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How One Company Learned to Pivot Their Business During COVID-19, Egoscue of Atlanta

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capitalist sage podcast

Calvin Murray talks about positioning his business to work in a COVID-19 environment, and how technology and rethinking his approach helped his company Egoscue of Atlanta continue on their mission to eliminate chronic pain and assist those that come to them to enjoy active living. With your hosts, Karl Barham and Rico Figlioliini recorded socially safe in Peachtree Corners.

Resources:
Website: www.egoscue.com/find-therapy/egoscue-atlanta/
Phone Number: (678) 528-2393
Social Media: @EgoscueofAtlanta

Timestamp (where in the show to find the topic):

[00:00:30] – Intro
[00:03:11] – About Calvin and the Egoscue Method
[00:05:38] – First Years of Business and COVID
[00:07:47] – Pivoting the Business
[00:09:59] – Balancing Life
[00:11:33] – Technology in Business
[00:17:39] – Helping People in Pain
[00:20:46] – Government Aids
[00:22:19] – Connecting with Your Community
[00:25:03] – Keeping Your Head Right
[00:27:23] – Plans for the Upcoming Months
[00:28:40] – Closing

Our live streaming during the podcast.

“Our slogan is connect and correct. If we can’t connect with you, then how in the world are we going to be able to help you? It’s not about us at all. It’s all about the person in front of us. Once we do that, we’re able to help correct whatever issues that they do have going on with their bodies.”

calvin murray

Podcast transcript:

Karl: [00:00:30] Welcome to the Capitalist Sage Podcast. We’re here to bring you advice and tips from seasoned pros and experts to help you improve your business. I’m Karl Barham with Transworld Business Advisors. My cohost is Rico Figliolini with Mighty Rockets Digital Marketing, and the publisher of the Peachtree Corners Magazine. Hey Rico.

Rico: [00:00:49] Hey Karl. Good to be here.

Karl: [00:00:51] Well, I know a lot of people are reading the magazine this month. I’ve seen it all over doing a great job of bringing stories to the community. Why don’t we talk about our sponsors today.

Rico: [00:01:02] Sure. Our lead sponsor is Hargray Fiber. They’re a fiber optic company that provides services in the Southeast, especially here in Peachtree Corners and Lawrenceville these markets, but certainly Macon, Tallahassee, a whole bunch of places throughout the Southeast. They’re dealing with small companies as well as larger companies that provide smart office, smart office technology, to be able to get people teleworking and corporates, corporations, to be able to do the things they need to do to be able to work smarter and fast in this environment. So they’re not like that the cable guy, these guys are out there, they’re in the community, helping out. Working with every place that they’re in, and they’re reachable and they’re always there for you. So check them out. HargrayFiber.com/business, and you’ll see what they have. They also are doing a promotion that, let me share that with you. It’s a thousand dollar gift card. So if you’d be, if you ended up doing a, put that out in front. If you end up calling them up or checking them out there’ll be able to, you might be able to qualify for that thousand dollar gift card as well. So thank you for Hargray to be our lead sponsor.

Karl: [00:02:12] Yes. It’s more important than ever that folks get their internet right and Hargray Fiber is here to help business owners in the community and residents alike, so thank you for them again. Today’s guest is a good friend, Calvin Murray. Who’s here to talk to us about how small business owners are managing COVID-19. Calvin is a co-owner of Egoscue of Atlanta based in Sandy Springs, Georgia. And he’s here to tell us a little bit about his journey to entrepreneurship. How he’s dealing with COVID-19 and some of the plans for the future. Hey Calvin, how you doing?

Calvin: [00:02:51] Karl, Rico, I’m doing great. Thanks for having me guys.

Karl: [00:02:54] Oh, no problem. Now I know for a lot of people, Egoscue’s going to be new to some people. So I’m going to ask you to introduce yourself, help them with the pronunciation and the spelling of it. And tell us a little bit about what you guys do.

Calvin: [00:03:11] Sure thing, so the Egoscue Method, is a different way of looking at the body. You look at the body as a whole, a lot of practitioners do. But for you in particular, Karl, if you said, Hey Calvin, my right knee has been hurting for five years. I haven’t been able to find the relief that I need. To me or to the Egoscue Method, we know that that right knee is a symptom.
There’s something else in your body that’s dysfunctional and that’s causing that right knee to hurt. And it’s our job to find that dysfunction in your body. You may be a dentist, or you may sit for a living, but that’s not the reason why that right knee is hurting. Something else in your body is the reason why your right knee is hurting. So we figure out what it is and we start to treat from that area and help you create balance and alignment in your body. What do you know that right knee pain just goes away. Egoscue of Atlanta is the name of our company. We’re a franchise and we are originally from out of San Diego. Pete Egoscue, that’s where the last that’s where the name comes from, his last name is how it began. He was injured in Vietnam and could not find the relief and figured that he had to do it on his own. He created the method and lo and behold, he’s doing great today. Pain-free and we helped so many other people live a pain free and active lifestyle as well.

Karl: [00:04:28] So tell me a little bit about how you and your wife came to this or chose this as an entrepreneurial venture for you and tell us how it’s been so far.

Calvin: [00:04:38] Yeah, funny enough. I moved here in 2004. I’m a Georgia native and I’m from Augusta, Georgia. Haven’t been back since all right, outside to see our parents. But I started in the security business, a great mentor in that business who is actually president of a large security company now, and still in my life as a mentor. And then I transitioned into the securities business while worked for a major broker dealer and really got a taste of what running your own business looks like. In 2011, my wife and I had an opportunity to franchise. And, a few years ago we decided, Hey, let’s serve in a different manner and let’s run this practice as a family practice versus us doing two different things. So we planned for it and early last year, we made the leap. And we both work together now. You know, one run’s therapy. And I run the operations and the marketing, as well as therapy.

Karl: [00:05:38] Oh, that’s fabulous. Well, as you started the business, over the last couple of years, what were some of the things that you learned about yourself and about business in your first few years?

Calvin: [00:05:51] I’ll tell you every, almost any question that you asked me about learning about myself comes back to it not even being about me. It’s about the people that work with you. And it’s about our clients. So what am I doing on daily basis to put them first, my clients and to put my employees first, and quite frankly, put my wife first as well. Once I started to figure that out, things really changed for the better for our company.

Karl: [00:06:22] Wow. So this year, 2020, I don’t think anyone could have predicted what 2020 would look like? I’m curious, when you first heard about COVID-19 and the pandemic, what were you thinking about it and how are you thinking about the impact on your business?

Calvin: [00:06:44] Well, when I first heard about COVID-19, it was still football season in 2019. So, I was more focused on that and we wondered, Hey, is it real? Is it a media deal? You know, what is it? You know, we just didn’t know, it wasn’t here yet back in December and November.
And by the time the new year came around, it started to get closer to home. Even in February, in March, it was closer to home but it was still a question of, you know, are we gonna, is it going to affect us here in the States? That went from about five miles an hour to a hundred miles an hour in about three days. We couldn’t believe how fast we were converting from having all our clients come into the clinic to saying, Hey, our doors, we have to close our doors so we can’t be in here. We can’t be around each other. We can’t be in groups. You know, we have to pull our children out of school. And just continue to fill in the blank. It happened so fast.

Karl: [00:07:47] Yeah. If you think about it, your business as a location where people would come in and you would, you know, hands on approach to helping people dealing with their pain and so on. When you closed your doors or knew you had to close your doors, what were some of the ways you were thinking that you could or have been able to pivot your business?

Calvin: [00:08:12] Karl, I have to tell you that we were super confident in pivoting our business. The unique thing about the Egoscue method, in our method for helping people get out of pain and stay out of pain is, we don’t touch you. We don’t have to touch you. So for us, changing from clients coming into our clinic to operating over zoom, operating over Skype teams, whatever it may be. We were able to do that quick, fast, and in a hurry. Now here’s the deal, we had already started to do that years before. We were doing therapy over Skype years ago. And about 20% to 25% of our business was due to Skype even before the pandemic. It was all about converting everyone from, you know, being in person to Skype or zoom. Going forward, that was a bit of a challenge, but we made it happen. Even to the point where some people say, look, we’ll never come back until your clinic again, I don’t have to sit in traffic. I just want to continue to do it from home.

Rico: [00:09:17] Did you get a lot of support from the corporate parent of the company?

Calvin: [00:09:22] Oh my goodness. Being in the Egoscue family is like being in no other family that I can think of franchise wise. Pete Egoscue every single Friday, we’re on a call with all of us from all the owners. But not only all the owners, all the therapists around the company as well. I mean, the guy’s a visionary and everyone’s found so much motivation in him calming the masses, throughout the entire country and the world because we have clinics in Japan. I just, I couldn’t be a part of a better family, a better franchise.

Karl: [00:09:59] Well, so a pandemic hits and leadership matters. Bringing people together and coming up with a plan to help support the whole network was a key bit of how you were successful. I’m curious, you’ve got young children, I know. How do you manage balancing the new constraints that so many people are facing? You own your own business and both you and your wife work in the business you’re kids, that you’re currently, you know, that have to, they can’t go to camps and different outlets. How do you find managing that? And how’s that impacted how you work?

Calvin: [00:10:40] I can’t say that I’m managing it well or balancing it well. It’s a, everyday is a new adventure. But it’s so much fun to figure it out every single day. With my wife and I, you know, we’ve created a pretty good system on teaching our children in the morning with digital learning. Or, and then, you know, getting work done in between time or we’re getting work done at the end of the day. So much communication has to happen within our household. Not only communication with her and I, but communication with our children and communication with our staff, as well as communication with our clients. It all has to be on par and it also, it all has to be up to date. And you have to be clear because time is of the essence with everything that we do. If it’s not clear, then we have issues.

Karl: [00:11:33] There’s an interesting thing that’s happened as we’re all leveraging technology to do work. And I understand a lot of knowledge workers make sense that they work, they can have access to their computer. In your type of work how are you able to service your clients through these different technologies and help them with their pain and posture. What does that look like?

Calvin: [00:12:00] I mentioned earlier that we operate over zoom, but we also operates under any of the different other ones that they feel comfortable with. A good amount of our clients are, 70 and older and not everyone 70 and older necessarily wants to deal with a computer or deal with zoom. But we’re able to help them navigate through that or help them just navigate through what they already have. So take for instance, a new client that calls in, Oh, hey, this is Sue. Sue, I see that you’re on an iPhone. Let me take a look at that. I can immediately hit FaceTime. And make it easy for her. All she has to do is answer the phone. If she’s on, if she has an Android, I’m able to help her download Skype or help her download zoom. Whatever it may be, we’re able to help them and walk them through the technology in order for them to use it. And in order for them to make it easy, not sit in traffic and not get out into the public where some people just prefer not to be right now.

Rico: [00:13:03] Has the technology helped you in other ways, like, analytics, maybe? I mean, what aspects that surprisingly has helped maybe in what you’re doing?

Calvin: [00:13:14] Yeah. We use quite a few different softwares in order to create data points so we can set metrics for ourselves. Quite frankly, all social media is one of them. Our social media, it gives us new data points in order to continue to push out content to people that is interesting to them in order for them to want to be, interested in what it is that we do. But internally, there are so many data points. We use MindBody for scheduling and revenue and things of that nature. We also use Constant Contact. There’s so many different data points that come from that, that allow me to create different metrics for our therapists, for follow up and also for projections going forward.

Karl: [00:13:58] You mentioned a couple of things there. How did you learn to use some of those tools yourself? Did you get help on constant contact, mind and body, some of the tools that you’re using in your business. How did you learn to come to master that.

Calvin: [00:14:17] It’s trial and error. If I say that I’m an expert in that, then I would not be telling the truth. And that wouldn’t be clear either. I’ve leveraged other business owners, and within our franchise. I’ve leveraged other therapists within our franchise as well, to help me walk through some of this different stuff, some of the software that we have. But the other thing about software is, you know, once you start play around with it, you generally are able to figure it out within the next 30 minutes to an hour or so.

Rico: [00:14:46] Is the, is the mind and body, is that part of the franchise setup or is it like a whole separate software outside?

Calvin: [00:14:53] It is. It is part of the franchise set up. So we all, you know, from San Diego to New York, to Atlanta, to Jupiter, Florida, we all, we all use.

Rico: [00:15:02] So let me ask this as far as business works, that makes it great for appointments for bookkeeping, for tracking hours of not only the members, but also the therapist that you have, I guess. Does it wrap all that together for you?

Calvin: [00:15:18] Wraps all of it together for us.

Karl: [00:15:20] Yeah, MindBody is one of the more popular systems that’s used in a lot of fitness, health, businesses, or for a lot of reports and data. Can you describe, how do you use data from something like that and other data points? What type of data do you use to help you make business decisions?

Calvin: [00:15:40] Well, before COVID we’d use it to project, what next year looked like, what the next month would look like. You know, and even what the next week should look like for better terms. These days, we’re trying to figure out what revenue looks like weekly you know, quite frankly. Now the good news is since March, I mean things have just progressively gotten better. And it’s all because of things that we decided to do, once COVID hit. One thing was, we felt super confident in our ability to pivot. So our ability to pivot did not take up so much time. With that I was able to start to build other referral alliances. I said, well, we have good referral alliances. This is a great time to build more. What can I give away to people in order to start building good referral alliances? During this time we start to coach our girls, coach our therapists a whole lot more. Because we started, we’re already showing our humanity with them. Because when you’re in a small company like us, you know, people want to know that you understand them. They come to work everyday and they loved the Egoscue method and they love to practice it with our clients that come in. But at the end of the day, I mean, I have a family at home. I mean they come in and they work, but they want to get paid. In the end they want to interact with people who get them. People who feel where they’re coming from. And during COVID, they want to interact with people who feel like they’re in the same boat. You know, just because I’m the manager doesn’t mean that I can’t show my humanity to them. So, coaching the
girls has become like the catalyst to the growth that we’ve seen. I owe that all to my wife. She’s a much better coach than me.

Karl: [00:17:39] You know, you’re hitting on a couple of things that I think I saw a lot of the more successful business owners doing. That shift you made with using data to start projecting and forecasting weekly was one of the things that people started doing to understand their cash flows and on the demand was coming in there and using information and data. But you spent time in the years before to prepare yourself, to be able to have that. You weren’t creating that all of a sudden, figuring out how to pivot. It would have been much harder, probably, for you to be able to go to online if that wasn’t being built years ago. The capability to turn that technology on and the systems to support that would have taken some people months, possibly, to do that and planning for that there. But one of the things that I’m really interested in with all the people, COVID-19 created a major behavior shift where people aren’t going into offices anymore. They’re working from home that may not have been optimized for working from a desk and so on, which may lead to new stresses on the body that’s happening there. What are areas where you think this could, the market may have changed and how are you reacting to meet as customer preferences might be changing or the demand might be changing?

Calvin: [00:19:10] Sure thing. In our clinic we’re starting, we were already seeing a lot of back pain. And a lot of neck and shoulder pain and hip pain. Now we’re seeing an increase in headaches an increase in neck pain and an increase in carpal tunnel and in elbow tendonitis. And we attribute a lot of that to people sitting at home, they’re working, they’re on their video games. They’re sitting, they’re sitting, and they’re sitting. And the whole common denominator I can put any numerator up there, but the common denominator more than likely will be that they’re sitting. And anytime you sit a lot, that’s going to change the position of your body. Positions create conditions. So if you sit for five years straight and then you start to develop carpal tunnel or hip pain, then the position that you put your body in for five years started to create a dysfunction that made that hip or that, or those hands to start to hurt. Not only that we’re seeing the mental shift not only in adults, but also in children as well. We are not therapists in our clinic. We’re not therapists at all and not qualified for that. I’ll tell you what, there’s a lot of people that come into our clinic and we offer such a safe and quiet and soothing place that they just come in and talk. Just wanna talk about things. And we’re there to listen. Our slogan is connect and correct. If we can’t connect with you, then how in the world are we going to be able to help you? It’s not about us at all. It’s all about the person in front of us. Once we do that, we’re able to help correct whatever issues that they do have going on with their bodies.

Karl: [00:20:46] Have you been able to leverage any of the government programs through this care act, PPP loan, EIDL loans, family first act. How have you interacted with those programs and has it helped you navigate through this past summer?

Calvin: [00:21:06] Yeah, part of being a leader is that was not my expertise. Going out and figuring out what the SBA looks like what a loan looks like. However, I did reach out to people who were experts. Quite frankly, Karl, you were one of those people that I reached out to. He
just volunteered so much information. It was so super helpful for me in our business and our family. So we were able to take advantage of the PPP loan. We were not able to take advantage of the EIDL loan or any other ones. But we were kind of late, not in getting to the party. We were early filling it out, but late receiving the funds. But soon after we received the funds maybe a month later or so, the policy changed. And so we didn’t have to use it in eight weeks. And that was great because we really didn’t want to use it in eight weeks that helps. That was great.

Rico: [00:22:01] That was a great change in that, right? Eight weeks versus what was it? 24 or 30 weeks later. I mean, if you had no customers those first two months, it’s kind of odd to like, figure that, right. I mean, not at your business, but certainly in other businesses it was like that.

Karl: [00:22:19] That’s one of the things that I saw really fabulous happening here in the United States, people were reaching out and helping. No one knew what the answers were. Hell, Congress didn’t know what the answers were. But quickly, business owners and neighbors started talking, communicating, helping people figure out what to do, because I remember that week in March, the president went on air on a Wednesday and said, we’re going to start needing, shutting down. And the state started shutting down all of a sudden. And I think it started was, you know, three to four weeks and we’ll be back to normal. And meanwhile, business owners have to make plans. Do I order more inventory? Am I going to be able to open? What do I do with my employees? And it was a really, really nerve wracking time. But I think the support everyone provided to each other really helped in those initial weeks and months. And now, you know, as we go into their future, what are some of your thoughts on how the areas you need to focus on over the next, you know, 6 to 12 months. Now we know this is going to be with us for awhile. There might be some vaccines coming in from various places, but we don’t know when and how fast. Are there things that you learned during this that you think could help you not just survive through the next 12 months, but maybe even really thrive and excel?

Calvin: [00:23:45] Sure. You know, the first part of your statement, it really hits home because, you know, with some friends, I would say, look raise your hand if you’ve ever led a business or your family or a government agency through a pandemic, civil and racial unrest, inside of an election year. Nope. No one in any room is gonna raise their hand. So I generally just hold, are there any other individuals who are in leadership roles harmless? Because those guys have never navigated through anything like this, and we’re all just learning as we go. That’s why it’s so important to ask advice. That’s why it’s so important to reach out to people in positions where you aren’t necessarily an expert in it. For us, I’ve learned that I need other income streams. There is an opportunity for us in B2B. We operate in a BTC format. And just talking with other business owners within Egoscue method, you know, we’ve come up with a different way to start a revenue stream outside of just the consumer, but with other businesses as well. And that will be just with other practitioners who decide to get on board with that.

Karl: [00:25:03] Oh, that’s fabulous. I think that’s the way to look at the future as where are your opportunities and putting together a plan and making a decision to prepare yourself, to be able to capitalize on it. And that’s where I see a lot of small business owners are figuring that out. And that’s probably the advantage of being smaller. You don’t have to go to a lot of people to get buy in. You can make those changes quickly and try to implement them within your business and in your organization. So I’m curious, you and I have known each other for a little while. And it would be hard for me not to mention that we are basketball players that play at a local game at the Y during the week. And I’m curious, you know, as this goes forward there, you know, how are you going to navigate, you know, outside of the work environment, keeping yourself fit? What are some of the other things you’re doing to keep your head right? Because if your head isn’t right, it’ll be hard to be a good business leader. It’ll be hard to be a good father, husband, et cetera.

Calvin: [00:26:11] You know, you just hit, you struck a chord with me, Karl. I miss playing basketball so much. I haven’t played basketball since March. And that was, that was my deal. There was a lot of our deals. I mean, we had like 40 guys that we played with off and on. Coming in and out of the gym. So I missed playing gaps with, I missed playing basketball with all those guys, except for Jesse. But other than that I totally miss it. But it’s funny enough with my son’s school. We, you know, they have PE inside the curriculum here at home. So we just all do it as a family. He’s six years old and he’s just a jock. If you asked the kid, you know, the other day he told me, Texas A&M beat Arkansas. This is this. I was like, no, I looked it up. I said, you gotta be kidding. How’s this getting know this, he’s six years old. So we play a lot of ball. He rides skateboards, he rides you know bikes, and guess who has to do it with him, this guy. So, we live in a neighborhood with a basketball court, tennis courts and a swimming pool and things of that nature. So, I’m able to you know, stay in a little bit of shape with that, but I can’t wait to get back out there on the basketball court.

Karl: [00:27:23] I know. So many people, whatever their passion or sport or activity was not only was it the physical exercise piece, but the community that that’s built around here in greater Atlanta, Peachtree Corners, all over, that people miss. So it’d be great to get back to that. So why don’t you tell us, what do you have going on in the upcoming months? Anything you have planned?

Calvin: [00:27:46] Yeah. We just started a second location. We are down in a neighborhood called Serenbe. It’s actually a community on the edge of Atlanta. If you head down, 85 South. Right there in Chattahoochee Hills is where you will find Serenbe. And this is a nice little unique community, and you can find us there on Wednesdays in the motto area of Serenbe. So just started that here recently. I was so grateful to be able to find the opportunity in the face of crisis. And not only that, we’re going to hold it an event where we’re offering a free posture assessment for people who are going through different chronic pain issues, doing that virtually. And we’re also doing it in the clinic and they can find the information on social media @EgoscueofAtlanta, on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Karl: [00:28:40] Why don’t you tell us the other ways if folks want to reach out and learn more about you, what’s the best way to reach you?

Calvin: [00:28:46] You can reach us directly at our phone number (678) 528-2393 and AtlantaAtEgoscue.com. And the way you spell Egoscue is, let’s see if I can do it phonetically. Echo, Golf, Oscar, Sam, Charlie, Uniform, and Echo.

Karl: [00:29:15] Oh, that’s great. That’s fabulous. Well, again, thank you Calvin Murray, co-owner of Egoscue of Atlanta. Just sharing, being willing to share your experience. It’s a scary time for a lot of business owners. And I know you’re very busy and you’re trying to navigate a lot of stuff, but I think you willing share that. Just know that other people are going through same thing you’re going through and they’re trying to figure it out and they’re going to be successful if they continue to do the things that have been proven to work, innovate, listen to your customers, adapt, do those types of things and also take care of yourself. Spend time with your family and do those things to make you the best business leader that you can be so I really appreciate that. I’m Karl Barham with Transworld Business Advisors this is another episode of the Capitalist Sage. Rico and I have been ecstatic to continue to share stories of local business owners here in the community that are doing just fabulous things in the community. Figuring out how to be successful and sharing those tips and advice with other people. At transworld, we’re continuing to grow and expand, helping business owners navigate the path to exiting their business or growing through acquisitions. A business brokerage is here to help people that are trying to figure out what’s the right path forward for them and their business. And you could reach us online at www.TWorld.com/Atlanta-Peachtree. Rico, why don’t you tell us a little bit about what you’ve got coming up?

Rico: [00:30:53] Sure. And before I even get to that I just want to. It’s always the same thing it seems. You know, the biggest thing that every entrepreneur and business owner shares with us is that they’re listening to the client right? Lori Denton did that on the last show, shared that with us as well. I mean, that’s where successes is, right? If you listen to the client, you’ll be able to, you’ll be able to do marvelous and miraculous things, both for your business and then for the client, it seems.

Karl: [00:31:22] Client and employees, the connection. I noticed that theme too. Connection with their employees staying through the crisis and beyond are going to help you be successful in the long run.

Rico: [00:31:33] Absolutely. And that’s, that’s where it’s at right? Cause otherwise, why are we here? Otherwise, we’re just working, right? You’re not building relationships. It’s not worth it. Mighty Rockets is my company. I also publish Peachtree Corners Magazine six times a year. the last issue just came out a week ago. It was a diversity issue on the cover story. In fact, Karl was one of our profiles and one of the seven profiles we did. It was a good issue. I think it’s been well received next issue is the October, November issue. So we’re working on that now. So that’s a pets and their people, talking a little bit about, you know, Halloween, Thanksgiving,
and probably the things we’re thankful for. I think that may end up being one of the major features in there, talking to different people and asking them what they’re thankful for this time of year. So we’re working on that. As far as Mighty Rockets, Social media marketing is what we do. Product videos, podcasts, a variety of things, managing social brands for companies. So reach MightyRockets.com. And as far as our lead sponsor, again, Hargray Fiber. I just want to say thank you to those guys for being a sponsor of the family podcasts that we do, and you can find out more about them at HargrayFiber.com/business. Let’s bring back in Calvin. Thank you. You’re just terrific. I appreciate you being on the show with us.

Calvin: [00:32:59] Thank you so much guys. I mean, this was awesome. Thank you for the invitation. I’m truly grateful that you invited me to be on.

Karl: [00:33:07] Thank you very much. You’re going to help a lot of people, especially after dealing with all those kids home learning. You know, a lot of people that’s going to have more than pains in their backs.

Calvin: [00:33:19] Yes, for sure. The other place. So I’m sorry, Rico?

Rico: [00:33:23] I was going to say, we’re at the end of our time together. So give us the last word there Calvin.

Calvin: [00:33:29] Guys, keep moving your body. Whenever you stop moving that that’s when you become sedentary, that’s when things set in. Even if you just get out and walk a half a mile, walk a quarter of a mile, do it once, do it twice, do it three times a week, whatever you do keep moving. So you don’t have to come see me.

Karl: [00:33:50] Thank you very much. Take care, everyone.

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Consultant Al Simon Explains How Peachtree Corners Businesses Can Leverage AI

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Al Simon has a message for businesses: if you’re not using AI, you’re as far behind technology as using candlelight instead of electricity.
Sales consultant Al Simon // Photos by Tracey Rice

Al Simon has a simple message for business owners: if you’re not using AI, you’re about as far behind technology as if you’re using candlelight instead of electricity.

This was the core message of his talk at the January Peachtree Corners Business Association’s After-Hours Speaker Series. As a consultant for sales management with Sandler by Neuberger, Simon focuses on small to medium businesses with sales teams of 35 members or less and revenues up to $200 million.

He works with management teams and trains salespeople to improve sales revenue, gross profit margins, and other business metrics.

“Overall, it helps people thrive in their sales and sales management roles,” he said.

His topic, artificial intelligence for selling, involves teaching managers how to use AI to gather and interpret data. A simple Google search uses artificial intelligence, he said, but he also teaches salespeople how to use that information to improve their skills and processes.

Boosting sales enablement

Simon explained that AI could be used for pre-call planning. It’s not difficult to prompt a generative AI program to give you what you need.

A sample query for ChatGPT could be: “I’m a sales rep in the plastics manufacturing industry, and my prospect is an injection molding manufacturer. What are the three best questions I can ask their plant manager?

He emphasized that when prompting the AI, it’s vital to include the role you’re playing, the role of the people you’ll be meeting with and the challenge at hand.

“A prompt that has those components in it will be very effective in terms of coming back with three specific questions to ask,” he said. “It’s pretty cool.”

The biggest advantage of using AI is saving time, he said.

Even though the pre-call planning questioning strategies are important for sales reps, they should also gather information that they can use based on the prospect organization itself.

“I did one for a client of mine, a nonprofit, and … I asked the prompter how this organization can get revenue?” Simon said. “I got a great response —five or six bullet points on exactly how they get the revenue stream.”

He explained that the information is available in other ways, but by using AI, you can save the time it would take to weed through hundreds of pages of documents and reference materials.

“It’s a great way to quickly and efficiently and in a usable way get pretty complex information,” he said. “Back in the day, I hated searching through all those public documents trying to find information.”

Sales management uses for AI

On the sales management or even executive leadership side, Simon said there are many tools that gather metrics and interpret data. He mentioned a platform called Gong that uncovers what’s happening in customer conversations so revenue teams can do more of what’s working and set themselves apart from the competition.

“It analyzes a sales call by looking at how many questions you asked, how much talking you did and how much talking the client did,” said Simon. “You then start to build a database of your sales calls. You’ll be able to see trends.”

The manager can then help the employee ask enough questions or ask the right questions that are important to the sales call.

“Those kinds of things come out of a tool like that,” he said.

He also recommends utilizing a platform that measures close rates for salespeople.

“How often you win deals when you’re not talking to the main decision maker is important data,” he said. “If you’ve got someone who is consistently not calling high enough, so they’re always presenting proposals to a recommender who then has to take the proposal to their boss, it will decrease your close rate.”

Management can review the data and give the salesperson tips on connecting with people higher in the company.

At the end of the day, Simon said those who embrace AI technology will have a leg up on the competition because they are saving time and making better use of resources.

“The whole reason for these management tools is to coach the reps to be more effective,” said Simon.

One of the most valuable investments a business has is in its people, and making them better – even incrementally – can have a significant impact on business, he added. Even if the business is so small that the owner is the primary salesperson, there’s a lot to learn from AI.

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Deflecting debilitating blows one Guardian Cap at a time

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A Guardian Cap in use courtesy of Guardian Sports

With football season in the rearview for most players, the effects of injuries–especially those blows to the head–can alter careers and live well after the final play.

A relatively new piece of equipment manufactured in Peachtree Corners helps alleviate much of the impact from those hits that a helmet alone can’t deflect.

Husband and wife team Lee and Erin Hanson started Guardian Sports in 2011 with one goal: innovating equipment to better serve athletes. But one must go back even further to understand the science behind their technology.

“[Our initial company] really had nothing to do with sports,” said Erin.

She and her husband started the Hanson Group, a material science company, about 30 years ago.

“The Hanson Group solves problems for other companies–material science problems,” she said.

“Lee is a chemical engineer from Georgia Tech. … [He created] things for the military and all kinds of applications for all kinds of Fortune 500 companies. If they need something done quickly, they come to the Hanson Group and we try to solve their material science problems,” she explained.

By chance, someone from the helmet industry came to them looking to make a more flexible helmet.

“We saw the data behind what it could do to flex the exterior of a helmet,” she said. “And even though that company didn’t make it, we decided that if we could retrofit any football helmet inexpensively, we could cut down on the impact that all players were feeling.”

Making football fun and safe for all

When the idea for Guardian Caps came together, the Hansons weren’t considering adding another division to the company.

The drive to make the helmet accessory grew from the passion to help the game.

“Quite honestly, Lee and I were pretty far along in our lives. We had raised five children, and he had been at the Hanson Group for at least 20 years by then,” said Erin.

The couple questioned whether they wanted to launch something new and revolutionary. There was nothing like it on the market.

“We felt like if we’re going to go direct to consumer, we’re going to branch off to a whole new company and just go for it and see if we can make a difference,” said Erin.

Through trial and error, Lee and his team analyzed data that showed what a softer helmet exterior could do to reduce impact, which would translate into reducing injury rates.

“And how can we do it in a way that’s affordable and could be available for mass adoption?” Lee said during an interview with the city of Peachtree Corners.

“How can I make it affordable to that mom who’s already buying all that equipment for her child to play youth football? How can we create a one-size-fits-all?” he recalled.

He said they worked with a cut-and-sew facility and seamstress and made up the first prototypes before testing them in a laboratory.

Their son and his teammates at Wesleyan became the first to practice with the new equipment.

In 2012, The University of South Carolina and Clemson were the first college adopters, and the company experienced solid grassroots growth after that.

Joining the Peachtree Corners business community

By 2014, the Hansons moved their company to Peachtree Corners to benefit from the pro-business, family-friendly community and strong Georgia Tech connections.

The Guardian Cap is now used by over 300,000 youth high school and college athletes nationwide and mandated by the NFL for all 32 teams.

The cap dramatically reduces the force of impact upon collision, as experienced by football and lacrosse players. This topic has come to national attention due to CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and its relation to concussions.

According to company literature, in 2017, Guardian won the first NFL HeadHealth TECH challenge to “develop new and improved helmet and protective equipment.”

While the football helmet itself has undergone many changes since the early days of the small leather hats that only covered the tops of the head and the ears (no face mask and nothing to absorb blows from tackles and other hits), Guardian Caps are an accessory that builds upon modern technology.

Some college and professional players wear helmets made so that the interior conforms to their heads. Guardian Caps adds a layer of protection on the outside, absorbing shock before the impact even reaches the helmet.

“Now, obviously, safety is a concern amongst athletes. So, Guardian Cap has come up with this soft-shell layer that goes on top of the hard shell of the helmet,” said Lee.

In 2018, testing done by NFL and NFLPA-appointed engineers revealed that Guardian Caps made a statistically significant improvement over hard-shell helmets alone, company literature said.

By August 2020, the NFL allowed its teams to wear Guardian Caps during practice. The Jacksonville Jaguars were the first to do so. In July 2022, Guardian Caps were featured at NFL training camps for all 32 teams.

This year, the NFL mandated that Guardian Caps be used for the 2023 season in all pre-season, regular season, and post-season practices. Players in position groups with the most head contact will be required to wear Guardian Caps in addition to running backs and fullbacks, as well as linemen and linebackers.

No one-hit-wonder

Genius doesn’t take a timeout, and Guardian Sports isn’t resting on the Caps’ success alone.

“We’re constantly evolving, and although Guardian Caps is our flagship product, we’ve got others,” said Erin.

Their son Jake was a lacrosse goalie at Georgia Tech, dodging rock-hard projectiles flying at him at 93 miles an hour.

“So, we said, ‘You know, why don’t we make lacrosse balls out of rubber?’” Erin said.

Thus, Lee created a urethane ball. Called the “Pearl,” it is now the official ball of the NCAA lacrosse tournament.

The Hansons have also developed infill for artificial turf fields that isn’t made of used car tires.

Without the chemicals and carcinogens of rubber tires, the smoother pellets are puffed with air, cause fewer abrasions and lower the temperature of the field by as much as 30 degrees.

“As we see things, it’s really difficult not to want to solve things when you see our children being affected by it,” said Erin.

Investors initially wanted to sell Guardian Caps at $1,000 each, but the Hansons knew that families couldn’t afford that price tag for youth sports. At the end of the day, they are a dad and a mom who are looking out for the safety of kids.

“The NFL is really cool, and they’ve helped us with exposure, but, you know, we’ve got a real passion for helping those young developing players, for sure,” she said.

Guardian Sports
3044 Adriatic Ct NW
Peachtree Corners, GA 30071
guardiansports.com
770-667-6004

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Axon Accelerates Real-Time Operations Solution with Strategic Acquisition of Fusus

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Real-time crime center

Axon, a leader in connected public safety technologies, announced it has acquired Fusus, a pioneer in real-time crime center (RTCC) technology.

This news builds upon a successful strategic partnership launched in May 2022, marking a decisive leap forward in Axon’s mission to Protect Life.

This acquisition also further catalyzes Axon’s growing presence in retail, healthcare, private security and the federal space.

Fusus excels in aggregating live video, data and sensor feeds from virtually any source, enhancing situational awareness and investigative capabilities for public safety, education and commercial customers.

This acquisition provides Axon with technology not currently in its existing network, and facilitates seamless connections to critical data sources such as camera locations and video feeds from both fixed and body worn cameras during incidents.

Fusus’ technology propels Axon’s real-time operations product roadmap, addressing critical challenges faced in public safety.

It empowers law enforcement professionals with location mapping, escalation alerts, livestreaming, real-time and post-incident visibility, allowing swift decision-making, and responsive actions.

“Throughout our long-standing partnership and investment with Fusus, we’ve witnessed the impact of collaboration in achieving remarkable results for law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve,” said Ran Mokady, Axon’s Senior Vice President of Real-Time Operations.

“This acquisition is a significant milestone in our mission to protect life as it further enables law enforcement and emergency teams to better deter and respond to escalating situations,” he added.

“Our collaboration with Axon has helped Fusus raise the bar on how first responders can affect positive outcomes through open and interoperable systems,” said Chris Lindenau, CEO of Fusus.

“As one team with a shared purpose to protect life, we are poised to rapidly expand this vision into the way law enforcement agencies, governments, businesses and schools work together in support of community safety,” he explained.

Real-time crime centers provide public safety with a centralized facility equipped with advanced technology and data analysis tools that enable law enforcement agencies to monitor and respond to incidents in real time.

These centers can integrate various data sources, such as cameras, sensors, social media feeds and other information systems, to provide a comprehensive and immediate view of ongoing criminal activities or emergencies.

Ultimately, by aggregating all of this information into a single pane of glass for public safety, real-time crime centers enhance situational awareness, improve response times and support proactive crime prevention efforts by leveraging up-to-the-minute information and analytics.

To learn more about how real-time crime centers can increase safety in any environment, see Axon’s latest blog post.

“Real-time crime centers serve as indispensable assets for agencies, offering unparalleled insight and actionable intelligence in one open and unified platform,” said Marshall Freeman, Deputy Chief Administrative Officer for the Atlanta Police Department.

Just like Axon, Fusus and its products are built from the ground up with an explicit focus on ethical and equitable design.

As a joint organization and in partnership with Axon’s Ethics and Equity Advisory Council (EEAC), they will continue their relentless commitment to build solutions that make the right things easier and the wrong things harder, every day.

The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Axon was advised by Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP and Fusus was advised by Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP in connection with the transaction.

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