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Patsy Hatfield Lawson, Front Porch Presentations
- What is your primary product/service? I use storytelling to deliver entertainment and information about the necessity to change and adapt throughout life.
- How did you get started in this business? My career as a professor teaching psychology for many years was the preparation. Through that I learned that storytelling was a very effective way to deliver psychological content in a memorable format.
- What did you do prior to this? While teaching at the college I had a successful part- time business as a marriage and family therapist for 12 years. Earlier I worked as a preschool teacher.
- What has been one of your challenges in growing your business? Learning to find my place in the business arena and learning how to market what I do. Education is a rather isolated environment from business and I’ve had difficulty finding my place in a business environment.
- What would you like to have known when you first started that you now know? The value of connectivity to a variety of groups and individuals and the importance of communicating a clear statement about who I am and what I do.
- What lesson would you like to pass on to other business owners? Get help from those who know the field you’re trying to enter, and be selective to find the best fit for you, your personality and your area.
- What is the best business book you have read and what made this one so good? No one book in particular. I have read many, taking bits and pieces from each one. Lately I am reading Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi
- What is something few people know about you? That I was raised 50-75 years culturally behind the rest of the US. I know how to butcher hogs and chickens, how to make quilts and how to grow tobacco. I could survive well on a farm. I know many Appalachian skills from 100 years ago because I was taught these skills from my childhood culture. What I don’t know is how to connect to the business world with the skills I have.
- Are you a dog or cat person? Neither. Have had both and love their companionship, but currently have chosen to avoid the stress of cleaning up after them.
- What is something your mother taught you that you use every day? Hospitality. My mother was an ace at making people feel welcome in her home. She loved visitors, enjoyed cooking for them and listening to the stories and experiences they brought to her life. She taught me the value of being a good cook, a neat housekeeper, and she taught me honesty about myself and with others. My father taught me the joy of laughter and finding humor in most things.
Camara Randolph, Cross Channel Market
http://careerreconnections.com/
Looking back at her childhood Camara Randolph believes that the idea for starting her own business came from her grandmother who owned her own hair salon. Daily after school she helped out at the salon and quietly watched her grandmother manage time, money and people on a daily basis. Later she came to realize that as an individual business owner her grandmother was in charge of her time and how much money she made. This memory came back to Camara when she began to think about transitioning from her work at the Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau to something else. When Camara made the decision to step out on her own, she decided to leverage her strengths around building strong relationships, communicating with business leaders, and utilizing productivity and technology tools. “Like any normal person I was fearful of starting my business during a time of recession. If my grandmother, who had three kids at the time, could go back to beautician school at night to learn new skills and how to manage a very successful business, I could start my own business too.”
When asked what people skills she learned from watching her grandmother on a daily basis, Camara said, “There were two major things. I learned how important it is to honor confidentiality, and how to build a life around your core strength and interests.” Her grandmother was a consistent model for resourcefulness by managing her business as well as her family.
Today Camara believes that her business stands out because she integrates new media marketing tools to help individuals and business owners attract just the right clients for them. Attracting ideal clients is not a one and done thing. Essentially you are building relationships which takes time. It is a fluid somewhat ever changing process that has to be built on a strong strategy. She feels her best skills lie in teaching others how to use a multilayered plan to marketing and promoting their businesses.
Perhaps the biggest surprise about Camara is that she is an avid reader consuming at least one book a week. While she says she enjoys a novel now and then, most of her reading focus is on marketing, business building, and relationship development. One of her favorites is Martha Beck’s, Finding Your Own North Star, and Robert Cialdini’s, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.
Interviewed and Written by Patsy Hatfield Lawson, Front Porch Presentations
Courtenay Shipley, Shipley Capital Advisory, LLC
http://www.shipleyadvisory.com/
Businesses get started in a variety of ways. Courtenay calls herself an accidental business owner. “I had the unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on how you look at it) experience of working for someone who was discovered to be committing fraud. The business assets were frozen, the business folded, and I hadn’t even worked there a year before suddenly I was back in the job market. I’d spent 9 years in the retirement plan industry already and knew what kind of place I wanted to land as a consultant. The problem came when I never found that ideal firm. I only wanted to consult on company retirement plans, not sell financial planning or insurance products or be forced to meet sales quotas. I also wanted the ability to share in the liability of the plan with my clients so I could give them unbiased advice, not make a product pitches. When I couldn’t find what I was looking for, I started my own firm.”
Since that time Courtenay continues to discover the in’s and out’s of her self-made enterprise. There are daily lessons to be learned and every business owner rides the learning curve at some critical point. Courtenay says that her most surprising lesson was that sometimes being the best wasn’t a guarantee of success. “Often you’ll find that your competition is unethical, uninformed, or just not as capable. Yet, they still manage to get business. It’s a lesson we should all learn early in business. Being the best doesn’t guarantee anything; only hard work does.”
Along with the surprises come other lessons from NAWBO friends who willingly share information and help. Recently Courtenay was given a referral for a vendor from a Dana, a NAWBO member. As she pursued contact information on the referral she became frustrated because she could not research this vendor in advance. Luckily, this frustration caused her to remember another piece of advice given to her by Kimbell, another NAWBO friend. “Kimble’s observation was that people like to get to know you before they actually interact with you to buy something, so social media and a web presence is really important in this day and age. Consumers want to know who they’re doing business with and what value they might get before they act, and that comes from other sources.”
One key component for any business is to figure out what sets them apart from their competition. Courtenay summarizes hers with the following. “First, I only consult on company retirement plans, like pensions, 401(k), profit sharing, etc. I don’t manage wealth; I don’t do financial planning; I don’t do insurance. My focus isn’t diluted by other services. Second, I’m independent. I don’t have a parent company telling me which vendors or products I have to recommend; clients can get my consulting on any vendor and any investment. Third, I’m an advisor who charges fees in exchange for advice. My clients don’t have to worry about me selling them a product that pays more commission than another because I’m not a salesman. They get unbiased advice tailored to their situation. Because of this, I’m bound by fiduciary responsibility, which means I have to disclose all conflicts of interest, I have to act in the best interest of my client at all times, and I can be held liable for advice. It’s the highest standard in our industry.”
Interviewed and Written by Patsy Hatfield Lawson, Front Porch Presentations
Jennifer Brinkman, Advance Payment Solutions, LLC
www.AdvancedPaymentSolutions.net
The best way to introduce Jennifer Brinkman is to quote one of her favorite learned life lessons: “Be open to new experiences.” She explains this by saying, “If you can’t adapt and change you are going to fail miserably.” This life lesson seems to sum up most of her whole career.
Jennifer’s life has been full of transitions and change. Being the oldest child of a single mother, Jennifer grew up poor and had to work throughout high school and college. In high school she was connected to the cooperative program which allowed her work at a real job for 7 hours after school. While attending High School, Jennifer got a job with ComData in Nashville. This introduced her to the money transfer and transaction processing in the casino industry. As that market changed due to technological advances and new owners, Jennifer was able to work in New Jersey, Colorado and back to Tennessee . From all of these transitions and moves Jennifer was able to learn new lifestyles, new people, new religions, music, mindsets, and changing technology. “From all of the adaptations I grew immensely as a person and as an employee; that growth has made all the difference in my life and in my business.”
Her inspiration for forming her own company came when her boss asked her in 1990 what her business goals were, and much to her own surprise, she responded with, “to leave this company and start my own business.” This was the first time she had ever verbalized this thought! From here she began her search for business opportunities and contacts.
Jennifer’s most surprising lesson she learned in her business was, “that people really look to you for guidance! I never thought I was a good role model, and still don’t. But you do realize that your customers, vendors and employees want to know your moral compass, that you have a plan, and that you are keeping their interest in mind? Words and actions are so important.” She says still says she struggles with engaging the filter between her brain and mouth.
Her biggest business struggle has been letting go of the day to day things that need to be done. “We have exceptionally talented employees and they can do those things much better than I can. As long as we have communicated the company culture effectively, they will implement it.”
When asked for the name of the best business book she ever read, she replied, “The Dilbert Principles of Management. I still pick it up, read it, and thumb through it. “Dilbert uses humor, and for me, that’s how I remember these lessons.” Jennifer says that the cartoons illustrate a key to understanding how each department from HR, Sales, and Marketing interacts and is perceived by one another. With a little humor and humility these lessons will help you become a better coach, manager, employee and coworker.
Interviewed and Written by Patsy Hatfield Lawson, Front Porch Presentations
Dana Moore, CFA of HMS Capital Management
www.hmscm.com
Dana came into a family consisting of older parents and a teenage sister who had a lot to teach her. As an engineer, her Dad taught her his analytical skills while her sister shared her skills in fashion design by dressing her up and showing her off like a new doll.
Nashville has always been her home base. After earning a degree in finance from Belmont University and her CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst), she moved to Atlanta to join a start-up company. Here she learned her most valuable lesson- it’s not about how smart you are but how you treat others. “You could be the smartest person in the room but it won’t make you successful. It is about people. I learned early on to view everyone as a client. When I was a rookie stock analyst, I viewed my colleagues and my boss as my clients. I would look for ways to help them excel at their jobs. As I moved through my career, I have always focused on how I can help others. Today, I get to come to work and find ways to help our clients achieve their dreams.”
At their former employer, she and her partners had the opportunity to work with some of the wealthiest people in the country. “My average client had more than $25 million in assets. People with this type of wealth have access to resources and advisors that the rest of us will never have. We realized that we could bring our years of experience and high level of expertise to the rest of us.” This prompted her and her partners to start HMS Capital Management, LLC in 2009. “We dedicated ourselves to helping our clients build portfolios that can thrive even during difficult times.”
One valuable lesson Dana has learned along the way has been to not be afraid of failure. Being an analytical type, Dana says that she was prone to problem solving by always having a Plan A, B, and C. If one did not work out, she had the others to fall back on. However, this strategy proved to be limiting because she never fully dedicated herself to success. “If you are going to be successful- then there is no Plan B. As a business owner, I have had to learn to commit myself to being successful and then do whatever it takes to make it happen. I still struggle with doubt and fear at times but I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything else.”
Interviewed and Written by Patsy Hatfield Lawson, Front Porch Presentations
Lynn Taylor of Taylor Made Plans
www.TaylorMadePlans.com
Becoming a residential designer like Lynn Taylor begins with a family who were construction people and business owners, a love for and earning high school awards in art and drafting, additional education in architectural engineering, and a desire to start working for herself as the boss. Early in this process, Lynn worked other jobs and did her designer jobs on the side. From here she took the big leap into full ‘bootstrapping’ which is a fancy word for starting a new business, and doing all the work yourself while trying to be able to hire the best help with your own resources. Today Lynn enjoys the success of designing and overseeing the construction of homes throughout Nashville.
Her true love is redesign of older homes to fit the dreams of the present owners. She has completed projects in all major historic areas of Nashville including East Nashville, Belmont Hillsboro, Germantown, and Richland West End. Her success can be attributed to good problem solving and intuitive skills. These skills emerged as she had to take the ideas of her clients and make them work within their budget and the unique features of the house. She says her business helped her discover new sides of herself as she became a problem solver for each unique residence. Lynn now believes that her skills in these areas are what attract people to her business.
Probably the most surprising business lesson that Lynn has learned in design and construction is the importance of having both of the couple present for all the discussions about the project. Usually her projects are done for homeowners who are doing an upgrade to the house. Often without knowing it, each person is pursuing a separate plan from the other person, and she has to clarify the issues to help them resolve their differences. If both players are not present for all discussions things can go very wrong quickly within the project. The residential designer is often blamed for the problem.
A favorite charity for Lynn is Magdalene House which helps drug addicted prostitutes recover from addiction and helplessness. Through these projects with the Magdalene House she was able to work on her first Earthcraft certified home, an Atlanta based green certified residential building project sponsored by the US Dept. of Energy.
Interviewed and Written by Patsy Hatfield Lawson, Front Porch Presentations
Elizabeth Moss, Whole Care Connections
www.WholeCareConnections.com
Elizabeth Moss serves as the CEO of Whole Care Connections, a Nashville community based company providing caregiving for individuals while engaging and enriching their lives. Their services focus on:
- Transportation
- Medication Reminders
- Light Housekeeping
- Bathing and Dressing
- Innovative and leading edge care giver options
- Companionship & activities focused on a positive quality of life
As a practicing nurse Elizabeth became distressed when she saw the limited and disengaged care that many seniors and other disabled persons received when they faced long term illnesses or the routine problems associated with aging. Working with other helping professionals and within her nursing profession she formed a company that could address those concerns and provide unexcelled care to these individuals. She firmly believes that what sets her apart from other caregiving businesses is her company’s ability to care for the whole person in body, mind and spirit. The two areas most often neglected for seniors are mind and spirit. Elizabeth’s focus from the beginning was to involve families and their aging relatives to provide the best decisions and solutions possible for their needs and wants.
One of the first lessons Elizabeth learned as a result of forming her company was that she had to become a business person along with her nursing profession. This business focus would take her to areas she knew little about such as having to negotiate her feelings about compassion with the need to address profit margins. Other lessons focused on the necessity to constantly market and network within her field. She found that some networking groups were better for her than others and she learned how to choose the best fit for her company. Elizabeth also says that she learned the value of hiring experts in her areas of weakness to help her navigate change. One of the experts she hired was Susan DePue of GrowthPointe Strategies. Elizabeth labels Susan as being her hero. She says that Susan has been a constant guide and supporter from day one.
Interviewed and Written by Patsy Hatfield Lawson, Front Porch Presentations
Susan DePue, GrowthPointe Strategies
www.GrowthPointeStrategies.com
Susan DePue is a Growth Strategist working with all size businesses to take them to the next level. Her passion is working with a business owner that loves her business but is working too hard, feeling stuck, and not seeing the results she had hoped for. Susan goes in and develops a strategy so that the owner can work less, earn more, and have the business she always dreamed of having.
Susan began her present business at age 50 when she had to admit that she was totally burned out with her career in business sales. This was not an easy admission because she was earning a good salary and enjoyed some things about the career, but not all aspects of it. There also was the question of reinventing herself toward a new focus. She did not expect it to be easy.
The catalyst for GrowthPointe Strategies was remembering that her mother started her business around age 50. If her Mom could start a whole new business career at that age then she could create her dream job too. First she began with what she liked about her former career. Those likes were teaching others, working with business minded individuals, growing ideas and taking action on them. From here she moved toward what she knew she could give and how to form a new career around those gifts. Coaching seemed to be a great fit for her, but it had to be redefined as coaching in marketing; not personal coaching. The next step was getting training in how to do coaching, and learning how to focus that on marketing and company growth rather than career advancement skills. Like most changes, it was a journey of decisions, questions, and discoveries.
Susan’s focus now is her continued love for learning new things; growing business with new methods such as speaking to groups to find new clients; identifying companies she would like to work with; investigating their current situation, getting to know them and, if appropriate, making a proposal of how she can help them. Susan has always enjoyed being proactive.
Susan has enjoyed incredible success with GrowthPointe Strategies with her new methods rather than methods used 20 years ago, and taking action on new ideas. Susan says that one of the biggest outcomes for her was realizing that she is valued for her ideas and thoughts rather than for just what she does. What a powerful realization!
Interviewed and Written by Patsy Hatfield Lawson, Front Porch Presentations