Hey, hey, hey. This is Lisa A. And you're listening to Who's That Star? On LCC Connect at Lansing Community College. Who's that Star Is a behind the scenes show where I sit down and talk with the employees at the college. This is an inside look at LCC where you have a chance to learn about their passions, projects, and what inspires them both in their work and personal lives. I'm your host, Lisa Alexander, and I'm so excited to get a chance to talk to all the people who make LCC great. This show is for you to get to know the people that work at Lansing Community College a little bit more and see what makes them tick. Are you ready? Okay. Let's find out Who's That Star. Today on Who's That Star. We are meeting a star who was born in Masan, South Korea, but came to Michigan as an infant via his wonderful adoptive parents. He's lived in the Lansing area his whole life and graduated from East Lansing high school in 2013. After high school, he graduated from MSU in 2017 with a BA in history and a minor in sociology. Before coming to LCC, this star worked for the Shinola store in Ann Arbor, but came back to Lansing in 2019 to work for LCC. I've never heard of this store, so I want to learn more about it. So I'm be asking him about that. He has a lot of different hobbies and we're going to find out about all of them or like least try to talk about some of them, which includes cars, videos, board games, photography, cooking, hiking, learning languages, music, watching anime, and many more. I'm just tired thinking about all that he can do. This star works in an area of LCC that I'm excited to learn more about because I don't have much interaction with this. I was interested in increasing some skill sets and I ended up on this department. And so I think that it's gonna be interesting and I think you'll find out a lot of different things that we have that you didn't know about. So. All right, without further ado, let's welcome today's star. Today's star is Seth Lee Murphy. Welcome, Seth. I'm so glad that you could come today.

Thank you so much. It's a pleasure being here.

Yes. So I'm just gonna jump right in. Okay, so just kind of tell me. I know I gave a little introductory about, you know, who you are, but maybe you can expand on that a little bit more. Tell me a little bit about what's important to you in your life right now?

Sure, yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, cover the basics. Yeah. Originally born in South Korea, but was adopted by my parents here in Michigan. Came to Lansing as an infant, grew up in East Lansing, went to East Lansing High School and msu. And things that are important to me in life, kind of things that have always been important to me in life. You know, I've always appreciated the little things in life. You know, I always try not to take everything for granted, things like that. I like to stay close to the things that, you know are important to you. Family, friends.

Right.

You know, keeping, you know, loved ones close and whatnot. You know, making sure you, you know, that you don't push anyone away. Always include people in your life that you've always cared about. Things like that. But I've also along with that, always, what else is important to me is, you know, keeping your mental and physical. Well, being. Keeping those well.

It's important.

Absolutely. Yep. And making sure that, you know, you take care of yourself, be well, because you're given one life, you want to, you know, you.

Right. I agree with that. Because you have to. If you don't take care of yourself, you're not able to take care of other people. And to be appreciative and grateful is something that is a good character trait, I think. And I think when you're not, you miss a lot. Right. When you can look at the little things and be appreciative of those. And the things that you get that may seem small to other people but you grateful for the world outlook, in my opinion, look a little different. So I subscribe to that. So I agree. I don't need to agree. But I do.

But you do.

Okay. So I wanted to learn more about your work at LCC and what your roles are here. Because I ended up trying to find some information and was giving your name, which probably wasn't really right, but you ended up being so nice and informative and giving me some good information. So I just wanted everybody in the community and LCC to know about it. So let us know what you do.

Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. So my role here at the college is I am the intake consultant for the Small Business Development Development Center. And what the Small Business Development center is, or SBDC is, we are a federally regulated organization. So we're actually in all 50 states and US territories. Yep. For the United States. And what we do is we are a no cost and confidential business consulting service. And we do business education programs, workshops, seminars, webinars, things like that, but our primary services that business consulting. So our consultants, they help folks with a litany of different things from starting the small business. So whether someone's just in the ideation phase of getting a business going, they maybe haven't started anything yet for their business. Our consultants can take someone through that whole startup process and whatnot. And we also help existing business owners as well. And where I fit in is I'm the intake. So I'm the first point of contact for basically anyone who wants to reach out to the sbdc. So I kind of handle phone calls, walk ins, emails, kind of. That was originally my primary role. And then as time's gone on, I just have taken on more responsibilities like kind of managing our database, event management, just hold a lot of different things to kind of keep the office together.

Yeah, no, that's great, Seth. So did you say Free?

Free? Yes, free 99.

What I love, I love free. Right. And that 100% I can't like, I never heard of the small business. I've never. I didn't know. So like it's an affiliate with LCC or. Because you said it's in all 50 states. So is it basically in community colleges or universities? Both. What?

Yeah, so good question. You got that mostly right. How it works is SBDCs need hosts to. Well, let me back up for a minute. So the way the funding works for SBDCs to exist, so you technically pay. Pay for us through your tax dollars. That's why we're free.

Yeah.

But how it works is the Small Business Administration, who is the federal entity, they provide the vast majority of funding to keep SBDCs operational.

Okay.

And then at the state level, state government provides some funding to SBDCs. Here in Michigan is MEDC, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

Oh, okay, I've heard of them.

Absolutely. And then at the local level, so in Michigan, we have 10 different regions across the state. We're the capital region and we serve the Enum, Eaton and Clinton county area. And we are hosted through Lansing Community College and Lansing LCC. They provide some. A little bit of funding as well.

Like in kind things and stuff like that.

Yeah, exactly. And they act as our hosts. So we are, you know, part of LCC. We're part of the CEWD division, Seaweed Community Education, Workforce Development. But we work autonomously from the college.

Yeah, no, it does. But I'm so glad to know because I'm like, this service is important for everybody. If you go online, everybody talking about starting your own business. Right. And people jump out there and don't necessarily know all the things that they need to do to do that. And so you have a place that can help you figure out so that you can stop. You know, at least try not to make as many mistakes as some people do with no guidance at all. So I think that's super great. So now wait, so I can do this. If I'm a new person that want to start a business or if I'm already an established business, I could hook up with you guys and then you guys will do like an assessment of my needs or do I come in and say, hey, I just need everything or I just need help in marketing or how does that work?

Sure. Yeah. So to just kind of. Well, I'll touch on, you know, both. Both ends of the. Of the spectrum. But, you know, for like someone looking to start a small business, we get a lot of folks, maybe they. A lot of them have never owned a business before, right. And they have this, you know, idea that came to them or something. I've literally had people say, oh, I thought of this idea this morning. Call. Call me. And yeah, no, yeah, it's, it's. It's crazy. And some of them, you know, like, I just got this idea that came into me for this, you know, small business. I want to, you know, you know, sell, you know, I want to start a restaurant or something or, you know, people love, you know, my crafts and I want to sell my crafts or something like that. We get a lot of folks who like that where they never owned a business before, but they have this idea, but they have no idea where to start. They've done maybe a little bit of research online. We kind of fill those gaps of what they need to think about to get something started. What does it take to get a small business going? And I'll be honest, sometimes our best work is talking someone out of going into business because it might not be the best, you know, the best step for them and whatnot.

Or. Yeah, like the best. I mean, I think that's important too, right? Like, please tell me I'm wasting my money. Please tell me my time is not. Not going to be because I'm not there yet. Right? Yep. And sometimes it's good to get some good insight to where you are, right? What your business. You might have a good business idea, but if you don't have certain skill sets to, to make them get to fruition, then why waste your money until you get to that point, right? Like get the education or certificates or partnerships or whatever you need at Least have someone like, I'm super excited about this because I'm gonna start referring y' all to everybody. Okay. Because absolutely. I hear people that say that they want to start a business and don't, you know, they go online. But sometimes you need other things beside online. You need people, you need human equity where they can tell you what to do. So I'm super geeked about that. And like I said, I'm probably going to be a big referral to you all because I see students that come in as an academic advisor that are interested in starting their business for sure. And so, like, I mean, do you guys like seminars or do you do things where people can, like, hey, if you thinking about a business, come and talk to us and like, give them an overview or something?

Yeah. So what we do is we have these along with the consulting, the sec, the part of the. Our services are the workshops that we put on. And we have a whole litany of different topics that we cover. They can either be in person or we have them online as well. We have a whole library of on demand workshops as well. Wow. I could send you that link to our website. So they go, like I said, any. Any topic. We have one on, you know, starting the business where one of our consultants will talk about the steps of starting a business and whatnot.

Yeah.

Take like an hour, hour and a half. Just kind of to a group of people say, hey, here's what you need to do, like the basics and whatnot to get a business going. And we have one on, you know, writing the business plan.

Yeah, that's a lot. People need to get that started and stuff. Like, I did not know that. I'm so. I'm so surprised.

No, yeah, absolutely. And I'll send you the link to our trainings and, you know, our library and things like that. And that's a big part too of our. Of what we do is, you know, the trainings is. And that's where we start. A lot of folks who have maybe not started something yet, then they need that, you know, just dip their toes into something.

Right.

They need to see what it takes to get a business going. Maybe they're not ready for a consultant just yet.

Yeah, but see, that's good though. Like, get you. Here's where we'll step you out. Go to this step up, step A. Then you get to two, whatever. Oh, that's so good. I'm so excited. Just randomly got in touch with you. Because you're gonna change people's lives with this.

No, for sure. Yeah, and we used to call ourselves the best kept secret and we're starting to just because, you know, we're, you know, we don't market ourselves. We do, but it's not like we're flying our flag and like you got.

All these advertising dollars to do all of this and that, you know, it's not like you have, you are federally funded and you're being a good stewards with people's money, so. Well, I'm a big mouth and I'm running back to tell everybody about this, so. Because it's a resource that we can refer to people and then they can make a good assessment and sometimes that helps them in career development and identifying majors and stuff like that. Sometimes if they get an idea that that business is not gonna look just the way you think it's gonna look, you gotta go through all these different steps. Are you prepared or may encourage them more. Right. So I think it's a good mix and I think it's a good resource that we can help, you know, we can work together with. But so I. This is kind of off the cuff a little bit, but you have a history major. Yes, your bachelor's in history and a minor in sociology. Do you feel like what you learned helps you with this position that you have or do you feel like you just learn new skills and what like I'm just how you get there from what you do doesn't necessarily sound like that's what you were initially starting out as.

Right, right. Yeah. So, you know, that's, That's a good question. A lot of people ask me that originally. Yeah, that's. I got my degree in history and whatnot. I was originally aiming for computer science, but then I dropped that. So.

Yeah, no, I get it.

Right, right. So yeah, I got my history degree and my minor in sociology and I would say it's more in the end of picking up new things, learning just different skills and whatnot. Definitely college taught me critical thinking skills or enhanced them, I would say, and taught me different ways of learning things like that. I would say not necessarily the content of what I, what I learned, you know, helped translate to my current position, but I think just the overall structure of learning, thinking, you know, implementing different practices, things like that helps.

Yeah, the social skills that you need to interact with people just. And how to research, do different things like that you learn. But yeah, that's how everybody, you know, a lot of people, they start out one thing and then they have a different type of career. Are you looking to stay like in this area, like, do you want to grow and do maybe consulting or do something else at some point?

Yeah, so that's a good question. I'm actually thinking about looking back into the IT field at some point.

Okay.

In my career. So I still really enjoy, you know, what I do here because, you know, a lot of my past careers and whatnot have been or jobs I would say have been in, you know, hospitality, customer service. So I always like working with just people in public. Yeah, exactly. Working with the public, meeting new people, learning about them, things like that. Definitely still enjoy, you know what I.

Right, yeah, of course. I just know it seemed like you're such a bright young man and you'll be able to do like whatever you put your mind to. So I was just curious to me, like what you thought that you wanted to do do so.

No, for sure.

Absolutely. How did you get started at LCC?

Yeah, so how I got started is so before LCC, I worked. After I graduated from Michigan State, I went to work for Shinola Detroit, which is a company based out of Detroit, but they have several different stores across the country. And I worked specifically in the Ann Arbor store. And what Shinola is for, folks who don't know is.

Yeah. Because I didn't have a clue.

Yeah, no, for sure. So Shinola originally started as a watchmaking company and they marketed themselves as a watch company made in like this kind of built in Detroit type motif, per se. And they. They made watches and then they expanded into leather goods because they made their own leather straps and they now they. They made bags. Leather bags. You know, things like that, purses.

So nice quality. Yeah. Types of accessories or different things like that.

Yeah. So they've kind of gone crazy with you with the products that they've made. So they, you know, watches, leather goods, they make bicycles, they make jewelry. Wow. Yeah. What else? They make pens, notebooks, a whole litany of odds and ends. I would say.

That's cool. I never heard of that. And I was. When I was reviewing the information, I was like, this is something I have never heard of. I was excited to hear about it. And so you left them in 2019, correct?

Yep. So I worked for them through part of 2019. And then I kind of just wanted to come back home to, you know, to the area and whatnot, just to kind of refocus myself and whatnot. And I was poking through some jobs and I went on LCC's website to see, you know, what was available here. And I stumbled across my position and I was like, oh, okay, this fits my skill set. I'm good with people and whatnot. So I applied, had a great interview with some of my co workers who are still here, were on my interview panel, and then I was lucky enough to get chosen for the position and the rest is history.

Hey, that's right. And we're so glad that you're here because you sound like you know what you're talking about and can help students or community members or whoever get to the right people for sure. So what do you like most about what you do here at LCC?

I like working with my co workers. When I say coworkers, I mean not just my immediate co workers, but folks like you folks, Anyone at the college, you know, they always seem. They're always friendly, always seem eager to participate in whatever you got going on.

Right.

So, you know, I enjoy that as really enjoy that aspect of it. You know, I enjoy, I enjoy the job itself. I enjoy learning about different people's ideas, you know, helping them with whatever I can help them with, pointing them to the right resources. And I just, you know, I like the college in general. You know, I took some classes here too, as a student.

Okay.

And I enjoyed my time here, you know, as a student too. So I enjoy just the college atmosphere and being part of community and serving the community.

Well, that's good. You said that you like people, so that sounds about right. That that's like dealing with the public and the people and stuff like that. So I read a list off about a hundred hobbies, but I'm just trying to see, like, what are your hobbies and like, how did you get into them? And I mean, you got so many of them, so we can't go into them. But give me your top three. What are your top three hobbies, you think?

Top three? I would say anything car related? I'm a huge car nut. I got in that.

Like old school cars or just new Anything.

Car culture, just in general, I'll say. I don't, I don't judge. So. So any, any, any. Anything, you know, four wheels, two wheels, motorcycles. I like boats. Anything motor vehicle kind of related, but car is definitely the number one, I would say. My dad kind of got me into that because he's a car guy too, so. Okay, so it started. It started. Yeah, I caught the bug. Yeah. Number two. I'll go in no particular order, but.

We know cars is one.

Yeah, cars one. So I would say, oh, so many. Probably video games and board games would be next. I've, you know, always been surrounded by Video games and whatnot. My dad, he again, you know, my dad, he. He was the tech director for a school district for many years. He's retired now, but. But he always had, you know, computers and you know, just technology around the house ever since I was a kid. And obviously that included video games and whatnot. So caught that bug pretty early and I'm still into them, these, you know, to today and you know, board games to just video games without the digital aspect to it. So, so and you know, same, same sort of concept.

That's old school board games. You still young to be. I'm. You, I'm old. But it's normally like a lot of people your age didn't really into board games. So that influence of your dad came through on that as well.

Yeah, that and I would say as well. I was just, I feel like I was just drawn to them as well. I just had a, an affinity to them.

What board game would you like?

Oh, one of them. There's quite a few. Settlers of Catan is a fun one. There's a tabletop game called Warhammer 40,000 which is really fun.

See? Yeah, I don't know none of these games.

Yeah, I'm just.

I know Candy Land Land.

Oh, yeah, sorry. Clue, Monopoly. So those are all good ones. They're classics. Ticket to Ride. Yeah, those are. Those are all classic board games. I like all, you know, all of them pretty much. I like the, the niche stuff too.

Yeah. That's interesting though. You won't be. You're not someone that's tied to the. Even though you like technology, not tied to it. You can go ahead and use a board game and go back and play back in the day. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Okay, so we had cars.

Gaming.

Gaming and.

Oh, what's the third one? Oh, geez. Can I have a tie?

Yeah.

Because they kind of go together somewhat. So photography. And I'll go with like outdoor activities like hiking.

Okay.

Skateboarding, snowboarding, things like that.

That's a free expression. Art stuff. Yeah, that's cool.

Yeah, no, absolutely, yeah. Photography. I've always just like taking pictures of things, especially, you know, hiking and things like that. Nature. It's so, you know, if you just take a moment on a hike or something like that, you know, just take a moment to, you know, look at your surroundings and whatnot and just take it all in. Obviously that's great to experience in person, but you want to save those moments too.

Right. So yeah, have them for later and just be able to review.

Yep, yep. And that Kind of got me into photography, and then I, you know, I like, you know, just taking pictures of things and, you know, I'll just tie that in with the outdoor activities.

Yeah, that's cool. Well, I mean, Seth, we've been talking like, time is going by quick, and I didn't even realize how long has it been, because you've given me, you know, so much information and so much about the small business. But I want to ask you, what's the career highlight you're most proud of?

Oh, yeah. So I would say probably the one I'm most proud of is in 2020, I won the intake Consultant of the year award for our state. Wow. I know. Yeah. I was totally not expecting it, and I, you know, I'm still, you know, okay. If I would not have gotten.

Yeah, but that's all right. Your peers and your supervisor and stuff, they had to nominate you, didn't they?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Our. Our administrative staff at our lead center in Grand Rapids, you know, they took a poll, I think, of all the directors across the state, things like that, or they did something this. Some sort of poll they did or something, and I ended up on top somehow.

Hey, that's wonderful, Seth. I mean, that's a great accolade to have.

No, thank you.

Even though you weren't trying it. So that means you just. You just give good work, and people noticed it, so that's a good thing. And like I said, I have a lot more questions to ask you, but I don't have a lot more time, so I'm gonna wind down. And thank you for coming today, and thank you for being so open and letting us learn about what you do here on the college. And people, you need to get in touch with him because this is some good stuff out there, and I think that it's something that can help you. And so I just thank. Thank you, Seth, for coming. You got any closing thoughts or words for us?

You know, No, I just want to thank you, Lisa, you know, for inviting me onto the podcast. I had no idea that this was a thing, so it was great to learn about it. And I'll definitely be listening to more and, you know, hit up Lisa, if you want to be on the podcast. You know what I'm saying?

Right. Lcc people, come on. We need you.

Yeah.

But, yes, as I do, I thank you and audience. I will see you soon. Take care. And we are out. You've been listening to Who's That Star? I'm Lisa A. and you can listen to this episode of Who's That Star and other shows from LCC Connect anytime online at LCCconnect.org thank you for listening. Catch me next time to find out Who's That Star.