Prioritizing Workplace Productivity – ep.118

CEO & Founder of Trifectiv PPS Chantelle Marvin shares how her company aids in assisting large organizations to prioritize the human side of workplace productivity by breaking inefficient practices and guiding leaders through identifying better solutions and approaches to achieve optimal results. 

 

Melyssa Barrett:  Welcome to the Jali podcast. I’m your host, Melyssa Barrett. This podcast is for those who are interested in the conversation around equity, diversity, and inclusion. Each week I’ll be interviewing a guest who has something special to share or is actively part of building solutions in the space. Let’s get started.

Then tell Marvin, she had a feeling that the C-suite at her company would shut down the plant and that she’d have to find another job. She was right. Her job search resulted in postings at only large companies. Her volunteer experience at nonprofits and being a consumer of small businesses and government services made her realize that large companies seem to be the only entities that invested in process improvement personnel. It didn’t seem fair. In her experience, nonprofits, public organizations and small businesses could benefit most from more streamlined processes but they don’t usually have people like her working for them. That’s when she found her calling. While finishing her master’s in industrial organizational psychology, she founded Trifective PPS, dedicated to teaching these organizations how to identify wasteful practices that make them inefficient. She developed the Trifective Solutions program to guide leaders through simple proven strategies to achieve huge productivity gains and save money through process improvement. Her clients have experienced all this without adding headcount or raising capital. They saved money by using existing but underutilized resources in making small adjustments to existing processes.

Now they have the same tools previously by hooted large organizations at their disposal to sustain future growth.

I have the pleasure of talking this week with Chantelle Marvin, and I am so excited because we met at this event called Equity and Entrepreneurship and the panelists were fantastic, and you were one of those panelists and so I was really interested in learning more about you. So I’m excited that you have come on to the Jolly podcast.

Chantelle Marvin:  Absolutely.

Melyssa Barrett:  And can talk a little bit about what you’re doing. I think when we talk about anybody that has the wherewithal, the courage to start their own business, I always want to start with what was your journey and how did you get here because I know first of all that you are a veteran, and so we thank you for your service, but your journey now is entrepreneurship. And so how did you make that leap and how did you even come to be the person you are today?

Chantelle Marvin:  Oh man, that story is so long. How much time do we have? But it really started, as I said on the panel, I was bred to be a W-2 employee. I was taught to go to school, get good grades, get a good job so you can make money. That was it. There was no talk about happiness. There was no talk about purpose, your skills, what God gifted you with. That was just not even in the scope. And I come from a very religious upbringing, but that just didn’t mate itself. So I did what I was supposed to do. I got out of Detroit, got my veteran, my background there from the Naval Academy and did the service thing, got out and went into corporate land. I got the good job. I got the money.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yes.

Chantelle Marvin:  I’m an independent black woman, go me, right? But when you are in a W-2 situation, you are living someone else’s dream. You’re still doing what you’re told so that you can fulfill their purpose which took me a while to understand was not the equivalent of my purpose. I had to learn myself along the way to say, it’s okay to be you and all your brashness and all your uncouthness and learn that my value structure is not in alignment with these W-2 positions I was getting going company to company, bad boss to bad boss. And I’m like, “Something is disjointed here.” And so after I had gotten my other masters in IO psychology and had another scare of, “Guess what? You’re not the destiny of your employment. They get to determine if you stay there or not. Right to worth, thank you.”

Melyssa Barrett:  Yes.

Chantelle Marvin:  So that’s not in my control. I was so scared of being laid off again that I said, “Huh, I got to start a business. I got to do something.” And I just did not want that power to be in someone else’s hands. I want to be in control of that. And then I dug a little bit deeper because in the back of my head, I know that I have enough credentials to get another job. It was never really about being afraid of not being employed because despite how scary being laid off is, I have enough stuff under my belt where I could just get another job. That was the thing, I learned after some reflection that I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to be doing. I was stifled because again, that’s not in my control what I get to work on. That’s someone else telling me, this is your job description, this is what you’re going to do. And I was wholly unfulfilled. I have a uniqueness to me that wants to do these things that I could not do in that role.

So I had to start something and just venture out and craft something around what I needed to give to society, to my community as an expression of what was put into me. And that’s where the entrepreneurial journey start this time, succeeded. I mean, failed in other things as I’m going to figure myself out but this time slow and controlled, steady as she goes, we’re making it work this time.

Melyssa Barrett:  Well, and none of it is failure because you learn something from everything that you do. So for me, it’s not a failure. It’s a lesson.

Chantelle Marvin:  You’re right. Lots of lessons.

Melyssa Barrett:  We continue to grow and learn and so all things are taken as a sign of growth. So it’s awesome.

Chantelle Marvin:  Better language, yes.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yes. I love it. So now tell us a little bit about Trifective, how you started it, why you started it?

Chantelle Marvin:  So Trifective PPS was born out of no significance in the name other than it just sounded good to me. And the PPS is productivity in personal solutions. So I’m taking my background as a lead six sigma black belt and I want to translate that into the realm of small businesses. I felt that I needed to bring that big corporate stuff into the hands of small businesses because I believe they really are the backbone of our economy and they just don’t have the staff, the resources to afford someone like me leading their process improvement there in continuous improvement efforts. So that’s why my focus is on small and micro businesses and I exist to help you do more, less time, that is it. And by proxy, you should be making more money because you’re not doing silly things that stop you from being inefficient and unproductive, therefore unprofitable.

Melyssa Barrett:  I love it. So then when you think about organizations, I know you said small business and a micro business and I, of course, worked at Visa for 30 years. And so when you say a black belt and I mean I understand what you’re talking about, especially in this large corporate. So what organizations are you targeting and what are some of the symptoms, I guess you could say, where people might need you?

Chantelle Marvin:  Oh wow. It’s so broad. My current focus, just because I’ve had prior success, is in the medical community. That’s the sector that I’m most adjacent to right now. And if you think about the inefficiencies with things like medical care, the process of sitting in an emergency room, of getting a doctor’s appointment, a chiropractor appointment, you may have dealt with home health care. So many of inefficiencies built into those processes. So it seems like you’re not getting enough clients. It’s taken a long time for you to perform your service from the time that you have a contract until you have delivered that service. That’s a symptom that you may need me. It’s just taking you too long to do what you need to do. Think about a hairdresser, and we’ve been there. I know we got our hair braided and locked, but you come in back in the days when you were straightening and priming, all that stuff. So you make your appointment, but you come in the door, you sit in the chair… Okay, I’m speaking about me. You sit in the chair and you wait, and so…

Melyssa Barrett:  Look, you speaking about me.

Chantelle Marvin:  Okay. So then you wait to get under the washing machine… Oh the washing machine… You waiting to get your hair washed, and then you got to sit there and wait for them to come back. Then you may do a little bit condition. You got to sit in a dryer and then they’re not ready for you. And then… I mean all this sitting around and waiting, imagine what it worth.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yes. And you could be there all day.

Chantelle Marvin:  You could be there all day with an appointment knowing that the actual process of doing your hair from start to finish may take you, let’s just say three hours. Why are you in the shop for six?

Melyssa Barrett:  Right, exactly.

Chantelle Marvin:  How many more clients could you have in and out if it wasn’t for all that waste in your process that’s keeping you from booking more clients? That’s why I exist.

Melyssa Barrett:  I love it.

Chantelle Marvin:  And so you can apply that really to any industry. Really, if you do something, you have a process where you do this and then you do that and then you do that, it’s applicable.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yeah. Well, and look, heavens knows we need help in the medical and healthcare side because I mean, it boggles my mind sometimes when we are talking about whether you’re going to the doctor to get checked out or whether they’re trying to diagnose or you’re waiting for some prescription for weeks because somebody can’t call somebody. I don’t know. It’s crazy.

Chantelle Marvin:  It is. You’re waiting on lab results. Oh, you’re filling out manual paper. Someone printed out some paper and gave you to fill it out.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yes.

Chantelle Marvin:  And get an e-pen.

Melyssa Barrett:  That’s like what? Yes. In this day and age, that is how we do things.

Chantelle Marvin:  Well, you should be able to do that on your smartphone before you get there. That’s 15 minutes out of your appointment. You should not have that.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yes, I love that. So then when we’re talking about productivity… I mean talk a little bit about your background and how you got here. I know you used to work in supply chain, correct?

Chantelle Marvin:  A little bit. So I worked at various industries. I started off at a company that did power generation and that’s where I got my taste of process improvement. So really, this is what we’re talking about. We’re talking about making things better, making things faster. Productivity is just how much you can get done in a given set of time and I’m trying to help you do that faster. More output in a given set of time or in a shorter period of time. So that’s what we’re talking about. And I got my start from that first company and then I went in the process of, what’s known as the lead six sigma track where you can get a belt for having accomplished or have a certain credentials in these methodologies that employ these tools to help organizations become more productive. And so I’ve done that from company to company for the past 17 years. Different industries, in food, in fiber optics, in manufacturing, in window coverings, now in the medical community.

So all those skills are translatable and you just build upon that and the tools have really not changed much. It’s still the same type of thinking. It’s not even so much using a tool, it’s just how do I see my business, my process so I can identify wasteful things and see how that’s slowing me down and therefore, expanding a timeframe when it could be so much more compressed and efficient.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yes. Oh man, that’s awesome. So then when companies are looking for… Because I think everybody probably, especially at this time of year, is taking stock in what they did this year, what they can celebrate, and then how they can improve next year and what those resolutions are. And I would hope that every company would focus on delivering more impact in some form or fashion. So-

Chantelle Marvin:  That’s an assumption, and forgive me for cutting in there, but we’re making the assumption that people are looking at their metrics or that they have metrics that they’re looking at.

Melyssa Barrett:  That’s true. I was assuming that.

Cantelle Marvin:  And especially micro businesses, you’re the CFO, the CMO, the CTO and the COO. You’re all the Cs. You may not necessarily have time to look at all the ways to measure how effective each of those hats are for you. And it’s understandable that you can get lost in keeping track of stuff, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that you have to keep track of stuff. Another thing that I do is help automate or make more efficient the business management piece of running a business. So you do what you do, that’s the process of it but then you got to manage the stuff around it so that you can be a business. And that takes a lot of time. You may have been seeing patients all day at your dental office, for example, then because it’s just you, you have your hygienist and maybe another doctor, but you got to come home at the end of the day after seeing all those patients.

And then you got to work on all your marketing stuff, all the sales you’re going to put out. You got to make sure the finances are right because you’re not meeting with your accountant until next month. So you just, okay, so it’s 10 o’clock at night and you got twins that you just had two months ago, something’s going to slip. So I help create processes just around that piece. And get back to my point about metrics, are you measuring the right things to even determine if you are winning or losing? Are you measuring number of patients you serviced in the quarter? Are they repeat customers? Are they paying more than what they used to? There’s tons and tons of things to measure. You got to pick the right ones that are right for you and then say, “Based on my vision, my strategy, my goals and my objectives, let me pick these three and make sure that I’ve improving upon those.” So how do I know if I’m doing good or bad unless I’m measuring something. So I think step number one is identifying how to determine if you’re winning or losing.

Melyssa Barrett:  That’s a great point. I love it. I mean, those are some nuggets. See, I’m just assuming that everybody’s looking at stuff because we had a gazillion metrics that we looked at. But you’re right, from a small business perspective even now, it is a challenge to keep up with all of the information, all the metrics, and making sure that, especially if you’re a solopreneur where you may not have a large enough team and you are wearing so many different hats. So your point is well taken. So then when you’re thinking about the systems that you’re creating, whether it’s process or the management of those systems, are there any tips and tools that you can talk about that really get people to understand what they should be doing and the benefits of really working with somebody like you? Because I think probably everybody can benefit from working with somebody like you.

Chantelle Marvin:  It’s so hard to see the forest through the trees. You really… And when I do events with clients, I have to get them out of their environment so they can see what they do objectively or at least have a sounding board to state what they do objectively. So you have to learn how to see and I can’t emphasize that enough. You have to recognize what is a waste, even though that may be your normal operating mojo. This is what I do, this is what I’ve always done. So I mean recognize that it could be better, it could be faster. Well, how? Well, a big thing that I always look at and you see it every time at a restaurant. You come in, how long is the wait? The longer that you’re on that waiting list, the less money you’re making because you can’t turn over customers quick enough. So that’s one easy thing that you could look at is, are people waiting for anything? Are they waiting for their food? Are they waiting for a menu? Are they waiting to see a doctor?

Are they waiting under a dryer and no one is touching their hair? That’s a big one. How many people are waiting for long? That’s the biggest tip. Another big one, and this is one of the lean big waste categories is called defects. What are defects? Well, the customer wanted something and you gave them something else. I want to look like Beyonce, you made me look like Ed Sullivan. That’s a defect. That’s a mistake that you have [inaudible 00:19:53].

Melyssa Barrett:  That’s a big difference.

Chantelle Marvin:  That’s a big difference. Ed Sullivan, really? Oh boy, okay, we’re not going to get to that. But anytime you have to stop and correct something, they ordered a steak rare done and you gave it to a medium well, you have to stop and correct it, that’s a lot of time. That’s more materials. So look at how many defects in a given time period are you producing because you have to rework that and you have to do that on your time and your dollar, that’s costing you. I would say those are the two biggest things to look at. If we never work together, those are things that can do to yourself. If you have no idea what I’m talking about than I need to help you because I don’t know how much more plain I can be. Stop making mistakes and get people in and out of there.

Melyssa Barrett:  Right. No, and that’s awesome. And I mean, you’ve talked a lot about some of the service industries because I think a lot of times when we think about business, we’re so focused on products and physical products, but we don’t think about all the services that go along with the products and how you are delivering them to the consumer or whoever.

Chantelle Marvin:  Absolutely.

Melyssa Barrett:  Your customer is.

Chantelle Marvin:  We could have had the same conversation about people who make soap, about people who make jewelry in their garages. How long does it take for you to make a bracelet? How long does it take you to… What does your process, what does your garage setup look like? Are you running around looking for stuff because your garage is such a mess, you can’t even figure out where… We’re not going to talk about my husband’s garage. Okay, we’re not going to even go there. Let me tell you that when he’s trying to fix, do something on his car and you can’t find stuff, where’s this nut? Where’s this boat? Because it’s a mess. And think about the time you spend looking for stuff. There’s a meme out there that says, “I spent a half hour looking for a fork in my teenager’s room.” It just the mess and the time you have to spend looking for the things. That’s another nugget. Are you looking for stuff? Because you don’t know…

Melyssa Barrett:  Have you been in my house? Because I’m trying to find some forks right now.

Chantelle Marvin:  Just go to the room over. I can tell you, one I’m scared and two, I don’t want to look. We’re not trying to go in there.

Melyssa Barrett:  Oh my gosh, that’s so true.

Chantelle Marvin:  So yeah, if you make a product and your process is a mess because it doesn’t flow. If you are making something, there should be at no point something where it stops. You get the raw materials, then something happens to it, then it should go seamlessly from process step to process step without any wait. If it is in some queue or waiting for it to be acted upon, that’s an element of waste. So service, product, it doesn’t matter. Waiting is still the same. You could talk about too much inventory. You could talk about the fact that you got to drive down to Fresno to get this and then have that shipped in from Canada and all that’s a waste because it’s stopping the flow of your product through your process, therefore you create less product.

Melyssa Barrett:  Of course. I would be remiss if I didn’t talk a little bit about diversity, equity and inclusion in what you’re doing because I know when I was working in corporate, we didn’t see a lot of people like you who look like you, should I say, in a lot of these roles and there probably are many more. But I worked in Silicon Valley in the Bay Area and there just were not a lot of people of color in those roles. So is there a DEI element in here or perspective that you can bring? Because I think the way you ended up here, you talked a little bit about your journey but I think a lot of people, and I know some right now that are like, “Hey, I could actually be giving more in my role. I could be mentored by someone like you” and how do they even get into this process? And how we get more people like you, I guess is what I’m trying to say?

Chantelle Marvin:  I think it starts, well, one, if you’re already in corporate land and you’re like, “Hey, I want to do something like that,” I think you have to recognize within yourself, do you like fixing things? I’m a little bit OCD and ADD. If I see a picture crooked, I can’t sit within my skin. So do you have the inkling to want to fix things, straighten it out. I’m not the biggest innovator but I’m the big fixer. I want to make things better. So if you have that type of mindset, there are tons of people on LinkedIn, on whatever, just reach out to them and get yourself a belt. It’s really not that hard. There are lots of credentialing agencies that ASQ is probably the number one American society of quality engineers, I believe. I may have gotten that wrong, but that’s a big one. And you just find yourself a project to improve and get the belt and you’re in the club.

It’s not very exclusive but you do want to reach out and figure out what are the right people to talk to and to just get your credentialing. And all you do is throw that on your resume and you stand out. There’s a lot. If you put on your resume, I’m a green or a black belt, you are indoors. No one is stopping you from that. So it is something that requires credentialing. If you have not entered the workforce yet, I would suggest why not? I mean, do you need a four year degree to do what I do? Probably at this point, no. But there is nothing like having the grades and I’m talking about people in the high school level. When you have the grades to get wherever you want to be, you can go wherever you want to go and there’s nothing stopping from there. You got to put in the work. So I would suggest, especially people of color, there needs to be more emphasis on excellence because that cannot be denied based off of how you look, where you grew up.

I’m an inner city, Detroit, importee or immigrant, whatever. Very poor, didn’t have no nothing, but it was within me. And if we have our children surrounded by adults who will demand of them because maybe they’re not getting that at home, but demand excellence and the drive to push through. Again, nuggets and moments don’t land in your lap. You have to go get them. No one is going to take time either a day to just look around and see who’s looking for a moment. You have to go get it. You have to have some initiative to say, “I’m here. I got my belt, I got the grades. Where are your openings? You don’t have no openings. Who do I need to talk to to understand what you’re looking for so that I can get in your door.” You have to demand that. And I do not buy and judge me if you want, that the system is so stacked against you that your skin color bars you from…

Maybe it does. I’m not discounting the experiences of those who have gone through that. But there are doors that are available if you knock and when you show up to knock, you show up correct. And I think for our younger folks, we need to educate them on how to show up correct, with a belt on your pants, with talking in a way that doesn’t dismiss you as an authentic human person but just in a way that’s not going to come off threatening or dismissive because I think that you are uneducated. We need to as a community, pour that into the up and coming generations so that there is no excuse as to why they can’t get into doors. Where the only thing that will say the reason they didn’t get into this door is because of some DEI factor because everything else came correct.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yeah.

Chantelle Marvin:  But first we got to come. Correct.

Melyssa Barrett:  Absolutely. These are the principles we live off of. Excellence has to be one of them. And so I just really enjoyed meeting you at the panel because a lot of the things that you all were talking about were just really creating that equity and entrepreneurship and I think there were conversations about lack of capital or I should say, lack of access to capital as well as just managing a small business as African-Americans in this particular county. And so, to be able to bring together the number of people that we brought together to just have those conversations, I think we need to do that more often. Because to your point, if you feel like you’re not getting the right thing when you’re in a W2 job, then you’re showing us, create your own path. Get out there and do something different.

Chantelle Marvin:  And take advantage of what you can’t do while you’re in W2 land. Let them finance that dream. You don’t have to learn the skills. If there’s something in your field that you want to get into that they can offer you for free, go for it. I have not paid for… I’ve only paid for one class out of pocket and I have three degrees. I have not paid for anything other than one class and that was just because I was transitioning jobs. Make them pay for your education, go to apply to companies where they have tuition reimbursement and they can’t take that away from you.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yeah.

Chantelle Marvin:  Can I say one thing on access to capital?

Melyssa Barrett:  Of course.

Chantelle Marvin:  There is access to capital, they just don’t give it away to everybody. If your credit score is 434, you probably won’t have access to capital.

Melyssa Barrett:  Right.

Chantelle Marvin:  Again, showing up correct. You can’t just be balling out, living off of your 16 year old’s social security, so you can get credit and then expect for someone to drop $500,000 in your lab. You have to be responsible personally, and I know this because I’ve talked to the bankers. I’ve talked to the people in there and I think one of the panelists was a banker or she was a loan officer.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yeah, you’re right.

Chantelle Marvin:  You have to come correct financially or else. No, you will not have access to capital. So get yourself together. And we need to teach that to the up and coming folks too. Right now I’m building my daughter’s credit. I’m establishing a business so that she has a legacy or if something happens, she could walk into a job and encouraging her differently than the way I came up. Yeah, get good grades but that’s not it. It’s what are you designed to do? Let me facilitate your growth. And then by the time you have exited my legal strongholds of being horrible mom who’s always doing that to me, but you will graduate with an excellent credit score and no debt. You’ll have real estate because I’m trying to develop wealth within my family. Then when she’s ready to do her thing, she already has access to capital. We’re teaching her about the stock market. We’re talking about investing.

She knows what saving and giving is, just fundamental financial principles that we need to educate our kids on so that we can build a cyclic generational wealth wheel that somehow some other cultures get, we somehow don’t have that yet.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yeah, somehow.

Chantelle Marvin:  But that’s our responsibility. Yeah, somehow. That’s our responsibility to teach them and they will have access. It won’t even be a thing. “What you mean? I just got $25,000.”

Melyssa Barrett:  Right.

Chantelle Marvin:  Sorry I had to put that in there.

Melyssa Barrett:  No, that’s excellent. I love it. No. So tell me, is there, when we’re talking about Trifective PPS, let me get the full name out there, when you are dealing with… Because I think you also deal with for-profit companies and non-profit, if I remember correct?

Chantelle Marvin:  I have worked with non-profit as well, just as a sounding board for a strategic alignment. I’m here as a coach to non-profit and for-profit, yes.

Melyssa Barrett:  Okay. So then I mean really, I guess, the big thing is if somebody was looking to improve the processes that they currently have and they wanted to pick up the phone and call you, you can design a package around what they’re looking for or do you normally do coaching or is it more of a consulting gig?

Chantelle Marvin:  It’s whatever you need because I don’t have a cookie cutter, this is what you get. Because even though you may be the same medical practitioner as the guy down the street, your pain points may be different. So it starts off with a discussion of, what’s frustrating. I have some tools I can use. We got cultural analysis, make sure… We haven’t even talked about the people side of this. We just talked about processes.

Melyssa Barrett:  Oh my gosh.

Chantelle Marvin:  We got to talk about the people, but-

Melyssa Barrett:  Well, let’s talk about that, yes.

Chantelle Marvin:  We have people assessment, we got the process assessment. Maybe you just need, I had one client, she just needs to get out of her head because she’s a visionary and she knows what she wants, but she has five different things. And I’m like, “Okay. Well what’s most important to you and I help you develop a plan to execute that strategy.” So I have a lot of things I can use to help you, it depends on what your particular problem is and we can see if we can work on together to develop a solution for that.

Melyssa Barrett:  I love it. So since we need to pivot and let’s chat about people, because obviously those are the most valuable assets of any company.

Chantelle Marvin:  They are. Unless you have a fully automated AI system running your company, then you probably have hired somebody. And the people side of productivity is that they interact with your process. You want to make sure that the right people are interacting with your process because especially if you’re a small business, you don’t have a lot of money to be wasting around on people’s mistakes, their lack of wanting to come to work and be motivated and be as productive as they can be in their job so that the whole organization can be productive. So you have to have the right people in place and that’s something else we can look at is, what are your hiring practices? Are you asking the right questions? Not just going off of the resume, but me as a small business owner to can we have a relationship?

Can you adapt my vision? Because remember now I’m about to put somebody in a W2 position who have their own package of hopes and dreams but that’s fine. But can you still come work for me and help me do mine? Not everyone as for you as in any relationship. So you got to have the right people and if you don’t have the right people, let’s find a way for them to go find something else because we can’t be wasting each other’s time, we don’t have the money for that, for me to be paying you to be performance up optimally. I don’t have time for that. Let’s talk about something else you can be doing.

Melyssa Barrett:  I love it.

Chantelle Marvin:  Turnover’s costly, but you got to have the right people. Okay. I feel like I’ve been on this soapbox for a while, let me get some water. It’s just so critical.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yes.

Chantelle Marvin:  It’s so critical as a small business, big businesses, they have the luxury of big budgets and staffs of people that can just handle the people problems. HR, police, I don’t have an HR department. I don’t have a… And most small businesses like, “Okay, as long as I’m legal, I just need people.” Well, that may not be enough.

Melyssa Barrett:  Right.

Chantelle Marvin:  You want to be profitable.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yes.

Chantelle Marvin:  Because headaches are costly.

Melyssa Barrett:  I love it. Now are there differences that you find between nonprofits and for-profits?

Chantelle Marvin:  The metrics aren’t as closely looked at on the nonprofit side, I would say, because money is easy to measure, especially if you’re a public entity. Nonprofits, they tend to have more service metrics. So customer turnover rate. But since they’re not… They may be held together by a grant as their funding source or taxes if they’re a government agency and we’re not going to talk about those wasteful expenditures, but it’s just how they measure success is a little bit different. So you really got… Me as a consultant, I’m looking for what is really driving you to need me? Is this just a project you need to have done? Are you trying to improve how many… Let’s say you’re working in the housing development, are you just trying to improve number of people that can be housed? So just the metrics are a little bit different but a process is a process and the methodologies for fixing that are the same.

Melyssa Barrett:  I love it. This is awesome. All right, so I know and I’m a person who loves to celebrate people that are doing the work. So you are doing wonderful things and I just really appreciate it. I really do because I mean, honestly, I don’t just let anybody on here. I like to talk to people that are doing stuff.

Chantelle Marvin:  Awesome. Thank you.

Melyssa Barrett:  And I love the way you said before, I think we were talking and you were talking about how you spread the joy. And so I love the fact that you are spreading joy. You are doing wonderful big things, all of these effective strategies and really giving back to small and micro businesses because those are probably… I mean, we have the most of them and yet, they tend to have the least resources for, especially to tap into the skillset that you bring to the industries that you’re working with. So I mean, I just want to say thank you for what you’re doing and keep going and we love to see black women thriving in entrepreneurship. So congratulations to you.

Chantelle Marvin:  Thank you. Thank you so much. As I said earlier, I’m still in the same boat. I’m learning things. As I learn, I want to share that with folks. If you are aware of someone that is just looking for a sounding board, a younger person that wants to be mentored, you can catch me on LinkedIn. I’m totally, all my stuff is out there. My number, my email. I would love to talk to anyone just to have a conversation like, “Hey,” I’m like, “Yes, let’s talk. Talk about that…” We can work through that.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yes. I love it. Well, and we will make sure that we put all of your hashtags and tags and whatever they call them into the description so people can find you. And I hope people will take advantage of the tremendous opportunity that you’re giving them with your skillset. So I just want to thank you for coming on. Any last-

Chantelle Marvin:  Thank you so much for helping me. Yeah. I just wanted to-

Melyssa Barrett:  Yeah. Any last word?

Chantelle Marvin:  I just appreciate you giving me the opportunity to say what I do. I want to do so much more of it. I want to, especially just the whole point of starting wealth and building wealth in our community, that is so important that we get this together and we do this with small businesses, not just me, but let’s network together. You are an amazing podcaster. You have a certain skill set. I have a certain skill set. Can we get those together and be an amazing community together without hating on each other, please. I think that would be my last por favor to your listening audience.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yes, great point. Because, and I’m telling you, it brings me joy when we actually get together and help each other. There is more than enough out there for us to not have to compete and trash each other. There is more than… There’s just so much pie. Thank you so much. And I have to say, I’m loving that bear in the background over there. He is like-

Chantelle Marvin:  He keeps popping out, I know.

Melyssa Barrett:  He’s had my eye. I’m like, “Okay.” Does he have a name? Come on.

Chantelle Marvin:  Oh gosh. He did years ago. Some ex-boyfriend years ago gave that to me, I done forgot his name.

Melyssa Barrett:  Oh my gosh. That’s funny. All right, well…

Chantelle Marvin:  You get a goofball if you talk to me people, I’m sorry I’m not that locked on, but I do want to help you solve your problem. But I bring me to the table, I bring me.

Melyssa Barrett:  That’s what we need. We need you. So thank you so much, Chantelle, for joining me, and I hope we will see you back again. I’m sure. I hope, and we wish you the best in all you do.

Chantelle Marvin:  The same to you, ma’am. All the best. Let’s go. Let’s do this.

Melyssa Barrett:  Let’s go.

Thanks for joining me on the Jali Podcast. Please subscribe so you won’t miss an episode. See you next week.

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