Like It's Your Job

Teal Cooper, co-founder of San Diego-based VendiBean LLC, joins hosts David and Matthew Shields of the “Like It's Your Job” podcast to pull back the curtain on how her high-end espresso vending business is “disrupting” the coffee vending machine industry. “My senior year, we saw a huge gap in the market for high-quality coffee that was conveniently located on-the-go, 24/7, on college campuses,” she says, recalling the early days of the venture. With VendiBean's five-year birthday right around the corner, the strategic consultants with the Shields Group interview Cooper about lessons learned and best practices from the enterprise she started with her own sibling, Tristan Cooper. “The idea really came while I was studying abroad and saw the concept of a high-end espresso machine overseas,” Teal Cooper imparts to the podcast hosts. “My brother called me with the same idea, coincidentally — and we knew we had to do it.” So, in early 2017, Teal Cooper and her brother set out with the simple objective of filling the dearth of high-quality coffee locations available around-the-clock on college campuses. But, as neither of the budding entrepreneurs had any background in making coffee or operating a business, they came across many unexpected hurdles on their path to success. “We had to get our hands dirty,” she admits. Five years later, VendiBean boasts 200 machines in three states and a staff of 10 employees. As with many of their interview subjects, David and Matthew Shields touched on the successes, failures and lessons learned by a young business entrepreneur launching their own company. But with this episode in particular, the brothers engaged Teal Cooper in a lengthier exploration about how she found a work/life balance as her enterprise soared. Listen to the full episode of “Like It's Your Job” to hear how the highly motivated young professionals are finding ways to lower stress levels in their professional and personal lives — and how they can even carve out a “happy place” in the day-to-day work grind (literally, in Teal Cooper's case). For more information on the “Like It's Your Job” podcast, check out the podcast's page on Apple Podcasts. To explore Teal Cooper's own podcast, “Real with Teal,” visit https://www.realwithteal.com.

Entrepreneurs build companies for many reasons, be it innovation, financial freedom, problem solving, among others. Following successful exits, many entrepreneurs naturally become investors. But it's tricky to know when to make the jump from owner to investor. This transition is beneficial for other entrepreneurs. Investors advise on easily avoided mistakes through their experience, awareness, and market preparation. CEO of Venlo Investments' North American operation, Chris Macauley, spoke about his first entrepreneurship endeavor, his few mistakes, and his successful decision making . Through those lessons learned, he was able to understand how to drive operational efficiencies, became aware of how frustrated he was with working alongside media agencies and was able to start building a technical team for his business. One of the big driving factors that Chris learned in his transition from founder to an investor is that you can't get anywhere without solid relationships. “The one thing I learned is that leadership is 100% about people.” While learning about people that he needed to work with to drive forward the mission, Chris discovered that there would also need to be a balance between having people there to help with the company's mission while also being passionate about what they're doing. “How do we unlock what people are passionate about?”Knowing when to make that jump from founder to investor is all about timing, people, and doing the necessary research on whether your product has a viable problem in the market that needs solving.For the latest news and changes in the business world, be sure to check out our latest podcast episodes where we break it all down. Follow us on social media for the latest news in real estate!

Eighty-two percent of consumers consider community involvement when deciding where to spend their money for a product or service. Having an engagement plan offers many benefits for an organization, including increased interactions between colleagues, networking with other businesses, and an overall aura of positivity when contributing to the community or a specific cause. On this episode of Like It's Your Job, hosts David Shields, Principal at Shields Legal Group, and Matt Shields, CIO at Shields Capital Group, talked with Monica Smith, Chief Giving and Community Impact officer for Communities Foundation of Texas, and JJ Ponce, Director, Communities Foundation of Texas. Communities Foundation of Texas works side by side with caring donors, committed nonprofits, philanthropy-focused businesses, and civic leaders to help build communities that thrive for all. The group discussed how corporate citizenship can be empowering for organizations and some advice on how an organization can get started. “As a community foundation, we have two different sides of our work," Smith said of CFT, who works with donors, families, and businesses to engage them in meaningful philanthropy. Through the years, CFT has developed so many great relationships with all different types of organizations that are trying to serve a community. When you engage with CFT for business, you have the ability to pick your way of helping people. "The key takeaway is you just have to get started," Smith said. "So many complex issues are facing North Texas and really the world right now, but the lesson is obviously if we all band together and work together, we can accomplish so much more than any of us can do on our own."

On this episode of Like It's Your Job, hosts David Shields, Principal at Shields Legal Group, and Matt Shields, CIO at Shields Capital Group, talked with Rayne Steinberg, CEO at Arca, an institutional-grade financial services firm that builds products utilizing and investing in digital assets. They dug into Steinberg's career and business at Arca. They also discuss digital assets investing and innovation, as well as including tokens on your capital stack Arca focuses on pensions, endowments, and high net worth individuals. Their thesis was that channel, and institutional allocators were underserved when it came to digital assets, according to Steinberg, who leads the company's overall direction and is responsible for securities structuring and risk management. "They have higher risk thresholds, fiduciary duty, they're used to dealing with established brands, there's tremendous employment risk and reputation risk for them to allocate in this space,” explained Steinberg in regards to Arca's thesis. Steinberg co-founded the asset management company, WisdomTree before joining Arca. He elaborated that this is amplified with digital assets, so this was an underserved area, and Arca was going to create a "top-notch" firm in order to address this gap. They have two sides of the business, active management practice and Arca labs, "which is our innovation arm creating better asset management products that are energized by blockchain." This leads to more liquidity and transferability with all the promises of blockchain but applied to asset management. Listen to hear more about Steinberg's insights on including tokens on your capital stack.

Transitioning a business successfully is an inherently challenging process – but it can be made even more difficult when you throw a dash of family in the mix. That's the topic for this episode of Like It's Your Job, a podcast by The Shields Group. Hosts Matt and David Shields invited Eric Beichler, Managing Principal, Mohr Partners, to the show to discuss the challenges surrounding the transfer of a family-owned business. Beichler has firsthand experience with these situations, as he recently took part in the transition of Mohr Partners, which was previously owned by Bob Mohr. The company went through the management buyout process, giving the hosts and Beichler a chance to explore what makes those specific cases unique. The trio also dove into how companies can rebrand and pivot in a way that both ensures a clean transition to the new owners' vision and mission, yet also ensures stability. “When we went through the management buyout, we started to run the company a little differently than when we were running it, truly, as a family-owned business,” Beichler said. “There are benefits of both, but, when you transition like that, I had to make some alterations on, ‘Who are my new partners? Who are my new shareholders?' “It's that collaboration that's really important.”

For their seventh episode of Like It's Your Job, Matt and David Shields brought on two innovators in the debt capital delivery world: Joe Beard, CEO, and Joel Radtke, President & COO, of CollateralEdge.CollateralEdge is an innovative fintech platform that provides community and regional banks with a flexible, automated risk management solution to strengthen the credit profile on individual corporate loans. In addition, Beard and Radtke shared their backgrounds, experiences, insights and philosophies on managing and co-founding a business. While David Shields pointed out most lawyers see more challenges than positives to a 50-50 business partnership, Beard and Radtke are proving the exception to the rule. So, why did they choose to form a partnership rather than start separate businesses? “This is how I look at it,” Radtke said. “If the business is a lemonade stand, you should probably do it yourself because of the fun, the uniqueness, the little decisions you make; you want control of that. When you set your sights on building a great company, in a big market, with a difficult problem, you need to multiply the number of ideas. You need to make sure all of the priorities and expirations that need to happen to address this don't get short shrift just because you've reached your mental limits or you're exhausted at the end of the day.” For Beard, he recognized that he could have an even more significant impact on the world with the right business partner by his side with all his talents and abilities.“Having a true peer in terms of what you bring to the table is critical,” Beard said. Beard sees it as a “two heads are better than one” situation with the complex nature of business.

For their seventh episode of Like It's Your Job, Matt and David Shields brought on two innovators in the debt capital delivery world: Joe Beard, CEO, and Joel Radtke, President & COO, of CollateralEdge.CollateralEdge is an innovative fintech platform that provides community and regional banks with a flexible, automated risk management solution to strengthen the credit profile on individual corporate loans. In addition, Beard and Radtke shared their backgrounds, experiences, insights and philosophies on managing and co-founding a business. While David Shields pointed out most lawyers see more challenges than positives to a 50-50 business partnership, Beard and Radtke are proving the exception to the rule. So, why did they choose to form a partnership rather than start separate businesses? “This is how I look at it,” Radtke said. “If the business is a lemonade stand, you should probably do it yourself because of the fun, the uniqueness, the little decisions you make; you want control of that. When you set your sights on building a great company, in a big market, with a difficult problem, you need to multiply the number of ideas. You need to make sure all of the priorities and expirations that need to happen to address this don't get short shrift just because you've reached your mental limits or you're exhausted at the end of the day.” For Beard, he recognized that he could have an even more significant impact on the world with the right business partner by his side with all his talents and abilities.“Having a true peer in terms of what you bring to the table is critical,” Beard said. Beard sees it as a “two heads are better than one” situation with the complex nature of business.

Bill Cawley, Chairman and CEO, Cawley Partners is passionate about mentorship and joined hosts David Shields, Partner, Shields Legal Group and Matthew Shields, Principal, Shield Capital Group for an insightful and genuine discussion of how these relationships bring benefits and value to both the mentor and the mentee. The core of mentorship is a mix of personal and professional relationships. Cawley's experience in business, drug and alcohol issues, and faith-based mentoring gives him valuable insight into how these relationships work. It begins with mutual respect and a genuine connection where the mentee sees value in the relationship and isn't just looking for benefits. “Sometimes, you have to tell someone things they don't want to hear, but that they need to hear – having enough credibility in the relationship so that they'll listen,” Cawley said. Productive mentoring is based on trust and depends on both people being open and authentic. “I think the more genuine and open a person is about the struggles they've had in their personal life, the more opportunity, in my opinion, God brings to us to mentor people or to be a change agent for someone who's struggling,” Cawley said. In business mentoring, it's important that mentees are looking to grow and can see the value in learning from a more experienced person in the industry. These relationships can be formalized or evolve naturally within a business where younger people can benefit from the wisdom of those who are farther along in their careers. Cawley's empathy, insight and passion for mentoring and fostering business relationships is a valuable resource for both mentors and mentees looking to transfer knowledge and wisdom. These relationships are integral to the strength of any industry where mentorship leads to more highly qualified people.

Astute entrepreneur, start-up advisor, business owner and expert negotiator Melethia Campbell Tuggle is the Owner and President of Robin Steel, LLC. She knows the value of strategic partnerships in setting a business up for success, and she shared her insights and experiences with Matt and David Shields on this episode of Like It's Your Job.

A business owner mindset isn't exclusive to those chasing tech-startup dreams. Being an entrepreneur can happen in any industry. Discussing his journey to becoming a business owner was EJ Williams, who joined David and Matthew Shields on Like It's Your Job.

Kris Elliott, COO at Expansive Workspace is a strong business leader with more than 20 years of experience in the coworking sector. She brought her wealth of knowledge and insights to Like It's Your Job to talk about the ways to develop and maintain innovative and quality customer experiences.

In a world looking for innovation and forward thinkers, Brian Hoang is thriving. As CEO and Co-Founder of SURVIVR, Hoang's mission is to transform law enforcement training. SURVIVR is a public benefit VR platform that helps first responders improve their decision-making and de-escalation skills. He joined hosts Matt Shield and David Shields to share his secrets for making a successful business.

David and Matthew Shields, the hosts of the Like It's Your Job podcast, have spent most of their careers helping businesses and business leaders grow. Much like their father, Jim Shields, they were motivated by the desire to do something good.So, for their first episode, they decided it was only fitting to bring Jim on to get new insights on his business experience and how he's helping people today.Jim is a serial entrepreneur, strategic investor and attorney with almost four decades of experience supporting founder-led businesses, managing complex business litigation and providing legal counsel to company buyers and sellers. He is also the CEO of The Shields Group and founder of Shields Legal Group.According to a Guidant Financial report published in 2019, 57% of U.S. small businesses are owned by Baby Boomers who are nearing retirement. With over 30 million small businesses in the U.S., this means more than 17 million American businesses could potentially be for sale in the near future.Jim helps these small business founders get the best value from the sale of their company. After working in their companies for so long, these companies have made a big impact on their family. However, many founders are relying on their business to fund their retirement, as well.“They don't work for big companies with structured 401(k)s,” Jim commented. “If they don't have a successful exit for this company, they're in trouble from a financial standpoint.” Subscribe to the Like It's Your Job podcast to follow David and Matthew as they interview successful leaders to learn more about their successes, failures and realizations.