Business Leaders Podcast

Are you executing the right strategies to market your products and services? Are you planning to buy or sell a business? In this episode, guest Cameron Kolb, senior broker at Raincatcher, speaks with host Bob Roark on how business owners spend their money, time, and effort in growing their businesses. Cameron explains his company's professional process so you can start analyzing yours. He helps and guides people to get the maximum value when buying or selling their businesses. He values being true and honest to the people who are asking for their help while getting the job done. Stay tuned to know more to scale your business up!

 

If you want to grow as a company, you have to do it organically, not by following trends. Ask your customers what they want and then build from that. Stop anticipating the next trend and just work on your core business. Be creative and original. Join your host Bob Roark and his guest Dr. Angus Fletcher as they break down how you can lead your business to grow organically. Angus is a Professor of Story Science at Ohio State’s Project Narrative. Discover Angus's love for both neuroscience and storytelling. Come and join the conversation on how you can grow your company in a world that's so different from before. Be open to change and anomalies so that you can grow. Feed your creative brain so that you can grow. Grow organically today!

Watch the episode here:

 

How To Grow Your Company Organically In This New World With Dr. Angus Fletcher

Our guest is Dr. Angus Fletcher. He is a professor at Ohio State University's Project Narrative. He is a polymath with dual degrees in Neuroscience and Literature. He received his PhD from Yale, taught Shakespeare at Stanford, and published two books and numerous peer-reviewed articles. He has consulted with Sony, Disney, Amazon, and the Army Command and General Staff College. He is the author and presenter of the Audible Great Course Guide to Screenwriting. He was awarded the Rodica C. Botoman Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching and Mentoring 2020. Welcome to the show.

Thanks for inviting me. I'm honored and excited.

I started in neuroscience and that continues to be the bedrock of everything that I do as a young neuroscience researcher. I was in the lab where, like every other lab in America, everyone thought the brain was a computer. They thought that the brain is operated by taking on data, storing it into memory, and then processing that data to make decisions logically and that the brain program has this thing called emotion. That was how everyone was working on the brain.

I started to notice the human brain didn't work as a computer at all. First of all, human brains are much worse at doing logic than most computers. Human brains can't take on the same amount of data. Even when we do, we are much more irregular in how we process it. Humans are a lot smarter than computers in certain situations. Humans are much better at low-data decision-making. We are much better at figuring out what to do when there's not a lot of information. That's a situation where AI goes completely haywire.

Humans are also better at being creative. Even though AI can be better at predicting the future, humans can be better at making the future and making it in ways that AI can't...

Your hiring process should not just start with stacking up resumes. If you want the right fit for the job and for your company, you need to be thorough. Joining Bob Roark today are Steve Urban and Scott Kegerreis, co-founders of Riderflex, a generalist boutique recruiting firm servicing all industries, all functions, nationwide, C-level to associates. The two recruitment experts share how you can optimize your recruitment process. It’s not just about credentials on paper but also the character and personality. It all comes down to a human element. Learn more about their process and how they’ve helped build successful companies through their work by tuning in.

Optimizing Your Hiring Process With Steve Urban and Scott Kegerreis

For the readers, I'm glad to be back on the show. We are a recruiting firm and what we're here to talk about is our recruiting business. If it wasn't for you, I don't think Riderflex Podcast that we would do would not exist if it wasn’t for you because you gave us that suggestion way back a long time ago. I always think to myself, “The podcast we have would not exist without Bob.”

Thank you for the mentoring and advice you gave us way back then. You have a wonderful show and all the guests that you have had on. I try to mimic that a little bit and follow your lead, especially early on when I was first getting started. Thank you for the advice and the relationship that we have. With Bob Roark is appreciated.

For the readers, Riderflex is a generalist boutique recruiting firm for all industries and functions nationwide from C-level to associates. We are having great success building the company. Scott and I started it in late 2016. We both came from executive backgrounds. I was an operations guy and Scott was a sales guy. We had met each other working at a horticulture outfit. We bonded and had a lot of similarities.

We enjoyed being around each other so we stayed in touch. I called him and said, “I want to turn Riderflex into a recruiting firm.” He's like, “There are 20,000 recruiters. Why do we want to do that?” I said, “Most of them suck. We can do a lot better.” I’ve got some ideas on how to do it the right way because I had dealt with and hired recruiters, and recruiters had worked for me...

Gary Wofford of Raincatcher LLC talks about business exit strategies and what you need to know when you sell your business.

Most entrepreneurs’ exit strategy is selling their business. But how do you sell your business at the best price? Mark Woodbury is the Managing Director at Raincatcher, helping entrepreneurs buy and sell remarkable companies. Today, he joins Bob Roark to break down the process behind how they help clients get maximum value for their businesses. He shares mistakes to avoid and things to prepare when you’re planning to exit and sell your business. Tune in for valuable insight on how to make your life’s work sellable!

It’s not just what you say that matters, but also how you say it. Everyone communicates differently, and knowing how to approach different people at different times can make or break you. Ethan Becker is the President and second-generation senior coach and trainer from The Speech Improvement Company. In this episode, he chats with host Bob Roark and shares some tips from his book, Mastering Communication at Work: How to Lead, Manage, and Influence. Ethan talks about the impact of communicating effectively and how that translates in different business situations. He also discusses the science behind speech and communication to give a better understanding of how it works.

Interestingly, many banks receive customer complaints not about their services but their standard procedure of asking for ID all the time. Regulars often see this as annoying and repetitive, which sometimes leads to arguments with bank tellers and staff. Setting the record straight regarding this particular policy with Bob Roark is Robin Roberts, CEO of Pikes Peak National Bank. She explains why confirming one's identification is critical in securing one's money and financial information. Robin emphasizes why this simple action promotes better relationships between you and your bank.

Negotiating with banks when getting a loan is not only about getting the most rewarding end of the deal. There are a lot of regulations and policies to be considered here after all, and you must be aware of each one to ensure a smooth process. Bob Roark talks with the CEO of Pikes Peak National Bank, Robin Roberts, to delve into the right approach to bank negotiations. She explains why you can't argue with banks about submitting tax returns and financial statements, delving into why it is not an invasion of privacy. On the other hand, Robin talks about loan covenants - which are negotiable - detailing how you should discuss its specifics with the bank to come up with a satisfying agreement for both parties.

It is often believed that bank lending is only accessible to those with money. But if that's the case, then it conflicts with the entire idea of getting a loan. Breaking this misconception with Bob Roark is the CEO of Pikes Peak National Bank, Robin Roberts. She explains how banks determine the qualified persons for bank lending. She enumerates the most important factors that come into play in such transactions, from the required cash of 10% to your overall credit/FICO score.

Since a bank is still a business, it has to follow specific rules and regulations. So when it comes to loan approvals, one must be prepared to abide by the required loan package. Bob Roark is joined by Robin Roberts, CEO Of Pikes Peak National Bank, to discuss what constitutes such a package and how business plans differ depending on your scope and reach. They also talk about why banks favor those mitigating risks and how banking changed a lot over the years because of politics and culture.