Be a Coach at Heart w/ Anne Jones | Ep. 141

In this episode of the Biz/Dev podcast, David and Anne Jones, Founder of One the Team, chat about how being a female athlete takes the same type of skillsets and heart that makes an entrepreneur successful.

Links:

Anne's LinkedIn

On the Team Website

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David Baxter has been designing, building, and advising startups and businesses for over ten years. His passion, knowledge, and brutal honesty have helped dozens of companies get their start.

In Biz/Dev, David and award-winning Creative Director Gary Voigt talk about current events and how they affect the world of startups, entrepreneurship, software development, and culture.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Anne: I figure my goal, like one of my metrics of success, David, will be can I pique your curiosity by the end of this

[00:00:06] David: I'm ready.

[00:00:07] Anne: We'll check back in with you on that.

[00:00:12] David: Hi everyone. Welcome to the biz dev podcast, the podcast about developing your business.

I'm David Baxter, your host joined per usual by the spiky headed Gary Voigt. What's up, man?

[00:00:22] Gary: Hey guys, extra spiky today.

[00:00:24] David: extra spiky. Do you cut your hair like every two minutes? Your

[00:00:29] Gary: three and a half

[00:00:30] David: does not, no way. That is a dirty lie. You're unless you have some weird thing. Your fade is intense, man.

[00:00:37] Gary: I went for a while without cutting my hair, trying to grow it.

[00:00:39] David: You hid it behind a hat

[00:00:41] Gary: looked ridiculous. Yeah. So then

[00:00:43] David: would never show it to

[00:00:44] Gary: to cave again.

[00:00:45] David: And Jones is our guest and she's wearing a hat. So I will tell her this story. So for months, Gary wore a hat and he was saying,

[00:00:53] Gary: Or a beanie.

[00:00:55] David: Or a beanie, which I love to make fun of,

[00:00:57] Anne: Nice, solid.

[00:00:57] David: beanie jokes.

[00:00:58] Gary: It was winter.

[00:01:00] David: He would wear a hat. And so I was expecting, cause he does have beautiful hair, which I'm very jealous of because I have none, but he kept it under this beanie hat thing for months. I'm like, okay, there's going to be this great reveal. Like Fabio, it flies out and it's going to look great. No. He cuts it before ever taking the hat off.

So I am left in suspense. I never saw him and he didn't let me make fun of him. I didn't

[00:01:24] Gary: You never will. Never will. I didn't even take a photo. It was so

[00:01:28] David: So rude. I need to talk to your daughters cause they have a photo somewhere. They have a photo. I need to,

[00:01:35] Gary: might. Yeah.

[00:01:36] David: I need to

[00:01:37] Gary: they like having a roof over their head and food in their mouth, they will not share.

[00:01:41] David: I'm not above bribery. I'm not above bad, especially for a good picture. Anyways, let's talk about something more important. Anne Jones, you are the founder of on the team. Welcome to whatever we call this. It's good to have

[00:01:54] Gary: Dev

[00:01:54] Anne: Thanks. Good to be here.

[00:01:56] David: So you have been this is all about sports, which I am woefully inadequate to talk about because I was really bad when I played sports. And I don't really follow sports. So I'm a perfect person to interview.

[00:02:09] Anne: I love it.

[00:02:10] David: But tell me about on the team.

[00:02:12] Anne: Yeah, I appreciate that. You know, and 

I figure my goal, like one of my metrics of success, David, will be like, can I pique your curiosity by the end of this

[00:02:21] David: I'm ready.

[00:02:21] Anne: We'll check back in with you on that. I'll tell you on the team is really about lifting up the voices of women athletes, particularly as it relates to their perspectives on building strong teams.

You know, when you're on a sports team and the, you know, the thing about these elite women athletes is they've been doing this since they were little. And Gary, I know you mentioned your girls are on teams, and I don't know if you played, so many touches on the ball, right?

You're on so many different teams, you're trying to deal with so many different players, different coaches, different study, different times, different years all different competition. Man, that, that gives you a lot of things under your belt where you walk into honestly a job. So many women have told me this.

They say, I didn't even realize all the strengths I had until I got into my first job. And I was like, man, I know how to do this. I know leadership. I know teamwork. I know accountability. I know resilience. You know, all these things that we talk about so often in companies that are really essential ingredients, these women are really learning it by doing it.

And so what I'm trying to do is both help them see those strengths and learn how to communicate that value, but also for our business community to see, yes, they're great athletes, but they're also have great perspectives about something you care a lot about building a strong team.

[00:03:35] David: Practically explain to me what on the team does. So are you filling speakers? Are you okay? So you are, she's nodding for those who are not watching her. 

[00:03:43] Anne: Yeah,

[00:03:45] David: find, I assume mostly professional athletes or they got to be pretty high level of no one's going to care about listening to them, right?

These aren't high schoolers. And

[00:03:53] Anne: that's a really, that's a really good question. There are actually two aspects of the business, and yes, one is a speakers bureau, if your will. So companies that are looking for speakers to come in and speak to their employees about strong team cultures, how do you do that, what do they look like, they would hire on the team, we would bring in our speakers.

Typically the way we set it up is, You know, imagine an hour speaking engagement. There's two athletes on the stage. I operate as a facilitator. The piece that I want to highlight is they really are up there telling their stories. And I want to say that because I know sometimes people hear panel and they think Oh no, that's going to be a bit of a snoozer.

No, I mean that they are really up there sharing with you a moment in the huddle, a moment on the field or the pitch. And so I think that gives it. Some interest and some uniqueness. And also you get to learn about team building, not for, not through some sort of, you know, academic construct, right?

Of these are the four pillars of effective teams. Like you're getting to learn about this through these sports stories, which are entertaining and interesting and inspiring and different. So that's the structure for the speaker series to your very good question about who these athletes are. You know, thus far I have worked with collegiate level athletes.

So yes, there's I do think there is something and having been a collegiate level athlete myself, there is something about getting to that level. It is another gear and I will say that's true for, you know, programs and students I've looked at from D1, D2, D3 and so it, it is more just about getting to that collegiate level.

I do work with some professional athletes as well, but not exclusively. And, you know, the part that's interesting is. You know, you may look at the speakers I have and you may not know who they are, right? I, you know, I'm not working with Candace Parker yet for Coco Gough. Yet, and in fact, they're fine, right?

You know, they've got plenty of opportunities to, for people to lift up their voices. So I think what people are really responding to is they share a belief that these women athletes do know something and do have valuable perspectives about these things. And they want to hear from them because of their experience, as opposed to celebrity name recognition.

The second piece of the business really works with collegiate women athletes that are, you know, a little bit younger. So the speakers tend to be. Upper classmen or out a few years, some are already working. So it's just a slightly different age profile. The second model with collegiate athletes has less to do with sort of people that are stage ready, so to speak, right?

For a company event and are really just looking for, how do I tell my story? Like, how do I communicate my value when. Maybe I'm interviewing for a job or an internship or an NIL deal, which is now our reality, right? Or even if I'm just talking to a fan, right? How do I come off and be compelling?

How do I feel confident? How do I be authentic when I'm sharing my value, my story? So that's a different model that typically is a two hour workshop model where I do an hour of coaching and then boom, they get to apply it right away. So it's like how are you going to present yourself when you're sitting across the table from a business professional?

We have one hour to coach on it and then in the door walks a business professional and you get to have an hour conversation with them. So very expensive, experiential, very in the moment, high urgency, high pace, which we're athletes. We love that.

[00:07:12] David: So I'm going to ask an ignorant and probably somewhat rude question. I don't mean it to be, but there are thousands. Yeah. You like that? Thousands of athletes, women and men, it's irrelevant to the gender. Most of them aren't going to do anything professionally. What is it? 2 percent at most.

[00:07:32] Anne: Yeah, at

[00:07:33] David: So why would me as a business want to hear from a collegiate athlete?

[00:07:38] Anne: Yeah. No, and listen, that's why I say I think I'm going to be going to people that have that sense that yes, they have something to say. I'm under no you know, misunderstanding as an entrepreneur and a founder that everybody already has bought into this mission. But I do believe there are a lot of folks out there that do get this.

And there are a lot of people who are really excited to hear from these athletes and frankly, to really hear from the women. There's something really special going on in women's athletics right now. It is on the move. There's a lot of buzz around this. And you know, maybe I'll fill this into one of my last segments on startups.

But, you know, I think as an entrepreneur, I feel like one of the most important things you can do is sort of find your differentiator and find your lane. You know, it's the old, can I make a hundred percent of people, or can I make a hundred percent of people, 50 percent happy, or 50 percent of people, a hundred percent happy?

You know, yeah, there'll be people out there that don't buy this, that don't think athletes have these experiences and they're not valid. And that's okay. The question is there a market of people that do? And I strongly have, I believe there are. Yeah,

[00:08:41] Gary: a, sorry. I think it's a creative enough little niche for, instead of just your typical speakers and people that present and the Rolodex of nonstop ads for those on LinkedIn and social media of, you know, a female athlete at a collegiate level is something like, Oh that's interesting.

It's a different perspective that I can hear instead of just someone. You know, repeating the same seminar over and over and over and over. So

[00:09:05] Anne: I think that's right, Gary. The other piece that I'm reminded to say is, you know, also, I'm also hypothesizing again this is a new business for me, right? So I'm still very much learning. I suspect this will also have a local component to it, right? So people will want to hear from these athletes because it's UNC.

Or it's Duke, or it's NC State, or it's the Courage the EndevaSell women's soccer team, right? So I also think that companies that are bringing these speakers in, I, I may not know who Brianna Pinto is, although a lot of people in this area do or Kaylee Kurtz again but I've heard of the courage.

I know that's the women's soccer team and yeah, let's lift them up. That's great. This would be good for us to hear from them. You know, again, just being completely honest, I'm not going to be the entrepreneur that's going to say, Oh, everybody's going to love this. And, you know, that, you know, I think to have a differentiator is the most important thing.

[00:09:54] David: So do you find your balance is mostly coaching or mostly the speaker stuff?

[00:09:59] Anne: That's such a good question. I don't know yet. I don't know yet. I will tell you I'm a coach at heart. I have been in that is what I love. And so those moments to really, whether I'm speaking with a speaker and helping them prep for that speaking gig or whether I'm really coaching at the collegiate level, some of the basics and sort of getting them started, man, that, that's a happy day for me.

But what I'm hoping is that what the speaker series provides, it's a credibility point, right? It's a validation point. What I mean by that is if I go to these younger athletes. And I say to them, look, you guys have a skillset that the business world really cares about. I don't want them to have to just take my word for it.

I want them to be able to point and say, by the way, I have the national speakers bureau where we have on the team athletes, where companies are paying to hear from them because they care about it. So it creates a validation point. It creates a credibility point that says, yes. Companies do value this.

They do believe you have something important to say and they want to learn from you. So that's partially why I did that model and also just gets, you know, it's just a different kind of level of visibility. The college piece, although I get much more reach, right? I'm not going to need lots and lots and lots of national speakers, you know, unless I have lots and lots and lots of businesses, but I would curate that group.

I want my top performers. I want my WNBA of the speakers group. So the college piece also allows me more reach and more of an opportunity to lift up more women. And if their path isn't to be a keynote or isn't on to be on stage, that's fine. We've still had an opportunity to connect and they still have a chance to be on the team.

So the different sides of the business hopefully stay related, right? I can see them being positive feedback loops from one another, right? Pipelines, that kind of thing. But they are admittedly sort of two different businesses that sort of scratch two different itches for me.

[00:11:48] David: I could totally see in five years, the coaching side growing dramatically because schools or whatever, these ladies are very skilled, but they might not be ready for the business world, right? Cause they've been focusing on sports, right? At least so they might not be ready.

So they're bringing you in to bring the, get those softer skills up that are so marketable. And then over time, as you've made these relationships, you find the next Caitlin Clark, who has gotten used to working with you. She goes, and now she only wants you to represent her on the speaking side because of that relationship.

I could totally see that kind of working together. Now, obviously that's extreme. She's one in a million. You know, it's funny. I have only seen her in the headlines, right? I know nothing about women's basketball or men's basketball, to be fair. But I was, we were at Chili's just yesterday and I'm sitting there and they're on, the fever was on and I'm looking up and I was like, oh look, there she is there.

She's playing. And she was just tank stinking it up. She was like, one for seven.

[00:12:49] Anne: start. Yeah.

[00:12:50] David: I know. She's amazing. I know, I'm just. I'm just bad luck. I'm watching her when she's not doing well. As soon as I leave Chili's, she explodes, wins the game. Fourth quarter, she soars 12 points. And I'm like that makes sense.

So that was my only experience. My only Caitlin Clarke story. So you're welcome. But it's such an interesting case and it's refreshing. We interview a lot of people for this podcast and there's a pattern to a lot of the jobs that we've interviewed. Yours is by far the, it's gotta be the most interesting.

Top five, most unique. We've done some really interesting ones, but I really dig this.

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[00:13:58] David: So are lots of women athletes. What do you look for in the ones that you want? Not, I understand coaching. You're doing your thing. You're coaching. That's, that makes sense.

What are you looking for? Is it just simply, boy, these people can tell a great story? Is it, you know, a certain, you know, camera quality, ready for the camera? I don't know the right way to say that. What is it that you're looking for? What's that?

[00:14:22] Gary: She's looking for the Riz.

[00:14:24] Anne: Yeah, no,

[00:14:25] David: using words.

[00:14:26] Anne: it's a great question, David. I would say. For sort of my for my speakers group. Yeah, it really you nailed it. It really is like. How close are they on the storytelling component and, you know, even over zoom, I can tell pretty quickly, like, how close to stage ready they are. And some of it is just comfort.

Right sort of charisma. Are they is the energy coming through the screen? Cause you know, that has to show up on stage. Their authenticity is really important as I always say to people, like too scripted and too polished can come off inauthentic, which can be way worse in a speaking engagement than just being yourself and letting yourself show through.

So just what are some of their natural tendencies around those things? And again, sort of how close are they to being able to tell a story? So if you ask a question about. You know, tell me about a time when you saw a powerful model of leadership. Do they in fact start taking me back to a moment in time? Do they speak about a particular person? Or do they sort of just speak in generalities? Speak in abstractions? Yeah, that is, as far as the college students are concerned they just gotta want it. Yeah. Yeah. They just got to want it. And I'm here to tell you, these athletes, if they want it.

And if they don't, they won't do it because they're so busy. They don't have time. Yeah,

[00:15:46] David: anyone who's excelling in athletics, if they want something, they obviously know how to get it.

[00:15:52] Anne: that's for

[00:15:53] David: Because these people are putting their bodies through all sorts of stuff. They, you know, there are people and we all know them or you're related to them. We don't do much of anything, right?

Unless it hits them in the face, they're not going to do anything, right? They'd rather play Nintendo or whatever.

[00:16:10] Anne: Yeah.

[00:16:10] David: But an athlete has proven probably since they were barely walking that they're willing to do whatever it takes to meet whatever that success is. So I would imagine it's very stark because again, if they wanted it, they'd go get it.

So it's really yeah, you could just say, see it probably pretty quickly.

[00:16:28] Anne: Yeah. I can see pretty quickly that, that attribute though, is just in spades. It is just amazing. The their determination and their dedication. And they know what it takes. So many other things too. I laughed, I just worked with a group of eight women on Friday. And this is a small detail, but every single one of them, 10 minutes early, 10 minutes early,

[00:16:47] David: I could learn something from

[00:16:48] Anne: right?

Boom, ready to go. Walked in. Just put me in coach. That's just the mentality. It is so fun to do my job. Yeah, I mean that it's a dream. And that's why, you know, E Y did a real, this was like buzzing all over the women's sports world, but I'll share it here. E Y did a survey of women in C suite roles, right?

Found out that 94 percent of those surveyed were athletes.

[00:17:13] Gary: Oh, wow.

[00:17:14] Anne: Wow, right? Now I talk to women athletes, they're like, of course, what does it take to make it to a C suite role? It just it

[00:17:21] David: Did they do the same thing for men? I would be shocked if that number was that high.

[00:17:26] Anne: Not that I'm aware of.

[00:17:27] Gary: No for

[00:17:28] David: I would

[00:17:28] Gary: 94 percent got their job from their dad.

[00:17:31] David: I'm just curious. I don't,

[00:17:32] Anne: Yeah.

[00:17:33] David: I would bet that number is not that I can't tell you why, but that bet that number is not as high as that 90. That's a lot.

[00:17:41] Anne: It's amazing. Yeah, it's a really cool stat. And it's also, you know, again, like it's been fun for me to really talk to these athletes about, for example, just the topic of leadership and really what their perspectives are and how they see it because of these experiences they've had. And it's, You know, if you want to use the academic terminology, they know distributed leadership, right?

They know flat structures, they know agile, they know how to lead from the bench, so to speak. It's just really impressive. That's why I say it can be a throwaway line for companies to say Oh, we love to hire athletes, man, though you should, because they really do.

These women really do bring perspectives on how to do this work at a high level. That's. It's the reason you hire people, right? It's you're sitting in an interview and you're interviewing someone for a job and they just start talking about how they think about things or something they've done or something that's great.

And you're like, I want you on my team. That's how you'll feel. Like it is so cool.

[00:18:33] David: So let's change gears a bit and talk about the business itself. You've been around just under a year, from what I gather.

[00:18:39] Anne: That's right.

[00:18:40] David: And we call that the slog, which is the time period in which you start a business until someone cares. And that can be anywhere from months to a decade, right? It takes a long time. And you seem to

[00:18:53] Anne: Yep. Yep.

[00:18:57] David: I think, a first.

Because it's painful, right? It's painful. I do get when you start a business, there is that freedom and you can do whatever you want. You can change gears. You can pivot. You can add a service. You can drop a service. Because there's no one. No one to care, right? It's just your baby and you go.

That's exciting. But it's also, you know, where do I get revenue? Who is my client? That is scary. 

So going back to you. So is it just you do you have anyone joining you

[00:19:27] Anne: Yeah, at the moment it's just me, I was listening to a previous guest that you had on actually talk about the we versus I in reality so it is just me but I will tell you David I do use I use we a lot

[00:19:40] David: the royal? We

[00:19:41] Anne: The royal we is you as I know you object to in certain conditions,

[00:19:44] David: depends I used it for a long time

[00:19:46] Anne: yeah,

[00:19:47] Gary: Yeah, there's a

[00:19:48] David: think it should be a lie like you shouldn't Say you have four offices when you don't that's the part that

[00:19:54] Anne: I don't even have one office. I have zero offices it's just me. But no, this, it really is, this, it is a social impact endeavor, right? This really is about building a community at the end of the day, and all of us trying to help lift up the voices of these women.

And so I, in that sense of the work I do feel like this is certainly a collective or team oriented task. Yeah.

[00:20:15] Gary: I have an odd question. I have on the marketing side of this. Now, it seems like having some of these athletes on your team is going to actually make it easier for you to market. Do you, have you found that helpful

[00:20:30] Anne: Yeah,

[00:20:30] Gary: their name recognition to also, you know, Help put your message out there for your business.

[00:20:35] Anne: 100 percent Gary. And I think to that is the part of it where I really want to be sure they do understand this. We, that I'm talking about, right? Like we have

[00:20:43] Gary: don't feel like they're being used for

[00:20:45] Anne: This is an overall goal, like for, so for you to be lifting up, you know, your speaking engagement is great, but also can you like and repost when we haven't chanced to lift up other women?

That sort of larger part of it I think is more motivating for people rather than, yeah, sort of the

[00:21:00] Gary: Cause it's not like no other business actually takes advantage of an athlete's, you know, for their own fortune.

[00:21:07] David: Absolutely not. Why would you

[00:21:09] Gary: Never happened.

[00:21:10] David: that corporations would stoop to that

[00:21:13] Gary: I'll end CAA my way out of here. Okay.

[00:21:16] David: out. Oh my gosh, that was

[00:21:19] Gary: You don't know anything about sports. So I'm trying to get at least one or two sports references in

[00:21:23] Anne: though, he does. I think he's sneaky

[00:21:25] David: know enough because I'm just a general human, but oh my gosh, that was painful.

[00:21:32] Gary: That's why I don't say much.

[00:21:33] David: It's good. 

[00:21:34] Anne: Like it when the truth comes out, I

[00:21:36] David: that's right. Cause it's so bad anyway. So what has been your favorite story? Yeah, I'm. Not necessarily a person, but is there a story where you've taken a woman who was, let's say rough around the edges?

Let's just, and you crafted coached and turn them into a pretty great suite. Is that a common thing? Or is that a highly unusual thing? Do you have a ton of those stories? I know I don't want to embarrass anyone, but Yeah, we'll do that.

[00:22:04] Anne: No I'm actually I'm actually thinking about a story from the company I founded. Previously, which was District C, which was also about lifting up voices just a slightly different angle. But what we did there was coaching young people on how do you solve complex problems in teams?

The basic model is groups of students, teams of students, are solving real problems for businesses, and we coach them through how in the world do you do that, right? When you've never heard of this business, when you've never thought about this problem, and you have three other people that you're supposed to work with and you don't, and you've never met them.

How do you do that? That was that business called District C. One of my most amazing experiences from that, humbling experiences from that, is a young woman named Jordan. And she was one of our very early students, and she was quiet. And so we did some of this work in person and some of this work online, and I just kept waiting.

You know, and I'd see her listening, and she was following, and when we were online, I could see all their notes. They would keep notes in a Word doc, so they're in a Zoom room, and then they'd have a parallel screen Word doc. And I would see her, and she'd be in there typing. It's Oh my God, this stuff's amazing.

Like, why isn't she saying anything? Like she just sit quiet and listen and she'd ask questions. Totally dialed in pulling things out of her teammates, like great team player, not saying anything. And so I said, Hey, Jordan, after this meeting tonight, I want you to call me. Here's my cell phone. So she called me up and I asked her, I was like, man, you have such great things to say.

Like, why aren't you getting in there? And she was just like, I don't know. And I said, all right the next meeting, get in there. I'm telling you guys, that's all it took. It's all it took. It took me five minutes, extra time just to say, I believe in you. And she went on to just be a dynamite student in that program, and she came back just recently.

She graduated from A& T. She's now working in an animal behavior lab. And she came back to speak at an event that we had. And she was telling the audience the story. And she remembers it clear as day, right? She remembers that moment when Coach Ann said, like, Why aren't you getting in there?

Like you have something important, you have value. And she said, thanks for giving me a chance.

[00:24:11] Gary: Awesome.

[00:24:12] Anne: That's why you do this work. I sat on Friday and I don't know where this story will go yet, but I sat on Friday and there was a young woman that came to this event. I could tell she was nervous. You know, she told me like, I've not had a chance to talk to these kinds of business professionals before.

And I'd shared with her, my story about what had happened to me at Dartmouth and like how difficult that was and that, and just that identity piece. And she chose to share a story with her business professionals about something that was similar, right? Where, she's still able to play now, but where something happened and she really had the question, if I lose this, who am I?

And I walked by and I heard her saying it destroyed me. And she was red and you know, but like man here she is she showed up and she shared that story and I guarantee You those business professionals will Never forget her and she walked up to me afterwards and I said well done, you know, you showed up you did it she said i've got to give you a hug

[00:25:07] David: Ah,

[00:25:08] Anne: Man you know, listen, those aren't the stories of you know, I hit the whatever revenue mark or You know Change the world, but you know if you have an opportunity to help one person see their value to me that's what this world's all about.

We got to keep doing that

[00:25:25] David: I would say regardless of. Industry, or I don't even know the right word to say it, but I don't care what you're doing, but if you could bottle the passion that you have for what you do into whatever industry you're aiming at, there's no way you don't succeed. You know what I'm saying? And I said, if you're that passionate about accounting or computers or anything,

[00:25:52] Anne: Yep.

[00:25:52] David: where you'll find success.

It's I want to bottle this up, this podcast up and say, If you want to succeed, this is what you should look like. And that's kudos to you because we don't see it. And I think some of it is a lot of the businesses, I do M and a, I do banking, I do construction, whatever. Maybe that's not something to get all jazzed up about, but your passion is contagious.

And it's very exciting to see

[00:26:16] Anne: Appreciate that. Listen, it's so true. And so many times with young people They don't they know like I can't even get my fingers this close together, but like they think this is these are their options Right? When they're thinking about what can I do in life. Like the and we've all been there.

Like I didn't know what the options were. I didn't know what I could do. They

[00:26:32] Gary: And I'm sure for athletes too, if they're, they feel like they've already been pigeonholed and just doing one thing for so long that there's no opportunity to

[00:26:39] Anne: No opportunity, or I have to go work for a sports team, or I have to be a, you know, an occupational trainer. Like they have no idea what their opportunities are. And yeah, like to me, David, to your point, the biggest gift, if we think about like, how as adults can we support young people, help them find their passion.

[00:26:54] David: there's

[00:26:55] Anne: do we do that?

[00:26:56] David: A local charity here that we are big fans of and we support called the Daniel Center. They're in Southeast Raleigh. And their entire premise is. Letting kids generally it's K 12 technically, but it's it they're elementary to high school primarily not littles. To show them what their options are because so many who grow up Southeast Raleigh for those who don't know is a poorer area of the city.

And. The only people they ever see with a degree are social workers and teachers.

[00:27:32] David: And they think that's literally all they could be. That's the highest they can aim for. And so the Daniel center is real big on steam and math and engineering and all that stuff. To show them, no, look, you got all these options.

You can be in finance. You can be in computers. You can be whatever. And these 10 year olds, 12 year olds. We were, we did a little thing with them. A year or so ago where we taught them how to code a little bit

[00:27:56] Anne: Yeah.

[00:27:57] David: and a couple of my devs were doing it and he's just some of these kids thought we hung the moon, right?

They were just wrapped. This coding thing is so wild. The other half couldn't care less.

[00:28:09] Anne: It's

[00:28:09] David: But there was like those three kids and they were like, I'm coming to teach this for that, that one kid right there. And so we're big fans of organizations like that. I think opening those doors and showing how big the world really is something not enough people do.

And I think I think that's important work. All right, let's wrap this up. Gary, ask our big question.

[00:28:29] Gary: All right. So through these experiences, both in your previous business and now the current one, what are your top three pieces of advice for any new entrepreneur?

[00:28:38] Anne: Yeah, I wrote these down. These are like, for real, thought out.

[00:28:43] David: thought out. Five minutes before you got on.

[00:28:46] Anne: Yeah, exactly. No, I'll tell you what I, what came to me were a couple of things that have just been like a mantra. The first one is follow the energy. And gosh, my husband and I said that to each other so many times starting District C and it's what we were talking about a minute ago.

There are tough days. When you are starting, you're like, is anyone going to call me back? You know, it's just, and you've really have to let, and follow the energy literally at a very, what do I feel like I have energy to do today, right? If I were to do X, does that make me feel excited?

Because I think as entrepreneurs there, you feel like there are certain things that you should be doing. What I'm going to argue is those things should be where you feel most energized, because if you can't keep your energy levels up, you'll never make it. The second thing that we talked about a lot was comes from actually having gone to school in New England and Having the chance to do some hiking and I want to sort of paint the picture for you of the mountain stream in New Hampshire, you know flowing down through the rocks and some big and some small and you know Water is cool, right?

Because if you look at the stream sometimes the water flows It's fast enough and at a high enough volume that it can actually move and tumble those rocks, right? And it wears them down and you pick them up and they feel like smoothed out because the water just keeps at it, just keeps wearing on them.

But sometimes the water hits big boulders that it's not moving fast enough or a high enough volume to move and water goes around it. It doesn't stop. It keeps moving forward. And that, again, was a huge message for us, right? Because there's things that you hit that feel like that boulder. And the answer isn't to stop, the answer is to keep going.

Picture that stream and go around it, right? We call this pivoting. So I think that was like a very present, keep moving forward, find a way to put one foot in front of the other. The third thing I'll share is something actually I heard at the Raleigh Durham startup week, which I'll put in as a plug for that event for those of you that are around it's a springtime event, but I needed to hear this at the time it was said, and that is fall in love with the problem, not the solution.

And I'm sure if you Google that a million people have said it, but boy was that just said to me at the right time as I was doing this work. It's really easy to think you've got it and get so excited about your solution that you're just out there trying to convince everybody. And you stop really listening to the people that are speaking about the problem, and your customer, if you will, or the users.

And that's the point where you can get really sideways with this. And so that was a great reminder for me to be like, I don't actually care if it ends up being this speakers group that I have, or this two hour worksheet. Or workshop. What I want to do is lift up the voices of these women and help the world see their strengths and help themselves see their strengths.

That is what I'm trying to do, how I get there. I'm open to learning. I want to find what works. I want to find a payer so that we can sustain this and grow this. So that was just like, it's just so easy to get so invested in your solution, especially when you're out trying to sell it. Because you're trying to sell yourself, right?

You're trying to sell the solution, and it quickly becomes, you realize you shut down all the learning and the listening, and that's when you're in trouble.

[00:32:06] Gary: All right. So not only are your stories inspiring, but those three pieces of advice are more inspiring than most. So the energy level and the water one reminds me of a Bruce Lee quote where he's just explaining, be like the essence of water. It's pretty much the same thing.

[00:32:21] Anne: Yep. Appreciate

[00:32:22] Gary: Yeah. Very good. Very cool.

Now, if anybody wants to learn more about your business, how can they get in touch? Where can they find you?

[00:32:28] Anne: Yeah the website is just ontheteam. co. There's a contact form at the bottom of that. I'm on LinkedIn. If you do LinkedIn Ann Jones on the team, I'm guessing that will pop up, although Ann Jones is a fairly

[00:32:39] Gary: Don't worry. We'll put the links in the show

there's, they don't have to guess.

[00:32:42] Anne: Yeah, no, and I just want to say to folks listening I really do believe in building community, so if you're like, I don't know if I should reach out, or, please do I love having conversations, I love meeting people always a chance to learn from somebody, so I hope people take me up on that,

[00:32:56] Gary: That's

[00:32:56] David: Very cool. This has been a lot of fun. Thank you so much, Ann, for joining us and joining our little podcast. We look forward to watching your little company and seeing your people come out of there. So that's very exciting.

[00:33:08] Anne: I appreciate it, thank you all so much for the opportunity, and just also want to say and I've done a few of these podcasts, and I just appreciate how carefully you guys listen and I can tell that by the kinds of questions that you ask. Like they're not like you're really listening to what I'm saying and curious about what I'm doing.

So that was felt. I really appreciate that. Thank you so much.

[00:33:25] OUTRO: Hi, I'm Christy Pronto, Content Marketing Director here at BigPixel. Thank you for listening to this episode of the BizDev Podcast. We'd love to hear from you. Shoot us an email, hello at thebigpixel. net. The BizDev Podcast is produced and presented by BigPixel. See you next week. Until then, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Threads, YouTube, and LinkedIn.