Ep. 165 - Building a Business with Tracy Davis

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to the You Are Techie podcast,
episode number 165.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Welcome to the You Are Techie podcast, where it's
all about growing in your techso you can find the tech job of
your dreams.
And now your host technologylearning coach Ellen Tomi.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Hey moms, are you trying to break into tech?
Are you wondering what skillsyou really need to get hired and
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(01:10):
Join me as I walk you step bystep through the getting hired
process and tech [e-mail].
That's Y O U A R E T E C Hy.com.
I can't wait to see you in ourmembership.
Tracy Davis was the founder andc e O of Trax Analytics, a
facility management analyticsplatform in the IOT space.

(01:32):
With 10 years of experiencedelivery, industry leading
technology, Tracy took a boldidea in the entrance airport
industry and ran pit.
She saw a need to improverestroom facilities.
In large event arenas likeairports taking cleanliness to a
whole new level.
If you've ever been in theairport bathroom, then you
understand the significant valueproposition of track taking

(01:55):
bathrooms cleaner.
New advanced analytics in IOTintegration.
Seymour Tracy, the dog leader inanalytics, Iott in techo.
She graduated ever universitywith a degree in anthropology
and a minor in global healthwhen not on a plane, which is
rare.
She lives in Italy with herstaffing dog Milo.
Tracy, welcome to the podcast.

(02:16):
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm really happy to be here.
I'm excited to dive in.
I told you Oline, I have kind ofa lot of questions for you.
I just shot off a bunch.
So let's dive in.
Starting off with why did youbecome a founder and what drove
you to start Treks?
And I'm looking for the longversion here.
The long version.
That's it.
Several years of a process.

(02:39):
.
Yeah, still let me tone it downa bit for you.
But so to give you a quickbackground, I come from
multi-generations ofentrepreneurs.
So my father, my grandfather,I'm sure his grandfather.
And so at the time I was workingwith their family business,
which turned 53 years old thisyear.
So shout out to Infa and wow, Iknow.

(02:59):
So candidly, airports were a bigfocus and my network was really
rooted in aviation, right?
And I was sitting down with afew airport directors at the
time and they kept giving me thesame exact problem statement no
matter what size of the airportthey were.
And it was, we don't know whento clean our restrooms because
as you mentioned, you know,you've flown into an airport,
you know that hey, sometimesthings change.

(03:21):
You might get delayed canceled,your gate might switch, but at
the time they were stillscheduling all of their labor
statically.
It was you show up at six, youwork till 12, you go clean these
restrooms.
Even though that planes werechanging, it could get slammed
or not used at all.
And that problem statementreally just stuck with me and
that entrepreneurial spirit inmy blood, it was, you know,

(03:42):
causing me to just lose sleepthinking about restrooms, which
is a weird thing to say.
And at the time my brother whoruns inbox now, he's a software
engineer, he developed theplatform from the vision that I
have, the beta version and itsold.
So it was a really uniquesolution that we created this
into one business and all of asudden we created this solution

(04:03):
that New York Times picked upWall Street Journal picked up.
And so I spun it out and myfamily was very supportive, but
I saw the demand needing it todo something a little bit
different and create a dedicatedteam.
Spun out 2019 and have beengoing separate parallel to the
family business, but it has beenrunning independently of that
and we hit the ground runningand have it come up for air

(04:24):
since.
Okay, now we all know how easyis to start a business, but what
obstacles did you face whenstarting and growing tracks?
Just that highlight some of yourfavorite nuggets.
Yeah, wow.
What did I not face?
I think one of the biggestpieces was that we created a
software platform and a solutionthat was not really there in the
market.

(04:44):
So when you create somethingthat people don't even know
exists, you run through thechallenge of how do you educate
people that this solution totheir problem is there now.
And then also how do youquantify that value with a
dollar, right?
People don't have anything tocompare it to.
When I'm buying a computer I cansay great, I want this computer
and I know it's competition.
Is this so am I getting a gooddeal or not?

(05:05):
We w walked into the market withno comparison.
So it was really a challenge ofgetting that word out, Hey,
we're saving the day ofrestrooms, now restroom
cleanliness and also it's gonnacost you X, Y, z.
Trust me, it's worth it.
So it was an obstacle to makesure that people believed in it
enough to, you know, invest intothis and purchase this and use
it.
I think the other big obstaclewas because of our unique

(05:27):
founding story, you know, itwasn't a startup create, you
know, go through seed moneyseries A, create something, sell
it.
We had a product, I had to builda team, redevelop the product
for scale while servicingexisting clients.
While, you know, creating thisbrand it would kind of
maintaining the existing whilecreating the new at the same
time.
So it was a lot of balls in theair really from the ground up.

(05:48):
But you mentioned you've heardthis problem statement, but with
any of kind of your initialsales discussions, does anyone
need to be convinced was a realproblem or did everyone
understand the problem?
So I think everybody understoodthe problem.
The, some of the challenges thatwe saw in the initial was if
they weren't a really busy area,right?
If they weren't a busy airportor if they weren't a busy
facility, some of the questionsgot asked, well you know what,

(06:08):
you know we're cleaning okay,people aren't complaining about
it so we're fine.
So it was definitely trying toeducate them, yes, that's okay,
but also by utilizingtechnology, utilizing mobile
applications, you can reallycreate a more efficient
operation so that you can usethat same person to do five
other things now because you'reservicing at the right time and
really educating them on theoperational side.

(06:31):
It's not just, you know, sillytechnology.
It actually is solving a lot ofproblems that you see in me not
see at the time.
Cool.
Got it.
Okay.
So what has been your biggestpersonal challenge in building
steel tracks?
I think people don't tell you,and I'll be really transparent,
people don't tell you howisolating aggy when you're

(06:51):
building a business because youknow, I think you have to
surround yourself with peoplewho understand those challenges.
But it's sometimes hard.
It's not that you can find afounder or a business owner just
walking down the street and say,great, can we be friends?
So I personally, it was reallydigesting that I'm growing this,
it is fast paced, high growthwhile maintaining a happy face
and a solid base for my team.

(07:12):
You know, I, my family put a lotof trust in me to separate this
and run independently so I carrythat weight.
And so really just ma managingall of that and finding ways to
properly and healthily cope withthat stress I think was a
challenge.
And I feel that I succeeded at.
Awesome.
Yeah, I think that is, so I'veasked that question how we're
grounded before and that'sprobably the number one.
That's definitely my number oneis that it's hards, you really

(07:34):
explain cuz you're out there andyou're talking to people and
you're like, look at how greatthis idea and that's what they
see and they don't understandthat it, everything is about
thinking about the success ofthe business.
And that doesn't always allowyou, and most people, like most
friends don't understand likethat's, they're not going to
understand.
So like how do you navigatethat?
That is for sure spot on for me.
So thanks for sharing that.

(07:55):
No, absolutely.
So let's put into the technologyspecifically because I think it,
I mean it's not easy.
I don't know for most women,we're all listening.
We did.
I only, yeah, please make thosethe operational great.
So, but we definitely likeobvious we want clean bathrooms,

(08:16):
you know, with the five kids Ijust definitely wanna take them
bathroom, I'll head to thebathroom horror story so for
sure.
So can you tell us a little bitmore specifically about what
does TRA do specifically?
Who are your customers?
Maybe even more specificallythan the larger events, like who
are the people that you talk toand then how does it van that
your customers there?

(08:37):
Any more specific or nuances onthe operational and cost?
Yeah, sure.
So tracks really has evolvedinto a janitorial management
platform and a mobile app.
So it started off as justfocusing on restrooms, but it
really has expanded into afacility-wide cleaning tool.
And you know, what we focus onis providing a mobile
application that lets janitorsknow when to clean what to

(09:00):
clean, how to clean.
It also provides supervisorswith the ability to do quality
control, inspect the situations,inspect the building, and then
we also can grow it into pullingin sensor data.
So alerting the janitor insteadof a schedule, but alerting them
that hey, this restroom needs tobe cleaned because the toilet
paper's low in this stall, it'sseen 200 people since it's last

(09:21):
clean.
We actually have, you know, 50negative complaints coming in
from guests.
And so we take all of that dataand then send it to the right
person at the right time.
So it really is automating theentire janitorial process and
creating this, you know,data-driven response versus a
static, you know, scheduledbased cleaning tool and, and we
consume all that data from adata analytics standpoint and

(09:43):
provide it so that they cananalyze it, make it actionable,
you know, predict how they'regonna need to operate in the
future, benchmark how they've,you know, you know, manage in
the past.
And so they can go through andfrom a business intelligence
standpoint, really review theiroperation through data.
So that's what Trapp does in anutshell.
Great customer client bases.
Anywhere that there's abathroom, anywhere that's a

(10:05):
public space that needs to becleaned is where we focus on.
It started off with high trafficfacilities because that was the
biggest pain point.
Airports specifically, of courseyou go to Atlanta airport or
Houston airport, you wanna makesure that you're going into a
clean bathroom, like you said,you've got five kids, you have a
lot to juggle.
You wanna make sure that thewhole experience is, you know,
has a cleanliness factors soyou're not taking the drums with

(10:27):
you.
But it has expanded into otherfacilities like stadiums,
arenas, universities, healthcare, even manufacturing plants
because it's really not just arestroom cleaning tool, it's an
overall facility cleaning tool.
And a lot of facility managementjanitorial companies will
standardize on this so that asthey work in Mercedes-Benz or a

(10:49):
Volvo or Ford, they can use thesame tool no matter what staff
they have out there and they canstandardize their entire
operation as a corporationversus having different
buildings.
So yeah, what'd we focused on?
Great.
And so for the customers, areyou worked a lot of janitorial
companies within the buildingsor do you work with facilities
management with smell in thearenas or what, you know, how do

(11:11):
you get it come at it or resolveit?
All of the above.
Yeah, so it started off sellingdirectly to the building owner
because some buildings, youknow, I'll use stadiums
sometimes they have their ownemployees to clean the building.
So we'll sell to the buildingowner with the problem statement
that hey, you have staff, let'sfigure out how to use that staff
more efficiently.
Let's figure out how to clean,you know, at the right time.

(11:32):
But then we also have expandedto working with the contracted
companies that clean thosebuildings.
You sell it to them and theysay, great, I'm gonna buy this
and I'm gonna use it for Atlantaairport, I'm gonna use it for my
other client bases.
And it's really focused oneither the cleaning company or
the building owner with theiremployees.
But together it's a, yeah,powerhouse.

(11:53):
Got it.
Awesome.
Okay, cool.
So let's talk tech a little bit.
So what technical skills do youfeel have helped you the most in
your career?
And then I'll tack on like maybeyou can just answer the like the
art or like you are techyplatinum question of do you
consider yourself techy wireright now?

(12:13):
This is to give you a minute toprep, this is outta my heart
because this is like the most indemand that I keep hearing is
like what, how does, how do you,what if you wanna start a tech
company in your non-technicaland like what is non-technical
and how tech, right?
And so like of course this beingyour dear to my heart.
Kind of talk us through like howdo you view yourself and then,

(12:33):
you know, what technical skillsdo you feel like have helped you
?
Absolutely.
It's a great question.
You know, I am not a programmerso I don't write code, but I
know enough of the technicalaspects of how to design, how to
speak to the development teams,how to make something that's a
business, you know, productvision and talk technical enough
to get the development teams todo what they do best, which is

(12:54):
put the requirements, the code,you know, put it into a format
that can be developed.
And so I wanna give, you know,encouragement to people out
there that you can run atechnology business or be a part
of a technology business withouthaving that specific skill of
coding because there are a lotof other aspects to being techy.
There's a lot of other aspectsto, you know, having technology
background and you know, I tella funny story to people all the

(13:16):
time, but as I mentioned, mybrother is a programmer,
brilliant software engineer andhe used to hack into my home
computer when we were littlekids.
And I would sit in my bedroom asa little, you know, little kid
typing, doing my, you know,paint or whatever it was.
And all of a sudden my discdrive would open and close or my
mouse would start moving aroundand I'd hear him giggling in the

(13:37):
background.
And, but it showed that, well Ididn't know how to do all of
that, but I was surrounded by itmy entire life that I learned
right languages, I learned howto speak to developers because
oftentimes salespeople anddevelopers, but heads a little
bit were promisingsomething that can't be
developed.
So I think that my experience inbeing, you know, growing up in

(13:58):
technology and understanding howto communicate it, it makes me
techy, it makes me liaison.
I love it.
That's a great answer.
So you touched on this a littlebit, but I'm gonna ask it in
maybe a little bit different waybecause I think that sometimes,
like you, you started yourcompany, you saw a problem, you
went with it, and that's justyour life, you know, you don't
really see it as anythingdifferent.

(14:19):
People listening, first of all,they probably think you're a
little bit crazy, which youstart a company question is like
what factors do you feelimpacted your decision to start
a company the most?
And then what it look like totake the leap both from like a
personal and professionalstandpoint, a little bit like

(14:39):
what was the path and was itreally fast or was it a little
bit slow?
And just walk us through that alittle bit.
Yeah, so from a personalstandpoint, you know, I have
that like inner nagging,independent, gotta do it myself,
I gotta do it my way, it's myvision, which is a, it's a pro
in a con at times.
So I'm not, I understand that.
Yes.

(15:00):
See, I'm aware of that pro con,you know, it's great thing for
entrepreneurs at the same time alot of people are not gonna
enjoy that, you know,personality trait.
But one of the things thatimpacted the decision was, you
know, I saw this open market, Isaw this demand for something
and I saw ability for me to doit my way and it was just this
gut feeling, this inner naggingthat I know I can do it.

(15:22):
I know I can make this somethingbig, something great, I've got
this incredible vision and Icouldn't sleep.
You know, it wasn't somethingthat was, oh this would pull
thing to do, it was somethingthat my whole days were
consumed.
How do I solve this problem?
How do I do it?
How do I do it?
And so the decision it startedwas when I finally got that
reassurance when the firstairport bought it and they

(15:44):
actually went to bat, startedspeaking to other airports about
it and when the New York Timespicked it up I, I said, you know
what, we're onto something and Ihave to do it, it's no
longer an option.
It's no longer for me to sitkinda of wait.
It's like that inner drive haveto sleep at some point.
So I'm just gonna do it finallysleep, sleep, oh god, in the
process.
I mean it wasn't an overnightthing because remember I came

(16:05):
from family business, so I hadto sit down with a family and
ask for their trust that hey, Iwanna do this separate and in
parallel with the company.
I need you to trust me that thisis the right decision.
Those are hard conversations tohave because I was young at the
time and this was a wild idea.
You're putting sensors intobathrooms, you know, people at

(16:27):
the time it wasn't a normalconversation.
So not only did I look crazy, Iwas young on top of that and
trying to, you know, separatemyself from a 50 plus old
company that was also relying onme.
So it was not an overnightthing, but once I did take that
leap and I started to provemyself, I started to show, hey,
I'm gonna do this different,this is why, and this is for

(16:49):
success that comes from beingdifferent.
It got a lot easier and westarted to gain more and more
momentum.
But it was definitely achallenge to go from one point
to the next and to have thattrust, you know, and make sure
that I carried through withthat.
I'm just curious about the, theparent company and the vision of
technology.
Like was your vision oftechnology growing up and there

(17:09):
that you grew up?
Was it vastly different?
And did you have to explain thatdifferential when you said
sensors and bathrooms, that mademe think, I mean you were still
used to like, oh mobile apps andphone in the hand and that's
what's different.
But did you have to really kindof explain not just your vision
but like kind of the way thetechnology world was moving?
Was that part of theconversation at all?

(17:30):
It was, you know, when you comefrom a company that has been
successful for that long, doingsomething consistently, right?
It wasn't that our family firm,you know, was not doing well, it
was successfully growing and hasbeen successful for 53 years.
So they understood thetechnology, but how do I put
this?
I had had to explain why Iwanted to do it differently,

(17:51):
right?
That I know their way wassuccessful for what they were
doing.
But the way that I saw thiswinning, the way that I saw
tracks growing, the types ofclientele that we were selling
to, the speed, how quickly thisside of the technology world was
moving, I had to explain thatthis is why I needed to be
separate versus still keeping itwithin the family firm.
And fortunately, I, they'reamazing people so supportive

(18:13):
that, you know, they trusted inme, they've supported me to go
through that.
But it was a conversation ofyour way is not wrong.
Your way is right for whatyou're doing.
My way is gonna be right forwhat I want this to do.
And both ways are right just indifferent formats.
So it was ongoing conversationsthat were, we made it through
.
Yeah, that sounds, no, thatsounds super hard.
I mean that is near and dear tomy heart because you know, I

(18:36):
peer, I was raised by twoteachers and you're like, ah,
well you don't do anything likethat.
But yeah, I teach, I'm lying andthat's foreign concept and like
for wild is just crazy.
And then eventually like I don'tthink I did as I didn't, maybe I
didn't need to, but I didn't doas well explaining, right?
It's just oh you cheat online.
Oh now completely.
And when I was, I mean I wasyoung, I'm gonna say younger,

(18:57):
I'm gonna make myself feelbetter.
I was younger at the time when Iwas starting these conversations
and so I, I did not properlycommunicate.
I was very much bullheaded on Ihave to do this as my way.
I see the vision versus reallyproperly communicating it in a
calmer way of not beingoffensive or not, you know,
trying to almost didn't want itto come off threatening by any
means.
But when you're young andpassionate, sometimes that's how

(19:21):
it comes outta your mouth whennow that you can look back as
you're older and say, you knowwhat could have handled that
probably with a little bit moregrace.
But you learned a lot in theconversations and I grew a lot
throughout that process.
So the hard stuff between beingbold and then being graceful, I
love that word.
That's an inspirational valuefor me is to be graceful.
And so, and I laugh at myoldest, she's a pretty bo I

(19:41):
living around the last night Iwas just like, and looking at
the book she's reading and I'mlike, women are all really
graceful.
I feel like she's trying toinject that into her life.
That's smart.
Because still a much moregraceful person than I am would
as 50.
That's like, mom, please don'tlike you, you don't have a
graceful mom.
But it's, it's reallychallenging because you have to
be bold, you have to be on theedge of crazy and to be graceful

(20:03):
while you're doing that, it'sjust this really amazing dance
that I don't know any other wayother than experience.
It's like merge through in it.
It's hard.
I mean you can't, it's sadly,it's not something that you can
teach or train.
It is something that you have toexperience cause everybody
handles it differently and theyhandle the stress of it
differently.
And so to your point, whenyou're juggling all of these
things and you are on the vergeof being crazy by starting a new

(20:24):
business, you know, trying toreally create something, it's
groundbreaking while handling itwith poise at the same time,
being so strong and bold to makepeople believe in you, you know,
you have to make sure thatyou're confident enough that
people are gonna buy yourproduct.
You also don't wanna come acrossas so over the top or so cocky
that people are turned off byit.
So it is a middle ground forsure.
Right, right.

(20:45):
And communicating that vision.
I wanna spend a a little bit oftime on this and I know that
this is like a personal passionof yours and something that
you're kind of boards of workingtowards.
So you know, this is one of ourlike standard questions that I
love to ask Mike.
Yes.
Feel free to take a little bitof time to kind of explain your
own personal take on this andyour own personal brand.
So questions, what advice wouldyou give to a woman who's
considering, sorry.

(21:05):
Oh yeah, yeah.
I have a long list of advice.
So I think resilience, you'vegotta be resilient.
I'll speak from a woman'sperspective here and if you're a
young woman going through this,everyone, every man wants to
tell you the right way to do it,which is always the way that
they did it, right?
And when you're starting out,sometimes that can be really
confusing because you might havea vision of something that you

(21:27):
wanna do and you believe theway, but then you've got all
this background noise sayingyour way is not right.
Follow my way, I was successful.
Look at what I did, you shouldbe doing it this way.
And my advice to women startinga tech company is you've gotta
find a way to cut out thatnoise.
You've gotta trust your gut.
It's really important to listen.
It doesn't mean you always haveto take the feedback as truth.

(21:48):
And it's finding that balancebetween respectfully hearing,
taking what sits and resonateswith you, but then leaving
everything else behind and justnot even giving it a second
thought.
Because at the end of the day,you're the one that knows your
product, you're the one thatknows your vision more than
anybody.
And I always tell young womenthat are trying to start
companies is that you don't haveto follow a playbook that you

(22:10):
know you can break those roles.
You can, you know, challenge theway people have been doing
things for, you know, 50 or ahundred years just because they
have an MBA or just because theyknow how to code right?
Doesn't mean that you can't dosomething and do it differently
and be successful.
I just encourage women to stepinto their own and just to, you
know, to really follow your gutwith it and to be resilient when

(22:33):
sometimes it gets overwhelmingwith all of that noise.
The other piece from a businessperspective, and I talk about
this a lot on my own channel, isit really hiring people that
compliment your weaknesses?
And I learned this, you know, asany founder does the hard way,
um, when you're starting out,you're selling, you're
installing, I was on ladders inheels, sorry for OSHA

(22:53):
regulations, breaking the rolls,but on ladders, in heels,
hanging cameras and hangingsensors and on the phone and
configuring it and on the like Iwas doing it all supporting it.
And when you're starting off andyou really have your hands in
every little thing, sometimesit's in your head, you think
you're really great at it, allright, I did it all.
I got it off the ground.
Look at where we are now.
Realistically you are not greatat everything.

(23:15):
And so I really encourage peopleto get honest with themselves,
to figure out what are theirstrengths as they're starting a
business to really analyze thathey, maybe you're a really great
people person, you're not reallygreat at details.
Or maybe you're really great atvisioning and product but you're
not great at operations and it'sokay.
And it's important just to hirethose people that compliment

(23:36):
that because you run way fasterwhen you've got two people doing
their strengths than one persondoing their strengths and their
weaknesses and getting boggeddown, down and getting tired.
I just think it's important tosurround yourself with people
that, that really compliment youand being comfortable enough to
admit that hey, I'm not great atthis.
I need some help, I loveit.
So resilience and put people,hire people and put people

(24:00):
around you compliment yourstrengths.
So those are her.
Fantastic.
So you've diving into that alittle bit.
So one of the concepts that Italk about, because I love what
you said about like people giveyou advice and you have to
listen.
Like I do believe that it willbe great up for you have to
listen, but what you don't haveto do is do everything that they
say.
And this concept that I talkabout is voices I'm listening

(24:22):
to.
It's really like psych siphonout.
So when we're focused on, youknow, getting hired in tech,
it's really, you have to bereally careful because if you
talk to someone who's been intech for 20 years, they're gonna
tell you how they did.
Just like you said, you'll belike, well this is how I did it.
And the other thing that they dothat's just awful for my
audience is that they're like,well I know all these things so
that's what you need to know.
And it's like 20 years now.

(24:43):
That's not what you need to know.
Let me start up.
And it's really hard when you'renew to kind of figure that out.
So we, we talk about thisconcept voices I'm listening to
and then it's also hard ifsomebody has no idea what you're
doing, which many of ourparents, maybe your parents are
younger, but like thatgeneration, all the jobs are so
different, even with my kidstalking about what jobs are
gonna be.
So it's have to really becareful who you're listening to

(25:07):
and like I'm sure you listen toyour customers and three
mentors.
How do you listen and whatadvice has been great for you to
listen to and who has it comefrom?
Yeah, I, one piece that I'llstart before I go into that is I
think when you're getting all ofthat info, it gets really
overwhelming and the one thingthat's really helped me is to
take a step back and to lookthrough their lens.

(25:28):
So they're giving you feedbackbased on their background, based
on the lens that they see.
And once I started to realizethat, hey, just because it
worked for them, wonderful, butI also started to put myself in
their shoes, okay, this is mybackground as X, Y, z, A
computer programmer, this is whyI think it's the right advice.
Then I can start to come at itagain with more grace, right?

(25:49):
I'm not as offended because I'mlike, okay, they're giving
advice based on their experienceversus based on something that
I'm doing wrong or it's based onwhat works for them.
And so the people that I'velearned to really rely on, as
you said, clients and customersfirst and foremost, I think this
has been in my family businesssaying for ages and we carried
it on to my business, but yourcustomers are your best

(26:10):
developers.
We believe that as you'regrowing something you have to
listen to what's working andwhat's not working and you can't
get offended when something'snot working.
You've gotta listen to that andcontinue to grow and they're
gonna give you the best feedbackfrom a product specific.
Don't ever change your vision ofit, keep following your north
star.
But it's okay to take thatfeedback and grow.
And then in terms of, you know,feedback from the business

(26:32):
standpoint, I think you have tohave a multitude of advisors and
support in every differentrealm.
I think if you can surroundyourself and diversify the
amount of data that's coming atyou.
So I, you know, have a C F O whogives me really amazing
financial advice, really greatdetailed advice, operational
advice, historical advice.
Then I've got someone who hasreally great operations,

(26:53):
facility management advice.
Then I've got someone who hasreally great technology growth
scale advice.
But you know, if you cansurround yourself with all of
that versus taking feedback fromone or two people, I think it's
helpful for you to then consumeall that data into your point,
siphon out what works and whatdoesn't work and now you've got
a source from differentperspectives that you can take
in versus a single perspectivetelling you based on their own

(27:14):
experience.
Long windedly.
No, I think that's good.
Okay, lemme go there.
So I actually have anotherquestion for you.
Have you ever had feedback thatwas dismissive because you were
cute, bubbly, or adorable?
Those are my three words that Iam not a huge fan of.
So, ha have you ever felt thatwas like, that happened to you

(27:36):
in that speed?
And I'm just curious yourperspective on it.
Yeah, so, uh, well yeah, so froman aviation specific market,
I'll start there.
When I started out I was inyoung twenties, young twenties.
And the industry itself wasprimarily male.
Think about pilots, airportdirectors, you rarely see a
woman airport director.
Now it's changed, gone a lotbetter.
But I would go to conferencesand I'd have to hold my own and

(27:59):
as a young 20 something, I'llcall miss myself cute and
adorable or whatever it was.
But as a young 20 something thenin a sea of people and I'm there
to sell, right?
I'm there to create something.
And then as I was creating thebusiness, I, again, I'm selling
to a sea of older men.
And yeah, sometimes it does getdismissive.
Sometimes people are like, ohyou know, we'll give you a try,

(28:20):
you know, oh it's a cute idea,we'll try it out because you
know, it almost patronizing in asense, not a yeah.
But if we see this, you are sosmart, you guys have created
something brilliant, it's, oh wejust love you, you're precious,
you know, we'll put it in, we'lltry it out.
And sometimes, I hate to say it,but you just have to bite the
bullet and say, you know what?
Great for the opportunity andI'm gonna show you why this is,

(28:41):
you know, you've gotta sometimestake the opportunities that are
given to you versus fight it.
But yeah, it, it does get to youat times because you wanna sit
in that room and be able to sitat the table and be taken
seriously.
And sometimes it's not alwaysthe case.
And especially with age, I haveto tell you, growing up, I never
told anybody my age.
I still, to this day and theaviation industry, I don't think

(29:02):
maybe three people know how oldI am, believe it or not, grew up
in that industry.
Because that was always thenumber one question I'd get
asked in the meeting.
Even at my family business.
Even as a business owner, theywould ask you your needs.
Oh yeah, they, I would sit thereand I would present and I would
be eloquent and strong andconfident and it was almost
like, wow, what's coming out ofyour mouth doesn't match what we

(29:25):
see.
So how old are you?
You know?
And that was the question I get.
So I always was like, I'm 69years old, how are, how are you?
And they would sit there like,what and I was like,
don't see matters much.
I know what I'm talking about.
It sounds like you want to buywhat I'm selling, so let's just
carry on through.
And it's just shocking.
And the moment that you put anumber to it, sometimes people

(29:46):
are like, oh you don't have asmuch experience.
You know, you sound like you do,but you don't have it on your
resume.
So now I'm gonna question whatI'm doing.
And so I just learned early on,you know what, I'm gonna show
up.
I'm gonna be confident.
And you don't need the databehind it.
You need to see what's in frontof you and what we're selling
and we're gonna prove to youthat it's amazing, not that
right, you don't have 35 yearsof aviation experience and you

(30:09):
know, can develop in all of thethings.
So it's, it can be overwhelming,but you gotta hold your curve.
Yeah, you're welcome for thatcurveball.
Sorry I funny talking to youlike, cause I did this, which is
funny because you know you'vegot this in Spain but, and I'm
not that young but I, apparentlyI look young, I don't know.
So we'll see.
But I think young, you show upwith high energy and you're

(30:30):
right, I'm young, I always talkabout, so I tell everybody my
ages, I don't care.
But I, but that the thing islike mean you show up with high
energy and you're passionate andI guess we're cute.
We're really adorable.
You're adorable.
.
We're adorable.
You know the interesting thingis like the dynamic in, in like
all industries really is thatthere's something like that

(30:53):
lessened your intelligencefactor in some way.
And so it's like, I'm sorry.
No, and the funny thing aboutyou being young, it's like yeah
but you grew up in this industryso that's a difference maker.
Like it's not that you, even ifyou were young by industry
standards, that's where you grewup.
That's where you spent time andeven growing up in your
household, I think that's afactor too.
Knowing, hearing those stories,those impacts, you know, from

(31:15):
people, from your parentsknowing that what was going on
in the industry.
So I appreciate you going therecause like I think it is
important that, you know, it'snot always perfect and pretty.
It's true.
If you're given an opportunity,you know whether their
intentions are just like, ohyou're cute, I'll just give you
a shot to help you out.
Great, appreciate that opendoor.
I'm gonna open up all the otherdoors now and I'm gonna close

(31:35):
them.
You're never gonna use any othersoftware cuz we're gonna be the
best, you know, you just haveto, you've gotta take it and
you've gotta let it kind of rolloff your skin and you've gotta
develop tough skin on this.
And I always laugh because my CF O, who is probably one of my
best business advisors and my,you know, he's my watchdog, my
bodyguard, but he made me growsome really tough skin growing
up because even to get detailoriented, you know, I would do a

(31:57):
spreadsheet, right?
And if I'd have something off,he would then pull me into his
office and give me, you know,three hour long explanation
about why this is off and thewhat's gonna happen to the
business if this can, you know,you would definitely go into it.
And as a young person I waslike, oh I messed up.
You think I learned to reallycreate tough skin to take that
feedback to not let it eat atyou.

(32:18):
And then that's kind of carriedon into those boardrooms when
people patronizing or people arequestioning your background,
it's, you gotta toughen upsometimes and take the
opportunities and then just showthem that they're wrong at the
end of the day.
Yeah, that's fantastic.
And what great experience forhim to come in and show you how
that impacts the business willbe helping your, you know,
business management skills andthings.
So that's Oh, absolutely.

(32:39):
No, I've got a really greatsupport team around me, so I'm
very blessed.
Really grateful.
Well we are blessed to have youand I can't thank you enough
because this tough skin andunderstanding the challenges
that are gonna come up if wedon't share these experiences
that actually it is toughactually.
It is challenging, but there arepeople who are going through it
and going through it with youand you can that you know, we're

(33:00):
going first and you can see it.
It's just so important.
So we're so grateful that youcame on the podcast today.
Thank you so much for beinghere.
No, thank you so much for havingme.
This has been so much fun.
I really do appreciate it.
Okay, before you go tell us, wecan find you, we're gonna
combine track, we can find youpersonally really follow, we
link to everything, Mr.
Sure.
So my personal website is it's,I think it's tracy m davis.com.

(33:22):
Had to think about that for asecond.
And Instagram is the same.
It's Tracy m Davis.
And then please correct me ifI'm wrong, I need my marketing
team.
No, you're right.
I have in my notes sincemarketing team is rolling over
in their great.
And then our business is tracksinsights.com but we are very
active on social media,Instagram, we show a lot of
behind the scenes of installingsmart restrooms of people on
site and construction atairports.

(33:43):
So it's a lot of fun.
Follow us there and then followme personally, cause I go
through the ins and outs ofgrowing a business, the messy
parts and the fun parts.
So do appreciate the time.
Thank you so much, Tracy.

Speaker 3 (33:54):
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