Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:14):
Welcome to the Fortified Life Podcast, where we learn how
to develop a dependency on Jesus in the marketplace. From
the boardroom to the bathroom. God is with you. Here's
our host, author, speaker, speaker, encourager. Here a true coach,
and my husband's the man they call mister Fortify. Jason Davis.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Hey, what's going on everybody? Welcome back to another episode
of the Fortified Life podcast, where we are passionate about
developing a dependency on Jesus in the marketplace. My name
is Jason Davis, aka mister Fortify, and I'm your host.
Every single week we have the opportunity to bring on authors, speakers, CEOs,
leaders of nonprofits, all who are also passionate about putting
(01:01):
God back in business and focus.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
It's so different this week.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I'm very excited for our guest today, somebody that I've
known for a little bit of time.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
She is the founder and CEO and owner of Sourced Uh.
Gabriel Mills, Gaby, Welcome to the Fortified Life Podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Glad to have you today.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Hey, Jason, thanks for letting me be here today.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Absolutely well, Gabrielle. We hear names in bios like founder
and CEO and all those sorts of things, and we
know that you just didn't wake up and become that
there's a story behind becoming the leader of an organization. So,
as entrepreneur, entrepreneur, founder, CEO, tell us a little bit
(01:52):
about your professional journey.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
So I have I started business.
Speaker 5 (01:58):
I started Source, which is my business with my mom
ten years ago. I like to say that I was
a corporate refugee, but really I wasn't in corporate long
enough to really call myself a refugee. It's just something
that people giggle at. But I just felt a calling
(02:19):
from the Lord early on in my career that I
was meant to do entrepreneurship, and I thought that that
was going to happen later in my life, and the
cards all started aligning as they do, and I had
an opportunity to leave my job and move into my
mom's basement to start Sourced with her, and I faithfully
(02:42):
took the leap. And really this business has has been
blessed and anointed by God in so many ways. But
the biggest impact that this business has had is really
in my spiritual journey. I was a product of public
school and corporate life, and I believed what I was told,
(03:07):
which was that your faith and your profession should not
and cannot intertwine. And now I don't believe that anymore
because I've seen I've seen Christ all throughout our journey,
and now it's it's a more joyful place to be
knowing that it's all intertwined.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Very cool, Gabrielle, you mentioned starting the business with your mom.
What is that like working with family?
Speaker 4 (03:36):
I so, so let me.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
Let me one up you here. So not only is
did I start the business with my mom. About three
years in, I pulled in my sister. About that, I
pulled in my brother in law, and around that time
we pulled in my aunt. And in the last couple
of years I have served another one of my aunts
(04:02):
and two uncles as clients. So I know very very
well what it's like working with family. And I get
that question all the time, and in short, I love it.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
I do.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
I think that you can be very successful being in
business with family if you have a healthy family dynamic.
I think you can be successful in business with your
friends if you have a healthy friend dynamic.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
Does it get tricky, of course it does.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
All human relationships can get tricky, But at the end
of the day, we put family first.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
We put our love with each other first.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
But on the flip side, nobody understands the commitment that
I've made to this company and that we've all made
this company. Then the people who see the underbelly of
it when we go home and the real impact of it.
So I have found that being in business with family
has been an incredible blessing for me. Now that being said,
I do give so much credit to the husband and
(05:01):
wife teams that are a business together. I think that's
way harder than being in business with my mom and
my sister because we have different houses, we have different
bank accounts, Like we don't have to like go and
talk like at dinner at night. We can not answer
the phone on the weekend if we want to. So, like,
the husband and wives really got the hard, hard part
(05:21):
of that. But it's been my experience that it's been
really good for us.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Wow, you know, Gabrielle, I was thinking you said something, key,
I didn't.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
I didn't.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
You know, the kids in the street these days would say, oh, man, Gabrielle,
that's a bar.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
He talked about having.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
A healthy family dynamic and that creates a healthy work environment.
I just I wanted to call time out there for
a second because if somebody is listening, they might have
that might that might have went over their head real quick.
So I just I wanted to pause and see law
and linger there because that is huge because you have
(06:03):
employees that are family and clients that are family. So
maybe just kind of hover there for a second. Because
of healthy family, how does that create the employee family
dynamic and then the customer family dynamic.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
Sure?
Speaker 5 (06:20):
So, like I said, when you have so everything in
life can be drawn back to having a healthy relationship
with yourself and having a healthy relationship with the people
that are closest to you. If you have a healthy
relationship with yourself and those people that are closest to you,
anything that you're touching will thrive.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
Period. It's just the way that it works.
Speaker 5 (06:45):
And you and I both believe in, and probably your
listeners do too, that when you layer in your spirituality
and your relationship with Christ on top of that, it's unstoppable.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
Right, doesn't mean it's.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
Without hardship and without it being tricky, because this is
our So if you start there, if you have a
healthy relationship, the most important thing that you can do
for yourself and for those closest to you is to
have respect. And if you have and you really honor
the respect of everybody involved, that becomes the cornerstone of
(07:20):
all the relationships. So whether they are an employee, whether
they are a client, everybody agrees that at the end
of the day, we're walking away from this having respected
each other. That there might be differences of opinion, but
the love and the respect is still there, and we're
going to keep that as the cornerstone and underline of everything.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
And then it becomes about the details. And I'm not
going to lie to you.
Speaker 5 (07:46):
The details can sometimes piss you off, and you may
not agree with them, or you may be like they're
crazy because I'm right and they're wrong, or whatever the
situation is. But again, it's not about them, because you've
are be established that like, no, the love is there,
I just don't agree with their tactics and and so
(08:07):
so when I'm talking about family and business too, I
think it's important to also to note that when when
you do that, you have to have very clear lines.
So the sister that is currently employed in the business
and the brother in law who was employed for a
period of time here and the aunt they felt they
(08:28):
did not get any special treatment they were.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
They followed the same handbook, the same guidelines.
Speaker 5 (08:34):
The same everything as everybody else, and same with clients,
like for for our employees, they followed everything the same
as everybody else. But when are with our clients, we go,
we bend over backwards for our clients. So it's it's
a do whatever needs to be done unless we cannot,
and then we have to step away. On one family member,
(08:57):
we had phenomenal relationship delivering some marketing materials for them.
It's a huge contract, and she was incredibly impressed and
it was an easy process and she was needing in
a way, but like she she leveled us up and
like we really enjoyed that and we did really well.
And then for another family member, he was a difficult client,
(09:20):
but just like any difficult client, we went above and
beyond to try to please that person and to please
the relationship up until the point where we had to
have a tough conversation. But we didn't treat him any
different than any other client that we would that we
would work with, and even if we did, we knew everybody,
all the parties, knew that we were walking away family first,
(09:44):
brid first, respect first.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Very cool.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
I love that, and that clearly what I heard was roles, responsibilities, boundaries.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
The boundaries extremely important.
Speaker 5 (09:57):
So Jason, I have a whole keynote about this because
I get asked of it a lot. And the framework
that Christy and I built was a house, and so
the the respect is the cornerstone of the house, and
then you have the foundation, then you have the windows,
then you have the roof, and we build all of
these these things with in order to build a healthy
(10:18):
structure and a strong structure, all the things that need
to be maintained. Boundaries is one of those things. They're
actually the lad So there's a lot of ingredients to
make this work. But at the end of the day,
if you have a good relationship with somebody, these things
come naturally, and if you have the same shared values
and the same destination, they will come naturally and the
(10:40):
rest is just details that can be worked out.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
M that's good.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
I want to come back to the speaking because that
was a little nugget there.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
I wanted people to I wanted to.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Highlight the power of just how God uses the business
and sourced so Gabrielle, Where did the name am the
origin of source come from? And people, you can see
this on the website, multi award winning back office solutions,
So we've got back office solutions Gabrielle, which people may
(11:11):
be familiar with. Okay, here's what I need. But then
the name sourced, where did that come into play? And
how does that shape how you serve your clients.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
I'm so glad you asked that because the story I
don't get to tell very often. People are like, the
love the name, and I love the name too, but
I chuckle because it almost wasn't the name. So I
was working. Oh you know what, here's a fun connection.
That aunt that was a client.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
Of ours for a minute.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
I actually used to work for her. Yeah, she in
a big corporation. It just was happenstance. But I had
put in my notice I was quitted, and I went
to this relative and I was like, Okay, this is
what I'm going to do. Here's the website. And our
name was the Atlanta Assistance Group because at the time,
our model.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Was more vas and she was in branding.
Speaker 5 (12:05):
And just like she challenged me when I when when
she was a client, she challenged me back then to
smart woman. I'm so glad that she pushes me in
this way. She goes, I gotta tell you, I don't
love the name.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
And I'm like, what do you mean.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
It's a great acronym tag taag, like you know, it's
got legs and whatever, and she's like, no, I don't
like it. This was seven days before I was going
to leave, and this was in the midst of me
telling people that I was leaving to start my own business,
so like you kind of had to have your stuff
together or people were going to think you're crazy.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
Well they thought it was.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
Crazy anyway, But so basically I had like a timeline
of like, okay, I have seven days to rename this company.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
It took me four months to come up with that name.
It sucks, but it took.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
Me four months, and it was all I thought about
for four days. Me and my mom we thought about
and I remember where I was when it came to me.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
I was trying to do a play.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
On words of outsource resource outsourced U and then I'm like, oh, well,
like okay, the outsourced resource, and then I just kept
saying source sources it, and I'm like source sourced it.
And then my experient we added the period at the
end to be like, this is the only place that
they need to be. So that's and then I brought
(13:29):
it back to her and she's like, I love it.
And I could not have been more grateful that she
was honest with me, because now it's it's.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
The best name ever.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
I love that, and I like the way you worked
through it to geat Reel. Sometimes in business, I often
think of Patrick lencioni the five Dysfunctions of a team,
and he talks about healthy conflict, and in this case,
you had a healthy conflict that pushed a better branding
(14:04):
of a business name, all because somebody was emphatic that
that also, by the way, cared you know, it's it's
different to get feedback from someone and they don't have
the proximity, they don't really know you. But someone that
thoughtfully took a little time and said.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Yeah, I don't really I don't like that.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
But but because it matriculated through additional like you know what,
and then source and then boom, that's it. So I
didn't want our audience to miss that piece, Like sometimes
it's the healthy conflict that pushes a business to be better.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
So I love that conflict is absolutely critical.
Speaker 5 (14:42):
I mean I think they should be having healthy, respectful
conflict every day because it's through friction.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
You know, iron sharpens iron.
Speaker 5 (14:51):
You don't get better unless you are under some kind
of challenge or something that pushes better. I'm so glad
you mentioned the five dysfunctions of a team because that's
actually when I have done my talk on family dynamics
and partnerships, people have told me they're like, yeah, it's
just like this book.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
And I read the book and I'm like, yeah, it's
just like it. Yeah. I mean it's all about you know,
respect and having healthy conflict and having good communication.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
And I'm like, if you have all of these things,
you can be a business with anybody.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Who wants me.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
So, Gabriel, we've got this big umbrella back office solutions.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
There's a lot of things that a business needs.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
But what is kind of the sweet spot for sourced
for the clientele that you have?
Speaker 5 (15:41):
Yeah, So we have five divisions of our company. Four
of them fall on the fractional services side. So these
are four small to mid market companies that don't need
a full time resource for one of the following things.
And the easiest way you can describe that is basically,
put there's a box name sourced. Put an accounting firm
(16:04):
in the box, Put a marketing agency in the box,
put an HR consulting company in the box, and vas
virtual assistance. That's everything on the fractional side. So these
are people that are doing a couple times a month
all the way to like part time or semi full time.
And it's not typical virtual assistance like a bullet or
(16:28):
an office angels. We started with that model and it
just didn't work for us. I love that it worked
for them because we were not smart enough.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
To figure that one out. We are truly a firm style.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
So when people come in and they're like, I need
to get my books cleaned up, we are just like
an accounting firm where we will get in there, we
will fix it. We will do everything monthly for you.
It's not and it's a team approach. You have a manager,
you have an accountant, you have somebody that's doing quality control.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
Same with accounting.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
When you when we're doing social media for somebody, it's
not just one person that we're giving. We have a designer,
we have a copywriter, we have an account manager, we
have someone doing quality control, so it's it's a firm style.
So that's four of our services, accounting, marketing, HR, and
administrative support. And then the fifth thing that we do
came by way of a client about three years in.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
He needed a full time person, he needed a project manager.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
He was a construction client, and we then started our
talent acquisition arm, which is a little bit more like
standard recruiting.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
We had no experience in recruiting. We just took on
that job and we were like, how hard can this be?
Speaker 5 (17:35):
And without even thinking that, like whole businesses are made
off of this, But we ended up building it our way,
which is a little bit different than the than how
the industry typically does it. But that side of the
business serves people who do need a full time need.
So we have the doul't need somebody full time, but
I still need a website, I need my marketing done,
(17:57):
I need I need somebody to call for HR. I
need all these things in the back office, and then
we also can serve the but I also need an engineer,
I need a project manager. I need something that we
couldn't serve on the fractional side. That's what we do
a talent acquisition.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
That's awesome, Gabrielle. I'm getting excited just the way you
described that. It's the business in a box.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
With all those roles.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Hey, you need these four things and then, by the way,
talent acquisition when you need it.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
Folks, I hope you're paying attention.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Well, we'll talk about where you can reach out and
contact Gabrielle at the end. But I hope you're picking
up what she's putting down because that that that's phenomenal,
especially just the days we live in the amount of
support that businesses need. So, Gabrielle, you you founded the
business through mom lots of lessons learned along the way,
(18:50):
and now you're stepping into the speaking aspect. Talk to
me because this is and by the way, folks, I've
known Gabrielle for a little bit, so I am I
am cheating a little bit by knowing some of her journey. Gabrielle,
what's been really cool is to watch you not just
start and build a business, but now becoming even an
(19:14):
ambassador and a thought leader.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
What was the.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Beginnings of maybe how your heart was stirred.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
To you know what I'm going to do.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
The speaking thing You've already mentioned a couple of topics too,
you know, with boundaries, you know, in the house, and
so just talk about the journey into speaking and when
did you say you know what? Yes, I'm going to
do this.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Thank you so much for asking me this question.
Speaker 5 (19:41):
I'm going to get real vulnerable with you on this one,
because I can't tell the story without being vulnerable.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
So is it back in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
You actually met me this year, but you met me
kind of in the throes of our worst year ever.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
It was really bad that I.
Speaker 5 (19:58):
Still had OFTIM and I was hanging on but by
because we met around the springtime. By the end of
that year, I was completely wore out. I mean I
was I was in the throes of depression. I had
developed anxiety. I was trying not to quit. I mean
it was bad, but nobody knew that. Nobody knew about
(20:20):
my mom and my husband how bad it was. And
we have a mutual connection that we were talking about
before the call, and we both really loved this woman
named Rachel Hollis.
Speaker 4 (20:34):
She was really big at this time.
Speaker 5 (20:36):
She had written a book for women and she is
a woman entrepreneur herself. And I stumbled across her her
audio book, and I really resonated with her content. And
Rachel was having a conference in Charleston, and so this
mutual friend of ours invited me, and I was nervous
to go because she was this mutual friend of ours
(20:59):
was also a client of mine. And she's like, why
don't you come and stay in this house and we
go to this conference.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
I'm like, can you do that with a client?
Speaker 5 (21:06):
Like?
Speaker 4 (21:07):
Is that appropriate?
Speaker 5 (21:09):
And so we went and I watched Rachel on stage.
She was about my height, about my build, blonde hair woman, entrepreneur,
and I felt this wash over me of just this
is what God has called me to do. That like
that's I believe so strongly in representation because I have
(21:34):
been on the receiving end of that. I saw a
woman who looked like me doing the things that I
was trying so hard to do, and God used her
to tell me, this is what I want you to do.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
I want you to teach women how to build and
scale their.
Speaker 5 (21:49):
Businesses and to help them navigate what it is that
you're going through right now. And so I came out
of that conference completely charged, came back, mom, husband, I'm
going to be a facial speaker. I'm going to do
all these things. And I tried, but I wasn't ready.
I needed to learn certain lessons. And for six years
(22:09):
I was like, just tell it. I believe that you
have to put it out of the world what you
want in the world, and like the opportunities will come
back to you. So I would tell people I want
to speak, I want to speak, I don't want to
write this book, I want to do the thing or whatever.
And God was not bringing the opportunities to me, which
is unusual because usually when you put it out in
the world, things just happen. And so earlier this year,
(22:31):
we're in twenty twenty five. Right now, I was talking
to my mom and I'm like, you know, Mom, I've
been saying this that I want to speak, and I'm
wondering if maybe I misunderstood what God was trying to
tell me, because I really do want to do this,
but it's just doesn't seem to be happening for me.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
And then I.
Speaker 5 (22:51):
Got the flu and my mom went to a meeting
that I usually never missed, but I had to miss
because there was I had the flu, and there was
a person there Anderson, he's a very well known speaker,
and she was like, You've got to sign up for
his program, and I'm like, I looked it up. It
wasn't for me or whatever, but I did go to
his conference and that conference once again changed my life
(23:14):
and I felt the Lord just go it's your time.
And it's funny when I look back on my life,
the big moments of my life, the best blessings have
come after it's been the darkest. And in twenty nineteen
it was the darkest, and then I got a glimpse
of what God wanted for my life. And then earlier
(23:36):
this year it wasn't dark, but I was just like, Okay, well,
I guess it's not for me.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
Maybe I misunderstood.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
And then he put me in a place where he's like, no,
now it's your time. And so this has all been
God ordained and this is all meant. It's just what
He wants me to do.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
With my life.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Yeah, Reel, I appreciate your vulnerability and trans and see it.
There's something about sharing those times because that's often where
the growth is. So I don't take that lightly. As
we get ready to close, Gabrielle, a couple of things.
One you know Q four of the year, people are
(24:17):
winding things down, in some cases planning for the next
year and others. What are you excited about in twenty
twenty six? And then how can by now you dropped
wisdom you given nuggets?
Speaker 3 (24:31):
What's the best way.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
For people to connect with you? So what are you
excited about for the future? And then what's the best
way for listeners to connect with you?
Speaker 4 (24:39):
Jason, I'm always excited about the future, like I could.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
I love talking to people about it because I could
nerd out on it.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
Peop were like, you need to slow down.
Speaker 5 (24:50):
We made a really critical hire last week at changed
the trajectory of this business. And I don't I say
that with all the weight that it sounds like she
is going to change the business, which is phenomenal. So
I'm most excited to learn from her and to see
what she does and how we scale. And I can't
(25:10):
wait for that. I God has put me on a
path for speaking. I am very serious about it. I
want to do it in a really big way. I
have absolutely no idea how it's going to happen, So
I'm just in a faithful soldier of like I'm just
gonna do where he whatever he leads me to do,
so I'm interested to see how that goes. And I
(25:31):
would encourage people listening to not only like I don't
want to say get serious about your future because that
sounds like so condescending, but like when I look at
my twenty twenty six, I try to spend some time
in reflection and write down truly what I want for myself,
and then I map out those big goals of how
(25:54):
I'm going to achieve that through the year. I love
doing and then I love doing a recap in December
to see like, Okay, how did I do? Did I
forget one, did I come halfway out another, or whatever?
So I'm excited to see what I was able to
do this year and how do people get in contact me.
They can find me on all the social media channels
(26:14):
at Gabrielle Mills speaks.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
I love it, and Gabrielle Mills does speak ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
So she's coming to a venue near you.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
I guarante tell gods.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
I guarantee it.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Well, Gabrielle, I've I've thoroughly enjoyed our time together. We
will definitely have to do this again to see folks
the next time she comes on, she'll be talking about, well,
I was over here and I gave a talk on this.
That's how the conversation will be next time. So I'm
gonna be very very excited. Well, Gabrielle, thank you so
(26:49):
much for hanging out with us here on the Fortified
Life Podcast. She like the Avengers movies. Folks, Gabrielle Mills
will return to the Fortified Life. She'll be back. We'll
work out calendar space and all of that as she
continues dominating everywhere she goes.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
You're so sweet, Jason.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Well, folks, that's all we have time for here on
the Fortified Life Podcast. Remember to like, share, and subscribe
fortifiedlifepodcast dot com, Jerichafors dot com, slash podcast. We will
have all of the show notes, so don't you worry.
You'll know exactly where to find Gabrielle, and we'll have
the website so that you can get sourced for sure. Remember,
(27:33):
don't compartmentalize your faith in the marketplace and from the
boardroom to the bathroom, God is with you. We'll see
you next time on the Fortified Life Podcast.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Thank you for listening to the Fortified Life Podcast. You
can catch us live on Wednesdays at eight thirty pm
Eastern Time and on demand. Check out Fortified lifepodcast dot
com for more details. So learn how to live out
your faith in the marketplace. Grab a copy of Jason
Davis's book Fortified, Being Rooted in God's Plan for Work
(28:05):
in Business, Available on Amazon
Welcome to the Fortified Life Podcast, where we learn how
to develop a dependency on Jesus in the marketplace. From
the boardroom to the bathroom. God is with you. Here's
our host, author, speaker, speaker, encourager. Here a true coach,
and my husband's the man they call mister Fortify. Jason Davis.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Hey, what's going on everybody? Welcome back to another episode
of the Fortified Life podcast, where we are passionate about
developing a dependency on Jesus in the marketplace. My name
is Jason Davis, aka mister Fortify, and I'm your host.
Every single week we have the opportunity to bring on authors, speakers, CEOs,
leaders of nonprofits, all who are also passionate about putting
(01:01):
God back in business and focus.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
It's so different this week.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I'm very excited for our guest today, somebody that I've
known for a little bit of time.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
She is the founder and CEO and owner of Sourced Uh.
Gabriel Mills, Gaby, Welcome to the Fortified Life Podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Glad to have you today.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Hey, Jason, thanks for letting me be here today.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Absolutely well, Gabrielle. We hear names in bios like founder
and CEO and all those sorts of things, and we
know that you just didn't wake up and become that
there's a story behind becoming the leader of an organization. So,
as entrepreneur, entrepreneur, founder, CEO, tell us a little bit
(01:52):
about your professional journey.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
So I have I started business.
Speaker 5 (01:58):
I started Source, which is my business with my mom
ten years ago. I like to say that I was
a corporate refugee, but really I wasn't in corporate long
enough to really call myself a refugee. It's just something
that people giggle at. But I just felt a calling
(02:19):
from the Lord early on in my career that I
was meant to do entrepreneurship, and I thought that that
was going to happen later in my life, and the
cards all started aligning as they do, and I had
an opportunity to leave my job and move into my
mom's basement to start Sourced with her, and I faithfully
(02:42):
took the leap. And really this business has has been
blessed and anointed by God in so many ways. But
the biggest impact that this business has had is really
in my spiritual journey. I was a product of public
school and corporate life, and I believed what I was told,
(03:07):
which was that your faith and your profession should not
and cannot intertwine. And now I don't believe that anymore
because I've seen I've seen Christ all throughout our journey,
and now it's it's a more joyful place to be
knowing that it's all intertwined.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Very cool, Gabrielle, you mentioned starting the business with your mom.
What is that like working with family?
Speaker 4 (03:36):
I so, so let me.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
Let me one up you here. So not only is
did I start the business with my mom. About three
years in, I pulled in my sister. About that, I
pulled in my brother in law, and around that time
we pulled in my aunt. And in the last couple
of years I have served another one of my aunts
(04:02):
and two uncles as clients. So I know very very
well what it's like working with family. And I get
that question all the time, and in short, I love it.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
I do.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
I think that you can be very successful being in
business with family if you have a healthy family dynamic.
I think you can be successful in business with your
friends if you have a healthy friend dynamic.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
Does it get tricky, of course it does.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
All human relationships can get tricky, But at the end
of the day, we put family first.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
We put our love with each other first.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
But on the flip side, nobody understands the commitment that
I've made to this company and that we've all made
this company. Then the people who see the underbelly of
it when we go home and the real impact of it.
So I have found that being in business with family
has been an incredible blessing for me. Now that being said,
I do give so much credit to the husband and
(05:01):
wife teams that are a business together. I think that's
way harder than being in business with my mom and
my sister because we have different houses, we have different
bank accounts, Like we don't have to like go and
talk like at dinner at night. We can not answer
the phone on the weekend if we want to. So, like,
the husband and wives really got the hard, hard part
(05:21):
of that. But it's been my experience that it's been
really good for us.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Wow, you know, Gabrielle, I was thinking you said something, key,
I didn't.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
I didn't.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
You know, the kids in the street these days would say, oh, man, Gabrielle,
that's a bar.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
He talked about having.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
A healthy family dynamic and that creates a healthy work environment.
I just I wanted to call time out there for
a second because if somebody is listening, they might have
that might that might have went over their head real quick.
So I just I wanted to pause and see law
and linger there because that is huge because you have
(06:03):
employees that are family and clients that are family. So
maybe just kind of hover there for a second. Because
of healthy family, how does that create the employee family
dynamic and then the customer family dynamic.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
Sure?
Speaker 5 (06:20):
So, like I said, when you have so everything in
life can be drawn back to having a healthy relationship
with yourself and having a healthy relationship with the people
that are closest to you. If you have a healthy
relationship with yourself and those people that are closest to you,
anything that you're touching will thrive.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
Period. It's just the way that it works.
Speaker 5 (06:45):
And you and I both believe in, and probably your
listeners do too, that when you layer in your spirituality
and your relationship with Christ on top of that, it's unstoppable.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
Right, doesn't mean it's.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
Without hardship and without it being tricky, because this is
our So if you start there, if you have a
healthy relationship, the most important thing that you can do
for yourself and for those closest to you is to
have respect. And if you have and you really honor
the respect of everybody involved, that becomes the cornerstone of
(07:20):
all the relationships. So whether they are an employee, whether
they are a client, everybody agrees that at the end
of the day, we're walking away from this having respected
each other. That there might be differences of opinion, but
the love and the respect is still there, and we're
going to keep that as the cornerstone and underline of everything.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
And then it becomes about the details. And I'm not
going to lie to you.
Speaker 5 (07:46):
The details can sometimes piss you off, and you may
not agree with them, or you may be like they're
crazy because I'm right and they're wrong, or whatever the
situation is. But again, it's not about them, because you've
are be established that like, no, the love is there,
I just don't agree with their tactics and and so
(08:07):
so when I'm talking about family and business too, I
think it's important to also to note that when when
you do that, you have to have very clear lines.
So the sister that is currently employed in the business
and the brother in law who was employed for a
period of time here and the aunt they felt they
(08:28):
did not get any special treatment they were.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
They followed the same handbook, the same guidelines.
Speaker 5 (08:34):
The same everything as everybody else, and same with clients,
like for for our employees, they followed everything the same
as everybody else. But when are with our clients, we go,
we bend over backwards for our clients. So it's it's
a do whatever needs to be done unless we cannot,
and then we have to step away. On one family member,
(08:57):
we had phenomenal relationship delivering some marketing materials for them.
It's a huge contract, and she was incredibly impressed and
it was an easy process and she was needing in
a way, but like she she leveled us up and
like we really enjoyed that and we did really well.
And then for another family member, he was a difficult client,
(09:20):
but just like any difficult client, we went above and
beyond to try to please that person and to please
the relationship up until the point where we had to
have a tough conversation. But we didn't treat him any
different than any other client that we would that we
would work with, and even if we did, we knew everybody,
all the parties, knew that we were walking away family first,
(09:44):
brid first, respect first.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Very cool.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
I love that, and that clearly what I heard was roles, responsibilities, boundaries.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
The boundaries extremely important.
Speaker 5 (09:57):
So Jason, I have a whole keynote about this because
I get asked of it a lot. And the framework
that Christy and I built was a house, and so
the the respect is the cornerstone of the house, and
then you have the foundation, then you have the windows,
then you have the roof, and we build all of
these these things with in order to build a healthy
(10:18):
structure and a strong structure, all the things that need
to be maintained. Boundaries is one of those things. They're
actually the lad So there's a lot of ingredients to
make this work. But at the end of the day,
if you have a good relationship with somebody, these things
come naturally, and if you have the same shared values
and the same destination, they will come naturally and the
(10:40):
rest is just details that can be worked out.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
M that's good.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
I want to come back to the speaking because that
was a little nugget there.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
I wanted people to I wanted to.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Highlight the power of just how God uses the business
and sourced so Gabrielle, Where did the name am the
origin of source come from? And people, you can see
this on the website, multi award winning back office solutions,
So we've got back office solutions Gabrielle, which people may
(11:11):
be familiar with. Okay, here's what I need. But then
the name sourced, where did that come into play? And
how does that shape how you serve your clients.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
I'm so glad you asked that because the story I
don't get to tell very often. People are like, the
love the name, and I love the name too, but
I chuckle because it almost wasn't the name. So I
was working. Oh you know what, here's a fun connection.
That aunt that was a client.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
Of ours for a minute.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
I actually used to work for her. Yeah, she in
a big corporation. It just was happenstance. But I had
put in my notice I was quitted, and I went
to this relative and I was like, Okay, this is
what I'm going to do. Here's the website. And our
name was the Atlanta Assistance Group because at the time,
our model.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Was more vas and she was in branding.
Speaker 5 (12:05):
And just like she challenged me when I when when
she was a client, she challenged me back then to
smart woman. I'm so glad that she pushes me in
this way. She goes, I gotta tell you, I don't
love the name.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
And I'm like, what do you mean.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
It's a great acronym tag taag, like you know, it's
got legs and whatever, and she's like, no, I don't
like it. This was seven days before I was going
to leave, and this was in the midst of me
telling people that I was leaving to start my own business,
so like you kind of had to have your stuff
together or people were going to think you're crazy.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
Well they thought it was.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
Crazy anyway, But so basically I had like a timeline
of like, okay, I have seven days to rename this company.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
It took me four months to come up with that name.
It sucks, but it took.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
Me four months, and it was all I thought about
for four days. Me and my mom we thought about
and I remember where I was when it came to me.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
I was trying to do a play.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
On words of outsource resource outsourced U and then I'm like, oh, well,
like okay, the outsourced resource, and then I just kept
saying source sources it, and I'm like source sourced it.
And then my experient we added the period at the
end to be like, this is the only place that
they need to be. So that's and then I brought
(13:29):
it back to her and she's like, I love it.
And I could not have been more grateful that she
was honest with me, because now it's it's.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
The best name ever.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
I love that, and I like the way you worked
through it to geat Reel. Sometimes in business, I often
think of Patrick lencioni the five Dysfunctions of a team,
and he talks about healthy conflict, and in this case,
you had a healthy conflict that pushed a better branding
(14:04):
of a business name, all because somebody was emphatic that
that also, by the way, cared you know, it's it's
different to get feedback from someone and they don't have
the proximity, they don't really know you. But someone that
thoughtfully took a little time and said.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Yeah, I don't really I don't like that.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
But but because it matriculated through additional like you know what,
and then source and then boom, that's it. So I
didn't want our audience to miss that piece, Like sometimes
it's the healthy conflict that pushes a business to be better.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
So I love that conflict is absolutely critical.
Speaker 5 (14:42):
I mean I think they should be having healthy, respectful
conflict every day because it's through friction.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
You know, iron sharpens iron.
Speaker 5 (14:51):
You don't get better unless you are under some kind
of challenge or something that pushes better. I'm so glad
you mentioned the five dysfunctions of a team because that's
actually when I have done my talk on family dynamics
and partnerships, people have told me they're like, yeah, it's
just like this book.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
And I read the book and I'm like, yeah, it's
just like it. Yeah. I mean it's all about you know,
respect and having healthy conflict and having good communication.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
And I'm like, if you have all of these things,
you can be a business with anybody.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Who wants me.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
So, Gabriel, we've got this big umbrella back office solutions.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
There's a lot of things that a business needs.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
But what is kind of the sweet spot for sourced
for the clientele that you have?
Speaker 5 (15:41):
Yeah, So we have five divisions of our company. Four
of them fall on the fractional services side. So these
are four small to mid market companies that don't need
a full time resource for one of the following things.
And the easiest way you can describe that is basically,
put there's a box name sourced. Put an accounting firm
(16:04):
in the box, Put a marketing agency in the box,
put an HR consulting company in the box, and vas
virtual assistance. That's everything on the fractional side. So these
are people that are doing a couple times a month
all the way to like part time or semi full time.
And it's not typical virtual assistance like a bullet or
(16:28):
an office angels. We started with that model and it
just didn't work for us. I love that it worked
for them because we were not smart enough.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
To figure that one out. We are truly a firm style.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
So when people come in and they're like, I need
to get my books cleaned up, we are just like
an accounting firm where we will get in there, we
will fix it. We will do everything monthly for you.
It's not and it's a team approach. You have a manager,
you have an accountant, you have somebody that's doing quality control.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
Same with accounting.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
When you when we're doing social media for somebody, it's
not just one person that we're giving. We have a designer,
we have a copywriter, we have an account manager, we
have someone doing quality control, so it's it's a firm style.
So that's four of our services, accounting, marketing, HR, and
administrative support. And then the fifth thing that we do
came by way of a client about three years in.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
He needed a full time person, he needed a project manager.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
He was a construction client, and we then started our
talent acquisition arm, which is a little bit more like
standard recruiting.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
We had no experience in recruiting. We just took on
that job and we were like, how hard can this be?
Speaker 5 (17:35):
And without even thinking that, like whole businesses are made
off of this, But we ended up building it our way,
which is a little bit different than the than how
the industry typically does it. But that side of the
business serves people who do need a full time need.
So we have the doul't need somebody full time, but
I still need a website, I need my marketing done,
(17:57):
I need I need somebody to call for HR. I
need all these things in the back office, and then
we also can serve the but I also need an engineer,
I need a project manager. I need something that we
couldn't serve on the fractional side. That's what we do
a talent acquisition.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
That's awesome, Gabrielle. I'm getting excited just the way you
described that. It's the business in a box.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
With all those roles.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Hey, you need these four things and then, by the way,
talent acquisition when you need it.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
Folks, I hope you're paying attention.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Well, we'll talk about where you can reach out and
contact Gabrielle at the end. But I hope you're picking
up what she's putting down because that that that's phenomenal,
especially just the days we live in the amount of
support that businesses need. So, Gabrielle, you you founded the
business through mom lots of lessons learned along the way,
(18:50):
and now you're stepping into the speaking aspect. Talk to
me because this is and by the way, folks, I've
known Gabrielle for a little bit, so I am I
am cheating a little bit by knowing some of her journey. Gabrielle,
what's been really cool is to watch you not just
start and build a business, but now becoming even an
(19:14):
ambassador and a thought leader.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
What was the.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Beginnings of maybe how your heart was stirred.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
To you know what I'm going to do.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
The speaking thing You've already mentioned a couple of topics too,
you know, with boundaries, you know, in the house, and
so just talk about the journey into speaking and when
did you say you know what? Yes, I'm going to
do this.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Thank you so much for asking me this question.
Speaker 5 (19:41):
I'm going to get real vulnerable with you on this one,
because I can't tell the story without being vulnerable.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
So is it back in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
You actually met me this year, but you met me
kind of in the throes of our worst year ever.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
It was really bad that I.
Speaker 5 (19:58):
Still had OFTIM and I was hanging on but by
because we met around the springtime. By the end of
that year, I was completely wore out. I mean I
was I was in the throes of depression. I had
developed anxiety. I was trying not to quit. I mean
it was bad, but nobody knew that. Nobody knew about
(20:20):
my mom and my husband how bad it was. And
we have a mutual connection that we were talking about
before the call, and we both really loved this woman
named Rachel Hollis.
Speaker 4 (20:34):
She was really big at this time.
Speaker 5 (20:36):
She had written a book for women and she is
a woman entrepreneur herself. And I stumbled across her her
audio book, and I really resonated with her content. And
Rachel was having a conference in Charleston, and so this
mutual friend of ours invited me, and I was nervous
to go because she was this mutual friend of ours
(20:59):
was also a client of mine. And she's like, why
don't you come and stay in this house and we
go to this conference.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
I'm like, can you do that with a client?
Speaker 5 (21:06):
Like?
Speaker 4 (21:07):
Is that appropriate?
Speaker 5 (21:09):
And so we went and I watched Rachel on stage.
She was about my height, about my build, blonde hair woman, entrepreneur,
and I felt this wash over me of just this
is what God has called me to do. That like
that's I believe so strongly in representation because I have
(21:34):
been on the receiving end of that. I saw a
woman who looked like me doing the things that I
was trying so hard to do, and God used her
to tell me, this is what I want you to do.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
I want you to teach women how to build and
scale their.
Speaker 5 (21:49):
Businesses and to help them navigate what it is that
you're going through right now. And so I came out
of that conference completely charged, came back, mom, husband, I'm
going to be a facial speaker. I'm going to do
all these things. And I tried, but I wasn't ready.
I needed to learn certain lessons. And for six years
(22:09):
I was like, just tell it. I believe that you
have to put it out of the world what you
want in the world, and like the opportunities will come
back to you. So I would tell people I want
to speak, I want to speak, I don't want to
write this book, I want to do the thing or whatever.
And God was not bringing the opportunities to me, which
is unusual because usually when you put it out in
the world, things just happen. And so earlier this year,
(22:31):
we're in twenty twenty five. Right now, I was talking
to my mom and I'm like, you know, Mom, I've
been saying this that I want to speak, and I'm
wondering if maybe I misunderstood what God was trying to
tell me, because I really do want to do this,
but it's just doesn't seem to be happening for me.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
And then I.
Speaker 5 (22:51):
Got the flu and my mom went to a meeting
that I usually never missed, but I had to miss
because there was I had the flu, and there was
a person there Anderson, he's a very well known speaker,
and she was like, You've got to sign up for
his program, and I'm like, I looked it up. It
wasn't for me or whatever, but I did go to
his conference and that conference once again changed my life
(23:14):
and I felt the Lord just go it's your time.
And it's funny when I look back on my life,
the big moments of my life, the best blessings have
come after it's been the darkest. And in twenty nineteen
it was the darkest, and then I got a glimpse
of what God wanted for my life. And then earlier
(23:36):
this year it wasn't dark, but I was just like, Okay, well,
I guess it's not for me.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
Maybe I misunderstood.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
And then he put me in a place where he's like, no,
now it's your time. And so this has all been
God ordained and this is all meant. It's just what
He wants me to do.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
With my life.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Yeah, Reel, I appreciate your vulnerability and trans and see it.
There's something about sharing those times because that's often where
the growth is. So I don't take that lightly. As
we get ready to close, Gabrielle, a couple of things.
One you know Q four of the year, people are
(24:17):
winding things down, in some cases planning for the next
year and others. What are you excited about in twenty
twenty six? And then how can by now you dropped
wisdom you given nuggets?
Speaker 3 (24:31):
What's the best way.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
For people to connect with you? So what are you
excited about for the future? And then what's the best
way for listeners to connect with you?
Speaker 4 (24:39):
Jason, I'm always excited about the future, like I could.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
I love talking to people about it because I could
nerd out on it.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
Peop were like, you need to slow down.
Speaker 5 (24:50):
We made a really critical hire last week at changed
the trajectory of this business. And I don't I say
that with all the weight that it sounds like she
is going to change the business, which is phenomenal. So
I'm most excited to learn from her and to see
what she does and how we scale. And I can't
(25:10):
wait for that. I God has put me on a
path for speaking. I am very serious about it. I
want to do it in a really big way. I
have absolutely no idea how it's going to happen, So
I'm just in a faithful soldier of like I'm just
gonna do where he whatever he leads me to do,
so I'm interested to see how that goes. And I
(25:31):
would encourage people listening to not only like I don't
want to say get serious about your future because that
sounds like so condescending, but like when I look at
my twenty twenty six, I try to spend some time
in reflection and write down truly what I want for myself,
and then I map out those big goals of how
(25:54):
I'm going to achieve that through the year. I love
doing and then I love doing a recap in December
to see like, Okay, how did I do? Did I
forget one, did I come halfway out another, or whatever?
So I'm excited to see what I was able to
do this year and how do people get in contact me.
They can find me on all the social media channels
(26:14):
at Gabrielle Mills speaks.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
I love it, and Gabrielle Mills does speak ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
So she's coming to a venue near you.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
I guarante tell gods.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
I guarantee it.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Well, Gabrielle, I've I've thoroughly enjoyed our time together. We
will definitely have to do this again to see folks
the next time she comes on, she'll be talking about, well,
I was over here and I gave a talk on this.
That's how the conversation will be next time. So I'm
gonna be very very excited. Well, Gabrielle, thank you so
(26:49):
much for hanging out with us here on the Fortified
Life Podcast. She like the Avengers movies. Folks, Gabrielle Mills
will return to the Fortified Life. She'll be back. We'll
work out calendar space and all of that as she
continues dominating everywhere she goes.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
You're so sweet, Jason.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Well, folks, that's all we have time for here on
the Fortified Life Podcast. Remember to like, share, and subscribe
fortifiedlifepodcast dot com, Jerichafors dot com, slash podcast. We will
have all of the show notes, so don't you worry.
You'll know exactly where to find Gabrielle, and we'll have
the website so that you can get sourced for sure. Remember,
(27:33):
don't compartmentalize your faith in the marketplace and from the
boardroom to the bathroom, God is with you. We'll see
you next time on the Fortified Life Podcast.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Thank you for listening to the Fortified Life Podcast. You
can catch us live on Wednesdays at eight thirty pm
Eastern Time and on demand. Check out Fortified lifepodcast dot
com for more details. So learn how to live out
your faith in the marketplace. Grab a copy of Jason
Davis's book Fortified, Being Rooted in God's Plan for Work
(28:05):
in Business, Available on Amazon
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