Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Travis T. Wade.
CEO of The Guardian, a private security corporation. The discussion focused on hiring the right people, leadership strategies, and the importance of HR in business success.
🔑 Key Themes & Highlights
The Importance of HR in Hiring
- Wade emphasized that HR is the backbone of any business, ensuring the right people are hired and retained.
- He shared insights on how HR principles translate into building a strong security team.
Finding the Right Employees
- The Guardian uses a conversational interview approach rather than traditional questioning.
- Wade believes that getting candidates comfortable reveals their true personality, helping assess their suitability for security roles.
Key Traits for Security Professionals
- Patience is the most important quality—impatient candidates are not a good fit for security work.
- Security officers must be calm, observant, and able to de-escalate situations rather than react impulsively.
Reducing Employee Turnover
- Wade stressed that treating employees well after hiring is just as important as selecting the right candidates.
- He shared strategies for lowering turnover by fostering a supportive work environment.
📘 About Travis T. Wade & The Guardian
Travis T. Wade is a seasoned HR professional with over 25 years of corporate experience. His company, The Guardian, operates in Georgia, Alabama, and North Carolina, providing armed and unarmed security, personal protection, and private investigations.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I host this weekly money Making Conversation Masterclass show. The
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(00:20):
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(00:42):
you to go that. Please visit Moneymaking Conversations dot com.
My guests, Let's get to it. It's a season hr
professional with over twenty five years of corporate experience. His company,
The Guardian, is a private security corporation with three separate divisions,
armed and unarmed warmed security officers, personal protection, and private investigations.
(01:05):
He's serving Georgia, Alabama, and North Carolina. Please welcome to
Money Making conversations. I'm gonna call him a good friend
of mine. Travis, t Wayne, How you doing, Travis?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Good? How you doing? Brother? How are you?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Because you're always a rushout out and like doing my
voice sound on the radio. But I do it for you, brother,
I do it for you.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
But you know you're a New York boy. Now down
in the South, Now, how's that treating you?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
There?
Speaker 1 (01:28):
The food exchange there, you know, northst.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
And listen to Southern hospitality has been great. Atlanta has
been treating me like I've been. I've reached all my life. Uh,
you know, I had a lot of family down here,
but I'm moving down here the different experience and you
guys have been awesome. So thank you to all the
Atlanta faithful and Georgia faithful. I've been treating me with
open aw Well.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Tell before we get started, let's talk about you a
little bit. In your company, The Guardian, that's a great name,
private security corporation. You have three separate divisions. Talk about
it because your background is HR which means that you've
been dealing for twenty five years in the corporate experience.
That whole way of how people should come to work,
how people should be interview prepared for interviews. How does
(02:16):
that translated in making your company the Guardian that much
better because of your HR experience.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
So, I think the uniqueness of being an HR and
I was the head of an HR department at a
community bank in New York is the fact that you're
dealing with all aspects in all departments and divisions of
a corporation. Right. You're dealing with the finance, you're dealing
with the sales team, you're dealing with the operations. So
you know, I always tell managers and employees to learn
(02:47):
the business of your industry. So you know, once you
learn the business of your industry, HR just gets right
in there. It's translatable to every industry that there is.
Every industry needs an a department that takes care of
their people. How can a business run about your people?
Your business is your people, right, So the hr R fact,
(03:08):
HR experience and that industry helped me to be able to,
you know, first cater to our people. You know, I
learned the industry and their great mentor Benjamin Manner, and
then from that point, you know, took the experience that
I learned from my finance industry that I worked in
New York, you know, from the sales and operations and
(03:32):
took you know, the things that I learned from some
of those great people as with great executives there and
translated it to the security industry as well.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
That's great to hear, you know when you talk about,
you know, managing talent, which is basically what you're doing
your people who come in different personalities. You have to
get to work under a certain degree of leadership. You
don't know, you know, the great thing about people fill
out an application, right, Travis, they say they want to
work for you, but that doesn't mean that they really
(04:01):
want to work for you. How do you find the
right person for your company to guardian?
Speaker 2 (04:08):
So what we do is we try to you know,
we don't do the normal interview process. Right. We don't
sit there and say what are your stress what are
your weaknesses? Ok. We get a person there and we
have a conversation with them. Right. You get them comfortable
so you can see the genuine person. You don't see
their representative. So you'll see you know, you know, how
(04:29):
a person acts when they get comfortable, so you can
see their true selves. You know, when you talk about
how they get when they get upset or you know,
when they get aggravated, or they a patient person. You know,
these are the things that you have to be aware
of in the security industry. You know, your guards have
to be patient, they have to have that customer service
(04:49):
attribute to them. They have to you know, be able
to get along with other people. So you know, you
get them comfortable, you get them talking, talking about themselves,
seeing their family dynamics, seeing the type of the type
of people they are, the type of person here she is,
and then you go from there. Nothing is one hundred
percent right, it's not. It doesn't always work. But you know,
(05:12):
if you do it that way and you and you
treat your people right on your end after you hire them,
you can lower that turnover quickly. Right.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
But I'm sure there are certain qualities you look for
if somebody's hyper, you know, talking too much, look like
they ad a little edgy, because like you said, you're
in the security business, which means that the number one
thing that my thought process and security is to be
that person who buffers and in state, keeps situation calm.
It makes people when something bad goes wrong. They're the
(05:45):
leaders of direction there. They show leadership immediately. So so
if someone comes in for interview for your company, the guardian,
what are some of the no knows that you they
should make sure they don't bring to the table to
be in of you for your company, right?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Well, of one of my don't know is if they're impatient,
you know, they impatient. You know, if a person is
not patient, if they're sitting there and they can't wait
you know, a good maybe twenty twenty five minutes for
the interview process and you know, to sit there and
meet security supervisor, then this is not a person that
(06:24):
we want, right either they really don't want to work, right,
they have a whole stash of money somewhere that that
we don't know about, a little side gate for them,
you know, or that's going to relate to them on
the job, you know, not being patient, you know, maybe
having guarding a line and there's people on the line
who are talking a little too much, you're not patient,
(06:45):
or a customer comes in and they're rushing them and
they're and they're not being patient with the customer. So
you don't want that. So you want someone to be
doing to be patient. And then you also don't want
someone to be too hyperactive, too uberly. I'm excited to react, right.
You know, sometimes if you if you react to something
(07:05):
too quickly without having either all the information or kind
of laying back and seeing how things transpire so you
can react in an appropriate way with having all the information,
then that's someone we do not want, because there's a
lot of times you can overreact to a situation when,
as you know as well as I do, you overreact
to something in the streets or you know, some some
(07:27):
people that are in the streets, they're going to react
to you in kind. They're going to overreact to you
just the way you're overreacting to that.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
And it's always that level of disrespect too, you know,
because you know, as a security person, they don't see
you as a real authority, you know, you playing cop
or something like that cop, and so they.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Have to come with a flashlight. I see you.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Right, right, And so that's something that has to be
taking consideration. But I want to follow up something you
said earlier about HR because I made that mistake, Travis,
I undervalued HR.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
I didn't realize the oh you can't do that, you
can't do that, so.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
I did it. I did you know and so now
I tell people and I tell myself, you know, if
I'm going to start something, I have to have an
account with legal, an accountant.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
And HR.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
You got to have those three heads tied to your
business if you want to start it successfully. Because if
you don't have those things, you cannot be the person
mediating staff. You cannot be people people, a person hiring everybody,
fill out the application, filing the application, doing all the reviews.
It is really a complicated job because a lot of
(08:33):
people don't understand the nuances of HR. And it's a
lot how you speak to people when you when they're
not doing their job, are you motivating? You give them
the tools to win with Really, you know, I'm saying
all the flag things and I just wanted to bring
that back because I made that mistake Travis. I was like,
(08:54):
I'm just giveing me applications. Sometimes I wouldn't even take
an application. I just hire people. I get the application later,
you hire it. Not doing background check. I did the
mistakes and so what people do it on a regular basis,
tell them the ramifications of doing that. What you do
not do at the Guardian.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
So so I'll take a leaven a step further a
sound it's it's it's all those things you just subscribe.
Plus it's also making sure managers know how to manage
their staff, right. You know a lot of managers they
have to get promoted or hired in these positions and
don't really know how to manage people. You have to
manage personalities, you have to manage behaviors, you have to
(09:32):
manage different cultures, different genders, you know, and understand how
how to relate to and you can't treat everyone the same. So,
you know, it goes a little bit further, which is
not just you know, the hiring, the firing, the posting
for positions. You know, it also goes to coaching your managers.
You know, because in my position, my former position, I
(09:53):
would coach you know, the C suite team, you know,
the senior staff on how to manage their important how
to deal with difficult employees, how to have difficult conversations.
So it's a little bit more than that there, you know.
But HR needs to have a feed entertainment any type
of discussions that you're having when you're starting a business,
(10:15):
small businesses, medium size business, a large businesses. HR should
be somewhere in the room understanding. You know, listen, if
you're so proprided, if you're running a business in your
own you have no employee, I get it. There's time
for you to to you know, you have some time
and at that point you might not be HR. But
as soon as you start to hire employees, you know,
(10:37):
you have to understand. You have to have policy and
procedures and processes in place, you know, for to make
sure your operations are un well. So HR needs to
have a seat at that table. HR needs to be
at the forefront of every conversation. When you're starting a
new project and your initiative taking on a new client
and new vendor, HR needs to be there.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Now you're doing security in three different states. That means
there's different we're talking about Georgia, we're talking about Alabama
and North Carolina, different rules for HR, different room for taxes.
Did it start out like that or did you expand
to that?
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Travis So, So it started out in Atlanta, Georgia, and
then we expanded to Birmingham, Alabama with some parts of
Hoover Investsemer, Alabama, and then are our latest four year
into Charlotte, North Carolina. Started at the beginning of this year.
(11:38):
So yeah, I started in the hometown of Atlanta, Georgia,
moved to Alabama, and now we're in North Charlotte, North Carolina.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
And I named three different departments you had armed in on,
armed uniform security officers. Then you have personal protection, and
then you have private investigations. Now you know, I'm a
TV guy traffic your private investigation, I am magnum p
I I hear all these little detectives on TV. Educate
(12:06):
me because I'm a play dumb on this because guess
what did you try to jump out there and try
to guide people down the wrong path? What exactly is
private investigations when it involved your company? The Guardian.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
So, so our private investigations involve more small business in corporations.
We offer a service of coming into your business and
helping out with any type of investigation you may have.
Right for example, it might be an HR investigation. You
might have if you're a retail store, small business retail store,
(12:41):
and you see some money missing and then you have
this employee saying no, I didn't do it. This employee
saying no, I didn't do it. You know we can
come in right, have the have the conversations do the interviews,
do the investigations, you know, do all the background checks,
you know, do this, do that, gather all the information,
look at all the documentary, if there's video, if there's
(13:02):
tight if there's audio. We come in and we do
all that, and then we sit down with the executive
and we present to them, you know, what we found,
what the case is, what the case need be, so
then they can make an educated decision at that point
instead of guesting and blaming people, you know, and assuming right,
you know, we help them put together the facts, the information,
(13:22):
the data, any type of evidence so they can make
an educated decision or make an educated understanding of what's
going on in the situation. Yeah. Great.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Before we go to bake break, is there a number
if one is interested in seeking employment opportunities at the Guardian?
What is that number?
Speaker 2 (13:43):
That number is four zero four seven six six two
six one one. Again, that's four zero four seven sixty
six two six one one. Good.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
When we come back, we're going to hear more of
a travel way Travis T Waye. And like I said,
I joked about the New York. Now he didn't plan
on doing this. Now, you know, he don't plan on
doing this, but he pivoted and now he's doing it,
and he's doing it fantastic. But he's a New York boy.
Now he in the South, loving.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
It, loving it.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
But boy, he missed he missed some He missed some
patties up there. He missed some food up there though.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass, hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
(14:46):
continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
He's a season hr professional, will over twenty five years
of corporate experience. We're not bringing bring that up twenty
five years. This company, The Garden, is a private security
corporation with three separate division and it operates in three
separate states Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina. That means along the way,
there was a pivot. Talk to us about that because
(15:15):
you went from corporate world to entrepreneurship and a lot
of people resist that. A lot of people don't want
to make change, but it happened to you. Tell us
your journey Travis.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
So without without getting two deeps, I think, you know,
for years I've been wanting to and admiring people who
were able to open up a business and be successful
and be their own boss. Right. You know, even through
my career, as I progressed through my career from managers
(15:51):
to director to vice president, first vice president to head
a department, you know, I always had it peep inside.
I wanted to own my own and create generational wealth
for for me and my family. And and you know,
at a certain point, I felt like I wasn't I
wasn't doing that, you know, I was. I was helping
(16:13):
other people make money.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
You know.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
And even though you know, the bank I worked for
when a community bank, carb Federal Savings Bank in New
York was originally a black owned bank and now it's
a black managed, publicly traded bank. There's a lot for
the community. Uh, there's a lot for the inner city
in New York City. You know, I still felt something missing, right,
(16:36):
something that I wanted to do as a kid or
a teenager out of high school, out of college, wanted
to be my own boss, wanted to have my own company.
And then uh, you know, I got a call about,
you know, being able to take over a business and
run a day to day the security business. So like
(16:56):
security business. I haven't done that in a while. I
mean I haven't at all. Excuse me, but I need
you thought about you thought about well, okay, guards in
the front, you know, not high security. You know, to
monitor the banks and the branch where I'm at. You
know HR usually does that and FIEU out the vendors.
And I'm like, okay. But as I as I started
(17:19):
getting into learning the business, which I always advise people
to when they are are taking another job or moving
another industry, learn the business of where you're going. You know,
HR can translate, but I need to learn the business.
So as I started learning the business and what this
company was doing, it was a no brainer. And you know,
I don't want to get to spiritual, but you know,
(17:40):
I prayed on it, and God tell me, this is
something you need to do. You need to move to
Atlanta and take over this business, grow it to where
it needs to do, provide your corporate executive HR experience
combined with the roots it has already in Atlanta in
(18:02):
the Alabama area, and to just grow it, grow it
and do what you need to do now. I think
now that's what got me there.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Now And it seems like you came with some ideas.
Now for people, your ideas, that don't mean they're always
happy about.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
The ideas about So how did.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
You make those ideas accommodated to the unhappy people?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yeah? So what I always do is when you when
you bring in a new idea, right, it's all about communication. Right,
So when you present the idea, you present a lot
of things that comes with you present what it takes
to do it. You have to present, you know, let
them know you're willing to roll up your sleeves and
be a participant, not just someone sitting in the office
(18:47):
calling the shots. You have to let them know the outcome.
What do you want out of these ideas? What do
we want from changing this or doing this? What do
we see? What's the future goal? And then then you
get your behind in it, in their thoughts and hey,
you know, get their their their opinions on maybe we
can tweak this or tweak that. You know, I think
(19:07):
just coming in and preaching, hey, we're going to change this,
we're gonna do this, we're gonna do that, we can
do this like a military general with something that would
never work. You know, once you explain everything, you lay
it out to them, explain everything. You explain how we're
going to do it, the outcomes. You know, what we're
looking for in the future, what what's going to do
for us in the future. You provide some some very
(19:30):
concrete details and some outcomes that you're looking for and uh,
and also ensure them that you're willing to roll your
sleeves up as well, right and get down and dirty
with it. You know, I think you know they they
people tend to initially have a little pushback once they
(19:50):
see you and you're passionate about coming in and doing
what you say, then do always say do what you're
going to say, what you're going to do, and do
what you're going to and do what you're saying, right,
you know, you.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Know that's really great because you know of these lessons
I've learned. You know, you can be annow it all,
or you can be the smartest person in the room
and people will allow you to be that and allow
you to make the mistake and just to become a
person who just will take their check, cash their check
and show up the next day. That's the environment that
(20:25):
you are avoiding. And a lot of people come in going,
I don't care what anybody say, I'm gonna do it
my way.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yeah, I hear you.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
You are the boss. You do run the company, but
sometimes you have to kind of like, even though you
know the answer and I know you've done this self, Travis,
you kind of throw it out there and hopefully they
react to the direction you want to go, or you
guide them in that direction through conversation, and then the
(20:52):
pros and the cons.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Correct and you keep them updated. Yeah, you keep them involved, right,
You don't just make decisions, right, You keep them involved
in the decisions. You know, you give them all the
information and you give them buy them like they're part
of it. Right. So then when they and then you
keep them updated on the outcome. Right, if they see
that you got this this big contract, let them see
(21:15):
how you got it right, you know, let them see
that they're hard work, you know, played a major part
and you're getting this right because they see people see
the history, People see the hard work that you guys
are doing. People see, you know, the professionalism that you're
putting out there as your guard. People see you know,
how how presentable you are. You know, in your uniform,
(21:36):
people see that, you know, you're accountable or what you're
doing there out there. You know, that's a big part
of us getting this next contract, getting this next you
know opportunity. You know, once once they see that, they're
a big part of that. And when people feel a
part of something, you know they'll do more. You know,
when people don't feel like, oh that's not mine, I
don't care, they trash it or throws at the side.
(21:58):
And when you feel that you're part of it, when
you feel that ownership, that that that that entrepreneurial spirit,
that that should be in them all being a small
business and they feel that they're part of and a
part of the growth and part of you know, the
maturity of the business and where we're going in the future.
They're willing to do anything for you in the company.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Yeah, you know, it's really important. And thank you again
for coming on the show, Travis, because you know your
company Guarden three three three States. Now always bring that
out because of the fact that you know your competition
out there is non African American maybe bigger. How do
you compete and how do you win these contracts?
Speaker 2 (22:43):
So right now I'm not We're not even looking at
it as a competition. Okay, Smart they have these larger
they have these larger companieses they call primes, right, these
are the larger individual companies, like like an allied Universal Right,
which is global right. We can't compete with ally, you know,
So what we do, there's enough opportunity there. Maybe we
(23:06):
do a subcontract and we partner with all or we
partner with another minority security company, you know, to to
get a larger federal contract or a larger non federal
or state or government contract or public or private contract,
and we work together. You know, during some networking things,
I've met, you know, a few security industry professionals and
(23:31):
either minority and non minority, and always offered the opportunity
to work with them. I met a gentleman and cybersecurity.
We got together and partnered in a few things. So,
you know, it's it's not about competition right now, you know,
because we can't afford to compete with anybody, we can
afford to partner with you. We can afford to get
(23:52):
together and especially with our minority partners and brothers and
sisters out there in the industry. We would love to
get together and partner with them, and then at a
certain point and maybe we get together and we get
bigg enough to you know, compete with an ally compete
with you know, Secure Todds and some of these larger,
larger security firms that are out.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
There, awesome. The Guardian is a private security corporation. He's hiring.
This company's hiring.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
He uses his twenty five years of HR experience. Their
mission is to maintain a strict and unwavering code of
ethics with their employees, clients, and community to provide the
most qualified, dedicated professional officers that represent both the client
and the Guardian. What's that number to call? I's one
wants to consider employment opportunities at your company, Travis.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
That number is for zero four seven sixty six to
six one one. That's for zero four seven six six
to six one one.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Travis. Thanks for coming on my show. And I really
appreciate you taking.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
The time man, you know, because thank you.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
You know, you laid it up, man, because I think that,
you know, I always like to admit my flaws because
HR I really disrespected it. I did not consider it.
I just people come through that door, they say the
right things. And especially when it came to family. I
just hired family because they were family, which is another conversation.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
You know.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
But again, thank you for coming on money Making Conversations
Master Class.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Translation.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
We talked soon.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Bye bye, don't go nowhere. We'd be right back with
more money Making Conversation Masterclass. This is Rushan McDonald. I'm
the host of this show. This has been another edition
of Money Making Conversation Masterclass hosted by me Rushaan McDonald.
Thank you to our guests on the show today and
thank you our listening to audience.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Now.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
If you want to listen to any episode I want
to be a guest on the show, visit Moneymakingconversations dot com.
Our social media handle is money Making Conversation. Join us
next week and remember to always leave with your gifts.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Keep winning.
I host this weekly money Making Conversation Masterclass show. The
interviews and information that this show provides are for you you.
I want you to listen up when I say that,
because I'm trying every week to bring in guests. Not trying,
I am. I'm bringing in guests that provide information that
will help you win. It's time to start reading other
(00:20):
people's success stories and start living on living your own, y'all,
not on your own, living your own. I'm here to
help you reach your American dream. If you want to
be a guest on my show, please visit Moneymaking Conversations
dot com and click to be a guest button, and
I will screen you based on what you're sending that
to be a guest on the show and loved for
(00:42):
you to go that. Please visit Moneymaking Conversations dot com.
My guests, Let's get to it. It's a season hr
professional with over twenty five years of corporate experience. His company,
The Guardian, is a private security corporation with three separate divisions,
armed and unarmed warmed security officers, personal protection, and private investigations.
(01:05):
He's serving Georgia, Alabama, and North Carolina. Please welcome to
Money Making conversations. I'm gonna call him a good friend
of mine. Travis, t Wayne, How you doing, Travis?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Good? How you doing? Brother? How are you?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Because you're always a rushout out and like doing my
voice sound on the radio. But I do it for you, brother,
I do it for you.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
But you know you're a New York boy. Now down
in the South, Now, how's that treating you?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
There?
Speaker 1 (01:28):
The food exchange there, you know, northst.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
And listen to Southern hospitality has been great. Atlanta has
been treating me like I've been. I've reached all my life. Uh,
you know, I had a lot of family down here,
but I'm moving down here the different experience and you
guys have been awesome. So thank you to all the
Atlanta faithful and Georgia faithful. I've been treating me with
open aw Well.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Tell before we get started, let's talk about you a
little bit. In your company, The Guardian, that's a great name,
private security corporation. You have three separate divisions. Talk about
it because your background is HR which means that you've
been dealing for twenty five years in the corporate experience.
That whole way of how people should come to work,
how people should be interview prepared for interviews. How does
(02:16):
that translated in making your company the Guardian that much
better because of your HR experience.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
So, I think the uniqueness of being an HR and
I was the head of an HR department at a
community bank in New York is the fact that you're
dealing with all aspects in all departments and divisions of
a corporation. Right. You're dealing with the finance, you're dealing
with the sales team, you're dealing with the operations. So
you know, I always tell managers and employees to learn
(02:47):
the business of your industry. So you know, once you
learn the business of your industry, HR just gets right
in there. It's translatable to every industry that there is.
Every industry needs an a department that takes care of
their people. How can a business run about your people?
Your business is your people, right, So the hr R fact,
(03:08):
HR experience and that industry helped me to be able to,
you know, first cater to our people. You know, I
learned the industry and their great mentor Benjamin Manner, and
then from that point, you know, took the experience that
I learned from my finance industry that I worked in
New York, you know, from the sales and operations and
(03:32):
took you know, the things that I learned from some
of those great people as with great executives there and
translated it to the security industry as well.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
That's great to hear, you know when you talk about,
you know, managing talent, which is basically what you're doing
your people who come in different personalities. You have to
get to work under a certain degree of leadership. You
don't know, you know, the great thing about people fill
out an application, right, Travis, they say they want to
work for you, but that doesn't mean that they really
(04:01):
want to work for you. How do you find the
right person for your company to guardian?
Speaker 2 (04:08):
So what we do is we try to you know,
we don't do the normal interview process. Right. We don't
sit there and say what are your stress what are
your weaknesses? Ok. We get a person there and we
have a conversation with them. Right. You get them comfortable
so you can see the genuine person. You don't see
their representative. So you'll see you know, you know, how
(04:29):
a person acts when they get comfortable, so you can
see their true selves. You know, when you talk about
how they get when they get upset or you know,
when they get aggravated, or they a patient person. You know,
these are the things that you have to be aware
of in the security industry. You know, your guards have
to be patient, they have to have that customer service
(04:49):
attribute to them. They have to you know, be able
to get along with other people. So you know, you
get them comfortable, you get them talking, talking about themselves,
seeing their family dynamics, seeing the type of the type
of people they are, the type of person here she is,
and then you go from there. Nothing is one hundred
percent right, it's not. It doesn't always work. But you know,
(05:12):
if you do it that way and you and you
treat your people right on your end after you hire them,
you can lower that turnover quickly. Right.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
But I'm sure there are certain qualities you look for
if somebody's hyper, you know, talking too much, look like
they ad a little edgy, because like you said, you're
in the security business, which means that the number one
thing that my thought process and security is to be
that person who buffers and in state, keeps situation calm.
It makes people when something bad goes wrong. They're the
(05:45):
leaders of direction there. They show leadership immediately. So so
if someone comes in for interview for your company, the guardian,
what are some of the no knows that you they
should make sure they don't bring to the table to
be in of you for your company, right?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Well, of one of my don't know is if they're impatient,
you know, they impatient. You know, if a person is
not patient, if they're sitting there and they can't wait
you know, a good maybe twenty twenty five minutes for
the interview process and you know, to sit there and
meet security supervisor, then this is not a person that
(06:24):
we want, right either they really don't want to work, right,
they have a whole stash of money somewhere that that
we don't know about, a little side gate for them,
you know, or that's going to relate to them on
the job, you know, not being patient, you know, maybe
having guarding a line and there's people on the line
who are talking a little too much, you're not patient,
(06:45):
or a customer comes in and they're rushing them and
they're and they're not being patient with the customer. So
you don't want that. So you want someone to be
doing to be patient. And then you also don't want
someone to be too hyperactive, too uberly. I'm excited to react, right.
You know, sometimes if you if you react to something
(07:05):
too quickly without having either all the information or kind
of laying back and seeing how things transpire so you
can react in an appropriate way with having all the information,
then that's someone we do not want, because there's a
lot of times you can overreact to a situation when,
as you know as well as I do, you overreact
to something in the streets or you know, some some
(07:27):
people that are in the streets, they're going to react
to you in kind. They're going to overreact to you
just the way you're overreacting to that.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
And it's always that level of disrespect too, you know,
because you know, as a security person, they don't see
you as a real authority, you know, you playing cop
or something like that cop, and so they.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Have to come with a flashlight. I see you.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Right, right, And so that's something that has to be
taking consideration. But I want to follow up something you
said earlier about HR because I made that mistake, Travis,
I undervalued HR.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
I didn't realize the oh you can't do that, you
can't do that, so.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
I did it. I did you know and so now
I tell people and I tell myself, you know, if
I'm going to start something, I have to have an
account with legal, an accountant.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
And HR.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
You got to have those three heads tied to your
business if you want to start it successfully. Because if
you don't have those things, you cannot be the person
mediating staff. You cannot be people people, a person hiring everybody,
fill out the application, filing the application, doing all the reviews.
It is really a complicated job because a lot of
(08:33):
people don't understand the nuances of HR. And it's a
lot how you speak to people when you when they're
not doing their job, are you motivating? You give them
the tools to win with Really, you know, I'm saying
all the flag things and I just wanted to bring
that back because I made that mistake Travis. I was like,
(08:54):
I'm just giveing me applications. Sometimes I wouldn't even take
an application. I just hire people. I get the application later,
you hire it. Not doing background check. I did the
mistakes and so what people do it on a regular basis,
tell them the ramifications of doing that. What you do
not do at the Guardian.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
So so I'll take a leaven a step further a
sound it's it's it's all those things you just subscribe.
Plus it's also making sure managers know how to manage
their staff, right. You know a lot of managers they
have to get promoted or hired in these positions and
don't really know how to manage people. You have to
manage personalities, you have to manage behaviors, you have to
(09:32):
manage different cultures, different genders, you know, and understand how
how to relate to and you can't treat everyone the same. So,
you know, it goes a little bit further, which is
not just you know, the hiring, the firing, the posting
for positions. You know, it also goes to coaching your managers.
You know, because in my position, my former position, I
(09:53):
would coach you know, the C suite team, you know,
the senior staff on how to manage their important how
to deal with difficult employees, how to have difficult conversations.
So it's a little bit more than that there, you know.
But HR needs to have a feed entertainment any type
of discussions that you're having when you're starting a business,
(10:15):
small businesses, medium size business, a large businesses. HR should
be somewhere in the room understanding. You know, listen, if
you're so proprided, if you're running a business in your
own you have no employee, I get it. There's time
for you to to you know, you have some time
and at that point you might not be HR. But
as soon as you start to hire employees, you know,
(10:37):
you have to understand. You have to have policy and
procedures and processes in place, you know, for to make
sure your operations are un well. So HR needs to
have a seat at that table. HR needs to be
at the forefront of every conversation. When you're starting a
new project and your initiative taking on a new client
and new vendor, HR needs to be there.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Now you're doing security in three different states. That means
there's different we're talking about Georgia, we're talking about Alabama
and North Carolina, different rules for HR, different room for taxes.
Did it start out like that or did you expand
to that?
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Travis So, So it started out in Atlanta, Georgia, and
then we expanded to Birmingham, Alabama with some parts of
Hoover Investsemer, Alabama, and then are our latest four year
into Charlotte, North Carolina. Started at the beginning of this year.
(11:38):
So yeah, I started in the hometown of Atlanta, Georgia,
moved to Alabama, and now we're in North Charlotte, North Carolina.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
And I named three different departments you had armed in on,
armed uniform security officers. Then you have personal protection, and
then you have private investigations. Now you know, I'm a
TV guy traffic your private investigation, I am magnum p
I I hear all these little detectives on TV. Educate
(12:06):
me because I'm a play dumb on this because guess
what did you try to jump out there and try
to guide people down the wrong path? What exactly is
private investigations when it involved your company? The Guardian.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
So, so our private investigations involve more small business in corporations.
We offer a service of coming into your business and
helping out with any type of investigation you may have.
Right for example, it might be an HR investigation. You
might have if you're a retail store, small business retail store,
(12:41):
and you see some money missing and then you have
this employee saying no, I didn't do it. This employee
saying no, I didn't do it. You know we can
come in right, have the have the conversations do the interviews,
do the investigations, you know, do all the background checks,
you know, do this, do that, gather all the information,
look at all the documentary, if there's video, if there's
(13:02):
tight if there's audio. We come in and we do
all that, and then we sit down with the executive
and we present to them, you know, what we found,
what the case is, what the case need be, so
then they can make an educated decision at that point
instead of guesting and blaming people, you know, and assuming right,
you know, we help them put together the facts, the information,
(13:22):
the data, any type of evidence so they can make
an educated decision or make an educated understanding of what's
going on in the situation. Yeah. Great.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Before we go to bake break, is there a number
if one is interested in seeking employment opportunities at the Guardian?
What is that number?
Speaker 2 (13:43):
That number is four zero four seven six six two
six one one. Again, that's four zero four seven sixty
six two six one one. Good.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
When we come back, we're going to hear more of
a travel way Travis T Waye. And like I said,
I joked about the New York. Now he didn't plan
on doing this. Now, you know, he don't plan on
doing this, but he pivoted and now he's doing it,
and he's doing it fantastic. But he's a New York boy.
Now he in the South, loving.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
It, loving it.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
But boy, he missed he missed some He missed some
patties up there. He missed some food up there though.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass, hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
(14:46):
continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
He's a season hr professional, will over twenty five years
of corporate experience. We're not bringing bring that up twenty
five years. This company, The Garden, is a private security
corporation with three separate division and it operates in three
separate states Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina. That means along the way,
there was a pivot. Talk to us about that because
(15:15):
you went from corporate world to entrepreneurship and a lot
of people resist that. A lot of people don't want
to make change, but it happened to you. Tell us
your journey Travis.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
So without without getting two deeps, I think, you know,
for years I've been wanting to and admiring people who
were able to open up a business and be successful
and be their own boss. Right. You know, even through
my career, as I progressed through my career from managers
(15:51):
to director to vice president, first vice president to head
a department, you know, I always had it peep inside.
I wanted to own my own and create generational wealth
for for me and my family. And and you know,
at a certain point, I felt like I wasn't I
wasn't doing that, you know, I was. I was helping
(16:13):
other people make money.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
You know.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
And even though you know, the bank I worked for
when a community bank, carb Federal Savings Bank in New
York was originally a black owned bank and now it's
a black managed, publicly traded bank. There's a lot for
the community. Uh, there's a lot for the inner city
in New York City. You know, I still felt something missing, right,
(16:36):
something that I wanted to do as a kid or
a teenager out of high school, out of college, wanted
to be my own boss, wanted to have my own company.
And then uh, you know, I got a call about,
you know, being able to take over a business and
run a day to day the security business. So like
(16:56):
security business. I haven't done that in a while. I
mean I haven't at all. Excuse me, but I need
you thought about you thought about well, okay, guards in
the front, you know, not high security. You know, to
monitor the banks and the branch where I'm at. You
know HR usually does that and FIEU out the vendors.
And I'm like, okay. But as I as I started
(17:19):
getting into learning the business, which I always advise people
to when they are are taking another job or moving
another industry, learn the business of where you're going. You know,
HR can translate, but I need to learn the business.
So as I started learning the business and what this
company was doing, it was a no brainer. And you know,
I don't want to get to spiritual, but you know,
(17:40):
I prayed on it, and God tell me, this is
something you need to do. You need to move to
Atlanta and take over this business, grow it to where
it needs to do, provide your corporate executive HR experience
combined with the roots it has already in Atlanta in
(18:02):
the Alabama area, and to just grow it, grow it
and do what you need to do now. I think
now that's what got me there.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Now And it seems like you came with some ideas.
Now for people, your ideas, that don't mean they're always
happy about.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
The ideas about So how did.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
You make those ideas accommodated to the unhappy people?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yeah? So what I always do is when you when
you bring in a new idea, right, it's all about communication. Right,
So when you present the idea, you present a lot
of things that comes with you present what it takes
to do it. You have to present, you know, let
them know you're willing to roll up your sleeves and
be a participant, not just someone sitting in the office
(18:47):
calling the shots. You have to let them know the outcome.
What do you want out of these ideas? What do
we want from changing this or doing this? What do
we see? What's the future goal? And then then you
get your behind in it, in their thoughts and hey,
you know, get their their their opinions on maybe we
can tweak this or tweak that. You know, I think
(19:07):
just coming in and preaching, hey, we're going to change this,
we're gonna do this, we're gonna do that, we can
do this like a military general with something that would
never work. You know, once you explain everything, you lay
it out to them, explain everything. You explain how we're
going to do it, the outcomes. You know, what we're
looking for in the future, what what's going to do
for us in the future. You provide some some very
(19:30):
concrete details and some outcomes that you're looking for and uh,
and also ensure them that you're willing to roll your
sleeves up as well, right and get down and dirty
with it. You know, I think you know they they
people tend to initially have a little pushback once they
(19:50):
see you and you're passionate about coming in and doing
what you say, then do always say do what you're
going to say, what you're going to do, and do
what you're going to and do what you're saying, right,
you know, you.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Know that's really great because you know of these lessons
I've learned. You know, you can be annow it all,
or you can be the smartest person in the room
and people will allow you to be that and allow
you to make the mistake and just to become a
person who just will take their check, cash their check
and show up the next day. That's the environment that
(20:25):
you are avoiding. And a lot of people come in going,
I don't care what anybody say, I'm gonna do it
my way.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yeah, I hear you.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
You are the boss. You do run the company, but
sometimes you have to kind of like, even though you
know the answer and I know you've done this self, Travis,
you kind of throw it out there and hopefully they
react to the direction you want to go, or you
guide them in that direction through conversation, and then the
(20:52):
pros and the cons.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Correct and you keep them updated. Yeah, you keep them involved, right,
You don't just make decisions, right, You keep them involved
in the decisions. You know, you give them all the
information and you give them buy them like they're part
of it. Right. So then when they and then you
keep them updated on the outcome. Right, if they see
that you got this this big contract, let them see
(21:15):
how you got it right, you know, let them see
that they're hard work, you know, played a major part
and you're getting this right because they see people see
the history, People see the hard work that you guys
are doing. People see, you know, the professionalism that you're
putting out there as your guard. People see you know,
how how presentable you are. You know, in your uniform,
(21:36):
people see that, you know, you're accountable or what you're
doing there out there. You know, that's a big part
of us getting this next contract, getting this next you
know opportunity. You know, once once they see that, they're
a big part of that. And when people feel a
part of something, you know they'll do more. You know,
when people don't feel like, oh that's not mine, I
don't care, they trash it or throws at the side.
(21:58):
And when you feel that you're part of it, when
you feel that ownership, that that that that entrepreneurial spirit,
that that should be in them all being a small
business and they feel that they're part of and a
part of the growth and part of you know, the
maturity of the business and where we're going in the future.
They're willing to do anything for you in the company.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Yeah, you know, it's really important. And thank you again
for coming on the show, Travis, because you know your
company Guarden three three three States. Now always bring that
out because of the fact that you know your competition
out there is non African American maybe bigger. How do
you compete and how do you win these contracts?
Speaker 2 (22:43):
So right now I'm not We're not even looking at
it as a competition. Okay, Smart they have these larger
they have these larger companieses they call primes, right, these
are the larger individual companies, like like an allied Universal Right,
which is global right. We can't compete with ally, you know,
So what we do, there's enough opportunity there. Maybe we
(23:06):
do a subcontract and we partner with all or we
partner with another minority security company, you know, to to
get a larger federal contract or a larger non federal
or state or government contract or public or private contract,
and we work together. You know, during some networking things,
I've met, you know, a few security industry professionals and
(23:31):
either minority and non minority, and always offered the opportunity
to work with them. I met a gentleman and cybersecurity.
We got together and partnered in a few things. So,
you know, it's it's not about competition right now, you know,
because we can't afford to compete with anybody, we can
afford to partner with you. We can afford to get
(23:52):
together and especially with our minority partners and brothers and
sisters out there in the industry. We would love to
get together and partner with them, and then at a
certain point and maybe we get together and we get
bigg enough to you know, compete with an ally compete
with you know, Secure Todds and some of these larger,
larger security firms that are out.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
There, awesome. The Guardian is a private security corporation. He's hiring.
This company's hiring.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
He uses his twenty five years of HR experience. Their
mission is to maintain a strict and unwavering code of
ethics with their employees, clients, and community to provide the
most qualified, dedicated professional officers that represent both the client
and the Guardian. What's that number to call? I's one
wants to consider employment opportunities at your company, Travis.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
That number is for zero four seven sixty six to
six one one. That's for zero four seven six six
to six one one.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Travis. Thanks for coming on my show. And I really
appreciate you taking.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
The time man, you know, because thank you.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
You know, you laid it up, man, because I think that,
you know, I always like to admit my flaws because
HR I really disrespected it. I did not consider it.
I just people come through that door, they say the
right things. And especially when it came to family. I
just hired family because they were family, which is another conversation.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
You know.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
But again, thank you for coming on money Making Conversations
Master Class.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Translation.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
We talked soon.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Bye bye, don't go nowhere. We'd be right back with
more money Making Conversation Masterclass. This is Rushan McDonald. I'm
the host of this show. This has been another edition
of Money Making Conversation Masterclass hosted by me Rushaan McDonald.
Thank you to our guests on the show today and
thank you our listening to audience.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Now.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
If you want to listen to any episode I want
to be a guest on the show, visit Moneymakingconversations dot com.
Our social media handle is money Making Conversation. Join us
next week and remember to always leave with your gifts.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Keep winning.
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