Episode 137: From Corporate HR Exec to Business Owner: Learning to Adapt

Mike O'Neill: Welcome back to Get Unstuck and On Target. I'm Mike O'Neill. Whether it's our team at Bench Builders working with a company, or it's me coaching a CEO one-on-one, getting leaders and companies unstuck is at the heart of everything I do, and that is exactly what this podcast is all about. Each week, we invite incredible guests who share their hard won experiences of getting themselves or others unstuck back on target and moving forward, I hope it gets you unstuck and on target as well.

Today's topic is going to, we're going to be exploring with our guest a bit about his. Experiences going from being a corporate HR executive to being a business owner. Joining me today is Monte McDowell. Monte is an entrepreneur and HR consultant. He's the owner and president of one of the ARCPoint Labs in Atlanta, Georgia.

They're a full service lab testing service. So Monte brings to this role nearly 30 years of professional HR experience. He understands the importance of the healthy and drug-free workplace. So he is uniquely qualified to provide consultation to both HR and safety professionals because he has actually lived in their shoes.

Welcome Monte.

Monte McDowell: Thank you, Mike. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on.

Mike O'Neill: Monte, we've had a chance to, to get to know each each other over the last couple weeks or so, and I'd be less than candid if I didn't acknowledge that. A bit about your journey kind of mirrors my own journey. Like you I was in senior HR leadership roles and made the decision to become a business owner, to literally become an entrepreneur.

And I've been doing that for a while, and one of the common questions I get, particularly from folks who are still in the corporate world and they come up and they say, Mike, okay, you're a consultant, you're a coach. Oh man, it must be great. Tell me about, and there's this assumption that it's all roses and the like.

And personally that's not been the case. I love what I do. I love the clients I get to work with. I love the folks that I get to partner with out there, but it has its challenges. Would you kind of echo that? Has that transition from corporate HR to owning your business has it had its ups and downs?

Monte McDowell: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely Mike, I, I think you know, once the, you know, dust settles from the celebration of, Hey, I've got this new business and we're off and running, and you open your doors you start to realize, okay, I'm wearing more than just my HR hat that I used to wear. Even though I consider myself to be a true business partner and, and would help our leaders with different things and different organizations that have been a part of, it's not the same as being your own, the only marketing person, the only sales person, the only finance person, the only HR person within your organization, and having to wear all of those hats at the same time.

But it's, it's rewarding work, but it's, it's work. It's, it's certainly work. And, you know, not every day is, is how you want it to, to go. You know, you might have a great plan for the day and you're going to meet with a client and you're going to win it, win win the business, and it doesn't turn out to be that way.

Or maybe it's not a priority for them. So you have to come back and just do it all over again the next day and dust yourself off and, and try it again because because you're still feel, I'm sure you, you, I'm sure you probably feel the same way. You still like believe in your vision. Otherwise you wouldn't be doing this.

But sometimes that gets your confidence gets shaken and you try to figure out, you know, is this really the path I'm supposed to be on and should I be, you know, weaving a different path? So, so yeah. I mean, there are ups and downs. I enjoy. The fact that I've been able to build a really good team. We have two full-time staff members that have been with us for over a year now, and they're happy and, you know, they're, they're fulfilled from a, from a work perspective.

So I enjoy creating opportunities for people. So there's, there's plenty of ups to go with the, you know, not so great moments.

Mike O'Neill: Whereas we share a common background in corporate HR. When I chose to do what I do in, in forming a small consulting group for all practical purposes, I, I'm branding myself.

And therefore I had to start from scratch, come up with a name, trademark the name, all the things that kind of go with that. But I had a choice. I had a choice that I could do that or I could affiliate. And that sounds as if that's kind of what you did. You chose to become a business owner through buying a franchise.

Right. Can you walk us through a little bit about the process you went through? I can see why. You bought the franchise you did because of, its linked to HR, but can walk us through a little bit that, that process, as you were looking at options, what kind of led you to settle on what you did?

Monte McDowell: Yeah, great question.

So I would tell you that the decision to, to go into entrepreneurship was step one, right? Step two was then what type of business do I want to run or own? And mentors of mine, friends of mine who know my HR background immediately went to, you know, in terms of giving me advice, Hey, you should become an HR consultant.

You can run your own shop. You can go into companies and help them fix what's wrong, right? Or even going to like executive coaching. So I actually sat for a course on executive coaching and went down path of certification and all that. I had one of those epiphany moments that it just didn't feel different enough for me because I was essentially doing that work, but I would just be doing it for myself.

Right. So then I started to go down the path of ent of of franchise ownership because now it's what kind of work do I want to do? So I didn't necessarily say I wanted to be in lab testing. I, I wanted to own a business that would, that could utilize my background, you know, so in, in researching different franchises, Arc Point Labs was the company I chose because it could take advantage of my HR experience.

But also kind of get me into the clinical area, which my wife excels at. She is a nurse practitioner. And she helps us out as our, as our part-time lab director. So she's maintained her full-time position. But I felt like from a family run business it could certainly help to utilize the experience of, you know, in both, from both of our worlds, if that makes sense.

Mike O'Neill: That makes perfect sense. You looked at a number of, of franchises. It sounds as if what you're trying to do is how do I leverage who I am, what I have done? And in a way that might make sense. I was interested in inviting you on as a guest because you are relatively early. This process I have had on this podcast, folks who've been, you know, bought a franchise and maybe been doing it for a long period of time, but those early stages of business ownership I know that arc Point probably set you up for success, but there are things that you might not have anticipated.

You're what how long have you been the franchise holder?

Monte McDowell: For three years, we opened our doors January of 21, so two and a half years that we've been.

Mike O'Neill: So let's set the stage. January of 21. The world was in the midst of what, when you started your business.

Monte McDowell: The pandemic for sure. Yeah. And, and honestly, you know, from a lab testing perspective, you know, we, we certainly, you know, did our part to help the community recover from that by offering testing and vaccines.

Both in our lab, but also in a mobile concierge way as well. You know, for individual consumers as well as for companies that may need it, may have needed us to come on site. And, you know, people thought at that time potentially that that's all I wanted to do, but that's a short-lived proposition, right?

I mean, you, you can't expect that we'd be in that same situation for years to come. So that for me was more of a an add-on to why I bought this business. You know, so I, I went into it for the toxicology side to help employers and obviously the clinical side, but then it was almost like, oh, but you know, we also as a, as a franchise are doing covid testing.

I'm like, oh, okay, well great. Maybe that'll be a good way for us to at least get started and get off the ground. And it was the first year probably was a, a very different year than if I had started without covid and just started going after employers and, and that market. So it was definitely a different a different start.

But I think what it also did, we talked about the ups, ups and downs, you start to realize that you're devoting all your resources towards covid testing. As opposed to building up all of the areas of your business at the same time. So I think it delayed our start in terms of the, the toxicology side, but, but ultimately that's kind of where we were, you know, the need in the community at that time was to help.

People with testing vaccines get educated about what it is and what it isn't to help people kind of get back to work as well, so.

Mike O'Neill: You know, when I saw on your LinkedIn profile, you know that you own this franchise, I just made the assumption it's drug testing, DOT type matters. I had no idea of the scope of the kinds of testing that could be offered that even beyond corporate engagements.

Share with us a little bit more about the variety of testing that you all are capable of offering.

Monte McDowell: Yeah. Thank you for that. I will say that the foundation of the business is toxicology, right? So we, we've been in business for 30 years or more as a franchise and, and we have become experts in that, in that field.

The clinical side of the business, you know, kind of came about maybe about seven to 10 years ago. And we, as, as local owners are passionate about providing information to people and businesses to help them make better decisions. So for a business that's pretty obvious, make better decisions on your hiring practices, making sure that you're compliant, things of that nature.

But on the individual health and wellness side, in the state of our country and healthcare, everybody wants information, you know, and they know that they can get information in different ways than the standard of traditional, I'm going to go to my doctor, he's going to send me somewhere else and et cetera, et cetera.

In a lot of cases, it is truly just us providing information to people to make better decisions for their, for their lives. So that could be d n a testing. We have, you know, proactive health type screening where it's all about your DNA and what you may be predisposed for or at risk for. So cancer, cardiovascular type stuff.

So this is on the more advanced side of what we do. So we certainly do the routine things that you might go to any lab for like your hospital lab or whatever you might have to get your, your blood checked for thyroidism or you know, PSA or whatever it might be. But we do all of those things, but we also do the more advanced things that some smaller practices may not have access to.

Right. Then we also have individual consumers who are well versed in what they need and know what test they need. On a regular basis, and they can just come to us directly. So some of the benefit from coming to us is just cost savings from doctor's visits, lab fees et cetera, et cetera, as well as to be able to give you, you know, a 30% decrease or discount on typical labs that you might, that you might need.

But then also exposure to things that you may not know that you might need. So, nutritional type testing. Gut health, allergy tested, and food, food food efficiency and efficacy, that kind of testing where it's, it's really about making sure that whatever you're consuming is right for your body.

Think about how many folks need, you know, gluten-free meals, right? And the gluten-free household. You know, some of those decisions come from testing that we do, you know, so people might have ailments and. Issues health-wise that they're not sure why those things are happening and going to the doctor over and over again and not getting answers.

It might be because they're not getting the right testing that they need to uncover those answers. And then, you know, things that are really pointed pharmacogenetics testing is something that we offer now, which, which is really helping families, you know, get rid of the trial and error that comes from let's say a child that's on medication for ADHD.

That process, I've talked to several families about this is a painful process, not only financially but emotionally because they are, you know, getting prescribed medicines that may or may not work, you know, for the, for their child that may have ADHD. So now they're going back to the doctor. They're going to, they're going to increase the dosage or lower the dosage or try another medicine and, you know, see what works well.

This pharmacogenetics testing is really helping people figure that process out quicker. So DNA test of that child will reveal which medications are really good for them, will be effective for them, as well as that the medications that they may have an adverse reaction with. So that is, that's really starting to gain traction because again, people need information to better their lives at the end of the day.

And as a father of two, if my children had ADHD, I'd want to know faster. I nstead of this trial and error that people seem to be going through, so.

Mike O'Neill: You know, you mentioned the expectation of information. And you also mentioned that you sort, you sought out mentors as you were making this decision as a source of information.

I'm a strong advocate for mentors. I have been very blessed in my career. In personal life to be mentored by people who have helped me probably avoid some pretty costly mistakes. Who affirm when affirmation is needed, who might, would kind of correct me, where appropriate. You sought out guidance from mentors.

Early on. You're trying to make a decision on what to do. What did they get wrong?

Monte McDowell: I don't know that they got anything wrong. I, I think you know, when someone tells you that they're ready for a change, it usually starts with what they do today. What do they enjoy doing? What are they good at? What do they consider to be their expertise?

And then I think, you know, friends and mentors would say, Hey, I've seen other people get good off into HR consulting and they've done very well, so maybe you should try that. So I don't think they got anything wrong. I think I just don't, I didn't have anybody in my network that were franchise owners.

Right. So it's not like I, you know, had somebody had followed that same path and I can pick their brain about what was this, like, what would you, what would you tell yourself five years ago that you, that you know now, you know, that kind of thing. So I don't think anybody got it wrong. I think they knew who I am or who I was at that time and, and tried to give me some advice accordingly, you know, based on maybe what they knew, so.

Mike O'Neill: I didn't mean to set you up that they misled you. I didn't mean that at all. But what I, here's what I did pick up on Monte, and that is they knew you because you have the HR background, they knew your natural inclinations. They might not have known you as potential business owner or franchise owner.

You know, as, as you contemplating doing this there how long did this idea bounce around in your head before you made the decision? I, I'm going to move forward with this. Was this something that was quick or did it take a while?

Monte McDowell: So I, I have, I've kind of labeled this my pandemic pivot. Right. So this idea was born out of me working from home.

During the pandemic and being on my back porch and thinking that it's time for time to do something different. So my guess is probably it took four to five months at the most. So maybe by, by comparison, that's a quick decision, you know, four months to, to, to totally change what you're doing professionally.

And that decision, even though it was quick, it wasn't taken lightly. I talked to my, my main advisor, you know, Mrs. McDowell, and we, we prayed about it and, and talked a lot about, you know, what impact it would have on, on the family and, you know, how we would make things work because I knew that I wouldn't be paying myself for a while, you know, that kind of thing.

So, so yeah, it wasn't, it wasn't taken lightly, but relatively quickly. Between the time that I decided let's move forward and. Start attending some phone calls with the franchise group and talking to individual advisors within that franchise group, you know, talking to, you know, to the banks and things of that nature.

So, yeah, it was pretty quick. You know, we, we were able to find our, our location fairly fast as well. That was probably us taking advantage of the market. You know, during the pandemic there wasn't a whole lot of folks who were looking for, for leasing, right? So, so the building that we found to lease.

It was owned by somebody who's a, a doctor, a practice administrator for a doctor's office. And they were looking to rent out the, the second or the, the B side of their suite to another doctor. But then, you know, after they purchased the building, that's when the pandemic started. So, so it was kind of tough times for them to kind of figure out, you know, who's going to take this extra property?

And then I, I walked in and said, Hey, I'm looking for something exactly like this. So the timing was really, really good for us to be in a, in a great space. I mean, we get complimented quite a bit on where we are, how easy we are to find, as well as the cleanliness and the professionalism of the office. And we, we try to live those values every day.

Mike O'Neill: Yeah. I like the fact too is that when people pull up to that building, immediately the messages medical. Yes. It's, it's not like it's a restaurant. It all kind of ties together. When people walk into your business, what are they looking for visually? They're looking for what?

Monte McDowell: Let me make sure I understand your question.

Mike O'Neill: They walk in, they're first time visitor. What, what's important to that first time visitor when they walk in the door?

Monte McDowell: Well, okay, so, I'm going to, I'm going to frame this in, in a certain way, so people who come to us, it's not their first time being in a doctor's office. It's not their first time being in a lab.

That environment is not different. I think the experience that they have is different. So let's take the, let's take the person who comes to us for pre-employment drug screen. Yeah, so they may have had five jobs in the last, last 10 years. Who knows? But they're used to the process. They're used to going to, I'll, I'll use the names, LabCorp, Quest, or whomever, and they have a certain experience, and that's what they're expecting when they see us.

And unsolicited, we get a lot of comments. Either I hear it or my staff hears it, where they're like, wow, this is different in terms of what their expectations were, so, if you go out to Google now, you'll, you'll find reviews, you know, left by people who have that, who describe that same experience.

I was expecting this, but I got this. And we feel really good about it because we're, we're, we're serious about cleanliness sterilization. When you walk in, it smells nice, you know what I mean? It's not, it's not sterile. Sterile, but, you know, it smells nice. You, you, it's welcoming.

There's a TV in the front. You know, the front reception area is pretty inviting. You know, the lighting is good, so you feel safe, you feel like you're in a professional environment. Our staff likes what they do, so generally speaking, they have a smile on their face when they walk in. They're going to greet you and, and say hello and ask you what, what you need and if they have, if you have an appointment, that kind of thing.

So, So I think people kind of expect one thing, kind of a cold, sterile kind of environment, and what they get from us is more of a professional, open, warm, inviting kind of environment.

Mike O'Neill: Great answer. Thank you. You know, money, you have done corporate work. You are three years into owning your own business, growing that business, adding staff and the like.

Can you reflect on a time where perhaps either you or a client got stuck? When that happened, what did it take to get unstuck?

Monte McDowell: So I'll give you a couple of examples. I, I think for myself, getting unstuck was a couple of different times in my career where I took a detour that other people may not have just based on the trajectory, the trajectory of my career at that time.

So, not to go make a hugely long story, but when you. An HR generalist kind of path, right? So an HR rep, manager, director, VP. Typical path, when I got to the HR manager level at a manufacturing facility, my manager at the time who was also fairly new to managing me and knowing me said, Hey, you're pretty young in your career and you're already at the manager level.

You know, my plan for you is probably be in this role for a good seven to eight years, and then we'll talk about other roles. And I looked at him. That's not my plan. So we, we laugh about that to this day because you know, I think he was used to providing really good mentorship and people kind of doing what he suggested that they do.

And for me, I was just like, well, I hear you, but we just met and you're telling me that what you're, you're plan is for my career and my life and that I don't like that. You know, so I told him that at some point I wanted to get into the HR technology or HRIS side of things. Which then led me later on, after a couple years to land a position in HR systems within the same company.

So it takes conversations like that to get unstuck, to let people know what you want to do. Right. And then, you know, and making those detours that maybe a lot of people wouldn't make. You know, I had a lot of my friends within the organization who were like, you're really on the, on the right path. Why would you go into HR systems?

There's no future in that. And I'm like you don't see it. But I, I wanna see what happens behind the scenes, which I think will make me a stronger HR generalist in the field. And that's what ended up happening. But it was kind of a unique role because at that time we were changing HR systems. So they, they act, they took advantage of the fact that I had the HR.

Generalist kind of credibility. To be able to train my peers at that time who are in the field. So it's like, okay, Monte tells us that this is going to be good for us, let's move forward instead of complaining about, you know, that kind of thing. So it helped my career and then it helped me return to the generalist kind of area at a later time, at a higher level, just because I had that behind the scenes exposure to what makes things run from a benefits payroll kind of perspective.

So that's one example. The second example is a typical one that you might have as an HR professional, working with your customer base, your internal customer base. And there are several times when people have been stuck in their careers feeling like they're not going to get ahead, you know, complaining about their manager, that, you know, that person's never going to support my development to get further in ahead.

And then they come into my office to, to get coaching and counseling on that. Right. And usually that conversation ends with me saying, do you even wanna work here? Right. You know, oh my gosh, how can my HR person ask me if I wanna work here? That's not what he should be saying. Well, you came to me for advice and if I consider you to be a work friend, I'm going to tell you like it's, and there are times when you may need to exit an organization if you're feeling un, like if you're not feeling valued.

We'll find an organization that will value you. Right. Or have the conversation with your manager. Have you even thought about taking your manager off for lunch and just having a conversation out of here, outside of here? Have you built that relationship? That's not a one-sided thing. You know, I tell people all the time that in order to manage your career, you need to manage it.

You can't wait for somebody to tap you on the shoulder to tell you, Hey, here's the next job. So, Getting unstuck for a lot of folks that I've worked with and supported has really about been about challenge them, challenging them to ask themselves the hard, difficult questions about what do they want, and that answer may change whether it's March 15th after bonuses have hit.

Versus November and it's the dog days of the year where everybody's trying to cram in last minute initiatives so that they can get a good bonus. There, there's that dichotomy of, I don't even know if it's that dichotomy, but it's really about can you assess if you're actually stuck, truly stuck, or is it truly situational?

Because people can feel stuck just because they got a bad performance review, but they may not feel stuck after they've really killed a great presentation in front of them senior leadership. Right. So that, that's kind of my, my, my thought process in terms of people being stuck is really helping to, they're helping them to assess are they truly stuck or are they just having a moment because there are 265 days in a year, lot of work days in a year, 2080 work hours, their days, you're going to feel great and days you're not going to feel great.

So identify what stuck means. Does it mean that you've been at the manager level and you've been wanting to get to the director level and it hasn't happened in 10 years? Sure, that's probably what it means. But what are you doing effectively to make that change happen internally as well as looking for jobs maybe on the outside?

Mike O'Neill: Monte those are two great examples. Thanks for sharing that. I was introduced yesterday to an assessment. It's like, 12 questions. It's a grit index, g r i t. How much grit? And I need to share it with you, but here's my expectation. If you were to take it, you are rated on scale one to five.

Five being very, very gritty. You show a lot of grit in that. There's something about the, the two stories that you just. Shared that would indicate to me, you probably would've if you took it today, scored a bit higher on that grit index because one, when this person came to you and says, my plan for you is a sixth to eight year timetable, and you were gritty enough to challenge that.

Two in your role internally with HR, when you have that conversation, when they come to you, to be willing to look them in the eye and really ask the hard questions. How has grit factored into your life as an entrepreneur? Is that important?

Monte McDowell: That's a really good question. I would say, Everything helps, like when any, any kind of experience that you gain is going to help you in the next thing that you do. And I don't know where, where, where, it hasn't for me, I, I don't care if it's working for a manager that I didn't care to work for as much.

I learned from that individual in terms of how not to be a leader, right? But as a business owner, I think there's a certain level of connections. That maybe I was able to gain from my past that I can, that I can learn from. So if there's something that I'm struggling with from a sales perspective, I supported salespeople in the past, I might be able to pick up the phone or get on LinkedIn with somebody that I used to work with to ask a key question, right?

But I think it's also the grit of not giving up or not being deterred by a no. And I didn't have that initiative. That was, that was one of my fears kind of walking into this is I've never been in business development, never been in sales. What am I going to do when the first person says, no, I don't want your service.

Because that's, that can be life changing, right? Because now you're, now you're thinking, okay, is that the first of many nos? What does this mean? Right? And so the grit is to kind of understand that no might be a, not now. The grit might say, Hey, I understand that you have a good solution already in place.

Do you know anyone in your network who may, who could use my services? You know, feeling like the ball is always in your court. I actually, you know, met someone about six months ago just through various networking channels, and he and I were having having lunch and I can't remember how we got on the topic, but it was, it was really about business development and just me picking this brain a little bit, but.

What he said was, the ball is in always in your court. And I'm like, what do you mean? Like after they've said, no, how is it in my court? He said, it doesn't stop you from following up with them in six months. It doesn't stop you from sending them more information. If you have a new service to offer, it doesn't stop you from asking for a referral.

The ball is always in your court. And I thought that was profound. I don't know that he, you know, One or was aiming to give me that kind of advice in that moment, but it really resonated with me because now I felt, I felt more action oriented. It felt like just because we got here and it didn't go the way I wanted it to go, doesn't mean that I can't take it somewhere else.

Right. So maybe that goes back to the question about being unstuck. Right. And I think part of that challenge is there's always a way, you know, there's, there's plenty of leads, plenty of business to go after. Again, we believe in our vision, we believe in what we're doing to help companies. Just keep plugging away.

But I think that's where grit comes in, is just recognizing that there are, there's more than one way to skin a cat. There's more than one solution to a problem and just have to keep digging and keep learning.

Mike O'Neill: Well, it's very clear by this conversation that you've done just that. And that is you've learned from your experiences, positive and negative, you've added that to your understanding of how things work.

And through grit you keep. Plowing ahead. You know, as you reflect on this conversation, we've covered quite a bit here. Monte, what do you want to be the takeaways for our listeners?

Monte McDowell: Grow your network. Grow your network. I mean, we've spent a lot of time, Mike, talking about mentors and folks that have given me advice and I wouldn't, I wouldn't be where I'm at if I, if I didn't have a network, you know, so I don't care if that's a network that starts with when you're in college.

Or neighbors or other business owners, church members, whomever it might be, build your network and have meaningful, intentional conversations about helping them first and then figuring out how they can help you.

Mike O'Neill: Very, very good. Monte, if folks wanna reach out, connect with you, what's the best way for them to do that?

Monte McDowell: I am on LinkedIn more than I probably care to admit. So, so that, so LinkedIn is probably the best place. Monte, m o n t e, McDowell, m c d o w e L L. Certainly on well not necessarily Twitter as much, but LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram for the business as well. So our Point Labs of Atlanta Northeast is also has, is on those platforms.

Mike O'Neill: Got you. Now we will include those in the show notes. It is LinkedIn in which you and I first crossed paths, right? I looked at some of your posts and I said, you know what? I think you'd be a great podcast guest, and sure enough you have been. Thank you, Monte.

Monte McDowell: Thank you, Mike. I appreciate the conversation.

Mike O'Neill: I want to thank our listeners for joining us today for even more insights about getting unstuck and moving your business forward. You could subscribe to this podcast by going to Unstuck Show. While you're there, you also can sign up for our weekly management newsletter called The Bottom Line. Now, as a leadership strategist, I empower CEOs and business owners to unlock their full potential.

To strategically transform their leadership skills to drive team success and to foster business growth. So if you're trying to grow your business, but people problems have slowed you down, let's talk head over to bench-builders.com to schedule a call. So I wanna thank you again for joining us, and I hope you have picked up on some quick wins from Monte that'll help you get unstuck and on target.