"When you start your [military] leadership journey, you become responsible for more than just yourself. And when you translate that into starting a company or entrepreneurship, it's the same thing... but you have the confidence that you can overcome the unknown." - Blake Mathies
In this episode, your host John Pelle, has the honor of being joined by two Air Force veterans. Join Blake Mathies, part-owner and CEO of Purple Mountain Solutions and Acrisure client, and Tina Semotan, Managing Partner of Acrisure's Midwest Region as they candidly discuss the transition from military service to entrepreneurialism, how to lead teams through change, and the power of communication.
Listen to the episode here and don't forget to subscribe to the "Limitless Possibilities Podcast" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
Key Takeaways:
[1:22] Tina introduces her background and the new role of Managing Partner at Acrisure.
[4:24] Blake shares the entrepreneurial spark that led him to co-found Purple Mountain Solutions.
[8:20] Tina and Blake share lessons learned in the Air Force and how they put them into practice in the business world.
[9:11] Blake shares how his life in the armed forces prepared him for his life as an entrepreneur.
[15:40] Tina talks about her perspective on the importance of a player-led team in a company's transformation.
[19:34] What role does purpose play in change management?
Further Reading:
Notable Quotes:
"You have to get comfortable in the uncomfortable chaos, and if you can do it, that is how you can outperform and win over other people." - Tina Semotan
"When you can pull that thread through to the purpose and where we're going... that's when you get the buy-in, that's when you get people running up a hill no matter what, trying to make sure that they get the mission done." - Tina Semotan
TRANSCRIPT BELOW
JOHN PELLE
Alright, so we're back on the Limitless Possibilities Podcast presented by Acrisure. I'm your host, John Pelle, and it's very rare to get the perfect conversation. And I say that because I think we actually have that today because of our esteemed guests who are going to be joining us here in a second. Acrisure has talked a lot about having a total client view, and so we actually have a client on for the first time. We've talked a little bit about on this program and other channels that we have a strategy to roll out our Fintech brand, and that's going to be led by people called Managing Partners.
So we have a real life Managing Partner joining us today. Her name is Tina Semotan, and if you follow at Acrisure at all, you know that we are deeply committed to honoring those who have served, and both Tina and the client, who we're going to welcome here, his name is Blake, they share that they've both been members of the Air Force. And Tina, I want to welcome you onto the program and thank you personally for connecting the dots and bringing yourself and Blake onto the program today.
TINA SEMOTAN
Thank you so much, John. Glad to be here.
JOHN PELLE
And Tina, before we recorded, you had just hopped on and said this was going to be the best podcast ever, so we're going to hold you to that.
TINA SEMOTAN
No pressure. We got this. Between Blake and I, I have no fear.
JOHN PELLE
So Tina, before we bring Blake onto the show here, why don't you just tell the listeners a little bit more about yourself and about your role here at the company.
TINA SEMOTAN
Wonderful. Well, I'd love to. Thanks for the opportunity. A little bit about me, I am also the President with one of the agencies within the Acrisure family, HNI, and we have offices in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois. And also have served in the United States Air Force. I retired in October of 2019 as a Lieutenant Colonel and served just under 21 years with the Air Force as well.
The role of Managing Partner is exciting to me too. It is newly formed, and there was announcements that came out recently for Acrisure, where we are deciding through all of the agency partners, we really came together and decided that we were operating individually since the relationship started for all of us with Acrisure. But we decided someplace along the way that man, there is power in coming together. It really creates this force of best practices and our ability to grow and differentiate ourselves, but also offer just a wider and deeper breadth of solutions for all of the clients that we serve.
And so recently we decided to come together in regional platforms as well as specialty platforms. And so I get the pleasure and honor of leading the Midwest Region, which we are just starting to have conversations and come together and get to know each other right now. I am also married, and probably the proudest accomplishment that I have is I'm a mother of a 15-year-old son, who became a published author at age 11. So that is my biggest accomplishment, and the thing I'm most proud of.
JOHN PELLE
What did your son write? That sounds pretty interesting.
TINA SEMOTAN
He actually journaled, my son's name is Jayden, and he actually journaled about 25,000 words through my last deployment in 2018. He was nine years old at the time and turned 10 while I was gone, and so it really is just a depiction of what he went through as a 9, 10-year-old boy, having his mother being deployed overseas. And so it is just his journey through that deployment. It's called "A Green Light for Mom."
JOHN PELLE
Tina, that's great. We're going to make sure that we drop the link to that book here in the description. And there's a perfect time to welcome Blake Mathies to the program. He's going to be the third wheel of our conversation. Blake, welcome to the show.
BLAKE MATHIES
John, thanks to you and Tina and Acrisure for having me on. I look forward to the discussion.
JOHN PELLE
So Blake, you are the part Owner and CEO of Purple Mountain Solutions, another Midwest guy. We have a bunch of those here at the company, so I'm sure you have a lot of fans out in Wisconsin. Blake, your business specializes in logistics, supply chain management, and consulting, all things that I know very little about. And so Blake, as I was getting ready for this conversation here with you and Tina, the most obvious thing that stood out is that you and your business lean heavily into the fact that it's a veteran-owned business, and so why don't we just start there. Tell me a little bit about your journey from the armed forces into entrepreneurialism, and then Tina, very similarly, you've had a very similar journey, and so I'd love to just continue and kind of have your thoughts as well there.
BLAKE MATHIES
Yeah. So Purple Mountain Solutions actually got started in 2010, and it's kind of an interesting story. It was myself, my other business partner, who's retired Army and a West Point graduate, and at the time, we had a third partner, who was a retired Marine and a Naval Academy graduate. I graduated from the Air Force Academy, so we had three guys, all three disabled veterans, and we said we should get together and do stuff, that is that we can take our skillset and kind of go back and give back.
And at the time, we were all working in what a lot of veterans do, they go work for a defense contractor. It's like the natural thing. You're doing one thing in a uniform one day, and then you retire or you get out, and then the next day you're doing the same thing, you just wearing a different type of clothing. It's very comfortable for veterans.
So we got together, and we said, "Let's start our own company, and let's do this." In fact, our name comes from a joint thing, so whenever there's multiple services and other federal agencies that get together, they call those operations "purple." So that was actually how we started off with our name, and then the "mountain solutions" part came from our diverse background. We said we want to solve problems for people, and so the mountain represents the issue that people have, and then the solution is where we come in. So it really kind of evolved.
It probably helped that we were all living in Colorado at the time too, so it kind of gave us a visual, but we really kind of came together and started off as really kind of a solutions provider. They have different backgrounds than I have. I was always kind the logistics and supply chain guy. And so it was kind of how we kind of sold intellectual property, and then we just kind of evolved into what we do now, which is really more of a logistics type company, but with some special spin towards supply chain management.
TINA SEMOTAN
Well, and I think one of the things that I wanted to add is when we started the partnership with Blake and his organization, one of the things that we really focus on is de-risking businesses and having more of a strategic viewpoint on eliminating risks for our clients. And so it was just a very easy relationship with Blake and his team, and the process that we use of de-risking, because as he said, his company was all about bringing solutions and helping people solve problems or issues. And that's really what the Acrisure family is about is we bring solutions to our clients.
So the partnership has always been extremely easy, and Blake and I very quickly connected on some leadership thoughts and just things that we believed in. And some of that comes through just the training that we had through the military and having dumps on some of these things within that setting as well, and then brought that over to the civilian or private sector.
JOHN PELLE
And there's no shortage of articles and content online that connect service in the armed forces to being an entrepreneur. I don't want to propagate any stereotypes or reinforce anything that really may not be the case. Since we have two folks on who are both entrepreneurs and individuals who have served, I guess I would start with the question to you, Blake, did your previous life in the armed forces actually prepare you for your journey as an entrepreneur?
BLAKE MATHIES
Yeah, right out of the Air Force Academy, first assignment, suddenly, "Hey, here's 30 non-commissioned officers, airmen, that you're now in charge of, right?" And in some cases it's intimidating, because some are older than you, and they've been in for a while. Some are the same age and kind of are like, "Hey, you're not that different from me," and some are younger. And so you kind of run into this. It's a little shocking, I would say, at first when you start that leadership journey, because you're suddenly responsible for somebody more than yourself.
But when you translate that into starting a company or entrepreneurship, it's the same kind of thing. You're starting off sometimes with a foundational set of knowledge and skills and maybe some experience, but there's also a lot you don't know. And so you're set up and you have this, what do I want to call it, maybe this kind of confidence that you can overcome that unknown and that fear of the unknown to take on a challenge of starting a business or any sort of challenge that you might have, because you're just going to work through it. And that's really, to me, the biggest thing about an entrepreneur is you've got to learn how to work through things, which is the same way you get taught in military with leadership. You're just going to have to work through some things at times and have the confidence and the ability to do that.
TINA SEMOTAN
Well, and Blake, just to ask you, I was actually talking with, I was at one of our APs yesterday doing a presentation. We were talking about change management, and as we go through some of these transformations that we're going through at Acrisure right now, he was saying, "Yeah, man. You were drumming up a whole bunch of stuff that I remembered of trainings in the Marines." And one of the things he said is a saying that he's carried with him to this day and he's been out for quite some time, but he said, "I just remember one of my drill sergeants saying, 'You have got to get comfortable in the uncomfortable chaos, and if you can do that and keep working through it, that's how you outperform and outwin a lot of people.'" And it just resonated with me, because I have heard so many of those same sayings through my career, and they ring true to this day in corporate America. Same thing.
JOHN PELLE
As a civilian, there's probably a few things we may want to leave in that part of the world. I'm ashamed to admit I was a minute late to this recording, and Tina, you had told me that that would've probably been 10, 20 or 30 pushups. So in my opinion, the influence is good, but I'm not sure on how much we want to actually bring that into a company.
So obviously, you two are blending worlds. You're coming from one very different part of life into another. What were some of the things that were jarring in that transition? "This may have worked in the Air Force, but now that I'm an Acrisure, now that I'm building a business, Purple Mountain Solutions, that's definitely not going to fly," pardon the Air Force pun.
BLAKE MATHIES
Yeah. So there's a few things I would say that are different obviously from the military side than from the entrepreneur, maybe private sector business side, probably a ton of differences, but some of the main ones or one of the main ones is you have to understand that because in the military, you have this all volunteer force, everybody really wants to be there, and there's this drive, there's this camaraderie, there's this everybody pushing towards the mission of we know what we need to accomplish. And so it's sometimes a little bit easier to communicate goals and vision and mission and a lot of those things where you give your team an idea of where you're going.
One of the things, Joe, my business partner, and I found out real early on, we've got about 238 employees now at Purple Mountain, and one of the things we kind of started to figure out is we needed to really clearly communicate those things for our company, because there's people who really want to be here and they want to grow a career in logistics and supply chain. There's other people who are like, "Hey, I'm just using this to pay some bills," and so they're not as probably intellectually or emotionally invested in this career. They just kind of view it more as a job versus a career.
So it was a lot different, and it was one of those things we needed to learn, and probably struggled with in the beginning, was that that varying degrees of people who wanted to, at what level they wanted to excel at. Some wanted to be great, some wanted to be good, some were like, "I don't really care." And learning some of those motivation things that we learned in military leadership helped some, but then at some point we just had to kind of admit to ourselves, we're not going to get everybody there to what we were used to in the military.
JOHN PELLE
So Tina, Greg Williams, who many folks know, Acrisure's co-founder, chairman, and CEO, has spoken a lot about if you have a choice, you'd always rather have a player-led team than a coach-led team, meaning you'd rather have your employees not only executing the strategy but really well versed in that strategy. So it sounds similar to what you're saying, Blake, you could set the vision, you could set the plays on the field, but if it's a coach-led team, you may be lacking in the execution. Tina, what are your thoughts on that? You've talked about your journey as a Managing Partner, you are building a team, you're hoping that team continues to be player led. How is that working so far in your transition?
TINA SEMOTAN
Absolutely. So yeah, I think a couple of things come to mind with that, John and Blake. One of the things that's always come through to me is right now, I think the biggest lift that I have in the transformation that we're going through here to the regional platforms is I am trying to connect with the hearts and minds of the employees, and I really feel that that is the most important thing that I could be doing right now as a leader. And I think, Blake, to your point, I agree with you. I think in some contexts, that's easier in the military setting, because they're there and they took an oath and they raised their hand and said, "I want to be here, I want to do this." And in some instances when you decide to go through transformational changes, although the groundswell formed this here for Acrisure and the APs came together, so more of that player-led approach, even though they're saying they want to come together, they don't quite even know what that all means yet.
That, to me, as a leader, I think one of the things that I did pull through, John, is that ability to create this vision through storytelling or connecting emotionally or creating a vision that's so vivid, literally when you tell it's almost like you feel the colors in the story to say it no differently. Some of the best military leaders that I've had were able to do that. In some of the most dire or sad spots that you might be in, they had this ability to create this vision that was so colorful that man, you'd run through anything to help do that.
And I think right now as we go through the transformation, that is one of the things that I'm really trying to dig down deep and pull back out of me as I go through this is because that's what forms the foundation of trust, and that's what really pulls the hearts and minds together, that keeps those players wanting to step up and lead along with me. So that's sort of my thoughts in it, and I don't know, Blake, if that resonated anything for you in that too?
BLAKE MATHIES
So July 31st, we acquired another company in the same space, and they were slightly smaller than we were, but you're bringing together almost two equally-sized teams. And it was tough, because it goes back to that change management. There's the business things that you're trying to change, like the software and the vehicles, company culture. "Hey, here's how we do things." Maybe there's a difference in the sense of urgency, maybe there's a difference in customers. The whole transformation through merger, acquisition, changing an organization is a big deal.
JOHN PELLE
And I think the difference at Acrisure, fortunately, has been the M&A step has occurred, and so for many of our partners, they've already been part of Acrisure for as long as they've been part of Acrisure until the rebranding, and I think everything else you've said completely resonates, the identity of the agency and the company that you were part of. I think, Blake, what you're saying and what, Tina, you're acting on every day is that people are going to do their best work when they know where they're going. Whether that's in life or in a company, if you know the strategy, if you know the outcome that we're all trying to achieve and your role in that outcome, you're going to be a ton more effective than if you're just seeing yourself on an island. So Tina, to bring it to you, how does Acrisure's just boldness and vision play into your change management plan?
TINA SEMOTAN
It really does. I think obviously I have the core foundation of change management through my military training and certification in it, but the boldness that we are taking with regard to this transformation within Acrisure is definitely about ... I'm purposeful in trying to pull people to a spot where when we're having our conversations, we're talking about the purpose and the meaning to them, or how this is actually taking what they built and the allegiance that they have to an amazing organization or agency that they built for 40 years or 20 years or whatever it may be based on the agency. And that piece of it is an integral part of the whole picture of what we're trying to build in either this region or the entire Acrisure organization, right? It's an important integral piece of it. And I think when you can pull that thread through to the purpose and where we're going to the bigger picture, that's when you get the buy-in, that's when you get people running up a hill no matter what, trying to make sure that they get the mission done.
When we miss that piece, when we don't connect it to them individually or we don't connect it to their agency and how that helps us for the bigger picture, that's when you lose them. And I think that's something where military trained leaders are trained in a couple of things. We are trained continuously from the day that we sign up for duty until the day that we walk out the door and retire or leave. It is constantly focused on what it means to be a leader, and it's always you are a leader individually first, and then you are a leader of others. But in that leadership is always a followership training that happens too, and so we are very good at making sure that everyone knows that it doesn't just rest on the shoulders of one person, and that leadership at any point in time can change.
And so that part of it is something I am trying to blend into how I go forward with this emotional integration into the regions is that I want more people to lean into leading. I will stand back and follow if there's someone better equipped in certain areas to do things. So trying to get that brought into it, I think, does help with driving people to that clear purpose of where we're going and why their piece of this is so important and the role that they play in it. They all have purpose, meaning, and value, and it's trying to make sure that they see that and feel that.
JOHN PELLE
So Tina and Blake, thanks again for your time. And again, most importantly, thank you for your service to our country. It's a huge part of Acrisure culture is respecting those who served and made the ultimate sacrifices you both have. I also really appreciate the fact that you've taken time, Blake, out of your business to come be on this program and give us a little bit of insight at what it means to be a client of Acrisure and just overall what it means to be an entrepreneur. And likewise, Tina, your insights and your observations are always welcome. So I hope we could find another time to have a conversation and just continue to pick up, but for now, to our listeners, thank you.
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In this episode, your host John Pelle, has the honor of being joined by two Air Force veterans. Join Blake Mathies, part-owner and CEO of Purple Mountain Solutions and Acrisure client, and Tina Semotan, Managing Partner of Acrisure's Midwest Region as they candidly discuss the transition from military service to entrepreneurialism, how to lead teams through change, and the power of communication.
Listen to the episode here and don't forget to subscribe to the "Limitless Possibilities Podcast" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
Key Takeaways:
[1:22] Tina introduces her background and the new role of Managing Partner at Acrisure.
[4:24] Blake shares the entrepreneurial spark that led him to co-found Purple Mountain Solutions.
[8:20] Tina and Blake share lessons learned in the Air Force and how they put them into practice in the business world.
[9:11] Blake shares how his life in the armed forces prepared him for his life as an entrepreneur.
[15:40] Tina talks about her perspective on the importance of a player-led team in a company's transformation.
[19:34] What role does purpose play in change management?
Further Reading:
- A Green Light for Mom: A Boy's Journey through a Deployment, Jayden M. Semotan
- Acrisure.com
- Acrisure on LinkedIn, Instagram and X.
- Send your ideas, questions, and suggestions for future episodes to [email protected]
Notable Quotes:
"You have to get comfortable in the uncomfortable chaos, and if you can do it, that is how you can outperform and win over other people." - Tina Semotan
"When you can pull that thread through to the purpose and where we're going... that's when you get the buy-in, that's when you get people running up a hill no matter what, trying to make sure that they get the mission done." - Tina Semotan
TRANSCRIPT BELOW
JOHN PELLE
Alright, so we're back on the Limitless Possibilities Podcast presented by Acrisure. I'm your host, John Pelle, and it's very rare to get the perfect conversation. And I say that because I think we actually have that today because of our esteemed guests who are going to be joining us here in a second. Acrisure has talked a lot about having a total client view, and so we actually have a client on for the first time. We've talked a little bit about on this program and other channels that we have a strategy to roll out our Fintech brand, and that's going to be led by people called Managing Partners.
So we have a real life Managing Partner joining us today. Her name is Tina Semotan, and if you follow at Acrisure at all, you know that we are deeply committed to honoring those who have served, and both Tina and the client, who we're going to welcome here, his name is Blake, they share that they've both been members of the Air Force. And Tina, I want to welcome you onto the program and thank you personally for connecting the dots and bringing yourself and Blake onto the program today.
TINA SEMOTAN
Thank you so much, John. Glad to be here.
JOHN PELLE
And Tina, before we recorded, you had just hopped on and said this was going to be the best podcast ever, so we're going to hold you to that.
TINA SEMOTAN
No pressure. We got this. Between Blake and I, I have no fear.
JOHN PELLE
So Tina, before we bring Blake onto the show here, why don't you just tell the listeners a little bit more about yourself and about your role here at the company.
TINA SEMOTAN
Wonderful. Well, I'd love to. Thanks for the opportunity. A little bit about me, I am also the President with one of the agencies within the Acrisure family, HNI, and we have offices in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois. And also have served in the United States Air Force. I retired in October of 2019 as a Lieutenant Colonel and served just under 21 years with the Air Force as well.
The role of Managing Partner is exciting to me too. It is newly formed, and there was announcements that came out recently for Acrisure, where we are deciding through all of the agency partners, we really came together and decided that we were operating individually since the relationship started for all of us with Acrisure. But we decided someplace along the way that man, there is power in coming together. It really creates this force of best practices and our ability to grow and differentiate ourselves, but also offer just a wider and deeper breadth of solutions for all of the clients that we serve.
And so recently we decided to come together in regional platforms as well as specialty platforms. And so I get the pleasure and honor of leading the Midwest Region, which we are just starting to have conversations and come together and get to know each other right now. I am also married, and probably the proudest accomplishment that I have is I'm a mother of a 15-year-old son, who became a published author at age 11. So that is my biggest accomplishment, and the thing I'm most proud of.
JOHN PELLE
What did your son write? That sounds pretty interesting.
TINA SEMOTAN
He actually journaled, my son's name is Jayden, and he actually journaled about 25,000 words through my last deployment in 2018. He was nine years old at the time and turned 10 while I was gone, and so it really is just a depiction of what he went through as a 9, 10-year-old boy, having his mother being deployed overseas. And so it is just his journey through that deployment. It's called "A Green Light for Mom."
JOHN PELLE
Tina, that's great. We're going to make sure that we drop the link to that book here in the description. And there's a perfect time to welcome Blake Mathies to the program. He's going to be the third wheel of our conversation. Blake, welcome to the show.
BLAKE MATHIES
John, thanks to you and Tina and Acrisure for having me on. I look forward to the discussion.
JOHN PELLE
So Blake, you are the part Owner and CEO of Purple Mountain Solutions, another Midwest guy. We have a bunch of those here at the company, so I'm sure you have a lot of fans out in Wisconsin. Blake, your business specializes in logistics, supply chain management, and consulting, all things that I know very little about. And so Blake, as I was getting ready for this conversation here with you and Tina, the most obvious thing that stood out is that you and your business lean heavily into the fact that it's a veteran-owned business, and so why don't we just start there. Tell me a little bit about your journey from the armed forces into entrepreneurialism, and then Tina, very similarly, you've had a very similar journey, and so I'd love to just continue and kind of have your thoughts as well there.
BLAKE MATHIES
Yeah. So Purple Mountain Solutions actually got started in 2010, and it's kind of an interesting story. It was myself, my other business partner, who's retired Army and a West Point graduate, and at the time, we had a third partner, who was a retired Marine and a Naval Academy graduate. I graduated from the Air Force Academy, so we had three guys, all three disabled veterans, and we said we should get together and do stuff, that is that we can take our skillset and kind of go back and give back.
And at the time, we were all working in what a lot of veterans do, they go work for a defense contractor. It's like the natural thing. You're doing one thing in a uniform one day, and then you retire or you get out, and then the next day you're doing the same thing, you just wearing a different type of clothing. It's very comfortable for veterans.
So we got together, and we said, "Let's start our own company, and let's do this." In fact, our name comes from a joint thing, so whenever there's multiple services and other federal agencies that get together, they call those operations "purple." So that was actually how we started off with our name, and then the "mountain solutions" part came from our diverse background. We said we want to solve problems for people, and so the mountain represents the issue that people have, and then the solution is where we come in. So it really kind of evolved.
It probably helped that we were all living in Colorado at the time too, so it kind of gave us a visual, but we really kind of came together and started off as really kind of a solutions provider. They have different backgrounds than I have. I was always kind the logistics and supply chain guy. And so it was kind of how we kind of sold intellectual property, and then we just kind of evolved into what we do now, which is really more of a logistics type company, but with some special spin towards supply chain management.
TINA SEMOTAN
Well, and I think one of the things that I wanted to add is when we started the partnership with Blake and his organization, one of the things that we really focus on is de-risking businesses and having more of a strategic viewpoint on eliminating risks for our clients. And so it was just a very easy relationship with Blake and his team, and the process that we use of de-risking, because as he said, his company was all about bringing solutions and helping people solve problems or issues. And that's really what the Acrisure family is about is we bring solutions to our clients.
So the partnership has always been extremely easy, and Blake and I very quickly connected on some leadership thoughts and just things that we believed in. And some of that comes through just the training that we had through the military and having dumps on some of these things within that setting as well, and then brought that over to the civilian or private sector.
JOHN PELLE
And there's no shortage of articles and content online that connect service in the armed forces to being an entrepreneur. I don't want to propagate any stereotypes or reinforce anything that really may not be the case. Since we have two folks on who are both entrepreneurs and individuals who have served, I guess I would start with the question to you, Blake, did your previous life in the armed forces actually prepare you for your journey as an entrepreneur?
BLAKE MATHIES
Yeah, right out of the Air Force Academy, first assignment, suddenly, "Hey, here's 30 non-commissioned officers, airmen, that you're now in charge of, right?" And in some cases it's intimidating, because some are older than you, and they've been in for a while. Some are the same age and kind of are like, "Hey, you're not that different from me," and some are younger. And so you kind of run into this. It's a little shocking, I would say, at first when you start that leadership journey, because you're suddenly responsible for somebody more than yourself.
But when you translate that into starting a company or entrepreneurship, it's the same kind of thing. You're starting off sometimes with a foundational set of knowledge and skills and maybe some experience, but there's also a lot you don't know. And so you're set up and you have this, what do I want to call it, maybe this kind of confidence that you can overcome that unknown and that fear of the unknown to take on a challenge of starting a business or any sort of challenge that you might have, because you're just going to work through it. And that's really, to me, the biggest thing about an entrepreneur is you've got to learn how to work through things, which is the same way you get taught in military with leadership. You're just going to have to work through some things at times and have the confidence and the ability to do that.
TINA SEMOTAN
Well, and Blake, just to ask you, I was actually talking with, I was at one of our APs yesterday doing a presentation. We were talking about change management, and as we go through some of these transformations that we're going through at Acrisure right now, he was saying, "Yeah, man. You were drumming up a whole bunch of stuff that I remembered of trainings in the Marines." And one of the things he said is a saying that he's carried with him to this day and he's been out for quite some time, but he said, "I just remember one of my drill sergeants saying, 'You have got to get comfortable in the uncomfortable chaos, and if you can do that and keep working through it, that's how you outperform and outwin a lot of people.'" And it just resonated with me, because I have heard so many of those same sayings through my career, and they ring true to this day in corporate America. Same thing.
JOHN PELLE
As a civilian, there's probably a few things we may want to leave in that part of the world. I'm ashamed to admit I was a minute late to this recording, and Tina, you had told me that that would've probably been 10, 20 or 30 pushups. So in my opinion, the influence is good, but I'm not sure on how much we want to actually bring that into a company.
So obviously, you two are blending worlds. You're coming from one very different part of life into another. What were some of the things that were jarring in that transition? "This may have worked in the Air Force, but now that I'm an Acrisure, now that I'm building a business, Purple Mountain Solutions, that's definitely not going to fly," pardon the Air Force pun.
BLAKE MATHIES
Yeah. So there's a few things I would say that are different obviously from the military side than from the entrepreneur, maybe private sector business side, probably a ton of differences, but some of the main ones or one of the main ones is you have to understand that because in the military, you have this all volunteer force, everybody really wants to be there, and there's this drive, there's this camaraderie, there's this everybody pushing towards the mission of we know what we need to accomplish. And so it's sometimes a little bit easier to communicate goals and vision and mission and a lot of those things where you give your team an idea of where you're going.
One of the things, Joe, my business partner, and I found out real early on, we've got about 238 employees now at Purple Mountain, and one of the things we kind of started to figure out is we needed to really clearly communicate those things for our company, because there's people who really want to be here and they want to grow a career in logistics and supply chain. There's other people who are like, "Hey, I'm just using this to pay some bills," and so they're not as probably intellectually or emotionally invested in this career. They just kind of view it more as a job versus a career.
So it was a lot different, and it was one of those things we needed to learn, and probably struggled with in the beginning, was that that varying degrees of people who wanted to, at what level they wanted to excel at. Some wanted to be great, some wanted to be good, some were like, "I don't really care." And learning some of those motivation things that we learned in military leadership helped some, but then at some point we just had to kind of admit to ourselves, we're not going to get everybody there to what we were used to in the military.
JOHN PELLE
So Tina, Greg Williams, who many folks know, Acrisure's co-founder, chairman, and CEO, has spoken a lot about if you have a choice, you'd always rather have a player-led team than a coach-led team, meaning you'd rather have your employees not only executing the strategy but really well versed in that strategy. So it sounds similar to what you're saying, Blake, you could set the vision, you could set the plays on the field, but if it's a coach-led team, you may be lacking in the execution. Tina, what are your thoughts on that? You've talked about your journey as a Managing Partner, you are building a team, you're hoping that team continues to be player led. How is that working so far in your transition?
TINA SEMOTAN
Absolutely. So yeah, I think a couple of things come to mind with that, John and Blake. One of the things that's always come through to me is right now, I think the biggest lift that I have in the transformation that we're going through here to the regional platforms is I am trying to connect with the hearts and minds of the employees, and I really feel that that is the most important thing that I could be doing right now as a leader. And I think, Blake, to your point, I agree with you. I think in some contexts, that's easier in the military setting, because they're there and they took an oath and they raised their hand and said, "I want to be here, I want to do this." And in some instances when you decide to go through transformational changes, although the groundswell formed this here for Acrisure and the APs came together, so more of that player-led approach, even though they're saying they want to come together, they don't quite even know what that all means yet.
That, to me, as a leader, I think one of the things that I did pull through, John, is that ability to create this vision through storytelling or connecting emotionally or creating a vision that's so vivid, literally when you tell it's almost like you feel the colors in the story to say it no differently. Some of the best military leaders that I've had were able to do that. In some of the most dire or sad spots that you might be in, they had this ability to create this vision that was so colorful that man, you'd run through anything to help do that.
And I think right now as we go through the transformation, that is one of the things that I'm really trying to dig down deep and pull back out of me as I go through this is because that's what forms the foundation of trust, and that's what really pulls the hearts and minds together, that keeps those players wanting to step up and lead along with me. So that's sort of my thoughts in it, and I don't know, Blake, if that resonated anything for you in that too?
BLAKE MATHIES
So July 31st, we acquired another company in the same space, and they were slightly smaller than we were, but you're bringing together almost two equally-sized teams. And it was tough, because it goes back to that change management. There's the business things that you're trying to change, like the software and the vehicles, company culture. "Hey, here's how we do things." Maybe there's a difference in the sense of urgency, maybe there's a difference in customers. The whole transformation through merger, acquisition, changing an organization is a big deal.
JOHN PELLE
And I think the difference at Acrisure, fortunately, has been the M&A step has occurred, and so for many of our partners, they've already been part of Acrisure for as long as they've been part of Acrisure until the rebranding, and I think everything else you've said completely resonates, the identity of the agency and the company that you were part of. I think, Blake, what you're saying and what, Tina, you're acting on every day is that people are going to do their best work when they know where they're going. Whether that's in life or in a company, if you know the strategy, if you know the outcome that we're all trying to achieve and your role in that outcome, you're going to be a ton more effective than if you're just seeing yourself on an island. So Tina, to bring it to you, how does Acrisure's just boldness and vision play into your change management plan?
TINA SEMOTAN
It really does. I think obviously I have the core foundation of change management through my military training and certification in it, but the boldness that we are taking with regard to this transformation within Acrisure is definitely about ... I'm purposeful in trying to pull people to a spot where when we're having our conversations, we're talking about the purpose and the meaning to them, or how this is actually taking what they built and the allegiance that they have to an amazing organization or agency that they built for 40 years or 20 years or whatever it may be based on the agency. And that piece of it is an integral part of the whole picture of what we're trying to build in either this region or the entire Acrisure organization, right? It's an important integral piece of it. And I think when you can pull that thread through to the purpose and where we're going to the bigger picture, that's when you get the buy-in, that's when you get people running up a hill no matter what, trying to make sure that they get the mission done.
When we miss that piece, when we don't connect it to them individually or we don't connect it to their agency and how that helps us for the bigger picture, that's when you lose them. And I think that's something where military trained leaders are trained in a couple of things. We are trained continuously from the day that we sign up for duty until the day that we walk out the door and retire or leave. It is constantly focused on what it means to be a leader, and it's always you are a leader individually first, and then you are a leader of others. But in that leadership is always a followership training that happens too, and so we are very good at making sure that everyone knows that it doesn't just rest on the shoulders of one person, and that leadership at any point in time can change.
And so that part of it is something I am trying to blend into how I go forward with this emotional integration into the regions is that I want more people to lean into leading. I will stand back and follow if there's someone better equipped in certain areas to do things. So trying to get that brought into it, I think, does help with driving people to that clear purpose of where we're going and why their piece of this is so important and the role that they play in it. They all have purpose, meaning, and value, and it's trying to make sure that they see that and feel that.
JOHN PELLE
So Tina and Blake, thanks again for your time. And again, most importantly, thank you for your service to our country. It's a huge part of Acrisure culture is respecting those who served and made the ultimate sacrifices you both have. I also really appreciate the fact that you've taken time, Blake, out of your business to come be on this program and give us a little bit of insight at what it means to be a client of Acrisure and just overall what it means to be an entrepreneur. And likewise, Tina, your insights and your observations are always welcome. So I hope we could find another time to have a conversation and just continue to pick up, but for now, to our listeners, thank you.
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