Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / The Growth Mindset Manager: Dan Saas's Evolution from Sales Star to Operations Leader
Transcript
- 0:04Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
- 0:08where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
- 0:11their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
- 0:14adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and
- 0:17today's guest is Mr. Dan Sauce, managing partner at Vaco.
- 0:22Founded in 2002, they are a high growth global professional
- 0:26services firm providing talent solutions and technology,
- 0:30finance and more across 50 plus markets.
- 0:34They partner with over 15,000 clients to deliver specialized
- 0:38services such as accounting, HR and marketing support.
- 0:43Known for their innovative approach, Beco was recently
- 0:46listed among America's Best Executive Recruiting firms by
- 0:50Forbes. Now, Dan has been with Beiko for
- 0:53several years, serving in roles like partner, senior director
- 0:57and Director of Client Services. He currently guides the
- 1:01strategic direction of Beiko's Columbus office that's in Ohio,
- 1:05while also serving as a board member for Small Biz Cares, a
- 1:08nonprofit that assists local businesses with community
- 1:12outreach. Dan's breadth of experience in
- 1:15staffing and his commitment to helping others make him a true
- 1:18leader to watch. His passion for fostering
- 1:21professional growth and empowering teams aligns with
- 1:25Vaco's mission to connect talented individuals with
- 1:28meaningful opportunities worldwide.
- 1:31Now before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
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- 2:02All right, back to our guest today, the managing partner of
- 2:05Bayko, Dan Sauce. I appreciate you making the time
- 2:08to share your yeah. Glad to be glad to join you.
- 2:12So Dan, let's go back before kind of work history and you
- 2:17started as a sport management major at OU Ohio University in
- 2:23Athens, OH. How did the skills or or mindset
- 2:26from that background later influence your leadership style
- 2:30in a professional services environment like Baker?
- 2:32Yeah, in the spirit of, of, of honesty and vulnerability, I, I
- 2:37wouldn't recommend my college trajectory to, to to many.
- 2:42The only thing I I knew coming out of, of school is that I
- 2:45didn't want to use the degree I had.
- 2:47You know, the opportunities coming out of OU were, you know,
- 2:50the great sports management program.
- 2:52It was essentially a, a, a business degree with a sports
- 2:56focus. A lot of the, the entry level
- 3:01opportunities out of school were facilities, ticketing, event
- 3:08management, none of which I really had a passion for.
- 3:11So, you know, I, I, I wish going back into school, I had more of
- 3:19a, hey, this is what I want to be when I grow up.
- 3:21I learned it later in life through some life experiences
- 3:25and and and you know, so probably a little bit late on
- 3:30the on the finding my path or, or or passion front.
- 3:34But you know, obviously a great program, great school build, a
- 3:38great foundation for, you know, a lot of what I what I use today
- 3:43and you know, I. So you got you were there more
- 3:47for the business degree and this was kind of a a subset within
- 3:51that business degree and it you went out into the world and you
- 3:54know, you were going to kind of find your way and, you know,
- 3:56eventually figure out what your passion was.
- 3:58So what is it that kind of first drew you into the staffing?
- 4:02Pure desperation to, to share a little bit about my story, you
- 4:07know, and this kind of dovetails or, or parlays back to, to the,
- 4:10to the school front. Came out of, of college and, and
- 4:13really looking to find my path. You know, I got into financial
- 4:17services, you know, insurance investments and, and my series,
- 4:21series 7 and, and life and health licenses.
- 4:24But you know, that's a as as many, you know, a very tough
- 4:27industry to, to break into without a, an established
- 4:30network or, or family member or some legacy, you know, legacy
- 4:35influence there. So, you know, that was a, you
- 4:38know, here's your desk, have at it right.
- 4:41And, and I wouldn't have bought insurance from me.
- 4:44I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have invested with, with, with
- 4:47myself. And, you know, I always kind of
- 4:49fought that, you know, imposter syndrome a little bit.
- 4:51But Needless to say that that that it wasn't a much of by my
- 4:58own doing, but wasn't the the long term fit for me.
- 5:02And you know, you throw in a couple of kids out of school
- 5:06early and and all of a sudden, you know, that Commission only
- 5:10job becomes tough to tough to swallow.
- 5:13So, you know, I made a a tradition transition out of of
- 5:17financial services actually into an accounts receivable role.
- 5:21Have you on the business to consumer and business to
- 5:24business collection side. And I remember it paid 1250 an
- 5:29hour. And, and I, I, I distinctly
- 5:33remember feeling and asking, you know, if, if I work these hours,
- 5:40you're going to guarantee me that 1250, right?
- 5:43Because I hadn't been guaranteed any sort of income.
- 5:47And, and just the, the thought of being in an hourly position,
- 5:49as modest as it was, was, was so refreshing to have some, some,
- 5:54you know, consistency there with, with my paycheck and I'm.
- 5:59You'd, you'd come from a Commission only environment and
- 6:02yeah, 12:50 an hour, not a lot of money for somebody you know,
- 6:05might, might not have had college debt.
- 6:06You've got a young family coming.
- 6:08But hey, it's something and you wanted to make sure I'm correct.
- 6:11Him and I at least I like to joke that I I broke I reset the
- 6:16the the company handbook on amount of hours overtime hours
- 6:20you can work. So they had to they had to cut
- 6:23me off there after a while. But you know, you, you, you, you
- 6:27go from, you know, coming out of school and really not having a,
- 6:31a path or passion to, you know, getting into a relationship at
- 6:35an early age, having kids at an early age.
- 6:37And all of a sudden your why becomes extremely clear.
- 6:42And so I, I would became very, very good at, at business to
- 6:49business collections and, and accounts receivable and, and
- 6:51really the ability to have those kind of professional persuasive
- 6:57conversations helped and continues to help me to this
- 7:03day. So I take a lot out of that
- 7:05experience. You know, I, I.
- 7:11Say more. Yeah.
- 7:12Say more about that. Dan, I I'm curious, like, how
- 7:14did you, do you think you had a natural knack for that right out
- 7:17of the gate? Did you get some training?
- 7:19Was it just school of Hard Knocks where you kept trying
- 7:22different things 100 different ways and, you know, eventually?
- 7:25Figured, you know, I, I, I kind of had a knack for it being able
- 7:29to connect with strangers, You know, you're making calls and
- 7:32reaching out with stressful information, right And, and you
- 7:37have an agenda and, and it's very different many times than
- 7:41the person on the other end of the phone's agenda.
- 7:43So it's, it's where can you create that, you know, where you
- 7:49can sort of put yourself on the other end of the table next to
- 7:52the person instead of the, you know, being the adversary from
- 7:55a, from the organization. And, and that's something I
- 7:58always, you know, tried to, to lean into was, you know, showing
- 8:01empathy, showing understanding, making sure that, you know, I'm,
- 8:05I'm coming from a place of, of partnership that I think
- 8:09resonated well. And so you were, you found you
- 8:16had a knack for having these conversations, these difficult
- 8:19conversations, right? These people are in a hard
- 8:21position that you're showing empathy, you're showing, you
- 8:24know, support, kind of putting yourself in their shoes rather
- 8:27than, you know, kind of coming at from an attacking
- 8:30perspective. Did you find that this helped
- 8:32you be more successful in collecting?
- 8:34Funds and. Were you commissioned?
- 8:38No, I. Incentivize.
- 8:40My incentive was was to be the number one person, be the top
- 8:46performer in my group and with the hopes of, you know, growing
- 8:51within the organization. And, you know, I made some some
- 8:55steps along the way. But you know, it was 5 to say
- 9:00three to four years in into into that opportunity.
- 9:03When I mean, this was old school.
- 9:05I saw an ad on the on indeed and and applied and and, you know,
- 9:10didn't know what I was getting myself into.
- 9:12And, you know, when it, when it comes to staffing and recruiting
- 9:16and really don't understand what the, the third party model was,
- 9:21but I knew that I had built myself into a, a hell of an
- 9:26executor and somebody that had a high motor and a high drive and
- 9:30a high desire and frankly need for success.
- 9:34So, you know, that that desperation coupled with the
- 9:39skills that I had learned, you know, from my previous
- 9:42opportunity really helped me have a, a pretty St.
- 9:46Steep trajectory and and in my infancy within staffing and
- 9:52recruiting. Yeah.
- 9:55It's interesting because what you were just saying, it
- 9:58surprised me that you're not financially incentivized to
- 10:02improve your collection rate, you know, at a company like
- 10:05that. But I think it said a lot about
- 10:08your character that because I could see a lot of people just,
- 10:11you know, kind of collecting the 12:50, kind of going through the
- 10:14motions and, you know, making the calls and, you know,
- 10:17checking a box. But for you it was like, no,
- 10:20like I, I, I want to be genuinely good at this.
- 10:23I want to build my skill set. I want to prove my worth to the
- 10:25company. I want to advance myself and
- 10:28advance my career. And at some point, maybe you
- 10:31kind of recognize that this wasn't where you wanted to be
- 10:34forever. Maybe you kind of, you know,
- 10:36reached the ceiling. And and so you decided, OK, I'm
- 10:39going to respond to this ad the the in the staffing industry
- 10:43and, and so explain what the the third party model is that you
- 10:46weren't familiar with before. You know, the, the entire, you
- 10:51know, I, I idea of, you know, a client reaching out to a company
- 10:57to help them find talent. You know, I was very myopic in
- 11:02my view that, you know, when somebody needs to hire somebody,
- 11:06they just go hire somebody that there was wasn't much more to
- 11:09that, you know, and then you sort of learn the challenges and
- 11:11nuances to that and, and how, you know, a, a, a good partner
- 11:16in, in the third party world can offer a lot of value and, and a
- 11:19flexible staffing option, you know, when, when interim and
- 11:24temporary help was needed. So, you know, I kind of learned,
- 11:28learned as I go and learned as I went.
- 11:30Excuse me, but you know, certainly, certainly believe in
- 11:35in in the model and the value that that it offers.
- 11:38I started very on a very transactional, you know, I was
- 11:41placing admin assistants and, you know, accounting clerks and,
- 11:47and AP clerks and AR clerks. And I'm, you know, interviewing
- 11:50these people and sort of Googling what they do on the
- 11:53side and, and learning as I, I go.
- 11:55And then I'm taking those folks to market.
- 11:57And, you know, like I said, I, I, I did it at a very high clip
- 12:00and I was able to have very strategic and conversations with
- 12:04people and bond with people, you know, whether it was in person
- 12:07or, or over the phone. So, you know, I was, I rose
- 12:11through the ranks fairly quickly and and into leadership.
- 12:16And so do you think to try to encapsulate maybe what is part
- 12:20of Dan's special sauce, no pun intended?
- 12:24Is your last name it? Do you think it is sort of that
- 12:28ability to have empathy and put yourself in that other person's
- 12:32shoes? Is there more to it than that?
- 12:34Like if somebody's like, wow, you know, Dan, like it sounds
- 12:38like what he's doing is pretty cool.
- 12:39I'd like to do that. Like how how can I sort of
- 12:41develop or evolve those skills myself?
- 12:44I mean, there's certainly a lot more to that.
- 12:46And, and, you know, I quickly realized and, and was I'm
- 12:54humbled by the fact that, you know, I'll probably never be the
- 12:57smartest person in the room. You know, it'd have to be a
- 12:59pretty small room. I'm, but, you know, not being
- 13:04too proud and being vulnerable enough to to admit that you
- 13:09allowed me to surround myself with a very bright, very smart
- 13:13people. You know, I had strengths.
- 13:15You know, I'm, I'm, I'm a coach, I'm a leader.
- 13:17I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm driven. I know how to motivate people.
- 13:21And I think that's just, you know, through my background of
- 13:23coming up through sports and, you know, volunteer coaching and
- 13:26things. So I, you know, I felt like I
- 13:27had that piece sort of innately ingrained in, in me, But, you
- 13:34know, I was rough around the edges with my industry knowledge
- 13:36and, and, and, you know, professional knowledge.
- 13:39So, you know, my, I think my ability to, to, to, to be
- 13:44vulnerable and ask, ask the stupid questions, even though
- 13:47it, someone at my level at the time should probably have
- 13:51already known that, you know, really helped me sort of round
- 13:55out very fairly quickly. So, you know, it's part of, of,
- 13:59you know, the ability to, to have empathy and, and you know,
- 14:02there's some skill involved with, with strategic
- 14:04conversations, but, but really it's, it's making sure that
- 14:08you're open to feedback and guidance from people that have
- 14:10been doing this much longer than than than I have.
- 14:15Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I I think sometimes curiosity is
- 14:20kind of undervalued. You know, being able to approach
- 14:23this with not trying to demonstrate like what I know,
- 14:27but being curious about what can I learn how, how can I grow in
- 14:32this kind of a situation, in this environment.
- 14:35So you, you had some stops in the staffing industry along the
- 14:40way before you came to Vako. How did the opportunity there at
- 14:45Vako present itself? How did you?
- 14:47Yeah, I always had known of Vako.
- 14:52They were a competitor when I was back at my my previous firm.
- 14:57So you know, they were always in the in the periphery.
- 15:01But an individual that I had worked with at that time had
- 15:05transitioned to Vako and I was working at a, a non compete
- 15:11after I had, I had left the organization for a, for a new
- 15:13role and didn't know I was working at a non compete.
- 15:16You know, I know plans of, you know, a, a pit stop per SE, but
- 15:21he had been keeping track of me and, you know, 10 months in
- 15:24said, Hey, you want to grab lunch and, and you know, the,
- 15:27the rest is, is history. So it was actually a former
- 15:31employee that that that had brought me on board with Teico.
- 15:36What was it about Vako that attracted you?
- 15:39Because probably had, I don't know, some level of comfort or
- 15:42security where you were before taking a new job is a bit of a
- 15:46risk, you know, a bit of an unknown.
- 15:47What? What did you see there that was
- 15:50attracted? To it was the autonomy that I
- 15:53was given to build something the way I wanted to build it.
- 15:57So when I came on board tennis years ago, Vako was, was a, you
- 16:06know, $250 million organization and we've grown, you know, 5X,
- 16:13you know, in, in that time. So at the time it was really,
- 16:20you know, hey, what do you want your title to be?
- 16:23What do you, what do you want your team structure to be?
- 16:26Who do you want on it? And how do you plan on running
- 16:28this thing? So I, you know, it was a good
- 16:31progression and step up from being in a similar situation.
- 16:35But everything, you know, the lines were very clear, You know,
- 16:39decisions were, were, were made at at 2 levels up.
- 16:43And and you know, you just had to adhere and March forward to
- 16:47being in a position where they said create this, we expect it
- 16:50to work, but, you know, put the pieces together anyway you see
- 16:54fit. So that was exciting to me
- 16:57coming in and, and you know, I, I, I stepped in to lead our
- 17:03staffing group again, a very transactional apar temporary
- 17:09accounting, finance and, and HR associates or contractors,
- 17:13excuse me. And, and you know, at the time
- 17:16we were, we had a very modest pool of, of, of clients and you
- 17:25know, we grew that by, by 10X and, and you know, at one point
- 17:30at 100 and 150, you know, folks working for us just within that
- 17:33division. So it was exciting.
- 17:36And then, you know, was tapped on the shoulder to, to pivot
- 17:41over to our Consulting Group to, to run that run that team.
- 17:48And, and that was a huge learning experience for me, you
- 17:50know, not coming from a formal accounting and finance and, and
- 17:53IT background, But, you know, I was, was able to get that group
- 18:00humming. And then, you know, eventually
- 18:02was was asked to, you know, have that oversight over all of all
- 18:05of our lines of business and accounting, finance and IT And
- 18:09that was, you know, a couple of years ago.
- 18:11So I'm gonna, yeah, I'm gonna take a couple of steps back in
- 18:15and then I, I want you to kind of explain the three different
- 18:17areas that that Vacos serves. But before we do that, I want to
- 18:20call attention to something because you guys have obviously
- 18:23grown a lot in the 10 years that you've been there.
- 18:26That's clear. But when you started there, a
- 18:28$250 million business is still not a small business.
- 18:31That's a, it's a pretty good size, you know, significant
- 18:34business. And so it strikes me as unusual
- 18:37that they were like, hey, Dan, like what do you want your title
- 18:40to be like? How like you would expect that
- 18:42if there's like, you know, 3 or 4 guys like having a beer
- 18:45together, like, hey, let's start a business together.
- 18:47Like what do you, what, what do you want to be chief of?
- 18:50What do you want to, you know, you don't expect sort of like
- 18:52picking your own title and having that degree of autonomy
- 18:56in a business of that? Well, the, the answer was
- 18:58because it was three to four guys on the back of a napkin
- 19:01saying, Hey, we're going to build a business together.
- 19:04So that was our, that was the beginning of vaco in a, in a
- 19:07broom closet, you know, in, in, in Tennessee.
- 19:11So we and, and still do have maintain a very entrepreneurial
- 19:16spirit. You know, we and, and even back
- 19:22at the time, yeah, the, the, the company was a decent size, but
- 19:26you know, every office was different.
- 19:27Every office leader was different.
- 19:29There was some offices that leaned into a certain service
- 19:33offering than than others. So it was the, the, the
- 19:37organization grew by basically going into markets and saying,
- 19:40you know what, you do this very well, we're going to plant a, a
- 19:43VACO flag here. And, and you continue to do
- 19:46this, whether it's a managed service offering or consulting
- 19:49offering or, or, you know, a pure staffing offering.
- 19:53So you know, VACO looked very different from from office to
- 19:56office to office to office. And really it was like, we're
- 19:59going to find top talent, we're going to get them in the right
- 20:03seat and then we're going to let them do their thing.
- 20:04Now eventually we got to a size and we are at a size where, you
- 20:07know, it's difficult to scale. Yeah, exactly.
- 20:14You know, so, so that's where we've really, I would say
- 20:18matured as as, as an organization and, and put some
- 20:22parameters to, you know, what are we known for, what's our
- 20:24brand? But at the time it was very
- 20:26loose and, and you know, this was, this was before the time
- 20:29that, you know, everything was interconnected through, you
- 20:33know, you know, globalized delivery.
- 20:36And, and so, you know, it was very much, you know, we had our
- 20:40local presence, we had our local brand and it, it looked kind of
- 20:44similar, but not the same as as another office.
- 20:46And, and, you know, to, to kind of progress to, to where we are
- 20:53today. It was really when, when COVID
- 20:56hit where, you know, I think the world realized that that, hey,
- 21:03people can work remotely. The sun does come up the next
- 21:05day. We took that opportunity to
- 21:11really operationalize ourselves and take advantage of the fact
- 21:17that, hey, just because, you know, we have a managed service
- 21:21practice that sits out of San Francisco, why can't we offer
- 21:25that in Ohio? Just because we have a
- 21:28consultancy out of DC, Why does that just need to be ADC play
- 21:33really so? Meaning you've got like a
- 21:36consulting office there, but why can't those consultants provide
- 21:39the service to clients all over the country?
- 21:41So we, we really leaned into that point of, of creating, you
- 21:47know, those three lanes of delivery being, you know,
- 21:50managed services consulting and, and strategic talent
- 21:54acquisition. And really it was the
- 21:55culmination of, of things that had are always existed in the
- 21:58BECO world, but it just sat geographically in a in a
- 22:03different area. So we've since, you know,
- 22:07enhanced and refined that massively into a very powerful
- 22:13delivery engine and a very broad way that we can, we can help
- 22:19clients and and clients and customers solve, solve business
- 22:24challenges. So kind of walk me through those
- 22:29three different areas. What do each of those things
- 22:31mean? I think the first one you
- 22:32mentioned was managed services. What is that?
- 22:34Essentially that. And who?
- 22:36Yeah. Essentially that's any business
- 22:37function or operation that an organization wants to outsource.
- 22:42So the the most simple example that I can provide is is near
- 22:45shoring and offshoring. You know, a company might reach
- 22:48out to us and say, you know, hey, we've got a team of of 10
- 22:52people in, in, in AP right now. I'm looking for cost arbitrage.
- 22:57I'm looking to eliminate the fact that I can't hire within
- 23:00this group. It's not operating correctly.
- 23:03We'll take that entire function for an organization, put it in,
- 23:08in, in our near shore location and just provide that
- 23:11deliverable back-to-back to the client on a monthly basis and
- 23:16it's seamless with significant cost savings.
- 23:19So, you know, that can be very transactional accounting and
- 23:22finance that can be mid to high level IT and, and we've we've
- 23:30found ourselves in in some massive projects with the likes
- 23:33of of Google and TikTok and Netflix and OK.
- 23:39Rather significant sized clients who who who are kind of the
- 23:42ideal fits for the the managed services portion are are they
- 23:47the really big companies? Surprisingly and I would say the
- 23:53beauty of our model is in a scalability where you know we do
- 23:58service the Fortune 1, you know the Fortune 10.
- 24:01But where we've seen the biggest growth within managed services
- 24:07has been in that we'll say 150 million to and, and lower, you
- 24:12know, nonprofits, you know, small to mid size players where
- 24:19you know, they either don't want to to continue to have something
- 24:23sit on shore. They're looking to save money,
- 24:26they're looking to become more efficient.
- 24:31That's really been the biggest uptick in in our business has
- 24:34been in that that small to mid size space.
- 24:38OK, tell me about the kind of the second pillar, the
- 24:41consulting. What?
- 24:42What? What kind of consulting?
- 24:43It's, it's accounting, finance and IT consulting and, and that
- 24:46group is very broad in, in how they service clients.
- 24:49A couple of main areas I would I'll provide is, is you know,
- 24:53ERP implementation and support data, AI transaction advisory
- 25:04are are a couple of the the key pillars.
- 25:06But essentially our, our Consulting Group will come into
- 25:09an organization that has an issue that they don't have a
- 25:12road map for, they don't have internal expertise.
- 25:17They need to rely on some pretty heavy hitters in in with solid
- 25:23accounting finance pedigree and know how to to game out, execute
- 25:28and and deliver back to that client a a finished project.
- 25:32Whether that be assisting with, you know, and a new accounting
- 25:36software or, you know, maybe an organization wants to go public
- 25:40providing guidance on on what sort of reporting they need to
- 25:43have in place or they want to go public to private or, you know,
- 25:46they're purchasing an organization or being purchased.
- 25:52So those are just a few areas that we support through our
- 25:54consulting offering. So before we talk about the
- 25:58third area, are your vaco employees or your, you know,
- 26:04offshore near shore folks, are they generally confined to one
- 26:09of these three pillars or do you see people your, your team kind
- 26:13of move in between providing consulting services or managed?
- 26:17From a delivery standpoint, we're specialized.
- 26:21So, and that's very much intentional.
- 26:25You know, we from a sales standpoint, I'm having
- 26:29conversations with clients about all of these, these offerings
- 26:34and how we can blend and, and, and put something together
- 26:37that's truly customized for them.
- 26:40But you know, I don't want my delivery team to be masters of
- 26:43none. So, you know, we've, we've put a
- 26:47lot of of really smart people into some, you know, some pretty
- 26:53defined lanes from a delivery standpoint, which is which has
- 26:56been a competitive advantage for us.
- 26:59Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. You know, as you were talking
- 27:01about before when you guys were, you know, growing super fast, it
- 27:05was like, hey, you're talented, go do your thing your way.
- 27:08And yeah, once you get to a certain size, like, you know,
- 27:11having Sops, having standard processes, having things siloed.
- 27:15So it's like I, I can be the expert of this domain and I
- 27:19don't have to worry about all this.
- 27:21But from a sales perspective, obviously you need to be able to
- 27:24talk about all those different functions because you don't know
- 27:27what a client's going to need. You know, it's like they, they,
- 27:29they could have needs that fall into the different buckets, but
- 27:32from a delivery standpoint, it, it makes a lot of sense to have
- 27:35them siloed. So tell me Dan, Dan, about the
- 27:39the third one, the strategic talent acquisition and staffing.
- 27:43So we provide interim the contract and indirect hire
- 27:48support to over 10,000 clients as an as an enterprise.
- 27:55So that can mean anything from hey, my receptionist went on
- 28:02vacation for or you know, it's got to leave for the next month.
- 28:06I need somebody to come in and, and man the front desk all the
- 28:09way up to and including, you know, our, our CFO is, is has
- 28:14resigned and we need, you know, a contract CFOCEOCOO senior
- 28:20finance resources. So we've got, we've got our, our
- 28:23teams specialized in, in again to, to, to focus on certain
- 28:31areas. And, and, and so it's, you know,
- 28:35contract staffing and we, we have a consulting offering where
- 28:38we, we essentially loan staff individuals that we've brought
- 28:42on full time. And then we've got a very
- 28:44experienced direct direct hire group that is recruiting full
- 28:47time for clients that you know would prefer a, a, a full time
- 28:51hire versus you know, an, an interim or contract option.
- 28:57And so the geographies that you guys cover, is it all 50 states,
- 29:02is it? So we're global, we've got 40
- 29:05offices across the the States, we're in Canada, we're in the
- 29:08UK, we're in India, we're in the Philippines, Trinidad, we do a
- 29:14lot of of our near shoring to to Trinidad and and so.
- 29:19But in terms of the geographies that you've.
- 29:21Yeah, from a, from our perspective here in in Ohio, we,
- 29:25we service greater central Ohio area.
- 29:27We will service Cleveland as well.
- 29:29We've got an office in Cincinnati that services that
- 29:33area. And I would say a little bit
- 29:34into Kentucky, but in the states, we've got 40 offices
- 29:37that service every, you know, every state.
- 29:40And so your role now is you're head of the Columbus office,
- 29:45manage all the services coming? That's correct.
- 29:49And so the, the trajectory that you sort of described for us
- 29:53before and sort of the the, you know, make up your own title
- 29:56when you come in and then, you know, get tapped on the shoulder
- 30:00to, you know, move into the Consulting Group and all that.
- 30:03That was specifically within the Columbus room that you were
- 30:07making those moves. Got it.
- 30:09OK. And I'm seeing here, you know,
- 30:13vehicle was recognized by Inc Magazine for its growth and
- 30:19workplace culture. What what do you think sets the
- 30:22culture apart from other services firms and especially
- 30:26with you guys being so distributed with so many?
- 30:28Different, I'd say from a culture perspective, we've been
- 30:31able to maintain our entrepreneurial spirit as we've
- 30:35grown. Now it's not what it was, but
- 30:40you know, I've, I've been in other firms where just the lines
- 30:44are so solid and getting outside of, of the prescribed box is so
- 30:50difficult and it limits the sharing of good ideas.
- 30:54It limits, you know, trying something new.
- 30:57You know, we keep those lines intentionally blurred a little
- 31:00bit where we want people to, to build something if it's, if
- 31:04it's, you know, a good business decision and, and, and drives
- 31:09value and, and in, you know, relates to, to, to our, our core
- 31:14values that, hey, let's, you know, we, we, for instance, we
- 31:18don't have a networking group in this space.
- 31:20Well, why don't we build 1? You know, we don't have a
- 31:22quarterly women's leadership group.
- 31:24Well, let's build 1. And, you know, even, you know,
- 31:30hey, I've got a new, new idea about a, a business service
- 31:32offering. Let's, let's talk through it.
- 31:35Let's give it a shot. And, and if it makes sense,
- 31:37let's, let's go all out. So, so I think that's kept
- 31:41people engaged and, and feeling like, you know, they're not just
- 31:45a cog in the machine and that that good ideas and new ideas
- 31:49and, and outside thought is, is certainly welcomed and
- 31:52celebrated and acted upon. I'm kind of curious, you know,
- 32:01since you've stepped into sort of this managing partner role a
- 32:04couple years ago, is there a particular innovative or
- 32:09out-of-the-box strategy that you and your team have introduced
- 32:14that's really helped you guys kind of stand out in a
- 32:16competitive space? When I came on board as the
- 32:21managing partner, I, I quickly discovered, you know, there's no
- 32:24real magic bullet to what I was doing.
- 32:29You know, I wasn't going to come up with something that was
- 32:31completely radical and game changing.
- 32:34We had a, we had an issue with execution.
- 32:37We're really good about talking about something we were going to
- 32:40do. We're really bad at actually
- 32:42doing it. So if there's one thing that I
- 32:48knew I had to fix and was passionate about optimizing, it
- 32:52was our ability to execute. I'm not an organized person by
- 32:56nature. I'm not AI, don't have a project
- 32:58manager mindset. So, you know, for me, it, it, it
- 33:02did not come naturally. You know, I'm a former sales guy
- 33:07that colored outside of the lines and was Wheeling and
- 33:10dealing right. So becoming an operational
- 33:12leader was, was certainly an area of growth for me.
- 33:16But you know, I, I, I can proudly say that we've, we've
- 33:20come leagues in our ability to take a good idea, do something
- 33:25with it, see it through or punt, you know, midway through if it's
- 33:28not the right move, but, you know, actually giving things
- 33:32fair shots and fair shakes. And, and that's been, that's
- 33:35been critical in, in our growth. I think from a service offerings
- 33:41perspective, you know, our integrated ability to, to offer
- 33:46back to that managed services consulting and, and town
- 33:49acquisition blend has allowed us to, to have very honest and
- 33:55consultative conversations with our clients where, you know, I
- 33:59don't come in with an agenda. My agenda is to, well, certainly
- 34:03to solve a problem for an organization, but it doesn't
- 34:05have to look a certain way. And often times it doesn't.
- 34:09Sometimes it's a, a little bit of, of, of staff augmentation
- 34:13with, you know, some oversight from our Consulting Group.
- 34:15And some of that work may sit on shore, near shore or, or
- 34:19offshore. And it's all based upon what the
- 34:20client challenges and what they're hoping to accomplish.
- 34:23So, you know, I know a lot of my industry peers are coming at
- 34:27this through, hey, do you need a body?
- 34:29Do you need a body here? Do you need an extra body here?
- 34:31And you know, if the market conditions last year were such
- 34:35where a lot of times that answer was no and that conversation
- 34:38could never go any further. So, you know, really leaning
- 34:42into to, you know, an integrated blend of, of delivery mechanisms
- 34:45was huge. It's interesting what you said
- 34:50about when you came in. You guys were really good at
- 34:52talking about what you do, not so good on the execution part.
- 34:56And you called out exactly where my brain went is, yeah, sales
- 35:02guys, they're great at sales. They're not usually good on the
- 35:05operational front there. There generally isn't very good
- 35:08crossover between those two functions.
- 35:10Your brain is sort of, you know, pre wired for one way or the
- 35:14other. So did you guys get a lot better
- 35:16because of, you know, some of the internal team members that
- 35:19you had where you're like, hey, I recognize that this is
- 35:22something we really need to focus on.
- 35:25I'm going to need your help because this is kind of the way
- 35:27your brain works to person X wires.
- 35:30You know, we did, we did have a a couple of folks internally
- 35:33with very operational focuses in, in, in, in mindsets coming
- 35:40in. So leaning on those individuals
- 35:42to, to drive things. But I put a lot of that on
- 35:46myself as an area of growth, area of opportunity to round
- 35:48myself out professionally. It's not just because it doesn't
- 35:51come naturally to me doesn't mean it's something I can't do.
- 35:54You just have to try a little bit harder and be a little bit
- 35:56more intentional about it. So, you know, I took a lot upon
- 35:59myself to say, you know, this is impossible.
- 36:03The idea of execution isn't, you know, something you, you, you
- 36:06have or don't. It's just about, you know, if it
- 36:09doesn't come naturally, you got to put a little more work into
- 36:11it. I, I am.
- 36:13I'm so happy to hear you give that kind of a response because
- 36:16I think it highlights something that a lot of people don't
- 36:21understand and those who do understand it need reminded of.
- 36:25And it's this idea of growth mindset versus fixed mindset,
- 36:28right? It'd be so easy to say, well,
- 36:30I'm, you know, Dan Sauce, like I'm a, I'm a great sales guy.
- 36:34Like that operation stuff, you know, like that's not for me,
- 36:38like, you know, that's for somebody else.
- 36:40And, and I've got two young boys, they're 8 and 10.
- 36:43And I always try to think about ways to sort of, you know,
- 36:46educate them and teach them of this, that you may not be great
- 36:50at something today, but that doesn't mean that you can't get
- 36:53better at it. Like we all have opportunities
- 36:56for growth and we can stretch ourselves into these new and
- 36:59uncomfortable places. And so I love to hear that.
- 37:03You know, it was like, hey, it was a combination of I leaned on
- 37:06some people internal that, you know, they have sort of the
- 37:09background, the expertise in this.
- 37:10And at the same time, I told myself, hey, you're leveling up.
- 37:14Like I got to show up and and I got to help to make this entire
- 37:18operation better. 100% and I face the same challenge with my
- 37:22kids. Yeah, you haven't.
- 37:25No, I don't. It was more of a question of how
- 37:27you're doing. I don't, I don't think it's
- 37:31sinking in quite yet because you know, my 10 year old, he's like,
- 37:37Dad, I'm already good at football and I'm like, yeah,
- 37:40yeah, you got, you got some skills and like, and if you want
- 37:43to get better, like you can practice or, oh, Dad, I'm not
- 37:47good at social studies or I'm, you know, I'm not good at, you
- 37:50know, language arts and like, well, how do you get better?
- 37:54So no, I I don't, I don't have the.
- 37:57I tell you what we could probably spend 8 hours on, on
- 37:59that topic alone, but you know, coming from, you know, now an
- 38:05adult having, having kids, it's, it's interesting that overcoming
- 38:09adversity is such a, a challenge for, for kids these days.
- 38:16It's, you know, that immediate gratification.
- 38:17And if it's not there, it's, you know, I'm not interested.
- 38:20So I'm, you know, I'm, I'm right there as well saying, you know,
- 38:23you always have to be pushing yourself, striving for
- 38:26excellence. How can you get better if this
- 38:28is indeed what you want? I'll, I'll, I'll spell the path
- 38:31out for you and you're not on it.
- 38:35So yeah, it's. And along these lines, it we'll,
- 38:40we'll kind of get back to the main topic here, but I think
- 38:42this is kind of an interesting sidebar.
- 38:45You know, as parents, like we, we really want to protect our
- 38:50kids from hardship and struggle. And, you know, we hate to see
- 38:55them be hurt or sad or, or, or angry.
- 39:00And at the same time, we recognize that there's value in
- 39:05that struggle, right? Like you, you've mentioned, you
- 39:08know, several times here, sort of the, you know, like the
- 39:11learning curve that you have moving into the Consulting
- 39:13Group, the, you know, the, the challenges of, you know, you
- 39:17kind of focusing more on operational stuff to help fix
- 39:21your execution. Like, like that was hard, right?
- 39:24That that was that was that was a struggle didn't come naturally
- 39:27to you, but you know, as you look back, like what a great
- 39:31path for you for you to have taken.
- 39:34And so as as parents, it's kind of hard to watch our kids
- 39:37struggle, even though we know that often times that struggle
- 39:40is the way for them to. Grow and right, you know, I
- 39:44think sometimes it's I want to go pay my neighbor 20 bucks to
- 39:48say the same thing to my kid as I've been trying to say just so
- 39:50they hear it from, from somebody else.
- 39:54But you know, I, I, I think it, you know, it comes down the, the
- 39:59reality. You don't want your kid to be
- 40:01punched in the face when they have their first job.
- 40:03And, and I certainly grew majority of my growth and, and
- 40:07advice comes from the mistakes I made.
- 40:10And you always want that for your kids.
- 40:12But you know, I have. How do I find that balance?
- 40:16Yeah, but because in parents you go into protective mode.
- 40:20Yeah. OK.
- 40:22So get getting back to sort of the work that you're doing,
- 40:24doing at Beiko, the the incredible growth that you guys
- 40:28have experienced is, is this due in part to acquisitions?
- 40:33Has that been part of the strategy?
- 40:34Yeah, both we've we've acquired and we've grown organically.
- 40:38You know, we've entered into, we've made some business
- 40:41decisions that that making, making some acquisitions was a
- 40:46good entry point into a certain market.
- 40:48You know, that's how we got into Canada and and you know, we've
- 40:55acquired some, some fairly sizable shops on the West Coast
- 40:58as well. So but you know, it's, it's
- 41:00organic growth as well. It's really a mixture of the
- 41:01two. And Betco's a publicly traded
- 41:06company now. No, it is not OK.
- 41:10So it's it's it's started private.
- 41:12It's remained private. What was what did you say?
- 41:15Was it 3 or 4 guys in a broom closet on the back of an?
- 41:17It was a bunch of of very driven, passionate and talent
- 41:21individuals that that decided that their current company did
- 41:25did a lot right, but wasn't always humane.
- 41:29And so they their, their goal was to take the best parts of
- 41:32that and, and strip out the BS and, and start a business with
- 41:39with that simple operating model.
- 41:42What do you mean the the previous models were not?
- 41:45Human, this industry, you can get really married and I think
- 41:51in any sales position to, to the activity.
- 41:54And we always want our sales people to, you know, have high
- 41:57activity levels, but you, you can't do that at the at the
- 42:01expense of results. If somebody's hit their quota by
- 42:082X, I'm not going to beat them up if they're two meetings short
- 42:12of hitting their goal, because it shows me that they're
- 42:15spending the right time doing the right things.
- 42:17And their, their model and approach may be different than
- 42:20the other person. But you know, there's plenty of
- 42:22shops that will make you explain those two meetings that you
- 42:25didn't head and, and you know what, what exactly you were
- 42:29doing with your time. And, and you know, that gets
- 42:32abusive after a while. And, and especially when you get
- 42:36some tenure and you, you know how you see success and it, it
- 42:40may not be right along the company handbook of, of you know
- 42:45how it's written, but, but you're going to have a lot, you
- 42:48have to allow for that or you're going to, you're going to lose
- 42:51talented people after they start understanding that.
- 42:56So, you know, we've, we've eventually found our way into
- 43:01some middle ground where, you know, back to it can't be the
- 43:04wild, Wild West and we've scaled to a a large organization,
- 43:07right. There needs to be some, some
- 43:09structure and some expectation and and prescription around, you
- 43:14know, the the amount of activity needed to succeed.
- 43:17That's just the recipe to, to how to do well in this industry.
- 43:21But you know, you, in my opinion, you know, taking a
- 43:24results first mindset versus an activity first mindset makes a
- 43:30lot more sense and, and allows me to judge people on the right
- 43:34and grade people on the right things.
- 43:38That makes a lot of sense. I'd like to hear more about how
- 43:42you personally as well as maybe you know, VACO as an, an
- 43:45institution, think about recruiting, retaining team
- 43:50members. What, what have you done?
- 43:53You know, whether it's sort of your, you know, full time
- 43:56internal people, whether it's offshore near shore, whether
- 43:59it's, you know, contract folks that you're, you know, placing
- 44:02at your, at your clients sites. What have you guys?
- 44:07You know, it continues to be a tight labor market for a lot of
- 44:09folks. So what have you guys found
- 44:12success with in terms of finding people sort of, you know,
- 44:16sifting through all the noise and then you know, once you've
- 44:19got them like to hold. On from an internal perspective,
- 44:24I want to provide every opportunity for somebody to grow
- 44:28into my role and not be threatened by that.
- 44:34So, you know, I'm sharing, you know, monthly financials with,
- 44:39you know, my lines of business leaders and saying, Hey, what do
- 44:42you see here? What are your areas of
- 44:43opportunity? What have you learned from this?
- 44:45And, you know, getting them to have ownership of, of AP and L
- 44:50and, and, you know, feel like they've got some stake in the
- 44:53game rather than just reporting a number to, to somebody up the
- 44:56food chain. And I, I really think that
- 45:00empowers leaders to, to take ownership of their work and take
- 45:04ownership of the work of their teams.
- 45:07And, and so I certainly lean into providing every opportunity
- 45:11for someone to grow with us. You know, like I said, I'm
- 45:15surrounded by people that are, are smarter than I am.
- 45:17So I I I don't fail to utilize them.
- 45:22And it's big and smart of you to recognize that, that you've got
- 45:27folks around you that are, you know, better at their individual
- 45:30roles than than you are, that it shows that you're hiring
- 45:34correctly, right? Yeah.
- 45:36You're putting the right people in the right seats.
- 45:38Yeah. And you know, our attrition is
- 45:40for our industry is very low, very low by comparison.
- 45:45And I think the, you know, we treat people like adults, we
- 45:48invest in them and we we foster growth.
- 45:52And I think people appreciate that.
- 45:54And, and, you know, there there are, you know, there's always
- 45:58this war to, to pluck talent from from other agencies and,
- 46:03you know, bring people in. And frankly, I'm never concerned
- 46:06about losing anybody to another agency, to another firm because
- 46:10I know what we have can't be matched, at least not in the.
- 46:16And you think it's, it's, it's mostly based around that fact
- 46:20that you, you really encourage and foster individual growth in
- 46:24your team. We provide, I, I have standards,
- 46:27right? We, we have expectations as a
- 46:30business, but you know, we offer a lot of flexibility to, to
- 46:33folks and I think that's appreciated.
- 46:36You know, if, if it's abused, we'll, we'll address it.
- 46:40It normally isn't. But you know, we try to hire
- 46:43the, the, the people that you don't have to keep your thumb
- 46:45down on to, to produce when you look the other way.
- 46:50And if we've done that right, it's just about, you know,
- 46:53training them up in the right way, giving them the right
- 46:55environment to succeed and let them go.
- 47:01Dan, what's a serious challenge that you've had to overcome?
- 47:05What was it? What did you learn?
- 47:07How did you get through it? I dealt with a lot on my plate
- 47:14from a personal standpoint over the last, I would say 5 to 10
- 47:21years. Couple that with the stresses of
- 47:26the job and my inherent need. If if you ask anybody that knows
- 47:31me well enough to to try to control every variable with
- 47:35within my life, right, Whether that be, you know, the what my
- 47:40kids are doing to you know, what an ex-spouse is doing or how
- 47:44they're thinking to, you know, how's everything on the home
- 47:47front now to every variable that, that that comes up in
- 47:51every everyday business. And it was madding and I didn't
- 47:55deal with it well. And so I got burnt out and I
- 47:58wasn't the father I wanted to be.
- 48:00You know, I, I was in shutdown mode immediately after work
- 48:05because I was just, my cup was full, right?
- 48:08And I couldn't offer my spouse the attention that she needed,
- 48:13my kids the attention that they needed because I was too busy
- 48:16trying to wrap my arms around every single thing in my life
- 48:20and spin those plates and, and keep them up at all times.
- 48:25And, and that continues to be a struggle.
- 48:29I'm a control person by nature. I want to, I want to feel like I
- 48:32have some effect on an outcome, realizing that I still can, but
- 48:35I cannot, I have to let go of some of that, you know, whether
- 48:40that be through, you know, believe in a higher power,
- 48:43through religion or, or or wherever you, you know, choose
- 48:46to, to exercise that. But but letting go and saying,
- 48:48you know what, there are things and variables in my life that I
- 48:50can control, but there's a hell of a lot that I cannot.
- 48:53I have to be OK with that. It's going to suck because it's
- 48:57it again, it doesn't come naturally to me to just, you
- 49:01know, believe in the outcome, but it was necessary for me to,
- 49:07to sort of balance my life from a personal and, and professional
- 49:11standpoint and, and feel like I could let some of that, that
- 49:14stress go was, was huge. I think, I think what you're
- 49:20touching on here doesn't get enough airtime.
- 49:24Yeah, it's sort of this because I mean, you know, type A hard
- 49:28driven, you know, people like ourselves, you know, it's it's
- 49:33both a blessing and a curse, right?
- 49:34Like you're good at what you do, Dan, because you are thinking
- 49:39about all the details and, you know, controlling all these
- 49:42different aspects that you can. But the reality of the world is
- 49:45that it's so complex and there's so many other variables outside
- 49:49of our control that you can line up all of your pegs exactly, you
- 49:54know, in a straight row and, you know, be completely prepared.
- 49:57And then something happens that you could have never foreseen,
- 50:02wouldn't have any influence on. And it completely, you know,
- 50:05disrupts your your game plan. You mentioned, I mean, you
- 50:09touched on faith. Is that something that has been
- 50:11an important element for you and and at least to some degree
- 50:16starting to let go of this sense of trying to control or
- 50:19something? Ampersand and, and, you know, as
- 50:22part of a, a, a small group of, of, you know, some, some great
- 50:27individuals that I, I, I met with on a weekly basis.
- 50:31Unfortunately, schedules have gotten away from me where that's
- 50:33no longer always possible. But, you know, that was a, a big
- 50:36focus in, in, you know, throughout a couple of
- 50:39conversations with that group kind of immediately hit a chord
- 50:44with me, that man, you've got a stranglehold around it on to
- 50:48different things. And, you know, a, you can't
- 50:51control how that person is thinking, how they're feeling,
- 50:54what they're going to do, But you're sure as hell putting a
- 50:58lot of thought into it and, and allowing that to dictate your,
- 51:02your, your happiness and your state of mind.
- 51:05And, and you have to let some of that go.
- 51:08Like you have to know you're doing the right things, but you
- 51:11have to know that you can't control everything.
- 51:12And, you know, whoever you trust or believe in or what you
- 51:15believe in, you know, it's, it's, you know, very cathartic
- 51:20to, to, to come to that realization.
- 51:23And, you know, you kind of feel like you've taken some things
- 51:26off your shoulders. So not to say that it's fixed.
- 51:28Like it's still my mentality. And, and that's my default,
- 51:32right, is, is to stranglehold. And I have to remind myself that
- 51:36listen, it's impossible to do. It's it's this game of of
- 51:41constant tug of war, right? Like that part of your brain can
- 51:44say, hey, yeah, I recognize I need to let go of things.
- 51:47And another part of your brain is yeah, but I don't.
- 51:49Or what happens if I do right, right.
- 51:54So, you know, and, and then from a business standpoint, that just
- 51:56goes down to goes back to, you know, bringing the right people
- 51:59on board, trusting them and, and knowing that you've, you've set
- 52:05them up to succeed, but allowing them to succeed.
- 52:07Similar to the path I was given coming on board, right?
- 52:10It's just build this and you know how you think you ought to.
- 52:15And we're going to give you the resources and have the
- 52:17expectation that you're going to go out and do it right.
- 52:19But we're going to give you the space.
- 52:23Dan, let's say you and I connect again a year from now and you're
- 52:26celebrating something. What would that be?
- 52:31You know, we've got some pretty gaudy financial goals for our
- 52:38business that I think we're we're poised to to hit as long
- 52:43as our execution and go back to that execution piece.
- 52:46Is, is is an A or an A minus this year.
- 52:49So I think we're putting ourselves, I think we've put
- 52:53ourselves in the in, in the place where we can't hit that.
- 52:59That's been a big, you know, goal from when I've come on
- 53:03board to sort of hit that that milestone as an office.
- 53:06So I hope to be and plan to be celebrating that, you know, over
- 53:10the next year. And I would just, you know, from
- 53:13a personal standpoint is, is continued investment in myself
- 53:16and continue continued growth as as a professional, as an
- 53:20individual. I know that's not quantifiable
- 53:23at times, but I think it all always needs to be top of mind
- 53:26and something that I always haven't placed a whole lot of
- 53:28importance in. Can you say more about the
- 53:33growth goals, either like what they are or why it is that you
- 53:37feel so encouraged that you can hit them?
- 53:40Yeah. So we've got our budget number
- 53:42and and I've put our bogey about 30% above that budget number.
- 53:48So it's, you know, it's gaudy, it's, it's going to be a, a
- 53:52reach. But again, I think we're at a
- 53:56spot where we're doing the the simple things right
- 54:00consistently. And we're starting to realize
- 54:05the power of, you know, being able to have larger, broader
- 54:13conversations with clients about big ticket, big picture
- 54:17initiatives, you know, that come with, you know, big, big price
- 54:21tags and big paychecks. At the end of the day, if you're
- 54:23taking an organization through a digital transformation or an ERP
- 54:26implementation or you know, a, a, a very strategic and high
- 54:30level journey. So you know, having that
- 54:33mechanism to say, you know what Staffog may be down this
- 54:37quarter, there may not be a lot of people bringing on contract
- 54:41associates. However, a heck of a lot of
- 54:43people want to talk about offshoring right now.
- 54:45Heck of a lot of people want to talk about data optimization
- 54:47right now. Heck of a lot of people want to
- 54:49talk about AI right now. Let's have those conversations.
- 54:55And you feel like you've got the operational support in place to
- 54:59execute on those as you're striking up those you?
- 55:04Know the our organization went through a a recent brand
- 55:07transformation where we had a a a bit of a convoluted story to
- 55:11tell. Just going back to, you know, my
- 55:15earlier comment about every office looking a little bit
- 55:18different. And as we started to to
- 55:21operationalize that we were rolling out seven different
- 55:25brands. You know, this is our supply
- 55:26chain brand and this is our consulting brand and this is our
- 55:29healthcare brand. And this you know, and it just
- 55:31became word salad at some point trying to introduce these to
- 55:36somebody who doesn't have a background in what we do.
- 55:41We've we've merged those into an entity called Highspring, which
- 55:48VECO is the talent acquisition arm of High Spring and High
- 55:52Spring is our main delivery engine for managed services and
- 55:55consulting and that's agnostic across organizations.
- 55:58We'll still have, we still have the same specializations, but
- 56:03you know it eliminates a lot of the noise and and how we
- 56:05introduce ourselves and what we do.
- 56:08So that's been powerful and that's resonated with market.
- 56:12Now, Dan, I've just got one more question for you.
- 56:15But before I ask it, I want to do 2 things.
- 56:17I'm going to invite all our listeners, first of all, to go
- 56:20ahead and hit the follow button on their favorite podcast app so
- 56:23you can continue to get more great interviews like we've had
- 56:27today with Dan Sauce from Vaco. Dan, I also want to let people
- 56:31know the best way either to get in touch with you personally,
- 56:34follow your story or that vaco. Yeah, connect with me on on
- 56:41LinkedIn. SaaS is my last name software as
- 56:45a service, so it's pretty easy to remember and great icebreaker
- 56:49for me at times. Or stupid joke.
- 56:51Or both. And I made one.
- 56:55There you go. Yes, I.
- 56:56Took it the other way instead of a pun.
- 56:59Pun intended. Yes, yes, pun intended.
- 57:02Yeah, sorry. Go ahead.
- 57:03So, yeah. So LinkedIn, we'll include the
- 57:05the the link here in the show notes, but you.
- 57:07Know, send me an e-mail, ddsauce@vaco.com.
- 57:10Happy to, to engage or answer any questions anybody may have
- 57:13about what we do and, and how we partner with clients.
- 57:15So, yeah, I'm, you know, certainly excited for the
- 57:20opportunity to, to share our story and in my story.
- 57:23And hopefully it's it's somebody out there finds value in it.
- 57:29So last question for you, I want to make sure that we talk about
- 57:32the the small biz cares that you're a board member of what?
- 57:39What is this? How'd you get started with it?
- 57:41What does it do? Gosh, I got started with small
- 57:43biz cares. I'm a morning person.
- 57:46And so I think it was a Sunday and I don't know if this show is
- 57:50still on. Probably is it was experience
- 57:52Columbus or something. And it comes on at 5:30 or 6:00
- 57:55AM on Sunday mornings. And so I was walking the dogs
- 58:00and sort of listening to catch up on current events around the
- 58:02city. And Naveen Bansal came on and,
- 58:06and he's the, the creator of Small Biz Cares.
- 58:09And, and really he was looking for an opportunity to create a,
- 58:13a, a group that fosters philanthropy, that is a resource
- 58:18to organizations that say, hey, you know, I want to give back.
- 58:20I don't really know how or I don't have the time to organize
- 58:24my team into, you know, volunteering or whatever we may
- 58:29want to do Small biz cares provides that is that outlet
- 58:33and, and and mechanism in which they can engage with to to
- 58:36become more involved in the community, to network with other
- 58:39small business and small entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, as
- 58:44well as some, you know, mid sized organizations.
- 58:46So it's been a a great group to be a part of and I think we've
- 58:50done a lot of good. You know, we have quarterly
- 58:52events and, and we're volunteering, whether that be,
- 58:56you know, life Life Wise of Ohio or, you know, the, the, the food
- 59:01pantry or the Columbus Food Collective.
- 59:05So we, we, we always try to do a lot of good.
- 59:07And we have a scholarship offering as well that comes
- 59:09through that group. So yeah, small biz cares.
- 59:12How? How can folks?
- 59:14Yeah, small bizcares.org. We'll make sure we include that
- 59:19in the show notes too. And Dan Sauce, I want to be the
- 59:22first one to thank you for sharing both your time and your
- 59:25story with us today. I.
- 59:26Appreciate the opportunity to be on Anthony and looking forward
- 59:29to staying in touch. That's a wrap on another episode
- 59:34of the Inspired Stories podcast. Folks.
- 59:36Thanks for learning with us today.