Ron Carey, Jody Alexander, and Paul Trible

Join us for episode 21 of the Richmond Leadership Lab. In this special first-ever LIVE episode of the Richmond Leadership Lab, co-hosts Christian Mosier (BenX Consulting) and Taylor Quinn (Filmspire and Richmond Podcast Studio) take the stage in front of a live Richmond audience with three of the city’s most respected leaders: Jody Alexander, CEO of the YMCA of Greater Richmond; Ron Carey, Founder & CEO of Tilt Creative + Production; and Paul Trible, Co-Founder & CEO of Ledbury. Episode Highlights:A Live Richmond Leadership Lab First: After nearly two years and 20 episodes, Christian and Taylor bring the show to a live stage — a panel of three Richmond CEOs in front of an audience, capped with a live audience Q&A. Meet Jody Alexander (YMCA of Greater Richmond): Celebrating 38 years with the Y, Jody rose from swim coach, lifeguard, and lesson instructor to CEO of a regional organization spanning seven municipalities, 18 locations, a 100-acre camp, and roughly 2,600 employees — with an eighth municipality on the way. Meet Ron Carey (Tilt Creative + Production): A Richmond native who played football at UVA and cut his teeth with the Mars family and the Martin Agency, Ron built Tilt on a bold idea: bringing creative agency work and production/post-production together under one roof. Tilt turns nine in January with award-winning work around the world. Meet Paul Trible (Ledbury): From medical missions with Operation Smile to an Oxford MBA to learning shirtmaking on London’s Jermyn Street, Paul co-founded Ledbury and built an e-commerce-first menswear brand in Richmond that now serves more than 100,000 online customers. The Leaders Who Shaped Them: The panel reflects on early mentors — Ron’s parents and Mars executive Ellis Rowe, who taught him to “do hard things”; Jody’s mentor who modeled leading through motherhood and making peace with guilt; and Paul’s father, who showed the power of casting a big vision and repeating it relentlessly. The Real Cost of Leadership: An honest conversation about the price of building something — pulling back your own pay so “leaders eat last,” relocating families across states, and the challenge of always being “on.”How Leaders Recharge: From Ron’s extroverted reset at the river with family, to Jody’s introverted need for quiet (“don’t talk to me until the jewelry’s off”), to two-week vacations that actually let you unplug — the panel shares what real restoration looks like. What Richmond Does Better Than Anywhere: One (or half a) degree of separation, a warm and generous business community, and people who genuinely want to connect you — plus the flip side: the “we already tried that” mindset that can hold big ideas back. Finding and Keeping the Right Talent: Practical hiring wisdom — freelancing people before you hire them, prioritizing cultural fit and hiring for “hungry, humble, smart,” using short video applications and case studies to reveal who truly wants the seat, tapping global talent, and how Tilt keeps turnover under 5%. Learn More About Our Guests’ Organizations:YMCA of Greater Richmond — https://www.ymcarichmond.org/Tilt Creative + Production — https://www.tiltcp.com/Ledbury —https://www.ledbury.com/Connect with the Guests:Jody Alexander — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jody-alexander-915a5734/Ron Carey — https://www.linkedin.com/in/ron-carey/Paul Trible — https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-trible-81ba0925/Richmond Leadership Lab is Produced and Co-Hosted by:Taylor Quinn, CEO – Filmspire & Richmond Podcast Studiohttps://www.filmspirevideo.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/taylor-quinn-filmspire/Christian Mosier, President – BenX Consultinghttps://benxconsulting.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-mosier/Learn More About Richmond Leadership Lab: https://www.richmondleadershiplab.com

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  Welcome to the Richmond Leadership Lab, featuring business and nonprofit leaders across Richmond, Virginia. Produced and hosted by Filmspire and Ben Ax.

• 0:12Speaker 01

  Well, thank you guys for being here. This is the first live podcast episode of Richmond Leadership Lab. We've done this podcast for almost two years now.

• 0:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 0:21Speaker 01

  Which is crazy, so this will be episode 21. And so grateful to see a lot of past guests here.

• 0:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 0:28Speaker 01

  And a lot of good people in the, in the audience. So I'll kick it off, we're gonna do about a 45 minute podcast and give about 10 minutes for Q and A at the end, so think of a good question, maybe not too hard of a question, maybe a really hard question, I don't know. But think of a good question for Q and A at the end. So, my name's Christian Mosier, co-host is Taylor Quinn, he's a lot of the brains behind it. We have three great panelists today. So we have Ron Carey, who's the CEO of Tilt. We have Jody Alexander, who's the CEO of the Greater Richmond YMCA. And Paul Trible, who's the CEO and founder of Leadberry.

• 1:06Speaker 02

  So welcome.

• 1:07Speaker 01

  So welcome.

• 1:14Speaker 01

  So we'll kick it off, and first of all, I want to know, kind of a two to three minute story, a little bit about you all, a little about the company you run, and then we'll kind of dive straight into leadership. We've got 45 minutes, we're gonna ask some leadership questions, we're gonna ask some Richmond questions, billion company in Richmond, all that fun stuff. So if you guys wouldn't mind, give us kind of a two or three minute, a high level overview of who you are and the organization that you run.

• 1:37Speaker 03

  Yeah. Would you like to start?

• 1:39Speaker 04

  You want me to start?

• 1:40Speaker 03

  If you'd like.

• 1:41Speaker 04

  Put me on the thing.

• 1:42Speaker 03

  I don't mind, but I'll just...

• 1:43Speaker 04

  Okay, I'll start, I'll start. I'll use my camp voice, because I'm really good at that. So I got that, so, good morning, everyone. I shared a couple, you know, points this morning. I'm actually this month celebrating 38 years with YMCA, so I am... Thank you. A very slow road and slow path from a swim team coach and a swim lesson instructor and lifeguard to CEO. I've been in Richmond for three years. I've been in four different states with the YMCA. I've been in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, and absolutely love the Greater Richmond area.

• 2:25Speaker 04

  I needed a job when I went to college and I was fortunate to, you know, answer a job board, pull the tab at the student union back in the day to, you know, work for, work for the YMCA. I've grown up mostly through operations, so everything that you can think of that a YMCA does, and three years ago, decided to take the transition and the leap to not only a new city, but understanding what it means to lead the, lead the organization in all things YMCA like. Our YMCA here is a regional YMCA. We are in seven different municipalities.

• 3:07Speaker 04

  We have 18 locations, 100 acre camp, about 2,600 employees. We are about to expand into our eighth municipalities, so watch out for those details coming soon. And our goal is to really transform individuals and lives and help people lead their best life and thrive, as well as looking at where we can stand in the gaps of bridging community and helping our community to thrive by being a part of an ecosystem that solves great big community issues and problems.

• 3:44Speaker 03

  I'll go ahead and jump in, Ron Carey. There are two things that have always been present in my life. One is, is love of kind of business related things, and that started before I even knew what the word entrepreneurship was. And then the other thing is athletics. Some folks will remember kind of the time I got to spend here, growing up in Richmond, playing football and going to Hermitage High School, and then playing at the University of Virginia, which then, I feel like that just exposed me to this incredibly broad world. Shortly after coming out of Virginia, had the good fortune to go work for the Mars family in the M&M side of the business, which took me all over the place, learned a ton, and then decided to come back to Richmond about 20 years ago.

• 4:29Speaker 03

  Worked in a different, number of different capacities, ended up at the Martin Agency, and while there, had the good fortune to identify a business that I wanted to buy. And we'll talk more about that, that later. But we built Tilt Creative Studios, and with the crazy notion of, if we could integrate creative services in an agency with production and post-production capabilities, have that all under one roof, that we felt like we would have built something different. And now Tilt turns nine in January, and we've had a chance to do a lot of award-winning work all over the world, and it's been really quite the journey, so that's our story.

• 5:11Speaker 02

  Very cool. Good morning, everybody, Paul Trible here, I'm one of the co-founders of Leadberry and CEO, men's clothing business based here in Richmond. My background was not always in the clothing business, wasn't a dream of mine as a child. Grew up in Newport News, ended up going to college, the western part of the state, was going to law school, decided to do something different for a little bit and not do that. Ended up working with a nonprofit called Operation Smile, does facial reconstruction on kids, and so I was a mission coordinator when I was in Africa and Asia, in the Middle East doing medical missions in my early twenties. That took me to London, where we started the charity over there in London. I was there for five years, three years kind of building Operation Smile in the UK, about a year doing some finance stuff, and then going to business school, ended up at Oxford for business school.

• 5:55Speaker 02

  Was very excited about coming out, I went to China for an internship with a venture capital firm, I was there in 2007, was heading back there after business school, and as luck would have it, I graduated the day before Lehman Brothers collapsed, which is, life is all about timing, and I remember literally getting the diploma and then having people in the city in London telling me that the world was about to change. So it was a blessing and a curse, the blessing was, or the curse was, the job that I had disappeared, and all the other jobs after business school, like, weren't there anymore, as we were all trying to get through the financial crisis, if you can remember it. The blessing was, it gave me a chance to be like, hey, if I could do anything, what would be? And I'd always loved clothes, I was a very, grew up in a very formidable family, I, you

• 6:37Speaker 02

  know, would go to thrift stores, and I loved the idea of creating a business. I loved being in London, where I would find things that like, fit well and great quality, and come back to Virginia, where I like, couldn't find the right stores at the right price point. And so I ended up knocking on the door of a Jermyn Street shirtmaker in London, you have Savile Row, where you traditionally get your suits made, and then Jermyn Street is all shirtmakers. He had been making my shirts, and I loved him, he was this Australian guy, and I knew about him, not him, and I said, hey, I'm this American, I'd love to come in and learn the business from you. He told me I was totally crazy, but he met me for a pint at a local pub, we met for a month, and eventually said, sure, come on in. So I ended up working for him for about 10 months, learning the business, traveling to Europe, learning about fabrics and production and sewing and all this. Grabbed a good friend of mine, his name is also Paul, very ironically, and we decided

• 7:22Speaker 02

  to move back to Virginia, just to be in Virginia, and it kind of created e-commerce first business, that maybe didn't have to be in New York, or didn't have to be in LA. So that was 16 years ago, it's a long time for our clothing business. We have had lots of peaks and valleys and troughs and high moments and low moments, but today we've had 100,000 online customers, what's a very unique, kind of, very rapid made-to-order model, and our shirts are full kind of collection of menswear, and it's been a lot of fun and adventure.

• 7:48Speaker 01

  Awesome, thanks, Paul. Well, let's get into it, let's jump right into some of our questions, and, you know, first, I just want to say thank you, everyone, for coming here, and I was talking to the panelists earlier this week, and saying that everyone here is, is successful in their own right, you wouldn't be here if you weren't, you weren't successful, so thanks for being here, and that's, that's the same for each of our panelists here. I love to, normally we do get to get into our podcast, to get into a little bit of the backstory and things like that more, we don't have too much time for that, but I want to jump into a little bit of backstory, but also some leadership lessons and things like that. So my first question for, for everyone is, who was a leader that shaped you early in your life, and what lessons have carried on? You know, for me, a funny backstory too, is Paul, actually, I actually worked for

• 8:33Speaker 01

  his dad, his dad was the former president of CNU, where I went to school.

• 8:37Taylor Quinn?

  And I worked under Paul's dad and learned an amazing lessons on leadership and vision and things like that. And that has carried through for me. So I'd be curious for each of you, who's someone early in your career life that really shaped you? And how have you carried on some of those leadership lessons for you today? Ron, would you mind starting?

• 8:54Speaker 03

  I don't mind jumping in at all. Two individuals, it's really easy. Actually, they're a unit, mom and dad on one side. Dad was the teacher principal assistant superintendent for Richmond Public Schools. And so that was a pivotal role in terms of the too much is given, much is expected, right? And having an impact on the community. And then the first African-American president of Mars Candy, a gentleman by the name of Ellis Rowe, who has since passed away. But he's one of those folks that came along and tapped me on the shoulder, even when I didn't know exactly what was the next thing or where I was going to say, you're going to go take this job and work in manufacturing. Ellis, I don't know anything about manufacturing, or HR for that matter.

• 9:39Speaker 03

  But Mars had a habit of throwing you into things that you hadn't done because it believed that you could do things. And so what I took away from that is make yourself do hard things and stretch, and it'll prepare you for things in the future. Jody, what about you?

• 9:55Speaker 04

  Yeah, I love to piggyback on the do hard things because I think my career in general is a mom, a wife, and moving through that journey is hard, like really hard. So one of the most influential people in my career was a woman who had gone through all the steps that I've gone through, but she was about 10 years older than me. And so I found her early on to say, oh, my gosh, how did you do this and be successful when you had preschoolers and elementary school and, oh, my gosh, the god-awful teenager years? And just being able to watch how she progressed when she retired a few years ago from being

• 10:40Speaker 04

  a CEO in Chattanooga, Tennessee. And so being able to watch her and constantly call on her. And what I learned from her the most is like, something's always going to be, you're going to feel, you're going to feel guilty no matter what. So reconcile with that, you know, just reconcile that. You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to do it all at the same time. And incrementalize and take one thing at a time. And be good at the thing and know that you're going to have to pull something and throw it back up in the air. But if you can make peace with that in your, you know, in your mind, then you'll be able to continue to just kind of keep pushing through. So that's the way I kind of learned to do the hard things.

• 11:25Taylor Quinn?

  Yeah. Paul?

• 11:27Speaker 02

  That's great. Don't tell her, I mean, you probably took one of mine, at least in my early age. So you're not supposed to do that to your families. No, I think that's a good one. I mean, I've had a few mentors in part throughout my business career, which has been hugely important, you know? So I think, and that's something I haven't done as well recently, is continue that idea of a mentor, because we all need one at every single time. I would say, yeah, my dad would probably be an early one, just in terms of like, setting a vision. My dad worked in education at CNU, went there, you know, 30 years ago. And he has a very good ability to like dictate a very grand vision. And like a one big enough that like everybody can get on board with, and big enough that like his vision can encapsulate everybody else's vision that works for him to try to pull it up. And I think like that is important in business, is like having a big enough vision for everybody

• 12:11Speaker 02

  else in the company and everybody else to believe in. I think the other thing he did really well, which used to drive me crazy, is like repeat it nonstop, you know? And like, I think that that's something that we as leaders sometimes forget. Like, we feel like we say the same thing, important things over again and again. You should probably do it 2X as many times as we think we do, you know? And like, that because then becomes like real and imprinted on everyone. And it just takes that repetition to do it, which I always thought was interesting.

• 12:36Taylor Quinn?

  How, speaking on mentors and things like that, like, do you, Jody, do you still have like that someone who's 10 years ahead of you now that you're looking at? Like, what does mentorship look like for you now? Even though you are a leader, do you still have mentors in your life that are speaking to you and helping to guide you in your next chapter?

• 12:51Speaker 04

  Remember, I just said my mentor retired, so that's what I'm looking towards? Oh, my goodness. So how are you doing that? Okay, that's good. I got, I got that. But yeah, interesting. I grew up through operations, so operations became just second nature. I could walk in and I could see, this is good, this is not good. How do we, you know, solve and fix these things? It's a whole different leap coming out of operations to actually leading an organization. So the very first thing that I did was actually establish more formal coaching. And so, yes, I have mentors that I look, you know, and have guided, but when I, I'd

• 13:30Speaker 04

  come across someone who loves the YMCA, but he coaches professionally, was a CEO of several different startup tech companies. And I met him when I was in Charlotte, North Carolina, and I formally asked him to help me develop my system, because I think that's important in leadership, especially as a CEO, is what's your system? And so I still, I still use him from an F-formal perspective.

• 13:58Speaker 01

  I think when we're talking about, you know, running a business, running a company, it's hard, right? Like, obviously, as you all know, it's not an easy feat to do, and vision and leadership and culture and sales and marketing and all this stuff. I'm curious, because a lot of times we don't talk about the other side of it, like, the cost of leadership. So like, for you all, has it, has building a company, leading a company, cost you all personally? Obviously, you don't have to get too specific, but has it cost you all personally, you know, in certain ways? But then also, we have a lot of business owners and CEOs and leaders in the room. Is there any advice you give them about like the cost of building a business?

• 14:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, I would just start from a place of, of understanding that there's, and my father used to say this to me all the time, and as a kid, you didn't understand it as much, but there's a price to be paid for everything, right? And so I don't necessarily view it as a cost and something's been taken away. I view it more as a, there are times in life where you're going to be prioritizing things differently. And there are times, especially in the early days of when we were building the company, it was all in, right? Because it was running a business and the business I was trying to buy, running it while still trying to prepare for the next business. And it's like, there's going to be an involved time, and there's some things I'm not going to be there for, but then there are other times I can show up. So I've accepted it as a, there's a, there's a book about, you know, doing the hard things, right?

• 15:22Speaker 03

  And there's a theme here, but it's like, do hard things now for, and not easy, but easier path later on. And so that's the way that I've viewed it from a cost perspective.

• 15:30Speaker 02

  Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think there's plenty of cost and sacrifice for this. And it's different, too, for what you do. Like, you know, we're, build a business from scratch, right? And like, obviously, we have a lot of equity ownership in it. We have capital investors, we have people on those lines. I mean, from a personal cost, I mean, I think finance, there's been a near-term financial cost. You know, I think there's this idea, like a saying, leaders eat last, right? And particularly if you own the company and you're starting it, there are times, like COVID, if you're in the clothing business, or things on those lines, where like, you pull back your salary and you put other people forward, or you pay somebody else a lot more than you're paying yourself. So I think that there's a piece of that where there's sacrifice. Of course, in the end, you hope it all nets out, right? And then you're working towards a goal.

• 16:14Speaker 02

  But I also think like you have to be careful of that, because like, if you're really going to be a strong leader, and like, you know, for your company and be able to take it to the next level, like, you need to make sure that like, you are taken care of in a way that you can be focused enough and without the outside things to be doing that. So I think it's a cost. I think it's worth it, particularly if you've started something and you own it. But I think making sure that you can balance those two things is pretty important.

• 16:38Speaker 04

  I would say, I kept thinking there was a cost, and I feel like I'm a little bit over on the other side of, was it really a cost? Meaning, I moved my son from Ohio to Florida, literally on his 13th birthday. So like, I've tried, I'm so grateful for my career and all the different places that it's taken me, but man, that weighed really heavy on, you know, ripping them out of their community. And then we were moving to Charlotte, North Carolina, and we, my son was in college. We thought we were all in. My daughter wanted to go, and then we chose the wrong school system.

• 17:21Speaker 04

  And so we ended up having, my daughter and my husband moved back to Orlando while I stayed in Charlotte for two years. So living away from my family is like a huge cost, right? Now that my children are adults and they're into their careers, like they don't look at it that way, though. So where I was pulling the guilt and saying, oh, my gosh, what am I doing? I'm following this career is selfish, is this? They're looking at it as, no, we had adventure and we had opportunities. And we're not scared to move or to go, you know, do different things. So I would say that would be one thing that, you know, that's always weighed on me as a cost to it.

• 18:04Speaker 04

  I think also, and we probably all feel this way, is that we're also always on. Like it's really, really hard to separate and create some boundaries so that you can be present for your family or the moments that you need to be present for. So I'd say, you know, there's a little bit of both of those things, so.

• 18:26Taylor Quinn?

  Yeah.

• 18:26Speaker 01

  Have you all found any good strategies for balancing that?

• 18:29Taylor Quinn?

  Yeah.

• 18:30Speaker 01

  Or turning that off or maybe, you know, having some type of system in place or?

• 18:34Taylor Quinn?

  Yeah. Or what does like restoration look like for you? If you can find that to keep that, to keep things in balance? What does that look like?

• 18:41Speaker 03

  You know, when I think about it, I think it's, there's a core group around me of people that I know I can spend time with. And it's not about all of the public stuff that we all go through of being ever-present and kind of out in the world. That for me, I know that there are times that, and I'm an extrovert. I'm an ENTJ kind of thing, but I can, I can pull back in and go, hey, if I can get to the river and get to the water and get to the beach and just, it's me, my wife. And if I can get the three daughters from wherever they are in the world to come back, that's perfect. Like all of a sudden, the battery just goes, now I'm ready. Back out into the world I go.

• 19:18Speaker 04

  I love it that you're an extrovert because I am a severe introvert. So I will go home and sleep like probably the rest of the day. That's how I will, you know?

• 19:28Speaker 03

  That's good.

• 19:28Speaker 04

  But I think that is exactly it for, for me as well is just having quiet. Literally, I need quiet time. I need quiet time. I need to, my husband and I established right off of the get-go early in our marriage, which today is our 32nd wedding anniversary. So I'm spending with you all instead. And, but it was, go home, don't talk to me till I can get the jewelry off. I can like put sweats on. Just give me a couple of seconds. And that has worked really well is, you know? And then in Richmond, the sheer idea of the amount of nature and water. And you'll always find us every single weekend down at the river and hiking and walking.

• 20:12Speaker 04

  But it's quite, don't talk to me while we do it. So people know when I get the face, like, okay, you're, she's done, she's done.

• 20:18Taylor Quinn?

  I'm going to try that with my wife. Yeah, hon, don't talk to me. Yeah, that's the advice I got. Don't talk to me. Yeah. Paul.

• 20:24Speaker 04

  Mutual agreement.

• 20:27Speaker 02

  It's tricky.

• 20:28Taylor Quinn?

  Paul, I'm curious what your answer looks like for finding peace. I mean, you've got young kids. I've got young kids. Life is insane for me, I know. What does that look like for you? How are you able to find capacity and balance for you?

• 20:40Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, I have three kids under the age of nine. My wife started a business, which has been doing amazingly well about a year and a half ago. So we've got two, three, just call it ball kids, two small businesses. So we're busy, there's no doubt. I mean, I think luckily during the very beginning of Leadberry, like during the all-out chaos, do everything time, I was by myself, right? I wasn't married, I didn't have kids. I do think it speaks a lot, though, to, to building the team to take some of the stuff off of you. You know, my wife, for example, is like, she has a container guarding business and she's doing everything. And she's like, I can do it. And she just got an executive assistant in place. And she's like bought back like 10 hours of her week. And that's like hours on the couch. That's hours at 2:00 in the morning when you're thinking about stuff. And it's all these small things that we do with our time, particularly on the administrative side,

• 21:25Speaker 02

  where like adds up to really a huge amount of time. And if you can turn that back to time with your kids or like intentional time with your spouse. So I think luckily, like with Leadberry, we build up enough capable people where like, I can walk away and it runs now. Wasn't always the case. But because of that, I think I've been able to bifurcate those two lives and be a little bit more present and like make the time count for the family and then try to be on at work. There's a lot of support.

• 21:47Speaker 03

  I'm fully aware it's not available to everyone. But in the last probably three years I've started, I don't take a one-week vacation anymore. It's a two-week vacation. Cause I know that there's a transition period. And then about Wednesday or Thursday of the following week, I'll start to transition back in for a couple of things. But that's just been a life changer, right?

• 22:09Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 22:09Speaker 03

  And as the kids have now gotten older, it's great to go to a beach or someplace. And they can only come in for a couple of days or for, you know, a short amount of time. But that's the point at which I get to have them all overlap at different times and see them. So that's invaluable if you get a chance to do that.

• 22:24Taylor Quinn?

  Love that, love that, love that.

• 22:26Speaker 01

  And so the name of the podcast is Richmond Leadership Lab. Obviously, you all are here in Richmond, building companies here in Richmond, as a lot of you are as well. What is one thing you think you can't get anywhere else? Like hiring or building a company in Richmond? What's something that Richmond does really well or that you see a massive opportunity? And what's maybe one thing that you feel like is holding Richmond back or holding business back in Richmond?

• 22:54Speaker 03

  I think really well, if you had told me that I would be able to start a business that does work internationally based in Richmond, so it's very inviting, it's warm, it's one degree of separation, that's all the good stuff. People are incredibly receptive. You know, when I was thinking about starting the business, they, you could access almost anyone and ask a question and they would respond. That was fantastic. Recently, the mayor did a panel and they were trying to gather more information about how to improve the business community. And I think that having a depth of people kind of in the economic development space that really understand kind of the banking infrastructure, understand kind of the entrepreneurial environment, understand deregulation of kind of how to start things and making it easy.

• 23:39Speaker 03

  To do that would create a much more inviting environment for entrepreneurs, I think.

• 23:45Taylor Quinn?

  That's a good answer.

• 23:47Speaker 04

  I completely agree. Being here three years, it is the most warm, inviting, one degree, half a degree of separation between people. So I think the Richmond strength of relationships is something that is incredible. It is, it is, people are so willing to, oh, you should know so-and-so or let me connect you. Like that is a weekly thing. And it's everything from personal to the, you know, the business and the organizational side of things. So that has been a super cool stunner and surprise. Again, just living in a couple of different places. So it's, and it's big enough, but it still feels, you know, small and that people actually care.

• 24:30Speaker 04

  So I think that that's fantastic, the relationship. Might be that a little bit of that gets in the way, though, sometimes too, because this is, oh, I've heard this before, you know, well, big vision. I was, I really like, when you were talking about that, that just resonated with me because like there are some big vision things, but there's also a little bit of the, well, we've actually tried that or, you know, that was, we did that five years ago or somebody tried that 10 years ago. It's not going to really work in Richmond. And so I think that, that those connectivity things are great, but I also think that that might get in the way sometimes.

• 25:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's good. Yeah, I mean, I echo Jody and Ron. I mean, I think it's a super inviting business community. We're really lucky. It's not like this everywhere. Like I could be like, go ask five different people to like help me connect with folks and most everybody's game to do that. So that's a rarity. You know, I think for us on a, and I do think, I got here in 2009, that mentality is getting better and better. I totally agree with you, you know? So like, there's still a lot of that, like this has been tried before or like think bigger, right? Like we've got a really unique thing here that people really like. I think for us, like we're in the clothing business, not a lot of other clothing businesses here. And so sometimes it's hard to like not being in the mix, right? You know, if we're in New York, you're like sharing ideas with other CEOs or you're, you know, seeing potential employees as you're like walking down the street.

• 25:56Speaker 02

  And so for us, we've had to like gone fish for those people and bring them back into Richmond. What I will say is like everybody that we have brought to Richmond has loved it, you know? So I think that is a self-fulfilling prophecy of we'll get more of these folks here. But I remember talking to somebody at Martin years ago and they were like, you know, what do you think about all these people leaving to start their own agencies? And they're like, we love it. Because then we bring people in, they're not worried about, if it doesn't work at Martin, what am I going to do? You can go start something creative or work for these other great agencies. So I think more of that in smaller niche markets, maybe Art Richmond's thing will be helpful to continue to grow the talent pool. Good point.

• 26:28Taylor Quinn?

  We'll be right back after this short message.

• 26:31Speaker 01

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• 26:52Taylor Quinn?

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• 27:13Taylor Quinn?

  And now, back to the show. Good point. Speaking of that, you know, bringing in talent and things like that, I'm curious, what has your all's process been for finding talent? Cause I think it's, it's the right team that can make the big difference, you know, early on for an organization and continuing through and then, you know, investing in those people and things like that. I'm curious, Ron, for you, what has it looked like to, to grow a team and find the right talent? And what are those specific skills you look for that may not be on a job description or a resume or things that stand out? So what does that look like for hiring and building that hiring culture at Tilt?

• 27:48Speaker 03

  I think to Paul's point, right? It's, it's almost like the automobile dealership where you get critical mass and you've got like an auto mile. When we can have, you know, the Martin Agency, Arts and Letters, Wes Carey Group, us, there are others that are not quite as large as some of the rest of us, but concentrated in the city, all of a sudden, it makes it so much easier to attract talent. What I'm always looking for is, and of course, VCU, to have the Brand Center nearby and a strong undergraduate program just makes it a rich environment for us to be able to cover from junior all the way up to kind of more, more senior and experienced people. I think the real powerful piece is we've got a pretty extensive freelance network in the creative world.

• 28:31Speaker 03

  So all of a sudden, you can attract people to kind of either work virtually, remote or come in town. And what we've found is kind of once folks get here and start spending time here and they've been out of New York for a little while, it's the, hey, I kind of like the fact that I can walk anywhere, drive, good quality of living. And so that's what's really worked for us.

• 28:49Taylor Quinn?

  Yeah. Jody, what does that look like for you?

• 28:51Speaker 04

  Yeah, I think attracting talent, I think of it so differently now than, you know, how I used to think about it, which was, can they do the job? Like, what is the job? What is it that, and have they done it before? Now, with the way we're really shifting and thinking differently about our organization and community impact and solving, you know, big, big problems and big issues in our community, I'm constantly thinking about where are we going to go and how are we going to hire somebody that can move and ebb and flow with where we're headed? So can, are they curious? Can they scale things? What is their capacity for change?

• 29:35Speaker 04

  What is, can they live in ambiguity? Can they live in the unknown? Because I think things are so rapidly changing in our world that we're, you know, we just did a strategic plan, right? We all do the big vision and the strategic plan, and we've got this thing set. And we're two years into it, and I'm already thinking about, oh my goodness, we've got to live beyond this, and these things are already changing. So if you can't be fast-paced, understand data, learn, you know, human experience and understand what drives people and kind of live in that kind of crazy space sometime, you're not going to do it.

• 30:17Speaker 04

  Attracting talent, we're kind of unique in the way that we are, you might have heard this before, but we're America's first job. There are more people that get their first job at a YMCA than any other place. So we've got 800 different associations, much like we're talking about Richmond, across the country. We have 2,600 employees. 280 of those are full-time or careered people, and half of those came up through the ranks of being part-time. So being able to kind of grow them from within and give the different experiences, again, started as a swim team, swim team coach, but I also taught group exercise. I was also sports director. I ran the front desk.

• 31:01Speaker 04

  I, you know, I taught ballet classes. I know nothing about ballet, but you kind of have that opportunity, right? So looking for skill set and people that want to try different things and then can, you know, live in the change element.

• 31:16Taylor Quinn?

  Right, yeah. Paul, what's that look like for finding talent and bringing in the right folks?

• 31:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, I was not particularly good at that. We had some great people despite my efforts early on. But I feel like we grew very quickly. I mean, I know Jody has 2,000 employees, but, you know, it was from 0 to 40 employees over the course of, you know, two years or so. Two now, well, maybe two and a half years. And it was really about bodies and seats, you know? Again, can you do the job? Like, what can you do? Like, let's fill this out with very little structure and very little systems. I think as we progress, particularly over the last, like, four or five years, it's been like, you know, let's focus on, you know, our thought is we want to hunger, you know, hire people that are like, hungry, humble, and smart, right? So we want people who are going to like hustle, we want them to be smart, but we also want them to be humble to be able to learn like our process. We started hiring people who are like, very skilled in like what they do. Maybe not upper echelon, but like in other companies really have that experience, but

• 32:05Speaker 02

  are still in it and can do the work themselves. And we also started like paying them more, you know? And I think like I would hire young people to fill roles and then not pay them enough, and then they would leave, as they should. And they've gone on to like do some amazing things. We've put a lot of people in creative agencies, like, you know, people who work at Leadberry and I'm like, you guys are amazing, this is stressful, which is great. And I think what we've tried to do is stop doing that now and be like, look, understand that people want either money now or the promise of a better future, right? And like, how do we set that up even within a small company? And we have these strong, like, strong, you know, the, now it's four years as our newest employee, which is great. Some people with 10 years, 12 years, I mean, it's a long run. But we've also supplemented those people with global talent, you know?

• 32:49Speaker 02

  But we have people in the Philippines, we have folks in Jamaica, we have folks in Africa. And like, supporting them in that way to let them really do their best work here has been a really interesting way to kind of unlock for us in the business.

• 33:02Taylor Quinn?

  Love that.

• 33:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's really cool. I think we've got time for maybe two or three more questions.

• 33:06Taylor Quinn?

  Yeah.

• 33:07Speaker 01

  I'm curious, you've got a room full of Richmond leaders. Is there any challenge you would give them for the next, you know, end of the year, going into next year? Kind of strengthening, strengthening the business community in Richmond? Is there a challenge that maybe you'd give some Richmond leaders?

• 33:21Speaker 04

  I can start. Again, being a little bit new, but being in a Y in lots of different places and understanding kind of that ecosystem. And as, you know, I've ran into so many of you that I know from, you know, different places and new people, the ecosystem of nonprofit, business, government, and schools is really a fascinating blend if we can all think of what the North Star is for our community.

• 34:03Speaker 04

  And so my challenge would be, if you're in the business world, how do you, beyond the checkbook, the sponsorship, the, those things are important to nonprofits, so don't, don't hear me, don't hear me completely that way. But you've got the data. Business has the, you know, the systems, they have the scale, they have the people, the talent. Government and schools have the scaled system, right? They can cross all of those. But if you start to align all of those things towards a North Star of something and collaborate and coordinate on something, I think that there's probably nothing with the tenacity

• 34:45Speaker 04

  of what I have learned in the relationship building of Richmond that I have learned. I don't think that there's anything that we probably couldn't, you know, tackle. But I also see, you know, people kind of holding back, well, that's somebody else's challenge to, you know, to solve. So I think it's, it's, it's great. I'm glad to hear that there's more of the, you know, thinking as, you know, as the years have gone on. But I would, I would challenge, open up your, your, your people, your data, your, your talent in a different way to help some of our most pressing, critical issues.

• 35:23Speaker 03

  I think I would hook off of that. I think there are probably two things. One is, I would challenge all of us to think about in terms of all boats rising, right? Where we place our business in different parts of the community such that all of Richmond and surrounding area elevates and lifts up. When I think about things that challenges in the East End of Richmond and other parts, that's often what's on my mind, which is, how do, you know, I know what the experience feels like when, you know, as someone who lives in the far west end. I know what it feels like as a kid who went to the boys' club on Robinson Street long ago, but what it looks like in the East End. How do we get all boats to rise? And then I think there's an opportunity for all of us, which is, I tell our team, because

• 36:08Speaker 03

  we talk about it, which is, we have a way of being humble in Richmond, and I appreciate that, but Richmond's doing some pretty amazing things, and I'd love to just see us be bolder, period, in the world. We don't have to be arrogant, we don't have to be jerks, but just bolder and let that swagger hang a little bit more, that this is a cool, interesting place, doing really interesting things, and it rivals any place else in the rest of the world.

• 36:33Speaker 04

  Totally agree with that.

• 36:34Speaker 01

  I mean, new amphitheater, new squirrel stadium, I mean, got some cool stuff coming.

• 36:38Taylor Quinn?

  We're doing a lot.

• 36:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, I think I'd pay you back on both of those things. You know, it's not for everybody, because, I mean, you know, a lot of businesses are just focused on Richmond, and that's important. If you can, you know, boil the puddle in this market, focus here, there's plenty of money, and you can grow a big, sizable business. But if you do have a national scale, sometimes we tell a story to a national audience without including like the personalization of Richmond or where we're from. And I think that's something we did early on with Leadberry, it was like a big PR strategy. And like, I'd say, I'm very lucky, we got to go and like CNBC and Morning Joe and go all these places, because those guys were like wearing our shirts, and so we had an inn. But like, I think we were able to like interweave this personal Richmond story, which was not necessarily relatable to everybody, because it was different, but it was interesting to them, because it told a more personal story.

• 37:22Speaker 02

  And so I think like a lot of people do have national microphones for their business, and I think there's a way to actually make your story more impactful by including like kind of the interesting things about where you're from and what's happening here, if there's opportunities.

• 37:35Speaker 03

  I think that point is a really strong one. I mean, when we started the business, we were very purposeful about, I mean, telling the Richmond story and that we're from Richmond and of Richmond. But we were very clear that in order to grow the business, it couldn't happen at the size and scale that we wanted if we only focused on clients in Richmond. It just wasn't going to work. The market wasn't big enough. It's a great market, and we wanted to do well here. But I call it whale hunting. It's like, we got to go out there and, you know, be looking for big things as well, because the big things were going to bring the notoriety and energy that I felt like we wanted. So that was just a different place to be. It was a different mindset.

• 38:16Speaker 01

  Well, last question for you guys, and this is my favorite question to ask. So for those of you who've been on the podcast, obviously you've been asked this question, but hindsight is always 2020. And so you started tilt nine years ago, right? You came three years ago to Richmond YMCA, and how long ago did you all start Leadberry? 16. 16. So nine years ago, three years ago, 16 years ago. If you're looking at your former self, who's, you know, here in Lewis Skinner, but you only have two minutes. You don't have the whole day, you can't take them to lunch, so you have two minutes. Hindsight being 2020 from nine years ago, Ron, what do you tell your former self?

• 38:57Speaker 03

  Get comfortable, get comfortable with the, being uncomfortable. And just understand that you will find a solution to most of the problems that are going to confront you. And there will always be problems. And there will always be problems.

• 39:13Speaker 04

  It's good.

• 39:16Speaker 04

  Slow down a little bit and pump the brakes a little bit. I had, and what I, what I sold, you know, myself to the board on was a big vision and some things that we could do. And I think I learned that understanding doesn't necessarily mean full alignment. And so kind of shared where we were going. Everybody said, I got it and they didn't get it. And we've had to really pull back on a few things. I'm very action oriented and because I can see it so clearly and I'm like, and I, I'm like, we can go.

• 39:56Speaker 04

  And I think I ended up what I call sprinkler leadership, which isn't a good leadership at all. Think about the sprinklers that like go, right? It's let's do this, let's do this, let's do this, this is it. Did you do that? Did you do that? Did you did that? Do that? And so I heard too much in the last year, like what Jody said, we should do this. And I'm like, so understanding didn't mean alignment, nor did it mean ownership. And I needed the team to own it more. And so I, we needed clarity and I needed to surround myself with more questions than answers. And so I would look at myself and I would say, slow down and make sure that you have

• 40:41Speaker 04

  built ownership in where you're going, not just understanding.

• 40:45Speaker 02

  That's good. That's good. Yeah, mine would be like focus, focus, focus. You know, we started an internet business in 2009. Like most luxury clothing brands like didn't have one. Hugo Boss, large men's wear, the brand didn't have one. And we were like a top tier, like 10% internet retailer. And of course, then it was like, oh wow, there's wholesale, we could do wholesale. And so we got into Nordstrom and Bloomingdale's and specialty stores. And we're like, well, we should do our own stores. Let's do our own stores. We should buy a production facility. So I was like four years in with all these things going on, didn't have any idea how to run it and you know, had the capital to pull it off, but like there's revenue in that chaos, but like, I mean, profits and making money comes from like discipline and focus in my book.

• 41:27Speaker 02

  And we were like back 15 years later and like, we're just internet. But like, it is a healthier business. It's making more money than it did. It is easier to run. And so I kick myself on a regular basis. And I went through all this stuff, although there were great lessons and we learned a lot and it was, but it was like that initial focus to stay with it, we would have continued to be your top tier in a very important period.

• 41:47Speaker 01

  I love that profit is in the discipline and the focus.

• 41:50Taylor Quinn?

  Yeah.

• 41:51Speaker 01

  That's good.

• 41:52Taylor Quinn?

  Exactly. Lots of shiny objects to get distracted with sometimes. It's hard.

• 41:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:56Taylor Quinn?

  Exactly.

• 41:57Speaker 01

  So we have about 10 more minutes, so probably two or three questions for Q and A to ask the panelists. Ask Taylor, Taylor's very smart. So we have two or three questions for availability. Tricia?

• 42:09Speaker 07

  In my experience, hiring and hiring right has been the hardest thing. So I'd love to hear you talk a little bit about how you hire, what qualities you look for, how you know, and maybe you don't know, but how do you work through that process?

• 42:29Taylor Quinn?

  How to hire, just, I'm going to repeat it just for the podcast, for the mics, but how do we really find the right person, the right talent? What's the process behind that to get that right person in the seats?

• 42:40Speaker 03

  Before I get to the hiring part, I'll start at the retention piece because quite frankly, if you've got really good people, take care of them. That's my philosophy, which is I want to, I want to pay you well. I've got a sense for where we fall out. We shut down at the, for two weeks at the end of the year. I want you to go away and take a break. Our turnover is less than 5%. So you know, we, we trying to do the retention part right. The hiring part is if we can freelance people first, I, we like to bring people in and have them work with us. What's the chemistry, the energy, like if it's possible on doing a couple of projects because, because that's going to be more important to us. Not what you say, not with the resume, say, but what can you actually do?

• 43:23Speaker 03

  If we can't do that, you're going to come in, you're going to do, and you know, standard interview, but what we're looking for is cultural fit. Cultural fit is so important because in our business, if the chemistry is off, no one wants you on the team. So it starts there first. And then after that, yeah, we're going to look at the portfolio of the work you're doing and kind of your energy level and what other people are saying about you. But it starts with are your cultural fit first? And then we're going to look at the work.

• 43:49Speaker 04

  Yeah, we're similar from the culture and hiring is probably one of our biggest challenges as well. And it's at all, it's at all levels of the organization. We were just talking yesterday, we have executive director level in childcare. We have a huge childcare footprint and it took us six months to find the right person for that, you know, for that position. And they had to relocate here. So we didn't, we didn't source the talent here in, you know, Richmond. So we're doing a couple of things. We are partnering really strongly with VCU right now and our community colleges in an

• 44:34Speaker 04

  internship program. And internship for us probably meant things like the recreation space before, but we're also trying to turn people on to, we're an enterprise. We have a marketing department. We have finance, we have risk, we have HR, we have all of those things. So if we can get people to understand the complexity of the organization and all the opportunities. So if we can back all the way up to what we're doing in our volunteer leadership programs in high school, and then the kids that are staying local, we're working in a more formal capacity for internships and the exposure of those opportunities to kind of grow the talent that way.

• 45:18Speaker 04

  But it's, it still is the hardest part of the, the job that we have. I would love to have a 5% turnover ratio, but not even close.

• 45:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, I think some tactical, one of the problems with hiring is it's so time intensive, you know? So one thing that we do in our business, we do at my wife's business too, is like, if you submit a resume, you have to submit a video, like a two minute video with it or one minute video explaining why you want the job and what you want to do. And what's great about that is like, hey, you'll find out something about somebody's personality or how they interact or their speaking style, or whatever it is. But more importantly, it's weed out people who really don't want the job, you know, who aren't going to go to that effort. So fine, you just went from 100 applicants to 10 applicants. Now you have those 10. At Library, we always have a case study associated with everything we do. So it's like, you know, your process would be to meet with a couple of different people, but then you will do a case study. Could be the easiest case study in the world, but again, it's one of those things of being like, I don't really want to do it, or will you pay me for my time to do it or whatever?

• 46:09Speaker 02

  Maybe yes, you really want the person, but it helps you really figure out who wants to be in that seat. And that's almost more important than who you think.

• 46:15Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 46:16Speaker 02

  Needs to be in the seat. Or equally.

• 46:18Speaker 01

  Anyone else? Yeah, Ashby?

• 46:21Speaker 07

  Kind of to follow on to Tricia's last question, I'm a big believer that great leaders have failed more than they have succeeded. So throughout your career, if you look back at one failure in your career, what was that? And what did you learn from that failure to make you a better leader?

• 46:41Taylor Quinn?

  That was one of our formal questions here we didn't get to. So that's great. Yeah.

• 46:46Speaker 01

  You read the notes.

• 46:47Taylor Quinn?

  You read the notes, yeah. Yeah. So what's a, what's a, what's a failure, setback, mistake? And what did you take away from that? What did you learn from that?

• 46:55Speaker 03

  The setback I'll start with is actually getting to, Tilt was, it was born out of a company called Studio Squared, which was part of the Martin Agency. When I first identified, I wanted to buy the company. It was 2014. I'd never bought anything and I would have paid too much money for it at the time and I got turned down. And then I got turned down a second time. And then I got turned down a third time. And then eventually the parent company said, something changed and they said, are you still interested in buying this business? And, and I said, yes, and that's what we want. So what I learned out of that is, and I would happen to be reading this book by T D Jakes

• 47:35Speaker 03

  at the time, what I learned was I needed to go through that three year kind of journey in order for me to get to the right place that I would pay the right amount of money for something and have the right amount of experience for something and be ready. It was hard because I, I didn't know what was going to happen three years later, but that was, that was the challenge to go through, but it was worth the wait and continue to move forward and pick up lessons and experience.

• 48:00Speaker 04

  Mine goes back to, to the staffing question. I mean, I'd say on one hand, it's hard to recruit and you know, do all of that, but there's a, I've had a little bit of a theme in a couple of different times where I have held on to the wrong talent way too long. And it probably comes from a, you know, embarrassed to admit this, but it probably comes from a space of maybe a little too much arrogance and too much ego in the thought that like, I can coach them out of it. I can sell them out of it. I can, you know, I can get them aligned, I can get them.

• 48:41Speaker 04

  And every single time it's come back to, I just, I held on way too long and the fuse is really, really long, but once it's lit, it's, you know, it's, it's, it's bad. And it's, you know, it's a bad reflection on me, it's a bad reflection on the organization. And so I've held our organization back several times because I haven't, I haven't recognized, well, I've recognized it possibly, but I didn't want to do what I think is probably the hard thing to do. The easier thing to do is excuse the behavior, excuse the thing and just let them keep going. So it's hard in this, in this market of, you know, the, the talent, so.

• 49:25Speaker 02

  I've had a few failures along the way. I know we're running low on time. Yeah, I mean, I think probably the lead up to COVID, we were like in a really fast ramp with what we were doing. We were adding stores, we were adding wholesale accounts, we were in Nordstrom and Bloomway, you know, big way. We had our internet business and it was just like push and go, too hard. And then you have this like existential crisis of like COVID. I mean, we sell work clothes, basically. Nobody worked for two years. We opened up in New York in this West Village, a store in December of 2019, I guess that's right. So like my manager was the first person in February to get COVID when it hit New York. And we were like, oh, what's that? Not the first person, but the first person that I knew. So like very quickly, we have all these debt obligations and like we have all this other,

• 50:10Speaker 02

  you know, like we have wholesale accounts, you know, Nordstrom, we had a wholesaler, I won't name names, but like cancel, you know, half a million dollars worth of stuff. And existential risk, right? I realized we were like running way too hot and doing way too much. And so how do we back away from things that can kill the company? So like stores, really hard decision. There's a lot of revenue wrapped up in that, but there's a very big leases if it's not working. COVID made that an easier decision. But also inventory, I mean, we have to carry like millions of dollars of inventory that we have to decide somebody's going to like this pink shirt nine months beforehand. And like, they might not like pink shirts nine months. Or COVID might happen and you just have all these dress shirts and nobody goes to work for a year and a half, you know? So we actually transferred our model where now we have this program called Rapid Made

• 50:54Speaker 02

  to Order, where you come to our site, it looks totally normal like it did 10 years ago. Looks better, but 10 years ago. But you can actually select your collar, your cuffs and like mine are like four fits, but it still looks almost like a ready to wear experience. But we actually make that shirt in five days, we ship it to you and you get it in two weeks. Two and a half weeks. But like what that did is take out the existential risk of what we faced during that period, which was like this massive inventory, working capital need and like financing need. And now it's like, yes, crazy stuff can happen with tariffs and other things along those lines, but like that lights out risk has been mitigated. And I should have been doing that when things were good as opposed to when the like things were hard.

• 51:33Speaker 01

  That's awesome. I think that wraps up episode 21.

• 51:38Taylor Quinn?

  Yeah.

• 51:39Speaker 01

  Of Richmond Leadership Lab. So this will be on YouTube, Apple and Spotify, end of this month. So if you're like, this conversation was so good, I want to listen to it again, you absolutely can.

• 51:50Taylor Quinn?

  Or other leaders, you're like, you missed out, you need to be here, you need to check this out. Yeah.

• 51:56Speaker 01

  First, I want to thank our sponsors, Rippling, Morton Whitney and Town Bank for helping to make this morning possible. And definitely want to give a huge round of applause to our panelists. And thank you guys so much for doing this.