A Change is Gonna Come

A change is gonna come. This is the Elevate Polk Podcast, and I'm your host Chrissanne Long. And with me today as my copilot is Nate the Great Kendrick.

Hey, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

I'm excited to have you. This is gonna be so much fun. I mean, I think we were just talking about so many things before we started recording. I'm like, we need to, we need to start recording because this is great conversation. So the name of the episode is A Change Is Gonna Come. And what we're working on now is kind of setting the stage for what's next with the Elevate Polk Podcast. So in our last episode, we let everyone know Rob was moving on and there were some surprises that I was gonna share. So surprise, Nate's here. And anybody who knows Nate knows how great he is. And that's why I said Nate the Great. Now I'm sure that's not the first time you've been called Nate the Great.

Yeah. Yeah.

So we're going to start with, you know, what's your story? What's your entrepreneurial journey story, but tie it into how we kind of cross paths. What's the intersection between Nate's story and Chrissanne Long's story and how are we here together today?

Absolutely. Sure. I guess I'll just speed it up a little bit. I've always been an entrepreneur at heart, even from when I was a kid, I would, so in at church, if you were good and you behaved, they would give you candy. And so I just made sure I behaved and I would get a lot of candy. But the fun fact about me is I'm not really a huge candy eater. So I remember one day just looking over at all the candy and saying to myself, there has to be a better way to just do, like, instead of this candy just sitting here, like, I can do something with it.

Mm.

And so I created a candy store and I started selling candy to my friends. And it was fascinating to me cuz I was like, I got this for absolutely nothing. But they're giving me 50 cents for it. And so that's what really kind of was like that first spark of this is something different. And I like that.

Yeah.

I like, I like that it's different. I've always been kind of a different oddball kid and just something that kind of inspired me. And so it turned into selling cookies and cookie cakes and just different ideas. And I would always break things and rebuild them in different ways just because I liked seeing things from different perspectives. And I always question the status quo, that really was what pushed me into entrepreneurship. So from that, I still went the traditional route and I worked at Publix because that's what my dad really wanted me to do.

And so let me pause you for a second. You went the traditional route, but did that feel like the right thing to do or was it more of like a settling at that time?

No, no, it was definitely to please my parents because they paid the bills.

Okay.

So I wasn't really a fan of, I remember specifically in high school, I wasn't even thinking about college. My parents made it a point for me to think about college.

It was decided for you.

It was decided for me. So I went to Polk. Same here.

Yeah.

So I went to Polk State, went and got a job at Publix and I learned a lot, thinking back now, the things that I learned at Publix really helped me today as an entrepreneur. So really how to communicate with individual people from, any socioeconomic background and really any type of place. Because I met with people that had people come through my line that were happy, angry, sad, upset. And my goal was always to, in my mind, it was almost like a game. I gamified it. So I wasn't as bored. And I said, you know what, if I can make someone smile, no matter what, I'm doing my job right.

Oh, I love that.

And so it was really kind of flipping it on its head. And I really didn't think about it until, you know, maybe about 2 or 3 years ago. I'm like, wow, this has really taught me how to understand how people think.

Yeah. Yeah. So I have a story similar to that. So I run around like, no, not anymore. I used to run around Lake Hollingsworth a lot more than I do now. So this is a reminder to Chrissanne Long, go run around the lake because this was a good story. But when I was running consistently around the lake, I used to have that same game. I would look at the people that were approaching me from the other direction, from a distance. You know, I was trying to make eye contact the whole time. And then my job was the first time they were surprised because I was my big goofy grin. I'm smiling and I'm just like, it's like, like I'm seeing my old long-lost friend and they're like, ooh, well, that's kind of weird. But then the second time around, they were ready for me. Like they literally had changed in the time that, you know, the first time around and the second time around, they were there to greet me with a smile most of the time.

Yeah.

Some of them would just avert their eyes, but I'm sorry. So that was just funny. 'Cause you were like, my goal is to make someone smile. I'm gonna do this, whatever it takes. And then, you know, it's— That's cool. So keep going.

Yeah. So, so anyway, so I went that route. I went to UCF over in Orlando and something really kind of shifted. So my dad, he came down with cancer, pancreatic cancer. And I think the doctors, if I can remember right, they said they had 3 months, that he had 3 months to live and it was 3 months to the day.

Whoa.

And so when that happened, it really shifted my way of thinking. Now again, I was still going to college. I was still going and working at Publix, but my mindset changed because I was doing a lot of those things to please my parents, especially my dad.

Yeah.

Because my dad was a first generation to go to college. And so for him, his way of thinking was, in order for my son to have a better life than I ever had, he needs to go to college as well.

That was his path.

That was his path. So he's like, and it was the same thing for Publix. He's like, Publix is established. They're consistent. I know that if he works 40, 50 years there, he'll be established himself.

So there's so much love in that too. It's like that desire from our parents to want something more for us than they had themselves. And yet it can sometimes take us, kind of distract us from God's purpose. So a parent's purpose for ourselves versus God's purpose for ourselves. And we sometimes have to figure out how to balance the two.

Yep. Yep, it's the truth. And it's funny you say that because thinking back, I didn't understand, but now even talking to you as an adult, because I was only like 21, I think I was 21, 22 at the time. I didn't quite fully understand. It's like, why are they trying to force me to do this? But now it makes sense.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, and things out of love are not always the best things, but they're done with the right reasons. And so there's really nothing wrong because that was part of God's plan too. —to put you into the loving arms of your parents to guide you and mold you and direct you at least to the point where then you could think for yourself. Absolutely. And then you started thinking for yourself.

Absolutely. So yeah, I start— that's the perfect segue. I started really thinking for myself. And to be honest, it was only through the grace of God that I was able to graduate. So when all that stuff happened, I just kind of went in a whirlwind and I was just like, man, I don't care. I'm not, you know, I didn't really wanna be in college in the first place. So I just kind of did my own thing. But thankfully I had a praying mom and my mom was always there for me and I was able to get through it. And I actually ended up working at Publix Corporate for a little bit, but at the end of the day, Publix is a great company, but it just wasn't for me. Yeah. And so I ended up shifting out of that, working for a mentor of mine for a little bit. And some unfortunate things happened with the business where they just had to let some of the new individuals go. And still a great mentor today. I understand business, but it was fascinating within that, I realized, I was like, you know what? I feel like this is God telling me, hey, you've always wanted to do your own thing. You've always naturally done your own thing. This is your opportunity now to really solidify and establish yourself and do something. And so I actually, I went to, I'll never forget, I went to Atlanta Georgia, because I had two cousins that were entrepreneurs and I just hung out with them for a bit to just understand how they started their business, understand how it works, and just think of something to potentially start. Mm-hmm. And so I just did, you know, some research and I kind of realized that Snapchat and social media just in general was a very strong tool and resource to really attract attention. And I knew that I had a decent skill set of sales, just based on the fact that I was interacting with people on a regular basis from Publix. And I was like, what's fascinating is within that too, I was thinking, I was like, man, I feel like I'm pretty good at communicating to people and really figuring out what their needs are as well. Okay. And so I just said, you know what, I'm going to start something. And so I started a company called Snap Space. In 2016, and the premise of it was initially to just focus on Snapchat because Snapchat was huge at the time and specifically geofilters. Okay. And so we sold that concept for a little bit and then we ended up shifting a little bit more. And I said, I want to add a little bit more value than just Snapchat geofilters. Right, right. And so I said, you know what, what's a tool and something that's growing more now than ever than anything? And it was videos. And so I said, okay, let's add that video production piece and element to it as well. Got it. Okay. And so we actually ended up doing some cool things with the LDDA and the DLP. Yeah. Downtown Lakeland Development. Yeah. But they're, they've disbanded now, but yeah.

And it was— Is there any of those videos still out there in, in space that listeners could go and say, let's go back in time.

Hmm. That's a great question. I'm trying to think. Probably if you Google something specific. Yeah. So the concept, initial concept of the videos that we rolled out was called Downtown Lakeland Spotlight. Okay. Maybe if they Google it, it'll pop up. We did a video with Scout and Tag. We did a video with Top Buttons and basically the premise was, okay, so they were wanting to attract more people and more eyes in downtown Lakeland. And my thing was, okay, let's do these videos, but instead of instead of it just being a generic video, let's highlight the individual business owner and tell a story. So when someone passes by this building, they're just not like, oh, that's just a random building named Top Buttons. No, it's Sarah Powers. Mm-hmm. Yep. Or it's—

what a great human being she is too. Oh, she's awesome.

Yeah. She's awesome. Yeah. Love her. Awesome family friend. So I've known her for years. Okay. Awesome. So yeah. And that's, that's how I initially got into business for myself. And it, it, and again, What's fascinating is because I've always kind of had that entrepreneurial vein, friends would just naturally come to me and pitch me different ideas, different concepts. And so I was always kind of helping friends and friends of friends with ideas. Gotcha. And when I added that extra piece of, oh, Nate knows social media now, people would come to me for that as well. It's like, hey, can you help me with business? But then can you help me with Facebook or Snapchat and Instagram as well? And so that was a component of my business that I didn't really even knew existed 'cause I was just doing it just to do it because I enjoyed it.

Yeah. So you started there and I'm gonna tell on myself here. Yeah. So at that point in time, I think you were connected in the downtown community. Correct. Yep. And I got a message from this guy named Nate Kendrick. And this was at a time when I was, you know, still kind of in the role of Maximize Digital Media being my main focus. And so many, you know, so often, and this was a conversation we were having offline, you know, before we started recording. So we think we're gonna create like an entrepreneur's etiquette guide because not that he did anything wrong and not that I did anything wrong, but I was so much in the overwhelmed stage of being so busy that I didn't have a minute that I could think straight. And Nate was in, I'm looking for people to connect with and I wanna have a conversation with this person. Somebody said that I should meet Chrissanne Long. He calls, he leaves a message. I remember distinctly getting that message and feeling like, oh my gosh, I don't know what he wants to talk about. I'm worried about not having much time. I don't know if I can help him. And so I, I, I didn't call you back. Yeah. So I'm sorry.

No, no, it's good. And, and, you know, thinking back, that was a learning lesson for me because now I realize it's, it's, it's more than just, especially when it's, when it's cold, right? What, what value, where, where's the value proposition when you're trying to reach out to someone? And connect with an individual that you believe that can help you or you guys can help each other, you have to really kind of think about that value. It's like, what value am I adding? And so as a new entrepreneur, a lot of times they try to reach out to these individual people that are a little bit more connected, or they're like, man, they have a few things under their belt. I want to connect with them, but they're not thinking about the value and they're just saying, hey, I want to connect. But why? What's the reasoning behind it? So I'm going to tell myself a little bit and say that I didn't really have a reasoning behind it. It was just like, oh, let me connect with her. Yeah. And like you said, that etiquette needs to be there. And they're like, there are, this is a game and there's established rules in the game. You have to understand those rules in order to grow, in order to build.

That's so rich. That's so important. And I think sometimes some of it is intuitive, you know, you kind of know it. But then I think one of the challenges with dealing with entrepreneurs as a business, so B2B is, you know, what we do at Maximize and a lot of times the, the client can't put their customer hat on. Yeah, they're thinking so much about their business from their own perspective. They can't put the lens of the other person on to see how they see the product, the service, the company, the brand. And that's a skill. And it's, it's, it's important, but it's hard work because you really can't— I mean, you can't walk a day in another man's shoes. So you've got to trust the people and you've gotta be vulnerable.

Yeah, absolutely. And say, I'm, I'm willing to listen to some feedback.

Tell me what's wrong with this and be open to saying, okay, well maybe I shouldn't charge the fee, pass the fee on to the client because the client doesn't wanna pay that fee. Mm-hmm. Or, you know, just little things. Yeah. And, and some of those little things add up to being important, um, business, uh, core values. Absolutely. You know, it's huge. It's huge. So yeah, so Thanks for forgiving me for not calling you back. But I think I've gotten better since then too. And, you know, the question then becomes, hey, can you gimme a little bit of information about what we want to talk about when we get together so that I can be prepared? So that's just, it's a kind way of saying, what do you need? What do you want? What are you asking for? So either I can be prepared or so that you can know that I need a little bit more information before we're gonna sit down and have a meet.

Absolutely. And when you start to really kind of establish yourself If you start to understand and flip the switch, it's like, I have to guard my time now. I have to be strategic with my time because I only have so many hours in the day. So it's like the script is flipped now where I have people reaching out to me. And what I try to do is I say, especially if it's, you know, someone that wants to be a client or work with me and they're not necessarily in the price range that I work with, I'll say I'll refer them to someone else. And say, unfortunately, I don't have the time or the ability to do what you're wanting me to do for that, but I know a few people that do. And so that was kind of like part of the thing that we're going to eventually get into is the ecosystem of, man, is there a better way to do this? Yeah, yeah. Because I really want to help people, but I have to make money as well. Right, right.

I have to be strategic. We have to have win-wins. I mean, we have to approach it with a win-win. Exactly. I'm going to open, to take someone's time I've gotta be able to make sure that there's a win in there, or I'm asking for a favor. Exactly. You know, I need to come clean and say, I need your help. I need a favor versus, hey, let's sit to, let's sit down and let's talk about some stuff. I think I might, you know, I might be able to have something for you. No, you, you really don't. You might just need to ask for somebody to give you some guidance or some, some mentorship time.

It's fascinating that you're saying that because that, that's, that's the key that when you're starting entrepreneurship, you really don't know, but it's simple things. Mm-hmm. Understanding those things and understanding what this meeting is for, and that sometimes the meeting can shift into something else and you take it. You realize, oh, this is what it is. I'm going to maneuver that way and be okay with it and not try to force it back to what you originally thought it was.

And that's just being open to God's gifts. Yep. You know, the receiving side of that. Absolutely. That's awesome. That's great. Well, I'm sorry, we've kind of deviated from your story. No, no. But I love this rich conversation and this is why I really wanted us to shift the podcast here because I think there's so many key insights to somebody no matter where they are in the journey. But if we're able to go back in time and remember things we didn't know that we know now, that's the whole point of this whole thing. You know, it's like you hear everybody talking about how they failed or this business closed. So, so tell us how SnapSpace kind of, you know, how did it, how did it end up?

Yeah. So I honestly was kind of getting a little tired of the service-based industry. Hear, hear. So I was kind of shifting out of it. And it was fascinating because a childhood friend of mine, we, before I had even started SnapSpace, we had connected up and we said that we always wanted to do something, but the timing just wasn't right. Timing just didn't make sense. And so it had been about a year and some change later. And he reached back out to me and he said, "Hey Nate, I really want to work on this project," which we didn't even really know what it was. We just wanted to do something. Yeah. And I said, "Well, you know, what were you thinking?" He's like, "Well, I was thinking, you know, to sell a product or something." I was like, "Okay, cool. As long as it's not the service-based business, I want to do something a little bit different." You know, because, and that's part of what I feel like I learned in the process is I was able to leverage some of my relationships initially to get business for myself. But outside of that, as I started to try to grow and expand, I realized that I needed more people. As you know, mm-hmm, in the service-based business, you need more people in order to grow. And I always tell people, I learned what to do, I learned what not to do, and we were growing, but we weren't necessarily aligned. 'Cause I had partners as well. We weren't aligned on everything. And so there was some misses. And so because of that, and I'd actually never mentioned this to anybody, I got extremely sick because I was stressed. So working so hard and worrying. And working so hard and always thinking. Self-care. Yeah. And thinking I could just push myself to the bone. 'Cause I was, 25, 26 at the time. I'm like, oh man, you know, I can work as hard as I want, you know, and have no cause and effect. But I just remember I'm like, man, I think I, I think I pushed myself a little bit too hard and I didn't like that. It's like I always have wanted to work for myself, but I'm not trying to kill myself for working for myself. Yeah. And almost building— I was like, I felt like I was almost building my own trap, you know? And I was like, man, I don't like what this has become. I've created a job I've created a job for myself. Exactly. Which is what I never wanted to do. Right. So there was irony in that. I could go do that. Exactly.

For somebody else and not have any of the stress or worry.

Exactly. So within that, I learned a lot and that was the time where my friend reached out to me and said, hey man, you wanna start, you know, sell a product-based business? And I said, yeah, absolutely. So shifted out of, and one of someone that I, that's a lot smarter than me said, you have two choices. You can either land the plane yourself or it's going to crash. Ooh. And I said, okay. Oh, wow. And it just made sense. It made sense. It, you know, we could have still grown and we could have still been successful, but there was just an alignment issue. So with that, I ended up shifting and me and my new business partner, we were brainstorming and we're like, all right, what do we want to do? What do we want to potentially sell? And so basically the, the long and short of it is we use this software and we're able to find fire-resistant bags, as random as that is. Fire-resistant bags. Fire-resistant bags. Okay. Correct.

That's the, that's the, I was, I was trying to figure out when we were getting ready for the show, that is YF.

YF. Yeah. Okay. All right. Yeah. That's YF LLC. Yeah. Okay. And so we used a platform called Amazon and which I know everybody's familiar with now. Oh, I'm definitely familiar with that. Yeah. Right. And they had this program called Amazon FBA, which is basically Fulfillment by Amazon because we we realized it's extremely tough to build an e-commerce business with no awareness. Yes. So we wanted to leverage the trust of Amazon in order to build that base. And I always tell people all the time, because they, you know, know that I have had some success with it, I highly— I don't recommend it just because what we learned is we scaled and we scaled quickly because we were one of the first— we were the largest fire-resistant bag on the market. And it was around 2018 and the California fires took off and it was like this huge social media storm. And so it was just timing. It was just, it was timing, honestly. That's what it was. And so we, we grew exponentially, but because you, when you're selling a product on Amazon, there's not really a differentiator. It's almost like you're just another product on the shelf. Creating that brand, that brand awareness is not as easy. So things like being able to email your customer and know where they're from and know how old they are. Preach. Yes. You don't get those types of analytics. And so it was tough to do retargeting because Amazon doesn't allow that because it's Amazon. Their platform. And it's their platform. And so those were some of the things that we learned. And we also learned how to, you know, dealing with China is tough sometimes. And through that, again, these were these learnings where I was like, man, okay, I feel like I am successful in entrepreneurship, but then sometimes I don't think I'm successful in entrepreneurship and these ebbs and flows. And it's fascinating because still throughout this entire process, people are consistently reaching out to me and saying, hey Nate, man, you're, you know, you're killing it, dude. You're killing it, man. You're on fire. Can you help me with different types of businesses and stuff? And it's fascinating because again, Throughout this process of building this product, we were, like I said, we were successful, but because of the model and the way it was built, it was hard and tough to sustain. And again, thinking of that landing the plane when you want to versus— and so that's when I was in a time in my life where I was like, okay, you know, you know, I really want to shift back into helping businesses. And I've always done that and I've been always doing it almost kind of like for free, the freemium model. But I found myself really shifting into that full-time. Yeah. And so that's when I really plugged in and it was around 2019. So right before all this stuff happened. Right before the COVID cloud landed. Yeah. The COVID cloud. Yeah. Everything landed and thankfully I was able to maneuver and pivot and I've been blessed. It's been only through the grace of God that I've been able to be blessed with that. And really what I have been corely focusing on is things that I enjoy and things that just make sense. And really helping entrepreneurs is what I enjoy the most and helping them build. It's the Kendrick Group. And now it's the Kendrick Company. The Kendrick Company. The Kendrick Company. And the goal of it is really for us to come alongside mostly startups, but we have some organizations as well that we work with and help them either grow or change their models, especially with COVID A lot of it was pivoting their behaviors with social media or changing their business plan from a brick-and-mortar concept to online, or just helping them build their business plan and helping them raise capital.

So, you're back into the service business. Yep. Yep.

I'm back. It's a full circle.

You got to do this. You got to go.

It's a full circle. So, I'm back in this. I'm back in the service business and I enjoy it because I understand a lot more now how the game works and I understand how to be strategic with my time and how to grow a team more efficiently.

Yeah. And your network has grown. Absolutely. You've, you started, you know, way back when did Social Snap start?

Yeah. Yeah. Snap Space. Yeah. Sorry. No worries. No worries. It's a, it's a tough name. Trust me. And the way it was spelled was spelled with two S's because it wasn't available on GoDaddy.

So it was a lot of S's.

Like an S's. Yeah. It started in 2016 is when I originally. 2016.

Launched. So 4 years later. Correct. You've kind of meandered down this journey path, right? And here you are. And so how did you and I connect? So we only connected in person. So you reached out in 2016. Correct. I gave you the, the Heisman, you know, hand up, and now we're here running, we're gonna do a podcast together. Absolutely. So how did that happen?

Yeah. So In 20— early or late 2016, I found out about Catapult.

Mm-hmm.

And I met this really cool guy named JD. Awesome dude. Amazing. Super smart. And we collaborated on a few projects together back when I had SnapSpace, and we just always kind of stayed in contact. And when I started really pursuing the Kendrick Company, and he started hearing my passion about really at its core, I understand and realize just because I've been through the ebbs and flows of entrepreneurship, that there is a way to be consistent and grow your business over time if you have the right structure in place. Yes. And it's just something that I felt was a missing piece in the current ecosystem. And that's when he said to me, and it was funny because I had just recently, it was maybe 2 or 3 days ago, or 2 or 3 days before JD and you connected, I had told him about that. And he reached out to me through, I think it was either Instagram or email. And he said, "Hey man," he said, "I'd love to connect you to Chrissanne." And it was just kind of like a, honestly, a full circle moment. And it, again, that's kind of like what I always love to preach is it's timing. And more than that, it's God's timing. Because I reached out to you— Full on goosebumps. Yeah, 4 years ago, but it wasn't the right timing. One, it wasn't the right business and it wasn't the right structure for us to fit together. But now, 4 years later, the ecosystem makes sense, right? And this makes sense.

And now we're here. Yeah. Yeah. So my version of that story is— it's kind of cool. So JD was the CEO of Maximize before Craig and I came on in 2014. So we got to know him through, you know, just kind of that exchange, that transition. And learned just how brilliant he is and how much potential he had. And I think he was just kind of ready to pivot. And that's why, you know, it was like, hey, this is my next step. I'm going to go do this. And I've got this company that I need to figure out what we're going to do with. And so we were invited in by the shareholders to come over, to come in and kind of take over the company. And I'm sure JD was relieved because running an agency is stressful and doing it by yourself as the, you know, as the CEO, sole CEO, kind of leader of the band. To speak, it is not something that I think I could have done by myself or Craig could have done by himself. So we came in together as a team and, and took, took that role. And so, yeah, so then I've, I've, you know, I've been in connection with all of the organizations in Polk County that are entrepreneurial or economic development related. So I went to the annual LEDC meeting at the end of 2020. And we're walking out and I see JD and for whatever reason, you know, usually I just say, hey JD, it's good to see you. How is everything? How's everything going? Um, but he had recently shared, um, in some of the work that he's been doing that I had seen some of his mental health journey, you know, and, and some of the stuff that he had been sharing transparently and vulnerably. And I wanted to comment on that and I wanted to tell him that I really appreciated him taking that step and, and being, vulnerable and opening up. And so we started there, and then I started to tell him where I was going and what I wanted to focus on. And this transition of the podcast was kind of imminent. I knew it was happening, but I didn't necessarily know— I can't just sit here and talk by myself for hours, you know? What am I going to talk about? So I was going to need somebody to kind of have that back and forth with. And but I wasn't necessarily saying to JD, I think I want Nate to be podcast host, co-host, you know, but it was like, I need to meet somebody that I can— that I think cares, shares the same vision and shares the same passions. And so I was kind of— I was leading there on how we ended up here. So I had this in mind. Yeah. Um, so yeah, JD's like, yeah, you— he goes, my bandwidth. And I love that about— I love it when a person can say, I don't have the bandwidth. I love it when a person can say, I don't have the time. And so kudos, shout out to you, JD, because that's an excellent leading by example moment that you gave to me. Um, because I was saying, hey, I'd love to get together with you. He's like, yeah, Chrissanne, I just right now where I am, I don't have the bandwidth, but let me introduce you to Nate because I think, you know, I had a conversation with him recently and I think he would be somebody you guys could really have some symbiosis with and whatever. So that is how you're here. So I'm super excited that we're having this conversation because I think anybody listening, I feel, I hope anybody listening or our target audience, people that are listening, hope that you see the richness of some of these discussions that we're planning on having. Absolutely. And bringing in other guests to have conversations. So, you know, I don't know if we're ready to shift a little bit from the story.

Go ahead. And I just want to add one thing real quick. I think what's awesome about that story is when you're aligned on— because in entrepreneurship, when you first start off, you really don't necessarily know what you're doing at all unless you just are extremely gifted, right? Because it's, it's really a whole bunch of learnings. Yes. And so through that, you really learn who you are, what you're good at, and what you're just not good at, and really focusing on what you're good at and honing in on that. And truthfully, what we were doing is we were just working on what we were good at and just having conversations along the way. And that's what ultimately connected us back up. Yeah.

Yeah. And there's a little bit of God dashed in there as well. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. So it's just so beautiful. I love it. I love it. I love it. E-Ship Soup is Elevate Polk's playful breakaway from the sometimes serious entrepreneurship chats we have to focus on whatever else we have on our minds. Why E-Ship Soup, you ask? Well, E-Ship is short for entrepreneurship because who wants to spell entrepreneurship every single time? And soup, well, because everyone knows the best soup recipes are comprised of whatever else you have in the kitchen. So in today's E-Ship Soup segment, we're talking about Clubhouse. Yes. So if you haven't heard, Clubhouse is this burgeoning, growing social media app that is audio only and currently still in beta. So it's a private invite and it's only available on iOS. So that iOS is your Apple devices, which means only your iPads, your iPhones, and your iPods. So if you're somebody who likes to adopt technology in an early, in the early stages, then you might want to brush off those dusty old iPods and reactivate them and download Clubhouse. One of the great features of this is because it's audio only, it's really just focused on the human voice and the humanizing impact of voice. Hey, you guys are listening to a podcast, so you can appreciate the sound of voice. And without the distractions of having to worry about getting ready to show up on a Zoom meeting or anything. So there's thought leaders across the globe. Great opportunity for you to jump in now if you have an iOS device and if you're an Android user, Don't worry, it will be coming, but the developers are really focusing on making sure this app is doing everything it can for its current users. So if you do decide to download it, follow me on Clubhouse and follow Nate as well. I'm @chrissanne_long and Nate is @natek30. And be on the lookout for a club called eShip in the 863. So some of the things that you, that you said, you know, that I just wanted to kind of come back on as we, as we go into kind of the entrepreneurial ecosystem discussion that I want to have around Polk County and how, how is it being an entrepreneur in Polk County is the general gist. Yeah. But some of the things that you said that maybe can help us kind of pivot into that discussion is you, you spent some time with your cousins in Atlanta. Correct. And you, you went there so that you could learn how entrepreneurs do entrepreneurship. Yep. And I think there's so much important value in that. Like you can't, you can't entrepreneur yourself into entrepreneurship. Mm-hmm. You need guidance, you need a network, you need people who've been there, done that. See, so parents who raise kids and the kids grow up with entrepreneurs in their families, that's their environment. Yep. So they learn that, they get that. You didn't have that in your environment. I didn't have that in my environment. And then you decide where, or God decides that you're gonna start a business. What do you do? Yeah. And so, you know, if, if you find yourself planted in Polk County and you decide, you know, this is my time, I'm gonna start a business, or, or I'm, and in, in some cases, and some of the people will, will have on the show, they've been full career at a corporate experience for, you know, their entire time. Now it's time for them to retire, but they're still young and they have ideas. Yeah. And they wanna do something. How do you jump into entrepreneurship in Polk County? So what has your experience been in starting a business in Polk County, not having that home, home, at-home network that was, you know, guiding you, but you had some people in the family that you could reach out to and they could mentor you. So just kind of riff on that a little bit for me.

Yeah. So it was definitely interesting. A lot of it is, so I was blessed in a sense that I was, throughout my journey at first, I really tried to do everything on my own, but I learned very quickly that that's not smart.

You can do it alone. You can fly the plane alone or you can crash.

Exactly. Two choices. Exactly. And so just honestly by doing, so I like doing things. I don't like just talking about it. I like putting action behind it. So if I say I'm going to do something, I like doing it immediately just to see that result and say, okay, I learned from that. So I really just kind of went out and started my business and just started pounding the pavement. And one of the things that I was blessed about is I was able to, through family friends from the church that I grew up in, I unknowingly started to realize, oh wow, this person's an entrepreneur. This person's entrepreneur. This person's an entrepreneur. So that's where I was blessed in the fact where I was able to, once I let my, set my ego aside, I went to those individuals and said, hey, I have a few questions about a few things. 'Cause I just started a business and I've been trying to do things on my own and I've had some success, but I want to sustain and grow. What should I do?

So you do this and these people know you, you have a relationship with them. What was the response when you asked them for advice?

They were definitely open. Favorable. It was definitely favorable. But one thing I realized and I noticed is that, and I had to be very self-aware that there was a grace to it because of my previously established relationship based on my parents and not me. So I had to realize very quickly that I had to reestablish what that relationship was. So they didn't see me as Nathaniel, the son of Wiley and Vicki Kendrick, but as Nathaniel, the business person. Right. And so I had to, and I feel like at first I really kind of took that for granted and I didn't necessarily know and understand what I was doing then. But as I grew—

That's such good personal awareness.

Such good insight. As I grew, I realized, okay, so this is what this is. This is what we're doing now. And I have to be respectful of that.

Right. So, yeah, that's huge. And I think you mentioned earlier too, that the known network. When you went out with SnapSpace, your obvious first place to go was your known network, people that you had grown up with, the people that knew you as Wiley and what's your mom's name? Vicki. Vicki, Wiley and Vicki's son. So they're going to take a meeting with you out of respect for your parents. But then that's going to get exhausted. At some point in time, your network doesn't exist beyond the walls of the people that you've known.

Exactly. And that's when I learned early on, I was like, okay, so there's an ecosystem and Catapult was relatively, well, it wasn't relatively new, it was around for a little bit. And I realized very quickly, it's like, okay, I need to start to build relationships outside of that. And that's when I initially started just, and again, I can't remember 'cause it feels like forever ago, but I really don't remember how I connected up with JD, but I just felt like he was a kindred spirit and he just made sense. And he was a really smart guy. We just started having conversations. And it was the same thing with Jamie Clements and Grant Nadeau as well. Just started having conversations.

Grant, yes.

And through those conversations, they gave me some awesome advice, especially Grant. Grant is very wise with— He's so gifted. With how he moves. He moves very strategically. And I appreciated a lot of the advice that he's given me over the years. And through that, I was able to establish myself and grow and learn things. And throughout the journey, I realized that entrepreneurship is truly, truthfully about growth, not just about your business, but your personal growth as well. And so when I look about, look at how the ecosystem is in Polk County, and I wanna say this with grace, there is an entrepreneur ecosystem, but it, it's new. Mm-hmm. And because it's new, it's not necessarily established. And again, when I sit, sit back and say, if I didn't have the relationships that I had originally, what would've, what would've gotten me off the ground?

Right. And that's why we're so like-minded because correct. Conversations we've had off, off this, you know, before and, and in the past already, we realize if we didn't know the people we don't know, that if we didn't know the people we know, we wouldn't have been able to get this far. Correct. Okay. And so we understand the nuances of that personally, but then we also have this, I guess, servant-minded awareness that what about everybody else? Yep. So I was blessed. You were privileged to have this relationship with your family, or with your family friends. That you could reach out to and start. Yep. There are people in the world that don't have just that very simple fact in their lives. And so starting is going to be like paralyzing. Yep. There's no starting point. They can't see it. They don't have a friend in the world that they even know can talk to them or speak to them about entrepreneurship. Yep. And so that's got to, that's got to start to be something that we can shift the entrepreneurial ecosystem to say, hey, we get you. We're all the oddballs over here. You said you used the word oddball as a kid, you know, and it's like we are the entrepreneurs, we are the leaders, but we also have to— and this is why I wanted us to talk about the fact that I didn't return your call in 2016. We also have to be able to take 5 minutes for somebody that you don't necessarily know so that they know that when they did take that leap, that, that, that's that very scary leap of starting a business or starting a conversation. And if you give them the Heisman hand, you might be the only person that they talk to. Yep. And if they didn't get a warm reception, if they wouldn't— if you couldn't just take a minute to say, hey, I might not have time right now, but let me send you to this person who I think might be able to help you. If you just take 5 minutes to figure out what they need, then you can either say, hey, I'd love to, let's carry on a conversation, let's set up a time. It might be 2 weeks from now or a month from now, but at least it's something. Yeah. Or let me hand you over to somebody that I know will take some time and be able to speak into whatever it is you need right now.

Yeah, I agree with that 100%. And that's something that I try to be mindful of. But I am selective. And so I look for individuals that really honestly are willing to do whatever it takes. That's kind of what I look for.

So if you're gonna message Nate, make sure that you are somebody who's willing to do whatever it takes. Yeah. That you're not gonna cut corners, you're not gonna take the easy route. You're somebody who's serious and in it to win it.

Absolutely. Because then for me, it's like, okay, I'm investing my time, which is our most valuable asset, into someone to help them get to the next level. Even if it's, especially if it's a startup, when they're first starting off, a lot of times it's either one, it's like very chaotic and it's just how it is. Get your stuff together. But really get your stuff together and really know what you're ultimately trying to do. And I usually can see the, individuals that are really pushing and pressing to get things moving forward. Like a prime example, a friend of mine, he reached out to me 2018, 2019. He said, Nate, I have an idea. My mom's cupcakes are amazing and I want to sell these. And he's been moving mountains. And I told him, I said, dude, absolutely, man. 'Cause I know you do whatever it takes. I'm willing, I'm willing to, to, to be behind you and do whatever it takes to help you grow this business.

So the message to the entrepreneurs listening to this is make some, take some action, take some aggressive action that you can show. This is what I've done already before you reach out for some help. Absolutely.

'Cause it, 'cause it, it rings true to, to, to at my level and to at the level of the guys that are, that are really playing it big because a lot of them, almost all of them started from the same place and they understand it takes everything to get there. And you have to be willing to humble yourself and say, hey, look, I don't know something. And truthfully and honestly, I don't know how to get there. How did you get there?

Yeah. Yeah. And clarity, clarity is important. If you know, if you have a clear goal, so cupcakes, You know what it is and you understand and you can taste them and you can decide if they're good enough. But then it's all of the stuff that goes along with the business part of that. Absolutely. But I would— so then that's the message to the entrepreneurs is don't expect somebody to hold your hand if you're not expecting yourself to do all of the work. Absolutely. So somebody will listen, somebody will give you a time if you can show that you're in it to win it. But on the other side of that, I also wanna say, and, and I read a book by Adam Grant called Give and Take. And in the book, he weaves a story about a guy that has a rule that he has for himself. And it was take 5 minutes every day for someone that probably is never gonna be able to repay you. And 5 minutes is a piece of time that's very small and very capable, very simple, you know? So I, when I, after I read that book and it was before, it was after 2016, I started to take that approach to, okay, I have enough time to reply to this email, but I then, as the responding person to the request for time or a call or whatever, have to be super clear about my boundaries. Correct. And what, you know, so if I can get them to be clear coming to me, what do you need? Get me some information so that I can, I can help you. But because now I have this very strong network, I know the people that I can send them to that are going to, that are going to maybe be better than I am because I certainly can't help everybody. And there's certainly people that are better fit, better suited to, to connect someone to at least to get started and get a little further down the road. Absolutely. And then once you've had that shot, so there's two sides to that. It's like I have an idea and I don't know if it's good enough. I'm not ready to take the hustle. To do the steps because I just need someplace to go do my brain dreaming. And I don't have anybody in my network that, that wants— that will take me seriously. Yeah. You know, when I started our business, when we started our business, I had been a teacher for 10 years. What did I know about starting a business? So I just started and I did a lot of the hustling and I did a lot of the work, but I didn't have a person to talk to. I mean, Craig, I had Craig to talk to because we started the business together. But sometimes you just need something. You don't— I don't know what that something is. So yeah, for anyone who's a little bit more advanced in the entrepreneurial journey, just consider they might not have it all in one pile yet. They might not have been able to on the front end front load what it is that you expect from them in order to have a sit-down serious conversation, which I absolutely agree with. But maybe you can give them 5 minutes. Hear a 5-minute, like, what do you need? And let me just see if you're ready And if you're not ready, you can give them— if they're not ready, you can give them some advice. Hey, why don't you go ahead and buy a domain, do this work before you, and then come back to me in 6 months and let's see how much work you've been able to put into it. Let's see how serious you are.

And I'll tell you what, if for the entrepreneurs that are listening, that are at that space that Chrissanne Long's talking about where they don't necessarily know what to do and they go to that individual that's a mover and a shaker and they say, hey, I don't know what to do. Can you please gimme some advice based on your experience? And they give you advice and then you do that and you come back 6 months. That's when it gets serious. Now we'll sit down. That's when it gets serious. And I think that's part of the missing step sometimes is it's like you'll be in a meeting and it doesn't necessarily go how you thought it was gonna go. And you get discouraged. You're like, oh man, I gotta go back to the drawing board. That's It's not going back to the drawing board. It's refining your idea and making it better and growing it. Yeah.

And be able to receive feedback. Absolutely. Don't be too sensitive. You know, you're going to hear some things that you might need to hear, but you're not ready to hear. And so you're going to have to take that pride off your face, you know, listen and be open and receptive to the feedback. You know, I'm a person who wants people's dreams to come true. Absolutely. But I know that 97% of entrepreneurs fail. Mm-hmm. It's that first failure that's gonna get you ready for the next success. Yep. But if you don't take the risk and fail and allow that failure to teach you the things, like you said, along your journey, you've learned so much and you've gained so much wisdom and you're still very young. So you've got a, a really great opportunity to be able to, to really speak into our future generations of entrepreneurs that are gonna come into the community. Yep. So, Absolutely. That's exciting. Absolutely. So what is your like 6-month, 12-month plan? Where are you, where are you growing and going with the Kendrick Company?

Yeah, so one of the biggest things that we're really focusing on now and really honing in on now is startups. So like the cupcake business, we're really focused on helping them grow. And, uh, my wife has a business as well, and so we're help— we're really focusing and helping that business grow as well. And then there's another organization that I'm work— that I'm in the process of working with, can't reveal the name, but we really want to help them really establish their social media presence and how they're communicating with their audience. Okay. And so I would say really focusing and helping these individual businesses build a business, not just a social media thing. Okay. Because that's one of the things that I've been noticing a lot is people, and it was fascinating when you were talking about connections and, and the known network and the known network. What I think about now that's been really kind of getting to me is people have a large audience on social, but no real network in the real world. Right. And so it may look as if they're successful, but they don't have those right connections in order to really build a legitimate business. Yes. And so that's what I've been focusing on now is Don't just build a social media empire. Don't just build a, a business of just nuances that says, oh, we're going to do this and do that. No, build a legitimate business in the real world, and social media is just a component of that. And when you get that right exposure, because you have a legitimate business, it just hits, right? And so that's what we've really been focusing on, is making sure that the numbers make sense, making sure that the profit margins are there, making sure that your marketing strategy from a perspective outside of social media. What does that look like even in an environment of COVID How can you do that? Because at the end of the day, I realized over my short experience in entrepreneurship, the difference in an in-person relationship with someone that's a mover and shaker versus an online relationship is massive. Oh, huge. Can move mountains. And so That's what we're really focusing on is diving in deep and understanding the nuances of both sides of those ones, e-commerce, the other ones is, you know, B2B, part of it's B2C a little bit. Okay. And really focusing on how that's being communicated and how it's being executed. 'Cause it's two different strategies.

Yeah. I love that. And I love that you came back to that 'cause I made a note too of, of that, that basically your no network is your word of mouth network. Correct. And a lot of businesses, a lot of entrepreneurs lean heavily on that in their systems. You know, they, they rely on word of mouth. You know, if you ask them, how are you getting your leads every month? It's word of mouth. Yep. So let's just say that nobody mentions you in 30 days. How are you going to get any business? You know, it can't— your sustainability depends upon your lead generation or your lead flow and the consistency of that. So if you want to turn the faucet on really, really fast so that the water's coming down in a big flow and you've got lots of salespeople to handle all of those leads, How are you going to do that with word of mouth? Yep. You can't accelerate the number of people that are gonna mention you or refer you, but you can accelerate your online presence. You can accelerate your ad presence. You can sell, accelerate your lead flow through, through tried and true methods of, of online lead generation. Yep. So that coupled with, so I feel like your plane reference is great. So you've got the wings of the plane, you've got the wheels of the plane, you've got the cockpit of the plane, you've got, the rest of the plane. And all of those pieces are essential to your business flying and soaring and being able to succeed. So if all of your energy is focused on a wing, how are you actually going to grow? How are you going to get off the— how are you going to get off the ground with just one wing of your plane? Yep. Absolutely. Yeah, that's great. Now, you've mentioned to me several times your wife, your wife, your wife, your wife. She has to have a name. Yep. So I want to know a little bit more about her as we wrap up today, because I think that personal side of this conversation is going to be regular part of our show. Absolutely.

Yeah. Yeah. My wife's name is Jessica and she likes going by Jess. She's actually a full-time music teacher. Woo! And she's from PA. So she's from Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania.

You went to Pennsylvania for the holidays.

I did. So do you, do you like going up into the cold or? I do. I do. I enjoy it. I, you know, I don't want to sound kind of funny or anything, but you can breathe better up there in my honest opinion. Okay. It's clear, you know. The humidity is nonexistent there. So it's really nice. It actually snowed there a little bit and it's nice. We really enjoy it.

And you've been married how long?

So we've been married since March of— Uh-oh, I threw him a curveball, Jeff. So I want to say we're up on— oh man, I feel like I'm on the spot now. I think it's like, I think it's 8 months.

Okay. Yeah. 8 months. So you're still in the newlywed phase. Correct.

Correct.

And Jess is a music teacher.

What's her specialty in music? So that's one of the things that is fascinating. So she can do a variety of different things. So she understands how to read the piano. She understands how to play this thing called the ocarina. Okay. I can't describe it at all. I'll butcher it. But her biggest thing is music theory. All right. And so that's what she's really focusing on with the kids. And she showed me a few things, but it, I'm not musical, so it kind of goes over my head. I can play by ear, like I can play piano by ear, but as far as like reading music and understanding how it flows and functions, that's not my personality.

And this business that she's growing is currently a side hustle.

Is it music related or? Correct. Oh no, not at all. Not even close. Yeah. So I don't want to butcher her pitch or anything, but basically—

No, no, no, we'll just have to have her on a show.

Yeah. Yeah. The name of the business is Bizzle and I'll just leave it at that. Okay. Yeah.

We'll, we'll, uh, I'll do some research and check it out.

Absolutely. Well, all right.

Well, we're going to wrap up. Thanks for listening. And remember, we have a new episode each week, so be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. And remember to leave us a review. We promise to read every one.