Adam Torres and Marcy Brajkovic discuss the AED Summit.
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Show Notes:
Listen to the Associated Equipment Distributor’s annual summit coverage. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Marcy Brajkovic, President & Owner at Chatfield Global LLC, explore Chatfield Global and the Associated Equipment Distributor’s annual summit thanks to the support of our sponsor, Vanguard Captive Management.
About Marcy Brajkovic
Business-minded HR and Transformational Change leader with 20 years of experience developing people, teams, functions and organizations in the manufacturing, distribution, consumer products, pharmaceuticals, financial services, oil & gas and professional services industries. Broad HR experience includes both generalist and specialist roles in both public and private global organizations.
Strategic and systemic thinker, known for pragmatic business solutions and talent development. Full-cycle talent management experience (talent acquisition, inclusion and diversity, leadership / employee development, performance management, succession planning.) Operating model development/org design, transformational / organizational change management, organizational effectiveness, team effectiveness, learning / training, communications, and program/project leadership.
About Chatfield Global LLC
Chatfield Global LLC helps organizations address strategic challenges in three key areas:
- Talent & Leadership Development
- Organizational Culture & Change
- Human Resources
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres. And if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on be our guest to apply. All right. So today you are listening to a very special episode where we’re covering the AED summit.
And this episode is sponsored by Vanguard Captive Management, which helps manufacturers of all sizes with innovative captive finance strategies. You can learn more at van cap. Dot com. Today’s guest is Marcy break of it, who is president and owner over at Chatfield global LLC, Marcy. Welcome to the show.
Hi, Adam. Thanks so much for having me today. All right, Marcy. So I’ve been been talking to lots of people from the AD summit, having a lot of fun today and , happy to have you on. And 1st thing 1st, before we get into your business, what you do, and of course, we’ll talk about the AD summit. But 1st thing 1st, I see this 30 years you celebrated today in business, a family owned business.
Congratulations. Thank you. Super exciting. Really exciting to be second generation carrying the torch forward on our 30th year anniversary. Hmm. And you’re in, Midwest, yeah? We are. We’re out of Chicago, Illinois. Love Chicago. I’m from Michigan originally. Michiganders, Midwesterners, unite.
I’m in. Excellent. Excellent. I’m actually from Michigan originally myself. Ah, wonderful. Something in common. Yes. So, Marcy this year was my first year at the AED Summit, and I’ve been having a lot of fun. Fun learning about the industry, learning about what goes into it, the people behind it, and it’s really been a privilege.
Our sponsors brought us out there so that we could really get, they have a big commitment towards creating content and really shedding light, positive light on the industry and what’s going on. I’m just curious for yourself, AD summit. this your first, or have you been going for a while?
I know it’s 30 years in business, but overall, I’m just curious your relationship to AD summit. Have you been before? Yeah, we have been before. Chatfield being around 30 years, we had probably three different people predominantly involved at AED over the years. Patsy Savari, my mother and the founder, started it, and so she went years ago.
Alexis Gladstone is one of our team members. She’s been several times, both I think as a speaker and moderator in the education sessions, but also runs our Leadership Development Institute program with the AED. Organization. So she facilitates with them outside of summit. And then this is actually my first summit personally.
Oh, wow. Hold on. So you’re a newbie too. I like it. Yeah, it was fabulous. I love it because this gives me a little bit of a new perspective because and just for some context here. I mean, I cover conferences all around the country. I mean, everything from big, big conferences like CES. And in Vegas and milking conference and a bunch of different ones.
But one of the things that kind of struck me about this particular gathering, the summit, was that like it was the, the culture around it, like the people, the, the talking, the like family businesses, like what you said, 30 years in business, you’re not the only person there that were second or even third generation, some of the dealers, what do you think makes a D different or like, what do you think makes it special?
It’s actually a really terrific point. One of the. Coolest things I think about being there was not only the ability to walk the floor Walk the booths to connect with people but the education sessions the additional planned Events that they have are outstanding but having the time to connect and meet with people from all over really North America I met with folks from Pennsylvania folks from Canada the opportunity to just connect with people who have branches all over the country or North America, meet in person, because so many times everything’s virtual these days.
Yeah. So the personal connections, the meeting in the hallways, the small informal gatherings, the time made for that. It was just top, top notch. The whole event to me felt comfortable, friendly, collegial familial in a lot of ways, but certainly. Yeah. Very driven by connecting. Yeah. and thinking about you know, the plight of the business owner or the busy dealer owner or the network, like, and, being busy day to day.
And I feel like some part of this was also being out of your busy day to day and being there and having the opportunity to unplug to meet with your peers and, your colleagues and even your competitors, like to be in that network and to know, I feel like it’s different. Yeah. Yeah.
Especially considering some of the fact that the dealers are just, or just the organizations in general that were spread out, everybody’s in their own city, their own towns sort of come together. I feel like , that created its own energy. It does, and I think AED does an excellent job of bringing really talented speakers together, and of course, the distributors are amazing organizations and have so many of their own stories to tell.
So having the time to really understand the history of each of the service providers or the distributor networks, manufacturers in the business, really getting to know them at a personal level, tremendously valuable. Tremendously valuable. All right. let’s switch it up a bit. I do want to spend some time and get into chat field.
And I guess , I asked this question to everybody when it’s a 2nd generation business or even 3rd did you know you were getting into the family business as you’re growing up or how’d they get you in? I have, I’ve heard any variation of that story. , how’d you start out? Great question, as I think about the third gen and my kids coming into college about if they’re going to ever get here.
But, no, it’s How does mom suck me in if they hear this, right? That’s right. She’s coming after me. Go ahead. That’s right. That’s right. Now, it’s it was always an aspiration. My, my mom and I talked about this for years. Wow. For years. So she started the business when I was in college, and I watched her really make it happen.
And The things that are so wonderful about my mother, I was insecure about, nervous about as a young professional the networking, the connecting, the marketing, the business development side of it was something she was amazing at, and so for me, I always thought this wasn’t really going to be a path because I didn’t see myself as being good at that so I went and spent 25 years doing my own thing at companies like SC Johnson, Grainger, Grainger.
Annexter, also early career PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst Young. So I had a really great set of organizations to hone my craft and learn who I was and do my own version of what I’m going to call stakeholder management, which is really the sales and business development side of our business. And so over 25 years, I honed what, what I felt I needed to be able to, do this and carry forward what had become a really terrific Lifestyle and commitment from my mom to these businesses that don’t have full time or large HR organizations, but need great service.
to really cut to the chase, after about 25 years, my mom was thinking about retirement and wasn’t sure what she was going to. And yet I was ready to think about stretching into the family business and had always done some projects with her on the side. And supported her as a thought partner, but it was, I was ready. We talked about it. And mom wanted a, a three year transition. And I said, can’t work for you for three years, mom. But I can do six months. And it didn’t come to be the first time through. And so I’ve lived through the, challenge of trying to transition and it not being right the first time. But we came back at it two years later.
And by then, my mom and I had, a lot more conversations about what she wanted to go to, and it didn’t feel like she was just walking away. We had a plan for her to stay connected with a client or two that were really important to her from a long time perspective. Yeah. And yet really turn the reins over.
So was it ever a plan? Not really. It kind of happened, but it was Timing for us and a second go at it that made it actually stick and it’s been great. She’s still active, still has a client and is doing it her way now, but I’m really running the business. So it’s been great. What, what an amazing story.
And so what do you think is made Chatfield over the years? stay consistent and stay relevant in the industry. It’s hard nowadays for a company to stay, you know, for decades and decades to keep clients and to do what you’re managing to do. What do you think makes Chatfield so special?
Yeah, it sure is. The industries that we work in largely in construction, manufacturing, as the majority of our work, but we, work in all industries. We’re industry agnostic is what I usually like to say. Everyone is facing challenges around talent, and each generation in the workforce has its own version of that, in my opinion, and As we really look at what’s happening this year versus five years ago versus five years from now, the trick is really being fluid, adaptable, understanding what’s going on with each business.
So, of course there’s, you know, broader context that we pay attention to, socioeconomic things, political things that are happening. Generational change in the workforce that are really important to a human resources and organizational effectiveness company. But what’s made it work for us is that we’re, small.
We’re a niche player. We care about the relationship and about the individuals. It’s much more about supporting the business where they’re at and what they need. And that’s very personal for people who are oftentimes family business owners as well. Second, third gen and small business owners. So what’s made us successful, I think, has been the personal connections, the relationships that we build, that we’re not trying to grow and be something that we’re not.
We’re really trying to deliver our mission to organizations in a way that They need it and how it how it resonates for them. Hmm. Talk about a little bit about some of the organizations and I don’t mean by naming the organization, I mean the types of companies, whether it’s size, whether it’s revenue, whether it’s like who, typically gets the most value out of working with you and your team.
Yeah, it’s fascinating because we, run the gamut of working with 30 person organization. Manufacturing business that is, fully owned by one individual and they’re a 10 million business or 20 million business to a law firm, which has a single managing partner and is looking to grow and expand his partnership and grow his business, but is a smaller business than that to a country club.
who is a service provider to, their members and all the way up to a 300 million construction business, general contractor to a 2 billion international French owned, sorry, they’re German owned manufacturing business. So we work with some multinational. And we work with some really small businesses that remind me a lot of what my grandfather ran.
Hmm. what was it like for your multiple generation it sounds like entrepreneur even before this, because your grandfather didn’t start the business. I think you said your mother did, right? Correct. My grandfather had a plastics injection molding business years ago. What, was it like growing up in an entrepreneurial family like that?
That’s so interesting. I love it. Yeah, it’s definitely, I think, crafted who I am. Yeah. I don’t think I knew it. You know, when you’re at a big company like a Granger or an SC Johnson, and like I’ve had in my history, fabulous, great opportunity to grow, but sometimes, dare I say stifling for somebody who’s entrepreneurial and has a growth mindset.
It took me years to figure out that I was a build and grow person at my core. And so building and growing businesses and cultures has been part of sort of our family tradition for many generations. Both sides of my family and that’s a whole nother podcast, I think, but you know, it’s, it’s definitely part of what’s crafted me and why I’m so happy and honored to be in the role that I’m in today.
How do you live your mission within your own firm? like, how does that look? Yeah, so our, mission is to empower organizations to utilize their talent as a strategic advantage. And I, think often about, we joke sometimes about the shoemakers children going shoeless, right?
That old saying. Oh, yeah. It’s really important. I’m not a podcaster going podcastless, I’ll tell you that. No. Right, right. Gotta know where you’re at. Just throw it out there. Go ahead. I got episodes. No. I love it. I love it. Yeah, there’s something really important about making sure that I’m.
a buyer of consulting services for many years, consulting firms that would come in and sell services to us, me, in my role internal at a company I struggled when they talked about helping build culture or develop talent or set up growth plans for teams and people, but then really had No path forward for their own teams or people felt stuck in a role that they couldn’t escape because they were pigeonholed as something and they couldn’t get away from it.
So for Chatfield, we really focus on, and I personally focus on, hiring talent that is candid and vulnerable about what they do well and where they want to grow and develop. And what maybe they’re not so great at and where they don’t want to spend their time and we really take advantage of puzzle piecing together the team in a way That maximizes the strengths that everyone brings to the table And we do that more than just saying, consultant a you’re going to do this work because you’re good at it If that person’s also interested in Training and coaching, or if that person is an excellent writer and has a really strong sense of how to write effective communications in times of turmoil and change, those people may be tapped on the shoulder, not just to do the work, but to coach and develop others on our team.
Who have interest in learning those skills. So we really try to internalize what, what we share with our clients and apply it to ourselves. And frankly, it’s why we have incredible retention and talent growing all the time and I would like to say really happy employees. Amazing. Marcy, this has been a lot of fun having you on the show today and learning more about your story, Chatfield Global, your family’s story and legacy as entrepreneurs and really the context of what you’re doing within the industry.
So appreciate you coming on. If people are listening or watching this and they want to follow up and they want to learn more about Chatfield Global, how do they do that? Chatfield has a website, www. chatfield. global, and of course an email, info at chatfield. global, and we’re also on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
Fantastic. And for everybody listening, just so you know, we’ll definitely put the links in the show notes. So you can just click on that link and head right on over. And just a quick reminder. This episode was sponsored and this AED Summit Series is sponsored by Vanguard Captive Management, which enables manufacturers of all sizes to harness the power of innovative captive finance to achieve market success, prosperity, Parity and transformative impact.
You can learn [email protected]. And if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button. This is a daily show. Each and every day we’re bringing you new episodes, new content, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way on your journey as well.
So again, hit that subscribe or follow button. And Marcy, hey again. Now , I know I didn’t see you in person this time, but I’ll catch you next year at the a ED Summit. I’m sure looking forward to it. Thanks so much.