August 28, 2024 • 29 mins
CEOs wear many hats, and that’s especially true in the world of IT. So, it’s pretty appropriate Brian Strong heads up TenHats - an IT and data center firm in Knoxville, Tennessee. The name isn’t just eye-catching, it reflects the wide variety of services the business provides to its customers. In this episode, Brian recounts how the company landed on its current name during a rebranding effort. He and Chris also discuss their shared backgrounds in telecom, and they even delve into local conspiracy theories surrounding Knoxville’s communication buildings.
Show Highlights
- (0:00) Intro
- (2:02) Brian's path to TenHats
- (4:35) Rebranding to TenHats
- (6:32) Conspiracy theories and Knoxville's tech buildings
- (8:42) What does TenHats do as a business
- (11:39) Services proved by TenHats
- (14:02) What power demands will look like in the future
- (16:28) What’s ahead for TenHats
- (19:24) Brian's moment of validation at TenHats
- (23:07) TenHats' branding beyond its name
- (25:24) What brand does Brian admire?
- (28:02) How to learn more about Brian and TenHats
About Brian Strong:
Brian Strong is TenHats’ Chief Executive Officer, working with every department to cast and execute the company’s vision. As CEO, he also represents TenHats publicly, assists in the sales process, and manages TenHats’ partnership with Covenant Health.
Before joining the team, Brian gained extensive management and sales experience working at nationwide MSP and IaaS firms in the Knoxville region. Brian was the top salesperson at Claris Networks when he decided to leave and found his own company, Vendor Registry, which he sold in 2020.
In 2003, Brian graduated from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville with a BS in Finance. In his free time, Brian enjoys playing in a local soccer league and spending time with his family.
Links:
- TenHats' Website: https://tenhats.com/
- Brian’s email: brian.strong@tenhats.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Yeah, I think it's just one of those where.
(00:02):
Our society hasn't seen where the power demands are going to be coming from.
So it's just kind of, it's coming.
It's, it's going to be interesting over the next few years.
Welcome to We Built This Brand.
The podcast where we talk to the creators and collaborators
behind brands and provide you with practical insights
that you can use in growing your own business.
Today, we're talking with Brian Strong, CEO at TenHats.
(00:26):
TenHats is an enterprise grade IT services
company based in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Brian has been with the company since 2020, starting as the Chief of
Sales and Marketing, and taking on the mantle of CEO starting in 2022.
Now, back in the day, I worked in telecom, and I got to work with
TenHats as one of my customers under their former business name.
(00:46):
In this conversation, we got to talk about what led to the rebranding
of the business and how Bryan and TenHats serve their customers today.
There were some great insights in this conversation,
and I'm really excited to share this with you.
So, without further ado, here's my conversation with Bryan Strong at TenHats.
(01:08):
Alrighty, well, Bryan, welcome to We Built This Brand.
Well, thank you.
I'm glad to be here.
Yeah.
It's great to have you with us today.
And it's great to be here at the TenHats headquarters.
Well, we're glad that you guys came over and you know, we could show you around.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Excited to get more of a tour of the place after we're done with this.
That'd be good.
I'm a bit of a data center nerd.
Oh, are you really?
Yeah.
(01:28):
So,
Yeah.
Yeah.
The AT&T background.
AT&T.
Yeah.
That's right.
We'll be glad to show you that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Love seeing, love seeing how they build these things and like the redundancy
you all build into these and all that stuff is just really cool to me.
So...
Yeah, it's been really neat from owning the data center from
the standpoint of like just the infrastructure side of it, all
the power coming in, the redundancy, like you said, generators.
(01:51):
I mean, stuff that I never thought I'd know about.
I know more than I ever cared to.
Yeah, good learning experience.
Oh, absolutely.
Yes.
It's been a lot of fun.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Well, today we're here to talk about TenHats, the brand that it is.
And I think a little bit about the brand,
where it came from and how it became TenHats.
Okay.
Yeah, that'd be great.
(02:11):
So want to dive into that and just, I
guess, first of all, Tell me about yourself.
So where, where did you get your start and what led you here to TenHats?
I went to high school here, moved in to Knoxville right before, four
days before I started Farragut High School, went to UT, got into sales.
And then I guess about five or six years into my sales career, I get
(02:32):
recruited to work for a company here locally called Arm Technologies.
So that was my first venue into the technology world.
And so that, Company became Claris Networks.
Mm-Hmm.
. And so I worked there for like six and a
half years doing basically what TenHats does.
This is, you know, evolution of that.
I left Claris right around 2012 and started a
(02:54):
software as a service company called Vendor Registry.
Hmm.
I'm, I remember that.
Yeah.
I think I'm okay.
Sorry.
Continue.
Yeah, no problem.
Yeah.
So a Vendor Registry was a bidding platform, public
procurement run their purchasing departments.
Um, and it was kind of really neat.
It was like a centralized database for vendors to register with
multiple different governments all at one time, um, solving a
(03:16):
problem for the governments of not being having enough bidders to
their solicitations and for vendors having one platform to actually
keep all their data up to date with a multitude of governments.
That's cool.
Yeah.
So that company sold in 2020.
Uh, there's several of the folks that I used to work with at
Claris that are here at TenHats, so it was SH Data at the time.
(03:38):
And they started recruiting me back and I actually told them no.
And the first time, or first several times, you know, it was just,
Claris was like, I felt like the, it was lightning in a bottle.
It was kind of hard to recapture.
It is over some.
Multiple conversations.
It would just seem like the right fit.
There was a, an aptitude of a bunch of the former employees
(04:00):
to get back together and try to build something special again.
And so that's how I kind of ended up at SH Data Tech.
Um, but we've been, I've been here for, I guess, three and a half years now.
That's really neat.
So you came in when it was still SH Data.
That's correct.
Yeah.
And then about a year into when I was here, the,
the former CEO, he was decided to retire and then.
(04:21):
Later that year, we decided that, Hey, uh, you know,
there's quite a few things changing, um, at the company.
So it was time to rebrand, rename, kind of relaunch.
And, uh, that happened in January of 2022.
That's really cool.
So January '22 you rebranded as TenHats.
What led to the name TenHats?
(04:42):
So it's a, Uh, that's a fun story as well as, you know, when we're
going through the name change, we try to do a little bit internally.
Funny names are easy to come up with, you know,
really serious names are much more difficult.
I like symbolism.
I think that, you know, if there's some depth to a name
that you can use, uh, that there's some meaning behind it.
Finding domain names is very difficult these days.
(05:04):
So we hired a firm that's, uh, out of
Nashville that kind of helped us with this.
Kind of like the vision of what we were,
what we were looking for, TenHats came up.
One of the things that we, that I really liked about
TenHats, it was we can use it in multiple different facets.
So as an IT firm, we work with small businesses that IT
usually reports to the CFO or a controller internally.
(05:29):
So they wear multiple hats inside of that.
So can we take the IT hat?
And then also we have a portion of our business that
we work with larger companies that have high T staff,
so they may be proficient at Three or four hats.
And then we can, they can outsource to us those five
or six that they're not good at, or two or three.
(05:49):
So we can kind of morph into whatever relationship that that can be.
Um, also the number 10 is ones and zeros, which is data.
10 is also Tennessee.
So you can see like...
Lots of things, lots of symbolism there.
Lots of symbolism that we can use for multiple different things, which.
I really, you know, I really thought that
was just a home run when they did that.
(06:11):
So, so yeah, so we, we launched with that, um,
January, uh, 2022, and it's been a good ride.
I will say, you know, there was a few, few people thought
it was T-I-N, you know, so they thought, you know, like,
Like tinfoil hats?
Yeah, that's exactly right.
Which also could work in IT, but at the same
time, that's, uh, um, Uh, yeah, that's not us.
(06:32):
I wouldn't be surprised if there, knowing Knoxville, is some conspiracy
theory about this building and what it is, too, for people who don't know.
Oh, that's true.
So it probably is that.
Yeah.
That's it.
Yeah.
There, it could be that.
Yeah.
Especially with the gray and black.
It, this is, the Fort Hill building's been here since like '71.
Oh yeah.
I always say, you know, back in the day when it was
being purchased and all that stuff, I mean, it was the.
(06:54):
It was so plain.
It's a five story building that you could
walk, you could drive by and not even see it.
I mean, it was just, so they've done a really good job with the property and
reestablishing it and building a data center next door and stuff like that.
So it's been fun.
It's, it's really neat as, as we were talking before we were recording.
I mean, I've spent some time at AT&T, worked with S&H Data back,
(07:16):
back in the day, uh, when they were planning on this space and
to your point, like, I was like, Oh, there's a building there.
Oh yeah, there is.
That's exactly right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I can, I can definitely relate because I also worked in the ugliest
building in town, that AT&T office down just not too far from you all.
Yeah, that's exactly right.
Yeah.
No windows and yeah.
(07:36):
Yeah.
No windows, lots of mold, dust, you know, I have so many
stories from there and in that one is one people have
theories about because they just don't know what's in there.
Oh, that's true.
Yeah.
That's pretty neat.
Yeah.
I didn't know anybody actually worked in that building.
Yeah.
They, they moved our entire sales team there at one point.
Oh wow.
Yeah.
No walls, no ceiling.
Yeah.
That's a...
(07:56):
Great place to bring customers.
Too funny.
Yeah.
You could, you could trick them into not realizing what
time of day it was and just talk to them forever, and
oh, that's right.
Finally buy.
Cause they just want to leave.
Like hotel California.
Right.
It felt like that.
Some days I'd come in, especially in the winter to come in before dark.
(08:16):
I'd be making calls all day and not be able to get out.
Oh man.
And um, yeah, there's some days where I'd
leave and it was just dark the whole time.
Oh wow.
It's crazy.
That would be tough.
Yeah.
And it was not fun.
But anyways, I'm not here to talk about that.
Oh no, no, you're good.
Although it is, although it is connected to this building because
it's the data center and the pipes and everything that you have.
Connected over here.
(08:37):
Yeah, we definitely have some circuits from AT&T and all that stuff.
So as we look at TenHats, as you look at the
business, tell me more about what you all do.
Because, obviously, like, in rebranding, it wasn't just, it wasn't
just because did you not just not want "data" in the name anymore?
Like, tell me about that journey for, like, repositioning the brand to TenHats.
(08:58):
Yeah.
Like we were kind of talking before, like data is not a word that it's kind
of really ambiguous and people use it for, and technology too, the word tech.
I mean, there's so many companies going up and down
the street that have tech-"technology" in their name
and it really has no meaning because it's so overused.
So we, we just kind of wanted to give ourselves like a, a,
(09:18):
a different name that was frankly, TenHats is unique, right?
So it's memorable.
And one of the things too, we're trying to relaunch
from, uh, from a marketing and branding standpoint.
And to recapture is to reestablish ourselves as
we're an MSP, we're a maintenance service provider.
So we do outsourced IT and IT services.
(09:39):
to the local community.
And so, uh, we really wanted to have a personal feel to the local
community because with running an IT firm like this, it's all about
relationships and getting to know the customer, getting to know their
customer's business, uh, really getting involved with our, with our
clients on helping them use technology to compete, thrive, and grow.
(10:00):
And so we wanted, uh, we wanted to put a new brand on that.
So, and then we also have the data center too.
Well, the data center.
It's really a much different business model.
It's, uh, it's, it's a lot more transactional.
People know if they're looking for a data
center and they know what the requirements are.
They are typically in IT that they're, they have strict
requirements, what they're, what they're looking for.
(10:21):
And so they're usually coming to us with, Hey, can you
provide these types of services versus an IT services?
For the most part, it's kind of, "Hey, we don't know what to do with all this.
Can you run this for us?"
So it's two different business models, and so we will kind of wanted
to, to, to rebrand from the standpoint of, you know, our local focus of
TenHats, the MSP, and then outside the community, TenHats, the data center.
(10:45):
So outside of the local communities where you
find more of the data center business then?
Traditionally, we do have a lot of customers here locally, but there's
a, a need for data centers and people that need redundant data centers.
So they're looking for geographic diversity.
Um, and so we can actually supply that to those clients.
(11:06):
You know, one thing that's really fortunate
about us here in East Tennessee is that.
You know, with our climate and natural disaster, we just
don't have that many natural disasters and, uh, right.
Yeah.
And so we're not in the tornado ality or, you know, flooding, especially, you
know, as high up as we are here, you know, flooding is not typically a problem.
You know, if we have snow, it just lasts a couple
(11:27):
of days, even though this, this year it's kind of
Fingers crossed.
Yeah, that's right.
And so, uh, it's advantageous for people that are storing
their, um, data to be in a climate kind of like ours.
Right.
And what is your positioning against like say a cloud
service provider that might be, you know, multi location,
(11:47):
all that, like what benefits do they get coming to you all?
Yeah.
And that's, uh, that's a really good question.
So we're actually agnostic when it comes to technology.
So depending on what kind of workload that the client needs
will dictate what kind of, you know, footprint that they need.
Right?
So some applications work really well in the cloud.
They're, you know, they're cloud native
(12:08):
apps that that's where they should reside.
And then there are ERPs or core infrastructure, or some, there's
some people believe that, uh, Amazon steals ideas, you know,
from being on their cloud, or they have some proprietary.
System that they, that they use, that they want to protect themselves.
You know, each, each kind of person is a little bit different.
So we actually do have direct connects to Azure and AWS
(12:30):
for people that have workloads in the cloud or they need
on prem or we actually have our private cloud ourselves.
So, I mean, it's, it's really dependent on the workload.
So everybody has like kind of this niche, if you look at the
industry trends, hybrid is, uh, where everything's going,
where there's a little bit in the cloud, a little bit on
(12:51):
prem, you know, a little bit maybe in the data center too.
AI is another big thing too, is they're
not going to the cloud because of the cost.
And so, and the power requirements too.
So that's, that's an interesting shift in the market.
We're actually seeing the shift in the market right now
where power is becoming a commod- or not a commodity.
(13:13):
It's a limited resource.
So like power to the actual facility itself then becomes the resource
that you have to allocate amongst different servers and things like that.
That's right.
So, In the data center world, it's not floor space that we sell.
We sell power.
And the more that if you look at public, right, EVs are coming online.
(13:34):
AI are a high consumers of power.
They're saying over the next two to three years that
data center power consumption will be two to three times.
What it is today.
Then the utilities are having a hard time keeping up with creating the power.
It's an interesting time over the next several years.
We're going to see.
It's going to become more of a topic.
Yeah.
Well, I heard they're making good advancements in fusion, so.
(13:57):
Let's hope!
They need to speed it up.
Let's put it that way.
Seriously.
Yes.
Yeah.
That's cool.
That's cool.
I mean, one of the that's interesting, you say power, cause the sort
of stuff that we You probably know this, but East Tennessee was one
of the places that, you know, they came to create the atomic bomb.
That's right.
In part because of the power resources that we had available to us through TVA.
That's correct.
I've had some conversations with TVA too, because there
(14:20):
are data centers now that want to do one gigawatt of power.
So, in January, when we were in the snowstorm, right, TVA hit
on the power grid itself 30, just a little over 34 gigawatts.
So, if you think about that, that's the whole TVA footprint.
(14:40):
And so you're talking about one data center taking one gigawatt itself.
That's almost a power plant in itself for power.
So it's a, it's interesting from what the demand is going to be.
Hopefully fusion does come along.
That would be
Genuinely would be a good advancement.
It would genuinely be a good advancement because the power requirements of
(15:00):
our of our society are just going to be exponential in the next several years.
Yeah, for sure.
And it's, it's wild.
I mean, as of the recording, this recording,
ChatGPT has just released their new Omni product.
They've made it more available to people, cheaper,
freer, more access to that and more powerful.
And yeah, I can just see how that's going to have effects as well.
(15:23):
I assume when you say AI in your own data center, you're
talking about other organizations that develop their own AI.
That's correct.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So they'll, you know, they'll have clusters of servers that are doing
all the calculations and they're, it's high performance computing.
So from a standpoint of a typical server, they run three
or four kilowatts where a AI server will be 11 to 14.
(15:45):
So it's, It's interesting.
Sorry to digress so much on power.
No!
It's like, it's fascinating to me.
Like I was saying, like I've, I've had the good fortune to go to
like AT&T's data center in Vienna and see some places like that.
I was actually on the cloud side.
I was at Amazon reInvent this last, this last November.
So like.
Yeah, I'm in that space a little bit myself,
(16:07):
Yes, it's...
So it's really cool to me.
Yeah, I think it's just one of those where our society doesn't,
hasn't seen where the power demands are going to be coming from.
So it's just kind of, it's coming.
It's going to be interesting over the next few years.
Yeah, I'll be intrigued to see how it goes.
So hopefully it won't hurt us too much.
It's going to be interesting.
(16:27):
Yeah.
So as we talk about TenHats, we've created the brand, you've launched this
new brand, you were part of that transition, and then TenHats became TenHats.
What has been your journey since then?
Where do you envision TenHats going in the next year, maybe the next 10 years?
Okay.
Yeah, that's great.
So in the last couple of years, like with, with, since
(16:49):
the relaunch of rebrand and just our growth, we've.
We've grown over like 500 percent in the last three years.
It is, our plans are to probably double in size in the next five years.
One of the things that we really want to
do is to grow that much as for resiliency.
IT firms typically are, um, on the smaller
(17:10):
side, you know, 20, 20 employees or less.
We're trying to, we're 32 right now.
What happens is it's like a, there's a few good techs out there.
In different specialties.
So TenHats, too, it also represents kind of like how our company is set up.
We have.
Specialist in kind of in multiple different areas, let's say 10 functions of IT.
(17:32):
And so when you have specialists in all those different functions,
if there's only one of them, they're on call 24/7/365, right?
So to build resiliency, we want to have multiple people in each,
each of those fields so that they can have quality of life.
Um, also our customers will have the ability
to have multiple people in that stuff.
(17:53):
So it builds resiliency for our customer base and for our internal employees.
Yeah.
So that human operational aspect of making sure
that people work together and things flow well.
Correct.
Yeah.
I, I feel that pain.
Yeah.
That's exactly right.
Yes.
I feel that.
And you know, IT is a 24/7 operation.
I mean, there's, we have somebody on call all the time.
(18:15):
Christmas day, 4th of July.
I mean, just never know when something's going to happen in IT that you need to.
We want to have that resiliency that, you know, our employees
can, they don't have to be on call all the time to, so they can go
on vacation and not get called and get some rest and relaxation.
That makes it just a better quality of life and better culture for our staff,
(18:38):
which I think that carries straight over into our clients experience as well.
Well, if they're dealing with happy people that enjoy their jobs,
That's right.
That attitude is going to come across on the phone.
It's going to come across when there's a stressful service issue,
because we know in IT, like There's never anything like that.
Like they're always, you know, laid back and chill.
Customers are never mad.
(18:59):
That's exactly right.
You know, it's a, you know, when they call, they're not calling
to tell us a funny story, you know, they're calling with an issue.
So it's, um, the fewer of those we can have and
the better that better and happier clients are.
Which makes internally the staff much, much happier too.
Yeah, absolutely.
It's a big,
It's very symbiotic.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It makes a difference in the business for sure.
(19:19):
Yes.
So that's your strategy now.
That's your strategy going forward.
It sounds like I typically ask like, what was
your moment of validation in the business?
Like you come in as CEO, you start leading this business.
Like at what point were you like, uh, the strategy
that I'm building for this business is moving forward.
I know that, you know, this is going to continue into the
(19:40):
future, especially as you rebrand, there's always that
uncertainty behind how are people going to accept this?
Are they going to recognize who we are?
Yeah, that's a, um, I hadn't thought about that, but there
has been a few moments of my past experience at Claris.
We had a forte of serving larger, larger clients, and there was
a perception internally, you know, of can we actually do that?
(20:04):
And so we, we went to some great efforts to like, you know,
start a sales effort towards some of those larger, uh, accounts.
And when we started winning some of those, and frankly, it
was, you know, and Claris got sold to TechLinks, uh, there
was, and then sold to another company here in town, C Spire.
One thing about IT, it's kind of, it's similar to other specialties that people
(20:27):
have, like accountants or, you know, their attorney or something like that.
They, they want a personal relationship with those folks.
They're spending a lot of money.
There's a lot of trust that goes on to it, uh, goes into it.
And so having a local presence on a local field, well, I think,
you know, some of the clients, the old Claris clients felt that.
You know, with a company that's out of town
(20:48):
that they had lost touch with the community.
And so when we started winning some of our old customers,
back that we, You know, enjoyed working with in the past.
It was validation for us that, Hey, we had, we
had a, we had a right, or we're on the right path.
I wouldn't say we're arrived.
Um, I don't know if we'll ever arrive, but
we're right on the right path to the plan.
It was starting to come together.
(21:08):
They were seeing, seeing the difference.
Yeah.
Uh, it's, it's nice to have those relationships back.
We really.
about those folks back in the day.
And we serve them for multiple years, um, and to see being in
part of their company and you know, we get our validation and I
don't know, whatever our win or whatnot is, is being able to see
a company really compete and thrive and move forward and grow.
(21:32):
And, um, we like being a part of that.
That's a cool thing too about it is you get
to be part of that business growth and, and.
Development over time and learning about their story and their business and
why they do things like those things come out just by being in that industry.
And something I've always really found fascinating about being, especially on
the sales side, on the business development side of those organizations myself.
(21:54):
So
yeah,
it's fun.
Yeah.
They, you know, they become friends and
yeah,
it's kind of a true partner and they talk to us, you know, lots of them
talk to us about daily, you know, so it's, uh, it's, it's, it's fun.
I like that.
I like being a part of the community too.
Vendor Registry, we were.
At the end, I think we had over 600 governments all
across the country, and I was on the road all the time.
(22:16):
And when I was there and getting back into the community, trying to make
a difference here and knowing all the customers, and it's just, uh, uh,
you know, I really, really enjoyed vendor registry, but it is nice to be
back in the community and be involved with the community and helping the
community and, you know, where we live and, Work and play and all that stuff.
(22:37):
So, yeah.
Go into the grocery store and you might see a customer.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
That's fun.
We were at Southern Skies and I, you know,
I saw a couple of customers and friends.
I mean, that's just, that's what we, we like that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, my dad, so
Yeah!
Yes for many years.
So, so, you know, like that, I mean, that's one of the cool
things about, like, I've observed is like his relationship with
(22:58):
folks and things like that for being community centric telecom,
oh yeah,
in tech and stuff.
So that's, that's cool.
How does, um, how does TenHats brand itself beyond just the name?
Like what, what strategies do you have with marketing, advertising,
all those, all those fun, you know, Factors of your business.
(23:20):
Yeah.
Elements of your business.
Elements.
Yeah.
One thing that we did this last year is we've done, we did a tech survey.
And so we had like 11-1,100 participants in this tech survey.
And really what we're trying to do is bridge the gap between
technology leaders, like in their organizations and the actual
executives, leaders of those, the business leaders of those
(23:42):
organizations, and we're trying to, you know, sometimes there's a
feeling that there's a, uh, there's a communication gap between those.
Even sometimes the words we use have different meanings depending
on, you know, the seat that we're in, the position that we're in.
And that was one of the things that we're really trying
to continue to grow and do that annually to figure out
what's to bridge that gap between business and technology.
(24:05):
Because if you think about it today, every business is a technology company.
If you took away their tech, they can't really operate.
Or very few businesses could operate without that.
I mean, you talk about, you know, the medical and paper charts.
Well, there's not a kid that's got out of school in the last 10
years that's ever worked on a paper chart in the medical industry.
So, I mean, it really, you run in a technology business.
(24:27):
And so, we want to make sure that, you know, if technology
is so important to the business, Communicating with your IT
and IT effectively and bridging that gap and making sure that
the technology initiatives align with the business goals.
That's a, that's a initiative that we have.
And we're very heavily involved with, you know, the chamber in small,
(24:50):
um, business and entrepreneurial, um, board of, at the chamber,
participating in as many kind of those events and panels as we can.
Um, just trying to, you know, Get out, get out the word of how we can help.
Sounds like a lot of feet on the street and the people
are really making the difference with your branding.
Absolutely, yes.
Um, we do, you know, a lot of, uh, we have some white
(25:12):
papers and we do blogs and we try to communicate out,
you know, some of it educational, some of it marketing.
You know, we think the, the, the more that we
can help educate or just get people to think,
it could help.
All right.
Well, Brian, typically I always ask this question at the end of an interview.
So I'm going to ask you now, what brand do you admire the most?
(25:33):
So, yeah,
at least at the moment,
at the moment.
Yeah, that's right now at the moment I've Toyota has like really come to mind.
I just think with.
Toyota is a, is a brand that always strives for excellence.
You know, they're always process improving, you
know, that's what they're known is for their process.
Sometimes they're a little bit slow, but like when they
come out with something, it's, it's excellently done.
(25:56):
I think with the EV push.
Right now, and that they are taking just a slight different bend
on making hybrids versus, I think they do have maybe a full EV, but
that's predominantly where their fleet is going to these more hybrid.
Approach, whether it's a battery and a gas.
And I think that's one of those where they're, they're just kind of living
(26:18):
to their own beat and their own drummer and their own core principles,
and they're not letting their quality suffer or anything like that.
So I think that's just a brand that where everybody else
is going one direction, they're going slightly different.
And I always admire when somebody does that.
Yeah.
I think Toyota is a really cool brand just historically too.
Oh yeah.
You've got, I think they were the ones who created the Hoshin method.
(26:40):
Is that correct?
Or they were, they were a big proponent.
Yeah, I think so, too.
Yes.
So all of that, you know, what does you build a new org as
you continue to build like resiliency in your organization?
That's right.
Strategies and thoughts are going to play
into how you do continuous improvement.
That's exactly right.
I mean, even to their design, right?
If you look at an old Toyota vehicle, you're like, that still looks really good.
(27:00):
Yeah.
I'm a big fan of Top Gear.
I don't know if you've ever seen it.
Oh yeah, absolutely.
And they, they had this one episode where they decided to try and
kill a Toyota Hilux, which in the States would be like a, What is it?
The Tundra, I think, is the equivalent.
It's whatever the smaller truck that they make is.
Oh, uh, yeah.
The Tacoma.
Tacoma, yeah.
It's a Tacoma in the States, but in Europe it's the Hilux.
(27:22):
And they decided they were going to try and do all these crazy things to it.
Their test was, will the engine start after we do this thing to it?
They threw it in the ocean, let the tide come
in and roll over it, started it, still started.
They put it in the middle of a demolition.
Demolition happened.
They dug it out, still started.
And everywhere they went, it started almost
(27:42):
every single time, if not every single time.
And in fact, they memorialized it in the show.
You've ever seen that
Yes.
crushed red truck thing
That's right.
in the background.
Yes.
That's what that whole thing is about.
And I think it's a testament to Toyota's ingenuity,
but also their ability to make a durable vehicle.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
That's good.
Yeah.
That's why exactly why I admire them.
Yeah.
Well, Brian, thank you so much for coming on.
(28:04):
Before we go.
Is there anything you want people to know?
How can they connect with you or connect with TenHats?
Oh yeah.
I mean, go to our website, tenhats.com.
My email address is brian.strong@tenhats.com.
Anytime you just want to have a discussion or, you know, ask about technology.
I mean, it's, you know, we're, we're open door.
(28:25):
You know, we, we just want to be a participant in the community, help
the community grow and, um, help businesses achieve what they want.
Great.
Brian, thank you for your time today.
Hey, thank you, Chris.
Alright.
Thanks for checking out this episode of We Built This Brand.
Don't forget to like, follow, and subscribe on your player of choice.
You can also keep up with the podcast on our website at WeBuiltThisBrand.
(28:49):
com.
If you liked this episode, Please give the podcast a five star review and make
sure to tell all your friends about it so we can continue to build this brand.
Yeah, I think it's just one of those where.
(00:02):
Our society hasn't seen where the power demands are going to be coming from.
So it's just kind of, it's coming.
It's, it's going to be interesting over the next few years.
Welcome to We Built This Brand.
The podcast where we talk to the creators and collaborators
behind brands and provide you with practical insights
that you can use in growing your own business.
Today, we're talking with Brian Strong, CEO at TenHats.
(00:26):
TenHats is an enterprise grade IT services
company based in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Brian has been with the company since 2020, starting as the Chief of
Sales and Marketing, and taking on the mantle of CEO starting in 2022.
Now, back in the day, I worked in telecom, and I got to work with
TenHats as one of my customers under their former business name.
(00:46):
In this conversation, we got to talk about what led to the rebranding
of the business and how Bryan and TenHats serve their customers today.
There were some great insights in this conversation,
and I'm really excited to share this with you.
So, without further ado, here's my conversation with Bryan Strong at TenHats.
(01:08):
Alrighty, well, Bryan, welcome to We Built This Brand.
Well, thank you.
I'm glad to be here.
Yeah.
It's great to have you with us today.
And it's great to be here at the TenHats headquarters.
Well, we're glad that you guys came over and you know, we could show you around.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Excited to get more of a tour of the place after we're done with this.
That'd be good.
I'm a bit of a data center nerd.
Oh, are you really?
Yeah.
(01:28):
So,
Yeah.
Yeah.
The AT&T background.
AT&T.
Yeah.
That's right.
We'll be glad to show you that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Love seeing, love seeing how they build these things and like the redundancy
you all build into these and all that stuff is just really cool to me.
So...
Yeah, it's been really neat from owning the data center from
the standpoint of like just the infrastructure side of it, all
the power coming in, the redundancy, like you said, generators.
(01:51):
I mean, stuff that I never thought I'd know about.
I know more than I ever cared to.
Yeah, good learning experience.
Oh, absolutely.
Yes.
It's been a lot of fun.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Well, today we're here to talk about TenHats, the brand that it is.
And I think a little bit about the brand,
where it came from and how it became TenHats.
Okay.
Yeah, that'd be great.
(02:11):
So want to dive into that and just, I
guess, first of all, Tell me about yourself.
So where, where did you get your start and what led you here to TenHats?
I went to high school here, moved in to Knoxville right before, four
days before I started Farragut High School, went to UT, got into sales.
And then I guess about five or six years into my sales career, I get
(02:32):
recruited to work for a company here locally called Arm Technologies.
So that was my first venue into the technology world.
And so that, Company became Claris Networks.
Mm-Hmm.
. And so I worked there for like six and a
half years doing basically what TenHats does.
This is, you know, evolution of that.
I left Claris right around 2012 and started a
(02:54):
software as a service company called Vendor Registry.
Hmm.
I'm, I remember that.
Yeah.
I think I'm okay.
Sorry.
Continue.
Yeah, no problem.
Yeah.
So a Vendor Registry was a bidding platform, public
procurement run their purchasing departments.
Um, and it was kind of really neat.
It was like a centralized database for vendors to register with
multiple different governments all at one time, um, solving a
(03:16):
problem for the governments of not being having enough bidders to
their solicitations and for vendors having one platform to actually
keep all their data up to date with a multitude of governments.
That's cool.
Yeah.
So that company sold in 2020.
Uh, there's several of the folks that I used to work with at
Claris that are here at TenHats, so it was SH Data at the time.
(03:38):
And they started recruiting me back and I actually told them no.
And the first time, or first several times, you know, it was just,
Claris was like, I felt like the, it was lightning in a bottle.
It was kind of hard to recapture.
It is over some.
Multiple conversations.
It would just seem like the right fit.
There was a, an aptitude of a bunch of the former employees
(04:00):
to get back together and try to build something special again.
And so that's how I kind of ended up at SH Data Tech.
Um, but we've been, I've been here for, I guess, three and a half years now.
That's really neat.
So you came in when it was still SH Data.
That's correct.
Yeah.
And then about a year into when I was here, the,
the former CEO, he was decided to retire and then.
(04:21):
Later that year, we decided that, Hey, uh, you know,
there's quite a few things changing, um, at the company.
So it was time to rebrand, rename, kind of relaunch.
And, uh, that happened in January of 2022.
That's really cool.
So January '22 you rebranded as TenHats.
What led to the name TenHats?
(04:42):
So it's a, Uh, that's a fun story as well as, you know, when we're
going through the name change, we try to do a little bit internally.
Funny names are easy to come up with, you know,
really serious names are much more difficult.
I like symbolism.
I think that, you know, if there's some depth to a name
that you can use, uh, that there's some meaning behind it.
Finding domain names is very difficult these days.
(05:04):
So we hired a firm that's, uh, out of
Nashville that kind of helped us with this.
Kind of like the vision of what we were,
what we were looking for, TenHats came up.
One of the things that we, that I really liked about
TenHats, it was we can use it in multiple different facets.
So as an IT firm, we work with small businesses that IT
usually reports to the CFO or a controller internally.
(05:29):
So they wear multiple hats inside of that.
So can we take the IT hat?
And then also we have a portion of our business that
we work with larger companies that have high T staff,
so they may be proficient at Three or four hats.
And then we can, they can outsource to us those five
or six that they're not good at, or two or three.
(05:49):
So we can kind of morph into whatever relationship that that can be.
Um, also the number 10 is ones and zeros, which is data.
10 is also Tennessee.
So you can see like...
Lots of things, lots of symbolism there.
Lots of symbolism that we can use for multiple different things, which.
I really, you know, I really thought that
was just a home run when they did that.
(06:11):
So, so yeah, so we, we launched with that, um,
January, uh, 2022, and it's been a good ride.
I will say, you know, there was a few, few people thought
it was T-I-N, you know, so they thought, you know, like,
Like tinfoil hats?
Yeah, that's exactly right.
Which also could work in IT, but at the same
time, that's, uh, um, Uh, yeah, that's not us.
(06:32):
I wouldn't be surprised if there, knowing Knoxville, is some conspiracy
theory about this building and what it is, too, for people who don't know.
Oh, that's true.
So it probably is that.
Yeah.
That's it.
Yeah.
There, it could be that.
Yeah.
Especially with the gray and black.
It, this is, the Fort Hill building's been here since like '71.
Oh yeah.
I always say, you know, back in the day when it was
being purchased and all that stuff, I mean, it was the.
(06:54):
It was so plain.
It's a five story building that you could
walk, you could drive by and not even see it.
I mean, it was just, so they've done a really good job with the property and
reestablishing it and building a data center next door and stuff like that.
So it's been fun.
It's, it's really neat as, as we were talking before we were recording.
I mean, I've spent some time at AT&T, worked with S&H Data back,
(07:16):
back in the day, uh, when they were planning on this space and
to your point, like, I was like, Oh, there's a building there.
Oh yeah, there is.
That's exactly right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I can, I can definitely relate because I also worked in the ugliest
building in town, that AT&T office down just not too far from you all.
Yeah, that's exactly right.
Yeah.
No windows and yeah.
(07:36):
Yeah.
No windows, lots of mold, dust, you know, I have so many
stories from there and in that one is one people have
theories about because they just don't know what's in there.
Oh, that's true.
Yeah.
That's pretty neat.
Yeah.
I didn't know anybody actually worked in that building.
Yeah.
They, they moved our entire sales team there at one point.
Oh wow.
Yeah.
No walls, no ceiling.
Yeah.
That's a...
(07:56):
Great place to bring customers.
Too funny.
Yeah.
You could, you could trick them into not realizing what
time of day it was and just talk to them forever, and
oh, that's right.
Finally buy.
Cause they just want to leave.
Like hotel California.
Right.
It felt like that.
Some days I'd come in, especially in the winter to come in before dark.
(08:16):
I'd be making calls all day and not be able to get out.
Oh man.
And um, yeah, there's some days where I'd
leave and it was just dark the whole time.
Oh wow.
It's crazy.
That would be tough.
Yeah.
And it was not fun.
But anyways, I'm not here to talk about that.
Oh no, no, you're good.
Although it is, although it is connected to this building because
it's the data center and the pipes and everything that you have.
Connected over here.
(08:37):
Yeah, we definitely have some circuits from AT&T and all that stuff.
So as we look at TenHats, as you look at the
business, tell me more about what you all do.
Because, obviously, like, in rebranding, it wasn't just, it wasn't
just because did you not just not want "data" in the name anymore?
Like, tell me about that journey for, like, repositioning the brand to TenHats.
(08:58):
Yeah.
Like we were kind of talking before, like data is not a word that it's kind
of really ambiguous and people use it for, and technology too, the word tech.
I mean, there's so many companies going up and down
the street that have tech-"technology" in their name
and it really has no meaning because it's so overused.
So we, we just kind of wanted to give ourselves like a, a,
(09:18):
a different name that was frankly, TenHats is unique, right?
So it's memorable.
And one of the things too, we're trying to relaunch
from, uh, from a marketing and branding standpoint.
And to recapture is to reestablish ourselves as
we're an MSP, we're a maintenance service provider.
So we do outsourced IT and IT services.
(09:39):
to the local community.
And so, uh, we really wanted to have a personal feel to the local
community because with running an IT firm like this, it's all about
relationships and getting to know the customer, getting to know their
customer's business, uh, really getting involved with our, with our
clients on helping them use technology to compete, thrive, and grow.
(10:00):
And so we wanted, uh, we wanted to put a new brand on that.
So, and then we also have the data center too.
Well, the data center.
It's really a much different business model.
It's, uh, it's, it's a lot more transactional.
People know if they're looking for a data
center and they know what the requirements are.
They are typically in IT that they're, they have strict
requirements, what they're, what they're looking for.
(10:21):
And so they're usually coming to us with, Hey, can you
provide these types of services versus an IT services?
For the most part, it's kind of, "Hey, we don't know what to do with all this.
Can you run this for us?"
So it's two different business models, and so we will kind of wanted
to, to, to rebrand from the standpoint of, you know, our local focus of
TenHats, the MSP, and then outside the community, TenHats, the data center.
(10:45):
So outside of the local communities where you
find more of the data center business then?
Traditionally, we do have a lot of customers here locally, but there's
a, a need for data centers and people that need redundant data centers.
So they're looking for geographic diversity.
Um, and so we can actually supply that to those clients.
(11:06):
You know, one thing that's really fortunate
about us here in East Tennessee is that.
You know, with our climate and natural disaster, we just
don't have that many natural disasters and, uh, right.
Yeah.
And so we're not in the tornado ality or, you know, flooding, especially, you
know, as high up as we are here, you know, flooding is not typically a problem.
You know, if we have snow, it just lasts a couple
(11:27):
of days, even though this, this year it's kind of
Fingers crossed.
Yeah, that's right.
And so, uh, it's advantageous for people that are storing
their, um, data to be in a climate kind of like ours.
Right.
And what is your positioning against like say a cloud
service provider that might be, you know, multi location,
(11:47):
all that, like what benefits do they get coming to you all?
Yeah.
And that's, uh, that's a really good question.
So we're actually agnostic when it comes to technology.
So depending on what kind of workload that the client needs
will dictate what kind of, you know, footprint that they need.
Right?
So some applications work really well in the cloud.
They're, you know, they're cloud native
(12:08):
apps that that's where they should reside.
And then there are ERPs or core infrastructure, or some, there's
some people believe that, uh, Amazon steals ideas, you know,
from being on their cloud, or they have some proprietary.
System that they, that they use, that they want to protect themselves.
You know, each, each kind of person is a little bit different.
So we actually do have direct connects to Azure and AWS
(12:30):
for people that have workloads in the cloud or they need
on prem or we actually have our private cloud ourselves.
So, I mean, it's, it's really dependent on the workload.
So everybody has like kind of this niche, if you look at the
industry trends, hybrid is, uh, where everything's going,
where there's a little bit in the cloud, a little bit on
(12:51):
prem, you know, a little bit maybe in the data center too.
AI is another big thing too, is they're
not going to the cloud because of the cost.
And so, and the power requirements too.
So that's, that's an interesting shift in the market.
We're actually seeing the shift in the market right now
where power is becoming a commod- or not a commodity.
(13:13):
It's a limited resource.
So like power to the actual facility itself then becomes the resource
that you have to allocate amongst different servers and things like that.
That's right.
So, In the data center world, it's not floor space that we sell.
We sell power.
And the more that if you look at public, right, EVs are coming online.
(13:34):
AI are a high consumers of power.
They're saying over the next two to three years that
data center power consumption will be two to three times.
What it is today.
Then the utilities are having a hard time keeping up with creating the power.
It's an interesting time over the next several years.
We're going to see.
It's going to become more of a topic.
Yeah.
Well, I heard they're making good advancements in fusion, so.
(13:57):
Let's hope!
They need to speed it up.
Let's put it that way.
Seriously.
Yes.
Yeah.
That's cool.
That's cool.
I mean, one of the that's interesting, you say power, cause the sort
of stuff that we You probably know this, but East Tennessee was one
of the places that, you know, they came to create the atomic bomb.
That's right.
In part because of the power resources that we had available to us through TVA.
That's correct.
I've had some conversations with TVA too, because there
(14:20):
are data centers now that want to do one gigawatt of power.
So, in January, when we were in the snowstorm, right, TVA hit
on the power grid itself 30, just a little over 34 gigawatts.
So, if you think about that, that's the whole TVA footprint.
(14:40):
And so you're talking about one data center taking one gigawatt itself.
That's almost a power plant in itself for power.
So it's a, it's interesting from what the demand is going to be.
Hopefully fusion does come along.
That would be
Genuinely would be a good advancement.
It would genuinely be a good advancement because the power requirements of
(15:00):
our of our society are just going to be exponential in the next several years.
Yeah, for sure.
And it's, it's wild.
I mean, as of the recording, this recording,
ChatGPT has just released their new Omni product.
They've made it more available to people, cheaper,
freer, more access to that and more powerful.
And yeah, I can just see how that's going to have effects as well.
(15:23):
I assume when you say AI in your own data center, you're
talking about other organizations that develop their own AI.
That's correct.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So they'll, you know, they'll have clusters of servers that are doing
all the calculations and they're, it's high performance computing.
So from a standpoint of a typical server, they run three
or four kilowatts where a AI server will be 11 to 14.
(15:45):
So it's, It's interesting.
Sorry to digress so much on power.
No!
It's like, it's fascinating to me.
Like I was saying, like I've, I've had the good fortune to go to
like AT&T's data center in Vienna and see some places like that.
I was actually on the cloud side.
I was at Amazon reInvent this last, this last November.
So like.
Yeah, I'm in that space a little bit myself,
(16:07):
Yes, it's...
So it's really cool to me.
Yeah, I think it's just one of those where our society doesn't,
hasn't seen where the power demands are going to be coming from.
So it's just kind of, it's coming.
It's going to be interesting over the next few years.
Yeah, I'll be intrigued to see how it goes.
So hopefully it won't hurt us too much.
It's going to be interesting.
(16:27):
Yeah.
So as we talk about TenHats, we've created the brand, you've launched this
new brand, you were part of that transition, and then TenHats became TenHats.
What has been your journey since then?
Where do you envision TenHats going in the next year, maybe the next 10 years?
Okay.
Yeah, that's great.
So in the last couple of years, like with, with, since
(16:49):
the relaunch of rebrand and just our growth, we've.
We've grown over like 500 percent in the last three years.
It is, our plans are to probably double in size in the next five years.
One of the things that we really want to
do is to grow that much as for resiliency.
IT firms typically are, um, on the smaller
(17:10):
side, you know, 20, 20 employees or less.
We're trying to, we're 32 right now.
What happens is it's like a, there's a few good techs out there.
In different specialties.
So TenHats, too, it also represents kind of like how our company is set up.
We have.
Specialist in kind of in multiple different areas, let's say 10 functions of IT.
(17:32):
And so when you have specialists in all those different functions,
if there's only one of them, they're on call 24/7/365, right?
So to build resiliency, we want to have multiple people in each,
each of those fields so that they can have quality of life.
Um, also our customers will have the ability
to have multiple people in that stuff.
(17:53):
So it builds resiliency for our customer base and for our internal employees.
Yeah.
So that human operational aspect of making sure
that people work together and things flow well.
Correct.
Yeah.
I, I feel that pain.
Yeah.
That's exactly right.
Yes.
I feel that.
And you know, IT is a 24/7 operation.
I mean, there's, we have somebody on call all the time.
(18:15):
Christmas day, 4th of July.
I mean, just never know when something's going to happen in IT that you need to.
We want to have that resiliency that, you know, our employees
can, they don't have to be on call all the time to, so they can go
on vacation and not get called and get some rest and relaxation.
That makes it just a better quality of life and better culture for our staff,
(18:38):
which I think that carries straight over into our clients experience as well.
Well, if they're dealing with happy people that enjoy their jobs,
That's right.
That attitude is going to come across on the phone.
It's going to come across when there's a stressful service issue,
because we know in IT, like There's never anything like that.
Like they're always, you know, laid back and chill.
Customers are never mad.
(18:59):
That's exactly right.
You know, it's a, you know, when they call, they're not calling
to tell us a funny story, you know, they're calling with an issue.
So it's, um, the fewer of those we can have and
the better that better and happier clients are.
Which makes internally the staff much, much happier too.
Yeah, absolutely.
It's a big,
It's very symbiotic.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It makes a difference in the business for sure.
(19:19):
Yes.
So that's your strategy now.
That's your strategy going forward.
It sounds like I typically ask like, what was
your moment of validation in the business?
Like you come in as CEO, you start leading this business.
Like at what point were you like, uh, the strategy
that I'm building for this business is moving forward.
I know that, you know, this is going to continue into the
(19:40):
future, especially as you rebrand, there's always that
uncertainty behind how are people going to accept this?
Are they going to recognize who we are?
Yeah, that's a, um, I hadn't thought about that, but there
has been a few moments of my past experience at Claris.
We had a forte of serving larger, larger clients, and there was
a perception internally, you know, of can we actually do that?
(20:04):
And so we, we went to some great efforts to like, you know,
start a sales effort towards some of those larger, uh, accounts.
And when we started winning some of those, and frankly, it
was, you know, and Claris got sold to TechLinks, uh, there
was, and then sold to another company here in town, C Spire.
One thing about IT, it's kind of, it's similar to other specialties that people
(20:27):
have, like accountants or, you know, their attorney or something like that.
They, they want a personal relationship with those folks.
They're spending a lot of money.
There's a lot of trust that goes on to it, uh, goes into it.
And so having a local presence on a local field, well, I think,
you know, some of the clients, the old Claris clients felt that.
You know, with a company that's out of town
(20:48):
that they had lost touch with the community.
And so when we started winning some of our old customers,
back that we, You know, enjoyed working with in the past.
It was validation for us that, Hey, we had, we
had a, we had a right, or we're on the right path.
I wouldn't say we're arrived.
Um, I don't know if we'll ever arrive, but
we're right on the right path to the plan.
It was starting to come together.
(21:08):
They were seeing, seeing the difference.
Yeah.
Uh, it's, it's nice to have those relationships back.
We really.
about those folks back in the day.
And we serve them for multiple years, um, and to see being in
part of their company and you know, we get our validation and I
don't know, whatever our win or whatnot is, is being able to see
a company really compete and thrive and move forward and grow.
(21:32):
And, um, we like being a part of that.
That's a cool thing too about it is you get
to be part of that business growth and, and.
Development over time and learning about their story and their business and
why they do things like those things come out just by being in that industry.
And something I've always really found fascinating about being, especially on
the sales side, on the business development side of those organizations myself.
(21:54):
So
yeah,
it's fun.
Yeah.
They, you know, they become friends and
yeah,
it's kind of a true partner and they talk to us, you know, lots of them
talk to us about daily, you know, so it's, uh, it's, it's, it's fun.
I like that.
I like being a part of the community too.
Vendor Registry, we were.
At the end, I think we had over 600 governments all
across the country, and I was on the road all the time.
(22:16):
And when I was there and getting back into the community, trying to make
a difference here and knowing all the customers, and it's just, uh, uh,
you know, I really, really enjoyed vendor registry, but it is nice to be
back in the community and be involved with the community and helping the
community and, you know, where we live and, Work and play and all that stuff.
(22:37):
So, yeah.
Go into the grocery store and you might see a customer.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
That's fun.
We were at Southern Skies and I, you know,
I saw a couple of customers and friends.
I mean, that's just, that's what we, we like that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, my dad, so
Yeah!
Yes for many years.
So, so, you know, like that, I mean, that's one of the cool
things about, like, I've observed is like his relationship with
(22:58):
folks and things like that for being community centric telecom,
oh yeah,
in tech and stuff.
So that's, that's cool.
How does, um, how does TenHats brand itself beyond just the name?
Like what, what strategies do you have with marketing, advertising,
all those, all those fun, you know, Factors of your business.
(23:20):
Yeah.
Elements of your business.
Elements.
Yeah.
One thing that we did this last year is we've done, we did a tech survey.
And so we had like 11-1,100 participants in this tech survey.
And really what we're trying to do is bridge the gap between
technology leaders, like in their organizations and the actual
executives, leaders of those, the business leaders of those
(23:42):
organizations, and we're trying to, you know, sometimes there's a
feeling that there's a, uh, there's a communication gap between those.
Even sometimes the words we use have different meanings depending
on, you know, the seat that we're in, the position that we're in.
And that was one of the things that we're really trying
to continue to grow and do that annually to figure out
what's to bridge that gap between business and technology.
(24:05):
Because if you think about it today, every business is a technology company.
If you took away their tech, they can't really operate.
Or very few businesses could operate without that.
I mean, you talk about, you know, the medical and paper charts.
Well, there's not a kid that's got out of school in the last 10
years that's ever worked on a paper chart in the medical industry.
So, I mean, it really, you run in a technology business.
(24:27):
And so, we want to make sure that, you know, if technology
is so important to the business, Communicating with your IT
and IT effectively and bridging that gap and making sure that
the technology initiatives align with the business goals.
That's a, that's a initiative that we have.
And we're very heavily involved with, you know, the chamber in small,
(24:50):
um, business and entrepreneurial, um, board of, at the chamber,
participating in as many kind of those events and panels as we can.
Um, just trying to, you know, Get out, get out the word of how we can help.
Sounds like a lot of feet on the street and the people
are really making the difference with your branding.
Absolutely, yes.
Um, we do, you know, a lot of, uh, we have some white
(25:12):
papers and we do blogs and we try to communicate out,
you know, some of it educational, some of it marketing.
You know, we think the, the, the more that we
can help educate or just get people to think,
it could help.
All right.
Well, Brian, typically I always ask this question at the end of an interview.
So I'm going to ask you now, what brand do you admire the most?
(25:33):
So, yeah,
at least at the moment,
at the moment.
Yeah, that's right now at the moment I've Toyota has like really come to mind.
I just think with.
Toyota is a, is a brand that always strives for excellence.
You know, they're always process improving, you
know, that's what they're known is for their process.
Sometimes they're a little bit slow, but like when they
come out with something, it's, it's excellently done.
(25:56):
I think with the EV push.
Right now, and that they are taking just a slight different bend
on making hybrids versus, I think they do have maybe a full EV, but
that's predominantly where their fleet is going to these more hybrid.
Approach, whether it's a battery and a gas.
And I think that's one of those where they're, they're just kind of living
(26:18):
to their own beat and their own drummer and their own core principles,
and they're not letting their quality suffer or anything like that.
So I think that's just a brand that where everybody else
is going one direction, they're going slightly different.
And I always admire when somebody does that.
Yeah.
I think Toyota is a really cool brand just historically too.
Oh yeah.
You've got, I think they were the ones who created the Hoshin method.
(26:40):
Is that correct?
Or they were, they were a big proponent.
Yeah, I think so, too.
Yes.
So all of that, you know, what does you build a new org as
you continue to build like resiliency in your organization?
That's right.
Strategies and thoughts are going to play
into how you do continuous improvement.
That's exactly right.
I mean, even to their design, right?
If you look at an old Toyota vehicle, you're like, that still looks really good.
(27:00):
Yeah.
I'm a big fan of Top Gear.
I don't know if you've ever seen it.
Oh yeah, absolutely.
And they, they had this one episode where they decided to try and
kill a Toyota Hilux, which in the States would be like a, What is it?
The Tundra, I think, is the equivalent.
It's whatever the smaller truck that they make is.
Oh, uh, yeah.
The Tacoma.
Tacoma, yeah.
It's a Tacoma in the States, but in Europe it's the Hilux.
(27:22):
And they decided they were going to try and do all these crazy things to it.
Their test was, will the engine start after we do this thing to it?
They threw it in the ocean, let the tide come
in and roll over it, started it, still started.
They put it in the middle of a demolition.
Demolition happened.
They dug it out, still started.
And everywhere they went, it started almost
(27:42):
every single time, if not every single time.
And in fact, they memorialized it in the show.
You've ever seen that
Yes.
crushed red truck thing
That's right.
in the background.
Yes.
That's what that whole thing is about.
And I think it's a testament to Toyota's ingenuity,
but also their ability to make a durable vehicle.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
That's good.
Yeah.
That's why exactly why I admire them.
Yeah.
Well, Brian, thank you so much for coming on.
(28:04):
Before we go.
Is there anything you want people to know?
How can they connect with you or connect with TenHats?
Oh yeah.
I mean, go to our website, tenhats.com.
My email address is brian.strong@tenhats.com.
Anytime you just want to have a discussion or, you know, ask about technology.
I mean, it's, you know, we're, we're open door.
(28:25):
You know, we, we just want to be a participant in the community, help
the community grow and, um, help businesses achieve what they want.
Great.
Brian, thank you for your time today.
Hey, thank you, Chris.
Alright.
Thanks for checking out this episode of We Built This Brand.
Don't forget to like, follow, and subscribe on your player of choice.
You can also keep up with the podcast on our website at WeBuiltThisBrand.
(28:49):
com.
If you liked this episode, Please give the podcast a five star review and make
sure to tell all your friends about it so we can continue to build this brand.
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