Navigating Leadership with Rachael Gillette: Sailing Secrets, Strategic Insights, and Delightful Drinks

Ever wondered how sailing can teach you to be a better leader? Join us as we chat with Rachael Gillette, president of VMG Solutions, who takes us on a journey from the high seas to high-level business strategy. With over two decades of leadership experience, Rachael reveals how principles like "Velocity Made Good" from her sailing adventures shape effective business practices. Her thrilling tales of racing to a small island off the coast of Mexico offer rich lessons in teamwork and navigating complexity—a must-listen for any aspiring entrepreneur or seasoned leader.

From the courtrooms of Liverpool to coaching boardrooms in the U.S., our episode also dives into the fascinating career transition of a former UK barrister turned business coach. Discover how courtroom skills like strategic thinking and persuasion seamlessly transfer to business leadership and personal growth. Listen in as we explore the role of data, KPIs, and milestones in steering toward long-term goals, much like sailing maneuvers such as tacking and jibing. Rachael's own transformative journey—meeting her future husband during a Caribbean regatta and moving continents—highlights the importance of flexibility and seizing unexpected opportunities.

We cap off the episode with something for the beer enthusiasts—a discussion on the unique flavors of Pensacola's local brews, including the El Medico Mexican Lager and the tropical Pensacola POG. Enjoy rapid-fire questions with business leaders that reveal their personal hobbies, dreams, and preferences. Whether you're interested in the nuances of self-awareness, the latest in sailing, or navigating generational differences in the workplace, this episode promises a blend of valuable insights and entertaining stories. Tune in for an enriching experience that will leave you inspired and better equipped to lead both at sea and in the boardroom.

Beers:
El Medico from Doc's Hop Shop
Pensacola POG from Perfect Plain
Samuel Adams Winter Lager

Sponsor of this episode:  Digital Boardwalk
Digital Boardwalk is one of the top 10 Managed IT Service Providers in the United States.  If you are seeking to outsource your IT Management, or if your IT Team could use some help with projects or asset management, give Digital Boardwalk a call today!  They offer a FREE IT Maturity Assessment on their website.  If you want to see how your business's IT scores against industry standards, go to GoModernOffice.com now.

Thanks for listening!
Visit us online at www.thenerdsontap.com
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel
Follow us on Instagram
Like us on Facebook

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:16):
And I'm very excited about our guest today.
In this inspiring episode ofnerds on tap, we're joined by
Rachel Gillette, a leader whobelieves in intentionally making
a difference and is on amission to improve lives.
As the president of VMGSolutions, rachel brings over 20
years of leadership experience,having trained hundreds of

(00:37):
organizations and thousands ofindividuals on leadership and
employee skills.
Her expertise lies in solvingbusiness problems to help
companies grow and thrive.
Rachel is also deeply involvedin her community, serving on the
University of West FloridaCollege of Business Advisory
Board, as a UWF executive mentorand as vice chair of Visit

(00:57):
Pensacola.
She has been recognized withthe 2021 Pinnacle Award for
Outstanding Women in Businessand contributes to numerous
nonprofits, including Impact 100and the Satori Foundation.
An avid sailor with multiplerace wins under her belt,
including the race for the rosesand the Pensacola to Mexico
race, rachel applies theprinciples of sailing, such as

(01:21):
velocity made good, to herapproach in business.
In this episode, we'll explorehow she navigates the
complexities of leadership,personal development and future
growth, offering valuableinsights for entrepreneurs and
leaders alike.
So, ladies and gentlemen, grabyour favorite brew and join us

(01:43):
for a conversation with Rachelthat I'm sure will inspire you
to chart your own course towardssuccess.
In segment one, we'll covernavigating leadership and
entrepreneurship, then we'lldiscuss the power of coaching
and personal development.
We'll talk about charting acourse for the future and we'll
wrap it up with our excitingrapid-fire questions.
So good to see you, rachel.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
It's good to be here, Tim.
Thanks for inviting me.
It's been a while it has been.
See you, Rachel.
It's good to be here, Tim.
Thanks for inviting me.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
It's been a while.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
It has been a while, yeah, so this is going to be fun
.
I'm excited to be here with you.
I don't know what you're goingto ask me, so that's.
That's the best kind ofquestion, right that's it and,
knowing you we've known eachother for a long time it's going
to be very interesting.
You use that in your intro, andthen, of course, we're going to
be drinking some beer, sothat's exciting, and I love all

(02:29):
the references to sailing too,so I'm excited to get into that
too.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Good.
So if you've listened to ourshow before, what do we do first
?

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Well, we drink some beer.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
All right Edge.
What do we got?
All right Edge, what do we got?
Ladies and gentlemen, welcometo Nerds on Tap.
I'm your host, tim Shue, and Icouldn't be more excited to
embark on this nerdy adventurewith all of you.

(03:00):
So grab your favorite brew,because things are about to get
exciting.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
Three, two, one go Alright.
So our first beer that we haveis the El Medico Mexican Lager
by Doc's Hop Shop in Pensacola,florida.
This brew is described as notyour typical Mexican lager.
Instead, you'll find a morecomplex and interesting flavor

(03:26):
profile, highlighting viennamalts and corn crisp with a
pleasant malty sweetness oh, Ilike that, I like that that's a
good one it's a good one, isn'tit yeah?

Speaker 1 (03:38):
so how would you explain the uh flavor explosion
in this?

Speaker 2 (03:42):
yeah, yeah, let me take another sip.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
I don't know if I would call it corny.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
No, it doesn't taste corny, it's actually.
There's no nuts in this.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
No nuts.
Well, I mean, it says Well, thenuts are here drinking it.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
It's being consumed by nuts.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah, it's very smooth, but it's got a lot of
body, a lot of body to it,doesn't it?

Speaker 1 (04:11):
it's like, it's not like a full-bodied yes, yes,
yeah, it's pretty light too it'svery smooth and easy see it
doesn't.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
It doesn't taste like a light beer, it's.
It's got a lot of flavor, a lotof body, it's very smooth.
It's a nice beer and I Imentioned the mexico because of
the race to mexico that youmentioned in your intro.
That we do on my boat, which iscalled atlantic union two.

(04:39):
We had atlantic union one, butwe're on two now bigger boat and
, um, yeah, every other year wedo this race.
Actually, there's some reallygood stories about this year's
race, if you want to talk aboutthat.
But yeah, we get down there andwe certainly drink some Mexican
beer, as well as rum and maybea bit of tequila.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
Where do you go?
Where down in Mexico?
Where are you?

Speaker 2 (05:07):
be a bit of tequila.
Where do you go?
Where down in mexico.
Where are you?
So the race is called um theregatta, all song, and we race
to this tiny little island thatis off the coast of mexico,
close to cozumel.
That area you can get a ferryacross and the island is about,
uh, two miles long, one milewide, and so it's like trying to
find this little tiny dot inthe middle of the ocean, and the

(05:30):
finish line that we're tryingto navigate to is maybe 50, 75
feet long, and you always notalways, I'm going to say 90% of
the time you get there in thedark, and there's all these
lights of the mainland andyou're trying to find a little
flashing light that is thefinish line.

(05:52):
It's so confusing sometimes wealmost ran into the rocks one
time.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
How many are in the crew?
How many?

Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah, so on our boat we take eight and we split our
team into four each to do fourhour watches.
Four on, four off, so it's 24hours a day.
We race constantly.
We always have four people onwatch and then you can go off
and rest and try and sleep, buthonestly you don't get much

(06:20):
sleep because it's just sointense and it's hard to sleep.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
Yeah, and the unexpected.
I mean, I'm sure there areplenty of stories.
We've only got, you know, anhour here, but I'm sure there's
plenty of stories about kind oflike in business.
Oh gosh it just translates allthe time to him the unknown
Right, because you're going intothe unknown.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
Weather, weather events.
Before we get into segment one,let's talk about that, because
it translates perfectly intothis first segment.
Yeah, let's talk about theunknown because, as a business
leader, we're leading into theunknown, sometimes All the time.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
All the time, as much as we try and plan and prepare,
you just don't know.
And that's so.
It's very, very similar.
Planning, doing racing, is verysimilar to business.
You get the right crew.
You want the right people onthe team, people who have the
same values as you do, so thatyou can have this culture on

(07:21):
your boat where everybody ispulling in the same direction.
You as the leader, as the owner, have to cast the vision of
where you want to go and whatyou want to achieve.
So you do that at the outset ofevery race, which is sometimes
it's winning.
But sometimes you realizeyou're not going to do that
because the boat you know maybethere's some boats just have

(07:43):
more experience and are betterthan you.
So you have to cast the rightvision.
Then you've got the team andyou have to make sure that
they're prepared for whatever,or as much as what's going to
come.
You select, we have you selectthe different roles, because
everybody's in a different roleon the boat, like in business,
you have to have the rightpeople in the right seat.

(08:04):
Make make sure they're trainedproperly, have the right
equipment.
Again, we always ask do youhave the tools and equipment
that you need to do your jobeffectively.
Same on the boat.
And then we chart the course.
And that is like in business,when you say, okay, what do we
want to achieve over the nextfive years?
That's like what do we want toachieve in this race?

(08:25):
And then we set waypoints.
So what do we want to achievein the first 24 hours for us on
a race, on that type of race?
Well, we want to go at least100 miles.
The goal is more 125, 150 miles.
So we set waypoints.
So it's the same kind of thing.
We study the weather, and thisis where the technology piece of

(08:49):
it comes in.
Tim, again In business, we relyon different systems to help us
.
We do the same in sailing.
So we're looking at the weather.
We've got all kinds of weatherprograms and software to be able
to process it.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
So you can somewhat predict the unknown.
Yes, we're trying to.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
But, again, the weather, like the external
environment in business, isunpredictable.
So you think you've got theweather prediction for the next
five days and you get out thereand it's completely different
than was predicted.
So you have to be ready topivot like we do.

(09:29):
So winning one of those races,that's quite a feat, right, it
is for sure, yeah, there's a lotof good boats and a lot of good
sailors out there and itdepends, Some conditions favor a
certain type of boat overanother type of boat.
Ah, interesting.
So again, it just depends onwhat the conditions are and

(09:50):
trying to make the best of them.
This race we didn't get veryfar before we broke a halyard
and we're having to sendsomebody up the mast to change
the halyard for the sail.

Speaker 1 (10:03):
We were then only maybe the second day in Tell our
audience for the halyardthere's we were then only maybe
the second day, tell ouraudience there's gonna be a lot
of I was about to ask.

Speaker 3 (10:10):
I don't know what that is it's like technology,
right.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
There's all these different terms in technology
and you have to learn them.
And then different terms ofbusiness in my company, which we
can get into vmg, and what itmeans.
I work with all different kindsof businesses.
I'm working with a constructioncompany and they keep using all
these different acronyms thatI'm trying to learn them and

(10:33):
understand their industry.
And then I work with thehealthcare industry and same
thing.
And then I work, you know, withtech, right, and so you have to
learn these terms.
So a halyard there's lots ofropes on the boat and they all
have different names.
A halyard is something that youattach to a sail to raise it,

(10:54):
so the halyards raise sails upand down.
So we had our sail up with thehalyard, halyard's at the top of
the mast and it breaks Sail,falls down.
Halyard goes Halyard's at thetop of the mast and it breaks
Sail, falls down.
Halyard goes up the mast.
You have to send somebody up ina bosun's chair, which is like
a little thing that you put onand you attach.
How?

Speaker 1 (11:13):
high is that?

Speaker 2 (11:14):
On our boat.
Our mast is 68 feet, I believe.
Let me get that right.
And then we have stuff on top,so it's up there.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
Several stories, yeah .

Speaker 2 (11:26):
Especially have stuff on top, so it's up there
Especially.
You know the boats moving andyou're getting blown about and
stuff.
So safety is huge.
It's an important thing.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
Well, what a great segue into talking about you and
your new venture, VMG.
So let's go back a little bit.
Let's step back in time alittle bit.
Share the moment when yourealized that your passion for
law was evolving into thepassion for helping others

(11:50):
succeed in their entrepreneurialjourneys.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
Right, so I started.
People may, listening mayrealize that I have a bit of a
not local Pensacola accent.
It's Northern Alabama.

Speaker 3 (12:03):
What no?

Speaker 2 (12:07):
No, it's from across the pond.
It's from England, fromLiverpool, the home of the
Beatles and, I will say, thebest football team in the
country.
So it's from Liverpool.
But there's a story again andit relates to sailing as to how
I got here.
But I was a barrister at law inthe UK, the ones who wear the

(12:28):
white wig and the gown and wearin front of juries.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
Do you have a picture that we can use?

Speaker 2 (12:35):
Wow, I would have to dig back because that was.

Speaker 1 (12:38):
I would love to see that.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
Yeah, I do, and I actually still have my wig.
I should have brought it withme.
It would have been fun to showyou.
It's made of horse hair andmade exactly for my head.
It's custom made by thiscompany called Ede and
Ravenscroft, which is a very,very old and very posh.

Speaker 3 (12:59):
It sounds very Hogwarts, it is it is Exactly.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
But yeah, so I was an entrepreneur as a barrister at
law.
You are an entrepreneur, you'rea business owner, and so you
have to learn.
I mean, I was a specialist inlaw, I'd gone to university for
that and I had learnedeverything I needed to know.
But then all of a sudden I'malso starting a business, so I

(13:25):
need to know about marketing andI need to know about accounting
and I need to know aboutmanaging other people.
Fortunately, the system that wehave we work as a collective,
so a group of barristers comingtogether, sharing barristers
chambers, which are offices,sharing administration and that
kind of stuff.

(13:46):
So we did have a professionalhelping us to some extent, but
it's still you're your own bossand so you have to manage that
whole situation.
So I learned a lot from doingthat for 10 years and I loved it
.
When I came to the States, Ikind of switched tack completely
and became employed, sodifferent but still passionate

(14:11):
about personal and professionaldevelopment and really knowing
and understanding how businesseswork and why do some businesses
thrive and others don't?
What's the secret sauce thriveand others don't.
What's the secret sauce?
And so that was something thatI was always passionate about
learning, about reading about,listening to podcasts and just

(14:34):
trying to get very involved init.
So the next 20 years of mycareer was doing that and then
helping other businesses withemployee training, employee
engagement surveys, doingconferences, coaching, business
coaching and leadership training.
And then all of that I decidedto translate into starting my

(14:59):
own business, taking the loop offaith.
Taking the loop of faithbecause I really wanted to be
able to spend more time withindividual businesses, with
clients, because it's hard beinga business owner and trying to
create positive change within abusiness is difficult, it takes
time, and so, as a businesscoach and consultant, I want to

(15:21):
really be able to get to knowthe company that I'm working
with, get to know the people,and then I can really make a
difference, I can help them andI can help with the people
element of it and how to improveculture.
And then also look at systemsof processes and see how we can
create efficiencies.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
So did being a barrister.
Did that assist you withdecision-making in business?
I mean, that's what it soundslike.
That was the precursor to whoyou are today.

Speaker 2 (15:56):
Absolutely very much so as a barrister.
There's a lot of strategicthinking, strategic planning
around the case itself, and howare you going?
to win which is what you wantedto do.
You wanted to win the case.
So there was a lot of research,always a lot of planning and
preparation for the trial.

(16:16):
The same thing Understandingthe law, which is understanding
the technical side of thebusiness, for instance, then
understanding the players whichare the witnesses on both sides.
And then you have to understandyour competition as well, which
is the other barrister, theother legal team.
So again, yeah, all of thatreally helped me develop those

(16:41):
business skills actually thelegal side of it and being in
the courtroom as well as thebusiness skills that I was
developing as an entrepreneur.
So I've parlayed all of thatinto learning and growing and
succeeding in my own personaland professional life, then my
business life now and nowhelping others.

(17:03):
And then, parallel to that, Timis the sailing aspect of it,
because I've always beenpassionate about that as a hobby
and it's very like a businessthe boat you have to continually
be updating and keeping it onthe top of its performance,

(17:25):
which takes a big investment.
And then there's a lot ofthought and strategic planning
into what races you're going tobe doing, what team you need for
that, how much money it's goingto take to invest to achieve
the outcome that you want to,and every time I go out on the
race course or on the boat, I'mlearning about teamwork and

(17:48):
communication and leadership andstrategy.
I always say it's like playingchess, but the chessboard's
moving underneath you becausethe water is moving, there's
current, there's waves, there'swind, and so when I'm out there
on the boat, I'm applying what Iknow, my leadership skills, my

(18:09):
communication skills, thestrategy, and so it's just
constantly backwards andforwards, learning, applying,
applying learning, and it justit's incredible.
And that's where VMG Solutionscomes in, because VMG is a
sailing term.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
Yeah, and so your passion for sailing has, you
know, come over into yourpassion for helping others in
business.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (18:37):
Velocity made good yeah.
So let's talk about that.
It's a fascinating concept fromsailing yeah, right, that it's
a fascinating concept fromsailing right.
And so how did this principlebecome a cornerstone for your
approach to business leadershipand coaching?

Speaker 2 (18:50):
Absolutely.
When I knew I'd had this ideain the back of my head that I
was going to start my ownbusiness and I knew that if I
did, I wanted to call it VMGconsulting or VMG coaching.
It ended up as VMG solutionsbecause that really fit, that
I'm doing consulting andcoaching and facilitating.

(19:12):
But VMG as you've done yourresearch is velocity made good,
which what it means is thefastest course to success.
So we take our hardware, whichis our GPS, and in it is
programmed the data from theboat and then we add to it the

(19:33):
speed that we're traveling at,because it's doing that through
the water, it's telling us thatand then we add the destination,
the waypoints in where we wantto go to.
So we specifically add into theGPS the route that we're going
on, and what it does it's magicis to calculate for us the

(19:58):
fastest course.
So for those who are non-sailors, you can't sail directly in the
direction you want to go.
Fastest course from here tothere, we think is a straight
line.
But in sailing you can't sailin a straight line from where
you are to the course that youwant to go to.
You have to tack backwards andforwards and so you're on one

(20:23):
tack, which is you think you'vecalculated as the fastest course
to the the mark, and you'reconstantly looking at the data
and the calculations that themachine is doing and at one
point it will tell you that vmgstarts to drop the number, the
speed that you're doing towardsthe objective, and once it drops

(20:44):
low enough, that's the decision.
Like you never want to let yourVMG be zero, because then
you're making no gains on whereyou want to get to.
If it's negative, then it mightseem like you're going in the
right direction, but you'reabsolutely not.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
So you're still, you're applying.
I mean, in the world ofbusiness, we'd be talking about
data and KPIs and and that's theabsolute translation.
It's the exact thing I meanyou're taking data and you're
setting milestones, and, and,and you're plotting your course
based on that.
So let's talk more aboutsailing.
I, I, you know this, this.
It's so amazing, see.

(21:22):
I'm a, I'm a powerboat guy.
I like to get from point A topoint B as quick as I can in one
straight line.
I don't like tacking.

Speaker 2 (21:30):
No, and that's what happens.
We can be out there on the racecourse on Pensacola Bay and
these motorboats come rightthrough the course that's me.
You create wake.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
Yeah, I know, I got yelled at one time.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
It slows us down.
Yeah, you create wake.
Yeah, I know I got yelled atone time.
Slaves us down yeah, so if yousee the sailboats, please go
behind.

Speaker 1 (21:48):
When I was a young novice, I got yelled at and
someone was like oh, you can'tdo that, you can't do that.
I never have since Talk about aspecific instance where you
applied the concept of tackingor jibbing.

Speaker 2 (22:04):
Jibbing.

Speaker 1 (22:11):
Jibbingibbing, jibbing oh, I got it wrong.
Jibbing now anyway um aspecific instance where you
applied either of those in yourprofessional journey adjusting
your course to achieve along-term goal oh my goodness so
this is a good loaded question,so let's take the professional
journey yeah, there there's somany.
Where have you had to tack orjibe?
Your way through, through aninstance of entrepreneurship or

(22:36):
business leadership that helpedyou achieve the goal you were
looking for.
Is that a better way to put it?

Speaker 2 (22:43):
Absolutely Well, let's talk about life itself,
because it kind of lends itselfto the question of how I got
here to Pensacola in the firstplace.
And so there I was, on my courseto success in the UK, which was
as a barrister, and working myway up the chain in terms of

(23:05):
getting more and more difficultcases, bigger cases, so that I
could get the reputation that Ineeded to then apply to become a
judge.
That was my charted course tosuccess.
So if I was still in Englandand interestingly I did some
research recently and a lot ofmy contemporaries have followed

(23:28):
the same path that I had planned, which was to become a judge
I'm a judge and then I amsailing in the Caribbean in a
regatta and we went into ananchorage in the British Virgin

(23:49):
Islands on our first practiceday.
We moored up next to a boat andthere was this guy with this
kind of sexy Elvis Presley voiceand I was like oh, that sounds
cute and turned and looked andthis guy was kind of not my type
and let's hope he doesn'tlisten to this.
But no, we've been married for22 years next month.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
Oh, my goodness.

Speaker 2 (24:08):
Obviously he is my type too, the love of my life.
But yeah, there he was andhe'll admit it.
He had some you know, threedays growth of beard and this,
the worst Hawaiian shirt on inthe world which apparently he
was wearing for a bet.
And he had these shorts withholes in which were apparently

(24:30):
his lucky winning shorts when hewas sailing oh wow.
But oh my goodness, not what agirl when a girl looks over and
kind of wonders about the guy,what you want to see.
But anyhow, long story short,we ended up racing against each
other in this regatta.
Each day we got to know eachother and we really, you know,

(24:53):
we found each other interesting.
We became friends andcompetitors on the race course
and one day their boat would winand one day our boat would win.
We ended up with the regatta.
Our two teams this was teamracing were tied on points for
the overall regatta, which was ahuge thing.
These were teams from all overthe world who had come to race

(25:15):
in this, and my team won on thethird tiebreak.
So my team won the regatta, andI always say that he won me,
which was the better prize.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
So then Is he going to listen to this.

Speaker 2 (25:33):
I might let.
Well, he's heard this story amillion times.

Speaker 1 (25:35):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
I tell it on stage when I'm doing my keynote
speeches or whatever.
But yeah, and that was so.
Then, obviously, my plan forwhat I was going to do in
business I had to change becausewe fell in love and I decided
that I wanted to move to theStates to be here, and so then I

(25:58):
had to wrap up my business.
And so I wrapped up my business.
I sold my house, I sold my car,I said goodbye to family and
friends who all thought I wascompletely nuts and came to the
States.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
Look at you now.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
Look at me now.
I know I know.
So it was a good move.
You know it was a big risk, butmy strategy was that I was
going to do everything that ittook to be successful over here,
and that meant that I was goingto get as involved in the
community as possible, that Iwas going to build a network,

(26:34):
that I was going to find peoplewho I could help, because if you
can come into a situation andnetwork, build relationships and
be helpful, that's when you canfind not only for success the
people you're helping but foryou.
It's like you're you know, inbusiness it's kind of how you

(26:54):
build your customer base right.
You want to be as helpful tothem as possible and then that
gets you the client, or it getsyou repeat business or it gets
you referral.
So that was my strategy when Icame over here to just kind of
embed myself as much as possibleinto the community, be helpful,
do volunteer work, yeah, andjust get started, let helpful do

(27:15):
volunteer work.
Yeah, and just get started, letpeople know who you are.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:20):
You know, transparency is what I've always
found to be the key.
Yes it is, you know, is justshow people who you are I love
that.
Yeah, you know I have to hide afew things about me, but no.
I'm kidding, I'm an open book.
Let's talk about those.
But I'm kidding, I'm an openbook.

(27:40):
We don't want the cops knockingright, but I I think being an
open book is the best way to be,because I think it builds trust
and loyalty and and, honestly,uh, it's worked for me, it works
for you.
Um, I love that you.
You've come down to the southand now you can combine your
british accent with a little bitof a Southern twang, so that's
going to be interesting as thatgets more and more.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
And what's fun, tim, is that I forget the British
words for things sometimes, andthat really annoys me.
And I can only remember theAmerican word, and then
sometimes I'll use the Britishword and people won't know what
I'm talking about or they won'tunderstand my British accent.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
How long have you been here?
22 years 22 years okay.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
Actually, it's 22 years tomorrow, Tim.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
I don't hear any Southern, I really don't, so
you've worked really hard not to.
Yeah, I got you.
Hey, it works.

Speaker 2 (28:34):
Well, thank you.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
So we're going to go ahead and dive into our next
beer, so you're going to have tofinish that first one.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
I'm going to have to catch up.
It's like being back at uni.
It's like down that beer.

Speaker 1 (28:46):
It's okay.
I've had requests when theladies come on the show for vino
and other things like that, andwe try to know.
I had you have to tune in towomen and we did a women in
leadership uh segment.
We have a girl, uh, josie keck.
She's from brazil, moved to thestates with a thousand dollars

(29:07):
in a suitcase wow, I bet that'sa great story and I need to
listen to that one.
I just know you would love thatshow, so you should tune into
it Fantastic Edge.
What do we have?

Speaker 3 (29:19):
Alright, guys.
Our next one is the PensacolaPOG.
It is kind of an oddball in ourselection, but it's from
Perfect Plain, the brewery inPensacola.
They describe it as a tropicalsour conditioned with passion
fruit, pink guava and orangepuree.

(29:39):
I was trying to go forsomething tropical Caribbean
style for Rachel.
Wow.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
That has a sour tangy .

Speaker 2 (29:50):
It doesn't taste like beer.
That's dangerous, because youcould just drink that kind of
orange, orangeade, orange juice.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
It's almost like if you ever make a vodka drink by
the pool.

Speaker 2 (30:04):
Yeah, I'd put a couple of ice cubes in there and
drink it like a vodka drink.

Speaker 1 (30:12):
It's not my type of beer, but it's good.
Yeah, it's very tasty.
That, um, when I my initialreaction, which you probably saw
on my face, I wasn't expectingthe unexpected that sour bite
yeah, and I love that we've gota local beer, because that's a
great story too absolutely likeprane brewing um, which used to

(30:32):
belong to a local entrepreneurwho is now the mayor, the mayor.
Maybe you can help me get DC onthis show.
Yes, okay.
I haven't reached out to himbecause I'm scared, honestly, oh
my goodness, he'd be great.
Maybe you could help me get himon the show, because I love-.

Speaker 2 (30:50):
He'd be on it.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
I love all the stuff he's been doing since he stepped
into that role.
He is an entrepreneurshipjourney.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
I mean, what a phenomenal entrepreneur, so he
should be on the show.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
I just like how he creates realistic and we're not
here to talk about this, but hecreates realistic milestones for
the community, instead of justsaying, hey, we're going to do
all these things.
He's like we're going to reducethis by 20%.
We're going to do this, and soon and so forth.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
And he did a strategic plan.
I was on the mayor's transitionteam.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
Oh yeah, that's right .

Speaker 2 (31:20):
Yeah, so to look at the culture at the city and how
engaged the employees were.
So I studied the city.
I met with different employees,different leaders within the
different departments, andhelped write the report on the
culture of the city and maderecommendations, which the
phenomenal thing he was veryintentional about the strategic

(31:43):
report, wanting just in eacharea three or four actionable
items.
He didn't want this huge listand there could have been a huge
list of things in each area.

Speaker 1 (31:55):
Had to be realistic.

Speaker 2 (31:56):
Yeah, so that he could actually put them into
action.
And that's what he's been doing.
So he took that strategic planfrom the Mayor's Transition Team
and then he's been workingthrough that and adding to it
and he's currently doing asurvey for Pensacola residents
to chart the course for successfor the next five years, so into

(32:19):
2030.
So he is a really goodbusinessman.
He's translating that into howhe runs the city so that he can
just create a better place forus all to live, and he's doing
it by having a strategic plan,by having waypoints by having
KPIs by having measurables andholding people accountable for

(32:42):
those, and that's what it's allabout.
And then building that engagedemployee base, ie an ownership
mentality within people who workfor the city so that they're
going the extra mile to do whatit takes to achieve those
outcomes.
And great communication, that'sthe other thing.

(33:04):
You can never please everybodywhen you're communicating and
telling people what you're doing.
But if you can be and this goesback to your point, Tim as much
communication as possible,transparency when things go
right, but also when things gowrong, to say, hey, this didn't
turn out how we expected.

(33:25):
My fault, I didn't do as good ajob as I needed to, and so the
communication that he is doinghas been really good.
The communication that he isdoing has been really good the
weekly press meetings to giveinformation and answer questions
, surveying constituents to hearfrom us and then sharing

(33:46):
information back.
So communication is one of thebiggest downfalls when you look
at businesses.

Speaker 1 (33:53):
I agree.
You know he's always been agreat communicator, leveraging
social media, and he's a bigInstagram user, and you know you
made a point earlier and thisis a good segue into segment two
, which is going to talk aboutpersonal development.
We just did an internaltraining in here.
Actually, our VP of operations,brian Wilkie um, put together

(34:18):
an entire slideshow for ouramazing team just on how to.
You know, years ago they taughtyou how to multitask.
Multitasking was the thing, butit's not.
It's the reverse of that.
Your brain can only do so much.
So he was talking about how hesets his desktop up and there's
no paper on his desk.

(34:39):
He refuses to have paper on hisdesk.
He does everythingelectronically and because we're
so crowded by the noise thatcomes in constantly the emails
and the team's messages and allthese things that you have to
know how to tune that stuff outand focus on one thing at a time

(34:59):
and achieve it and then move onto the next thing, and I think
that's what you were getting at.
I mean, dc limited hisactionable items to what three,
I think you said something likethat and and being able to
reasonably attack that, and thenprobably take them one by one.

Speaker 2 (35:21):
So what you've just described there, tim, is so
important for listeners to hearif they're in business.
And, interestingly, I did atraining yesterday on
communication for anorganization and we talked
exactly about what you'retalking about, which is
multitasking, which we used toput that on resumes as a good
thing, I'm a great multitaskerand that would be amazing.

(35:44):
But, as you said, the researchnow shows that multitasking is
really.
You cannot effectivelymultitask.
Our brains don't allow it andit takes so much time to refocus
if we get pulled to one thing,to come back and refocus
effectively on the thing thatwe're doing.
So that training that was givento your team was hugely

(36:09):
valuable and that's something Ialways recommend is switch off
all the noise as you describedit the notifications, the
pinging emails, the blah, blahblah and people's question is
always well, what if I misssomething?
You have to set the expectationson urgency of response and

(36:31):
that's really critical.
So if you can say to your teamI do not expect a response to
this communication, whether it'sby email or instant message or
text message, whatever it is,set the expectations.
If it's an email, 24 hours iswhat I expect.
If it's a text message, by endof day.

(36:53):
If it's an, whatever it is,doesn't matter.
A text message by end of day ifit's an, whatever it is,
doesn't matter.
Just set the expectations andthen allow people to turn those
things off and check them onwhatever interval you've said is
okay for a response, so peoplecan do what you mentioned, which
is be able to focus on deepwork and get things done, and

(37:13):
your team you, your team will beincredibly more productive
doing that than trying tomultitask and have all these
things pinging at them and it'sjust not productive at all.

Speaker 1 (37:27):
Well, the feedback that he got I mean incredible
feedback and everybody wasimplementing or attempting to
implement these things,including Kathleen.
Yes, I was very excited whenshe was like I'm so excited to
implement these things includingKathleen.
Yes, I was very excited whenshe was like I'm so excited to
do these things, so let's getinto that beer.
That tang is still sitting onmy tongue.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
It has some dryness in there.
If it was wine, I'd describe itas tannins, it puckered me up,
I don't know.
But obviously you don'thaveness in there.
If it was wine I'd describe itas tannins, but obviously you
don't have that in beer.
I'm not an aficionado, butthere's definitely some tangs
and dryness to it.

Speaker 1 (38:04):
So the power of coaching and personal
development.
What role does self-awarenessplay in personal development?
This is a good one.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
And how do you help your clients cultivate that?
That's a good one.
And how do you help yourclients cultivate that Our
strengths is really important.
That's part of self-awareness.
Also, understanding where ourblind spots are, that's a really
important part of theself-awareness.
To cultivate it, I useassessments.

(38:46):
So doing assessments likeGallup StrengthsFinder, which is
one of the ones I use with myclients when I'm coaching, is a
great tool.
So it's about having thosetools in the toolbox.
Assessments are really goodbecause it gives you data based
on your responses to questions.
So it's hard to argue with.

(39:07):
When you've given the responsesto the questions, you can maybe
say, well, I don't like it.
When you're having aconversation with somebody and
they're giving you feedback, youcan argue with it based on it's
their opinion, but when you'vegot assessments, you've got data
.
That's why I like them.
So that's what I recommend tomy clients is doing assessments

(39:29):
like Strength Finder.
I also use one called Managementby Strengths, which I am
certified to teach in, and thatis phenomenal because it looks
at our inborn, naturaltemperament.
That's what it measures and, asyou know, tim, 85% of the brain
is formed by age three, 95% byage five.

(39:53):
We can continue to learn andgrow and develop our brain, but
the inborn temperament is thereby age five.
So what does that mean?
So we have traits, directness,extroversion, pace and structure
.
We all have them, we're allmade up of them, but some drive
us and drive our communicationstyle, drive our work style,

(40:18):
more than others.
So knowing our temperamentstyle through doing an
assessment like management bystrengths is going to help us
become self-aware.
So there's tons of them outthere.
Many of them are very good, butthat's certainly something that
I coach on is like let's do anassessment, let's do a

(40:40):
CliftonStrength finder, let's domanagement by strengths, and
then we can dig into them.
And I do that in my coachingwith clients.

Speaker 1 (40:47):
But define that, define self-awareness, what
exactly you know?
Tell the audience what exactlydoes that mean you know?
Tell the audience what exactlydoes that mean?

Speaker 2 (40:55):
Self-awareness is about knowing and understanding
how you come across to others,how you make others feel.
So it's that awareness ofstrengths and weaknesses and how
you come across and how youmake others feel.

Speaker 1 (41:11):
So as we hire and build teams, you know not all
teams gel together perfectlybecause of the personality
traits.

Speaker 2 (41:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (41:22):
And eventually you may have the perfect team based
on how all that develops out,right Through training, building
off self-awareness, doing theassessments, knowing where your
weaknesses are.

Speaker 2 (41:36):
I'll add a caveat to that is that we're all human and
so, even though we can dotraining, we can grow ourselves
personally and professionally,we can have a high level of
self-awareness, awareness.

(41:59):
Nevertheless, sometimes we canrevert back to our natural
temperament or we can lose ourtemper, which happens in
situations of stress, pressure,anxiety, fear, all those things,
and that sometimes whenconflicts can occur.
However, if we have anunderstanding of self-awareness
and a high emotionalintelligence, then those can be

(42:21):
mitigated, those circumstanceswhere we have those conflicts,
like any relationship, but theydo happen, and then that's when
we have to have an emotionalbank account.
So you have to going back tothe start of our conversation.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
Oh no, this sits home with me.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
Building trust and having that trust with a person
and them knowing that TimShoup's a really good guy.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
Early on, when I didn't have a high.
I guess you call it emotionalintelligence.

Speaker 2 (42:57):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (42:59):
If I didn't like something.
Maybe I had a temper back inthe day because I didn't know
how to run a business.
To be honest with you, this is25 years ago and through the
years doing assessments andlearning on how to mature as a
business owner and a leader, tim, when's the last time you saw

(43:22):
me get emotional this morning?
He's going to say this morning.

Speaker 3 (43:29):
Well, I mean, everyone loses their temper from
time to time.
I haven't seen you becomeirrationally upset in a really
long time, but I also think Iknow you pretty well at the same
time.
I mean just a couple years ago,I went through a pretty
traumatic experience in my lifeand Tim Shoup was the first

(43:52):
person I called and he took careof me and where was I when you
called me.
You were at your son's baseballgame.
Yeah, and he took my phone calland talked to me for about an
hour on the phone to make sure Iwas okay.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
That's incredible, and so that's the difference,
tim.
You talked about how you mayhave reacted back in the day.

Speaker 1 (44:13):
Or Tim Edge.
We've got two.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
Tims, just Tim edge.
We've got two Tims.
Just call him edge Edge.
Okay, so edge probably wouldhave never have called you back
in the day because you didn'thave the trust.
You didn't have the emotionalbank bank account.
Now, when he was in a situationthat was difficult, emotional,
hard, he felt that he could callyou and that's a testament to
the fact that you had built thatemotional bank account.

(44:37):
You had built that trust withhim that he could do that, and
kudos to you for taking the calland listening and caring.
Employees want to know, andthis is one of the number one
drivers of employee engagementis that employees want to know
we care about them as a personand businesses never used to be

(44:58):
run like that back in the dayand that was a huge learning for
me you talk about.
You asked me the question, tim,like how have I pivoted or
changed One of the things that Ihave done?
Because naturally, I'm a verybusiness-like person when I'm in
the workplace and it's allbusiness.

(45:19):
But I had to understand that itwas important to build the
emotional bank account, thatpeople wanted to know that I
cared about them as a person,and so in order to do that, you
have to talk about personalthings.
So in order to do that, youhave to talk about personal
things and as business owners orleaders, we're like I don't

(45:40):
want to get personal right.
We come to work, we'rebusiness-like.
We leave the personal side athome.
Now, of course, I'm not sayingthat we get into that every day,
or it just depends Like youhave to build a relationship,
but that idea of caring andcaring about the individuals who

(46:02):
work for you and treating themlike humans, putting the human
back into business, is a realdriver of employee engagement,
and that's how much an employeeis willing to go above and
beyond for your organization.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
I think it trumps as far as employee retention.
I think it trumps pay salariesand things like that.
I mean, everybody needs to makemoney to live, but I really do
think that that is one of thekey drivers of employee
retention is knowing youremployees and understanding what

(46:41):
matters to them and getting toknow them as people, because
we're all humans and we shouldcare about one another.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
Absolutely nailed it.
Yeah, and that's what thestudies show.
So you're spot on, tim.

Speaker 1 (46:54):
So how do you tailor your coaching to meet the
specific needs of each client,considering the diversity of
industries and backgrounds thatyou work with?
Because you mentionedconstruction, there were several
others.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:10):
Dive into a few of the industries that you work
with and then lead into thequestions.
So how do you serve them all?

Speaker 2 (47:14):
I know it's interesting and I'm working with
startups.
Know a few of the industriesthat you work with and then lead
into the questions.

Speaker 1 (47:16):
So yeah, so god, serve them all I know it's
interesting and I'm working withstartups.

Speaker 2 (47:20):
I'm working in healthcare, real estate, I'm
this is a fun one I'm helping amagician here in pod, scholar um
, grow his magician school um,both in person and online.
The key is he wants to developthis online business school so
that it'll be a worldwide ummagic school.

(47:43):
So that's really exciting.
So, yeah, construction, soacross the board.
But what I do first is what Icall the discovery meeting to
chart the course to success.
So the first thing I'll do withthe client is a sit down three
hour discovery meeting and Iwill ask a lot of questions to
really get to know the client.

(48:07):
And oftentimes this is a voyageof discovery for the client as
well, because I focus not juston business goals Obviously
that's important and we look atthose, we look at the structure
of the business and we look atwhat they want to achieve in the
business over the next five to10 years.
But then I put that in contextof life itself, because for me

(48:31):
it's really important, and Ithink it should be important for
business owners and leadersthat we're creating a business
that works for them, not themhaving to.
And how do we create a businessthat is successful, so that

(48:57):
they can employ people and helpthose people achieve their goals
.
So we sit down and we do thisthree-hour voyage of discovery
to chart the course for success.
And I've had laughter tears, youname it as we go through this
process.
But what we do is we take itfrom a 30,000 foot view of what

(49:21):
10 years might look like thebest life ever might look like
for them, down to five years,down to one year.
And then we set thoseactionable goals, the waypoints
what can we do in a one-yearperiod to achieve what we need
to to be able to get on thatcourse for success?

(49:42):
And then we break that downinto shorter periods and smaller
waypoints, as I call thembecause it's a sailing term.
They're KPIs or measurables,doesn't matter, but we break
them down into smaller periods,shorter variables, and figure
out how we can realistically dothem.

(50:02):
And then my process withcoaching and consulting is to be
the accountability piece.
That's the thing that reallykeeps people on track is having
an external business coach or anexternal consultant to keep
them on track, to hold themaccountable, and and so that's
what works we're we're seeingsome great success with my

(50:24):
clients.

Speaker 1 (50:25):
So I'm going to go off script here.
You, you, you talked abouttears and laughter, so Answer me
this as business leadersourselves, you're having to tell
business leaders someinformation that they may not
want to hear.
They may not want to hear thatyou're not leading in the best

(50:49):
way possible and they may getoffended.
Have you had that happen?
I don't know if you can talkabout that on here.

Speaker 2 (50:57):
Yeah for sure no, because coaching is about having
the person uncover the truththemselves.
So, rather than telling which,as you described it, what I do
through the coaching process isask deeper and deeper questions.
So a person will say how theyhandle the situation, for

(51:18):
instance, and I'll ask aquestion about what the outcome
was of that, and they'll tell me.
And then I'll dig deeper andI'll ask them how it felt.
And then we'll dig deeper andask well, how did your employee
feel about that?
Or how did the team feel aboutthat?
Or how did the team feel aboutthat?

(51:39):
What was the outcome?
Was it a good outcome?
Was it a bad outcome?
And eventually, through thecoaching process, we get to the
point where the client realizesthat I could have handled that
better, I could have done thatdifferently.
So they come to theself-realization and then we
talk about well, what would thatlook like if you do it

(52:01):
differently?
And then we continue to coachso that they have a new process
that they can put in place nexttime when the situation happens,
if it happens.

Speaker 1 (52:11):
So it gives them better understanding it does,
rather than just kind of say,maybe I am this person?

Speaker 3 (52:17):
Don't do that.

Speaker 2 (52:22):
Do this A lot of self-awareness.
It is Absolutely, and that's areally big part of the coaching
process is to help peopleunderstand that, and that takes
time.
It might not happen in thefirst coaching session.
We have to have multiplecoaching sessions to be able to
get to that point.

Speaker 1 (52:35):
Yeah, that makes sense.
So before we jump into our nextbeer, I got one more question
for you on this topic.
What advice would you give tosomeone who feels stuck in their
personal or professional growth, and how can coaching help them
move forward?
This is a good one.

(52:56):
What do they do?
Just call VMG?

Speaker 2 (53:00):
Call VMG.
Yeah, is that the answer?
It is the answer.
Call me.
And that's a lot of times whathappens is people call me
because maybe they're at acrossroads or they've got a big
decision to make at a crossroads, or they've got a big decision
to make somebody.
I'll say, for instance, aperson who has the opportunity

(53:21):
for the next step, a bigpromotion that they might be
going for, and so I'll coachthem through, literally from
doing role play for interviewquestions and that kind of stuff
, so that they can achieve andI've had two really good
successes with that how can theyachieve the next step.
And so, again, what we do iswe'll sit down, we'll discuss

(53:46):
Reflection is always good whenyou don't know, when you're at a
point where you feel stuck.
Reflection on the past, what'sworked well, what you've learned
from it, and then really a bigthing, tim, is understanding
what is going to make you happy,like what really matters to you

(54:09):
.
So if you're in business andyou're trying to decide, do I
want to sell my business?
Well, let's look at the prosand cons of that, let's look at
your value system and then let'slook at what really matters to
you in making the decision.
Same if you're thinking ofgrowing the business and
acquiring businesses, we'll diginto the why behind you might

(54:34):
want to do that and look at someof the decision making process
and so, again, it's kind of aprocess of uncovering what the
motivation is and looking atwhat the different outcomes
might be for you and what reallymatters.
So it really does help peopleget unstuck, whether they're

(54:58):
it's a personal professionalsituation or it's a business
situation and just having anexternal person to bounce things
off, because coaching iscompletely confidential.
So when I go to a businessclient who maybe has a hundred
employees and I'm going to goand interview 20 of them who are

(55:21):
in leadership and supervisorroles, I make it clear to the
client, the owner, that I'm notgoing to share exactly what
somebody has told me.
I'm going to share an overviewof the information that I've
gathered to give themrecommendations on things to do.
So then when I'm talking withthe person who's in the

(55:43):
supervisor or the managerialrole, again I said this is
confidential, you can tell meanything that you want to.
So it allows people to speakreally freely because, you've
got an outside consultant or anoutside coach.

Speaker 1 (55:57):
Kind of like a business therapist.

Speaker 2 (55:59):
It is and we can brainstorm.
At the end of the day, I'mgoing to bring you my 30 years
of business experience and I'mgoing to kind of help you
navigate, like we talked about,I'm going to provide you with
advice but ultimately I'm goingto help you make a decision that
feels good and feels right toyou, by gathering as much

(56:22):
information as we can, as muchdata, doing the assessments,
whatever it takes to make theright business decision at the
end of the day.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
So, ladies and gentlemen, we're talking about
VMG solutions.
We're going to spend the lastsegment talking about what
Rachel can do for you as abusiness leader, but before that
, she needs to catch up on herbeer drinking, and we're going
to, we're going to hit the nextbeer edge.
Take it away.

Speaker 3 (56:51):
All right.
So our last beer is the SamuelAdams winter lager.
Uh, from obviously the SamuelAdams Winter Lager, from
obviously the Samuel AdamsBossom Brewer Company.
It's brewed with cinnamon andan orange peel, no baking
required.
It's full-bodied flavors and asweet, bright, flinging and
unexpected twist.

Speaker 1 (57:10):
You don't have to drink that.
You don't have to drink that.

Speaker 2 (57:13):
Sorry, ed, I interrupted you.
It sounds yummy, so let's see.
What do you think, tim?

Speaker 1 (57:20):
It's a winter beer.
It is yeah.

Speaker 2 (57:23):
That's a good beer.

Speaker 1 (57:23):
I actually keep that in my cooler in the wintertime.

Speaker 2 (57:28):
It has a good news to it.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
Because we drink cold beer here in the States.

Speaker 2 (57:34):
Hey, I am a cold beer drinker.
This is a lager right edge.

Speaker 3 (57:38):
Yes, okay, absolutely isn't it good, it's got a good
yeah, well, I mean so you toldme that you liked lighter beers
and um you've liked both lagersthat we had today.

Speaker 2 (57:56):
Yeah, so because of our show, I know.

Speaker 1 (58:02):
You have opened up your palate.

Speaker 2 (58:04):
I have.
To new and exciting, New andexciting things.
This sort of reminds me I usedto drink beer when I was at
university in England, actuallyeven kind of Pilsners and things
like that, because they werecheap and you know that's funny.
You could have a good timewithout having to buy too many

(58:26):
of them, but this reminds me ofthat.
It's a nice beer.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
Yeah, it's good, it's good.
So we are going to get into ourlast segment and we are going
to talk about what you can dofor our audience that's
listening out there.
As you look to the future,let's start with this.
As you look to the future, whattrends do you see shaping the
world of leadership andentrepreneurship, and how is VMG

(58:53):
Solutions preparing to addressthat?

Speaker 2 (58:57):
Thank you for asking so well, there's quite a few
trends that businesses need tobe aware of and I hope are and
what is shifting demographics?
So we have five differentgenerations in the workplace.

(59:17):
I've been talking about thisfor many, many years.

Speaker 1 (59:19):
I knew where this was going to go.

Speaker 2 (59:21):
Because I've been talking about it for years and
years and years and trying to beproactive and get businesses to
understand that there aredifferences between the
generations and what motivatesthem, and that's, of course,
because of the experiences thatthe different generations have
been through and how businessoperated differently back in the

(59:44):
day.
So and other things, because,interestingly you know, the
boomer generation went throughthe world war.
Doesn't matter which countryyou're in, you experienced the
second world war and times weretough, and so having a job was
something that you wanted tostay in one job, grow with the

(01:00:08):
company and be there a long time, because there was so much
instability in the world.
That was what you wanted to do.
So the boomer generation ingeneral are more loyal to one
organization.
My husband has been with thecompany that he works for for 38
years.
I know other people in thatgeneration, so that's the you

(01:00:32):
know.
Tenure is generally longer whenyou move to Gen X, you know gen
x you know the best generation.
I know high five, um.
You know we were the 80s andthe 90s, so risk taking is
something that kind of comesnatural to us.

(01:00:52):
We don't mind change as much.
Obviously it it depends on ourtemperament, but that's the
situation that we were in.
We're still loyal.
We still generally want to workfor a company for a longer
period of time, are behind usactually in terms of the number

(01:01:16):
of people born.
That's the other thing.
The boomer generation was big.
Gen X was really 10 millionpeople less.
I think you and I were in thesame workshop that talked about
that.
So we've got a huge gap.
And then you've got Gen Y andGen Z and interestingly that's

(01:01:39):
another situation with theworldwide pandemic that changed
that generation's view on whatwas important and what success
looked like.
And this is a big part.
Hybrid or working from home isone of the one of the things
that's a big part of my coaching, because for a boomer, what

(01:02:00):
success is and for what?
A gen y or gen z or gen z pluswhatever is happening now, it's
very different and that isflexibility and being able to
work from home, and maybe thebenefits are more important than
the pay and time off and theopportunity to maybe do my side

(01:02:24):
hustle as well.
So we have to understand thedifferent motivators of
different generations.
That's really important.
We have to be able to allow forthose generational differences
and you mentioned a veryspecific one, which is working
from home versus working fromthe office, and for some

(01:02:45):
organizations they had toembrace it because of the
pandemic and people work fromhome.
And then it and it was like, oh, this is great, everybody's
being productive.

Speaker 1 (01:02:55):
But then gradually it's like, ooh, but I don't
really like it and it was like,oh, this is great, everybody's
being productive, but thengradually it's like, ooh,
everybody's pulling back.

Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
But I don't really like it.
I want people to be in theoffice because I need to see
them, to know that they're beingproductive.
Well, good for you, becauseyou're going to be one of the
successful businesses.

Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
We're leveraging technology to bridge that gap.
Technology to bridge that gapand I think everybody should,
because why do I have tophysically be somewhere if I can
mentally do the job andcommunicate with everybody?
everybody in that other room andand all of our employees are
constantly on video throughoutthe day on one of their monitors

(01:03:32):
with their team, and then theirother monitors are used for
their work, so they'reconstantly collaborating.
They don't have to physically Idon't need to touch, you know
be able to be that close.
I can communicate with youthrough video just as well.
The technology has changedeverything.

Speaker 2 (01:03:53):
See, I love that, Tim , because you know, because
you've been at the cutting edgeof technology and you've always
been forward thinking and whatyou've been able to do because
you're in the industry is reallyleverage it effectively.
And you're absolutely right.
But we do, as humans, needconnections, so I love that

(01:04:13):
people are on video and beingable to see each other and
interact with each other.

Speaker 1 (01:04:17):
I'm sure occasionally you have people come into the
office and maybe you have teamevents that you do, we do, we do
a hybrid in Pensacola but therest of our folks around the
country are all remote.
But we bridge that gap through,like I said, through video and
other events, in-person events.

Speaker 2 (01:04:37):
Human connection is important, but leveraging
technology to bridge that gap isthe way to go.

Speaker 1 (01:04:50):
So let's stay on that .
I'm not going to cut you off.
You can't be on the showwithout talking about technology
, so we just use this as a segueto get you to talk about.
What role does innovation playyou knew I had to go here In
your approach to coaching andconsulting, and how do you
encourage your clients toinnovate within their

(01:05:13):
organizations?

Speaker 2 (01:05:15):
Outstanding.
I love the question.
It's great.
Well, it's about pushing theboundaries and understanding
that the world is changing atthis phenomenal rate.
And I'm going to go back tosailing, because what's
happening right now, at themoment, is we're 2024 for people
who may be listening in thefuture is we're 2024 for people

(01:05:39):
who may be listening in thefuture is the America's Cup,
which is the biggest sailingcompetition in the world.
There are seven teams competingright now and they're doing it
in these boats that have anincredible amount of technology
in them and when you compare tothe average sailing boat, it's

(01:06:01):
just apples and oranges, nightand day.
And when we originally gotthese, they're foiling boats,
which means that they come upand out of the water, because
the biggest thing that or notthe biggest things one of the
things that we have to take intoaccount when we're sailing is
the drag of the water along theedge of the boat.

(01:06:22):
It slows you down so decreasethe resistance yeah so you're
trying to all the time decreasethat resistance.
What they've done in thistechnology has found a way to
bring the boat up and out of thewater in what we say called
foil.
I asked the question of theteam captain two years ago, when

(01:06:46):
the race was on four years ago,I'm sorry whether this
technology was going totranslate from this like mega
billionaire type situation tothe average boat, and he was
like no, there's no way, it'stoo expensive, technology is too
difficult, blah, blah, blah.
But the reality is in that fouryear period it's translating
down to him and what's reallygoing to be interesting, over

(01:07:08):
the next five years even, is tosee how that comes into the
industry and here in Pensacolaand Escambia County and the
surrounding area, we should bevery excited about that because
it's all tech, it manufacturing,all the different things of

(01:07:34):
utilizing this new technology,and it's going to translate into
our everyday life.
So that's from my sailingperspective.
And then, when I look at it,when it comes to business, ai is
the biggest thing right nowthat is affecting businesses and
can help with efficiencies.

(01:07:56):
Ai I've never heard of that.
No, I'm sure you haven't.
I know again, tim, that you'reat the cutting edge of it, but
artificial intelligence.
But I mean, you know, you willprobably know way more about it
than me.
I use it to run or to help runmy business and some people are

(01:08:18):
scared of it, some people areworried about it, but the
business that can embrace it andlearn how it can do some of the
more mundane tasks that take alot of time, it's going to
create efficiencies on time todo some of the mundane things.
So that's what I'm talking tomy clients about.

(01:08:42):
Where can they findefficiencies?
By using AI, for instance,leveraging it, and I know you're
using it in your business.
Tell us about that, tim.

Speaker 1 (01:08:51):
There's different ecosystems when it comes to AI.
I mean, when you're talkingabout chat, gpt and you're
talking about the public domain,like that, when you're teaching
it, when you're asking it to dotasks for you, it maintains
that history so it can learnfrom the history.
The problem is that's in thepublic domain.
So, if you know, from asecurity perspective, not a

(01:09:14):
great thing when you're talkingabout vital statistics within
your company.
Microsoft has developedMicrosoft Copilot, which sits
within the Microsoft ecosystemand it eradicates the.
It pulls data from all yourdifferent systems within that
ecosystem to be able to deliverthe task, but it eradicates the

(01:09:40):
question as soon as it's done,so it doesn't leave a trail.
So, from a security, I'm alwayslooking at the security
perspective.

Speaker 2 (01:09:47):
Well, I was talking to a doctor client about their
medical practice and they'vebeen using it, but obviously
they can't use it with anysensitive client information.
But there are systems that arebeing developed that will be
HIPAA compliant, and so we weretalking about then well, what

(01:10:10):
can we use those systems forthat are HIPAA compliant?
To be able to help back officestaff.
And so, interestingly, in themedical profession, what we were
talking about is, for instance,reading MRIs, reading x-rays.
That's all going to be done byAI very quickly.

(01:10:30):
You know the future, but thefuture is now Stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (01:10:35):
Well, they implemented EMR electronic
medical records years agothrough all those different
systems.

Speaker 2 (01:10:42):
They do, but then having them talk to each other
is the problem.
And so, again going back tothat situation, with a medical
practice, for instance, whatcould create huge efficiencies
is the doctor can be with theclient, can have AI record what

(01:11:03):
he's saying, can summarizeconcisely the notes, can
automatically send in therequest for the MRI or the x-ray
, or whatever it is, accuratelyand effectively.
It can send in the request formedication for the prescription
accurately and effectively, allsecurely, hipaa compliant.

Speaker 1 (01:11:25):
This isn't in place but you still have to go
physically in to get that done.
The future in my head you walkinto your bathroom and you step
into a pod or whatever it mightbe.
I mean, it's part of yourbathroom and it's connected.
I mean they have telemedicinenow.
They do, so it's connected toyour doctor and your doctor's

(01:11:48):
collecting all their vitals youdon't even have to go in and get
labs anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:11:51):
You step onto your smart scale.

Speaker 1 (01:11:53):
Well, I do that now and it tells me what I don't
want to hear.

Speaker 2 (01:11:57):
I know we have the app, but it gathers all this
data about us that we could sendthat straight, you know.
So there's so many differentways, but the key is, when I'm
working with clients, to kind ofdig in to find where we can
find it.
You know, look at efficiencieswhen are their roadblocks, where

(01:12:19):
are they being slowed down?
Where?
Is productivity slowing down.
Can we give the humanindividual the skills they need
to be able to do better and bemore productive?
And if we can't, is theretechnology that we can?

Speaker 1 (01:12:36):
leverage.
So let's end this segment withone quick question For those out
there, those business leadersout there that are hesitant to
embrace change or take boldsteps towards their future goals
.
Look into any of those camerasout there and tell them what

(01:12:59):
they need to do.

Speaker 2 (01:13:01):
You need to call me.
Thanks for setting me up withthat one.

Speaker 1 (01:13:06):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (01:13:07):
Call Rachel Gillette.
Email me at vmgsolutions atgmailcom because we can have a
conversation and that's what Ido.
Dot com because we can have aconversation and that's what I
do.
First time people to email meat VMG solutions at gmailcom.
We will have a free call, wewill do one of my shortened

(01:13:27):
discovery sessions and I'll seehow I can help you.
Because that's what drives andmotivates me is how can I help
people and especially how can Ihelp business owners and leaders
, because they are the heartbeatof any community, and so if we
can have great businesses andcreate great places to work

(01:13:47):
where people actually enjoyworking, that's a huge driver of
mine.
Business doesn't have to suckthe life out of you, whether
you're the owner of the companyor you work for the company.
It should be a place that weenjoy going to, that we feel the
leader cares about us Empowersyou to want to do more.
Yeah, that we have people thatwe like to work with, that we

(01:14:11):
feel empowered, that we're doingsomething that makes a
difference, and so that's whatVMG Solutions and Rachel
Gillette is all about.

Speaker 1 (01:14:21):
All right, something new that's been on our show.
We're going to finish the showwith seven rapid-fire questions.
Here we go.
Number one take a swig.

Speaker 2 (01:14:30):
Take a swig.
This is to give me more time.
You know?
Just go ahead.

Speaker 1 (01:14:33):
All right.
What is the best piece ofadvice you've ever received?

Speaker 2 (01:14:38):
Take a pause before answering.
And did you see?
I didn't take a pause, but thatis a phenomenal piece of advice
, because when something happens, we often go into this sort of
reaction mode.
We often go into this sort ofreaction mode and that first

(01:15:17):
reaction whether it's andself-awareness comes in is
really thinking about what thatresponse should be.
So take a pause, take a breath,count to ten.

Speaker 1 (01:15:28):
Mine came from my wife.

Speaker 2 (01:15:30):
Of course, when.

Speaker 1 (01:15:31):
I was between two businesses.

Speaker 2 (01:15:34):
This was her advice, I think, kathleen, yeah.
She said suck it up, put yourbig boy pants on and go back to
the drawing board Only your wifeor your very best friend or a
trusted coach can tell you that,but yeah, Kathleen's amazing
Number two.

Speaker 1 (01:15:54):
what's a hobby you've always wanted to learn?

Speaker 2 (01:15:57):
That I've always wanted to learn, that I've
always wanted to learn Goodness.
That is a tough question.
I need to take a pause.
I'd like to paint.
Paint all right, I'd like to be, I think, if I don't think I'd
be very good at it, but thatshouldn't hold me back and
that's kind of one of my thingslike progress over perfection.

(01:16:20):
Painting would be therapeuticand you create something, say
painting.

Speaker 1 (01:16:26):
All right, I think mine would be getting more
involved in filmmaking.

Speaker 2 (01:16:33):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (01:16:33):
Love filmmaking.
If you could sail we're gettingon sailing anywhere in the
world, which it sounds like youalready have.
Where would it be?

Speaker 2 (01:16:45):
I think it would be somewhere like Bali.

Speaker 1 (01:16:51):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:16:54):
Yeah, somewhere like really exotic, really
interesting, maybe the GalapagosIslands.
I know people who have been tothe Galapagos Islands and how
interesting and amazing.
So, yeah, somewhere like that.

Speaker 1 (01:17:12):
See, mine would be on a cruise and I'd be on the….
Pampered, I'd probably eitherdo a river cruise over in Europe
or go to Alaska.
I'd like to do an Alaska cruise.

Speaker 2 (01:17:22):
Wouldn't that be interesting to see.
And and that landscape isdisappearing, so seeing glaciers
, and it's on my.

Speaker 1 (01:17:30):
it's on my list, it's on my bucket and the um.

Speaker 2 (01:17:33):
the Northern lights, oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:17:35):
What's one thing on your speaking of bucket list?
What's one thing on your bucketlist you haven't done yet?

Speaker 2 (01:17:42):
Oh gosh, there's so many things, there's so much
travel that I want to do so.
I would love to go and exploreNew Zealand.

Speaker 1 (01:17:53):
New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (01:17:53):
I've always wanted to go to New?
Zealand?

Speaker 3 (01:17:55):
Yeah, we were just talking about New Zealand in the
last episode.

Speaker 2 (01:17:58):
Yeah, we were Okay, so that's definitely on my
bucket list.

Speaker 1 (01:18:02):
You know when I came out of bootcamp, you fill out
what's called a dream sheet.
When you go into bootcamp.
You fill out the top threeplaces you'd like to go to be
assigned and go to your dutystation, and I had Germany, new
Zealand and Hawaii on there.
They sent me to Oklahoma.

(01:18:23):
Shows how much they like you Inthe Navy.

Speaker 2 (01:18:26):
You know the other thing that I want to do.
I like speed and I would reallylike to drive a very fast car,
maybe a Porsche, around thetrack.
And I know that you've donethat, haven't you?

Speaker 1 (01:18:39):
yeah, I have raced uh uh BMWs on a track up and
there's, there's a Porsche trackin uh Atlanta.
Atlanta, I know and one of myum colleagues.
Uh, he races there he has a 911that he races on he.
He ran into a wall and brokehis ribs.
He's in his 60s.

(01:18:59):
We talk all the time.

Speaker 2 (01:19:01):
Oh my goodness, that's on my bucket list.
I would love to do that.

Speaker 1 (01:19:05):
Coffee or tea.

Speaker 2 (01:19:07):
Depends on the time of day You're from.

Speaker 3 (01:19:10):
England.
I am a tea drinker in themorning and then I like coffee.

Speaker 1 (01:19:17):
I'm coffee Coffee.
How do you take your coffeeBlack?
Yeah, unless I'm at Starbucks.

Speaker 3 (01:19:24):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:19:25):
Then it's got some kind of caramel.
Whatever my daughter, she's 11.
It's all about Stanley Cups andStarbucks.

Speaker 2 (01:19:34):
Stanley Cups and Starbucks.

Speaker 1 (01:19:36):
That's trendy.
I've got two more.
What's your go-to snack duringa long day of sailing?

Speaker 2 (01:19:45):
Well, I love chocolate.

Speaker 1 (01:19:47):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:19:48):
So I always have to have some chocolate supplies on
the boat, and so I'll go andgrab a little chocolate snack,
and when I'm on watch at night,I make sure that I come up and I
have oh, that's funny in eitherpocket just to chocolate to
give me some english chocolatesor american chocolates, because

(01:20:09):
they're different, they're verydifferent.

Speaker 3 (01:20:11):
They're very different.

Speaker 2 (01:20:11):
Prefer english chocolates I'll have to say yes
definitely, but they're hard toget.

Speaker 1 (01:20:17):
Not totally Americanized yet Dark chocolate.

Speaker 2 (01:20:21):
I like dark chocolate , that's my favorite, it's dark
Last question.

Speaker 1 (01:20:25):
Last question and you can take a pause.
Okay, take a step.

Speaker 2 (01:20:30):
Cheers Chin chin.

Speaker 1 (01:20:32):
What's your go-to music choice when you're sailing
?
Because I know you guys arerocking out out there, right.

Speaker 2 (01:20:42):
Yes, we do, and that's a great question too,
because you're asking about mygo-to choice.
But here's what I'm going tosay as I'm trying to buy time
and think of who I like tolisten to.
The person who is driving theboat gets the choice of what
they listen to Talk about teambuilding and caring about the

(01:21:06):
team and I sailed with another.
I'll tell you this story too.
I sailed with somebody else andthey talked all about how they
had, you know, xm radio, and wecould listen to all these
different channels and you couldlisten to what you wanted to.
Well, we could listen to whatwe wanted to, as long as he

(01:21:26):
liked it.
So I'm not kidding you, tim, wewould put the radio on the
station that we wanted is thisyour husband?
no, no, he and I actually likedifferent music, but we like
some of the same things.
But yeah, and then he wouldchange it.
Like you'd be listening to asong and this guy would change
it and you'd be like, oh my gosh, but um gosh, I like a huge

(01:21:48):
variety of music dire straits,the.
Of course I've got to have somegood old T-Swifty on there.
It depends what we're doing andwhat's happening at the time,
but usually, yes, some kind ofgood motivational, maybe some

(01:22:10):
rock and roll, all this stuff.
I'm easy to please.
You know me, tim.

Speaker 1 (01:22:15):
Well, thank you everybody for getting nerdy with
us for an hour and joining uswith our special guest, rachel
Gillette with VMG Solutions.
This has been such a great andinspiring.

Speaker 2 (01:22:26):
It was so much fun.
I enjoyed it.

Speaker 1 (01:22:27):
Yeah, usually everybody starts having fun once
they've gotten a few fears inthem, yeah.
But thank you for getting nerdywith us for an hour.
Don't forget to tune in to ournext episode, where we will be
getting nerdy with someone new.
Thank you, cheers.
My fellow nerds and beer lovers.

(01:22:49):
Stay tuned for more Nerds onTap.
Oh, and one more thing Help usspread the nerdy love and the
love for grape brews by sharingthis podcast with your friends,
colleagues and fellow beerenthusiasts.
Let's build a community thatembraces curiosity, innovation

(01:23:12):
and the enjoyment of a cold one.