Ep 26 Raw Transcript

Jim: [00:00:00] Today's guest joins me from my backyard here in Tampa, Florida, and she is quite honestly one of the most modest entrepreneurs that I've come across here after a career in telecommunications from startup to fortune 100, she decided to start her own tech company to solve a training need in the same.

She spent the last 12 years planting roots and cultivating the right soil. And she has a thriving business to show for it. Now, today we'll be discussing the hard road that got her here from team of one to now nearly 50 employees and how her role needed to evolve at each stage of growth. Even if she didn't always love what that meant.

Oh, and we'll also touch on what the two of us have labeled as the recession, HEB GBS. Founder and CEO of B link. Katie Merrill. Welcome to the dirt. Thank you so

Katie: much, Jim. Wow. What an intro? That's humbling.

Jim: wow. What a, [00:01:00] wow. What a background. so I, you know, let's start with the basics, Katie, welcome to the show obviously.

And why don't you tell us who you are and, and how you got here.

Katie: All right, Jim. So I'll share my story with you here. It started about, almost 13 years ago. I was, working at the time for a tech startup here in Tampa.

, they were a VO company, which was a big buzzword back then, and now it's become more fancy cloud unified communications. , and. I was grinding it out and it was a startup and it was fun. And I really got some, you know, a lot of lessons on, um, what it, you know, what it's like to be in, you know, startup life.

But, you know, I, wasn't a founder. I wasn't an executive. I was just a salesperson. And, I, grew my role there and, understood this whole solution selling thing and understanding, how to sell into these enterprises, which was really fun and exciting. And I loved it. um, you know, I had kind of my first [00:02:00] taste of, , , startup.

And then I realized that I really found this gap that, as I was running around and hustling and trying to sell this new technology to businesses that as soon as that deal closed and I handed that over to operations, there was this big gap in end user adoption content and training and, , onboarding services.

You know, I soon realized that that that problem, , was pretty widespread and there really was a need for, , training content and that user adoption content, out there. So, uh, so yeah, I, I gave it a go and. Uh, you know, we have been very successful with creating, digital content training content for end businesses, customers, , our primary clients, our service providers, and we sell through them.

So it's been, , quite a wild ride, these, , last, almost 13 years. And, um, yeah, learned a

lot

Jim: along the. [00:03:00] Yeah. I could imagine all of this while also being a mother of two and a wife and the list goes on and on and on yes. Somehow you didn't even mention that, which is, you know, something that is just crazy to me, how you've been able to, to manage it all.

How, how have you been able to manage it all?

Katie: Well, um, so I, I started this, in 2010, I was four years, four months away from my 30th birthday. I was single. And, so in the first five years of. Of running my company. I went through some of the largest life changes that people ever go through. So I met my husband at future husband.

I got married, I had bought a house, had two kids, and those were some of the craziest times of starting and getting things going with B, like, and really that like kind of pivoting around all, all the different things. , In those first five years was, was [00:04:00] crazy and, uh, you know, quite the juggle. , but I do feel like, you know, it, Provo provide a lot of strength and, , a lot of lessons learned along the

Jim: way.

Yeah. And there's a lot of women that I know who either have waited longer to start their business or, um, or maybe even. Started it at all when they were thinking about starting. Right. And that was cuz they had so much else on their plate and I think it'd be great to have a lot more female entrepreneurs out there.

Any, any advice for, obviously you didn't start with the family, but you know, you were, um, you were in your adult life and you were, you had had a seasoned career at the be at the beginning of it, but still, you know, had managed to do all this while still building a startup. What, what advice do you have for other women out.

Katie: Believe in yourself. , if you have an idea or you see a gap or you see an opportunity, , jump on it and chase it and don't be afraid, find a good mentor, [00:05:00] somebody that you trust, create a circle of trust, , with resources that can help you grow. And really, I feel like I, I think this is.

Something that a lot of women particularly struggle with is like asking stupid questions. And I would challenge any woman that is interested in doing this, or has an idea or wants to start something, , put those insecurities away and get vulnerable and get. Be okay with asking those silly what you might think are stupid questions.

cuz you have to, to get it to, to get there. You really have to be comfortable asking those questions and, and hearing those answers and learning and doing something with them.

Jim: Yeah, it's O it's okay. To not have all the answers yes.

Katie: Yeah. And, and, and if you have the right, mindset and that, you know, maybe somebody does look at you like, huh, like you're a CEO.

Like shouldn't, you know, that, you know, maybe they're not the right person to ask advice for, then go onto somebody else. I mean, [00:06:00] there's a lot of people out there, men and women that wanna. um, people that wanna do this, so, , find the right, resource and support and, and don't be afraid to ask those questions

Jim: well said.

And you've obviously you've asked those questions now that you've been doing this for over a decade and you're doing some great things, serving telcos and, and serving an industry that you saw a problem in. And you know, what's gotten you to this point of, nearly 50 people at this point, a booming business.

What what's, what's the secret?

Katie: I don't know if there's any secret sauce. , I do feel that, even from the beginning listening to in the beginning, you don't really have a lot of employees, at least when you boots drop like this, right? So it's, it's listening to your customers that you're so grateful for and being ready to pivot and shift and what they want, and really like slowing down to listen.

I think that is, is something that especially like hard chargers, like [00:07:00] myself and others that are kind of in these beginning, you know, or when I started out, like, you don't really wanna slow down and you don't wanna listen and you wanna like move forward, you have the idea. But I think that, shift in pausing and, , and listening to your clients, listening to your employees when you get them and just not being afraid of, of what they might say.

Jim: Yeah. So you're growing like 20% plus year over year, the last few years. And, and, and more before that, you got, go ahead.

Katie: Yeah, I'm always just gonna say like, from a, like, from a product standpoint, you know, when I first started out, it was really, um, I should have shared this brilliant my story, but you know, the initial need was for this end user training and adoption content.

and so video was like just kind of becoming popular. So this was like in 2010, 2011, and everybody wanted a video of everything. And so I went to conference and [00:08:00] I, I brought my, my video, so it was a user conference. And. I set up with my laptop. I just was just put myself out there and just started talking to people and potential customers and showed them this like little video that I created, to explain how to use this little snippet of software.

And it was like wildfire. Like she does videos, they do videos and. It just like evolved into this thing that I never thought, like, I, I don't have, didn't have like a digital background like that, you know? Yeah. And so like patching together resources to help me make more of these. And , I went to college for my degrees in supply chain operations.

I have a very operational mindset. So I feel like I kind of like factory made, started making videos. Right. It was like a little and it still is today. It's very much. Very operational when we're creating that these digital assets and it goes from one phase to the next. And, , we know where we are in the whole timeline of that [00:09:00] production.

, but it was crazy. Cause there was this like huge video craze and. , and it kind of evolved into video craze into just in general, like digital content, which could be, it was videos, but, you know, , we would get asked like, oh, can you create a user guide? And we're creating content instructional content for like VO or, you know, cloud UC platforms that if you were gonna put together a user guide, it would be like the 200 pages.

If you were gonna put together an admin guide and I'm. That's not really the user experience that I feel like the end customer that's gonna be using this, which is like, you know, the business at the end. Right. This is like the it guy at the law firm that needs to like, get this all set up or the it guy, you know, at this, at this business.

and sending out a PDF, like I can't get behind that. I'm sorry. Mm-hmm like, if you want a PDF, you know, you're not a client of ours, so, , how do we take that request and put into something digestible [00:10:00] that I can stand behind and say, like, this is a good experience. , and so there were a lot of lessons there, like product lessons, , kind of early on, and then realizing that basically like the content that we are creating.

Is supporting an evolving technology. So. You know, this is always changing and features are always being added or modified or enhanced. , the UI is constantly being made better and better. And so if you think about creating a video where you're recording a UI, that every month is going to be updated or could be updated, like how do you do that smarter and how do we not.

How do we still remain relevant? Like, can we keep up? the change orders were becoming crazy. about five years in, I was like, we can't, I mean, change orders are one thing. Yes. They're gonna pay for us to update these videos and update this content.

I, it just, how do I turn this into something, sustainable to something that, you know, I, I really wanted a reoccurring revenue stream and it was like the light [00:11:00] bulb, like, wait a minute. What if we have a service that it's, it's like content almost like content as a service. So what if we're creating this very specialized, like niche content for these providers and, um, Knowing that it's gonna be updated on a very frequent basis.

They subscribe to, we called it smart link a service that includes those updates. So we will update it as needed. , we will update it, you know, if the cadence is once a month, it's once a month. , and we had been doing this for long, you know, long enough to know where I could kind of like assess that risk.

Like, is this, how do we price this? You know, how do we do this? Where this is gonna like, actually make sense and work. And we are, we can make money. And still be delivering like a great value. So, uh, so we launched smart link in 2016 and it's our, you know, really kind of managed content service. and we put all of our content digital content that we create on a, we create a website help and support website.

And as a service, we update the site, the content we're totally behind the scenes. our [00:12:00] clients. Clients have no idea, you know, that we exist. , and it's been, you know, from there, it things really took off. So once we got smart link launched and you know, a lot of lessons learned, , in those first five or six years, uh, you know, it, it, it shifted like challenges shifted into a different bucket now.

but you know, that to me was like, The whole, like listening to your customers and listening, you know, being very careful and, and really trying to understand what they need and seeing what's going on and staying like really in tune with, their needs was, a key driver in that kind of product evolution

Jim: per se.

Yeah. Yeah. Are there any mistakes that you, uh, that you made along the way as you started to, as you started to shift towards more of a recurring revenue stream, and as you started to shift some. You know, call it, uh, managed services business.

Katie: Of course there, there's always mistakes. [00:13:00] Um, there's always mistakes, you know, um, when we first launched that product, I feel like for me, I was still learning and understanding like how we were gonna deliver this.

And I think . There's ways that we could have delivered it that were much, um, I guess technically more scalable. It would be a better way. So we kind of built our initial experiences on, in a non-scalable way. So, and there's better ways that we could have done that and it costs us some cycles.

Um, and it's still kind of costing us today cuz we have to go back and we're doing, you know, updates and migrations. but I just, I didn't know what I didn't know at the time. And, um, . And so I guess once you recognize those things, just putting a plan together to shift and migrate was the most logical step.

Jim: Yeah. It's, it's tough when you're doing some of this on the fly for the first time. yeah. Yeah. So that's, that's helpful for people to [00:14:00] hear, is it, as you were, as you were also going about, you know, five years in let's call it, you know, kind of evolving the business. What, what were some other, um, mistakes that, that you made along the way?

Well,

Katie: so mistakes and lessons are kind of aligned for me. Like I try to like, take like things where I screwed up or didn't understand or ask enough questions as like, how do we like parlay this into, you know, something, um, good. I'll never forget., I attended one of those like, small business workshops. This is like way back. This is before the first five years. It was like getting your women owned business, you know, certification. So. I remember sitting, it was a USF. They have this little place like downtown where you can sign up and it was really cheap. It was like 50 bucks. And you could learn like basically how to all the rules and everything around, like applying to get your like women own business [00:15:00] certification.

And I remember sitting in that. In that class. And, they were talking about the benefits and why, you know, you'd be interested in doing this and they talk about, you know, large enterprises have, you know, certain kind of quotas that they need to meet. And that, you know, you can check that box.

This is a great thing. And they use one of our clients today as an example of one of these like large enterprises. And I remember thinking. Oh, my God, I, if they were ever a customer of mine, like, wow, I was like, mind blown, just the thought of like, that could be one of my customers. And they've been a customer now since 2016.

Um, you know, but with that came a lot of mistakes in like in, in how to scale my sales organization and, and lessons learned from that. So I was so involved and I still am, and it's something, like I said, this is a challenge I, you know, even still have today. So involved in, in the sales aspect of things that I didn't really pause and say, like, [00:16:00] out of all the things I'm trying to operationalize, and I'm trying to like, be really productive in our, in our operations, like what about my actual sales operation?

Like, can I do this with 2, 4, 6, 10, 20, 30, 40 sales people? Right. Like how far can this grow? And can I repeat Katie? And, you know, I struggled with that and I, I thought about it. I would think about it often and then I would ignore it and keep going and keep doing my thing and getting involved. And I really, I, I, I think a mistake that I made was back.

In that 2016 to 2018 timeframe, not making a more, um, a more concerted effort to put that sales foundation operationalize. My sales team build a sales team, like actually put a lot of effort into. Getting myself, like out of the way and figuring out like, can I grow at what rate can I grow if I actually have more sales people [00:17:00] than, than just me.

And so that, that was a mistake, a lesson that I have now, you know, adjusted, corrected. We are hiring two sales people. Right now we have two open positions out. I have an amazing, you know, VP of sales and marketing. That's leading that up. So I'm really excited for the future with that. But I think in retro, if I could have, if I could have put more of my focus on how to like replicate and create a like skillable, you know, sales organization, um, that we would've grown much faster, much quicker.

Jim: Hindsight. I mean, that stuff is so hard though, Katie, right? Like you're, you're the founder, you are the one driving all the business and then you try to duplicate yourself and you're like, oh wait, I can't do that. That doesn't make sense. Nobody can be me. Right. And then it's like, well, how can I build beyond me?

Right. and that's a good example of, of finding a path towards doing that. That's yeah, that's incredible. Yeah. Were there any other leadership [00:18:00] positions that were really hard, um, or just positions in general that were really hard for you to either let go of, or, um, for you to be able to, you know, really enable the other per you know, the person the right way?

Um, I

Katie: mean, it kind of still going through that now, really. From an operation side., I have a fantastic leader over, over ops and her and I are very seek and process and ops. And it's just because I have that background myself, you know, I it's, like I worked at a, a cereal plan in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

We made like Coco clubs. I was supply chain and it's like, I feel like her and I are in sync that like, we're making like Coco puffs, you know, but we're actually making. Digital, you know, help and support websites with managed content, but it's like the same. So we're very much aligned. So I've really been blessed in that area that, that we're in sync.

I would say not so much of a challenge. but to answer your question, I I'd say it's [00:19:00] more of like a gap. So an area that as we've really grown just in the last really two and a half years, that this, the area of, you know, call it. HR it admin it spans a lot of things, but you know, it's an area where you can kind of get away with some fractional services and for a while, and then I feel like the HR piece, just the, the gap keeps widening.

There's it's so big. You know, we have employees in 10 states and I know more about like state. Regulations for random stuff then I would've, I mean, I, I, I would, I have so much knowledge on things. I would've never thought I would needed to know, because of that gap. And it takes time, like there's risk in, you know, when you're growing.

Yes. I would love to have an incredible, like director of HR, like leading up all things, HR recruiting benefits policy, but, you know, it's, it's it. A balance it's money. It's, you know, when [00:20:00] you boost strap, you're you gotta make decisions based on what you can afford and what's coming in and what's going out.

And, um, so that's been something that I have like battled through, um, probably for the last couple of years and, um, is a struggle today. .

Jim: But it sounds like you've got some good operational support in place, right? Yeah. Someone that's that, that, that really gets the way that you're trying to build the organization and is in sync.

You've got some great sales support that's in place. Right. And yeah. So your role needing to evolve from, you know, doing it all to then little by little releasing, some of these functions is, is very cool to hear about and, and relatable. Sounds like HR is one of the next ones. oh, it's next up. Got in my,

Katie: yeah.

It's next up. Yeah, we, um, a, a game changer. I read the book rocket fuel by G WMAN. Um, I think in like February of this year, And it was like, I think it delivered to my [00:21:00] house like noon on Sunday. I was done before work on Monday. I flew through that. I was like, yes, I need to be doing more visionary things.

Meeting with my strategic customers, working on the culture. Like those are the things I enjoy. And those are the things that like make me tick and fill my cup up at work. It's like my employees and my, and our. You know, our incredible customers and it's like, somehow those things and the priority list of the work I, I I'm doing in a lot of days, those things shift to the bottom and all of these other fire drills and other things that I'm the only one that can do.

So. Get to the top. And so, um, I brought in a COO in July and he's been a game changer already. and you know, enabling me to shift some of those fire drill ish, things that for me, and it's not always fire drill. It's just like, it's timely things that need to get done that I didn't have on my radar for that day.

You know, it's like, I need to shift those things that have [00:22:00] urgency off that. And it's the unknown urgency of them. and so I'm already kind of feeling that impact. And, um, we, you know, we went out to a conference. I got to spend some time with the cus with some customers last week and it felt like so great to have the space and the time to have those conversations without having to check my email for what, like urgent things popped up today that only I couldn't tend to.

Jim: Yeah. Yeah. And that's a great book too. I mean that's yeah, it it's, um, It's basic, like it's simple stuff that you really easily forget. Mm-hmm when you're building a business. So that's, I, uh, and as you're thinking about growing to the next level, and as you've obviously had some milestones along the way and needed to switch your role, how do you see your role needing to evolve in the future?

Katie: Yeah, so I, I definitely see the continuation of what I've gotten started this summer evolving and, um, You know, I think a further [00:23:00] shift of getting out of the day to day grind of things and, you know, right now my focus is on, you know, visionary in terms of product evolution. Like our smart link product has been great.

What else can we do? Where else can we fit in our customers? Customer's journey. so how can we provide more services to our customers that kind of fill those, fill those holes that they have, and that takes time in understanding their pain and understanding their problems and their struggles. And, and, and then understanding if that pain is specific to just one of our customers, or can I apply that to all of them or new customers?

So, um, That is where I wanna spend. A lot of my time is really like that kind of, that product. And I feel like for us to really go to the next level and, um, and, and make this shift, it's gonna require that like deep dive into product evolution, even further. The other piece is to also, you know, we've been very successful in, [00:24:00] um, I would say.

I'd say mildly successful, but there's a lot of opportunity in like farming our existing accounts, but there's a lot of area for us to grow because, um, just because today we provide this experience and content and, you know, enablement stuff for, you know, end users of, you know, cloud unified communications products or cloud contact center product.

Our process and how we create that and develop that could be applied to any software product that has, end users that need content. So. , um, which is a lot of events, especially those like products that aren't that intuitive in nature or where it's a shift from one to one to another.

So I feel like having the space to understand like perhaps a bigger market, or is it a channel play, like really understanding like future strategy of growth, um, is, is where I see me shifting into once I can dish off some of the

Jim: daily. Look out world B link [00:25:00] is, uh, is coming to you.

so, so you've got obviously an evolution of role, an evolution of product, evolution of strategy and company. And you've been through, you've been through a, a, a, a hell of a 12 years. What, what's one thing that, that you overlooked initially, that if you could go back and change it, you would. You would do just that.

Katie: I think along the way, like even in every kind of phase of my company is overlooking. Like there's only, there's, there's only, I mean, in the beginning, there's only so many ti so much time in the day. That's where, you know, I was like working all night and doing, you know, crazy hours and whatnot. But as my life has evolved and as my business has evolved, it's like underestimating, you know, the time it takes to do all the things.

And so it's [00:26:00] like trying to be the, the, the mom, the wife, You know, I'm, I'm a go getter, right? Like you're gonna ask for volunteers in my kids' classroom, like pick me, I'll go, you know, I have 500 other things to do and I, but I don't wanna miss out. And it's almost like FOMO, I don't know. Um, but just being a little bit more grounded in reality of what I really can do and, and a like, committing to that, um, You know, the oversubscribing myself is, is a legit thing that I really struggle with even today.

But, um, you know, I think in all phases that over subscription of myself has caused additional stress that I probably could have avoided. Had I just been more, um, kind of seen it, uh, or slowed down to take a look at it and, and change things up based on like what I can and really like reality can.

Jim: Yeah, it's crazy.

When reality hits you. what about on the personal [00:27:00] front? Is there any, is there any place that you wish you, you know, look back and, and you wish you maybe put a little bit less into the business or a little bit different type of spending, you know, the way that you spend your time and anything on the personal front is whether it's to other moms or just gen, just in general, out there that, that you look back and you wish you might have done a little.

Um,

Katie: yeah, I mean, there's always like, it's a tough balance because you have mom guilt and then I've got work guilt and I'm like, who gets to win today? um, you know, so yes. Um, there have been times like, especially it's easy to look back and be like, eh, did I really need to take my computer with me on that vacation?

No, I probably didn't. I would've been fine, you know? Um, and I think too, like being okay. With like failure in a sense where like, what's the worst case that would happen. Like if I go away and I like take [00:28:00] this afternoon off to, you know, take my kids to, you know, uh, adventure island, right? Like what's the worst thing that's gonna happen.

And having that little bit more of that mindset a little more often with personal things and being okay with like letting things fall and potentially fail and like really what's the worst case. I. I could do better at that.

Jim: Yeah. Can't we all balance is balance is tough. It's uh, it's a never, never ending battle.

it's an entrepreneur. Yes. So it's great to hear some of your stories and, um, hopefully I'm sure the audience feels the same. So, um, you've given already so much, but I always like to include at the end of each of these. A, uh, what I call a founder five. So just a quick hit list of five quick questions that are around growth and around you, Katie.

Um, so I'm just gonna start rounding them up and, and you, uh, tell me what comes to mind. Okay. [00:29:00] Okay. All right. So first is a, um, top KPI or measure that you are relentlessly focused on at B link, a reoccurring revenue growth. Nice. It's a great one. Top tip for founders that are in their growth stage. So I have two.

Yeah.

Katie: First one, listen, listen to your customers, listen to your employees. If you have investors. Probably listen to them, but listen,

Jim: sometimes

Katie: sometimes I dunno. I, I, I, I don't, I, I don't have that aspect, but listening, I think is a key, uh, is, is a top tip, um, in all ways and listening to understand, not just listen to listen.

So being vulnerable with that information that you hear. and, uh, and that the other tip is to get a mentor, um, that somebody that you trust, you can ask stupid questions to, and, listening to that, uh, and taking those, taking [00:30:00] action on those things. It's invaluable.

Jim: Yeah, that's great. I love it.

All right. Um, a, uh, top book or podcast, or some sort of medium that's helped you grow as a.

Katie: Dare to lead is by far my favorite book. I am a huge Brene brown fan. I wish I knew about her a long time ago. Uh, so I love dare to lead and her podcast unlocking us is also great. Um, but yeah, that's by far

Jim: winner.

That's great. All right. Here's a fun one. What, uh, what actor actress would help you or would play you in a movie? Or help you if you choose to answer that one.

Katie: interesting. Um, so Anne Hathaway, I, when I watched the movie, the intern, I was like, is she, or was this a like recreation of my life right now? in many ways.

So I, Anne comes to mind, um, [00:31:00] Reese Witherspoon, big fan. So yeah, one of

Jim: those. Nice. I love it. That's great. All right. Last one. So you're all done. You've achieved everything you set out to, and you look back and you're writing a book about your life, your autobiography. What is the title of that?

Autobiography?

Katie: Mocktails. A story of a female founder with two families.

Jim: Oh man. I love it. So yeah. Yeah. That's. That's great. Oh man, this is, this has been so enjoyable and you've obviously got a lot of stuff. Great stuff going on at B link. Um, a lot of, a lot of traction and you've given a lot to our audience today, Katie.

So thank you for that. What, what is there out there that we could possibly do for you? Whether it's me or those listening.

Katie: Oh, um, you connect with me, um, up on LinkedIn. I am all about learning. I, [00:32:00] I would love to say connected. I feel like I, especially in Tampa bay, I, I feel like I kind of lived in a hole for the first, um, I don't know, maybe 11 years.

trying to build my company. And so I am trying to get back out and network with the community. So, um, yeah. Just connect, reach out. I I'm, I love to help too, if there's anybody listening that is, uh, you know, wanting to start a business and wants to hear some, you know, real stories of some, you know, real, uh, you know, dirt, like things I have a, I have a lot to share,

Jim: so that's awesome.

And anything else that those listening can do to help you out?

Katie: Um, you know, I, I, I guess in terms of my growing my business, I am, you know, we're always looking for new, new paths. We're looking to expand it into a channel. So any resellers bars, um, anybody kind of in that cloud UC space that it, it could benefit from our services would be great.

Jim: ,

all right. Awesome. Well, you've heard it here on the dirt. [00:33:00] Thank you, Katie Merrill for joining us. Until next time. Thank you so much.