The Urban Engine Podcast

• 28 - Personal Progress, Self Awareness, and Accountability Partners

  Description- Matt McLellan talks with Kodi Lovelace the Team Lead at Absolute Nutrition and Matt Miller of Matt Miller Coaching, about Personal Progress, Self Awareness, and Accountability Partners. Highlights (2:30) Matt Miller draws a great comparison between the benefits of coaching in sports and business. (4:00) Matt Miller talks about the benefits of clearly defining what it is you want, as a means to evaluate progress over time. (6:10) Matt Miller discusses the fundamental differences between coaches and consultants, and gives a few tips on what to look for. He also discusses how his technical training in the social sciences has aided him in developing accurate empathy, which he considers a key skill for his career. (10:50) Matt McLellan asks Kodi why he began to work with Matt Miller. Kodi tells an interesting story relating his past education/fitness journey, and discusses how we can often do things that aren't aligned with our real goal. (16:00) Kodi discusses his method for identifying and hiring a personal performance coach. (19:38) Matt McLellan admits it can be difficult as a human to open up and expose ourselves, he then ask Matt Miller how he pulls back the layers. Matt Miller talks about how being an addiction treatment specialist aids him in getting people to conduct an emotional intelligence analysis. Specifically evaluate 5 things: Self Awareness, Self Manage, Self Motivation, Social Awareness, Manage Relationships. (26:00) Matt Miller discusses cognitive behavior, and the Bike Shed Effect. (30:15) Matt Miller discusses the effects of self pity on personal performance. (46:00) Matt Miller talks about setting healthy boundaries in coaching and business. Summary Matt, Kodi, and Matt Miller discuss the value of allowing an independent non-biased person namely a Coach, help point out blind spots in your life, whether that be in business, fitness, or life skills. This is vital, because what we know in life is far less than what we need to know, and often times our personal connection to the events occurring in our life and business lead us make poor choices. Blind spots are a natural aspect of every car you see driving down the road, technology now aids the driver avoid hazards as they head towards their destination. Maybe a Coach could do the same for you? Links Rogers, Carl: A Way of Being Rogers, Carl: On Becoming a Person https://albertellis.org/ https://www.instagram.com/mattmiller37/

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• 27 - Great Expectations: Managing Expectations for Yourself and Your Team

  Description Matt McLellan and Toni Eberhart talk about managing expectations Highlights (02:50) Matt talks about his propensity to set very high goals (like a lot of us tend to do), specifically high goal in high school at one time to want to break the 4 minute mile in track and field. (6:30) Matt tells about his experience with his first salaried manager hire. It was a very expensive lesson since Matt made assumptions for how his manager would operate and that did not play out in day-to- day operations. When things don’t go well in your business, it is not the person’s fault but yours for not training them. (24:20) Matt explains the differences in how he sets and manages sales goals today at Absolute Nutrition versus how he used to do so (which often fell short). (26:30) Toni talks about how she won’t set goals for other people like she does for herself because she is too aggressive on her own goals. (39:20) Matt discusses how constantly calibrating and communicating goals and expectations with your team works so well. Summary Matt and Toni discuss the importance and challenges of managing expectations. Audacious goals, desires and expectations are typical for entrepreneurs and is often why they launch a startup in the first place (entrepreneurs tend to be optimistic). This is essential in getting over the hump in any new business venture as the challenge to do so can be exhausting and nonlinear (highs are high, lows are low). As a startup scales up and employees are hired, it is important to set realistic goals and expectations with your team and to continually communicate to make necessary tweaks in real-time. You get better results, you foster a happier and more productive work environment, and you’ll retain your staff over the long-term as they are fully invested in the mission of the organization that they have had a significant impact in shaping. Links (Book) The Algebra of Happiness https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0593084195/ High school runner Alan Webb (broke Jim Ryun’s mile record in 2001): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Webb_(runner) Carl F. Braun on communicating like a grown-up (the Five W’s): https://fs.blog/2016/03/carl-braun-communicating/ The Psychology of Expectations https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/cui-bono/201802/the-psychology-expectations

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• 26 - Megan Nivens-Tannett with Flourish Consulting talks Marketing & PR

  Description Megan Nivens-Tannett talks about her experiences in the marketing industry that led to her launching her boutique marketing firm Flourish Highlights (03:10) Megan talks about her motivation for launching Flourish after her experience working with local HSV engineering firms who often did not understanding basic marketing concepts (much less having any long-term strategy). (07:00) Toni asks Megan about her journey that led to her working for herself. Megan was laid off from a tech company that grew way too fast and had to downscale and is now happy to say it was the best thing to ever happen to her. Her passion and competitive nature gave her the drive do the hard work of starting a new business. (15:30) Megan talks about the significant unique capabilities of marketing experts like herself. When having discovery meetings with clients (where senior leadership is often narrow-minded because daily operations require them to do so), marketing experts lay out a long-term strategic vision and plan and define every advertising avenue that needs to be implemented for success. (25:40) Megan and Toni talk about how you can't assume that people know about your company what you know about your company. This is a very common mistake startup founders make all the time. (27:20) Megan recommends creating an advisory board that represents your customer base and constantly engage with them. Are you even asking your customers important questions about how the perceive/understand your product? (also see: UE #22 w/ Brandon Kruse)

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• 25 - Scott Gillaspie discusses his Startup: Incentive Financial

  Description Scott Gillaspie talks about how his life experience has led him to launch his startup Incentive Financial Highlights (02:25) Scott points out a great idea from 12 Rules for Life – a rational mind can be trap because you over-rationalize every possible outcome. You can’t know every possible outcome so you’re better off taking a leap of faith at some point. (13:00) Scott tells his story about how he was being asked to do things that weren't always best for the client in corporate banking. (17:00) Scott talks about his experience after resigning from corporate banking when he started talking to potential investors with his new startup. One of his investors said “I don't really care what your idea is.... I'm investing in you, not your company”. (19:00) If someone says "Hey, go start your own company… everybody is going to support you. It’s going to be great”, then they are lying to you. (27:15) 20% of Alabamians go to “buy here, pay here” car dealerships making subprime auto loans. Buy here, pay here car dealerships are not reporting positive payment history (they are not legally obligated to report positive pay history), which prevents many from improving their credit scores and escaping the high costs of having bad credit. (35:15) Matt asks Scott the question “what is good capitalism?” Summary Scott Gillaspie is a young man on a mission. With a double major in finance and economics and after working in the corporate banking world, Scott is completely focused on building his startup Incentive Financial to address what he calls a mispricing of risk with some subprime borrowers starting in the subprime auto industry. He wants to build a business where everybody wins (his company, the borrowers, the dealers selling the vehicles) after growing increasingly frustrated with doing things that didn’t always align with the best interests of his customers in the corporate world. He wants to demystify the complexity of the financial system (which is designed that way on purpose) and do everything he can to improve the lives of his customers for the long-term. Links - Scott’s bio https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-gillaspie - John Oliver – the horrors of subprime auto lending https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U2eDJnwz_s Books - 12 Rules for Life https://www.amazon.com/12-Rules-Life-Antidote-Chaos/dp/B0797Y87JC - The Richest Man in Babylon https://www.amazon.com/Richest-Man-Babylon-Original-1926

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• 24 - Mergers & Acquisitions w/ Marshall Schreeder

  Cole Rickles talks with Marshall Schreeder, Jr. about his experiences and his role as EVP of Corporate Development at Discovery Life Sciences Highlights (03:53) Marshall describes what Discovery Life Sciences does. They support medical research (drug development + diagnostic development). (11:00) Marshall talks about how finding a process that is inefficient and making it more efficient can be enough reason to start a business around it. Like nearly every entrepreneur, their initial launch seemed like it would be easy (and it never is). (19:20) Marshall explains why he partnered with his friend Luke and started their own business in Huntsville in 2005-2007 (after them both working all over the country at different companies). (26:30) Marshall talks about their initial desire to raise “a million dollars” when they were starting their business (a common theme in the entrepreneur community). With the hope of raising that initial 10% of the million, they met with the late famed entrepreneur Lonnie McMillian who pulled out a checkbook in their first hour of the pitch and he offered to cut a check for the entire amount (and said his attorney would figure out the terms with them later). (49:35) Marshall breaks down the importance of a great team. As long as you are pointed in the right direction, the impact of your team members can be as much as 80% of the reason for your success. Summary Marshall Schreeder talks about his experiences in investment banking and how it eventually led to him partnering with his friend Luke and moving back to Huntsville in 2005 (Marshall is a rare Huntsville native). Coming from a medical family (his dad is a doctor in town), there was a bit of pressure to follow in his father’s footsteps but found his own way working in private equity and then focusing on the biomdedical science industry. Marshall talks about their start in Huntsville launching their own business and that common story we all hear (and many of us know) about thinking a new business will be “a layup” where in reality it’s always at least 2X as hard (and cost 2X as much) and is more like throwing a medicine ball from half court over and over again. When they were starting their Huntsville business, they had a desire to raise a million dollars to get things rolling. They were rather shocked when they met with Lonnie McMillian and watched him pull out a checkbook in their first offer willing to write the full amount on the spot. Fast forward the last dozen years or so and Discovery Life Sciences (the entity after they were acquired last year) is on a roll with a half dozen M&A activities in just the last 15 months. Marshall talks about how his prior experience in private equity has been so valuable as of late in doing due diligence and strong work ethic in managing teams all over the world working toward a single purpose. Links - Marshall Schreeder bio https://www.linkedin.com/in/marshallschreeder - Discovery Life Sciences https://www.dls.com/ https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/discovery-life-sciences-enters-fresh-leukopak-market- 300875890.html - Hudson Alpha https://hudsonalpha.org/the-story-of-hudsonalpha/ - What is private equity? https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/privateequity.asp - Lonnie McMillian (founder of ADTRAN and HudsonAlpha) https://hsvchamber.org/hudsonalpha-institute-for-biotechnology-mourns-death-of-co-founder- lonnie-mcmillian/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADTRAN Books - The Private Equity Playbook https://www.amazon.com/Private-Equity-Playbook-Managements-Working/dp/1544513275

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