while? Like, what’s the thing that the parents are after in that situation? And that’s what you need to focus on. Is it that it’s a safe environment, that it’s going to be comfortable, you know, and so learning all of those kinds of things allows you to actually have the right message and then and then get the right kind of results from people.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:32] And it’s not asking, like, it’s not the obvious thing. A lot of times you have to go layers and layers deep and you have to ask why a few more times to get to the heart of this.

John Ainsworth: [00:24:43] Yeah, 100%. It’s. It’s really a. All of the top level stuff matters, but you need all of the deeper levels as well. You know, one of the things that we found I’d to work with getting cancer patients into physical activity and what the the technical reason like from a doctor’s point of view of why they should become more active was because if they got more active after they had got cancer, they were more likely to do well through the treatment, through the surgery, and they were more likely to prevent the cancer from coming back. But you couldn’t use that in your marketing for it because if you said to people. If you do physical activity, it’s a chance of it stopping the cancer from coming back. Then people interpreted that as, If I don’t do it, then it’s my then it’s my fault of the cancer comes back. And so it had a really negative kind of PR effect, so you couldn’t say these things. So instead what you had to do was you had to talk about the fact that it was going to make you feel better and give you more energy and some of the slightly lighter things. But you also couldn’t talk to people about doing it during treatment, even though that was the time when it was vitally important that people were active because everyone’s so tired during cancer treatment that they refused and they wouldn’t necessarily they wouldn’t hear it. So we would have to write to them two months after treatment finished and tell them we had some free support for them to come and get active. So all of these little nuances and details about like what actually is going to work for your audience is super important to understand so that you can talk to them in the right way.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:18] Well, if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on your team, what’s a website?

John Ainsworth: [00:26:24] So the best place to go is course profit i-report.com. And there’s a form there. And you fill in a few quick questions. And what we’ll do is we’ll figure out for you a personalized plan for your course business. We’ll figure out how much extra revenue you could make, what step to work on. First, we’ll send you training on how to do it. We’ll do a loom video where we talk you through the whole plan. So it’s not an automated thing someone from my team will go through and actually do that for you. It’s totally free. And then if you look like you’re a good fit to work with us, if you have the right kind of business and the right amount of traffic, etc., then we’ll drop you an email to say, let’s jump on a call and we can talk it through some more. And our whole service is based on only paid, based on results. So we, we’re quite picky about who will work with to make sure they’ve got the right kind of audience.

Lee Kantor: [00:27:11] Well, congratulations on all the success, and thank you so much for sharing your story today.

John Ainsworth: [00:27:17] Oh, thank you very much for having me on. I really appreciate it.

Lee Kantor: [00:27:19] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on High Velocity Radio.

Gerald Griffith With Guide to 575

May 19, 2022 by Jacob Lapera

Cherokee Business Radio

Gerald Griffith With Guide to 575

00:00 /

This Episode was brought to you by

Gerald Griffith is the founder of Guide to 575 and has lived in Cherokee County since 2009 with his wife and kids. Since that time, he’s operated a local media services company and had the opportunity to connect with people and businesses around the community.

Gerald had the idea of starting Guide to 575 during COVID-19 as a way to connect people around the community with events, jobs, and information and he’s excited to share it with everyone.

Follow Guide to 575 on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

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: [00:00:23] Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of Cherokee Business Radio Stone Payton here with you this morning. Today’s episode is brought to you in part by Alma Coffee. Sustainably grown, veteran owned and direct trade, which of course means from seed to cup. There are no middlemen. Please go check them out at my alma coffee ecom and go visit their Roastery Cafe at 3448 Holly Springs Parkway in Canton. As for Harry or the brains of the outfit Leticia and please tell them that Stone sent you. You guys are in for such a treat this morning and please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Guide to 575 Mr. Gerald Griffith. Good morning, sir.

Gerald Griffith: [00:01:10] Good morning, stone. And how are you?

Stone Payton: [00:01:11] I am doing well. It’s a delight to finally get you in the studio any time I traipse anywhere around Cherokee County for any event that is designed to support and celebrate the business community and the community at large. I see Gerald Griffith sometimes totally equipped with all of his toys to capture the moment, and sometimes he’s just there. And every time it’s a real, real joy to to see and hang out with you. This, this guide to 575 MAN What’s mission, purpose? What are you trying to accomplish with this?

Gerald Griffith: [00:01:50] Man Oh, I’ll tell you, some days I feel like I’m trying to put myself out of misery or something. But now the exciting part is, you know, this, this whole idea about the 575 is, is stemming from, you know, a desire to actually connect more with with what’s going on in this area, not just the city where I live, which is here in Woodstock or Canton or something like that. And so I started thinking, you know, how do I find out about other things that are happening up and down what I call the corridor? And the corridor runs the entire 575. That’s what the the name is all about, the interstate that we all share and and go up and down every single day. And so the guy was really, you know, the concept of creating a platform and space where you could now begin to learn and highlight and and connect with resources all up and down this area and know that they’re either physically located in this area or that the people running the business because there may be a home business or something. So they don’t have a retail location, but that that person not only services, but they are located within the area as well.

Stone Payton: [00:03:07] Well, it sounds like a noble pursuit. It also sounds to me like a lot of work. Where do you even start with with an effort like that?

Gerald Griffith: [00:03:17] Well, that’s the proverbial how to eat an elephant, right? So, you know, it’s one of those things. So, you know, by all accounts, we’re starting with the project. You know, it’s a new idea, a new concept. Initially, I’m looking for 250 businesses to put in our listing. But beyond just having a basic listing, we actually want to truly highlight these businesses. You know, I want to put their pictures in there, put their web, all their social media stuff in there, invite them into programs like this where they can talk and have that podcast and, you know, appreciate things like being able to embed that podcast into their listing so that they have something where people can actually learn more about the business.

Stone Payton: [00:04:00] Right there in the listing. They can listen in to to a media appearance, whether it’s on Business RadioX or maybe some other Oh, fantastic.

Gerald Griffith: [00:04:08] We can drop that in there. And because, you know, thing I could ask a lot of as well, you know, isn’t that something that Google or Yelp or some of the other things already do or aren’t there local magazines and things? And to me, they they they come at two opposite ends of the spectrum, right, where the Googles and the Yelps are very broad, but they can be very impersonal. You have the local magazines and things, they are offering more articles and things like that, but they’re more on the print side and they don’t necessarily have as much of a digital presence. So God, the 575 is a little bit of both of those.

Stone Payton: [00:04:42] Yeah.

Gerald Griffith: [00:04:42] And a lot more in terms of developing content and relationships with the businesses so that they have more reach. But they know that it’s targeted is very specific to the region because most people, if you’re a plumber, you don’t just service customers in Woodstock. Sure, you don’t just service them. Most of them, if you go to their website, they’re going to say, we do Marietta, Kennesaw, Acworth, Woodstock, Ball Ground, Holly Springs, Canton. Right. So God, 575 will be a platform where they can highlight their services and know that it’s regional focus.

Stone Payton: [00:05:15] So this is a great opportunity for me to plug my buddy and a guy I’ve come to trust and a great deal just to not. No red tail plumbing. But but but let’s play that out a little bit. So let’s say Justin becomes listed right in your directory. What are some some pro tips, if you will, for him to get the most out of his listing? Like, what should he do from there? Because I’m operating under the impression just putting yourself there is good, but there’s probably some other stuff you can do to kind of boost that in some in some way, like let people know you’re there.

Gerald Griffith: [00:05:51] Absolutely. Well well, that’s part of it, right? It’s like, you know, you can buy all the gym equipment you want and park it at your house, but it doesn’t get you in shape. Right. So you buy a website, it doesn’t automatically do something for you. And that’s what, you know, the guy aims to be a little different in terms of if your plumber contact there does a listing, we want to have a dialog with them to say, Hey, what is it you want your presence to do for you? Is it simply more customers? Is it more awareness? Is it more informative in nature? Do you want to be a subject matter expert? Maybe they want they write. So they might say, Well, hey, you know what? I’d love to submit some articles about plumbing or my experience or something like that so we can look for opportunities to highlight them and their service. Because to me, if all you’re doing is trying to give out 50,000 coupons a year, then yeah, that’s going to reach some people. But people also want to know that you care about your work because quality is a big thing right now that you’re going to show up on time, that you’re insured, that you’re all these different things and not be afraid to educate them on things, to not have them have emergency service calls all the time. So I would look for opportunities in addition to things like saying, hey, you know, did you already do your Business RadioX thing with stuff so that you can have a dialog like this? So we take his podcast, plug it into his page, list all his other social media things, and then also highlight who they are as much as what they do.

Stone Payton: [00:07:17] Well, I can see already that there’s a great deal more depth and breadth in in this kind of resource than your traditional garden variety directory, for example. And look, forgive me, I have a tendency to see everything through the Business RadioX lens, right? We’re going to solve world peace. But let’s say, Justin, we’re a client of ours. And one of the deliverables were that we set him up to do some commentary or like these protests around, you know, like just some stuff to be on the lookout for at your house, how to know when you need a plumber, whatever those things are. So if we were to capture that content here and then transcribe it and all that, to some extent we could at least, if not publish it on, on, on this resource, we could at least have something there that would point to where it is published.

Gerald Griffith: [00:08:06] Absolutely. Absolutely. We can.

Stone Payton: [00:08:08] Oh, wow.

Gerald Griffith: [00:08:08] We were making the thing shareable. We’ll be doing things like, you know, firing up our YouTube feed and things. So I may do something where it’s like, hey, you know what, Justin? Let’s set up a time where you can we can do a day in the life of or something, right? So we go out with you maybe on a few jobs. You can talk to us about what you’re doing, what you’re seeing, why you’re doing it, the customer relationships and things like that, and publish that out. We can even do some live stuff. So, you know, you know me from doing the live stream of different events in the area. Yeah. Yeah. So the more you can make it about who they are, how they work, versus here’s just another listing type of thing. Or on the flip side, people think, well, you know, I’m on social media. I’m like, okay, well, that’s great. Yes, I went there looking for a plumber, but I ended up spending a half an hour watching cat videos and arguing with some guy about the latest political spill. Right. So so I didn’t leave there feeling good. I left there kind of pissed off and defending 50 people. Right. So let’s let’s realize that not everyone is on the social media platform and not everybody wants to be on a social media platform. So how do we create a resource that’s accessible to people in this area? And they know that the resources there are focused on this area.

Stone Payton: [00:09:21] So at this stage of developing a resource like that, like this, is it a little bit of a chicken and an egg thing? Like, because once you get a certain degree of momentum, then more and more people just ought to start calling you. Right. But are you kind of in the early stages where you’re doing things like this? You’re you’re explaining it and you’re talking to the Justin’s and the stones of the world. Is there a little bit of that chicken? Absolutely.

Gerald Griffith: [00:09:44] Absolutely. Absolutely. And it’s one of those challenges in a way, because on one hand, you know, you need to be defined, but on the other, you need to maintain enough flexibility that you can adjust and pivot and change and speed up and slow down and things as you learn more things. So, for instance, because God at 575 is not city based. How do you define.

Stone Payton: [00:10:09] You.

Gerald Griffith: [00:10:09] Know, things about it, right? Because when I say the corridor, what does it mean to you? Well, it doesn’t naturally mean anything to people in this area until they catch on to the fact that when I say the corridor, it means everything from ball ground to Marietta.

Stone Payton: [00:10:25] Wow. That’s a that’s a lot of ground. But it’s but it still does have some focus.

Gerald Griffith: [00:10:29] Yes, it’s still it’s still focused because we all go up and down. 575, right?

Stone Payton: [00:10:33] Oh, yeah. I’m going to be in Canton tomorrow morning for a million cups thing and. Yeah, absolutely.

Gerald Griffith: [00:10:38] Exactly. I’ll be there as well. So so then and then we start to say, well, how do you how do you hone it down a little bit more? Right. So one of the things we’re developing and conceptualizing here is that there’s there’s a there’s a south which would be, say, four exit four down through Marietta. Then there’s Central, which would be maybe from exit four to to 12 or 14 or something. And then there’s north, so maybe everything north of 14. So now even when you start to work through it, you can say, well, hey, you know, that’s 575 North or central or south, but naturally we don’t think about it that way. So in addition to trying to put this resource together, you essentially have to create an entire ecosystem in which it exists because most people are used to thinking about things in terms of town, Lake Woodstock, Cherokee, right. Whereas 575 is North Cobb and Cherokee all combined and the city and the community and everything else. So you have to create an entirely new vernacular around how to talk about the space.

Stone Payton: [00:11:44] Yeah. So what are you finding the most rewarding? What are you enjoying the most so far about? About this project, the.

Gerald Griffith: [00:11:50] Lack of sleep. Now, I think for me, I think it’s a combination of things. One, I like meeting people, I like learning about their why, like why they do what they do, how they got there, what they find exciting. You know, some of it, some of the interviews like we’re doing here, but we’re out in the street, out in the field type of thing. And really also highlighting the fact that there are a lot of things that happen in this area.

Stone Payton: [00:12:20] Yeah.

Gerald Griffith: [00:12:20] And a lot of things, unfortunately, you don’t know about until well after it’s happened.

Stone Payton: [00:12:24] No, that happens to me way too often, man. I should have been there. Or in some cases I could have even been there and helped with a live broadcast or something. But in other cases, it would have just been cool to show up and be there.

Gerald Griffith: [00:12:34] Mm hmm. Yeah. And that’s. That’s what I found. Something like, you know, even, say, on the business side, so. Well, if you want to, you know, maybe you move to the area and you say, well, I want a network with some other businesses. Where do I go for some meetings? Well, most people can tell you about one or two, but there are probably about seven or eight at least or more that happen in the area, but there’s no central place to go find it. So if you go to got the 575, we actually have a business, you know, events type thing where it’ll show you a listing of all these different businesses.

Stone Payton: [00:13:09] Oh, that’s fantastic.

Gerald Griffith: [00:13:11] Happening in the area. You could even click on the Map View and it’ll show you where along the corridor those meetings take place.

Stone Payton: [00:13:17] Nice.

Gerald Griffith: [00:13:18] So there’s there’s that web piece of it. But eventually we’ll we’re going to start off with we’ll have a digital magazine version of it and then eventually we’ll probably have a print magazine version of it as well. Because the goal is that, you know, we well, I guess I look at it that those of us of a certain age, while we like technology, we also like being able to look through something peacefully. We like being able to hold something tangibly in our hands. And so all of these things kind of play together. And there was even one idea I was floating when I first started thinking about this over a year ago of even doing like an ongoing radio type program, you know, along the lines of Sirius or something like that where there was even music and different things playing, but it was all about stuff happening in this area. Maybe there was like talk shows or or things like that where it’s all highlighting businesses and maybe there’s, you know, particular day where you’re highlighting real estate and you’re just inviting in different real estate people or different businesses. Like I said, you know, business networks, you know, invite all the different leaders in and you’re doing ongoing talk throughout the day, just highlighting different groups. And people knew that any time you turn, turn to that or tuned into it, that it’s always about things happening within the area.

Stone Payton: [00:14:37] I can feel the passion, I can hear the vision. I got to know a little bit about the back story. How did you find yourself in this arena? Have you got a background in creating companies or projects? Tell us a little bit about about your career path, if that’s even the right word or you’re just your path?

Gerald Griffith: [00:14:59] Well, I I’m very much a people person. It probably has a lot to do with growing up. The nephew of a pastor spending most of your childhood in a church setting interacting with people. So I’ve always enjoyed working with groups of people in that regard, but I’ve worked in the media space and stuff and most people in this area know me have. Running a professional conference that I ran for ten years until this one, which is when I ended it for me, at least where I started with a simple meetup group. The idea there was to have ten people get together just because I was fairly new to the area at the time and said, Well, you know, if I could find some other people who are in the space and learn from them and grow. And that thing grew like crazy. You know, my goal of ten was blown away probably in the first day. Wow. And ten years later, I wrapped that thing up with with having nearly 1000 people coming in from from like, 20 different countries. And we were booking two full hotels down by the airport. And it was a great experience. Lots of ups down and you learn a lot about event planning and the ins and outs of working with groups. And so it was exciting, but for me a lot of it just still comes back to what does it mean to be a community, you know, what does it mean to actually be able to know what’s happening in that community? And I think the more people know about what’s happening in the world around them, the better.

Stone Payton: [00:16:31] Now do you envision above and beyond having your business listed? And I love that it’s more than just, you know, Stone Payton Cherokee Business Radio. Email LinkedIn link. I love the depth and breadth of it as we were talking about before, but do you also envision opportunities for businesses to sponsor somehow have some sort of sponsorship of the resource? Is that part of the equation or.

Gerald Griffith: [00:16:57] Yeah, there’ll be plenty of advertising and sponsorship opportunities there. I’m very sensitive to that in regards of I hate going to resources where you feel like it’s so ad driven that the content is just razor thin. You know, I think there has to be a balance because to me there’s there’s no bigger turnoff than right than going to something. And you feel like, oh my God, I can’t even find what I’m looking for because there’s 500 ads before I get to the first piece of content. So we’ll have some. But the goal is to make it more strategic in nature, make sure it always is, is adding value. And again, one of the catches with us versus some of the other platforms is that the business has to have a physical presence here or the people running the business have to physically be present.

Stone Payton: [00:17:48] Okay, now, now what compelled you to kind of draw those lines?

Gerald Griffith: [00:17:53] Well, because it’s got to 575 right now. Are there opportunities for things outside of that? Yeah, we have some banner ads that that people can can purchase. I don’t really have an interest. I don’t know if our will in the Google Sense and stuff because I think it just gets a little too broad with some of it, but. If you’re if you’re an advertiser and you just want to get a banner ad, you don’t necessarily have to be here because that’s more very strategically placed and they’re fairly limited. But most of it should be driven by organizations and resources that are specifically to this area.

Stone Payton: [00:18:29] Now, with your background and experience in events, are you thinking at all about tying in some events or visual events? I mean, I knew the ads I asked.

Gerald Griffith: [00:18:39] Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. In fact, the meeting I was at earlier, we were talking there were a couple of realtors there. And I said, see, you know, for me, there’s there’s different types of engagement. There’s an engagement where maybe I just sent someone a few questions. I answered back, and then there’s just a simple post, but then there’s maybe a podcast type thing where it’s a setting where maybe they come into a setting like this or, you know, I go and sit down with them and we just record a conversation about real estate. But then for me got 575 starts to take on more value when we coordinate maybe a quarterly town hall or something. And maybe that quarter we’re talking about real estate and we invite in four or five agents or brokers or something from all up and down the corridor to talk about the real estate market in the corridor, not just in one particular community, because they’ll all bring something different to the table.

Stone Payton: [00:19:31] Yeah. So a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs tap in to the business radio network, some of them to the Cherokee business radio show. And, you know, as an entrepreneur, I, I occasionally run out of steam, you know, I get fired up, but then I get a little burned out. And so I have my ways of kind of recharging places I go for inspiration. And it’s not necessarily a physical place. You know, it might be books or people or what where do you go when it’s time to recharge? Where do you go for for inspiration?

Gerald Griffith: [00:20:11] So the beach.

Stone Payton: [00:20:13] You’re a beach guy.

Gerald Griffith: [00:20:14] I’m a I’ll be more specific to to the beach. I like watching sunrises. Oh, at the beach. I find that it’s one of those places where when you look out over the ocean and you watch the sunrise, it’s the simplicity and the beauty of it that come together that that makes you just remember that no matter how much stuff is on the shore behind you, all the buildings and stuff. Yeah, yeah. That the world is actually a very beautiful place.

Stone Payton: [00:20:47] And that’s true.

Gerald Griffith: [00:20:48] So when I when I stand at the shore and I just look out over the ocean and I see the birds, I see the sand, I see the sun come up across the horizon. It just recharges me and I get excited by that. I take a lot of pictures of it, you know, after I kind of soak it up myself. But then.

Stone Payton: [00:21:06] You can go back to it, at least in a.

Gerald Griffith: [00:21:08] Way. Yeah. And I just find that there’s. There’s something about the beach that I just find refreshing.

Stone Payton: [00:21:16] So clearly your life learner and you have learned a lot of of what you know possibly from the school of hard knocks and experience. Did you have the benefit of any mentors along the way? And have you chosen to try to fill that role for other people at this at this stage of your life?

Gerald Griffith: [00:21:41] Yes and yes.

Stone Payton: [00:21:43] All right.

Gerald Griffith: [00:21:44] I’ve I’m the last of 11, so.

Stone Payton: [00:21:47] Wow, I’m surprised you’re this big Gerald’s Gerald’s full grown boy, but I’m surprised you had space at the trough, man.

Gerald Griffith: [00:21:55] Well, we’re pretty spread out. There’s 25 years between myself and my my oldest sister in the group, but I think I’ve learned something. I try to learn something from everyone and that someone coined the phrase once they said, everybody, everybody brings joy to a room. You know, someone they enter, someone they leave. I think you can learn something from everyone about that.

Stone Payton: [00:22:19] You’re going to hear that. You’re going to hear that again. And I’ll try to credit you. That’s fantastic. I love that quote.

Gerald Griffith: [00:22:25] So I do think you can learn a lot from people. And, you know, over the years I work a lot of odd jobs. Even when I served in the Army, I still have part time job rather or something. And I just loved being around people, dealing with them in different capacities. Sometimes it’s more fun than others, but in the end you find that all these different things you do along the way come back and they can serve you well. You just didn’t realize that it was, you know, 20 years earlier that you learned that lesson, that, yeah, 20 years later, that would be the very skill that you need to apply to that situation. But I try to share anywhere I go. I talk to a lot of businesses, business owners at these different meetings that you and I find ourselves at to talk to them about what what they need, what they’re trying to do, where they’re trying to go and really understand. Kind of where they are. More so from the. Mindset part of it a lot of times, because it’s not always the things people think that are holding businesses back. A lot of times it’s just that they haven’t really thought through a concept. They they’ve surrounded themselves with people who are. Yes. People or something like that. Or they’re just focused on one aspect of the business. But when they can have that conversation and know that it’s not about judging or anything like that, it’s just a conversation to try to find ways to help them grow.

Stone Payton: [00:23:49] Well, I’ll tell you, everybody. Gerald is quite sincere when he describes trying to help people and trying to help them think for themselves. I have thoroughly enjoyed attending the million cups since since I moved to town. And I enjoy hearing the entrepreneur and all that kind of thing. But the reason I show up as often as I do is I like to listen to Nick CARBERRY. And you ask questions because your questions are the kinds of questions that open the mind of the presenter and have them think about things differently. So I’m going to like the Gerald Nick meeting, and I just happened to have the added benefit of hearing of a new business idea or something. But, but no, you, you really do you you position questions in such a way that you’re not calling their baby ugly or anything, but you’re you’re having them sort of step out of the of the path they’re on and just and just take a little a little different perspective, a little bit of a different view. And it sounds like you’re offering that opportunity everywhere you go.

Gerald Griffith: [00:24:51] That’s right. And in fact, you touched on something there. Anytime I’m having a conversation with someone, the way I measure whether that conversation was was meaningful and effective or successful, as you might say, or something, as I listen for one phrase and that one phrase is this I’ve never thought about it like that before, because if you can get a person to think about it differently, you can get them to act about it differently. And if they can act on it differently, they can get different results than what they were getting before. So if they left that conversation thinking the same way, they’re probably going to act the same way and they’re probably going to get the same results. Right?

Stone Payton: [00:25:25] Amen.

Gerald Griffith: [00:25:26] So the conversation is never about winning anything. It’s about providing a perspective that they don’t possess.

Stone Payton: [00:25:33] Wow. I think we’re going to carve that little clip out and publish that separately. All right. So with regard to got to 575, what can we do to help? What should we be doing? Letting people know, talking to you? What can we do to help?

Gerald Griffith: [00:25:48] Well, right now, because we’re in this launch phase, I’m trying to find the first 250 businesses to just sign up for free premium account. It doesn’t cost them anything. It’s an entire year. If there’s no value at it, then it’ll just downgrade to a more basic level of it. But. But the goal is to not even have it have a cost or anything like that. I think I did have one thing where I put in a thing where if you signed up, it was like a $1 setup fee or something, even on the more more basic one. And that was only because spammers, you know, they always find a way to get in. So we were spending so much time eliminating people who were signing up from UK or Canada or something else. I don’t think they’re in our area. So usually people don’t want to put a credit card in, even if it’s for $1, if they’re just a spammer. Right. So we would have something like that in there. But the 250 people that we’re trying to put in there as businesses of all different types, we want to get to know them. We want to build up a great page for them. We want to make sure it looks amazing because the more amazing they look, the more amazing the resource looks, and then the easier it is to build. When people go to something and they know it’s thought out and it’s organized and it’s functional and we build on the enterprise platform. So this isn’t something that we just build over overnight and through together. No, this is this is an actual real platform that can support hundreds of thousands of users and things like that. So anything I work on, you know, the plus is that I give it 100% and then the minus is that I give it 110%. You know, it’s no, I just try to always put my best foot forward with it and put in the work and the time. And a lot of times that involves getting up real early, staying up late. But yeah, you know.

Stone Payton: [00:27:31] All right. So let’s leave our listeners with some coordinates that they’d like to reach out, have a conversation with you or somebody on your team, or if there’s some path that they can take to go ahead and get listed or at least learn about God to 575 whatever you think is appropriate, websites, emails, phone, whatever, whatever, LinkedIn, whatever works for you.

Gerald Griffith: [00:27:49] Okay, great. Well, one thing we are looking for as well is the listings are some content providers. We want some people who are in the area who write, who have some stories that they want to share or things they want to highlight because building that network is going to be super important as well. We want to make sure things are updated, but if they’re interested in that or they want to get a listing, they can visit the site. I believe that right now I don’t have a code set up for it, but I can put one in there that says Business RadioX and then they can get a free listing through that.

Stone Payton: [00:28:20] Mm hmm.

Gerald Griffith: [00:28:21] Or they can just email Gerald. Gerald at guide to 575. com. And that’s the guy the letter t05 75. com. And they can request one there. But otherwise we’re looking forward to getting this thing going and getting it ramped up. And you know, as much as right now, I’m like, we’ve got to get this built. I also realize that at a certain point I’ll be back in here meeting with you, like we’re trying to keep up with this stuff. But but that’s when, that’s when it gets exciting. And the most fun part is we start to highlight things that are happening in this area, which is an amazing amount of things that take place around here. And I can’t wait for people to start realizing like I never knew about that, you know, like I was saying, I never thought about that. I want people to start saying I never knew that was here. I never knew all those businesses were were in my area. I never knew all those restaurants were there. I never knew how those events took place. I never knew all those meetings were available because there is a tremendous amount of things out there up and down this corridor that we just don’t know about.

Stone Payton: [00:29:23] Yeah, well, keep up the good work, man. We’re going to continue to follow the story. Please don’t be a stranger. Let’s have you come back and periodically update us on things. And maybe, I don’t know. At some point we might even decide to build out some little series where we spotlight some of your premium members. There’s all kind of cool stuff we can do to work and play together.

Gerald Griffith: [00:29:41] That’s the fun of it.

Stone Payton: [00:29:43] All right. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Gerald Griffith with Guide to 575 and everyone here at the Business Radio X family saying We’ll see you next time on Cherokee Business Radio.

Edgard Hernandez With Atlas Co.

May 19, 2022 by Jacob Lapera

Association Leadership Radio

Edgard Hernandez With Atlas Co.

00:00 /

Edgard A. Hernandez is the Executive Director of Atlas Co and VBLA. Excelsior Business Development Corporation (d.b.a. Atlas Co.) is a not-for-profit community development enterprise/organization focused on taking on the responsibility of developing, training, financing access, advocacy, and providing technical assistance to the underserved – Minorities, Women, Veterans, Emerging businesses to become successful and leaders in their industry.

By providing Mentor support services, businesses can then strive in the public and private marketplace. Mr. Hernandez understands the numerous complexities of operating a small business and the niche area of selling to the government.

Connect with Edgard on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

Work collectively in the business world
Private or Government Sector
The term “progressive” is viewed as a bad term in business
Trust but verify is truly important, especially when coming out of COVID-19
Grant vs. Loan business strategy
Veteran Business Leadership Association mission and strategic plan

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 Edgard Hernandez with Atlas Co. Welcome.

Edgard Hernandez: [00:00:27] Oh, thank you, Lee. Thank you for the opportunity.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:30] Well, I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about Atlas Collective. How are you serving folks?

Edgard Hernandez: [00:00:36] So one of the things that the the major part of our mission is that we’re taking on the responsibility of supporting and developing our small business community, especially minority women owned and veterans. So we we focus on the development side of of the business. And it’s something that we it’s a passion. It’s a love that we we it’s not just a job or just run the organization. It’s just we want to get this done for the community.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:08] So how did you get into this line of work? Were you always serving this small to midsize business owner, this minority business owner group?

Edgard Hernandez: [00:01:17] No, I’ve done it for over 13 years. I was also the LaGuardia Community College P-TECH director. P-tech is an organization, the Center Procurement Technical Assistance Center. So it’s also part of 97 other PE techs around the country in Puerto Rico, Guam and even in Hawaii. So I’ve been in this field for a very long time. It’s it’s something that I got into in 2008. And what we’ve been able to do with that program is we we did over $800 million worth in government contracts, especially during the pandemic. For example, we were supporting businesses that were pivoting into PPE, gear, mask and all the other stuff that was going along with the cleaning, janitorial and everything. So during that phase, we did over probably over $200 million worth of work. So it’s it’s a it’s a program that is designed to help businesses with the process of competing and governments in the government space.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:26] Now, are the folks that you’re serving, are they kind of first time entrepreneurs or these seasoned entrepreneurs that are just looking for additional revenue streams or maybe getting into government, government contracting?

Edgard Hernandez: [00:02:38] It could be. It could be. We, as long as they’re viable, is that they’re starting out. But they have an understanding because we want to focus on the folks that are really geared up, that they really want to succeed. Some of them, if we see that they don’t have sort of things in place, they’re just trying to figure out where they’re going. That’s not what we want to do. We we love to invest our time in folks that have some direction. They have they’re committed to to the process and to the development. And that’s what we work with.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:14] So is there any element that educates, like kind of maybe that aspiring entrepreneur with the skills it takes to be an entrepreneur or these are folks that have already kind of been around the block a little bit and they just need some help getting to a new level.

Edgard Hernandez: [00:03:28] It’s a it’s a great question. In most cases, it could be either way. I mean, all the let’s put it this way, not everyone, not every business owner knows everything. Right? Government changes, policies change, regulations change. We do a lot of business development from the early stages all the way through. So it just depends on the initiative or the needs of the business community. So we’re able to. One of the things that we do is that we actually adjust to the needs of the community at large.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:03] So say I have a consulting business and I’m like, You know what? I bet you there’s work to be had maybe in government. And I’ve only worked in the private sector and I’ve only had private sector clients. Is it possible for you to help educate me on the process, to maybe tap into some of these government opportunities that maybe I don’t have the skill to navigate that world? Because that’s a you know, you do one thing wrong there. You could be months behind. Like it takes some help kind of navigating those waters for most business owners.

Edgard Hernandez: [00:04:38] That is correct. So so in this case, let’s say, how do we take your your business experience and apply to the government? That’s what we are looking at. How do you sort of communicate that? How do you sort of form them in the way that the government speaks and understands? Right. And that’s that’s the that’s how we need to transition into that type of language. And then the the sort of the not that can we say handholding is going through that process 101 to sort of focus on understanding what you’re getting yourself into. But. One of the things that we’d like to do first is that do you have the capacity to compete? Do you have the understanding? Because there’s two terms in government, you have to be responsible, responsive and responsible. Do you meet those two criteria? If you do, then we can move forward. If not, we can say, let’s just do more development early on before you get into this. Why? Because time is money. We don’t want you to spend time on trying to go into government, work, spending all this out, all these hours, and then money goes along with it. Right. So we’d like to avoid that and focus on what you’re good at.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:53] So can can we play out a scenario like an example, like, okay, so my business is Business RadioX. We do this show called Association Leadership Radio. One of our superpowers is we’re able to do kind of podcasting at scale. So like we can go into your association and interview all your members, produce good content that is going to be distributed in all the podcast directories so that that’s a business line of ours. How would I frame that for a government? Opportunity? Is that something that you would say, okay, I understand, or I kind of understand what you do, let’s see where there’s opportunities there. Let me kind of go into a database and put podcast. I don’t even know how you would begin something like that.

Edgard Hernandez: [00:06:40] One thing one thing to point out is that the government is they are responsible for spending the tax dollars, tax dollars wisely. They are not. They just don’t throw it out. There’s always government spending that you can sort of questionable, but they are responsible for our dollars and the way. But in doing so, they have to play it out with the small business community or the community at large. The business community because competition brings down pricing, but it also brings out opportunities when there’s certifications. All right. So so there’s to diversity inclusion. Now, it’s a very big topic and it’s been for a while. But but you play those things out, but you have to go to market that that’s what the government is required to do. So there are websites, the federal websites, the offer for New York state. There’s the contract reporter for the city of New York. There is the city record for any county that you live in. I mean, in Georgia alone in Atlanta, there’s a lot of work coming out of there. Right. There’s also, for example, they’re building a new airport. Am I correct? The airport is getting redone after so many years. And but also there’s messaging for you, for your services. There’s messaging, right. How do we get the public to know about, let’s say, about the new airport modifications? How do we communicate that to the public, to you have about a viable community and you can actually pitch that to the government. You can say, I have a following of 10,000 listeners, right? That would play out and say, oh, wow, you know, we can actually contract out Lee and his team to do that kind of work for us because we want to make sure that we reach as many people as possible.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:37] Now, is it something that you’re you’re just saying, hey, Lee, here, go look in these four places, or is it something that I can go, hey, I want to partner with Atlas Collective. Are you going to go in there and do this for me? Like, is it a do it yourself is a do it for me is it do it with me? Like, how do you interact with your participants?

Edgard Hernandez: [00:08:57] We are doing it with you. We’re going to step by step. We’re reviewing the RFP. We are answering all your questions. We’re confirming you have everything in place to be responsible and responsive. Right. Do you have the right accounting system to keep track of your of your transactions with the government? Do you have the right insurance? So we’re sort of doing all this pre check before you get in. So because we don’t want you to waste your time, but once we check off all the major requirements, we can say we need to move forward. And it’s, it’s that’s when you can initiate and go and go with the opportunity.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:36] Now, do you help businesses get government grants or government loans? Because each of those has their own headaches when it comes to signing up for. And there’s a lot of I mean, there’s so much this is what I’ve heard. I mean, I haven’t pursued this really, but there’s so much documentation. There are so many opportunities for you to make a mistake in filling out the documentation. And if you make a mistake, in some cases, you’re like back to square one.

Edgard Hernandez: [00:10:06] Yeah, you’re so right. And that’s why, for example, we atlas are funded to support businesses with the New York State Recovery small. Is this recovery grant. Right. And we helped with the entire process. It’s a I mean, the state has done a great job of explaining what the requirements are. But not everyone and not every business understands that. And we deal with businesses from from just in from small to all the way, medium to large, up to $2.5 million in gross receipts. And we can see it throughout that, a lot of them still. It’s new sometimes it’s new jargon or they don’t understand how the government interprets the information. And that’s why we’ve been tapped to do that. And if for us, we’d like to explain that. So when we sort of go through this, you become more compliant or you’re in compliance for the next opportunity, either if it’s for a grant. The the SBA programs that are out. And there’s also confusion also with grants and loans. There are grants which don’t have to be paid back. And there are loans. And also grants are not. The the grants that are coming out are for viable and operating businesses, not for new businesses. So there’s this. Mr.. This is where we get into the weeds, right? We try to explain as best as we can in order for businesses to to move forward.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:47] So now if a business comes to you and says, I need help or I want to pursue this, what is the kind of how does the relationship unfold? Like what is an onboarding look like?

Edgard Hernandez: [00:11:58] The most simplest thing is that we ask you to fill out our registration form online and then we can get started immediately once we receive that application, because we need to confirm your location, your gross receipts. So we start doing all this pre assessment. So, so when we get into the conversation, we’re well versed and then we put all the pieces together.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:26] Now, as you mentioned, that this this is a it’s a nonprofit, right?

Edgard Hernandez: [00:12:31] That is correct.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:32] So how are you funded? Is this do I pay a fee for the service? Is this you have your own kind of funding source?

Edgard Hernandez: [00:12:41] None at this time. We are funded by New York State for this initiative, for the grant program or the TA program. And then we are moving into a subscription model for for a lot of our services based on gross receipts. Our mantra is to think collectively because we want to build a community of business owners that can perform in the private and government sector. That is part of our mission. So so we. So if you’re if you’re starting out, you can get all the services for a very nominal fee and you can have an advisor sit with you and go through this entire process. And then from there, if you’re growing the business, we also want to grow because we want to use those funds to reinvest back into the community. More programing, more resources. For example, we want to put together a loan program for businesses to have working capital. So when they have those small jobs that they really want to perform on, they can borrow that money and repay it back. So we are developing new programing, new initiatives, new opportunities to connect businesses.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:54] Now, right now, are you only serving businesses in New York State?

Edgard Hernandez: [00:13:58] Right now, in New York State, we’re looking once we build our our our our collective, we are going into New Jersey and probably several other states, but we are geared up for New York at this time.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:14] And is there any kind of industry that you’re looking at right now or is it kind of fair game across the board? Like, say, I have a cybersecurity business or I have a janitorial service? Either of those are both good fits for you or are there certain ones you want to stay away from? Or is it kind of anybody can, you know, at least inquire?

Edgard Hernandez: [00:14:35] It’s all it’s fair game. We are not industry specific. I’ve been doing this for a long time and never focused on one industry. If we get a grant or a fund to do that, yeah, we’ll do that. But we built an organization that is for everyone. And because right now you see a lot of organizations that are focused on research and development technology. But what about the other, the mom and pops? What about the small businesses? Where do we develop them? And that’s why we that’s why I started this organization is really to focus on that grassroots. From from bottom to up where we can develop them. And what that does is adds more jobs, increases payroll and and reduces the amount of businesses that closed. We want to that’s where we want to be, and we’re good at it.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:34] Now, do you think that business owner who has kind of explored getting into doing some government work is missing an opportunity that that most businesses should at least take a shot in this area.

Edgard Hernandez: [00:15:49] And they should look during COVID. And one of the things I said to my one of my colleagues in the business, in the field is that we’re battle tested. Right. What does that mean? Is that when we came on board in 2008, this is when I got started in the field, we were dealing with the with the financial crisis then after that Hurricane Sandy. And but now we’re dealing with COVID. But the government has it stopped, right. The government has to stop buying because they need to spend in order to keep us secure and to make sure that we have the viable services no matter what is going on. So the government is recession proof they should give it a shot. But is it? It’s all about timing. Are you ready for it? Because I’ve had businesses that want to go into this field and they’re going too fast. And then I then I pump the brakes and I’m like, You’re not ready for this. And they’re surprised that I’m telling them that. And I’m like, if you go into this now, you would fail and then you are out of money that you might not be able to recoup. And that’s the honesty that we bring to the table. So so just to just to make sure is that we want to this is where we do all the pre checks before you go in.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:14] So what is your kind of maybe the story, the most rewarding success story you have of of helping somebody maybe get into this and then it takes their business to a new level?

Edgard Hernandez: [00:17:29] You know, sometimes I just sometimes I don’t focus on the dollars I focus on. The effort, right. Did the person do the things that we talked about and they were able to succeed? But but just to touch on one we were able to take a business that. That one did that during the pandemic, didn’t really know how to deal with government. And was just really struggling to understand how that process worked with the federal government and. What we did is that we actually sat there and went through the entire process with them and also protected them from from making mistakes early on and their business. They generated over 100 and something million dollars and now they have expanded even and even at this time have expanded to a huge facility in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. And now they are actually doing all the gowns for the city of New York. So we took a garment business that wasn’t even focused in that field, and we’re able to really get them up to speed on government work so that that’s been very, very fruitful. And it always touches me because during the pandemic, I actually my wife would kill me because I’m actually working at late at night trying to answer questions on how to approach the government. And we were able to get that done.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:03] So what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Edgard Hernandez: [00:19:07] It’s just to get the word out. We want to. The collective is is to make sure that we bring partners from all levels, from big companies, large companies, small companies. We want people to understand that by working together, we can make our our economy stronger, we can make our nation stronger. And everyone want the goal of a small business is to get to that next level. So why can’t we? What we need to do is support each other.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:40] Amen to that. So if somebody wants to learn more, what is the website?

Edgard Hernandez: [00:19:44] W w w atlas collective. Dot org.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:48] Atlas Collective org.

Edgard Hernandez: [00:19:51] That is correct.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:52] And then what about like on LinkedIn? If somebody wants to connect with you.

Edgard Hernandez: [00:19:55] Linkedin is my name. Edgar Hernandez. It’s it’s it takes you straight a straight shot on Instagram. It’s a really it’s our mantra at think collectively. And if we need to get a phone call, it’s 5166361090.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:15] Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Edgard Hernandez: [00:20:19] Thank you very much, Lee. Keep up the great work. All right.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:24] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We will see you all next time on Association Leadership Radio.

Kyle Retter With Fitness Premier

May 19, 2022 by Jacob Lapera

Franchise Marketing Radio

Kyle Retter With Fitness Premier

00:00 /

Brought To You By SeoSamba . . . Comprehensive, High Performing Marketing Solutions For Mature And Emerging Franchise Brands . . . To Supercharge Your Franchise Marketing, Go To seosamba.com.

Started working out since Kyle Retter was 16 when he was teased about his “kid” gut and haven’t stopped since. Joined the Airforce from 2006-2012 where he was an Avionics Technician on the F-16 platform, then worked IT & Security for a year. Spent the remainder of the years in the aviation world contracting for the Military in the US and overseas and now he works for Gulfstream.

Kyle currently owns and operates an IT/Access Control/Video Surveillance company that has focus in the Fitness Industry where they provide solutions to club owners and other SMB companies. He is pursuing a long dream of him to own a gym. Fitness Premier was the perfect fit and has provided back-end support for his dream. He believes he will open our first gym in 2022, then target multiple areas for expansion in 2023.

Follow Fitness Premier on Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

Fitness Premier”s (FP) culture
Yearly Goals
What got you into the Fitness world

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Lee Kantor: [00:00:32] Lee Kantor here another episode of Franchise Marketing Radio and this is going to be a fun one. Today on the show we have Kyle Retter and he is with Fitness Premier. Welcome, Kyle.

Kyle Retter: [00:00:42] Hey, thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:43] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to before we get too far into things, tell us about Fitness Premier Fitness premieres.

Kyle Retter: [00:00:51] We’re a fast growing group workout gym concept where we focus mainly for fitness groups, group classes. We focus highly on customer support and retain ability. We started our brand in 2016. Current locations are in Illinois and Indiana, which we’re obviously trying to venture into Georgia area as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:24] So you’re a franchisee. What drew you to this organization?

Kyle Retter: [00:01:31] Essentially, Jason and his team. I supported them with their I.T. work and I just fell in love with our whole backend team, our corporate team. And I just realized that they were I’ve always wanted to own my own gym and their atmosphere and the way they operate and help the franchisees through all their from step A to Z from just the beginning of signing up with them, opening locations, all that. They’re just always there for you, and they have a strategic model in place that is easy to follow. And I knew they were the right company for me, right? Franchise for me.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:21] Now, you were in the military, right?

Kyle Retter: [00:02:24] Yes, sir, I did. Air Force from 2012 to or sorry, 2006 to 2012. And then I contracted through the military for ten years after that. And then now I’m working on private jets.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:45] So you’re still doing your IT work?

Kyle Retter: [00:02:49] Yes, sir. I own my own company, I.T. Access, control of video surveillance. So I’m still doing that. And obviously, the goal is to move away from aviation and solely focus on gems and the side of things. I’ve focused my entire business to help gyms, actually. I know that there’s not there’s a lot of offerings that I can give, and I don’t. I believe that gyms don’t need a whole sophisticated system, but they need to be protected and helped out just as all small businesses do. So that’s where I focused my area, too.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:36] So you’ve been in it for your career. You were in the military as part of your career, but still playing in the IT space. And then you get out of the military, working it and targeting gyms. I guess as you’re offering serves the gym marketplace, you could have chosen any fitness center to partner with but somehow fitness premiere kind of got your attention. What what about fitness premier kind of was different than the other gyms that maybe you’ve experienced or worked with or worked out in over the years.

Kyle Retter: [00:04:12] Their allowance and their willingness to be open to the franchisee there. They give back in support as far as management training, the financial side, the real estate side, everything but the one thing that when I went and visited them and their the atmosphere of the gym itself, it’s it’s exactly what I wanted. And I used to live in Florida and the local gym there. That atmosphere was very similar for the member side and the the staff side. I would essentially just find myself in that gym for hours just hanging out because I love the atmosphere and being. Part of fitness Premier. They offer that same atmosphere, but they have the back end already in place. They they can help me because when I started it is everything by myself. I did the LC creation, the marketing, everything. It was a long road. I mean, I’m still learning stuff a year later and I just with fitness premier, they had everything I wanted in a gym from operational plus all the back end support as well. And it just it’s not. Like a cookie cutter gem, if you want to say that. It’s very flexible. And the franchisee. Can pretty much set up the gym. However they want to make an alter. If they want to focus toward. More toward some equipment that might CrossFit if they want or if they want to do the basic package. That is normally offered. You can do that. It’s a lot of flexibility that Jason and his team gives the franchisees.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:20] Now, when you started your own business and you didn’t have kind of that support around you and you were just kind of figuring out stuff on your own, you know, the there’s good and bad of that. Obviously, you took the risk to do something like that because you felt you had the skills and you had enough knowledge to be able to pull it off. Then you’re getting in the gym business and maybe that’s not you know, you haven’t been maybe, you know, went to the gym. But to have all of those kind of things that you used to worry about kind of taking care of, you could taken care of for you, makes you feel more comfortable and safe investing in a brand like fitness premier, right?

Kyle Retter: [00:06:57] It does. I mean. I mean, obviously with any business, there’s no guarantees. But they’ve created a create that sense of relief, I guess that you know, that you’re going to make it you’re going to take take all the help that they give you and create something for yourself. And they’re not going to let you fail. I mean, I’ve been told several times there’s no option for failure. Well, they’re going to make the franchisee and GM successful.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:34] So was there any kind of hesitation or was this something that you just believed in the culture, or was this something you went back and forth and you’re like, no, no. And then you talk to maybe your friends or family and you’re like, Hey, what do you think? Like what was kind of the there had to be a tipping point where all of a sudden you’re like, oh, this is you know, it’s not like an impulse buy where you’re like at the store and you’re like, Oh, I think I’ll buy that snicker bar. You know, like, this is a big decision.

Kyle Retter: [00:08:00] Yeah, it was. So, like I mentioned before, I knew what I’ve always wanted in a gym. I’ve been working out since I was 16, and I’ve been to a lot of gyms and I’ve been to good ones. I’ve been to bad ones, but. I knew it atmosphere in the operational style of Jim that I wanted. And as soon as I after meeting the whole team through the I.T. side of it, I. I get a further view of how they operated and kind of jumpstarted the whole idea of opening or franchising with them. But just looking at it, I just had I questioned them one day and just pinged them for some answers and inquiries about how they operate and stuff and what their gyms look like. I looked online and it wasn’t really any. I had no hesitations. I just knew that this was going to be the right fit and I knew I’d have the support that I needed from their teams and is a gym that I really wanted to work it and grow with them. And it was my goal is to my ten year goal is to open ten of these gyms. So it’s going to be a. Good journey ahead.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:26] So what were some of those questions when you were deciding? Because like you were in a unique position, right? Because you were doing work for them from a technical standpoint and you were kind of maybe singing some behind the scenes stuff that a typical franchisee wouldn’t see necessarily. You got to see them in real life and you got to see them, you know, going through a project together so you can see how do they behave? Are they really good people? Like you’re seeing a side of them that maybe a typical franchisee wouldn’t get to see because you were a contractor for them. Right. Doing some work on their behalf?

Kyle Retter: [00:09:57] Yes, sir. So some of the questions I asked them is how the process first would start. Like basically, how do I where do I start in becoming a franchisee? And then it just led on to like, I’m all about safeguarding myself and my family. So I pretty much always have a backup plan. So that was another question is I hey, what happens if if for some reason I do we do sell and what about and what would that process look like basically? They were so confident with their answer. It just made me feel like, all right, we’re not going to sell. There’s no option for this. Some other questions had were. Like the Maine was like has a real estate portion of it work and luckily Jason is. Certified real estate for commercial commercial real estate and that really. Relieves a lot of my anxiety or stress or I guess questions I had because I knew. I mean, he’s he’s he’s an all in one. They’re all in one team. They have a construction company. They have the real estate side of it. They have the marketing side of it.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:25] Was that a concern, the marketing or getting people in the gym? Because there’s there’s a million gyms out there, you know, like how do you find the number you need in order to be successful? Was that an issue for you? Or you just felt like, hey, I can do that part myself? I don’t need them necessarily.

Kyle Retter: [00:11:41] No, because I know how hard it is to market myself in it. So they have a great marketing platform and that’s another bonus and bonus that I really enjoyed from their offerings. They they’re obviously they’re all over the marketing side. I mean, I have I have even opened a gym and at least get an article we posted for, for myself and the future of, of this gym opening and obviously radio talks. And I just it’s been a great, great experience going down that road.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:33] So was there one fear over another that was like kind of the deciding point or once you felt confident, like once they kind of convince you like this is what got your back, then you were like, okay, let’s go boldly forward. And then it was now it’s just a matter of let’s get this thing going as fast as possible so I can get up to my ten that I want to get out of here.

Kyle Retter: [00:12:56] Yep. I say I knew the team already. Yeah. I do have that advantage over most because I was already contracting with them, but all I had was a few questions just to ease my mind and and just to make sure they were the right fit. But outside of that, I have no worries. It’s been a great adventure, has been all the processes are streamlined, the communication is there. So and we’re doing everything in our power to to get a location up. And I know it’s going to happen soon. So as I said again, I was there really wasn’t any hesitation. I just in my heart, I knew that this was the right way to go.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:46] So has there. So you don’t have the location. It’s not up and running yet?

Kyle Retter: [00:13:52] No, not yet. So we’re still in the I guess you want to call a phase one part of it or we have four or five prospects for locations. We’re looking at many different areas around Georgia and even a few in South Carolina that are close by because I’m right on the border in Savannah, Georgia, of South Carolina. So we’re basically we find locations and we vet them and we make sure the community size is where we want to be. We try to target the communities around 15 to 20000 in a population within that five mile radius. So we can make sure that we get the members and acquire the members to be successful. I mean, we don’t there’s a lot of vetting process through the location portion of it just because you don’t want to go somewhere with 3000. With a population of maybe 3 to 5000, and then you only get a small percentage of that. And that’s kind of where we don’t want to do because we know they have expressed through experience that just doesn’t work.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:11] So now the ideal gym member though, is, like you said, there has to be enough of them. What is the profile of the ideal gym member? Is that somebody that is a mom? Is it a, you know, a CrossFit person? Is it a, you know, super fit person? Is it an older person? Like, is there a profile for that ideal premier member?

Kyle Retter: [00:15:33] We cater to all well, no matter the age. What type of fitness you’re into CrossFit powerlifting. We just want to be that gym that can support everybody and we just don’t want to focus just on CrossFit or just on power lifters because it’s a small community. I mean, if you can if you can cater to all of them and create that customer relationship and then those services, whether it’s group classes, team team training or personal training, that’s our goal, is to cater to everybody and offer a service that everybody can use.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:24] So the gym offers all of those things. It offers a group fitness, it offers personal training. You know, if you want to work out on your own, there’s that opportunity. So it’s like, you know what if I need like helping, you know, nutrition, is there a nutritionist? Are there kind of people helping me with my whole holistic kind of fitness in health, or is it primarily fitness?

Kyle Retter: [00:16:48] So some trainers are well equipped for nutrition. I don’t think that we have a full nutrition program. I could be wrong, but if we don’t, that’s something that where we can expand and offer to the community as well. For the other part of the location or per franchisee to some of those decisions get made by them. And then we assess or assess the community as well to see what’s needed in that community. And obviously we offer like the massage tables, massage chairs, and then we have their guns, which can. Help with the muscle growth and just like a massager, a handheld massager for your muscles. And we offer training both as well. Also, all depends on location and the size and our average size or where we want to be is around 7500 square feet or more. That way we can offer everything all in one platform. But there are some communities where we have smaller sizes, so we’re limited to what we can offer.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:22] And you haven’t decided yet because you’re still looking for your spot.

Kyle Retter: [00:18:26] Right now, we’re I want to be in that realm of 7500 square foot or bigger. That way we can support everybody. It also allows you to have more equipment to be able to cater to all members, whether it’s CrossFit or. Power lifters. But the goal is I mean, we’re more of a. Well versed. Jim that. Isn’t focused on just one particular group.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:00] Right. You’re trying to you’re trying to have something for everybody that’s interested in fitness and wellness.

Kyle Retter: [00:19:06] Yes, sir.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:07] So if somebody wants to learn more, maybe get a hold of fitness. Premier, get a hold of you. Maybe talk to you about your experience. What is the best way to connect with them or you?

Kyle Retter: [00:19:20] Their website is the easiest way to connect with them and its premier clubs. There is a chat box that you can go straight to and just type in your questions and you can you can find their phone numbers as well. Or if you want to contact me, be happy. You can call me anytime. 8505859432. I’d love to chat and answer any questions.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:48] And then you’re looking. This location will be somewhere in the Savannah or South Carolina area.

Kyle Retter: [00:19:56] Yes. Savannah or any of the outskirts of Savannah which would be cooler. Springfield, Rincon. And then we’re also looking in Hilton Head, South Carolina and possibly Brunswick, Georgia as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:11] Wow. You can build that empire.

Kyle Retter: [00:20:15] That’s the goal.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:16] Well, Kyle, congratulations on all the success and best of luck in this adventure.

Kyle Retter: [00:20:22] All right. Thank you, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:23] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Franchise Marketing Radio.

Logan Havern With Datalogz

May 19, 2022 by Jacob Lapera

Startup Showdown Podcast

Logan Havern With Datalogz

00:00 /

Logan Havern, Founder & CEO at Datalogz

Logan is an innovator in the data space, solving the biggest challenges with enterprise data management.

Currently, he is the CEO & Founder of Datalogz, building out their vision to help companies 5x their ROI on data and create the most robust metadata pipeline available on the market.

Initially, Logan experienced data confusion early in his career at JetBlue and was motivated to build a platform to solve it. He built the first version of Datalogz himself.

He studied engineering at Texas A&M, focusing on analytics, and is always open to conversations about data and entrepreneurship.

Connect with Logan on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

About Datalogz
The current state of the company
Fundraising updates/news

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] We’ll come 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, health care, tech, fintech and more. Now sit tight as we interview this week’s guest and their journey through entrepreneurship.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:38] Lee Kantor here another episode of Startup Showdown, and this is going to be a fun 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 Logan Havern with datalogz. Welcome, Logan.

Logan Havern: [00:00:56] Lee Thanks for having me here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:57] Today. Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about data logs. How are you serving folks? Yeah.

Logan Havern: [00:01:04] So Data Logs is a B2B SAS platform. We help companies organize their data, so we sit on top of all of their relational databases by tools and provide one central discovery portal. So any business analyst data scientists can quickly find and understand data within a company.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:24] Now, can you explain just for the folks who aren’t as familiar about data, kind of what it is people talk about big data, and I would imagine that can kind of refer to lots and lots of things, but talk about data as an industry, and that’s an area of interest for you to solve a problem in that space.

Logan Havern: [00:01:46] Yeah, it’s a really good question. So big data as a whole is what drives a lot of decisions at different enterprises and companies. So right now, companies want to be more data driven. So if you think about an airline, for example, they might collect transactional data on each ticket, what flight delays happen, what staffing occur. So there’s all these different elements that a company would collect to have more and more data. And I actually got started in data by working at JetBlue, an airline based out of New York on the East Coast here in the US. And I was on an engineering team there. And so one of the big challenges of my job is my boss would come say, Hey, can you build a machine learning model to do something like predict flight delays? And to do this, I would have to go find data within JetBlue. This could take weeks, emails, talking to I.T. teams, asking around, hey, where does this data live? So that was kind of the problem and pain point I got started with while working on data logs.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:44] But when it comes to data, there’s all kinds of data and and how do you know which is the relevant data and which data is irrelevant to solving the problem that you’re working on?

Logan Havern: [00:02:57] Yeah, it’s a good question. So I think for any data person, the first step in a project or an analysis is figuring out what is that relevant data. And it’s going to be different to each project, whether it’s a relational database, structured, unstructured, and there’s a million different formats it could be in, but a company or a user at a company is going to have to go in and really try to understand what is the problem, trying to solve, what inputs do I need to solve that problem? And they’d have to go out and find and discover that data to make sure they solve that problem. So at data logs, we start by making it a very easy Google search component where you can easily discover any data within your company.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:40] So, so how does it work? So I’m a company out there and I have a lot of data. What is the exact problem that I’m having where data logs is going to help me, you know, either relieve this frustration or help me leverage the data in a more meaningful manner. Yeah.

Logan Havern: [00:03:58] So the problem that we’re solving is on average, 40% of a data user’s job is spent just trying to find the right data for their projects. So rather than having to dig through, send emails, phone calls, we make it as easy as a Google search to quickly find data within a company. So rather than spending 40% almost a few days every week, if you’re a data scientist or data analyst trying to find data, we serve you relevant results to your role instantly based on your project. So we cut down that data discovery time down to seconds and improve the productivity of any data analyst, data scientist, business analyst who needs data at a company.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:39] Now you mentioned you got your start in the airline industry. Were that is that where some of your first kind of beta test subjects came from?

Logan Havern: [00:04:48] Yes, we’re an industry agnostic solution. So actually when COVID hit, not many people were flying planes anymore. So I had a ton of free time on my hands. And so what I decided to do is, hey, I’ve been having this problem with my job in aviation. I’m going to build a solution to try to solve it. So I actually use a no code development platform called Bubble Hack Together, the first version, and put it online through a couple of Reddit posts as well as posting in some Facebook data science groups. We’ve got about 300 users in just two weeks on this original version, and so it came across quite a few different industries. There were some airline people trying it out, but airlines similar to the financial industry are highly regulated, a lot of data compliance rules. So as being a startup, we didn’t want to have a long sales cycle where it takes 6 to 8 months to close a deal because we need to close deals, get customers immediately. So most of our early customers have been more e commerce and the less regulated industry so far.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:50] Now, when did you start feeling like, hey, we’re starting to get some traction? I think this is really going to help some folks. This is a problem worth pursuing.

Logan Havern: [00:05:59] Yeah. So when I built that original MVP and put it online, we got that 300 users in just a few weeks, and that was the validation I needed. I’m getting these users, I’m getting their feedback, and people are telling me 100 reasons why they can’t use it at their job today, but what problems and how much it could help them? So that was kind of the initial feedback that I got on the platform. I was like, Okay, we’re really on to something here. People want this solution, but the version that I built lacked scalability and also security for enterprise IT teams. So I had to figure out, okay, how do I basically build that into the product? So we spent another nine months redesigning the platform from the ground up to solve these problems and make sure it is compatible with it. Regulations, compliance, and that big companies, regulated industries cannot use our product.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:48] So how did you hear about Startup Showdown?

Logan Havern: [00:06:52] Yeah. So actually I think I was scrolling on Twitter one day and I saw one of the founders of Panoramic Ventures tweet about it, one of the general partners there that I’d been following for some time. So that really piqued my interest. And then I ended up applying a few weeks later and it was in one of the, I think, second or third batches of startup showdown where it was still virtual at the time.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:15] And then has there been any part of going through that experience that’s been the most beneficial for you?

Logan Havern: [00:07:23] Yeah. So I think for me, one of the most beneficial parts of that was the Mentor Day. So being a part of a start up showdown and we got to meet with, I think in about 2 hours, four different industry mentors. Some had a bunch of experience in the startup space, others had more relevant experience in the sales space of selling enterprise software. So meeting those mentors and forming those connections was extremely valuable when we were an early stage startup, just trying to get our footing and get advice, get our place in the market. And the second piece that was really valuable was having the opportunity to pitch in front of a live panel of VCs in a live audience. So we had the chance to do that before. So it was great to get that feedback and understand, okay, how do we need to better tailor our pitch? Our presentation can explain our idea of data logs in a conformed understanding way for a larger audience.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:13] Now, as the founder was a difficult to build the team around you.

Logan Havern: [00:08:18] Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. So that’s been one of the most challenging pieces is how do we find the right technical talent to deliver a product that is very complex on the IT side? So we’re touching hundreds of different data warehouses by tools, which means dashboards that reporting plus additional tools in the data space. So finding that technical talent has definitely been a challenge for us, but we’ve been lucky to have some great partners from early on to help us source and find the right people for data logs.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:50] Now, any advice for other kind of founders out there on how to build a team that’s complementary and kind of shares the same vision?

Logan Havern: [00:09:00] Yeah. So I’d say never stop networking. So something we did early on that’s paid dividends now is just doing a lot of marketing and outreach on LinkedIn. So as first getting started with data logs, I’d basically add 100 relevant titles, leaders in the data space, a day message each one a personalize message individually, out of that 100, maybe five or ten people would get on a call with me just to kind of discuss what we’re building, share feedback. But through that process, I found some great mentors and that have helped us in these early stages. And now as we kind of grow and scale the company, they’re getting more involved. And eventually we love to have the opportunity to bring them on full time. And so I say my advice to other founders building is just network plays a very valuable role in your early stages of your startup, but that network you build initially can also impact later down the line as you are recruiting and raising funding and you never know who someone’s going to know.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:57] So how do you kind of vet these people, especially, you know, where everything is kind of virtual right now? How are you? Kind of. Checking out to make sure that they they are who they say they are and they can do what they say they can do.

Logan Havern: [00:10:14] Yes. So from a technical recruiting sense, we have pretty well put together a process around screening and understanding the technical skills of someone. I think there’s always a risk that maybe someone does great or has someone help them in that screening. But we normally start with kind of a four week trial period, paying someone before we bring them officially on full time. And that works has worked pretty well to make sure people who they are and can deliver on what they are saying are promising us. And then in terms of the mentor network and kind of fighting guidance and leadership for our startup, we’ve been fortunate we’re meeting people and as they invest more time with you, you can really see what is their interest in your company. Why are they helping out? Is this kind of a long term relationship? So just being consistent with those meetings and just meeting for someone four or five or six times, but really understanding why they’re interested and how they can help you and you can help them and how your interests align.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:13] So you mentioned that you built the first 1.0 version of this yourself. How has the kind of funding process gone for you right now? Is it still so? I know you’re working with the panoramic folks, but where are you at from a funding standpoint?

Logan Havern: [00:11:34] Yeah. So I guess to take you on kind of the full funding journey, initially I built that first version like we discussed myself, kind of packed it together in my spare time. After that, we grew to those users and then with that, I was able to raise us some small angel funding to help build out our enterprise version. So with that angel funding, we were able to basically find a pretty great initial team to start with. We worked with them the last nine months, building out our enterprise version of our product. So now after we had that ready, we did a couple POCs with some pretty massive companies, had them test, give feedback, figure out what it takes to convert them to a larger paying enterprise client. And then we actually just closed our PRE-SEED funding round and were accepted into an accelerator with Skydeck Berkeley. So our team is actually moving out to California this Saturday to continue working on data logs. So we just closed kind of our pre-seed round and then our targeting a larger seed round coming up in about six months.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:39] Exciting times. Exciting times. What do you think is your superpower as the leader of this organization?

Logan Havern: [00:12:48] Yeah, I’d say consistency is one of the biggest things. So building a startup is definitely going through a lot of ups and downs. Love one day five customers say, Hey, we want to go live on your platform, and then a few days later they might back out or whatever reasons they can’t. So I think staying positive, consistent, making sure everyone is aligned and on the same page with those overarching goals and not letting the day to day have major impacts on building our company. We have to always remember today, what is that long term vision? What are we working towards? What do we want to accomplish? So I think staying focused and maintaining that consistency of we’re not going to give up. We have the runway, we have the talent, the team to get there. We just need to keep driving and keep pushing. And I think we’ve done a great job of keeping our team motivated to be able to deliver on that in the future.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:37] Has there been a mentor or maybe another startup founder that has been kind of inspirational for you or has been kind of kind of showing you a path that maybe you’re trying to follow?

Logan Havern: [00:13:49] Yeah, that’s a really good question. So actually, to go back probably about five or six years ago, I was a college student at Texas A&M University, and I received a small grant from the National Science Foundation to begin working on kind of my first entrepreneurship idea. And with that, I was trying to build a biometrics compliance tool that I’m not going into the details of what I wanted to do, but it was a complicated idea. And this National Science Foundation grant basically allowed us to go talk to people and industry travel to conferences. And I met this one founder who was in his early stages there at the time. His name’s Panos. He runs a company called Zenas AI. And what they do is basically build smart cameras to track in retail stores or other areas people’s facial expressions, as well as things like happy, sad emotions where people are concentrating a store, what menu items are very advanced AI kind of vision technology. But he basically agreed from that initial project that I was working on to help us out be our mentor. And five, six years later, he’s still involved. I met with him just last week and to watch his journey from the early stages to now where he’s raising much larger amounts of money, building a team, building up products that’s extremely valuable, has been inspirational in my startup journey and. I was very lucky to find him kind of early on and have him stick through me now, five or six years later, where I’ve gone through a couple of iterations on products, ideas, but now I’m fully focused on data logs and Panos has been amazing to help me get there.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:27] Now, you mentioned that there’s been some, you know, ups and downs obviously throughout this process. But was there any time where you were at a kind of a go no go point where you were like, I don’t know if I can do this or, you know, this this challenge looks insurmountable. And then something happened that broke your way, that gave you the confidence to continue. Yeah, I’d.

Logan Havern: [00:15:50] Say we did have one of those moments probably about six months back. So I was working full time at JetBlue and I lost. All right. I left my job in August to focus on data logs full time and August 2021 and basically decided, okay, I’m going to give myself six months to close some enterprise clients. And around the five month mark, we had a lot of interest, but no one closing to actually move forward with those POCs. So that was kind of at a point where we were feeling, okay, we’re building this technology, getting interest, but no one’s closing. What do we do next? Ultimately, we need to make money to survive and continue kind of building this and kind of those last kind of two weeks that were like, okay, we have to make a decision coming up soon. We had one of our enterprise clients convert to a larger POC where they began testing using our product. And that was kind of that initial another area of validation we got. We’re like, okay, we’re really on to something here. We got to just keep pushing. There’s going to be more clients out there and then through more referrals, meeting more people, really glad that we stuck with it, didn’t falter and were able to keep our heads up and keep moving. Even though the sales cycle took much larger, longer and was a lot more challenging than we initially expected.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:03] Now that you’ve experienced kind of a bit of the entrepreneur life, a bit of the corporate life, is this entrepreneur life what you imagine is being a founder, what you imagined it would be?

Logan Havern: [00:17:17] Yeah, yeah. So I’d say it’s everything I imagined and more in terms of what I was expecting. I expected, of course, hard work, but really being able to make an impact and drive and create something and I think that’s what matters to me at the end of the day is I want to create a product that people want to use that adds real value and being able to see our work and our hard work and consistency to meet that and make that happen has been amazing. And from the start that was the goal and still is today is how can we build something useful to the most people?

Lee Kantor: [00:17:49] Now. Do you have any advice for other folks that are either thinking about becoming a startup founder or at maybe the early stages of their journey? Yeah.

Logan Havern: [00:18:03] So my advice would be just to get started and do whatever you can to kind of put your minimum viable product, your version 1.0 out there to the world. If I didn’t take kind of the time to build out our initial version, I use the no code platform bubble of drag and drop coding. Our journey never would have been started, and we never know how far we could potentially get. So I’d say, do everything you can to get that first version out to the world and then start talking to people, talk to customers, get feedback, figure out, Hey, would you pay for this? Yes. No, but sticking with it, because that journey to find product market fit takes time. So from your initial version to actually scaling your startup, I read articles that say this can take anywhere from six months to two and a half years, but just knowing in the back of your mind, Hey, I got started, I built this, I’m getting feedback, improving day over day and having that is the hardest part is just getting started.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:55] Yeah, you have to take action and you have to get it out of your head into the marketplace and let kind of the market help you shape it.

Logan Havern: [00:19:03] Exactly. Exactly.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:05] So what do you need more of? How can we help?

Logan Havern: [00:19:09] Yeah. So right now we’re just trying to get our platform out to the world. So we have a SAS version online. If you go to our website data logs, I would love for you to check it out or share with any data people you know who might be interested.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:24] And then who is that ideal profile for your, for the user of of data logs.

Logan Havern: [00:19:30] Yeah. So any data analyst, data scientist, business analyst who at their company has no central source for data documentation, we’re solving that problem. So we’re one cloud based location where you can document, discover and fully understand your data. So basically individual contributors on data teams are our ideal customer prospect that we’re targeting.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:53] And that’s data logs that IO catalogs dot IO.

Logan Havern: [00:19:59] Yes, correctly.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:01] Well, Logan, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Logan Havern: [00:20:07] Thank you. We really appreciate your time as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:09] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see y’all next time on Startup Showdown.

Intro: [00:20:14] 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 Dot VC. That’s Showdown Dot VC. That’s all for this week. Goodbye for now.