IAM823- Founder Serves The Hospitality Industry and Future Female Leaders

Christie Lawler is the Founder and Owner of CJL Consulting, a niche marketing agency that primarily serves the national hospitality industry, She is also the Founder and Director of The WITI Group, a nonprofit foundation that supports the future female leaders of the food and beverage industry through mentorship, emotional and financial support. Christie is also a host of the Lawler Out Loud Podcast, soon to be a published author, a public speaker and most recently she added inventor to her list of attributes as she just launched her own infusion line – JAB MiXOLOGY.

• CEO Hack: Meditation podcasts to help myself re-center
• CEO Nugget: Be happy and trust yourself
• CEO Defined: Leading your team with empathy and support first

Website: https://cjlconsults.com

Facebook: @cjlconsulting, @thewitigroup
Instagram: @cjl_consulting_llc and @witigroup
LinkedIn: CJLCONSULTiNG LLC and The WITI Group

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Transcription

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00:02 – Intro

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.

00:30 – Gresham Harkless

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the IMCEO podcast and I have a special guest on the show today. I have Christie Lawler of CJL Consulting. Christie, it's awesome to have you on the show

00:41 – Christie Lawler

Oh, thank you for having me. I'm looking forward to this.

00:45 – Gresham Harkless

No problem. Super excited to have you on. Before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Christie, so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Christie is the founder and owner of CJL Consulting, a niche marketing agency that primarily serves the national hospitality industry. She's also the founder and director of the Witte Group, a nonprofit foundation that supports the future female leaders of the food and beverage industry through mentorship, and emotional and financial support. Christie is also the host of the Lawler Out Loud podcast, soon-to-be-published author, a public speaker, and most recently she added inventor to her list of attributes as she launched her own fusion line, Jab Mixology. Christie, are you ready to speak to the IMCEO community?

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01:29 – Christie Lawler

Oh my gosh, I'm so excited.

01:32 – Gresham Harkless

Me too, You're doing so many awesome things. So I wanted to kind of rewind the clock a little bit, and hear a little bit more about how you got started. Your CEO story will let you get started with all the awesome things you're working on.

01:41 – Christie Lawler

Yeah. So I started this company back in 2009 while I was working on my master's degree. I launched it, started it, and it just kept me busy while I finished work on my advanced degree. But I had a wonderful opportunity to come up that I couldn't pass up. So I went back into the full-time workforce and worked in national account sales as a National Account Manager for 2 different global brands for about 7 years, 8 years. I don't, I can't remember. Honestly, it was a while ago. But when I, that kind of grew a little tired and old and there were some changes And I launched back into working for myself in 2017. And then it's just been a beautiful uphill battle with a lot of awesome hurdles that I've been able to jump over ever since.

02:48 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. It always seems like the entrepreneurial journey is that of really high highs, sometimes not-so-high lows, and everything in between and all around. So I know it's touched on a little bit when I read your bio. Can you take it through a little bit more on what you're doing, your companies and your brands, and how you serve the clients you work with?

03:09 -Christie Lawler

Yeah. So I am the person or 1 of the people, there are a few companies out there that do what I do, but when you go to a chain restaurant and you see their beverage menu, that is my work. That is what we do. We work with these national organizations to craft their beverage program that speaks to their consumer demographic. So whether it's focusing on trends and jumping well outside of the box or tweaking what already works through their operational specialties, we create these beverage training initiatives, beverage programs, menus, and marketing calendars, all suited around the food and beverage side of the hospitality industry.

03:59 – Gresham Harkless

Nice, I definitely appreciate that. And I think so many times, I'm glad you kind of articulate that or helped us see exactly like what we do on a regular basis because I think so many times we don't realize all those things are kind of perfectly I guess planned and strategized to make sure that you are speaking to your clients and your ideal clients and customers.

04:21 – Christie Lawler

Yeah, there's a lot of data and trend information and consumer data that goes into every single decision.

04:30 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely, absolutely. And so what would you consider to be what I call your secret sauce, the thing you feel kind of sets you or your company apart and makes you unique?

04:40 – Christie Lawler

I would like to think that there are a couple of things, egotistically driven. I did, I made decisions when relaunching the company just a few years ago that would set us apart because when you have a competitive set and you know what they do really, really well, you want to find what they're not doing, where their gaps and focus are. And since I've worked with or for every single 1 of my competitors, I was like, this is the thing that I always needed on the supplier side. This is what I always saw as a gap in the buyer side.

So we don't mark up our outside services. So when we're printing menus, the cost that is being paid by the client is the cost that we're also paying. It's there's no markup. And typically it can go from 10 to 25 percent markup. So if you're printing a hundred thousand dollar beverage menu, the fact that it's only costing them a hundred thousand dollars and it's not costing them a hundred and 25000 dollars, that's a big ROI.

So I wanted to create ROI as a point of differentiation, but I also wanted to make a social impact in our industry because this is my bread and butter and this is where I've lived for my career. I wanted to make it better and improve the areas, especially for women where I saw opportunities in. So that's kind of the genesis part of it, a little small part of it, of me launching my nonprofit foundation.

06:21 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I definitely appreciate those. The ROI piece is a huge thing and being able to know the industries, know the competitors as you spoke to and know them very, very well, and be able to see what it was maybe lacking or maybe wasn't an opportunity I was taking advantage of and be able to do that. And I love the power that I think sometimes we forget that we have when we're CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business owners, and not only able to obviously create phenomenal products and services but as you touched on that social impact where a lot of times getting that opportunity to see something that is not there and be able to kind of not just create for yourself, but also create for so many other people and create and provide those opportunities so that other people can succeed as well.

07:06 – Christie Lawler

Absolutely. And when I was really taking a looking glass at the situation, I was like, what would I want? Right? Like if I were spending the money, where would I find the most value? Also, it's really important that my personal ethos bled into the way that the company operates because I want to be a full partner, just not a cog in the wheel. I want to be a member of their team. I want to integrate fully with their brand so that I understand their needs from a very basic and core level so that when we're doing stuff, I'm not giving them ideas that don't work. I'm giving them ideas that are actionable.

07:50 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And it kind of sounds like, correct me if I'm wrong, you're an extension of what their brand is and what they're hoping to accomplish because you're so aware of exactly what they want to be and who they are as a business and organization and probably individually. So it starts to become an extension of their brand because you're able to produce those products as a result of it.

08:10 – Christie Lawler

Absolutely. I integrate. I behave as though I'm a member of the team on their side because it's the best way to understand what their needs are. And I'm lucky that I'm able to do that. Because a lot of times, it's you you're too busy, and you just focus on the data points, and you don't engage fully. And I've been on both sides where I've been employed by an employer and I've been doing the work and I'm like, I need to know more about this client. I need to be more integrated with their brands and their strategic direction. And now I can set the tone for that.

08:49 – Gresham Harkless

I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

08:59 – Christie Lawler

Well, I have gotten really into meditation podcasts to help myself re-center. To 1, have better and more restorative sleep because I don't sleep a lot, as many entrepreneurs can attest to, you're constantly working, right? You're constantly thinking your brain doesn't slow down and oftentimes I will wake up at 03:00 in the morning and start working because I just can't go to sleep with all of the ideas in my head that's not healthy It's not sustainable and I don't want to live that way even though I don't mind getting an idea that wakes me up in the middle of the night and it's something I can take action on It's also just not productive for the rest of the day ahead So I've found some meditation podcasts that have totally changed my sleep. And that restorative nature of my sleep now in the past few months, this is a new development has really impacted my ability to get things done in the waking hours.

10:03 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. So let me ask you this, what do I call a CEO nugget? So that could be like a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell a client or if you hopped into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

10:17 – Christie Lawler

Oh yeah, absolutely. I should have done this years ago. The nugget that I often have to remind myself of that I often share with others is you just have to trust yourself. Stand on your ground always. Because if you don't trust yourself, no 1 else will. And why should they? So trust your gut, go with it. Especially if you're an entrepreneur a founder or a CEO, or you're launching any kind of business or brand, trust your gut, you're going to get advice from everybody. And that's wonderful. And it's always useful. But always go back to what you feel is the right direction for you. Because at the end of the day, if you're in business for yourself, you're the only person you're going to answer to.

11:30 – Gresham Harkless

That's extremely powerful. Because I think yeah, you're right. I think so many times we forget who we have to answer to at the end of the day. Even at the end of you know, our business day, our lives and everything the person that's usually in the mirror is the person that you have to know, did you, you know, do all the work that you could do to try to make things happen. Did you trust yourself when you had the opportunity to do that? And I think so many times it can get so noisy that we start to measure ourselves according to other people or other metrics or other things, or this person or that person that sometimes we lose ourselves in that voice that you kind of spoke to as well.

12:04 – Christie Lawler

Yeah, absolutely.

12:08 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. So now I want 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 Christie, what does being a CEO mean to you?

12:19 – Christie Lawler

That's a good question because it's kind of difficult. I love difficult questions. I think I don't call myself a CEO because I feel like you have to have like, like 10 people on your team, at least to be a CEO of anything. But I, I'm a founder and an owner. And that's the title I've given myself. But I feel like to be in that position of leaving a team, no matter how small or how large, is to lead with empathy and support first. So that is, I've always put my team ahead and their needs ahead of my own.

I know that if their needs are met, we'll all meet our strategic goals. And I can't do what I do without the people in my network and on the teams that are supporting the ideas. And I also really, really, want to always take ideas from others because just because I'm in the leadership role per se doesn't mean that I have the best ideas or the best ways of doing things. And I find that the great ideas come from interesting places. Like we can't always have the new best idea every single day. And that's where our team comes in. So listen to them, support them, help them love them treat them like they're your family, or your best friend, and make sure that all of their personal needs are met so that when it comes to work, they're there for you. And you build that loyalty and trust and mutual respect.

14:16 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. I love that. I love that empathy and, you know, of course, how important it is to not just have a team but empower the team, listen to your team, you know, all those things that sometimes we can forget. And the saying is, is, you know, teamwork makes the dream work and when you have a vision, you have a goal, you have somewhere you want to be, we're almost nowhere without our team and the people that we have around us to make us successful and sometimes look even better than sometimes we might always seem to be. So I truly appreciate that definition. I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know and of course how best I can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.

15:01 – Christie Lawler

Absolutely. I mean, the best way to reach the company or myself is through our website and that's cjlconsults.com. And that's where They can find ways to reach us. They can find out about us. They can find out about the products that we've created. They can find out about our nonprofit foundation. It's all in 1 place. And honestly, that's because it makes it easy for me to manage the website if it's all in 1 place. But no, I would just love the opportunity to work with more people and learn more about different companies and their needs and how what we do can make a greater social impact in our world.

15:52 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. We'll have the link in the show notes as well too to make it even easier as well. I truly appreciate you, Christie, for all of the awesome work that you're doing and reminding us of what as well to have the impact that we can have socially and a lot of the ventures that we have and things that we don't see in the world or in the business world or outside of that as well too and how we can, you know, make an impact from the vantage point that we are. So I truly appreciate you again, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:21 – Outro

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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