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When a company decides to improve the skills of their staff, an ongoing training program can be a real benefit — especially when the curriculum is designed just for you. Not to mention the bonus impact an ongoing training program has in keeping today’s employees happy and motivated. UMKC TalentLink Executive Director Jake Akehurst sits down to talk about that and more on this episode. Plus, a quick marketing tip about what your marketing budget can learn from the law of strawberry jam.
Transcript:
Jeff Randolph:
Welcome to the Small Business Miracles podcast. I’m Jeff Randolph. This small business podcast is brought to you by EAG Advertising and Marketing. We’re going to talk about marketing. We’re also here to celebrate entrepreneurs. We have marketing news and advice that business owners can use to keep moving forward. And this week, we sit down with Jake Akehurst from UMKC… But first, we’ve got another small business marketing tip to talk about.
In our marketing tip today, just a really quick tip, it’s just, I don’t know, some folksy wisdom for marketing. Things that will maybe help you as you’re trying to budget, as you’re trying to decide how many things, how many marketing tactics, how many tactical elements you’re going to need to get out there and make sure that you’re being heard as many places as you possibly can be.
And it’s the law of strawberry jam. Stick with me on this one. The law of strawberry jam would say that the more you spread it, the thinner it gets. And it’s the same with your marketing budget, the more you spread that budget out, the thinner it gets. And if you do that, you’re not going to have enough reach, enough frequency, enough impact, enough presence, enough impression, count, enough anything that it will take so that you’re really seen, so that you’re visible to that audience that you’re trying to reach.
So I would encourage you fully fund fewer tactics. Remember the law of strawberry jam. Try not to spread that too thin. Attack with a little more impact. Make sure that you’re putting enough, a budget and enough power, enough muscle, behind that tactic so that it’s getting you where you really need to go. That’s the law of strawberry jam, and that’s our tip for this week.
Welcome back to the show. I am here with Jake Akehurst. He’s the executive director of UMKC TalentLink. Jake, welcome to the show.
Jake Akehurst:
Good to see you, Jeff.
Jeff Randolph:
I know, we see each other all the time now at different things. Let’s talk about UMKC TalentLink, specifically, right off the bat, so everybody gets a sense of who you are and what you do. What is it you’d say you do here? Who is UMKC Talent Link? What do you do?
Jake Akehurst:
So UMKC TalentLink, we provide expert-led, professional development training typically for businesses or individuals. We are a entity that’s part of UMKC as a whole, but we are definitely very externally oriented. We’re out in the community quite a bit.
Jeff Randolph:
It’s not a traditional enrollment thing. It’s a very specialized, you are serving the community, serving their needs by going into businesses and helping them with their need.
Jake Akehurst:
Correct. A lot of times, we do enroll people. We do that as a non-credit or continuing education or terms that people will say, or even workforce development. So there’s certificates involved in courses, but typically we’ll use the words training or professional development.
Jeff Randolph:
Okay. And when you’re in the community and you’re talking to business leaders, what kinds of things are they asking for? Are there trends that you’re hearing or is it more of an evergreen need?
Jake Akehurst:
It’s interesting, because some things do stay a little evergreen over the time I’ve been in this field that things like soft skills or essential skills, the terms may change a little bit, but they tend to be those in the two buckets, the soft, and then what we would call the hard skills or technical skills. I don’t think that’s deviated a lot over time. It’s just the way that people describe it or talk about it. So an example might be a soft skill communication, well now, now communication can be a lot. It’s virtual communication, so it’s still communication, but there’s different-
Jeff Randolph:
Now there’s a nuance.
Jake Akehurst:
There’s a bit of a nuance to that. And podcasting, for example, I never thought I’d be communicating like this-
Jeff Randolph:
Oh yeah. True, true.
Jake Akehurst:
… so it does change over time.
Jeff Randolph:
That’s right. When you were a child, when podcasting was not a thing, you never knew that this was a skill you might need.
Jake Akehurst:
Exactly.
Jeff Randolph:
And is a CEO or one of the C-suite leaders defining what that is and what they need, and coming to you? How does that…
Jake Akehurst:
We, our audience is usually HR professionals, talent acquisition folks. Sometimes, it’s biz dev people that we’re out in the community talking with business development folks. And then it does go to maybe the owner, a CEO, if it’s a small business or a nonprofit. We tend to talk more with the executive level group in those organizations, because they’re little bit more, they just don’t have the size and scope of staff. So sometimes, we’ll come alongside maybe a training and development person to support them if it’s in a larger organization, or if it’s a smaller, we’re going to really talk to the entire exec team and then build out from there.
Jeff Randolph:
Figure out what they need.
Jake Akehurst:
Yeah.
Jeff Randolph:
Because I’ve heard there’s a shift in hiring, with emphasis on people skills and technical skills versus just having that degree.
Jake Akehurst:
Yeah, I’ve worked in higher education my entire career, and 20-plus years now, and I have seen that shift. When I started in the world of continuing education, people, you really had to explain it a lot. They didn’t really understand the difference between the degree, four-year degree, two-year degree, and what a certificate or training might look like direct to an employer and their employees. So I don’t have to explain that quite as much as I used to, which is nice.
Jeff Randolph:
Hey, that’s a bonus.
Jake Akehurst:
Yeah, it’s-
Jeff Randolph:
Right. That saves you time at a cocktail party.
Jake Akehurst:
… Has definitely saves a little time. But yes, there’s definitely that shift that we’re seeing. It’s not forsaking degrees or academic learning, it’s just understanding that people have to… When I started, the terminology, it was lifelong learning.
Jeff Randolph:
Oh, sure. Yeah.
Jake Akehurst:
Well, that continuous learning, these things, people have got to grow and adapt over time, and advances in technology and some of the hard skills, you’ve got to be continually learning. And organizations are looking for ways to retain people and grow. And frankly, people expect it as part of their job.
Jeff Randolph:
I want to talk about employee retention and how important employee retention is. And I realize if I just throw that out there, that’s the giant softball question that I could possibly ask. But I’m curious, either by a percentage, how are you seeing the companies approaching you with that? Are they focused on training people to do a skill that’s needed by the organization, or is this, are they providing this education and ongoing training because they want to retain people?
I think I may be seeing both of those things at the same time, but it seems like back in the day, we didn’t think about doing this as a way to retain people. We didn’t think about this as a way to make sure that we were keeping good people here and making sure that they had the skill to do the job we needed them to do.
Jake Akehurst:
It is a bit of a both/and, because when COVID, and a little bit of post-COVID, there was just a ton of movement and people leaving jobs and advancing and doing different things. And so, I think companies realized, “We really need to invest in our folks if we want them to stay and retain them.” And a large way you do that is give them opportunities for growth.
The other is, it is an acquisition thing too, where companies say, “Boy, we really need people.” And so, I will challenge them a little bit and say, “Well, you may have some folks within your organization that you may not have to backfill if you could retain them.” So there’s this challenge from employer side about attracting the best talent, retaining them. And this discussion just happens a lot. And I don’t know if there’s a magic answer to that-
Jeff Randolph:
Sure.
Jake Akehurst:
… but I think part of that mix is just investing in your people. And we’re seeing a lot of conversations around, “We’ve promoted someone, we brought someone in because we know they’ve got the willingness to learn, but maybe they don’t have the hard skills, and I think we can train them on some of those.” Or, it’s flip-flop, it’s, “Boy, we got someone with some skills, but we put them in a management position or a tiered-up one level, and now they’re supervising their peers and-
Jeff Randolph:
They need some help there. Yeah.
Jake Akehurst:
“… they don’t have some of these communication skills and problem-solving and conflict resolution. Gee, they don’t know how to run a meeting,” things that sometimes are overlooked or just not actually formally invested in in an individual.
Jeff Randolph:
Yeah. Well, you’re solving the problem either way.
Jake Akehurst:
We’re trying to.
Jeff Randolph:
You’re hitting both angles-
Jake Akehurst:
Yes, yes, exactly.
Jeff Randolph:
… of that. It’s the right thing to do.
Jake Akehurst:
That’s the idea.
MUSIC:
I’m going to say something nice about EAG’s Michelle Markham here for a second-
Jake Akehurst:
Oh, yeah.
Jeff Randolph:
… because I walked past her bulletin board, and I think, it wasn’t, it was an embarrassingly recent realization that on her bulletin board, she’s got a sign that says something like, “Well, what if we train our people and they leave?” And then immediately after that it’s the, “What if we don’t and they stay?” We won’t get anything out of them. They don’t have the skills to get there.
Jake Akehurst:
Exactly. I hear that. And sometimes, that they’re going to leave. And the idea is that that may very well happen, but gosh, the cost of them not being productive-
Jeff Randolph:
Yeah, what if they stay?
Jake Akehurst:
… while they are with you. And here’s a thought, get them to stay.
Jeff Randolph:
That’s right. It seems like today’s workforce wants to learn, wants to develop, and sees this as a benefit. But that’s what I’m seeing from-
Jake Akehurst:
I would agree.
Jeff Randolph:
… this angle.
Jake Akehurst:
And if they don’t, that might be something to go, “Ooh, this individual isn’t interested.” I’ve read an article, actually, the Shawnee Chamber of Commerce sent out an email, and this morning very timely, and it was talking about hiring for personality.
Jeff Randolph:
Oh. Yeah.
Jake Akehurst:
It was just fascinating to me that sometimes the personality and culture fit, and then train on some of those hard skills or what I mentioned earlier, the flip-flop of that, somebody’s got a lot of hard skills, but maybe they need a little help in some of the more nuanced people skills.
Jeff Randolph:
Right. A fairly famous marketing case with Southwest Airlines that is all about hiring for personality. This is who we are, this is our brand, and we can teach you how to do the things you need to do, but let’s make sure we have the right people first.
Jake Akehurst:
Correct. Yeah.
Jeff Randolph:
Ah, fascinating marketing case.
Jake Akehurst:
I remember that from one of your talks, Jeff.
Jeff Randolph:
Oh, I. See, See, somebody remembers something I said.
Jake Akehurst:
I remember, it’s great.
Jeff Randolph:
Let me talk about case studies for a minute and-
Jake Akehurst:
Sure.
Jeff Randolph:
… dive deep into some of the practical outcomes of what you’re doing. I saw a case study that you have about City Union Mission. Tell us about that.
Jake Akehurst:
Yeah. Oftentimes, our connections are community oriented. We’re a university, so we are out and people know UMKC. Believe it or not, I was at an event and I ran into the vocational coordinator that works at City Union Mission and struck up a conversation, and maybe they have some needs. And they do work internally with groups of men that are progressing through a vocational program.
And we just start talking about workforce readiness. Are these folks, do they have the skills to transition into the workforce? And from that conversation, we have a program that we call Durable Skills, which really hits on workplace readiness and conflict resolution, a lot self-awareness, and just working with individuals to try to take them along that path, that when they do get that job, that they’re prepared.
We did an engagement with them that was five weeks, couple hours a week, group of 10 to 12 of those gentlemen. And it was really something positive and they felt really great about it. And one of the outcomes of that was, “Hey, can you do this for our staff?” And it’s like, “Sure, we’d love to help you with that.”
The next iteration of that was they have a team of guest coordinators who are very frontline, working day to day for their brand and their operation. And those same folks ran them through a very similar program, just ticked it up one level, and they were also pleased with that.
And then we just, with what we want to do with these nonprofits and clients is really iterate with them, get to know their culture, understand their teams, figure out what their needs are, and then really craft solutions that work for them, that maybe aren’t exactly the same thing. They may have a baseline of a program or what we would call a signature program or a core program. And then you can deviate a little bit from there based on what their needs are.
Jeff Randolph:
What the needs are.
Jake Akehurst:
Yep.
Jeff Randolph:
So I’m seeing that evolution happen with your clients. If you have someone coming in and they’re ready to talk to you, but they don’t understand what the rest of this picture looks like, it seems like that may be the norm. What does a client, or a potential client, have to know in advance before they have a conversation with you? Do they have to have that need understood? Do they have to lay out, “Here’s where I need my people to be”?
Jake Akehurst:
Ah, the perfect client.
Jeff Randolph:
Yes, who is the perfect client here?
Jake Akehurst:
Oftentimes, I’ll find that many organizations, whether it’s the executive group or the HR person, they might have an idea that’s pretty broad. They’ll say to us, “Boy, we need help with communication.” And I’ll say, “Okay, well, what does that mean?”
Jeff Randolph:
That’s a broad topic.
Jake Akehurst:
Yes.
Jeff Randolph:
“Shall we define this?”
Jake Akehurst:
“Can you do a 30-minute lunch and learn on problem solving?” And it’s like, “Well, okay, yes, we’d be happy to help with that, but what is the larger issue?” So one of the clients, actually, Jeff, works, full disclosure, works with us a little bit.
Jeff Randolph:
I do. I do. I get to talk with you guys.
Jake Akehurst:
One of our great takeaways with one of our collaborations was just getting our hands on some of the employee survey data. Organizations do these evals and surveys, and sometimes employees go, “Do they ever do anything with that?” And so, that’s been a new approach we’ve taken a little bit is, “Hey, you have any survey data? Do you have any actual, hard feedback that we can take a look at with a trainer or consultant and figure out what is the real need behind that?”
Because it’s often presents itself as a generic topic. And the more we can dive in on the front end, the better that the solution we provide will be. I think that’s the case in most businesses, iterating and trying to figure out what is the root of that? Sometimes we hear symptoms-
Jeff Randolph:
Right, right.
Jake Akehurst:
… and we got to get to a solution.
Jeff Randolph:
What’s the cause and-
Jake Akehurst:
Yes.
Jeff Randolph:
… can we address that cause-
Jake Akehurst:
Yes.
Jeff Randolph:
… or is it just about managing symptoms? Both could work.
Jake Akehurst:
Both are possible, but you want to go a little deeper if you can.
Jeff Randolph:
And you, no matter what they call you with on day one, you’ll help them get there, right, because this-
Jake Akehurst:
We do our best. Sometimes we have, any more training and development, you got so many tools. There’s a lot of online resources. So the other one we’ll get is, it’ll be for one person, and it’s hard for us to come in and do at a cost-effective rate for one individual. But if it’s, “Hey, here’s an online course that we have, or a quick workshop that individual…” An example would be grant-writing.
Jeff Randolph:
Mm-hmm.
Jake Akehurst:
Lot of times that’s a one person, “Hey, I need help with grant writing.” For us to bring in a trainer and do a full-blown session in person or even virtual, that’s not, it’s cost-prohibitive. So it’s much easier to go, “Hey, we have this $150 online course. It’s six weeks long, it’s got a couple lessons a week. It’s all about grant writing. Are a little bit more advanced? We’ll, take the online advanced grant writing course.” We try to really be ethical about how we advise people.
I think that’s partly my personality and my background, because I have a master’s degree that’s very counseling-based. So I want to advise and counsel people and organizations to the right solution and not go, “Well, take these 10 online certifications. And you’re not really even qualified to sit for an exam or do these certain things.” So part of our approach is to really advise well, and make sure that, maybe they come back to us later based on that initial engagement, and be fair about it.
Jeff Randolph:
Man, it seems like a tremendous community resource. I hope that’s the lesson that everybody took away from this conversation. I mean, it’s just, what a wonderful thing to do. We can talk about the joint program we’re doing together soon. We’ll talk about that at the end.
Jake Akehurst:
Yeah.
Jeff Randolph:
But it seems like we’ve learned a lot about what UMKC TalentLink does, but we don’t really understand a lot about you yet. Let’s figure out the way your brain works-
Jake Akehurst:
Watch out.
Jeff Randolph:
… by going into the lightning round. Are you ready for the lightning round?
Jake Akehurst:
I’m ready for the lightning round.
Jeff Randolph:
All right, here we go.
Jake Akehurst:
All right.
Jeff Randolph:
Lightning round starts with this question.
Jake Akehurst:
Oh, boy.
Jeff Randolph:
Is a hot dog a sandwich?
Jake Akehurst:
Oh, is a hot dog a sandwich?
MUSIC:
I’m going to say no.
Jeff Randolph:
Not a sandwich.
Jake Akehurst:
Not a sandwich.
Jeff Randolph:
Not a sandwich. I’m going to follow that up with, is a taco a sandwich?
Jake Akehurst:
I’m going to stick to my guns here and say, no, it’s not a sandwich here.
Jeff Randolph:
It makes me ask the question, how do you define a sandwich then? If a hot dog is not, because we’ve got bread and meat. If a taco, you’ve got a flour tortilla as the delivery device and a bunch of guts to that taco.
Jake Akehurst:
I guess a limited definition of a sandwich is… I just think of-
Jeff Randolph:
Bread.
Jake Akehurst:
… bread.
Jeff Randolph:
Bread.
Jake Akehurst:
And for some reason, like lunch meat, as I would call it. Your Subway, your good sense. All your… I’m getting kicked. Do we have sponsors, Jeff? I can mention-
Jeff Randolph:
No, no. No, you can talk-
Jake Akehurst:
I can mention anyone. But that’s what I think of as a sandwich is the classic lunch meat sandwich.
Jeff Randolph:
Got it. You are a strict constructionist-
Jake Akehurst:
Yeah. Yes.
Jeff Randolph:
… when it comes to how you define sandwich. Talk to me about networking a little bit, because we met at a neighborhood networking event for the Greater Kansas City Community chamber, and I’ve seen you at several different things. We were at a Leawood Chamber of Commerce event yesterday together. You’re highly visible in the community in your role. Do you get to the point where you can’t people anymore, where your people meter is just at capacity and you’re like, “Nope, got to unplug, got to walk away.” Or, do you feed on that?
Jake Akehurst:
I think my honest answer is I really enjoy it. It’s my natural bend. I like people, I want to help people. So I think it’s my natural state. Networking to me, and I wouldn’t say necessarily the networking part, but the idea of who to connect who with. So often, my brain goes to, like this morning before we were chatting, “There’s somebody that I want to introduce Jeff to.”
So that’s how my mind works is, who could I introduce this person to? How can I connect this person and make those things happen? So that’s my natural state. But then my disconnect is, I like to camping, being outside. So if I can be outside every once in a while and just not have somebody ask me a question or not have to talk and be that networking tie-
Jeff Randolph:
Be on.
Jake Akehurst:
Yes. I do, that’s my decompress.
Jeff Randolph:
Interesting. Yeah.
Jake Akehurst:
Go for a walk.
Jeff Randolph:
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. But it seems like that’s your natural state.
Jake Akehurst:
Oh yeah.
Jeff Randolph:
That counseling master’s degree really comes into play and you found a good path for you.
Jake Akehurst:
Exactly, exactly.
Jeff Randolph:
Tell me about how you celebrate a big win, what you do to celebrate a big win. And that can be a personal thing. It could be a personal goal or it could be a family achievement, or a work achievement where you’ve just trained a hundred thousand people on some amazing thing and it’s great.
Jake Akehurst:
I mean, I think what’s interesting about me is, you do all these assessments in my work. So strength finders is one of those, CliftonStrengths, and one of mine is maximizer, which is good isn’t good enough and you need… Status quo isn’t okay, and you got to always be one notch up. So sometimes I think I struggle a little bit with celebrating, like, “Hey, we accomplished that and that was great and awesome. That’s great.” I think sometimes I’m always thinking like, “Ooh, we could’ve just-
Jeff Randolph:
That was good, but…
Jake Akehurst:
But…
Jeff Randolph:
Next time.
Jake Akehurst:
And so I’ve learned that as a leader that you have to sometimes catch myself and go, “You know what, Jake, that was great. That was good.” It doesn’t always have to be over the top. So I would say learning my own self-awareness. Stop, celebrate, enjoy, be proud of an accomplishment.
On the personal level, for me it’s, I love just being with my family, taking trips. I think vacations, those kinds of things are my ways-
Jeff Randolph:
A good reward.
Jake Akehurst:
… is a good reward, is to have a nice dinner with my wife, be with friends, those kinds of things, are where I would say my celebrations occur.
Jeff Randolph:
It’s interesting that you mentioned the leadership part of it though, because I think that’s fascinating and I think I may share some of that, where if it’s me, it takes a lot for me to say, “Yes, this is celebration worthy, right?”
Jake Akehurst:
Yeah, yeah.
Jeff Randolph:
It has to hit that threshold before you’re there. But as a leader you know, “Hey, celebration is important for the team and for all of the people who work for me or with me, and we need to stop and celebrate.” And so I think for me anyway, I think my threshold is a little bit lower, where I recognize the need to celebrate as a team much faster than I would say, “Hey, it’s time for me to pour myself an amazing margarita and do whatever.”
Jake Akehurst:
I would concur that typically, with my team, I always, I’m smiling because it’s typically, “Can we go to lunch or can we just take a pause and just be together and spend that time?” That’s usually my approach is, I try to do that on a regular cadence that, “Hey, we’re coming up on the end of spring, beginning of summer, let’s gather, let’s have Fellowship food, beverage, that kind of thing.”
Jeff Randolph:
Well, I’m so glad you mentioned food and beverage, because it’s going to be my last lightning round question.
Jake Akehurst:
All right, here we go. I’m ready. All right.
Jeff Randolph:
Kansas City is known for barbecue. We know that Kansas City is known for barbecue, but our taco scene to me is unsung heroes. Just doesn’t get as much press as the barbecue scene. Doesn’t get all the credit it so truly deserves. Do you have a favorite Mexican restaurant in Kansas City and what are you having?
Jake Akehurst:
So we, my family and I, we go to Rudy’s Taqueria-
Jeff Randolph:
Oh, Rudy’s. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jake Akehurst:
… that’s out in Lenexa, at their 87th and Lackman location. And we’re there so much so that my son, he’s going to kill me for saying this, but my son actually works there now. So we’re there, we’re regulars there.
Jeff Randolph:
Okay.
Jake Akehurst:
So we’ll be there Friday night. Is our spot, and sometimes Tuesday. I would give Rudy’s the nod. Man, I’ve been through their entire menu.
Jeff Randolph:
See, I love taking a menu tour.
Jake Akehurst:
I’m thinking, I’m visually thinking of the menu in my head here, but I would say I like carnitas. I love good… I’m trying to think of what else is my go-to there. Their fajitas are great. I mean, I’ll order up just a chicken and a beef taco. Those are good too. So I’ve worked my way through their menu.
Jeff Randolph:
Man. I understand the pain and suffering though that it takes to go, “Man, the tacos were so good, but this also looks good,” and have to choose. Do I go with the thing that I know is amazing and that is going to satisfy me, or do I branch out?
Jake Akehurst:
Probably a good chimichanga is my other. So I’ll go, I’ll work… My family, I think, would eat at a Mexican restaurant every other night of the week.
Jeff Randolph:
I could be part of your family. Yeah. I can definitely-
Jake Akehurst:
You’re in, Jeff.
Jeff Randolph:
… be part of your family. I’m in.
Jake Akehurst:
You’re honorary.
Jeff Randolph:
Well, and now we all know where you’re going to be
Jake Akehurst:
Exactly.
Jeff Randolph:
Usually, after the lightning round, we go into a thing where I say, “Hey, congratulations. You’re on a lightning round. Tell everybody where they can find you.” Apparently the place they can find you is at Rudy’s on a-
Jake Akehurst:
Friday night.
Jeff Randolph:
… Friday night or maybe a Tuesday?
Jake Akehurst:
Tuesday.
Jeff Randolph:
No, where can they find you?
Jake Akehurst:
Where can they find… Yeah.
Jeff Randolph:
Where do they go for more information? How do they find out where you’re at?
Jake Akehurst:
So our website is simple. The name umkctalentlink.com. That’s the first place to find information. And then our marketing guru, Pete Doolin, he writes all kinds of news and insights and blogs, and we’ve got a newsletter subscription there. So that’s a primary way we like to communicate and put together a lot of good content for folks that are on our newsletter list. It’s not a spam. We’re pretty concise and curate content for that. So the website would be step one.
I’m, of course, on LinkedIn and welcome to reach out to me there. That’s where I spend a lot of my time networking with folks and making connections there as well. So that’d be our primary social media outlet is going to be on LinkedIn. We have a UMKC TalentLink group there as well that you can follow us. And we try to be pretty darn consistent with getting content out and awareness about what our clients are doing and what our upcoming events and programs are.
Jeff Randolph:
Yeah, shout-out to Pete Doolin, because you’re right, it’s not a spammy email.
Jake Akehurst:
No.
Jeff Randolph:
It is “Here’s some helpful advice. Here are the next things that we’ve got coming up.” I subscribe. I get it.
Jake Akehurst:
Jeff gets it.
Jeff Randolph:
I get it.
Jake Akehurst:
So it’s definitely, Pete does a great job. And then we’re a small, but mighty team. I’ve got a operations coordinator, Alexa Troyer, who she’ll be thrilled to know that I mentioned her. But she’s the glue. She works with our students, our clients, and does so many things to just bring the people side to what we do. And we’re all three of us are really engaged with our work and just a great team, that if you reach out to any one of us, we would be able to help.
Jeff Randolph:
Well, and this one is a little awkward for me, because we really provide education on the podcast. We don’t promote our own stuff a lot, but we, you and I-
Jake Akehurst:
Yes.
Jeff Randolph:
… we have a thing coming up that is an event through UMKC TalentLink, you can register right there, called Prioritizing Marketing Efforts for Nonprofits, and it’s coming up on July 23rd of 2024 if you’re listening. So register for that. This is a weird thing for me to do a promo for something I’m doing. This is-
Jake Akehurst:
Well, it’s just, it’s a testament to how we work. And Jeff really is, Jeff and I met at a KC chamber event. That’s how we started this conversation, and that’s how we find some of our best experts. That expert professional development is in our name and that’s how we do that is, we connect with local folks who are willing to work with us and through us, and help people. Jeff, you’re an expert.
Jeff Randolph:
Well, I’m something.
Jake Akehurst:
He brings that knowledge and experience, and we’re excited to have him on July 23rd. We also use different locations throughout the city to host things. So that one’s going to be in Prairie Village at The Space, which is a great setup. And grab a coffee and a pastry next door and join us then.
Jeff Randolph:
That works. All right, Jake Akehurst, executive director of UMKC TalentLink. Thanks for being with us on the show today.
Jake Akehurst:
Thanks, Jeff. I appreciate it.
Jeff Randolph:
And that is our show. Thanks so much to our guest, Jake Akehurst from UMKC TalentLink. And thank you for listening to the Small Business Miracles podcast. Remember to subscribe. Leave us a five-star rating and review. Drop us a line on the website at eagadv.com, if you have any thoughts. Until then, we’ll be out here helping entrepreneurs with another small business miracle.