(gentle music) - The entrepreneurship driving Northwest Florida in Entre Con 2021 on this edition with inStudio.

(upbeat music) Whether you're a high school student with a lawn mowing business or an IT wizard with a high-tech startup, you possess a certain energy and drive to do it your way.

And in many cases it's a dream or a desire to change something for the better.

Oftentimes predicated on making life easier for the rest of us.

Back in 2015, Quint Studer started a conference designed to foster the spirit of those who wanted to hang it all out and run their own business.

Since then, EntreCon has grown to be much more embracing entrepreneurs for sure, but also corporate and community leaders and their employees.

On this edition of inStudio, we'll look at the conferences evolution and how our Northwest Florida community is embracing a robust and growing business environment.

Bert Thorton is retired president/COO and vice chairman Emeritus of Waffle House.

He is an accomplished author and speaker and has a board and advisory roles with several organizations.

And he's also an entrepreneur in residence at the College of Business Center for Entrepreneurship at UWF.

Sabrina Simpson is Chief Operations Officer at Something Old Salvage.

She is a member of the Studer Institutes Women in Leadership Program and has participated in the G Alpha mentorship program.

She is also gearing up to start a new and innovative business.

James Hoffman is Market President for Centennial Bank in Pensacola.

He was named one of Florida Trend magazines trendsetters today and beyond.

He is a partner in the tech firm, Accounting Fly and is deeply involved in the community, including serving as vice chair on the Sacred Heart Foundation.

Rachel Gillette is president of the Studer Community Institute, the organization responsible for EntreCon, but it's much more concentrating on community building, early brain development, leadership and fostering entrepreneurship.

By the way, here's a fun fact about Rachel, she was a barrister at law in England for 10 years.

We're glad to have you all with us.

(all laughing) - Great to be here.

- Anyway, I had not forgotten about that.

(all laughing) - And thank you, and I love that fun fact, thank you.

- Thank you all for being here.

Rachel, let me begin with you, give us kind of the 10,000 foot view, what is EntreCon?

- Business, leadership and entrepreneurship?

That's what it's all about.

So we know that it's hard, we know that it's hard to own a business and be a leader in an organization.

And if you're thinking of starting a business, my goodness that's even harder.

So we wanted to bring this conference to our community so that we could help those people, and really give them the tools and the information that they needed by bringing in world-class because really to our community to inspire them and motivate them and give them the information that they needed in just this really wonderful environment.

And so that's what EntreCon all about.

We have two days of high energy, fun, motivation, and inspiration.

And then with our breakout tracks, which I know we're gonna talk about, we dive in deeper and really get to the heart of some of the matters that business leaders and entrepreneurs and employees need to know about.

- Bert, I know you've been one of the speakers in the past at EntreCon, what was your thought about it?

- Well, EntreCon is a world-class event in a hometown environment.

When I first keynoted at EntreCon, that was the first time I'd been, and I was just amazed at how so well done it was.

And I was deeply impressed with the attitudes of the people that were in the audience and in the breakout sessions, clearly they were completely engaged in what was going on.

So it's just a wonderful thing for emerging leaders, C-suite people, you see all kinds of folks coming on EntreCon.

You see early folks coming on a scholarship, and then you see the CEOs bringing the entire team.

So there's a little something for everybody.

Rachel has designed a program that is just completely wonderful for all phases of business, whether they're employees or leaders, it's a great program.

- And even if you're an established business, and you're a CEO, so many times large companies, fortune 500 companies, they wanna instill that entrepreneur, what's the word I'm looking for?

Energy within the corporation.

Now you work for a decent size organization Centennial Bank, what do you take out of something like this?

- Well, I think a lot for just me personally, and for the attendees is, Rachel mentioned the environment.

You can go online and hear presentations from a lot of great speakers, but it doesn't have the same impact as being able to be there in person with other people that are like-minded and wanna be a part of that environment, to be able to, to go in and talk with people like Sabrina, who are just now starting her business, and then turn right around and somebody that's been in it and been in the trenches like Bert, to be able to have those conversations outside of the speakers that are actually there as well.

I think that's really what EntreCon brings to this community.

In addition to the world-class speakers that they're giving everybody access to.

It's just the entire environment is really what makes that event special.

- Sabrina, tell me a little bit about yourself.

Tell me about your business.

- So Something Else Salvage is a full service junk removal company.

So we always say our business is very simple, but we have a profound effect on our client's life because we meet people in all stations of life.

They're trying to get rid of things downsize, maybe have aging parents, they're moving in or out of the area.

So they're kind of stressed.

So we come in and we help our clients get rid of those things that's just kind of inundate in their space and it just grew organically.

And we just been so blessed with all the mentorships and things that we've gotten from Studer and so many others to be able to continue to grow our business and grow our team.

And so events like this here helps us to kind of continue to be that sponge, just soak it up so that we can go back and really pour into our team, pour into our clients and continue to just do what we want to do in our community?

- What was the triggering mechanism to make you guys wanna start this business?

- I think it was just kind of like necessity.

We saw a need in the market.

It started off as a free service.

My husband has been picking up scrap metal and things all of his life.

And when he lost his job, it was a way to supplement his income.

And so he would offer to come pick up the scrap metal for free, and because he's amazing and people's like, I need you to do this.

And so it just developed from there and we saw the need for it in this community for a good professional junk removal service.

That sounds so weird and like an oxymoron, but that's really what our identity is.

We want to provide clients with a much needed service, but also with stellar communication and stellar customer service which I think is the backbone of any business.

- You said a couple of things in there that I think are extremely crucial.

And if you look at any hugely successful entrepreneurial endeavor, a lot of times this will be the case.

You said your husband lost his job.

So he had to find something else to do perhaps before that, and then finding the need.

But talk a little bit about that.

How did he evolve from having a nine to five eight to five, whatever job into working for himself?

- Yeah, so he worked for about 15 years off shore.

He was a crane operator.

So he lost his job after the oil spill.

And he took a job that was, he was making less money with one of the local organizations here.

I was working from home.

I worked for a software company for a number of years.

And so he wanted to, be able to still bring in the same amount of income that he was.

So you can make money and scrap, he's been doing it since he was eight years old with his dad so.

And I wanted to be there to support him.

I come from a background where I've been managing people for 20 plus years.

And so I brought that customer service aspect of things that kind of management style to it.

And he bought the knowledge of the industry itself.

So those two things work well together most times, you know.

(all laughing) But you know, whenever you're working with your spouse or with a partner, it does have its challenges now and then, but it works.

And we've just been blessed.

And it was something that we felt happy doing it.

We helping clients.

And then doing something that you was building yourself, like literally building it from the ground up is something to be said about.

- Is a lot we say about that.

- So it was one of those things, just like the perfect convergence of things happening.

People needed it, we had it available and, through word of mouth and lots of prayer and lots of help and everything.

- I wanna brag on Sabrina 'cause she's so humble, but she's amazing,.

She has this just entrepreneurial spirit that we love and it's just constantly, she just described herself as a sponge and she is.

So Sabrina has been involved in a lot of the programs that we have at the Institute, leadership development programs and training and mentorship and everything.

She's there and she's present and she's soaking it up.

And then her brain is so quick and so fast.

She she's like, okay, I know how I'm gonna apply that.

I know how I'm gonna make a difference in my business and how I'm gonna grow it.

And so it's been amazing to see sort of the growth pattern that Sabrina has been on since she's been involved with us at the Institute and just a huge success.

- And there's one more thing she's smart, she's quick, she's fast, but she is the hardest working girl in show business.

- Yes.

- She is, with her involvement with Studer community Institute we we've gotten to know these folks.

And you won't find hard more, you won't find harder working people chasing their dream than Sabrina and her husband.

- Yeah.

Well, you gotta wok hard, I mean, there's no easy path.

How, I hate to use the word scary, but was it scary in the beginning when you started?

I mean, it had to be right.

- It was, I think for us, because it was, it wasn't time to be scared 'cause you just kind of shout out the gate.

When you came more intentional with the marketing and saying, this is what we were gonna do.

'Cause the plan was, it was just be kinda like a side thing and he would do it and I would just take the calls and it became really, it became scary when we hired that first employee, because now you feel really beholden to make it work for that person.

And now we have 12 employees and so every day is making sure that you get up, you do what's right by your employees, by your company, by, it's a lot of people that depends on you.

So that's scary, but it's a good scary, because we know that we're not in it alone.

We have such great people that we can always reach out to, to give us advice and going to like the round tables and just talking to people in all aspects and facets of business helps so much to understand like, okay, it's okay, regardless if it's five employees or a thousand employees, it's all kinds of the same challenges and this is how you work through those challenges.

So it makes it a- - That's just a key thing, and that's what's so great.

And so we've got two mentors, Bert and James here, involved in our programs and giving back, just such expertise that we have here.

And then we have somebody with the heart and the brains and the drive that Sabrina and her husband have.

But then we have two people who are willing to lean in and say, yes, I'm gonna use my experience and expertise to be helpful.

That's what the Institute is all about.

And that's what we do at EntreCon and with all of our programs.

So it's just great.

- [Jeff] Do you wanna jump in Jame?

- Yeah, I was just gonna add to, I mean, I think what's great about the spring is the selection process that you guys go through to bring these entrepreneurs into it as well.

So Sabrina's a prime example of the quality of the people that are part of that program.

So Bert and I, we were on the same team as mentors for one business.

And this group really has it together.

I mean, they come in, they've got their homework ready, they want to be a part of this and they want to see their business grow.

And a lot of times we, sometimes feel like more just of a sounding board than anything.

You guys know your business better than we know your business.

We're just out here to offer advice on things that you guys have questions on.

- I think you underestimate the power that a mentor has because it is when you've already seen it, and then we come in with things or questions and you guys say, well, try this here, it's like, wow, why didn't I think of that?

That's because you've seen so much and you're always willing to impart that knowledge.

And so I don't think the mentors give themselves enough credit like, it may seem like we have it together, but it's like that Doug, he seems smooth, but with- (laughing drowns out speaker) - Harder than water.

- So you come in with whatever his issues is going on and your mentor provides just like, just really good sound advice and really like pouring into you.

I just think that it's so important.

And so you leave there feeling like you can conquer, you can take it on because they'd be giving you such, such good advice.

- And like you said, sounding board, even if it's just confirmation of your idea, right?

- Well, one of the things that you find as a mentor working with folks like Sabrina and other companies, emerging companies, is that things that are intuitive to us are, and you're familiar with my term BFO, blinding flash of the obvious?

Oh, wow!

(all laughing) Things that James and I have dealt with, and Rachel, certainly for years, they come in with no experience in that arena, and are all ears sponges, and it's a wow moment for them and oh, by the way, moment for us.

But yeah, I mean, we're not looking for credit, we're looking for your success.

- That's right.

- That's right - 'Cause it can be intimidating.

- Absolutely.

- You know, talking to Bert.

(all laughing) - Well, Bert, I mean, seriously, I mean, you came from, and were involved with one of the all time, great entrepreneurial stories maybe of all time, I mean the Waffle House.

- [Bert] It's a big one.

- [Jeff] I mean, it's in certain parts of this country, it's probably, that, logo's probably as well known is that other one out of Atlanta.

- [Bert] Particularly at three in the morning.

(all laughing) We have our own following at three in the morning.

- [Jeff] Tell the story, tell a little bit about.

You and I have talked about this before on a previous show, but for the viewers just tuning in on this, tell 'em a little bit about how you got, you became involved with Waffle House.

- Sure.

I got out of the army, I went to work for NCR in their IT division.

I got a call from a fraternity brother and actually his dad was one of the founders, the Waffle House, Joe Rogers Sr, founded waffle House with Tom Forkner back in 1955.

Joe Rogers Jr was a fraternity brother of mine in ATO at Georgia Tech.

And he was getting into the business, he had gone to Harvard Business School and realized he could make more money in the Waffle House business if he did it right, than he could as an investment banker.

So he was looking for help.

And he called me and wanted me to come up to Atlanta and talk, and I got on an airplane, and next thing I knew I was flipping eggs and turning hamburgers.

And 40 years later it worked out pretty well.

- Yeah, I would, I would say so.

You recently did something here in Pensacola.

You had an open house for the Waffle House that was reconstructed and invited some folks in.

- We did.

We decided that it was important to honor and appreciate the folks who support, promote and protect Pensacola.

And so with Rachel's help and Quint Studer's help, and DC Reeves help we sort of fashioned a short list of about 50 to 60 people.

And I wondered if we were going to throw a party and nobody would show up, but that was not the case.

Everybody came, it was the folks who really play an important role in making Pensacola, the vibrant community and the safe community that it is today.

So we threw that party and we gave everybody, do you still have your name tag?

- I do as a matter of fact.

- Everybody got a Waffle House name tag that said like "Jeff Weeks Pensacola Champion" and everybody got a Waffle House cap and some swag and some pens.

And it was, I mean, we had the current mayor, we had the chief of police.

We had Sheriff's department folks there, but then we had mentors, businesswomen, businessmen, attorneys, anybody who's had a hand in making Pensacola great.

And it was a great party.

- And a lot of management from Waffle House.

- Yes.

We had probably an, doing the Waffle House thing for 40 years, and that's the most number of people I've ever seen behind a Waffle House counter.

I counted at one time and we had 18 people behind that counter.

So it didn't matter what you ordered, we were gonna be able to cook.

And the CEO of Waffle House, Walt Ehmer actually flew in from Atlanta to attend that party and then went right back out.

But that would lend itself to the importance we felt for that particular event.

- Yeah, I think so.

- I didn't say Walt, you need to come.

I let him know that event was on hand and he just made the decision to fly in and say, hello.

- I had a chance, spend a few minutes chatting with him.

Just very, very impressive.

The way the organization is run and the way the organization looks at their employees.

And I mean, you've said this before, I mean, you had servers in the Waffle House that have done quite well over the years, haven't you?

Because of the ownership.

- I have.

Most people don't know that waffle house is employee owned and it's owned by the salespeople and grill operators.

So the people call them waitresses and cooks, but our associates, the maintenance techs, and one of the last things I did before I retired as president, we had a girl in Anderson, South Carolina that retired after 30 years of service.

And she had always bought the Eaffle House stock that she could 5% of her W2 earnings and a payroll deduction plan, and she got stock options.

She did not Christmas club it meaning buy during the year and then use it to buy the car, the Christmas gifts.

And at the end of 30 years, she retired and I went up to Anderson, gave her a hug and hand her a check for $523,000.

- Wow.

- Wow.

- Waffle House waitress.

That's per shift, serving too bacon and eggs.

Pretty good program.

- But you know that shows the importance of ownership and that's entrepreneurship.

- Yeah, never underestimate the power of ownership.

Nobody washes a rental car.

Ownership is very powerful.

- That's right.

- No question.

James I know a lot of entrepreneurs probably show up on your doorstep at the bank looking for capital, what's your approach to that?

- Yeah, so I mean, you have to go into it knowing what you're getting into with an entrepreneur.

A lot of times there's a lot of risk involved and we have to do, make calculated decisions on our end on how much risk do we wanna undertake on a project.

But at the same time, we're really here to help those entrepreneurs.

And the last thing we wanna do is put an entrepreneur into a project that they can't afford to pay back.

And so a lot, oftentimes we act as counselors and consultants and advisors, as much as we do bankers and lenders and depository institutions.

A lot of it is there to ask some of the hard questions maybe entrepreneurs haven't already asked themselves, or if they have asked themselves, you know, get them to put those answers on paper.

And so it's a really exciting to see projects come from just an idea with somebody walks in and maybe it's the first time they've talked to somebody about what they're doing, and maybe it's not, maybe they're an entrepreneur and they've been doing their own thing for a couple of years and they've come in and they're somewhat established.

And so you get to see entrepreneurs at all different phases and we've got entrepreneurs.

I mean, when people think of entrepreneurs, oftentimes you think, okay, somebody who's just starting their business, but that's not the case.

I've got entrepreneurs that are, they make millions of dollars a year, but they're still an entrepreneur and they're a small business by definition.

And that's what makes this world go round.

And I think that's really important.

It goes back to, Bert, the event that they did at Waffle House and what, the fact that that's an employee owned business and that they brought that to Pensacola.

It says a lot about this community and the entrepreneurial spirit that we have here.

So it's exciting getting to see entrepreneurs come in and watch them grow and be with them during that process.

I sat down with an entrepreneur the other day, they owned a restaurant and we were on a Zoom call, it was myself, somebody from our treasury management department and we were on with them, with their accountant, their attorney.

And we were trying to figure out how we can all work together to help this business grow.

So it's not, nobody works in a silo, we're all working together to try to help those entrepreneurs and provide them a product that is ultimately at the end of the day gonna be a tool for them to help grow their business.

- And people when they go looking for capital or looking for money, they should not be intimidated by the idea of coming to talk to you or some other organization, right?

I mean, test the water's, right.

- Yeah, not at all.

I mean, we're here to help out.

So yeah, I would say do your homework and be prepared for a conversation.

- Right.

- First impressions are a lot, but don't be scared.

I mean, that's what we're there to do.

We're there to help out and be that sounding board.

- And I think that's one of the key things with the Institute.

We have found that, that there is some intimidation and where do I go, and who do I talk to?

And so that's our goal is to really with our entrepreneurship program through the spring is to be that front door to say come to us, we're a friendly face.

We can help you.

And we have trusted advisors like James at Centennial, like Bert, and we can point you in the right direction.

So that was one of the gaps that we found.

So bringing those people in and just being trusted yeah.

- [Bert] And it's free.

- [Rachel] Yeah, free service for them.

- And it kind- - [Jeff] It's all about growth in Pensacola, right?

- Yes, exactly.

And we can put them through the various programs.

We can bring them in through the front door, through entrepreneurship, through the spring, and then we can put them through the various different programs that we have.

And Sabrina is just such a great, so she's one of my success stories that she comes in, she joins the women in leadership round table.

Then she finds out what else we've got going on in credit to her then she gets accepted into the G beta program and EntreCon and so.

It's just, this is, we love it because that's what we're able to do through the Institute is realize what the business community needs and then be able to provide those services to them because we have such great sponsors and partners who invest in us and the Institute as a nonprofit.

And then we just plow that right back into the community.

And of course, EntreCon's a huge part of that.

Like James said, we have fun, we have a ton of fun at EntreCon.

You can learn and then you can network and you can make connections and see those people who might normally be kind of be sitting behind a big desk at Centennial Bank, but then there in person drinking coffee and wearing their land like you are.

And it's just sort of, okay, well maybe I can make a connection here that I can then follow up and get some help or mentorship.

- I think there's something that's really special about not just EntreCon, but all the events that happen in Pensacola community.

You go to some larger communities and you all just use the banking industry as an example, some bankers, the institutions, they all hate each other.

Same thing with accountants and attorneys and everybody else.

And I don't think that's the case here in Pensacola.

I'll talk to an entrepreneur or a business person and have a conversation and say, figure out what it is they need.

And I'll tell them, look, this is what we can offer, but, you know, I know that XYZ bank down the road is also involved in this area and they might have a better product for you.

And I'll give them a name and a number.

And I met with an entrepreneur probably about a month or so ago.

And we sat down, I walked through exactly what we could offer, and I said, you know what?

I said, I would love to have your business, but I wanna do what's best for you.

And I think you ought to call, I gave him the name of a banker down the road, and they called that banker.

And I saw him last week at the chamber annual luncheon, and he came up to me and he said, man, I appreciate you sending me down there and have me talking to them, they have a product that's perfect for us.

And I hate to tell you that we're gonna go use them.

I said, no, that's why I gave you their name.

And that doesn't happen just in the banking industry, it happens with accountants and attorneys and all kinds of individuals in Pensacola.

And I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we're a really tight knit community.

And we go to events like EntreCon and these other, community minded events, and we're all here to see Pensacola grow.

And that's really what this is about.

- I tell- - Oh, go ahead.

- I tell people when I retired and moved to Pensacola, I didn't move to Pensacola to love it, I moved here to live, but just what James is talking about, this idea of we're all in it together, these folks have made me love this city.

And that's why I am so actively involved because it is a group effort to make Pensacola great and make the folks in Pensacola successful.

- And that's happening.

And you're not isolated in being someone who is super successful and accomplished, who has decided to come back to Northwest Florida or to Northwest Florida for the first time and bring your skills and your knowledge and help others out.

And there seems to be kind of just a real thread of connectivity flowing through this community now that hasn't always been the case.

- Yeah, I think that for me, someone who is not from Pensacola, my husband grew up here and when we started out business, I didn't know anyone.

So everywhere I go, it's like people do business with people they know, they like, they trust.

And is getting involved, and I think that people have to understand that like sitting at your house is not gonna give you those opportunities.

You have to step out and you have to actually go down to the spring and, because the resources there go to the SBDC, go to UWF Center for Entrepreneurship and things like that.

And knowing, and I think that's one of the great things about what is happening with Studer is that trying to bring all of those things together so that when a business is trying to start, they understand that James is available, but there's also other bankers that's within the VMS program and things like that.

So I think that it's really, really something that, like you said, that thread is like, we like keep needs to lengthen it so that it pulls more and more people in and get the word out to this segments of this area that don't know that the spring is there.

And so I think things like the EntreCon and having the scholarships and things like that will allow those people to understand that, hey, it's help out there, is free help, like you said, but you do have to kind of ask for help.

And I realized that if you don't ask for help, people don't know you need help.

- Y'all need to keep that soundbite, that's a pinch for Pensacola, it doesn't any better than what Sabrina just said.

Coming from an entrepreneur, you nailed it.

- Absolutely.

I wanna take a quick break and then we will come back.

So we're talking about EntrCon 2021 in entrepreneurship in Northwest Florida.

This is inStudio on WSRE Television PBS for the Gulf Coast.

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(upbeat music) Welcome back, this is inStudio, on WSRE Television PBS for the Gulf Coast.

We are talking about EntreCon 2021 and entrepreneurship along the Gulf Coast.

Our guests are Rachel Gillette, Bert Thornton, James Hoffman, and Sabrina Simpson.

One of the things that we were talking about in the last segment is the importance of having someone you can bounce things off of a mentor.

Bert, since you've retired, I know that's one of the things that you've really focused on is becoming a mentor.

You've written a couple of books about that, talk about, tell me- - Right.

Well, at this point in my age and stage in my life, mentorship is my driving force.

I don't think there's... For me, a success is creating value, and where better to create value than in another person's life.

So that's where I am in my life right now, trying to help other people become successful, particularly emerging leaders in emerging businesses.

I did write two books.

The first one was called "Find An Old Gorilla," title is crazy, but the premise is if you wake up one morning and realize you got to go through a jungle, it would make sense to find an old gorilla and take him or her alone because they know where all the good paths are.

But that book it's been described as the rising high achievers guide to what to do next, to the emerging leaders handbook, the publisher called itself mentoring in a box because it was aimed at the mentee.

And this second book, which I co-wrote with Dr. Sherry Hartnett at the university of west Florida, is aimed at the mentor.

This book, I actually wrote the micro piece, the across the table piece, do this, don't do that, say this, don't say that.

What makes a great mentor, what makes a worthwhile mentee, how to get started, how to move it along.

Thanks to really touch on that a mentee really needs to know that are not intuitive to them.

So Sherry wrote the macro piece, the how to scale that up into a small, medium or large organization, as she did with the executive mentor at the program at the University of west Florida, I've seen a lot of mentoring programs and hers is by far the best because she has just an absolutely wonderful filtering system and a good connection mechanism.

And then she's just great at nurturing that relationship.

It's become very, very productive in Pensacola.

- Yeah, I think so.

That's kind of the amazing thing I think about as you go through life and you think about, if I, would've only known, if I would've known this existed, or if I would've known a better way to do that.

And I think that that's where the mentorship comes in, either through UWF and their program or the books or through the Studer Institute.

- As far I understand it not everybody wants to, can do or needs to be a mentor.

There are many, many ways that you can help impact people in a positive way sometimes just a kind word or a nice note, because mentorship is really a commitment.

People ask me all the time, what makes a great mentor?

And the first thing is you really have to have this idea that you want to give back.

That's where it all starts.

Second, have we got time to talk about?

- Absolutely.

- Okay.

So second, you have to have a sincere interest in the success of your mentee.

Third for a great mentor is you have to have a demonstrated track record of success, right?

I mean, if not, why would anybody listen to us?

And then fourth is peer respect.

And that seems to be the litmus test for a great mentor.

The greater, the peer respect for your mentor, the greater your chances of success.

And let me repeat that the greater the respect by his or her peers for your mentor, the greater your chances of success.

That seems to be the ultimate litmus test, excuse me, ultimate litmus test for a great mentor.

- Yeah, am worried about- - She has $1000 on my eyes, now, my mouth won't work.

(all laughing) - Bert was one of our first, I remember it distinctly, we were putting EntreCon for the very first time.

And we were looking, we wanted really high caliber speakers for it, but we were really small, we were just getting started.

And I remember DC Reeves who's part of our organization said, well, I think I could get Bert Thorton and we were like how!

How is that possible?

And since then, Bert was one of our keynote speakers for our very first EnterCon.

And we just, I dunno, I kind of, somebody good.

I like wrap my arms around them and bring them in because when you have resources, like some of the people who've committed to the Institute because they believe in the community and they want to give back and there, it's just amazing.

And so we're so blessed to have people like, Bert who all willing to give back all of those experiences and things that they've learned along the way.

And so it's, we're just so thankful.

And so we have this massive team now of mentors and we don't pay them anything.

We're just so fortunate.

We love on them a lot because we truly love them.

- I think that's what sets Pensacola apart because Pensacola is replete with people like Jeff Weeks who volunteer their time to make things better for everybody in the community.

It's just a wonderful, wonderful environment.

- Well, and not to turn this into how great bird is show, but I brought you out to speak to an organization back before COVID and talk about the book and whatnot.

And he did and sold some books and immediately turned around and gave all the money to a gentleman who happened to be there with a local charity.

So you truly are, putting your money where your mouth is.

- Thank you.

- And by the way, he's pretty doggone good speaker, too.

- Thank you, thank you.

- You know something that's really unique about all the mentors and I'm part of the spring, and I said, Bert and I are, we mentor together for a company and I'm part of the UWF executive mentor program.

But when I get around all those mentors, they're all mentees at the same time.

I think a good mentor is always a mentee and learning from everybody around them.

You go into these events and you see, everybody is thinking as you're going through this and you're hearing other people speak.

Every time I hear Bert talk, I wanna take notes and write stuff down.

But you know, everybody in a room does.

And I think that's really a unique about being a mentor is you're always, you can't just go off of what you already know.

You've got to continue to learn and be a mentee from everybody else as well.

- James, I couldn't agree with you more.

I think that's what excellent.

- And you can learn from your mentee.

- Absolutely.

- Absolutely.

- I'll tell you where that space is important to me.

I was mentoring a graduate student at UWF and I said, I got an IT problem, tell me how can I fix this?

And so all of a sudden the conversation turned to him and he gave me 15 minutes on mentoring me on current IT issues.

- Yeah, it's just outstanding.

It's I mean, I love it, the energy and the atmosphere, and it's kind of almost a microcosm of what we get at the conference, because you get so many different people.

And that's one of the good things about EntreCon is non-industry specific.

So sometimes you can go to a conference and maybe, you're talking to bankers and it's interesting cause you're learning inside industry stuff or, for maybe architects or something, but in this environment, you with all these different people.

And so that's where you get this real kind of creative thing going on and people are learning from.

- It is synergy, energy.

- [Rachel] Yes, love that.

- [Jeff] I mean, you just sit and you just can't help, but sponge it up.

- I think one of the things about being an entrepreneur, there's this common denominator.

And regardless of what industry it is, you know, is growing access to capital cash flow, employees, staffing, you know, all of these things that you are dealing with.

And so regardless of what industry they're in, you can take those lessons from it.

And so that's why I think the synergy is there by not being specific.

Yeah, if you are, if it's an architect, you can learn about specific things, but being a business owner, like I said, I've managed people for a long time, but managing people in a business and actually owning the business is two totally different things, two totally different headaches and things like that.

And when you're around like-minded people, it gives you number one, you feel like I'm not a failure because I messed up because you're gonna mess up.

But it's like getting to that next step and taking that next step.

And so I think that it's so important for entrepreneurs to be around, not just people within your same industry and things like that, but being around a diverse group of people.

- So true.

- 'Cause that really does give you the insight that you need to start to delegate things or start to do this and that, and come up with those things that's needed in order to grow your business.

I just think those things are just super important and which is what I've totally learned.

- Yeah, I agree.

- Can I say one thing on EntreCon?

- Please do.

- The keynotes are terrific.

I mean, world-class speakers right here in Pensacola, the breakout sessions are great, the lunch and learns are great, but it's almost like the real work is done in the conversations offline, where people get together and all of a sudden they find out they have a mutual interest or a mutual need, or I'm talking with James and Sabrina and we find that we can help each other.

There's a great deal of that that goes on about.

- It totally does.

People come out of these sessions with these speakers or panels and the breakout sessions and gosh, excited and so on.

And then they're talking to each other and those connections are made and it just really spurs the growth which is what we're there to try and help.

So it's just delightful when we can see it happen and be positive it, and it's just our mission, that's the mission.

Improving the quality of life for all people.

And so when you see it happening at a conference like EntreCon, and when you got 500 people and everybody's jazzed and then years, you see it year on year, the same people come back.

We have a lot of people repeating as well as new people, but then you see the progress.

Maybe they had the idea to start the business at EntreCon and they got the courage.

Because they got their encouragement and they made some contacts.

And then, three is four years later, they're coming back and they're bringing that team with them, right.

- They come early as learners- - Yes.

- ...and then later they come as coaches.

- [Rachel] Yes, yeah.

And they bring the team and now the teams is learning.

- EntreCon is just magical mix of energy and experience and information.

- Yes.

- It's a wonderful thing and.

- I'd be remise by bringing this up, but you think about this and started back 2015.

- Yes.

- Okay.

With one of our great entrepreneurs, Quint Studer, who basically said, I mean, he didn't have to, he was obviously very successful, could have taken his assets and gone anywhere, I'm assuming and decided to really invest in this community.

And I haven't spoken to Quinn in a while, but I'm just curious of what's going through his mind right as he takes a look at the success that has occurred over the past six years.

- Well, we were just so fortunate, because like you said, Jeff, he could have said, I'm gonna invest in anywhere, but he invests where his heart is.

He has heart back in Janesville, which is where he's from and he's investing in that community, but his heart's here too.

So incredibly fortunate to have that and just pouring so much time and talent and treasure into this community.

Quint is a visionary, he just is able to see what is possible, not just see it, but then know how to create it and what the path is.

And so, I mean, I'm just so fortunate to be able to have been with the Institute since we got started seeing that vision, and then worked with him and alongside him to put all these different programs in place.

And by really focusing on what the needs are in the community and how we can serve entrepreneurs, business owners, leaders, and help employees.

We're trying to create great places to work.

Everybody deserves a great place to work.

And we know that if we can put some of these different tools and processes in place, then we can just improve the way people do business.

And it's always gonna be hard, we're not saying it's gonna be kind of sunshine and rainbows every day.

- Sure.

- But we can certainly make the path a little bit smoother and less winding.

And so, Quint, I mean, he's always pushing, it's always what more and how can we do more and what's next.

But we're certainly, we love the success stories when we hear stories like Sabrina's and others who we've worked with and helped start or grow their business.

Even from when we work with Mom & Pops and small companies, like Sabrina's, who's now 12 employees, but we also work with the big employers in town as well to help train them.

- You know, if we were sitting around here 20 years ago, and I'll just get you guys to elaborate on what I'm about to say here, if you're sitting around 20 years ago, and if you would have said, is there money in Northwest Florida?

I could have said with a fair amount of confidence, there's a fair amount of money in Northwest Florida.

The bulk of it is what I would say is dead money.

It's invested in the public securities markets and bonds and some banks and maybe some real estate it's not active, what we've seen in my judgment over the past 20 years or so we've all of a sudden seen that money start to get active.

And, I think to a large degree Quint may have lit the fuse on that.

- I think 'cause honestly, I love Quint, and I think it's that vision.

It's being able to create that vision for people to see.

And then he leads the way and invest in downtown and builds places where people can live.

- That's good house keeping seal of approval.

- Yeah.

And then the other people will come behind and say, and I think all programs Civicon through the institution as well, where we're bringing in these outside experts to talk about some of the, how can we develop downtown?

How can we develop the waterfront?

How can we solve some of the issues people come to Civicon hear that, and then they invest and say, I can do it too.

So certainly he was the spark, and then we've had all these other people come in and be involved in our mission.

- And you take a look at either, you like some more sports, celebrities have come back and put money into the community.

- Well, the money's dead until someone who owns the money gets inspired to invest it exactly wisely and Quint wrote the forward for that book.

And I'm very grateful for that.

But Quint is my inspiration for being this active in Pensacola.

And he, he has inspired many, many other people as well.

I mean, you listen to Rachel talk, she's passionate about Pensacola, about EntreCon and that comes from Quint.

- I'll shift back to the conference here for just a second.

Talk about some of those speakers you're gonna have this year, some of the keynote speakers you're gonna have.

- Yeah, Gosh, I mean, we always wonder how are we gonna do better than the year before.

Somehow we pull it off Don Yeager, is one of our speakers this year who people will know, I'm sure, just a great sports writer.

He's gonna be talking about all the lessons that you've learned from working in sport and working with teams over the years.

So how can you bring your team together and re-engage them.

And we're really looking at always trying to see how we can do things better.

And even before we had the pandemic, it was like how can we reinvent and re-engage and re skill people for the new workplace.

And then of course we had the pandemic and we we've kind of forced into doing things differently.

So the speakers that we're bringing in this year are really talking to that.

Chester Elton is talking about anxiety that we might be suffering in the workplace and how to overcome that, and how to really work together as a team.

Michelle Snow, another, she's local, but then women's basketball star too.

Again, the lessons that she's learned along the way is amazing.

Quint, one of our speakers of course, is gonna be talking about how we can kind of nurture ourselves and our teams.

So what we've seen is sort of this shift in organizations that are really successful.

They build a culture where they value their people.

And so we've been talking about that for the last few years.

What we've found is that sometimes that's a hard sell to a business when they're talking about, well, I need margin, I need profit, we're on bottom line.

So now they've realized that really focusing on the employee, looking at employee engagement, how do we create a great workplace?

How do we value them?

This is what's important, but they don't have the skills.

It's something that you really have to learn and learn from experts.

So we're bringing those outside experts in, and saying, okay, well, we've been through this now, how can we not just go back to way the way we did things before and did things in the past but become much more people-centric, less sort of pyramid of leadership.

It's not, we've got all these generations in the workplace and the younger generations are wanting to do things a little differently and wanting to feel a real purpose, and a real sense of belonging to something.

So those are what are our speakers are really focused on this year?

- I think the pandemic has caused a lot of people to kind of reassess their lives.

And I think employees and people in general are gonna demand a different level from their employer.

- You're right.

- And I think you can only ring so much out of people.

And I think they're getting to a point where it's, we're gonna have to, you know, so many people, so many businesses talk about putting their employees first, so if do.

And that runs up the ladder from small businesses to fortune 500 companies.

- True.

- I think there's a change underfoot.

And I think that change is going to be pushed from the employee.

- And we want to drive that change and we want to help the employee as the leaders, the supervisors get the skills that they need, because it's good change.

It's hard, but we need to skill build.

And when you look at organizations that have been successful, Bert talked about, there's somebody who is a waitress in the organization, but because Waffle House very successful employer realized long time ago, it's all about the people.

It's about the employees.

If we can work with them and support them and give them the skills that they need they're are gonna make our company successful.

That doesn't, not every organization knows that until you start helping them with the information and the tools and the skills that they need.

- That's right.

And even if they do know that they may not necessarily know how to implement it.

- That's right.

- Yeah.

Yep.

So you're also going to be doing the conference virtually.

So expand on that just a little bit.

- Yeah, so we've always wanted to do it.

Last year forced us into it, talk about skill-building and being outside your comfort zone.

We were in that position too.

We were at like every other organization kind of scrambling to how do we keep providing these services to people?

They need them, but we can't do them in person, so we have to do virtual.

Last year, we were 100% virtual.

We're taking that, where the skills that we've built now, we're gonna be doing it live streamed as well as live and in-person.

So whether you're here in Pensacola or the surrounding community, you can come, we'd love you to be here, but you can also join us online.

And entreconpensacola.com is where you can find the information and live stream in your pajamas from home like we've all got used to or come down whichever suit you, we'd love you to be there.

- I have about three minutes left.

So just real quick, like I just wanna go around the table and I'll have just each one of you.

Just leave on a positive note about Northwest Florida, just about life in general, as we kind of embark upon a kind of a new world after the pandemic.

Just some advice to throw out there.

I'll start with you Bert.

- Well, again, at this age and stage for me, Kathy and I could live anywhere in the world and do anything that we wanted to do, but my friends who are the most successful, don't take the most cruises and play the most golf.

They live a life of gratitude and giving back.

For us, Pensacola is the place to do that.

And that's because the people in Pensacola are same minded in that exact effort of building value in Pensacola and its people.

- Sabrina.

- So to piggyback earlier it's like people that have already achieved some level of success wants to give back to a junk removal business.

And I think that I kinda took that for granted.

Like we're just hauling junk, but for someone that you respect and you look up to and who says you're valued, and we want to make sure that you're successful, and these are the resources available to you.

I mean, how can you leave Pensacola?

So we want to be here 'cause it's a community you'd like, it's givers gain game.

Like we have gained so much from this endeavor that we're on, that we want to continue to give back and continue to be that sponge.

So I think that anyone who's in Pensacola who wants to start a business who wants to be part of the community, there's so many opportunities out there and I'm just looking to take every advantage of everyone that's out there.

- I have less that two minutes, but Rachel, real quick.

- The mission driven, it's all about improving lives.

And I'm just so grateful that every day, I get up and say, how can I help people today?

And through the Studer Community Institute, that's what we do, that's what we focus on, and how can we help improve the quality of life for people in the community.

And we have so many programs and services and it's just amazing when you hear the stories, and the have fun doing it.

So that's what it's all about for me, I love it.

- Yeah., for me, I didn't know a single person when I moved to Pensacola in '95, I was here 20 years ago, you made the reference about what did it look like.

Pensacola today is exactly what I envisioned it would.

I hoped that it would be for me to be able to sit here with Bert and Sabrina and Rachel and you, and have this conversation and be active in the community and have all of us from different stages in our careers and in our lives together, talking about how to make the community better.

That's exactly why I'm here.

And I hope that other people see this and they see the streaming EntreCon.

And this is a showcase for Pensacola, not just for the leadership that happens during the conference, but it's a showcase for Pensacola.

- Okay.

Still tickets available?

- Yes, entreconpensacola.com, we've got tickets available right up until the conference.

So please we'd love you to join us every year out there.

Entreconpensacila.com, you can see the agenda, you can see the speakers.

Come see us either in Pensacola or join us online.

- Bert said that he's buying everybody a brown to Bert's chili after the show.

(all laughing) - So true.

(all laughing) - Bert here lunch and learn.

And if you come to that, you'll get not only Bert's book we'll be giving to everybody, but you'll get Bert's chilly too.

- Burt's chilly at Waffle House was created.

This series was created and named after Bert.

Thank you all so much.

Best of luck to you.

- [Sabrina] Thank you so much, I appreciate it.

- Always great to see you, Rachel, James, thanks all the best to you.

We've been discussing EntreCon 2021, which is going on November 17th and 18th live in person in Pensacola, as well as in the virtual world.

More information available at entreconpensacola.com.

Our guest has been James Hussman, that's called a Market President with Centennial Bank.

Sabrina Simpson, Chief Operations Officer at Something Old Salvage.

Bert Thorton, retired president COO and vice chairman Emeritus of Waffle House.

And Rachel Gillette with the, I should say is the president of Studer Community Institute.

By the way, this program will be available soon online at wsre.org as well as on YouTube, please feel free to share.

I'm Jeff Weeks, thank you so very much for watching.

I hope you enjoyed the broadcast.

I wish you all the very best.

Take wonderful care of yourself and we'll see you soon.

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