IAM259- CEO Offers Thought-Leadership in Digital Transformation

Staci L. Redmon is the President and CEO of pioneering information technology organization, Strategy and Management Services, Inc. Staci brings her 20+ years of DOD experience to the forefront of the digital transformation by applying military grade processes solutions to the information technology innovations panorama. With an excellent understanding of information technologies role in the modern organization, Staci offers thought-leadership in the most complex and current problems of the digital era. With a dedication to serving and a passion for learning, Staci looks to the future with the goal of staying ahead of the curve and finding success for those organizations that need it most.

• CEO Hack: Bounding principle- (1) It's okay to say no and pass the opportunity to someone else (2) Delegate to make your life easier (3) Limit checking emails to a couple of times and a certain period of time
• CEO Nugget: (1) Find your passion (2) Pay attention to the blind spots  (3) Every opportunity is a learning experience
• CEO Defined: Leadership, building trust and being responsible

Website: https://getsamsnow.com/

Twitter: @getSAMSnow
Facebook: @getSAMSnow
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/strategy-and-management-services-inc-sams-/

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Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:26

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresham from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Staci L. Redmon of Strategy and Management Services, Inc. Staci, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Staci L. Redmon 0:38

Oh, it's so great to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

Gresham Harkless 0:41

No problem. I'm super appreciative of you taking some time out to hop on the podcast and what I want to do which is read a little bit more about Staci so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Staci L. Redman is the president and CEO of pioneering Information Technology Organization Strategy and Management Services, Inc. Staci brings her 20-plus years of experience a DOD experience to the forefront of the digital transformation by applying military-grade processes solutions to the Information Technology Innovations panorama with an excellent understanding of information technology's role in the modern organization.

Staci offers thought leadership in the most complex and current problems of the digital era with a dedication to serving and a passion for learning. Staci looks to the future with a goal of staying ahead of the curve and finding success for those organizations that needed the most. Staci. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Staci L. Redmon 1:34

I am. Thank you

Gresham Harkless 1:36

No problem. So the first question I had was to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. And what led you to start your business?

Staci L. Redmon 1:43

Oh wow. So I think for most CEOs, you know, everything starts with a passion. So as a former Army sergeant, I would say the skills and experience that I gained were significant. In my decision to start my own business, I realized a need for the services that I was able to provide.

And in 2008, I began my SAMS journey, I was sitting at the Pentagon going through a weapon systems review, and basically watching budget decisions and investment decisions being made and realizing that there may be a better way to do this, especially when I was in uniform, hoping to get some of this equipment that we were making decisions on. It just impacted me in such a way that I thought, okay, if there's gotta be a way better way to do this, and I was open to exploring it and took that leap of faith and which led me down the road to creating SAMS.

Gresham Harkless 2:40

Absolutely. I love that. And I love you. No, thank you, first and foremost for your service. And I know that it takes an incredible amount of discipline to do that and to be in the military. But definitely, do you find that it kind of translates over to you know, what you're doing today? Where do you have to have that discipline when you know, to have a successful business?

Staci L. Redmon 2:57

Oh, absolutely. I mean, there's so many attributes that we either enhanced or learned in the military that translate to entrepreneurship, you know, and I often have the opportunity to speak to veteran business owners, especially those who are just starting off and you know, help them correlate some of those things, such as, for example, going into, you know, austere environments and making decisions with little or no information, but having to make them quickly and make them just based on your intuition. That's a lot of like entrepreneurship is, so there's a definite correlation there.

Gresham Harkless 3:34

Yeah, absolutely. Sometimes you have to take those steps without knowing if there's even a staircase, you know, beyond that, you just have to take it sometimes step at a time, and just try to make sure that you make it as calculated as possible. So that makes perfect sense. And I wanted to hear a little bit more about what you're doing with SAMS can you tell me a little bit more about how you guys are serving the clients you're working with?

Staci L. Redmon 3:51

Sure. So SAMS is a lifecycle technology solutions provider, and we serve clients who are looking to transform their environments through automation, digitally enhanced technologies, and other technical capabilities.

Gresham Harkless 4:05

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Is there a certain segment that really resonates with me most I feel like technology is really transforming literally every single industry. But do you find that there are more that are kind of more apt to you guys working with?

Staci L. Redmon 4:16

You know, it's funny, because it is touching so many different industries in many different ways. And I think that the nice thing about being so specialized in this domain is that it is industry agnostic. And we're looking at that and certainly exploring those opportunities across those different market segments. So it's nice to be able to take those capabilities to markets other than the federal space, which has been really instrumental in growing our business.

Gresham Harkless 4:45

Yeah, I could definitely imagine that and you know, machine learning and automation are definitely something that is the wave of the future and probably even the wave of now you know, with all these smart devices that are around so it's definitely great to hear that you're on the cusp or are ahead of the curve is Sounds like with a lot of these things.

Staci L. Redmon 5:01

Yes, we're all connected in some way everything's connected these days.

Gresham Harkless 5:06

Exactly. For better or worse sometimes, so.

Staci L. Redmon 5:09

Better or worse, yeah

Gresham Harkless 5:12

Nice, nice. Well, I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And this could be for you, or it could be for your organization. Well, what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Staci L. Redmon 5:22

I think the thing that sets us apart and makes us unique is really it's those client relationships, you know, we really strive to, to do more, and to take those additional efforts. And that's been a founding principle of SAMS since we began, you know, our values are that we're committed to our people committed to our clients, and committed to our community. And those three pillars are the tentacles of our success, and we really live those values and, you know, demonstrate those values and everything that we do.

Gresham Harkless 5:53

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And then let me ask you this. So when those people, you know, you are, you know, doing things in the community, how would they know that they would need, you know, to call SAMS, or there are any types of, I guess, indicators that help, I guess, an organization or business owner or a CEO to understand that they need to call you?

Staci L. Redmon 6:09

Well, it depends on the situation. I mean, there are certain things that you know, that we're specializing in, especially as the technology is changing so drastically. So we are learners, and we're entrepreneurs, and we drive that spirit here in all of our people, we believe in the value of continuous learning.

And we have to, especially as technology is changing so quickly these days. So we're seeing different solutions come about to different challenges, especially in the market space. But what we do is we take those opportunities, and we share those stories with our clients.

And we tried to instill some of those. And I hate to use this word because sometimes it's so overused those best practices. And we take those across our different clients because usually if it's happening to one client and one industry, it's happening somewhere else, such as security, or how do I make decisions about the cloud? My, I don't want to put everything in the cloud.

So I'm looking at a hybrid, how do I evaluate those alternatives? So we, you know, do a really good job at documenting those methodologies, and taking those good practices out of each of those solutions, and then driving those forward to each of our clients, helping them leverage some of those best practices that we've learned from other engagements.

Gresham Harkless 7:28

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And I feel like and you definitely probably know this better than anyone else would then CEO, entrepreneur, and business owner, they're juggling so many different things, it becomes very, very difficult, like you said, to be abreast of all the changes.

So a lot of times you have to have somebody on your quote unquote team or somebody within a phone call sometimes that you can reach out to because you're trying to figure out, like you said, how to figure out how to create a hybrid so that everything's not in the cloud, and some of its, you know, in a more secure environment, or how to secure what's in the cloud, and all those different kind of moving parts that sometimes you don't have enough time to be able to be expert in yourself.

Staci L. Redmon 8:03

Yes, because many of the time, you are reacting to a security challenge an environmental challenge a regulatory challenge. And you have to move quickly. And but you've got to do this smartly. And with, you know, the best information at hand. So

Gresham Harkless 8:23

Absolutely. So that's why you make sure that have experts that are at your fingertips, I guess you could say so that you can reach out and make those correct or as close to correct decisions as possible. So, now, I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app or book or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Staci L. Redmon 8:47

So, you know, I thought about this, and I thought, What do I do differently that you know, other CEOs might not do? And I really didn't come up with things that aren't different, but just really some founding principles. And the first one I have is learn how to say no, you know, it's okay to say no, without sounding derogatory. only accept what you can do and what you want to do.

Otherwise, it's okay to say no, and to pass that opportunity to someone else. You don't have to be everything to everyone. I think sometimes we try to be and that's when we really put ourselves at risk. Absolutely. And then my number two hack is a delegate, we hire great people that make our lives easier. Let them do what we've hired them to do. And they'll thank us for it. Let them be successful. And then my last hack is to stop checking email. distracting, so limited to a couple of times a day for a certain period of time. If it's that important, the person will call.

Gresham Harkless 9:49

Absolutely you know, I love those CEO hacks, especially the last one. I've tried to make it a point to do a lot more time blocking so that I don't get caught in the email trap you can easily spend your entire life there because there are so many emails that you're getting in, so it's important to kind of make sure that you delegate a certain time. And if there are any, you know, big emergencies, like you mentioned, somebody will call, and then the power of saying no, and you know, and empowering, of course, your team is.

And that's kind of like combined, because a lot of times, you know, by saying no or not yet, you're allowing other opportunities to, you know, open up or realizing it's not the lane that you should be in, maybe you have a team member, or maybe it's for somebody else to do, but it allows you to be a lot better at what you do.

Staci L. Redmon 10:29

Absolutely. So I think yeah, again, not anything new, just general reminders about some really great roles.

Gresham Harkless 10:36

Absolutely, absolutely. I always say success leaves clues. So thank you for sharing some of those clues with us. And we'll definitely implement those as well. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice. Or if you can happen to a time machine. What would you tell your younger business self?

Staci L. Redmon 10:55

Oh my goodness, my younger business self. Wow, I've learned so much. You know, there's, there's so many things that I would probably tell myself, I would say, you know, definitely find your passion. First and foremost, find your passion, and do what you love. When you do what you love, it's not work and pay attention to the blind spots, because there are blind spots and you know, be prepared for them. They're going to happen, and there are setbacks, but ultimately everything is a learning experience.

And I always try to take it just as that is that every opportunity there's something rather positive or, or if you didn't have the outcome that you desired, there's a learning experience. So goes back to that continuous learning that we strive for, you're at SAMS everything is a learning experience. And you just take that as a as an opportunity to do it better than next time. So you know, don't beat yourself up too bad, and just continue to do great things.

Gresham Harkless 11:56

Yeah, you know, failure is never final unless you stop or unless you quit. So making sure that you, you know, take whatever might, you know, seem catastrophic. Sometimes it's not as bad as we seem, because we can learn from it. We can pivot we can learn, and do better the next time. So a lot of times, we just take a lot of that information, and then continue to do better and get better. You never stop doing that

Staci L. Redmon 12:17

That's right. It's a journey. It's a journey. And we should enjoy the journey and take the experiences and knowledge gained from it and improve upon it each time we go. Hmm,

Gresham Harkless 12:28

Absolutely. I love that. And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote-unquote, CEOs on this show. So, Staci, I want to ask you, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Staci L. Redmon 12:40

Um, that's a good question. Well, it means to me, you know, first is its leadership, you know, everyone is looking to the CEO, you are responsible for setting the direction of the company, you're responsible for the livelihood of not just your employees, but the families as well of those employees.

So, you know, I take that very seriously. And I always had, even throughout my military career been responsible for not just someone but a family of someone's, and that's important. And at the end of the day, you know, building that trust, setting those expectations so that that trust can be formed, and that those relationships are at their peak.

To me, that's a CEO, it's a visionary. It's someone who works and operates on a day to day on a minute to minute with genuine care and concern for so many, not just the employees and the families, but the people that they're serving.

And what I mean by that, as the clients that you're serving, there's so much more that goes into it than business, there's personal relationships that happen and evolve. And that aspect has to be part of it. And that genuine caring concern has to be part of it. Because for me when you're coming into an engagement, you're coming into it with passion and I think you get much more out of it that way than just looking at it as a business opportunity and numbers.

Gresham Harkless 14:16

Yeah, absolutely. I would definitely you know, echo that. And I appreciate you sharing that definition. A lot of times we forget that when you peel back the onion, so to speak of business is made up of people and those people have emotions, they have families, they have so many different things. So when you are making decisions, like you mentioned, you know, having that vision, just understanding all those different stakeholders and everything that's involved with that, you know, is definitely you know, important to remember as a CEO.

Staci L. Redmon 14:39

Yes, you're interacting with so many people on so many levels every day, and never forget that every day you have an opportunity to make an impact on someone even just by a simple hello you may have just made someone's day so you know don't forget that the little things make a difference

Gresham Harkless 14:59

Absolutely, absolutely. Well, Staci, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out. I truly appreciate you for, you know, giving your insight and your expertise as well too. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional, you can tell our readers or listeners and then how best they can get ahold of you.

Staci L. Redmon 15:16

Well, I thank you so much again for the opportunity. And it's so nice to meet you this way. And you know, if anybody would like to reach out to me, I highly encourage it. You know, I'm a huge advocate for mentoring and partnering and just sharing lessons learned with others. So I would welcome a dialogue they can connect with me on LinkedIn, I'm very easy to find there, or they could email me, and my email address is sredmon@getsamsnow.com.

Gresham Harkless 15:50

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And we'll have those links and that information in the show notes as well too so that people can follow up with you easily. But Staci, thank you so much again, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Staci L. Redmon 15:59

You too. Thank you.

Outro 16:01

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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