Wall Street To Y'all Street

[00:00:00] Experience of getting laid off. One of the hardest things that I'd ever gone to. I imagined retiring of the company. I was there for the journey. I was with the great company that took care of its people and. Hard business decisions hadn't made.
I took it very, very personally. And I struggled a lot with it. Questioning myself where I went into a depression, I had anxiety about it because my whole world, my whole self was wrapped up in that identity. I had a goal it took me a long time.
I struggled. It didn't matter how great you were or how high poor performer and there was no going back. And so like from someone who, you know, had a dream that felt like it would crushed.

Today's guest built her career the hard way by climbing from the ground floor all the way to overseeing more than $200 million in revenue and managing over a thousand people inside one of the largest corporate environments in America.
Jada Powell spent more than a decade at Sysco rising through the [00:01:00] ranks but like a lot of executives, Jada's story didn't follow a straight line after being unexpected to leave out good during COVID, she had to rediscover her worth and rebuild this time as an entrepreneur. In this conversation, we're talking about what it takes to go from entry level to leading $200 million operations, how to rebuild your confidence after losing a corporate role, and what it really looks like to transition from corporate executive to entrepreneur.
And if you're new here, I'm Joseph J. Raetzer, a former Wall Street lawyer with more than 20 years experience across a hundred billion dollars in transactions. I'm also a former entrepreneur having launched two businesses. One I built and had a seven figure exit in less than three years. I rolled out into a national retail chain, lost it all during COVID, but I've rebuilt it back.
I've generated tens of millions of dollars in B2B and B2C sales. I've hit highs, had lows, and rebuilt from scratch. My law firm reads through PLLC focuses on mergers and acquisitions, buying and selling companies and assets and securities laws to raise capital. I'm licensed in both New York and Texas. My [00:02:00] podcast Wall Street to Wall Street is where I bring you real business lessons from seasoned operators, founders and executives who've actually lived and breathed businesses, ups and downs, not giving legal advice here.
Please always consult with your attorney. Enjoy the show.

Alright. Here we are
with Jada Powell, corporate operator $224 million revenue oversight. Oversaw a thousand brokers with Sysco. Very large company, laid off during COVID and started over building from scratch. You pivoted into a completely different industry with oil and gas and energy niche with apparel. Now you're scaling business again, and I understand you have some new ventures in the works, which we'll get into.
You're an entrepreneur, you're a mom, and much, much more so welcome Jada Powell. Thank you for being here. Really appreciate this. Before we get into your Sysco experience and your entrepreneurial experience and the new, ventures that you're doing that we'll talk about.
Give us a little sense, you know, kind of go away back [00:03:00] to what made Jada Powell, into an executive, an entrepreneur, . Sure. all, I just wanna say thank you for having me i'm honored to be a guest and to share my story and hopefully help some people because I've, gone through a lot of challenges in my life, but in the end it's made me a better person, a better mom, a better entrepreneur.
I think it starts from birth, right? I'm the oldest of three, so I am naturally a people pleaser. I am, you know, in charge of my sisters, I'm in charge of anything else. So, from a very early age, I feel like I've been born to lead, right?
Because of my place in the family and how it was. So, I was always what you would call an overachiever in school. I was very involved in sports activities. Life was great. I went to college at Florida State University, changed my major about four times. First I thought I wanted to be a doctor, so I wanted to go into pre-medicine and I did that for a year. So I pivoted. I thought I still wanted to stay into healthcare, so I pivoted to nutrition, right? So you [00:04:00] can get out with a four year degree, you could still be involved. I had a passion for it. Being involved in sports my whole life and seeing that the true picture of an athlete isn't just how they perform on the field.
It's how you feel your body and how you take and decided, I don't think I want do this anymore. So I figured, oh, there's a safe bet. No matter what I decide to do with the rest of my life, when I get outta here, I can do business.
So the whole time, from the time I was 14, back then when you were 14, you could be a hostess at a mom and pop restaurant. And so I started there and as soon as I was 16, I was able to, serve tables. And so I started my whole working life in restaurants.
My mother was in restaurants, my grandmother was in restaurants, so it was kind of in my blood and I thought, well, maybe I'll pivot to, I'll get this degree, I'll minor in hospitality, learn about hotels, maybe go into that, maybe do more restaurants. And so finally I graduated and the first job that I got outta college was with a company that's based here in Texas called Pappas Restaurants.
I learned so much. I [00:05:00] learned to be front of the house manager. I quickly got into the back of the house and even though I had no culinary training, I really got hands-on training how to make mother sauces and do all the fun things.
So I was loving life. So many moving parts in the restaurant industry. It's such a great training ground for future kind of entrepreneurial or even executive level experiences because you're just juggling so much and nothing ever goes a hundred percent the way you want it. There's always a fire to put out.
at the core of it is the customer, right? How are you taking care of the customer? And I think being that person in the hospitality, being the front of the house manager, dealing with tables when things go wrong, that's trained me for how I deal with problems today.
Empathy, active listening, making sure I'm understanding the problem and offering a solution that's acceptable to everyone. Yeah. So you know, that's where I spent, like 20 years in the business my husband and I decided that we wanted to move back to Florida.
So I became the general manager of a restaurant called Houston's Cafe in Tallahassee. We moved back and that was my first [00:06:00] like real general manager experience. It was great. I did it for a couple years and you know, I'm getting towards my thirties now, and we think maybe it's time to start having kids.
So I was like, well, here I am. I'm at a crossroads again. What do I do? I had a really good relationship with my Sysco rep who I had pretty much always used like they're the only food service distributor that I was very familiar Sure. So Sysco is the world's largest food service provider. Anything from meats to heavy equipment, anything that a restaurant need.
We sell our ourselves as consulting services to help restaurants succeed. So we're not just pushing french fries in your back door, we're making sure that your menu's set up correctly. Are you set up for success because the restaurant business is a penny business? People are shocked when I tell 'em that, but it's really hard to make money in the restaurant industry
sysco was very good at teaching me how to be a consultative seller, how to create value of myself and the things that I knew that could help operators be more successful. So, great experience. I started there as a sales person. We called them marketing Associates at the time. [00:07:00] I was a marketing associate for a few years, and then I got my first chance to lead a team outside of the restaurant, which was super exciting.
I had to move back to Georgia to do it not far from where we lived, but I had to take over a whole brand new territory, brand new people that I had been working with. And so I grew that district in Georgia for two years and had an opportunity that the district manager Tallahassee was getting promoted.
And so they moved me back and so I spent. Two more years there and manage my old team. Managing people who used to be your teammates are, that's a whole other conversation
I think because I had such deep relationships as a teammate that my leadership style is very welcoming.
I'm not the one leader. Like I have a very much team aspect because I know the people on the team know way more than what I do in that position. What's going on with our clients because they're in there every day in those restaurants seeing what's going on. And you know, we always have corporate initiatives.
That's a struggle, right? You're a big corporation. You have to follow the initiatives while also satisfying [00:08:00] your clients. So, you know, being that sounding board
and they can have frank conversations with you because they know you, they know they can bring something to you, what they can discuss.
And it's interesting 'cause we're going to get into Sysco and your achievements there and what you were overseeing. But just before that, do you think that having had those relationships as colleagues makes it a lot easier, I would imagine it does, than them hiring an outside manager and all of a sudden is I'm your boss.
But there's zero connection. Right. Yeah.
I think it can be a challenge for sure. I definitely, because I had fostered such good relationships with my team, they respected me as a salesperson. So I just have to build respect as their leader. Like know that they can follow me into the fire and I have their back
i've got them. And so that's kind of how I honed my leadership skills, working with people and I had seen other people in the company do that in other areas where it was very common in our industry to be a salesperson, to get promoted to the district manager. And so I've seen a lot of folks not do it the right way.
Okay, I know how I have to [00:09:00] do this. I have to continue to be true to myself who I have been. Understand the pressures coming from both sides. And be that filter in between to help keep things moving and get the job done and take care of the client. And along the way, you suddenly find yourself overseeing couple hundred million dollars a thousand brokers. Right. And so you had a huge responsibility having started pretty much at the bottom
how did you progress through that, was that just a natural progression? What were the hills and valleys?
So, I took a big leap. I was very comfortable in Tallahassee with the people that I had known for years. The clients that loved me, loved our team, that wouldn't go anywhere. But I knew that I wanted to do something more, and I had a five year plan.
At the end of the day, like I wanna run and operate a. Company and how Sysco works in the United States. There's 72 different operating companies around the United States and my goal be over hundreds of employees that directly impacted customers.
So I had a plan, my mentor, I had my [00:10:00] mentors and I was on that track.
was that something that their management team encouraged or were you kind of like a mini entrepreneur within this large corporation?
I'm like, I wanna go work for corporate. I wanna learn there's so much that I don't I know. And this company is huge and there's so much opportunity.
And if this is where I wanna go, I've gotta be flexible and I've gotta look for other opportunities. Not that people weren't looking out for me and helping me develop as a leader, but if I wanna do something else, like that's on me. So it was kind of good timing. Our children were very young.
And I started looking on Sysco's website at the corporate opportunities,
and I found a position that they were working in. It was a completely non-sales job. It was director of category management and Strategic broker network. Is huge because that's part of sourcing and procurement.
I didn't know anything about it and that intrigued Okay. I wanted to learn that piece of the business. And I was like, yes, I wanna do it. The piece that I did have familiarity with was the broker. So brokers are manufacturers, representatives. So Hines Ketchup goes out and hires a brokerage to go represent their products in the field with [00:11:00] Sysco.
Sales reps. So they go work with the sales reps, they go in to see clients, they try to make conversions to their products, they do sales presentations, all those things. And I had seen how brokers can be beneficial. And I had seen how they're terrible, right? So I had a really good, unique perspective on how they needed to be managed from the corporate level because I knew what a good broker was.
And I could train Sysco's strategic brokers on how to get their people who are activated in the field to sell more product. 'cause at the end of the day that's what we were trying to do. We're trying to sell more product and partner with our clients and make them successful. So we're along for the ride.
So I brought that perspective and I think that's what landed my former boss then told me the reason why he hired me, the first thing I asked you was, why are you here? What are you trying to do? And I said, my goal is to be an OCO president in five years.
And he's like, I knew I had to have you right then. and so being driven and being upfront with your goals, I think is huge.
There's so many opportunities. I was afforded great experience there.
But it's interesting 'cause so many opportunities afforded, but you went [00:12:00] for it. So many people are afraid to tell their boss they have aspirations for whatever reason.
Right. Maybe a fear of rejection, maybe fear that the boss will laugh. Maybe the fear that their coworkers won't like them. But you had the fortitude to say, Hey, this, this, this is what I want to do and I actually have a plan. and that conversation years later resulted in you being promoted.
Talk to me about what does it mean to oversee $224 million in revenue? What does that mean? Wow. It's a big responsibility, especially when you don't control the output. Right. My job was to develop a system that the strategic brokers could take to the field, to employ, to make those sales.
So it came from me looking at my operators, my group of operators, how we can make them successful, to really overseeing the entire organization of sales from an outside vendor perspective on how we can turn that into revenue dollars for the company.
But there I had to oversee an entire overhaul a backend system that we used for our sales people to see marked the right representative broker to [00:13:00] the product. \ And there was no good system at Sysco to really keep track of all of that. It's important and keep the information accurate because there's nothing more frustrating than a sales person who's caught on a lead calling a number.
They think they're gonna get immediate help and they're like, no, sorry, I don't know who handles that anymore. It kind of derails 'em and they don't, pick it back up. They'll just move on to the next thing
right. And so I knew there was a problem. Huge problem. So we fixed it. I didn't know anything about technology or our backend systems or any of these things, but I led a team to do it and I was very proud of that because here I am just a sales person from the field. Right. And now. Really impacting a business, you know,
what kind of impact did that have?
So you identify a problem, you figure out how to bandaid and rubber glue or whatever and fix it. I mean, did you guys ever do like kind of a postmortem analysis and see like how many millions of dollars that added to the bottom line?
it was significant because it took, even though it took over a year all the external stakeholders, all of the external information that we had to make sure was correct and create a process where if changes were made, there was a [00:14:00] way to immediately change them in the system .
So it was leakage that was going on for who knows how long.
And instead of growing the company and trying to grow and find, you know, new restaurants or whatever to service, there was this internal leakage,
that you guys found and fixed.. Within Sysco, what did you learn about scale? That most entrepreneurs don't see .
it's a struggle.
So I learned, agility. I learned how to navigate the different stakeholders that I had to influence to get on board in a timely manner to make all these changes happen. So, I know there needs to be a process in place, but you have to be able to influence the stakeholders along the way to be able to drive the result faster.
And so that takes time. It takes, just like anything else, building relationships with people that you're asking to do this work for you, right? To benefit everyone.. So that was one thing I learned, taking as an entrepreneur, it's kind of, you understand that [00:15:00] processes and systems have to be there, but they should not hamstring you to get the results, right?
And so that's probably one of the biggest lessons that I've learned. Like, I need these systems and I need these processes.
Systems matter. Processes matter. Everything kind of can break down. And speaking of that, managing a thousand brokers, I mean, what breaks at that level? Right?
so it's just taking all of that information, how do you funnel it right to make something. And everyone's always gonna have an opinion, but staying true to the story, like what are we trying to accomplish?
'cause a lot of times that's easy to get sideways on, right? And so that's one of the things too that I learned, like you have to take all of this, it with a grain of salt. A lot of it was true. And then how do I take information from the field that I know is customer pain points? And then how do I take this organization and meet 'em in the middle to make something that works for both parties that isn't disruptive to sales, that isn't disruptive to the client, and only produces revenue?
If it doesn't produce revenue and [00:16:00] impact the bottom line, why are we doing ultimately, that's the point. So in such a large corporation with this high level title, and you're overseeing a thousand brokers, you have so much power, which gets you only so far. So how do you manage influence in that type of an organization across the network?
I think it's understanding who you're talking to. Why does what I'm saying matter to them? So I have to understand what is their hesitation? What is this going to impact for them? What do they have on their plate outside of what I'm asking them to do that can impact the timeline.
So I think it's just being open and honest. Having realistic conversations like, Hey, I understand this isn't a priority for you, but here's how it's gonna affect the organization. How can we fix it? How can we get it split into your schedule? Or how can you work with this other department? To make this happen.
And so a lot of it's listening, understanding and having good relationships with people that they trust me. I'm not trying to, create this extra work for them. I'm not trying to [00:17:00] sabotage them. The end goal of what we're trying to do. You are on the same team.
And acknowledging they have other priorities. I think that's huge. 'cause people are just like, oh, well here they come. They just want stuff from me. Like, no, I understand that you have other things on your plate I want you to want to help me. And I'm gonna explain it to you in that way.
Like, here's how it's gonna impact you, how it's gonna make you look better. And how it's gonna impact our customer. 'cause that's who, what you're to serve.
So you're in this large corporation, you are generating hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue. You are overseeing all of these teams.
What was your hardest leadership moment?
. There were many, right? Because I had worked from a relatively small team of 11 people to managing external things that I couldn't really control. I had to influence. And so again, taking feedback from the field to the people who weren't directly involved with the field, right?
Because you have your different layers of management. the brokers had the same thing and you had your street teams. And peeling back all the layers and figuring out where the issues were. And sometimes I had to call out [00:18:00] my own company and people when they weren't doing things right.
And that's hard. Mm. It's very hard. But it's important for the greater good of what we're trying to do. You have to be very, non-confrontational. You have to understand what they're saying, but then you also have to communicate, this is why we're doing it this way.
And that's hard. It's never easy.
So corporate politics versus performance, which would you say is more important in your experience in that environment, I think it's performance.
If we're all doing what we're supposed to be doing, the company is naturally gonna benefit. The customers are gonna naturally benefit. Where we get off the rails is doing work for work sake and doing work that isn't gonna impact the bottom line. And so a lot of times you have to peel back all the like, why are we doing this?
what is the end result? And if there isn't a tangible result that is gonna benefit client or the bottom line, then you have to ' cause people who come to me all the time with ideas and I'd be like, that's great, but. How are we gonna make this work? How is this gonna help our clients?
If you couldn't answer that, they wouldn't [00:19:00] go.
So what would you say is, is that what separates high performance players from average players?
I think so. I feel that it's important to tell people the truth in a way that is not going to attack them personally.
I think people really appreciate that when someone is upfront and honest, that you take the time to listen to them, understand their concerns, and then explain it
we need to, try to understand where they're coming from and then be able to diffuse or say, Hey, I love the suggestion. You can't do that right now. Here's the direction I'm headed. I really use your help. Like deploying this specific field, what do you think? Yeah. And get their buy-in that way.
In my experience, when you start laying out the logic for why it doesn't make sense, and it oftentimes is things maybe they didn't think of, because they're not at that vantage point. Right? They don't know all the parts that are moving. And getting that buy-in is necessary because you don't wanna stifle someone from bringing future ideas.
Exactly. You never know where that next big idea is going to come from in my experience. So, fast forward a little bit, we're at Sysco, this large [00:20:00] corporation. we're doing great. We're having fun, we're building, and the world stops COVID hits, right? And so let's talk a little bit about that experience of getting laid off.
Honestly, it was probably one of the hardest things that I had ever gone to, and probably because I'd never imagined leaving Sysco. I imagined retiring with the company I was there for the journey.
I was with a great company who took care of its people and hard business decisions had to be made. And for someone who had never been laid off, who had never been fired, I took it very, very personally and I struggled a lot with it. Questioning self worth. I went into a depression.
I had anxiety about it because my whole world, my whole self was wrapped up in bad identity. I had a goal and I was getting it, and that's just my personality and how I'm, and it took me a long time. I struggled. I know a lot of people did too, but they, at corporate, they had to lay off, they laid off [00:21:00] 35% of the office team and they laid off more in the field.
It affected everyone. It didn't matter how great you were, how high performer, there was no going back. And so it was hard, honestly, say like from someone who, you know, had a dream that felt like it was crushed.
Yeah. And so the positive of it is, you know, I worked through that and during the anxiety and during the depression, I was always the mom that's like, I'm too busy. You know, I have young kids. I need something for their birthday party. I'm ordering it off of Betsy. Well now we're all home. We're home with our kids.
I've never, I was never like a crafty person. So this was way back but had gotten, you know, a vinyl cutting machine for Christmas as a gift.
and I started designing t-shirts and I was like, oh my gosh, I love this. This is so fulfilling to me. I have this creative side of my personality that I never knew existed. And so that brought me a lot of joy and really hard times. It was just like, okay, well maybe I can do this.
So just to finish out, and first of all, thank you [00:22:00] so much for sharing and being candid. I know millions of people went through it. Millions and millions of really highly qualified people across so many different industries went through this and it's something that really is never talked about.
Was it scarier that you were losing your job and your identity or that you didn't have the wherewithal anymore?
I didn't have a job and I had no plan B. And I wasn't stopping until it was done. And so that left me with a deep sense of what do I do now? Like, where do I go now? Do I stay in food service?
Do I try to do something else? Like a lot of questions. And like I said, I myself was so wrapped up in my identity as a employee of Sysco and where I was going that I'd never stood back and. Thought about anything else being an option.
You almost can't because you're so subsumed in improving this large entity that takes everything out of you.
and last question on this point and then we'll move on. What did your kids see during that time?
Yes, I lost my [00:23:00] job, but people are dying around the world, right? And these children that I have the honor to raise, I have been blessed with. Like, that should be my number one thought. and that's what I should be basing it on. What can I do to support them, to help grow them into the humans that they were meant to be?
To give them every support that they need. I've never thought like that. It was just like, go hard, make money, be successful, climb the ladder. It's almost what we were taught our whole lives. Our whole generation was get the corporate job, climb the ladder, and then the rugs pulled out from under everyone, and it did change perspective.
So now we're moving from hard charging executive overseeing thousands of people hundreds of millions of dollars. Big numbers, complicated systems, implementing change, making a huge difference. Climbing that ladder to solopreneur. Let's talk about that venture and how that played out.
it it started with me, you know, finding this part of myself, but I didn't know existed And it brought, you know, again, the joy that it brought me and it [00:24:00] made me think, okay, well I know how a big corporation runs.
Maybe I can start something on my own on small scale. Maybe I can really do something with this. Like start with, large orders of t-shirts and see how I can grow this into. So it kind of morphed from there. I built the plane as I was flying it. \ Just for context, I think this was Dottie's Designs, DOT's Designs.
T Yes.
I know I can sell and I can make t-shirts, but like now this is a thing. I'm forming. And so now I need to take what I learned at Sysco and dial it down to how can I grow this business. And so I had to learn a lot like social media.
I mean, I was on social media, right? But to be relevant today You have to be on all the time. You have to be consistent in your message, what you're saying, what you do. So I had to learn all that. Had to learn how to market. It's a different use of social media. You're like, oh, I know how to use Instagram.
It's like, no, not like this.
to Use this to drive dollars to the board? And that's a whole other thing that I knew nothing about. So, I mean, I'd seen it, but I've never tried to implement it. I was sales, so [00:25:00] I really. Dug in and learned like, what do I need to do?
How do I need to market myself? how do I scale this business from 12 t-shirts to 1200 t-shirts? . It's a bit of a jump. So in that 12 to 1200 and growing that, What was your first failure as a solopreneur?
Over promising and under delivering, and said, I can do it for you, but I can do it in this timeframe instead of killing myself, literally killing myself, me and my heat press trying to get things done in time. and that's a hard lesson to learn too. And I feel, because I don't wanna tell people, no, I didn't want to lose the business.
I didn't wanna disappoint anyone. But it's important to be upfront. This is what I can, I wanna help you, This is what I can do. And managing expectations. It's tough because you want to make your customers happy. The customer's always right, but you also need to. Survive.
So what did you underestimate about entrepreneurship?
All of the things. Because you can look at someone and be like that business, but, If they have a team behind them, there's so much work that goes into it.
But when it's just you, you're bootstrapping, you're starting from [00:26:00] scratch. It's you, you are everything. And I struggled a lot with prioritizing too, right? How do I prioritize what needs to be done right now? I need to sell, I need to fulfill orders, I need to market to continue that I'm relevant to keep getting orders.
I need to get out there and network so people know who I am. Shaking hands, meeting people, telling them my story, what I do. And it's a lot.
You're doing sales, you're doing marketing, you're doing accounting, you're doing fulfillment, you're doing anything that comes up, running to FedEx, just everything.
in running all of those different, channels all by yourself, all these different hats you're wearing, what was the lowest moment of being a solopreneur?
I think realizing that I needed help. How was I gonna afford it? But I couldn't continue working myself to death at the level that I was without getting help.
at that time someone came into my life, a competitor, and we lived in the same neighborhood and she did the same thing that [00:27:00] I did, but as a side hustle. She had a full-time job, but she did what I do on the side. She did different decoration techniques than I did.
I got to meet her and I really liked her.
So we started doing business with each other actually, because like I said, we did two different decoration techniques. She bought, I did leached blanks, and she did sublimation. So we had customers that would come to each of us that would want those things. And so we buy from each other and we started a little friendship
and so one day she called me up and she's like, Hey, do you want to go for coffee?
what do you think about partnering? Why don't we do this together? wow. Why don't we take this bigger? What do you think?
She's a marketer by trade. I'm a salesperson. We had all these complimentary things that were just like, this is a match made in heaven. Let's do this. And so an hour later we left that Starbucks. We didn't have the name quite right yet, but the business was born, and that was the Houston Apparel Company.
Before we get into that, the Houston Apparel Company, when you were doing Dottie's Designs, you were a solopreneur, you're an entrepreneur, but you were wearing all these hats.
Did you ever think that you should go back to [00:28:00] corporate?
My husband did. You just have to give me time. Right. It's time. So I did Dottie's for a year. Yeah, he sure wanted me to go back and get a corporate job because we struggled financially.
had, I had a nice great salary benefits and to to, to a solopreneur, you know, trying to scrape by And that put a real test on our, our relationship. And I, to this day, I tell him Thank you for believing in me and sticking by me because it was very, very hard. We went through some financial and it wasn't easy, but I think we're closer because of it.
But it was a really hard time for our family. Having to scale back on things that we had always done and trying to figure out how to pay bills, it's not easy.
And I applaud anyone who does it. 'cause I know how hard it can be. And you just, you gotta hang on for the ride. What's the biggest lie about being a solopreneur?
Oh, then I just go and do whatever I want all day long. I just show up at networking event, go to lunches, do all the things people don't see.
I say, I'm like a duck. Cool. Calm and collected on the surface, and I'm paddling like hell underneath. You don't see that. And that's what people do. Oh, you're [00:29:00] always out networking. When do you get your work done? I'm like, you don't know. or people have this vision of an a solopreneur on the beach on their laptop.
On that same vein, how is that with, raising kids, building a business, but raising children?
being an entrepreneur has made me a better mother. And being a mother has made me a better entrepreneur.
Because in business you have to be agile. You cannot stay stagnant or you will not be successful. You have to always to be thinking short term, but you have to be thinking longing. What is my goal?
And you learned that from your experiences being an executive and then seeing what you missed. That kind of changed your perspective, like you were saying earlier. the new normal in your mindset of what scaling is and what it takes. And it's also making sure your family scales in the right direction, I guess.
Right, right. Houston apparel and company scaling again, but you're focused on oil and gas. Which is, I mean, you're in Houston, it's huge. And so why oil and gas?
With that, there's so many opportunities, right? And one thing that I learned from a mentor in starting my own business and being an entrepreneur, [00:30:00] you have to niche down even more than you think. Because the more you niche down into a market, an ideal client type, whatever it is, the more successful you're gonna be.
Because if you try to service everyone, you'll end up servicing no one, right? And so it was the best advice I ever received from the mentor is like, Hey, if you're gonna do this, like you need to have a niche, figure it out. What is your niche? I'm gonna focus into my corporate background. It makes sense for me to try to engage. From a sales perspective with corporations, because I came from one and I know kind of how they work.
And so my business partner handled more of the small to medium businesses.
Tech and startups were kind of her niche. And then I handled all the corporate accounts. And so that's what I started doing. And we've been doing it for two years and I've learned so much along the way.
It's not what you know, it's who you know. And so I had to really take a step back and go, okay, So I understand this is a long play. I know, I see that it is gonna take some time for people to trust me, to understand what I do, to know me personally,
i'm worthy to do [00:31:00] business with, and then I have their best interest of mine. And so it was a slow role at first. Very, I got discouraged a lot of times and I'm like, wow, this is way harder than I thought. Like, this is gonna take a lot more touches of, you know, showing my worth as a person taking care of their business in a business than I had ever anticipated.
So moving on to the partnership. So you had this experience as an executive, you had this experience as a solopreneur, and now you're co-founding a company with your almost ex competitor. Right? Right. And what do people underestimate about partnership like that?
I think people get very nervous because of conflicting ideas, but I love having someone with a different perspective than me to challenge what I think is right, because I'm guilty of it just as much as the next person of getting tunnel vision.
And I'm basing maybe what I'm thinking about corporations based on my corporate experience. But not all corporations are the same. People don't [00:32:00] like conflict, but I actually love with my partner that we can have a debate about it. And we've debated about a lot of things and she's changed my mind on things and I've changed her.
And I think it's just understanding, like being a solopreneur and someone who loves to be in front of people and talk and it's hard. And having a partner, having someone to bounce something off of to be there to go through the struggles and challenges and conflicts with people, underestimate that. It's far worse than whatever potential, you know, hair raising can go on when a partnership would disagree.
And I think you have to think about it from, having another person's perspective who shares the same values as you. So instead of, being up in bed, starting at the ceiling at two in the morning, trying to work through a problem and worry about it, you can call your co-founder and be like, Hey, are you up and work through the problem?
Or better yet, talk about it before the day ends and work through the problem. From, like you said, a completely different perspective, she services a completely different industry. Right. And what was the impetus for servicing two completely different industries? what [00:33:00] was the driver for that?
It played into both of our strengths
Because we had such great relationships in both of our worlds, know, I know how to navigate a corporation. She knows how to work these types of clients that we just divide and conquered that way just so we could get more reach.
And we did have some overlap. certainly some of the larger projects we handled some of the really big, big orders that we had, it required both of us. And so being flexible and adaptable to our great traits of a partner too.
If something needs done, we got together and we got done for our clients. So you came from this background of being this executive overseeing these huge amounts of money and all these people, and now you're in this partnership. What systems or processes did you bring from the corporation to the startup?
So the sales process for sure, we, that was one of the things that I wanted to document early on because we were both new-ish to the apparel industry. And so servicing a client in apparel is different than servicing a client [00:34:00] in food. And so having to understand, what are the different layers to peel back?
Who is our target customer? How do we identify them and then go after it? But for me it was setting up the sales strategy and the marketing. She and I of set up both the sales and marketing strategy and she more handled like the backend operations of things. And so we were a perfect match there, right?
Like I handled this, she's good at this. We confer with each other. But it was important for me to have those processes set up. ' Well, like you learn from Sysco too, it can quickly just all fall apart if, if there aren't systems and processes and you start bolting on more teams, it's just not going to.
So that gets to my next question. That's perfect segue actually. Is the goal to stay a boutique-ish kind of firm? Or is it to scale up to, I mean, what's the goal?
So the goal is to scale. And we have done that. We've been in year two now, and I'm incredibly proud of the revenue generation. You know, just the two of us have built, [00:35:00] it's been an incredible, incredible ride.
But for me, I feel pulled to do something different. And so I've been thinking it for a while. And I'm actually selling out a piece, apparel co effective this week and selling my shares. In the process of working with our clients in oil and gas, energy construction, I noticed a trend. A lot of customers, the small to mid-size operators don't have a sales and marketing.
And when I started really looking at that and realizing there was a big need. These people, they don't wanna hire an internal full on internal team, but they need sales and marketing. So I started just as a side doing a couple projects some clients and set up sales and marketing backend for them and got it going and consulted them along the way.
Essentially a fractional sales and marketing executive for clients
so they don't have to build out a full team.
This is the culmination of everything because yeah. Everything you learned pre Sysco, but then everything you learned from this storied institution, [00:36:00] Sysco, Starting it from scratch and building it yourself, and you learn from different vantage points, different things.
And now you're applying that to say, Hey, I can do this for you with the timely, new fractional kind of model. That's all the rage for many industries
Yes. and it makes a lot of sense. You don't wanna have to put another person on payroll,
if you can get someone to build a system, execute the system. So specifically on the sales side, like I am the sales engine of it. And then I teach 'em how to use it. They can retain me, which a lot of 'em have for at least six months, I recommend.
And then if they're ready, if they wanna hire one person, then I can teach them the systems, get them going, and then move on to the next client. And it's been an incredibly fulfilling journey because. People don't know what they don't know about sales and marketing. This is how you can scale. And I get such passion from that because as a solopreneur myself, a, as a business partner myself, I see it's so hard to scale. And if I could give someone that edge without having it cost them that extra number
You're accretive to them because [00:37:00] they spend a little bit of money, but they make so much back from it. Yes. Is this Houston, Texas National?
It's national.
Powell Consulting Group.
Powell Consulting Group based in Houston, but servicing all businesses. You've been so generous with your time.
I have just a few more questions to get kind of your experience. Obviously has been hills and valleys similar to mine, and so it does give you a different lens from which to see life. So how do you define success now?
me Personally being fulfilled with the work that I'm doing, helping people at the core, that's what I want to do. I wanna help them be more successful. I want them not to need me because I've helped them be so successful and set them on the right path. But it also looks like me being able to step back when I need to, when it matters the most, and to be with my family.
I think a lot of people that work in corporate America, it's very hard to make that decision. And trust me, I work my ass off on the entrepreneur side to be able to do that. It's not all sunshine and roses, but I've realized like, I don't mind. I love the [00:38:00] grind. I love being in front of people.
I love helping them, but I have to do it on a time my, I only have so many years left till my kids are out of the house, right? And how am I gonna manage that time? So I wanna do something that's fulfilling to me that I can wake up every single day, be excited about, feel good about, know that I'm gonna help someone.
And then also be able to focus on what really matters at the end of the day is family and how to take care of them. And I love that. Yeah. That's, thank you for sharing that. So, final question.
You get laid off outta the blue. You thought you were going to be there forever. You learned from that. You bounced back. What would you tell the executive who just got laid off today? . Just take a deep breath, turn to your network, turn to your people that are closest to you and ask for help. That would be the big thing because it's hard. and a lot of people, I took it very personally and it took me a long time to get out of that funk, out of that depression, just fighting that anxiety.
But use the folks around you that love you. And a lot of people have a huge network. But they're [00:39:00] ashamed, right? Ashamed. That just got laid off like, oh, what am I gonna do? But if people truly care about you, they don't care about that. They wanna help you. so lean on your network. I love that.
it, it's funny when you open up to other people and tell them, Hey, this just happened to me. You start learning that happened to them too, five or 10 or 15 years earlier, and you had no idea because there is a stigmatization to that. And people don't want to share the valleys, right?
They just want to share the upsides, the hills. They don't want to share the downside. Thank you so much for all that you shared today. Thank You, that was wonderful and very insightful and I wish you all the best for Powell Consulting Group. Thank you. I'm sure it's gonna be very successful.
Maybe we'll do another follow up in a year. We'll see. Uh, I'm ready for anything at this point. Thank you Jada Powell. Thank you.