[00:00:00] Speaker A: You know, I have to function. I have the pressure.
[00:00:02] Speaker B: The core of our business was our culture.
[00:00:04] Speaker C: Not everyone is safe to share your secret.
[00:00:07] Speaker D: I'm Richard Gerhart.
[00:00:08] Speaker E: And I'm Elizabeth Gearhart. You've just heard some snippets from our show. It was a great one. Stay tuned, especially if you want to start a new business.
[00:00:18] Speaker D: Ramping up your business. The time is near. You've given it heart, now get it in gear. It's Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart. I'm Richard Gearhart, founder of Gearhart Law, a full service intellectual property law firm specializing in patents, trademarks, and copyrights.
[00:00:36] Speaker E: And I'm Elizabeth Gearhart, not an attorney, but I do marketing for Gearhart Law and I have my own startups and podcasts.
[00:00:42] Speaker D: Welcome to Passage to Profit, the road to entrepreneurship, where we talk with entrepreneurs and celebrities who tell their stories about their business journey and also share helpful insights about the successes that they've had.
[00:00:55] Speaker E: Did you know that 2 in 5Americans want to start a new business or are business owners? Well, we have lots of information to help them too.
[00:01:02] Speaker D: And we also talk a little about the intellectual property that helps them flourish. We have a very special guest, Julian Hept, who is the international life coach and business coach. He's also an author and facilitator, and we really look forward to hearing from him.
[00:01:18] Speaker E: And next, we have Christy Pretzinger with WG Content. She's the founder and CEO and she is helping leaders create environments where people can thrive. And after her, we have Brandi Burch, the CEO and founder of Benefit Bay, a software in the techstar startup space for benefits.
[00:01:37] Speaker D: Well, that sounds amazing. I can hardly wait. But before we get to our distinguished guests, it's time for your new business journey. Two in five Americans want to start a business or are already business owners. And we like to ask our guests on this show questions that can help our audience. So what besides passion is essential to entrepreneurial success? So, Julian, welcome to the show. What's your take on that question?
[00:02:04] Speaker A: What besides passion is important in my eyes are many things, like to be disciplined, you know, like a combination that you have passion and a sense of purpose towards what you do, and then to take structured action and learn from your mistakes. I think the biggest thing when people are starting out with their business, it's not always easy at the beginning. So you have to maintain, like a strong mindset in my eye and be aware that you're going to hit those walls where you think, oh, my God, this was it. It's over and then to push through. Because if you take on that journey of business, it's in my eyes, something like a hero's journey of your soul. Also, if you want to say that that wants to grow and evolve, and if you have that mindset, okay, I know that it's not going to be easy always, then you're able to push through and take on that challenge.
[00:03:05] Speaker D: That's great advice. I really appreciate that. And a lot of people talk about passion and its importance, but there's other skills that the entrepreneur needs to master. I think you covered a lot of them in your answer. Christie, tell us about your opinion on this question. What besides passion is essential to entrepreneurial success?
[00:03:25] Speaker B: I talk a lot about self awareness. I think that you need to be self aware of your own limits and aware of the fact that you don't know what you don't know. If you walk into it thinking you know everything, you're going to fall flat on your face pretty quickly. So even if you're really passionate, you need to make sure that you're willing to have many counselors to kind of double check yourself.
[00:03:45] Speaker D: I think that's a great solution is making sure that you get external input from people who maybe have more experience or different experience, and they can kind of help point things out. I know that when Elizabeth and I started Gearhart Law, we had a lot of challenges and I came right from the corporate world and I thought I knew a lot, but that was different from being an entrepreneur for sure. So, Brandi, what do you have to say?
[00:04:11] Speaker C: I think the one thing for me has been grit. There's a lot of days that are really hard, and if you don't have that grit to get back up tomorrow, I feel like a little bit of the entrepreneurship journey is about being that punching bag. And as you're building it, or as you're hitting your failures, or as you're getting the feedback from others, or as you're having to take those personal licks, or as you're having to motivate yourself every day, like Julian said. So just a grit to not quit, usually right before it's the hardest is when it's going to get better. So believing in yourself enough to keep facing each next day, that's great.
[00:04:48] Speaker D: Would you be willing to share with us an example of where you needed to find that extra grit?
[00:04:53] Speaker C: Yeah. Benefit Bay has, well, had a few instances where it nearly died. So in each of those instances, which early on we had a CEO transition in the founding part of Benefit Bay, I was a co founding team member at the time in the operations seat. And our CEO was asked to step away and I was asked to step in. And so Matt took my first initial piece of grit. Ended up having to take some personal licks as well, of going without compensation and things like that. But throughout the journey, there have been various times where maybe your top customer is acquired and how do you move on from that or how do you navigate that new larger enterprise entity. And so there's just been countless examples throughout the journey that it feels like an emergency that day. It feels like the worst thing that's happening to the business. But you, there'll be another thing later on and you're learning and adapting and learning all those and stretching all those new skills. And I think the self awareness piece, like Christy mentioned, is just knowing when you're feeling, feeling overwhelmed, ask for other people for mentorship. And I think one thing none of us really talked about is having that support network that you can lean on and feel safe to ask all those questions, you know, when you nearly want to give up on yourself.
[00:06:09] Speaker D: I agree. It's funny, you know, as an entrepreneur, you're interfacing directly with the business world. There aren't like a lot of shields out there to kind of protect you. And so you got to roll with the punches. And it's challenging, it's an opportunity for personal growth, but it takes a lot. So I think Julian's reference to heroes is kind of apt because you have to have some part of you that is willing to go through that and come out on top.
[00:06:36] Speaker E: I was going to get a little down deep in the weeds because I had this conversation with somebody recently. If you are going to start a new venture, and Richard and I have had this conversation very recently, you need to have preferably both of these things. But if you don't have both of them, you need to have one of them. One is time, the other is money. As Brandi said, she had to go without compensation. So how do you do that? For instance, I'm starting this podcast business and studio and I have money from the law firm to fund it and I'm getting some loans for some things, but also I have money to pay the rent and eat and stuff because I have a spouse who has a successful business. If I were just on my own trying to start this, it'd be a lot tougher.
[00:07:18] Speaker D: Well, we're in this together, hon, so I don't know if I deserve all the credit.
[00:07:22] Speaker E: I putting in a ton of time too. So we're Working weekends, it feels like we work on it almost all the time. But I recently ran across somebody who wanted to start something and she didn't really have time. Maybe weekends, maybe evenings, and she didn't have any money to put into it.
[00:07:37] Speaker D: Severe bootstrapping.
[00:07:38] Speaker B: Right?
[00:07:39] Speaker C: That's a really good point. If you can't survive those two things, it's not going to make it.
[00:07:44] Speaker B: It's going to take twice as long and cost twice as much.
[00:07:47] Speaker D: I guess for my comment, I've been kind of jumping in and out here, so you already know my opinions, but I'm going to. With the really boring things like be organized, understand your financial stuff. Far too often, I think entrepreneurs neglect the financial piece. Understanding things like a balance sheet, like even having a balance sheet, even having a profit and loss statement, and then understanding the cash flow of the business. These things are fundamental and you may think you're doing great, but if you don't understand those pieces, you may not be making any money. You may be working for free. And so it's very important to get the input of a good accountant and make sure that you try to establish some regular habits for yourself or for your team, and that will help systematize things and make your business more efficient.
[00:08:38] Speaker E: What did Mario say at the event last night? Bring in more money than you spend.
[00:08:42] Speaker D: All right.
[00:08:42] Speaker B: And I just want to add, keep in mind that CPA just means somebody can pass a test. It doesn't necessarily mean they've got financial acumen. In my own experience, yeah, you're right.
[00:08:51] Speaker D: Keeping the books is different than understanding money.
[00:08:53] Speaker E: That is so true.
[00:08:55] Speaker D: Thank you very much, everybody. Very stimulating discussion. And it's now time for our special guest, Julian Hept. He's an international life and business coach, author, and facilitator. So, Julian, I want to ask you kind of personal question here. What happened in your childhood that led you to the place that you are now professionally?
[00:09:17] Speaker A: That's a great question. Actually, like most of us, my childhood wasn't that romantic. I would say so. Definitely got some trauma with it, you know, like most of us and some suppressed emotions and maybe wasn't loved for who I am, like most of us, you know, and with me in my early 20s, all of this suppressed stuff came up basically at once. So that was like the start of my journey that I was dealing with. Depression, anxiety. I was throwing up on an empty stomach for like two years straight. Really tough, tough times. And with me, I always had the feeling, okay, this is like a challenge for me to grow. So I didn't see myself as a victim, which wasn't always easy because all of my friends started their careers and I was basically like surviving day by day. But I faced the challenge and got some help and healed. And this was the point for me where I saw my growth and I saw, okay, I really grew. And what also was happening, like doors in life all of a sudden were opening for me, like in a magical way when I came out of that crisis. So that also made me believe like in something like a higher power. Some call it universe, some call it God. And it was so fascinating for me that I wanted to help others to go on the journey as well. And over the years I specialized like on leaders, entrepreneurs and business owners who I helped on their journey.
[00:10:55] Speaker E: So what percentage of the population worldwide, or at least in the parts of the world that you know, would you say has depression, anxiety, stress?
[00:11:06] Speaker A: I would say like in the western world, it's a really high percentage, I would guess. I mean, I don't know if the statistics are correct, but I would say half. Maybe there are levels to depression, you know.
[00:11:19] Speaker E: Right. I agree with you. I think it's at least half. And what I wonder is why so many of us suffer from these things at different times. You mentioned panic attacks too. It's like almost everybody I know, they get depressed. It doesn't always last sometimes, but you know, we all have down days and up days. But do you think any of yours was biochemical or do you think it was all emotional related?
[00:11:38] Speaker A: With me it was like the trauma behind it and that I always had the feeling I have great potential. But through that childhood I wasn't able to bring it out. And this was like always wanted to push through, but I wasn't able to. And that led to that as well, you know. But maybe to answer your question, why is this rate so high? I think it has a lot to do with the world we live in right now. We are definitely living in the world of change, rapid change. It's not easy to predict the future right now and some really challenging times towards, for example, high cost of living. So whenever life gets tough, us human beings tend to look within and look for deeper meaning. But when we look within, we also see the hidden parts of ourselves, like not feeling good enough. So this plays a huge role in business as well. So the work that I do is basically a journey I take on with my clients from basically like a ego driven to a purpose driven life that's like a huge part of it. And whenever our outer world becomes crazy and Challenging depression kicks in, you know, and then when we face the challenge and look at all of these deep stuff integrated, we can move on with more fulfillment.
[00:13:00] Speaker D: Julian Hept International life and business coach, Author and facilitator when you're working with a client, how do you address some of these issues for them or with them?
[00:13:10] Speaker A: When I start working with a client, I basically have like something like a checkup call, you know, to have an honest conversation of where they stand. And I have a pretty good intuition as well. So I always find pretty quickly, what are those topics? You know, and let me put it this way. I see like business itself. I see it like a Swiss watch with many gear wheels, ideally gliding in perfectly. And like the biggest gear wheel of them all is like the leader, the business owner itself, you know, and that's where we look at first. And there are many aspects coming into play because for example, relationship is a huge part of business because when you don't get along with your partner, it's, it's draining a lot of energy. And many entrepreneurs tend to be like in their head all the time, you know, I have to function, I have the pressure, you know, and the heart is closed. But if you're able to get that together and open your heart, you can really find strength in your relationship that helps you thrive even more. That's just some examples.
[00:14:21] Speaker E: Yeah. So I wanted to bring this up. It's in our show notes. You earned recognition as the top expert on relationships by the famous German Urfol magazine. Then you wrote a book after that. So what did they say in that article about you that made you a top relationship expert?
[00:14:39] Speaker A: It's basically the experience I gained. So when I started my business with me on my journey, it was my relationships and the pavement fold experiences that really made me grew. So I was really fascinated about that. Like through those breakups and heartache I found myself more like self love, believing in myself, you know, through that pain. So I wanted to share that. I did a lot of seminars and been in magazines so they gave me that recognition. And I also had that book in stores, so probably that's why they gave it to me.
[00:15:15] Speaker D: On the subject of self love, how did that manifest itself in you? Were you just sitting there thinking about something and I have self love or did you do something in particular, say okay, I'm going to have the self love goal? I mean, how did that actually come about for you?
[00:15:35] Speaker A: I mean in general, as human beings sometimes need the opposite of things, the experience of the opposite to learn what it's about so like breakup or if your partner cheats on you, it's like the most painful thing ever. But if you face it, then you come to self love. So that's what I also meant with Hero's Journey of the Soul in business, you know, so when you go on that business journey and you face those challenges and use that to look within, then you find treasures in there and you can move on on an even higher level. Like you can take that for relationships or business.
[00:16:19] Speaker E: It is interesting that you bring this to the workplace because there are a lot of relationships in the workplace and those are very difficult. And so do you get involved with workplace groups and trying to help groups function better together?
[00:16:32] Speaker A: Yes, that's also part of my job as a business mentor, that I help entrepreneurs find the right people for the workplace or if there's conflict, how to solve that. Sometimes it's a matter of communication and sometimes it's also like an invitation to grow. Because if one has a fear of being rejected when he's speaking the truth, maybe anger is building up, but he's quiet about things he doesn't like, you know, so if you work on that, then he's able to communicate and then the flow is there. So it's also an inner thing.
[00:17:09] Speaker D: Yeah, sometimes I think managers find the heart to heart discussions kind of tough. You're not always sure what you're going to hear. You're also not sure how you're going to respond.
[00:17:19] Speaker A: I always try to teach them like the balance because it's very important as a leader to be strict. That's important that people like the co workers respect the CEO and so on. But then at the same time have that open heart. And the co workers, they feel that. It's like an energy they sense, you know, when you have both in play, many things resolve automatically. They feel seen, they are not afraid anymore to talk about tough stuff.
[00:17:51] Speaker D: Julian Hept. He's an international life and business coach, author and facilitator. You're listening to Passage to profit, heard on 38 stations across the country. If you can't catch our broadcast or you miss this, you can always pick it up on our podcast. The Passage to Profit podcast is ranked in the top 3% of podcasts globally and has also been listed as a top 10 entrepreneur interview podcast by Feedspot Database. So we'll be back with more from Julian Haft right after this commercial.
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[00:20:25] Speaker C: Now back to Passage to Prophet.
[00:20:27] Speaker D: Once again, Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart and.
[00:20:30] Speaker E: Our special guest, Julian Hept. Julian is a life coach and we have been talking about how he came to be doing, what he's doing, how he's helping people, how he's a top relationship expert. And now we're going to dive into his new podcast which is so cool. I love podcasting. So Julian, what's the name of your podcast and what are you talking about?
[00:20:50] Speaker A: The name of my podcast is Bold Leaders with Big Hearts in which I will invite some high profile entrepreneurs as well to talk about the journey and to hear those stories and especially that deep stuff, you know, because that's my thing to help people like from this ego driven to purpose driven life. And that's what it's all about. To talk about the world we can see sometimes, you know, that vision, the purpose, the emotions and all of that, but also like business strategies and how to take action the right way. It's like a good balance of things.
[00:21:30] Speaker D: So what's ego versus purpose driven? I guess I could sort of guess, but I'd like to hear you talk about it.
[00:21:37] Speaker A: Let me start with an example, because a few days ago I saw a short documentary of Michael Phelps. So he's like one of the most high achieving Olympians ever, I guess, or maybe the most. And in his story he shared his journey and he mentioned that one of the main thing that was, was driving him to this high, high, high achievement was that deep down inside of him he didn't feel good enough, he didn't feel loved by his parents maybe or something like that. And that was one huge thing that drove him, which is a part of the ego. And what happened to him was that he achieved all of these things and after that felt emptier than ever before and he was rapidly going into a huge depression. Then after that he got through it and faced all of that stuff and then he found his purpose and now he's more into I want to inspire. And also after he got through that, he came back and still won, but with the purpose driven thing behind it. And now he's more about family, giving back, inspiring others. And that's, that's like the hero's journey I was mentioning, you know, from, from ego to purpose. And I believe it's a journey of the soul and sometimes, you know, life gets tough, so we become aware of these ego parts inside of ourselves to move on, on a higher level. I personally believe, and that's why I started this podcast, that the world needs bold leaders with big hearts that have that sense of purpose, because when we live that it's automatically good for everybody, for the world.
[00:23:29] Speaker D: Julian Hept, international life and business coach, author and facilitator. Julian, thank you very much. Where can people find you?
[00:23:36] Speaker A: My website is Julian Hept, so H E double P. And but you also can find me on Spotify with bold leaders with big hearts, of course. Or if you type in my name on Instagram, you can find me as well.
[00:23:54] Speaker E: Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.
[00:23:56] Speaker D: Time now for Intellectual Property News. As you know, Gearhart Law is an intellectual property firm. We specialize in patents, trademarks and copyrights. So, of course, we have to talk a little bit about intellectual property. Today's topic, airport confusion. And it's not really being confused when you're in the airport. It's confusion between two airports. And regular listeners of the show understand that we have trademarks to prevent customer confusion. So we don't want people thinking that they're buying something made from one company when it was really made from another company. So recently there was a case in court in California where the Oakland Airport decided to use the name San Francisco in their name. They wanted to call themselves the San Francisco Bay Oakland Airport. And of course, they're right across the San Francisco Bay from the San Francisco airport. And of course, the people in San Francisco, the airport people there didn't want the Oakland airport to use the words San Francisco in their name because they thought people would get confused.
[00:25:12] Speaker E: What? Sure as heck would get confused.
[00:25:15] Speaker D: It's already so difficult to book an airport ticket. Holy cow. Can you imagine it flying into the wrong place?
[00:25:22] Speaker E: Oakland's trying to get more business.
[00:25:24] Speaker D: Well, I don't know. You know, Oakland sort of has the reputation of being like the Spirit four stepchild of San Francisco. So maybe they were trying to attach themselves to some glamour.
[00:25:35] Speaker E: But I wouldn't know the difference if we were flying into San Francisco Airport or San Francisco Oakland Airport. I wouldn't know which one to fly into or what the difference between the two was.
[00:25:43] Speaker D: So you would be confused. You would be a confused customer.
[00:25:47] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:25:47] Speaker D: Well, the court seemed to appreciate your position. So they actually did stop the Oakland Airport from using the terms San Francisco in their name. But they do this in the New York area, too. We fly in and out of Newark Airport all the time. And when you go to make reservations, they'll call it New York. Right. And even though you're flying into Newark. So anyway, I'd just like to bring this up with our panel. Let's go to Christie first. Christy, what do you think?
[00:26:13] Speaker B: I actually agree, although whenever I book flights, I just put, like, San Francisco area airports, or my son is in D.C. so it's Washington, D.C. airports to see that. But I think it would be confusing. I wouldn't know. I'd have to, like, get on maps and figure out where I'm going and whether I should go to that or that one. So I think it's good that they didn't do that. I mean, I have absolutely zero knowledge about intellectual property. But confusion, we all go about that, don't we?
[00:26:36] Speaker D: Right. Well, the world's complicated enough, but yeah, you're right. I mean, if you, if you're booking a flight into D.C. and you put in D.C. you'll get at least a couple of airports. Right. So you have your choice. Brandy, what do you think?
[00:26:49] Speaker C: I do know a little bit about ip, and I think that it's very important and protecting the confusion or that I like to call them coat riders. Benefit Bay is having a lot of success. And so there was an agency that was founded in San Francisco and they named themselves Benefits Bay. Just put an S in. Oh, but we happened to have a registered trademark, and it was creating confusion like Christie says. So we would need to support one of our customers. They would Google Benefit Bay. Benefits Bay would pop up. They'd call the wrong phone number. That's just a bad experience for everyone involved, whether they care about IP or not. People shouldn't be able to create that confusion or maybe try to win from someone else's hard work. So I agree with the court's action.
[00:27:35] Speaker D: So, Julian, what do you think about this?
[00:27:37] Speaker A: I totally agree with what Kristi and Brandy said.
[00:27:42] Speaker D: Well, I guess the moral of the story is get your trademarks, avoid customer confusion, and don't pull any fast ones. And if you want to learn more about trademarks, you can go to our website, learnmoreabouttrademarks.com and you can download a free white paper talking about trademarks. Or you can book a consultation with an attorney at gearhart law. That's learnmoreabouttrademarks.com passage to profit. Stay tuned. We have secrets of the entrepreneur mind coming up. And also the Medical Minute, a new feature for Passage to Profit listeners. Back right after this, learn how thousands.
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[00:30:19] Speaker D: Passage to Prophet continues with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart. Now it's time for Elizabeth Spotlight. Tell us about the projects that you've been working on.
[00:30:29] Speaker E: Passage to Prophet, of course. And I have another podcast called the Jersey Pod Cats Podcast that I do with Danielle Woolley where we talk about health problems in cats that are kind of tricky to solve, so the vets may not have the answer and things we've tried. And then also I have a podcast and YouTube creators community meetup with Stacy Sherman, where every month we tackle different topics about podcasting and YouTube. We had a couple really great marketing people come, and it was amazing. We had Kay Allison, who was Talking about using TikTok to get leads for your business and for your podcast. Really fascinating stuff. And Warren Miles Pickup, who talked about getting people who are casual visitors to actually become clients. So it was really valuable information for anybody who was there and listened to it. And on the radio the next day, it was valuable information, too. So it's a hybrid meetup. Whoever wants to come in person can. If people want to come on Zoom, they can. And we're getting just a tremendous response on Zoom for this. So anybody that's trying to do anything like this, I think that you have to have the remote component.
[00:31:35] Speaker D: Now, how can people find the meetup?
[00:31:37] Speaker E: I posted on Eventbrite and on Meetup, it's called podcast and YouTube creators community.
[00:31:44] Speaker D: And so if they just go to Meetup, they can type that in and they'll find you.
[00:31:49] Speaker E: And the physical location for that is At Richard's law firm building. Well, our building, but Richard's law firm is on the door. 41 river rodents.
[00:31:58] Speaker D: You don't get out of this easily. It's a joint effort, Right.
[00:32:01] Speaker E: So it's in the Gearhart Law building in Summit, New Jersey. But even people that live close by. Come on, zoom now, because nobody wants to leave their house anymore. And then last but certainly not least, we're redesigning our podcast studio. And we made a lot of progress last weekend on that. We went to kitchen designers. I ordered new windows. We're getting the kitchen started in the bathroom remodeled, so it'll be ready to go pretty soon.
[00:32:25] Speaker D: You got to have a kitchen in a podcast studio.
[00:32:27] Speaker E: Well, it'll be an event space, but, yeah, I'm pretty excited. I've really been taking a deep dive into the podcast industry in the last year, and I'm enjoying it. I love podcasting, so.
[00:32:37] Speaker D: Great.
[00:32:38] Speaker E: So now the medical minute. We were at the New Jersey Edison Patent Awards in Holmdel, New Jersey, and all of the scientists who had created new things gave little presentations on video. One of them I really thought was amazing. Groundbreaking research was using your breath to detect cancer. There are people that are working on this. So lung cancer is an obvious candidate. Some people are looking at for breast cancer markers in your breath, and the technology is advancing to the point where they can find them.
[00:33:10] Speaker D: The earlier you can catch these things, the better.
[00:33:13] Speaker E: Yes. So now we are on to our next guest, Christy Pretzinger, and she has WT content. She's the founder and CEO, but she's really trying to change society, I think, and the way workplaces operate. Please tell us what you're doing.
[00:33:29] Speaker B: I built my business, and I've been doing that for about 20 years. But when I first started it, I said to my accountant at the time that if I couldn't build a business based on kindness, I would go back to being a freelance writer, which is what I had been doing. And so when you build a business, you know, you put on every single hat and you put your head down and you start working. And it was really only in retrospect, when we were working with some consultants about five years ago, when they surveyed the employees to discover what the core of our business is, the thing without which we would not exist. It came back that it was our culture. And that was really interesting to me because I. It reminded me back to that conversation. So as a result of that, I started kind of pondering the idea, kind of building on what you guys have been talking about here. That you certainly do need to have financial acumen. I have lots of mistakes around that. But looking, I believe personally and in my own experience, if you look only at the balance sheet, at the bottom line, it's aberrant thinking in terms of how we are as human beings because we are actually literally hardwired to connect and for community. And so I was talking about it with some friends and I came up with your cultural balance sheet. I said it's almost like I look at my business through the lens of a cultural balance sheet as opposed to only a financial balance sheet. And so I wrote a book that's coming out in January based on that topic.
[00:34:41] Speaker D: That's fascinating. And if you're talking balance sheets, right. The assets and the liabilities have to equal each other. So how do you fit that together with culture?
[00:34:51] Speaker B: Yeah, well, when I first came up with the idea, I wasn't even sure it was going to work. So then I worked through it and there's cultural assets, cultural liabilities and cultural equity. The similarities are, I mean, there are similarities, but major differences as well. Obviously you're talking about people and processes and all sorts of soft skills and things when you're talking about a culture as opposed to just numbers. So the assets obviously begin with your people. That's huge. There's a lot of other ones, like I said, your processes, systems, things that you, any IP that you may have. The interesting thing about cultural liabilities that I discovered through working on this is that cultural liabilities, if you give them both intention and up tension, can be turned into assets. So that can be sometimes true financially, but not always. But in cultural liabilities it can always be true. When I talk about self awareness, a lot of it is around that, that the more self aware you become, you become a better leader and you also become a better human to the point that Elizabeth said. And so for example, if you have a, if a cultural liability for you is that you catch yourself or your team saying things like this is the way we've always done it, and finding that you have some rigidity there that might be really stifling idea creation and innovation, that if you have the intention to address that rigidity, to develop more flexibility, and then you actually put attention towards your intention, your rigidity can turn into flexibility that then can move into your asset side and then in terms of a cultural equity, it becomes the entire culture that you build. And I really would encourage anyone who is building a business to understand and appreciate the importance of psychological safety at work and the importance of creating a Community. I mean, we spend so much time there. It's really, really important to create an environment where people can thrive. And in my experience, that starts with letting every single person know that they matter. That is a human need. And it doesn't matter whether it's work, family, friendship. People want to know that they matter. They don't want to be a cog in the wheel. They want their hopes and dreams and fears and all of those things to be considered and appreciated. That goes very far towards creating an environment where people can thrive and where they want to stay. Because what happens when you build this cultural equity? I think most people know that on a balance sheet, the only place people show up as a liability, which is again, aberrant thinking, but that human turnover is a hidden cost on a balance sheet. So not only does in my own experience, kind of harkening back to what we were talking about earlier, is that you really need to come at this from a place of purpose and meaning. You can absolutely build a business without that. You can focus on the bottom line. There are myriad examples we could all probably cite without even blinking an eye of people who have been highly financially successful and are not necessarily good humans. But in my own experience, what leads to joy in my life is the purpose and meaning of having the privilege of feeding into the lives of the people who work for my organization.
[00:37:49] Speaker E: And we were talking about kindness, and some of these kind of leaders you just referenced view kindness as weakness. But you say they're not the same thing.
[00:37:58] Speaker B: Not even close. I think that kindness in many ways is actually strength. Kindness, clarity is kindness. That's an extremely important element of kindness. Boundaries are enable kindness. Kindness should not be mistaken for weakness, just as vulnerability should not be mistaken for weakness. Because as Brene Brown says, the only way to get through courage is through vulnerability. The data show it, your own experience shows it. And yet at the same time, people resist, almost to a ridiculous point, vulnerability. And the sad thing about that is that you can't get to innovation and creativity without vulnerability. I mean, I always give examples of, back in the day when I was a freelancer and I would go to brainstorming sessions back before they had all the tools that you use now, and you would just sit in a room and have to give ideas, you know, do idea generating. I was constantly intimidated and didn't really want to say anything because I didn't want to be vulnerable and look stupid. Well, guess what? How many good ideas did I have that didn't come out because I was not willing to be Vulnerable, and certainly not with a group of people that I didn't really even know that well. So that's a learned skill that needs to be practiced.
[00:39:04] Speaker D: Yeah, I would say it becomes a real kind of upward challenge. So how do people cope with that?
[00:39:10] Speaker B: I would posit that your issues around vulnerability start even earlier than work. They start in the, in the home. I think almost everyone has some level of dysfunction, and if they say they don't, they haven't been paying attention because we're human. So in my case, I learned through my childhood and young adulthood that being vulnerable, people might use it against me. And like, you know, you show somebody your bruise and then they kick you in your bruise. So I had to learn to overcome that. And I think that in the workplace, that actually happened to me. And one of the reasons I left and became a freelance writer was because I was young and I had come up with some idea. It doesn't matter what it is, but I obviously didn't have the whole picture because I was just in one spot. But I had this idea that I thought was great and oh my gosh, they practically belittled me. And the great thing, the learning for me in that was, first of all, I left and it was fine. They did fine. I'm fine. It's all good. But I have some young employees and some of them have said things, had ideas that weren't workable because they don't have the full picture. And I made sure to tell my leadership team, don't shut those people down. Urge them to continue to share their ideas. They're literally engaged and trying to tell you that they want to know more. And that's a wonderful thing to have. So again, going back to the vulnerability in your question, Richard, is that I think that this is again, where self awareness comes into play. You have to understand and be able to read the room. And you can't just go be show everybody, open your kimono to people who haven't earned your secrets. So you have to, you have to learn to gauge the safety of being vulnerable. When I, when I talk to my people who have teams and I'm teaching them about leading with vulnerability, I see, you know, especially in a large organization, you know that you can be vulnerable out and down. You may not be able to be vulnerable up. And you need to gauge that and help your team understand, you know, that your team that you're leading with vulnerability, that's a safe space. They need to gauge where else that's a safe space. And that's where the Self awareness comes in.
[00:41:10] Speaker D: So what would a conversation between me and that young person look like? How would I address them or approach them? Not discourage them, but also let them know that this is probably not going to work for us.
[00:41:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I've had to do that on multiple occasions. And I try to lead with kindness. First of all, I am very appreciative that they are engaging, that they are interested in improving the environment or offering ideas. Our values are empowered, curious, kind and fun. So I recognize that they demonstrated empowerment by sharing this idea. And then I share with them exactly what you said, that, you know, this is something, it's a good idea actually on its face. But we kind of dug through it and realize that at this time that's not a direction we are going to go. But again, you're on the right track, you know, so reinforce that because you want those behaviors from people to feel like they can contribute. Frequently. I will demonstrate vulnerability by reminding people that I don't have all the answers, but something that I just learned from a coach that I wanted to share. That was like a throwaway comment for her and was an epiphany for me was we were talking about leadership teams and she was saying that back to the point of everyone having dysfunction, that the amount of dysfunction on a team is a direct reflection of the amount of dysfunction that the leader will put up with. That's interesting because if you're comfortable, like I did a lot of therapy, I've been through a lot of coaches, I've worked with a lot of different things. So if on my leadership team someone started demonstrating passive aggressive behavior, I would recognize that very quickly and shut it down because I won't tolerate that kind of dysfunction. So I would say again, looking at yourself and trying to see what your own strengths and weaknesses are and what your contribution to the situation is and then work from there.
[00:42:56] Speaker E: That's great advice. Christy Pretzinger, you said you have a book coming out.
[00:43:00] Speaker B: It's called with your cultural balance sheet, Keys to creating an environment where people can thrive. And we did it in digestible keys so people can read them in any order. It's not necessarily, you know, if you don't have to read it start to finish, and hopefully it will help people get on the right track to creating an environment where people can thrive.
[00:43:18] Speaker D: Excellent.
[00:43:19] Speaker E: And how can people find you?
[00:43:20] Speaker B: You can find me at our website, wgcontent.com and you can also find me on LinkedIn. Christy Pretzinger.
[00:43:27] Speaker E: Excellent. Thank you very much.
[00:43:29] Speaker D: Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.
[00:43:31] Speaker E: So now we have Brandi Burch. She is the CEO of Benefit Bay and it's a software tech startup for benefits. And she has a very interesting story. We want to hear all about what she's doing.
[00:43:42] Speaker C: Benefit Bay was founded in April of 2021 around some favorable legislation which if I could just simplify it for everyone in this it really means personal choice and benefits. Allowing individual employees access to their benefit dollars to make the decisions for themselves rather than putting that very important and personal decision in the hands of their leaders or HR team or CFO each year. And we all know that healthcare in America has some room for improvement in the US side. It's really just driven up and up and up and up. And employees are unhappy with their benefits decisions often that their employers make. And their employers are really just trying to do the best with the budgetary decision they have to make. And it's a very complex situation that has a lot of moving pieces. So what we have done is solve the technology journey and the human heartbeat journey of personalized choice and benefits, which is very complex. Meet the regulations and compliance around this space, work with brokers and consultants as well as employers and then service that end using employee and ensuring that they end up with the right healthcare for them. And then of course we have to work with the carriers, the payers in our industry system. So we have to work with the overall ecosystem to bring the right product. It's really about transparency. It's about giving that employee a safe space to talk about their health outcomes, their mental health challenges, their fertility journey, find the right products that's there for them and not having to discuss it with a member of their team because not everyone is safe to share your secrets. Unfortunately in a lot of employers they're now in self insurance products and they get to even see the claims usage of their team members. We never know when those decisions are used for good or when they're used for bad. So bringing this back to a personal decision in an individual policy puts all of that data back in the individual's.
[00:45:27] Speaker E: Wow, it sounds like healthcare on the blockchain almost.
[00:45:30] Speaker D: Could you explain a little bit more how this works? Are you marketing your services to individual consumers or to companies? Do they go to a website and select the plan? How does that all work?
[00:45:43] Speaker C: Benefit Bay is go to market through the broker channel. So we work with national agencies, we work with small regional brokers and we have a small SaaS subscription fee for them to use our technology to make sure that it makes sense for an employer population so they need to know where all those individuals sit, what the prices are in those regions and aggregate that data. That's what our tech does for that broker. Then when the employer decides this is what I want to do is give choice to my employees. We help them set what is equal buying power to what they used to have and make sure that they feel good that Tom and Susie and John all have access to great care. And then that individual actually just gets to pick. So they may have a thousand dollars allocated to them for their benefits and they get to shop amongst any qualified plan in the ACA off exchange market. So this is not healthcare.gov this is us exposing to them every carrier that exists and covers their zip code and their network that they care about. And they get to compare the plans and make a decision for themselves. And what we find is employees are much more happy when they get to make that decision themselves. And then there is an evolution to personalization to where those extra dollars can be focused on. There's chronic care condition plans for diabetes, COPD for heart conditions. People can get access to care like they used to and then they can have low script prices. And it's really transitioning with geographic diversity of teams, with diverse teams in age, diversity in socioeconomic classes. One carrier plan does not fit alls.
[00:47:21] Speaker D: So what kind of guidance do you give to people who are looking to sign up for a healthcare plan? How do they make decisions about what type of coverage? I guess part of it is what's offered, but how do you figure out what's right for you and your family?
[00:47:38] Speaker C: Part of it is what's offered in your area, Part of it is your family dynamic. You know, you could be a divorced family, you could have, you know, children that are living at the other home in another state. And so with individual coverage, health reimbursement arrangements, which is what unlocks this, then that individual has a right to have multiple plans as well. So they can have different plans for children that are at college in Cambridge. Right. So we really just lead to what matters to them. We have a full agency. You have to be licensed to provide insurance acumen or advice. So Benefit Bay Insurance Agency LLC is another entity that is part of our conglomeration, the SaaS technology and that we are not trying to be that employer's agent because we want to make sure that they know we're objective. We're not being led by commissions, we're not being led by anything that's driving that decision. We even have carriers that are very difficult to work with that Pay zero commissions to anyone in the chain. And if that's what that individual wants, that's what they get. So I think it's just going to bring all of that back. But at the end of the day, we try to have a technology experience. Most of us are pretty good with technology. 80% of the people are able to make their decisions just with technology. Most of us can do our own taxes and it can walk us through a little journey. That's what our tech does, walk us through a journey of what are we experiencing in healthcare, who are our providers, what drugs do we take and get to the plans that actually cover those things and then chat about the other pieces. You can start easy and say I want an HSA because I care about deferring my income. And then it's only going to show you HSA products. You can say I only care about PPOs because I travel all the time and I see care in lots of states. I winter here and I summer here. Then it's going to show you only the PPO products. Right? But it can even get more nuanced and complex and then our licensed agents can help.
[00:49:24] Speaker E: So right now under the ACA you could not get nailed for pre existing conditions. So you have to still renew your healthcare every year, right? So let's say right now, let's say somebody gets some disease that they didn't have before, do they get penalized the next year? Do they get penalized for that? Do they choose a different plan? How does that work?
[00:49:44] Speaker C: So these are fully insured products that are not aggregated at the claims level for the individual. So that's a risk pool that is giant, it's national and it's a risk pool shared. So it is an ACA off exchange product. So they are not going to be able to raise those rates like they do. If you were just Gerhardt Law. They look at you and they say, okay, you had 10 users, five of them were high claimants and we're going to increase you 39% and that's unfortunate because you care about your heartbeats. You don't want to start thinking about this. One thing is costing my whole team X and now everyone gets lesser healthcare. So this is going to take all of that away from the equation and allow employers to budget more effectively. If you set a high enough contribution level, you can set that budget for two or three years. These rates are only changing 2% or so a year. So if you've had a really high contribution, Big Brother just says you need to have lowest Cost silver equivalent to affordability coverage. So traditionally people are giving more than lowest cost silver. As long as you remain above that. You could even be in a situation as a business owner that you're able to set a budget for a couple of years in a row. Imagine being able to do that when it comes to your healthcare.
[00:50:55] Speaker D: If somebody wants to access your services, how would they find a broker that that would work with your company and provide these services?
[00:51:03] Speaker C: They could go to benefitbay.com, we can refer them to a broker if they work with Gallagher or One Digital or Hub International or nfp. We currently work with those national agencies. We also work with a lot of the super regionals. So they could really just ask their broker if they work with Benefit Bay or if they could get an Accra quote. They could look at multiple technology providers. I say may the best technology provider win.
[00:51:24] Speaker E: I'm just curious, what did you do before you started this business?
[00:51:28] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm an accountant. I have always loved being a people first leader. I took multiple roles that were within small to medium sized businesses where finance also had hr. So I've learned multiple aspects of the business every year. Healthcare was quite a thorn in my side and for the reasons that I mentioned. We would have premature baby that had a surgery, we would have something that would happen within our team and it would cause a problem for the overall population the next year with a rate increase and then we have to switch carriers and then three pregnant mamas would be in my office or irate that they were having to switch carriers and providers. And every year it felt like I as a leader and our team really meant the best for our humans, but they were upset and sometimes would leave and so you would have a retention problem. But really you were having a budgetary crisis over healthcare and I found myself starting to think about diagnoses that our team was receiving and things that were going to cause us a budget problem. And I just really did not like it. Fast forward to the opportunity for joining this team. I was at a software company in San Francisco. I had taken that role to be more present parent after a divorce. And I was working remote from home in a senior HR BP role. So back to ego versus passion versus what is really for you. Most of my colleagues told me you're an idiot. Why are you going into hr? You're not going to be as well respected as you are in finance. You should not take this role. But if I would not have taken that role in ancillary software, I would not have been recommended for this opportunity to be a co founder at Benefit Bay. And then I wouldn't have landed in a CEO seat when our CEO was asked to step aside. So this has been the biggest catapult of my career, but it also brought passion for people and my ability to operate a business into one place. And that's how I landed here.
[00:53:21] Speaker E: Wow, that's an excellent story and it sounds like you're doing a lot of good. So, Brandi, how can people find you?
[00:53:26] Speaker C: They can find our
[email protected] they can find me on LinkedIn. And that's Brandi Burch, CEO, founder of Benefit Bay.
[00:53:33] Speaker E: Listeners, you are listening to the Passage to Profit show with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart. Our special guest, Julian Heft. We have Secrets of the Entrepreneurial Mind coming up, so we will be right back.
[00:53:43] Speaker J: Hi, I'm Jack, CEO and co
[email protected] when I left my job as a Wall street banker back in my 20s, I felt completely lost trying to navigate the process of hiring a financial advisor. I thought it should be easy to find the right financial advisor. So I created a place where young families could feel understood and their unique needs would be met with empathy and expertise. That's why I started usehabits.com where we help you find your financial advisor free of charge. Use habits.com it's passage to Profit.
[00:54:16] Speaker D: Alicia Morrissey is our programming director at Passage to Profit and she's also a fantastic jazz vocalist. You can scroll to the bottom of the passage to profitshow.com website and check out her album.
[00:54:30] Speaker E: And now it is time for Secrets of the Entrepreneurial Mind. We are going to start with Julian. Julian, do you have a secret you can share with our listeners?
[00:54:40] Speaker A: Let me put it this way. I see, like business itself, I see it like a Swiss watch with many gear wheels, ideally gliding in perfectly. And like the biggest gear wheel of them all is like the leader, the business owner itself, you know, and that's where we look at first. And there are many aspects coming into play because, for example, relationship is a huge part of business because when you don't get along with your partner, it's. It's draining a lot of energy. And many entrepreneurs tend to be like, in their head all the time. I would like to start with something for the soul. My advice would be just to not be too hard to yourself when you start your business because it's very good that you're really motivated and you want to survive and build this business. But as human beings, we tend to be really hard on yourself. And I think it's a really, really brave thing to start a business in the first place. Many people don't understand you, and when you don't succeed in the first month, they look down on you, maybe laugh at you. But keep in mind, hey, it's a brave thing. I'm doing my best. So that would be, like, the first little secret.
[00:56:03] Speaker E: Excellent. Thank you. Christie, do you have a secret?
[00:56:06] Speaker B: Yeah. Kind of building on what Julian was saying, that building a business is really hard, and very few people actually have the guts to do it or the healthy relationship with risk to do it. So I would say acknowledge that and pat yourself on the back for even giving it a shot. I also think something a coach told me is a really important secret, and it's, you are your business, and your business is you, and it won't grow until you do like that.
[00:56:31] Speaker E: Brandi, do you have a secret?
[00:56:33] Speaker C: I just think your secret is your power to believe in yourself even when things get hard. So, like they said, it's, you're gonna fail. You're gonna fail a lot of times, and everything that you did took more courage than the person who was sitting on the sideline who's judging you. So we don't have time to be worrying about what people think. We just need to focus on moving forward every day.
[00:56:55] Speaker E: Oh, I like that, too. Richard Gearhart.
[00:56:57] Speaker D: I'm going to quote somebody. Her name is Sylvia lafaire, and I worked with her as a coach. And one of the things that she said, the purpose of a leader is to grow other leaders. And so if you're fortunate enough to have teams with you, whether they have managerial or responsibility, they're all leaders. Everybody on your team is a leader in some respect, and your job is to help them grow. And I think if you can do that, you're going to be in pretty good shape.
[00:57:29] Speaker E: And my secret is be very confident about saying no. I mean, I can't tell you how many people, oh, let's do this together. And, oh, yeah, I don't have any time or money. So you're going to do all the work, but we're going to split it 50, 50.
When you know stuff that other people haven't learned yet or maybe are interested in learning, and they want to take your knowledge and have you help them do something with for free, I think you need to say no. That's my secret.
[00:57:55] Speaker D: That's great. Well, that's it for us. Passage to Profit is a nationally syndicated radio show appearing in 38 markets across the United States. In addition Passage to Profit has also been recently selected by Feedspot Podcasters Database as a top 10 entrepreneur interview podcast. Thank you to the P2P team, our producer Noah Fleischman and our program coordinator Alicia Morrissey, and our studio assistant Arissikat Busar. Look for our podcast tomorrow anywhere you get your podcasts. Our podcast is ranked in the top 3% globally. You can also find us on Facebook, Instagram X and on our YouTube channel. And remember, while the information on this program is believed to be correct, never take a legal step without checking with your legal professional first. Gearhart Law is here for your patent, trademark, and copyright needs. You can find
[email protected] and contact us for a free consultation. Take care everybody. Thanks for listening and we'll be back next week.
