Spread Bagelry, College Settlement, JPI Group

Jamie Schrotberger CEO Spread Bagelry

Terry Dougherty Executive Director College Settlement

Brandon McVaugh President Laboratory Testing Inc

Paul & Yom Douglas President: CEO The JPI Group

Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Welcome to Executive Leaders Radio, yourspot in the corner office, the radio
show where executives share their secrets tosuccess. Executive Leaders Radio. You're listening
to Executive Leaders Radio this year hostHerb Cohen with my co host Jim Wilson,
Newmark, Caleb poppas Hamlin and Davidjack Wood's Evolution Financial Group. We

(00:33):
have a great let up of guestsfor you when I start today, including
Caleb. Would you give us arundown please? Yes, that's correct,
Herb. We have a great lineuptoday. We have Terry Docherty, the
executive director of College Settlement. Wehave Brandon Mclaw, the president of LTI
Laboratory Testing, Inc. YAM andPaul Douglas of JPI Group. Yam is
the CEO and Paul as the president. And we have Jamie Schropberger who is

(00:55):
the CEO of spread Bagelory. Well, let's get to know our first guest,
Terry Docherty, exact director of CollegeSettlement. Terry, what is college
Settlement? What are you guys doing? College Settlement provides a unique camping experience
for children between the ages of eightand fifteen, as well as an outdoor
school program. And how old isthis organization. How many kids do you

(01:15):
have you been able to help?College Settlement is celebrating our hundredth anniversary as
Summer Camp and in a normal yearwe have about five thousand outdoor school children
and a thousand summer campers. Howmany brothers and sisters do you have?
Where are you in the pecking orderand where are you from? Originally there's
seven of us in the family,and I am the youngest, uh huh,

(01:37):
and you're the youngest, okay,and eight to fourteen. What kind
of stuff are you up to asa kid. As a kid, I
played a lot of sports. Iwas involved in student council and it was
a great experience to be able todo all those things you mentioned you were
involved with student council. Why wereyou involved with student council? What was

(01:59):
a student counsel for you? Ithink everybody deserves a voice, and it's
important to be able to present thatvoice regardless, and it was something that
gave me an opportunity to be aleader. What's that? What's what's that
presenting a voice? Everybody has hasthe option, should have the opportunity of
having a voice. What does thathave to do with your role? As
executive director of College Settlement. InCollege Settlement, we try to give the

(02:23):
kids an opportunity to have a voice, to be appreciated, to instill confidence
in them to try new things.Jim, Yeah, Terry youngest is seven.
What was the age gap between youand the oldest My oldest sister's twenty
three years older than me. Wow. Um. You know, sometimes in
a large family like that, youknow, some of the parents only have

(02:44):
so much time, and the brothersand sisters kind of take on mom and
dad roles. Was there anyone thatwere close with in your sibling of yours?
It was a real role model.My sister Claire. She was the
next in line age wise, andshe used to take me everywhere. She'd
take me to all my games andwas one of my coaches. You were
mentioning something in the green room aboutgoing to some softball games with your sister.

(03:07):
What kind of things did she wasshe talking about? When you're sounds
to me like you your sister involvedyou in everything. What's being involved in
everything and keeping engaged? What's thathave to do with your role as executive
director of college Settlement? Um?I think she made sure I had connections
to the community and connections to myteammates, and I think that's really important

(03:29):
in my role is to collaborate andto make connections with the youth that we
serve. Super David Terry, youmentioned the green room about playing softball.
What was your position in softball?I was a catcher, So tell us
a little bit about the role ofa catcher on the team. The role
of the catcher is you're involved inevery play. You get to provide direction,

(03:53):
you motivate your teammates, and youcan include everyone. How do you
think that relates to college you're runningof college settlement today. Um, well,
I have a really great staff thatall play a role, and I
think it's important for them to feelthat they're supported and they then take from
my direction and lead to the childrento try different things and it's still confidence

(04:17):
in them. So, Terry,you're the student council president. How did
you get elected? Well, Iwasn't the president, but I was one
of the representatives, and I basicallywore button and all during the elections and
just told people that I thought itwas important that everybody was represented. So
you were kind of running more soon the issues than something like you know,

(04:40):
getting candy bars in the vetting machine. Yes, the people would give
out candy bars and try to getpeople's votes, And my thing was,
I'm not about giving out candy bars. I'm about being able to be heard.
Yeah. So, as the leaderof college Settlement, it's important to
make sure that you have a goodvalue proposition. You're saying, sting strong
your roots. What do you doto make sure that that's true at college

(05:01):
Settlement? Well, I think it'simportant, like I said, to include
everybody and get everybody's feedback and thenbe able to present a good case to
the board and the people that cometo our camp. Jim Harry, what
did your dad do for a living? My father worked at Excite Batteries for
forty one years. Did he evertake you to work with them? Yeah,

(05:25):
on the weekends occasionally he would takeme to work. Well, what
would he say about the people thatwork there. One of the things he
always taught me was that everybody hasa role. So you should treat the
president like you treat the janitor becauseeverybody's important. How does that carry over
to your role at college Settlement?Very much. So we all have a
role and we have to work togetherin order to provide the best experience for

(05:48):
the campers. David, earlier,we were talking about your mom. What
was your mom's role growing up?My mom was a homemaker. She was
in charge of all of us,but she was sort of the glue that
kept everybody together. And how doeswhat you learn from your mom as the

(06:08):
glue relate to how you run CollegeSettlement. I think it's important form connections
and to collaborate with people. Throughcollaboration, you can get a lot of
things done. I understand. Andthen the greening room when we were talking,
when we were speaking getting to knowyou, you mentioned that you hope
to end your career as the executivedirector of College Settlement. Why it's a

(06:34):
great organization. We have a greatmission. We've been around for a hundred
years, and I hope to beable to continue that mission and be able
to set us up for the nexthundred years. Why are you built for
this gig? Because I think thatthis organization was initially founded by women,
and for a long time they've hadmale executive directors who have been long term

(06:58):
executive directors. And from my standpoint, it's about time that you know,
we had a women leader. AndI think it's important because we have an
opportunity here to influence lives and transformyoung children's lives and make them appreciate the
environment and appreciate one another. Thisis really a mission for you. This
isn't a job, is it.Yeah? So why is this submission for

(07:21):
you? Why what's in it foryou? Well, I believe it's important
to be able to see young childrentoday, especially from the inner city,
appreciate one another and appreciate the environmentand learn to work with one another and
try new things, and to givethese young kids a voice. Are these

(07:43):
kids paying a fee to come tocamp? We have a nominal fee,
but we also offer scholarships because wewant to make sure that every child has
the chance to have this experience.And are you exposing these kids the new
kinds of stuff? We teach themto swim, to buy, but we
also teach them to fish. Wetake them the environmental center and expose them
to our animals, We take themto the farm. So it's a lot

(08:07):
of things that kids that live inthe city don't get to see. So
these underserved kids may not necessarily beaware of some of the things that they
can get involved with. And you'reexposing them. Yes, we've had kids
say this is the first time I'veseen stars like this at night, So
it's pretty interesting. So when youwere a kid, who exposed you or

(08:28):
who took you by the hand?My parents did. Mostly. They always
made sure they took us on avacation as a family, and we typically
would vacation in the mountains, soit was something that I was always exposed
to the environment. And how youngwere you when you were taking others by
the hand? Well? I wasactually when I was born, I was
already an aunt. So my nephewsand nieces were constantly with me when they

(08:54):
were growing up. What are youtalking about? Tell us more. My
sister's kids live with us for acouple of years as they were having for
a couple of months when they werehaving a house built, and so we'd
get I'd get home from high schooland they my youngest nephew would ask me
to take them for a walk.My other nephew would ask me to take
them to the baseball field. Sowe always were together. So how young

(09:18):
were they and how young were youthere? My nephews and nieces are about
five six years younger than me,and the other one was about eight years
younger than me, So you weresixteen seventeen years old and they're ten or
so. As opposed and dits inthem and going hanging out with your friends,
you felt a responsibility, You feltan attraction to taking care of your

(09:43):
nephew and niece. Yes, huh. How's that carry you over to your
being the executive director of College Settlement. Well, I think it's important that
everybody gets taken care of, andthat's why our mission is to really allow
every kid the opportunity to come tocamp, to come to our after school
program, and they have this experience. So it's really in you to take

(10:09):
others by the hand like you didyour nephew and niece as opposed to going
and playing with your friends. It'sreally important to you that everybody has an
opportunity. It sounds like, what'sthe website address for this organization's College Settlement
dot org. Let me have thatone more time, College Settlement dot org.
We've been speaking with Terry Docherty,executive director of College Settlement here on

(10:31):
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(11:58):
Executively Here's Radio this Year host HerbCohen. We'd like to introduce Branding mcvall,
President of Laboratory Testing, Brandon Woodis laboratory testing. What are you
guys doing? Laboratory testing is amaterials testing laboratory where we perform testing for
critical applications where human life is typicallyat risk. Give me an example that

(12:18):
what are you talking about? Anythingthat flies goes under water, so airplane,
submarines, nuclear power plants, thingslike that. So you're testing the
materials. Huh? Where you're fromoriginally? How many brothers and sisters?
And where are you in the peckingorder. I'm from a small town called
Purgacy. It's in Pennsylvania. Iam the oldest of four all right,

(12:39):
eight to fourteen. What kind ofstuff are you doing as a kid,
I was playing all kinds of sports, golf, baseball, and then also
started working at a very young agearound twelve, Caleb. All right,
Brandon, you started working at avery young age. Where was that?
That was at our company laboratory testingin where a family business. So early

(13:01):
on my dad said, hey,I have some stuff for you to do.
If you're, you know, justgonna sit around here, summer's coming,
why don't I put you to work? What kind of tasks were giving
you around the office, anything thatneeded to be done, So that early
on, just started cleaning, sweepingfloors, cleaning bathrooms, prepping materials,
anything that you know, didn't needa lot of skilled labor or skilled technicians

(13:24):
to work on. And now you'rethe president of LTI. So what do
you learn from sweeping floors and cleaningbathrooms that relates to being the president?
Hard work and everything is important,you know, all the details are important,
especially in our business. So whenyou're spending a lot of time around
there, did you have any mentors? Yeah, I had some early mentors.

(13:46):
One of the supervisors of the departmentearly on. His name was Ed
Camber and he kind of he showedme the ropes about the company, taught
me you know a lot about whatwe do. And then also my father.
What do you learn from Eddie thatyou're still taking you to work every
day now? Just the hard work, work ethic, showing up on time
and being there for being there aspart of the team. You also mentioned

(14:11):
the green room that you were awaiter for some time. What do you
learn being a waiter? Um,so, I worked in a tourist town
in Ocean City, Maryland, veryfast paced. With that taught me early
on is just staying calm under pressureand dealing with customers. What's that have
to do with what you're doing nowadays? Well, at LTI were a very

(14:31):
fast paced environment, high volume.UM. So just being on top of
things um and always just you know, staying calm when when situations arise,
especially the stuff that we faced overthe last two years. David, give
me an please. And then youwhat was being the oldest? What was

(14:52):
your role being the oldest of four? Well, naturally, just being the
oldest of four, um, youknow, early on, just um,
keeping an eye on my sisters andbrothers and we're you know, going to
the bus stop and things like that. And then as my sister got older
and I could drive, you know, taking her to school, um,
watching out for her, um inhigh school and things like that. So

(15:13):
kind of a leadership mentor type rolea little bit. Yeah, I could
say that, how do you thinkhow do you think that role? What
do you take from that role todaythat you bring to work every day.
It's just the importance of you know, leading by example, UM, and
you know, being available for people, especially because I work with my sister
and my brother today too. It'salso just about the importance of building great

(15:35):
relationships with the folks that you workwith. Jim Brandon, you took a
liking to golf at an early age. How young were you when you picked
up that sport. I was abouttwelve thirteen years old when I started playing
golf. And you what were certainthings that you liked about golf? What
drew you to it? Well,it's a strategic game, you know a

(15:56):
lot. There's a lot of thoughtabout you know, where do you where
you going to hit the ball,how are you going to hit it?
How do you want to address thisshot? How do you get out of
trouble? So there's a lot ofstrategy there and also it's a it's in
a game of integrity where every where, every stroke counts, so you can't
you can't cheat your way really throughgolf. You have to really report your
score with integrity. So how dothose strategy and integrity and golf carry over

(16:19):
to what you do at LTI today? Well? As a president, obviously
one of my number one responsibilities isto set the strategic vision for the company.
So it taught me how to bestrategic in my leadership. But then
also what we do and with thecritical nature of our business, integrity is
the utmost important thing that we cando as a as a company, integrity

(16:41):
is the most important thing you cando as a company. Well, I
guess if you're if you're testing materialsthat could cause life and death, I
guess your customers really do need todepend on Yeah, and the fact that
you're the third generation run in thisbusiness, I guess you wouldn't be around
this long unless your customers do itdid could depend on you? Am I
reading that correctly? That is correct. Our reputation is built on integrity and

(17:04):
doing the right thing. Always reportingevery result with accuracy and performing every test
with the utmost integrity is critical tothe success of our business. So when
we were talking earlier, you mentionedthat as a kid you felt like you
were well taken care of by yourparents. What are you talking about?

(17:25):
Just my parents really cared for us. I had a great childhood and that's
something, you know, it justwas foundational in me and how you know,
to how I want to run thecompany. We really care for our
employees. One of our values isyou know, we treat each other like
family with fairness, dignity and respectthat we really want to we really practice
that, want to practice that andshow that as a key value of our

(17:48):
organization. How large or how smallis the team where we are one hundred
and sixty five employees and your grandfatherstarted the business. That is correct.
And um, the fact that youguys you felt trusted as a child,
I mean, it sounds to melike, you know, you mentioned earlier
that your parents would let you dowhat you wanted to do. I'm sure

(18:11):
there were some limits, but itsounds to me like they felt it felt
like they trusted you. And I'mwondering, does this trust thing affect how
you're building the team and treating customers. And because you hear about business,
you hear it's blood and guts andpeople suing people and you can't trust people
and you don't like working with thisone. But it doesn't sound like that's

(18:32):
the way you're building your business,especially because it's the third general? Am
I right? Every one? What'snow that that's one hundred percent correct?
And my parents were really great allowingus to do and pursue our passions and
do what we wanted to do.Is because they did, they trusted us.
And just like what we do atLTI is we have to have that
trust with our customers. They haveto have trust in us that we are

(18:53):
going to report their results with integrityand they you know, and that's a
reputational that's a major part of ourreputation for our company in the industry is
the trust that our customers have anLPI. Do you have any Do you
have any teammates that have been theremore than like a year or two or
three that had been there for alonger period of time. Yeah, So
we've had we have employees that wejust celebrated thirty five year anniverse thirty five

(19:17):
year anniversaries. Why do they stickaround? I think, like, like
a lot of the things that wesaid, we care, but we genuinely
care about our employees. We area culture focused organization where we put a
lot of emphasis on our culture,and we are people based organization. We
can't do the work without great people. Well, all right, they may

(19:38):
just say you're dealing with materials andtesting materials and testing medals to make sure
that they withstand certain tolerances and stuff, and but it sounds to me like
you're really in the people business.That's correct. As a leader, that's
what we're really in the business ofpeople. Do you ever like what do
you ever hear like, like,you know, you people have salaries and

(20:02):
bonuses and stuff, but you,have you ever gone beyond what you needed
to do, like if somebody hada problem with funeral or car payment or
stuff like that. Have you evergone beyond And in terms of helping your
employees out, yeah, we are. We find ways to contribute to the
community, whether it's organizations that wefeel strongly that we support, or you

(20:25):
know, just for doing outstanding jobthe company outdoing an outstanding job. We've
taken our employees on trips, We'vegiven extra incentive bonuses and things for just
achieving outstanding results as a company,or that's just something that that sticks with
us. Well, why would youdo that? Why would you go ahead
and invest time or money in thecommunity or take somebody on a vacation.

(20:45):
You don't have to do that.That wasn't part of the agreement upfront.
Yeah, it's just because we care, you know, and we know that
when we care, the outcome issuccess. And that's one of the things
that we I tell every one hereis we don't have to try to be
profitable. It's an outcome of beinga great company, having a great culture
and a great team of people thatwe have a saying around here that bring

(21:08):
it every day to deliver our freeresults on time to our customers, and
that just leads to customer satisfaction andcustomers continuing to come back to LTI.
It sounds like you really enjoy yourjob, don't you. I love what
I do, Yes, and Ilove the people that work for us.
You love the people that work foryou. It's an interesting word to use.

(21:29):
Do you really? I really havea sincere care for the employees that
we have at LTI. We wentthrough some tough times in the last two
years. One of my goals wasit was one of my website address for
the Laboratory Testing lad testing dot com. We've been speaking with branding With Ball,
president of Laboratory Testing here on ExecutivelysRadio. To visit our website Executivelyers

(21:52):
Radio dot com. Stick around meback in a moment right after this quick
break, don't go anywhere, dock. You're listening to Executive Leaders Radio this

(22:14):
year. Host Herb Cohen like tointroduce Yam Yam and Paul Douglas, CEO
and president of the JPI Group.What is the JPI Group? The JPI
Group is a workforce development and recruitingfirm. Excellent and yeah, where are
you from originally? How many brothersand sisters? And where are you in
the pecking order. I was bornin Nigeria. I grew up in Philadelphia,

(22:37):
and I'm the youngest of two andTommy eight to fourteen? What kind
of stuff were you up to?What were you doing as a kid eight
to fourteen? Eight to fourteen,I was at Hershey Pa. I went
to Mote in Hershey School and Iran black and I was in a girls
Scout. So I understand that youwent to boarding school. You mentioned earlier
that your mom and dad had gottendivorced when you were about three, and

(23:00):
that you were raised by a singlemom and mom sent you away to a
boarding school. And I'm wondering,Jim, why don't you give me a
him with some of the other questionshere? Yeah? Sure. What were
some of the activities you were involvedin YAH at Milton Hershey. Yes,
I ran smack, I was aGirl Scout and I was a part of

(23:21):
the student government. So it soundslike you were constantly engaged there. What
is that constant engagement? What doyou bring with that to you to the
JPI group and your team and howyou run them. Yes, I was
constantly engaged. I went to schoolwith a very diverse group of people,
so that's who we are at theJPI group as well. M. David

(23:42):
M. What did you see inyour single mom growing up? The great
hard work? She worked long hours, so I saw that. What do
you take from what you saw fromher to work every day? Now?
Same thing? Family, first workinghard and then just making sure that I

(24:04):
get back to our community. Up. Thanks John. Let's shift over to
your husband and business partner, Paul. Paul, where are you from and
where are you at in the packingorder? Sure? I am originally from
Jamaica and I am the second youngestof twelve. Wow, what were some
of the things that you were doingfrom eight to fourteen? Eight to fourteen,

(24:26):
I grew up in Baltimore City,a pretty tough part of Baltimore City.
I had a younger sister and mymom was a maid, working lots
of powers. Start just remember goingto school, staying out of trouble,
and taking care of my sister.What did you learn from your mother the
maid? I always held, folks, this story I remember from the age

(24:47):
of eight until I left for college. I don't remember her missing a day
at work, and that level ofhard work and great defiance while until this
day. And if we can goback to you coming to the United States,
how young were you? I waseight, So you were eight and
your sister was She's about five yearsyounger than you. She was three at
the time, that's correct. Whatdid you do to take care of your
sister and help her out come intothe States and making that transition. I

(25:11):
remember playing I'd like to call myselftoo, Dad, but I wanted to
make sure I protected her as muchas I can decide to remember always making
sure that she was taking care ofas much as I can and giving her
as much support that I could whilemy mom was at work. So you're
pretty good at taking care of people. You've been doing that for a long
time. How does that relate towhat you do or how you mentor your
employees? At the JPI Group,we are a family first organization. In

(25:36):
fact, as we interview folks andbring folks into the company, we tell
them that we'll treat to his familyin this place is aligned to make sure
that you can hit your personal goalsand you can see your personal success.
David. So, yeah, I'mand Paul I get this sense of that
you both had to reinvent yourself atsome point. Yeahm you came from Nigeria,

(26:00):
your parents got divorced when you werethree, and then off to the
boarding school. Paul, you camefrom being one of twelve to coming to
Baltimore and being one of two.Is that the case for both of you,
guys? Sure? I think thatwhat I've learned in life is that
in order to continue to deal withlife and the obstacles that face you,

(26:22):
you have to become a new person. And luckily some of those things happen
naturally for us, and I thinkit prepared us for business, and it
prepared its prepared us to run asuccessful organization. Well, what's that constant
evolvement? What's that reinventing yourself haveto do with the business you've created in
the markets you serve. I wouldsay that in business you have to constantly

(26:45):
reinvent yourself to survive as an organization. So with its new products, new
services, improve your culture. Ithink We've always got to uphols on those
things to make sure that we cansee success quickly, quick stories that through
our COVID we will as that wehad to create a new service line right
that was the only way that wesucceeded that year, and that opportunity allowed

(27:06):
us to make it through that yearcontinuing to see success long term. And
what was the new product line?We created a platform that would help diverse
candidates to get into clean energy jobs. Right, So we saw that the
procession was common. We knew thatclean energy was a somewhat procession proof industry,
So we created a platform. Theyhelp organizations how you diverse candidates and

(27:30):
to help underrepresented in diverse candidates findjobs in a new field. So both
you and your wife have come fromdifficult circumstances, and you learned about how
to survive. You learned about reinventingyourself. You learned about evolution. And
earlier you were mentioning to us inthe green room, you're doing something with

(27:51):
a STEM program or something like that. What's that have to do with reinventing
yourself? I would say that growingup, and yeah, and I talked
about this all the time, thatthe right job can change your change your
life, right, And and Igrew up to be very gander and transparent.
Where my mom was making price sevento eight thousan an hour, and

(28:12):
I know that's that's a number that'snot sustainable, and she made it work
and she saw her buster buck.So what Yam and I decided to do
was, let's create an opportunity wherewe can put folks into a better career
progression and a better career opportunity.And that's what we're most product as an
organization. What is is the factthat we're focused on making sure that young

(28:33):
diverse kids can get into stem careersand pay well because we know if they
can get into that that that willchange the legacy of their families and the
legacy of their families moving forward.And Yom, why is that so important
to you? It's so important justbecause that was the foundation on how we
were raised, you know, withthe whole single mom seeing our parents work

(28:56):
hard. So that's important for usto lay that foundation for the next What
you learn when you went to boardingschool where there were a lot of black
women young girls go into boarding schoolwith you? It wasn't but I learned,
you know, adaptability, how toget along with everyone. Everyone's different
and unique, but we all getalong. So what's that have to do

(29:18):
with how you're building this business?We're a very diverse company or nationwide,
So we have a variety. Peoplecome from different backgrounds and that's something we
pride ourselves at the JPI Group.So you and Paul are husband and wife
and you're also business partners. Howdo you compliment each other as business partners?
What do you guys do the sameor different? I'm the organized one.

(29:41):
I'm more on the operation side wherePaul Paul likes to speak, so
he's more in the sales. Yeah. So I got a question. So
you're working as business par Are youguys good business partners? Or are you
guys good husband and wife? Orwhere's the stretcher? We're a strain here?
What's all that look like? Hi, here's what I tell folks when

(30:04):
they ask that question. Or Iactually think it makes us stronger as a
husband and wife and as business partners. There is this complete transparency right on
everything, and some people think thathey, try to separate things. We
talk about it with our kids,we talked about it at night, we
talked about it over dinner, andwe'll transition into our relationship. So I

(30:25):
think we found out a unique wayto deal with it. But I think
it's made for a stronger couple andalso a stronger family as a whole co
host? What am I missing?What other questions should we be asking?
So I'm getting this sense that Jpi, it's such a family atmosphere. It's
really helped you and Yam's relationship.You guys are transparent. Does that trickle
down and your employees also, Paul? I think so. In fact,

(30:48):
one of the things we talk abouta lot is transparency, and if something
comes up, we have to becontransparent with our community, with our clients,
with our co workers, with ourconsultants. Right, so that literally
every fry we talk about how werewe able to provide value and treat treat
those folks as if their family membersthemselves. And yeah, we talked about
Paul's brother or Paul's sister. Excuseme. You had a brother that you

(31:11):
went to boarding school with and hewas getting a little trouble before. Did
boarding school work out for him?It did turned his life around. He's
doing amazing now, but you know, taking him out of the streets of
Philadelphia and going to her shepa waslife changing. And you saw this at
a very young age, I meaneight to fourteen and just where we're talking
about. So, did that havean effect on you and just seeing how

(31:33):
people were able to reinvent themselves andreally turn their lives around. Absolutely.
You know, I went from trashon the streets to you know, green
grass and cows and so it wasamazing to see that transition and it definitely
changed our lives and your replacement firm. Now, I mean, you work
with people every day, So howdoes that relate to the candidates and employees

(31:55):
that you're working with? Yam,It relates every day because it's amazing how
we get, you know, candidatesfrom all over Inner City, so just
placing them at job that they neverthought they they could have. So that's
amazing. For what's the website addressfor the JPI Group, the jpigroup dot
com. You've been speaking with Yamand Paul Douglass, CEO and president of

(32:16):
the JPI Group. You on ExecutiveLeaders Radio, stay too, Moving back
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(33:36):
Well, we're back. You're listeningto Executive Leaders Radio. This your
host M cohen like to introduce JamieSchrotberger, CEO of Spread Bagel. Ry.
Jamie, what is Spread Bagelry?What are you guys doing? Good
morning? Yeah? Well, SpreadBagel is a private equity back to Montreal
style wood fire oven bagel company.We have seven locations in and around the
Philadelphia area and suburbs. All righty, and are you from originally? How

(34:00):
many brothers and sisters? And whereare you in the pecking order? Sure?
So, I grew up at rightoutside Philadelphia. I'm in a city
called Devon, Pennsylvania. Was aI have an older sister about two and
a half years older than myself.And yeah, outside Philly and I underbook.
I understand that there's a private equitybacked firm, which means that they

(34:23):
brought you in to be the CEO. And eight to fourteen. What kind
of stuff are you doing as akid eight to fourteen years old? Yeah,
there's a normal kid living out inthe suburbs. Focused a lot of
my time on obviously friends and family, but baseball is a big focus for
myself, as well as studying blurringhow to play the piano, which I

(34:45):
seem to be have become pretty accomplishedat at a young age. David Jamie,
talking about playing the piano, youmentioned that you were trained kind of
classically growing up, but then youjoined a band. Tell us a little
bit more about that, sure,just when you learn how to put the
piano. Obviously, many teachers focuson playing the classics, which I did

(35:06):
and did well. But as Igrew up and became a young man,
obviously my interests growing up in theeighties to date, myself became more synthesizer
focused and wanted to be part ofa team rather than just being kind of
by myself alone at a piano howdo you think that transition from being alone
to being part of the team inmusic relates to your your business today?

(35:30):
Oh sure, UM. Firmly believein teamwork, allowing people to putting people
in the right positions to do tothe best of their ability. Um.
Have to be adaptive at all times, UM, and adaptive optimism to kind
of make make others better at timesand just kind of take the lead when
they need they need a little helpbeing being in the keyboard. You're not

(35:52):
the lead, right, So youknow, as the CEO, don't you
need to be the lead. Youhave you have to create the vision and
be the lead. But the jobof a CEO or even the job of
a keyboardist as part of a secondarypart of a band, you need to
be a great cheerleader and had thatoptimism at all times to focus on bringing

(36:15):
people together and making sure that peopleon the quote unquote front lines are getting
everything they need, whether it berhythm or a little extra and to make
sure that they can perform their jobperfectly. Jim, Yeah, what did
mom do and what did dad dowhen you were growing up? Mom was
stay at home and raised my sisterand I. My father was a financial

(36:37):
advisor slash stockbroker in the Philadelphia area. How would you characterize your father's influence
on what you do today and yourmother's influence. Sure, mother's influence was
more of the public speaking, goout and meet anybody at any time,
be very charismatic. My father taughtme a lot about work ethic and ethics,

(37:00):
moral ethics as well. So Ithink I've had the kind of the
perfect combo for parents and being ableto teach you a little bit different things
aspects of life. Amy, Itsounds like you have stayed pretty busy during
the school year with baseball, piano, things like that. What did you
do during the summertime? Summertime acouple of men most of the time in

(37:22):
that eight to fourteen year span ofmy life, spending a summer camp summer
away camp up in New Hampshire obviouslyfor a good two two and a half
months every summer, very focused onObviously being thrown into a new group of
friends boys. You have to learnhow to adapt in that environment, have

(37:44):
to stay true to your own valuesof how your parents raised you and what
you believe in yourself. But reallymake a fun time or you can get
the most out of every summer.What kind of activities were you doing with
your friends group at the camp?We would do everything from you know,
playing sports sports camp most of them. Uh, my best memories is doing

(38:04):
long canoe trips or hiking the PresidentialRange in New Hampshire, climbing Mountcatt in
Maine. That was a fun trip. Fun trips really taught you how to
press yourself because you are working asa team, a group of you are
going out doing something and facing quotethe quote unquote elements. That's that was
the best experience pay and in thattimeframe. Yeah, some endurance type activities

(38:29):
between candoeing, climbing the mountain.You mentioned as a leader, you like
to be a cheer leader out there. You say you have a flat organization.
You're in there with the troops.Did you learn that at camp?
Absolutely? I mean you're obviously theum you can, don't. We like
to say it that's spread now isfast as as slow as we go right
now because we are growing about onehundred percent every year. So we have

(38:49):
another seven stores on our construction rightnow. And you know, as a
team going up a mountain, youknow you have to the slowest person is
the weakest link, right, Soyou have to help people and help people
up when they when they stumble,and you know, carry your own self
and help out carrying a little bitmore weight if need be, to help
everybody in the whole group. Soyou're in seven stores now, I mean

(39:10):
we're moving pretty well. You're kindof touched on climbing them out in a
little bit. What's it like tryingto build this chain of bagel shops?
How does that relate to climbing amountain. There's a lot of prep work
that needs to go ahead before youcan grow at one hundred percent or um
you know, uh, or evenfifty. So you have to pack your
bags, You have to make sureeverything's right, you have to have redundancies

(39:32):
things in case of emergency, andwhen you're supplying more stores and food from
further and further away, you needto plan and have logistical plans but also
mental preparation to get there. Thisis great to hear, I mean preflight
checklist, packing your bags. Wereyou the leader when you're climbing up these
mountains and going on these canoe tripsat camp? Never? Never the leader?

(39:52):
Never the leader, always the guyto help out bring the guy up
from the rear, probably Jam,what kind of prior work are you doing
to spread bagelry? Sure? Aftera business school, I worked for some
pretty large mutual fund companies like blackRock or Turner Investments in the Philadelphia area,
and we're investing in innovative and disruptivecompanies, growth companies. I was

(40:13):
focused primarily in the retail restaurant world, and so I was able to see
a tremense amount of companies come through, saw their successes and why they were
successful, saw their pitfalls and whywhat they did wrong, whether it be
culture, technology, food, andso I learned a lot there about restaurant
growth and that's why the private equityfirm put me in place to really take

(40:36):
spread bagelity to the next level.Well, I understand that you sold a
concept, and I believe that theybrought you in to run the business.
And I'm trying to get a senseof these are investors. So if something's
going wrong, do you like putstuff under the carpet and not say anything
or do you have to You haveto be honest with them when you're seeing

(40:57):
problems come up. So what we'veI've learned over my adult life is radical
transparency is the is the is themost important thing you can do. So
we work as a team. Um, you know you're going to have successes
and be proud of those. There'sobviously lots of problems that happen day to
day in a restaurant company. UM, so there's a lot of sometimes fires
that have to be put out,but always radical transparency letting everybody know where

(41:22):
we are, but also talking aboutthe vision of where we're going and that
being that cheerleader, having that adaptiveoptimism is very important. But I'm wondering
how that relationship with your parents laythe groundwork for your relationship with your board
and your investors. Well, youknow, I think there's you know,
the two sides to it's the workethic and moral ethics that you have to

(41:44):
bring to the table and have thatas being the integrity of an authenticity of
who you are and the believability andtrust that they have in me. But
with my customers and my or mycustomers are really my employees, I really
have to That's who I focus onis my employees. It's it's that outward
going um, like my mother woulddo that always be talking to them,

(42:07):
standing next side by side on thefront lines of the of the operations um
to you know, telling a greatstory of where we're going and how they're
part of it and how they're goingto continue to grow within the organization to
make this a better place for themselvesbut for us as well. What are
you enjoying about about spread bagory?I love everything m one. One thing

(42:30):
that you know, as a CEOI have been able to do which I
have not been able to do inmy past is really focus on branding and
understanding branding and marketing and every aspectof things that you think of. You
know, being a CEO is allabout the numbers, being you know,
having a good handle the numbers andfocus on efficiency and capital efficiency going forward

(42:51):
an allocation um but being able todo it all using right right side of
your brain and left side of yourbrain has been very rewarding for me.
Like this is like camp for you. It's like a challenge. It's like
climbing a mountain. It's like,you know, it's like keeping track of
a thousand and one different things atold times. Right it is. We
do have a good five seven yearplan where we see the peak of that

(43:13):
mountain far away, and we needto lay the groundwork now and to execute
on our business and you know,provide hospital to great hospitality and great products
to our customers, and you know, help each other up along the way.
Continue from within and we'll go what'sthe website address for this organization?
Spread bagela dot com, spread bagelRey dot com. We've been speaking with

(43:35):
Jamie Schrontburger, CEO of spread BagelRey here on Executive Leaders Radio. Okay,
can you give us a rundown?Who else who have had the opportunity
of speaking with today? Yep,awesome show today heard. We started with
Terry Docherty as the executive director ofCollege Settlement, with Brandon mcvall, president
of LTI Laboratory Testing, Inc.When we spoke with the JPI Group Yam
Douglas the CEO and Paul Douglas thepresident, and we just finished up with

(43:58):
Jamie Schrotberger, the CEO Spread BagelRay. I would like to thank my
co host including Jim Wilson, Newmark, Caleb Hoppus Hanlon and David Jackwood's Evolution
Financial Group for giving me a handstructure in the questions. Hope you providing
our listening audience and educational and entertainingshow. I'd like to thank our listening
audience for listening. Otherwise we wouldn'thave a radio show. Do we get

(44:20):
to visit our website it's Executive Leadersradio dot com. That's Executive Leaders radio
dot com to learn more about ourexecutive leaders. Thank you for joining us
today and have a nice day.Bye bye