Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Business Steps Up, a presentation of Hiali, one of the recognized voices in Long island business. We'll focus on cutting edge topics important to the Bi county region and beyond. So sit back, relax and listen to some of Long Island's most influential business leaders here on Business Steps Up.
[00:00:21] Speaker B: Good afternoon and welcome to the HIALI Business Steps up series. This series started as a result of COVID actually, and we wanted to highlight companies that were doing extraordinary things through Covid to really help us out through that difficult time. It has been wildly successful. We've continued it.
I'm very excited to really have our three guests today who are our business distinct 2026 business distinction award finalists. And we have with us David Sterling, who is the CEO of Sterling Risk, IFA o', Donnell, who is the CEO of National EAP and Iliad Custodio, who is the CEO of Turn one Studio. So welcome everybody.
[00:01:06] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:01:07] Speaker B: You're welcome.
So before we begin, I just want to tell the audience a little bit about this magnificent group, Number one, and the Business Distinction Awards. So we'll be hosting the Business Distinction awards on Tuesday, September 29th at Crest Hollow. Begins begins at 11:30. And this is our 32nd annual. And you know, it began as an idea literally at a board meeting many, many years ago where someone said, you know, we really need to be able to look at the great things that our businesses are doing on Long island and really they can help other businesses do some great things as well as they listen to lessons learned and things like that. So it's a process that these people have gone through and these organizations have gone through both with applying as well as CEO judges either coming into their locations or they're coming to us. And really judging in several different areas. Number one is certainly innovation and leadership and community outreach and employee engagement and really a very well rounded look at many of these businesses. So we're so excited to have you.
I'm going to actually ask you all to answer first.
Tell us a little bit about your company, what your company does and where your journey began with that company. So David, can we start with you?
[00:02:30] Speaker D: Yes, sure.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: Great.
[00:02:33] Speaker E: Thank you, Terry, and thank you for this amazing opportunity and congratulations on doing this podcast and what it means to the community. Thank you very much.
Sterling Risk is a local, but, you know, fairly large in the scheme of things. Risk Management Services company.
We provide insurance brokerage services and consulting services to small, medium and large companies, predominantly in the tri state area, but nationally we have offices in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana and California.
And we, you do everything from personal lines, homeowners insurance and things like that to employee benefits, health insurance, to large developers, social service organizations, construction companies, food manufacturers, processors, hospitality. We have specialties in all these areas. And we have one division that actually creates insurance products that we get insurance companies to buy onto, and then we sell those through other insurance brokers in that division that 90% of our business goes through other brokers. So kind of a diversified business. And some people say I'm a little add, so it follows that that's why we have so many different things. But it's.
It's been really fun. And I joined the company in 1978, so.
And the company was founded in 1932 by my grandfather, so. And there's the fourth generation in it today, so we're very proud of that.
[00:04:01] Speaker B: Oh, that's great. And, you know, I will say, David, I remember I was with the judges when they came in, and when they walked out, they were so impressed with the organization being what they call total protection suite means, you know, you just do so much for your clients.
And, you know, that stands to reason when you say you're developing products as well, which most insurance companies do not do.
[00:04:25] Speaker E: Right.
[00:04:26] Speaker B: So congratulations. Thank you. Ifa. How about you tell us about national eap, how you started with your journey as a social worker. Right?
[00:04:35] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm. I'm usually the only social worker in the business world or in the business group, but yeah, I'm a licensed clinical social worker. And my journey started with national EAP in 2006, and I was the director of training. And within a couple of years, things changed and I became the CEO.
And it was fabulous to be able to operate this, you know, employee assistance program company. And especially. Right. The recession hit at the same time, so I had to steadily lead this business through that period of change, and it was all really quite successful.
So the company, though nationally, started in 1982, and we were a tiny little program that the state ran, and someone was smart enough to say, hey, can I take over that program and run it? So it's been founded by social workers. It's now operated and owned by social worker. I took over the ownership of National AP in 2017.
The original founder retired out of the business. So it's been just a tremendous opportunity.
What do we do?
We are a strategic business partner for all businesses of all sizes in every industry. So similar to David, we're a risk management company.
Well, what do we manage? We manage your people risk. So we really have three layers of service. It's employee assistance programs. We have high touch business consulting services and we have a through which is corporate training and coaching services. So those are really about transforming the employee's performance level and engagement.
So everything we do is about moving the needle on an employee's behavior, performance, engagement, wellness, well being, mental wellness, family fitness.
[00:06:08] Speaker B: Right. Life fitness.
[00:06:10] Speaker D: So it's really just how do we help the employee be their best self? So the workplace performance can be its best self. Right. So we're really, we're just a wraparound service for businesses and for its employees to drive performance and really all of those risky behaviors that sometimes employees engage in. Substance abuse.
You know, people go through a lot of personal crises which affects their ability to attend and do well in the workplace. So we have, you know, counseling services, crisis intervention. We do reduction of forced services. We do critical incident response leadership training, leadership coaching. We have turnaround intervention services for employees that struggle but had been high performing or are high performing, but perhaps their behaviors is really, really interfering with their success and their ability to lead well, they can be sent to us for, you know, a really kind of turnaround intervention and a light bulb moment. So I'd like to say that we're really good at doing that.
[00:07:04] Speaker B: Yeah. And so, you know, we've used your services before as an organization and I have to say that I think as CEOs, sometimes we really don't understand necessarily how someone's emotional well being really, really does impact their productivity. So hats off to you. I have to say, when the, when the judges walked away, one of the things they said is your community involvement, particularly this year, was off the charts.
[00:07:34] Speaker D: Thank you.
[00:07:34] Speaker B: With what you do. Right. As a service that you offer. But some other things. So get back to you in a second and talk a little bit about mental health and what you're seeing area. So thank you. So, Iliad, tell us a little bit about Turn 1 Studios. I had the opportunity, was it yesterday, to interview Iliad and turn the tables.
[00:07:52] Speaker C: That was fun.
[00:07:53] Speaker B: Oh, it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. So tell us about turn one and how you started.
[00:07:57] Speaker C: Yeah, thank you, Terry. Well, Turn one Studio, we're a full service marketing agency. We work with entities of all sizes.
While we worked with clients nationwide, we have a strong passion for working with our neighbors here in hoppak.
We're at 100 Motor Parkway, right on the corner of the Innovation park, which was a strategic decision so that we can be alongside our neighbors and what we do. So we define marketing as building relationships Building relationships with those that you want to work with and those strengthening those relationships with those that you do work with. And we do so through website development, video production, podcast production, social media marketing, email marketing, blog offering, and other content creation.
Yeah, we kind of run the gamut on that. And we've been doing this since 1998, so it's been a fun journey getting involved.
While the Internet existed, it wasn't nearly what it is today.
The commercial adoption is not what it wasn't what it is today. So getting involved before social media was a thing, before we had the bandwidth to stream videos to our phones, before our phones could even play videos. Been a cool journey to kind of watch that evolution over time.
[00:09:06] Speaker B: Great. And you, you started the company yourself? Yes. Okay, great. And the judges were so impressed with your process, particularly being a small. How many employees do you have?
[00:09:17] Speaker C: We're a team of five.
[00:09:18] Speaker B: Yeah, all you do is just absolutely incredible. So we'll get back to you on some social media things. Right. And talk a little bit about that as well. And I'm going to go back to David for a second, because when you look at insurance and particularly risk management, you're the expert. Right. And you know, it is an extremely competitive field.
Extreme. So talk to us a little bit about what you think Sterling Risk's competitive edge is.
[00:09:45] Speaker E: You know, it goes back to my earliest days in the business. I had studied insurance in college, my family business.
At the time, we had about 30 or 40 employees, and we were one of the largest. We were the 80th largest insurance broker in America in 1978.
And we were about 1/60 our size, if you can imagine. We're 60 times greater, bigger today.
And. And I would run around with a small sales force that I hired, meeting new prospects, and I would ask each one, why are you even meeting with me? And they would all almost tell me the same story, that their insurance renewals were just kind of mailed to them or maybe a phone call. There was no real review of whether their operations had changed. There was no indication whether they shopped for better pricing or better coverage.
And I would listen to that as a young, idealistic guy out of college saying, well, that's horrible. And I would come back to. And I would say, we don't do it that way. And I would come back to the office and I would tell the team managing the clients, here's what we got to do.
And over time, it's really a question of listening to what your clients want and being that thing that they need.
So over time, what that meant for us is we built out a loss control division so our clients could find out what could make their businesses safer to reduce claims, which ultimately reduces premiums.
We started a claims paying division. So the insurance companies delegated to us the authority to pay liability claims because our clients didn't want those claims paid. So we would be far more difficult on those claimants to make sure that they weren't fraudulent claims or that they weren't exaggerating the claims. And that again would keep our clients loss experience lower, meaning ultimately lower premiums. So each one of these things came from, I think the one thing I would say they all have in common, we've listened to our clients and we do what they feel they need within the context of risk management insurance.
[00:11:39] Speaker B: That's great. I mean, wow. Meeting with prospects and saying, you know, why you meeting with me or why do you need to meet with me? Is a great type of phrase question for that reason, because you were obviously genuinely interested. Obviously. Right. So talk to us about how you kept that personal touch, growing the organization as large as it now, as it is now, because that's difficult to do.
[00:12:04] Speaker E: It's true. And that's a really good question. So as we were growing and as we were small, I at one time had a leadership coach. And he said to me, you know, every organization, every leader of an organization gets the organization he deserves or she deserves. And meaning the decision, the decisions you make and how you treat people will ultimately determine the culture of an organization.
And for me, from the very moment I got into this company, as you can tell from that first story, for me, it's all about the client. And I used to have a phrase, I used to say, let's treat every client like they're the only client we have. And if they feel that way, then we're getting it right. But as you grow, you're right, you lose touch.
And about 10 years ago, we hired an organization to help us structure and build our culture. And that company, People Inc. Woman Ann Rhodes, wrote a book called Built on Values. And she helped us drive the organization to determine what really made us tick. And we chose five values. And those five values mean everything to everyone.
And we educate our employee, we educated back then, our employees. Everybody who's hired understands that we hire based on those values.
And over time, through turnover, pretty much everybody's absorbed them. And that's how we have a culture today that's driven to really treat those clients like they're the only ones we have. And they're passionate about it and caring about it.
[00:13:28] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, literally starts at the top. Right. That's where it starts. That's where it ends. Right. So good for you. Not an easy thing to do with an organization seriously of your size. And as I said before, the judges, when they walked out, that was the other comment they made that just everyone was singing to the same tune. You could see that they were all felt really strongly about that customer experience. So good for you. Good for you. That doesn't come easy. We know that as a, as a fact. Right. So if you talked about risk management in terms of people. Right. So we saw what happened through Covid. We're seeing what's happening now with more of some of those mental health issues coming out. How has that impacted the services you offer and what are you seeing from the general public?
[00:14:21] Speaker D: We are seeing an increased demand for counseling sessions at eap.
So that's definitely an uptick. Like, you know, the percentage of clients who'd call in the past and actually go into EAP counseling versus work life services or other resources. The counseling component went up in the pandemic and has not come down. So we definitely see increased need for support.
This world, it can be hard, it can be tough. There's so many global issues and local issues and countrywide issues that are challenging people.
It's our job as a behavioral health partner for our clients to really understand that and to have our finger on the pulse of what people need, how we've grown over the years and how we've adapted even since COVID Covid is look at how technology's changed things, you know, so we've built in an AI app for people to get mental health coaching anytime they want in their. On their phone with a CBT trained closed AI platform.
So that's, you know, just an example of one of the ways we're seeking to be there for our members. Because we serve 100,000 members and want to give them all the different ways that they can access care and support. So if it's 2 in the morning, you don't want to talk on the phone to one of our live trained master's level counselors and chat with this cute little penguin app, you know, and, and, and get some support that way. That's great. People really rely on AI now. Yeah. Another thing we're doing is partnering with Better Help. And everybody. A lot of people know about Better Help that, that platform, but it's a way to give our members choice over how to access counseling support if that's something that's attracted to them. They can go in the betterhelp door and get their EP sessions that way. If you'd like to go to a local counselor in person, we're going to set that up for them as well. So diversity of choice. Right. Everything we do is about how do we help our member, what do they need, what's going to support them and let's give them modality and the access that they, they want. What we've also done is really ramped up our training and education services. We have a live program called Thrive every single month for all of our members.
That's been amazing. The attendance is really high on that. It's people want work and life and soft skill education and to improve their emotional well being and emotional, you know, even their emotional level at some point. Right.
So yeah. So lots and lots of different things. That's just touching the surface there, but scratching the surface.
[00:16:36] Speaker B: Yeah. And you know what, we've known each other a long time.
[00:16:40] Speaker D: If.
[00:16:40] Speaker B: Right. I just so love your energy. It's just a beautiful thing to watch.
As you're talking, I'm thinking to myself, wow, with the stuff staff, the size of your staff, how do you accomplish all that and how do you continue to give people personal touch? Because you're not only.
Your services are not only going out to people on Long Island. Right.
[00:17:01] Speaker D: You are nationwide, truly nationwide. Yeah. We have a lot of national clients as well.
We, you know, similar to what David said. David, we're not as big as you and that's okay. And always said all of our clients, you are the big fish in our small pond. Right. And everybody gets to experience that customer service. But we have a dedicated client success team. We are so proactive about our clients experiencing utilization and engagement and positive outcomes because guess what, that's good for business. You're going to be a client of ours for 20 years. Like that's what we want. We're not interested in taking people's money and wasting it. Right. So we're here to offer a real partnership to our company clients. We're here to understand what your business problems are so that we can help you solve them or mitigate the risk on them. Right. Dial down those issues.
There's so much more that we do that I haven't even talked about, but it's really being in step with a client. I have an excellent leadership team and I need to say that now the company is as strong as it is because of the leadership we have. And most of my leaders have been with me, 10 plus years and I've been doing this for 20. So we're a really strong team of experts who get it. We get it.
[00:18:05] Speaker B: That's great. And so you talk about AI, you talk about the app.
The nice part about that as well is, you know, many of the young professionals who might relate better to something like that are more welcome of some of the services you offer. So way to go.
[00:18:22] Speaker D: Thank you.
[00:18:22] Speaker B: Kudos.
[00:18:23] Speaker D: Thanks, Barry, Appreciate it.
[00:18:25] Speaker B: So talk about young professionals. Mr. Elliot, let's talk a little bit about branding in particular and what the social media boom has, has meant to branding. And before you do, I just want to tell the audience that, you know, this micro award in particular, so There were about 102,000 small businesses on Long Island. So that's businesses that have 10 or less employees. Out of that, 80% of them are micro, micro, micro businesses. Right. So that's that entrepreneurial spirit, which is really where illiterate, where you sit, which is beautiful. So talk to us about social media, what that means to branding. What do you think?
[00:19:08] Speaker C: Well, that's a big topic.
So you know, at the surface, social media has been wonderful because it's given very small brands the opportunity to make a lot of noise at a reasonable entry point.
But I'll stop there and say that sometimes social media is not for, for every brand. You know, when we get involved with companies to assess their marketing and figure out where to go forward, the first thing we want to talk about is who their target audience is.
And it's rare for their target audience to not be involved in social media, but it's not 100% that they are.
So in the, in the majority where they are involved in social media, we're making sure that the content that we're putting out there is appropriate for the people that we're trying to speak to. And the content that we put out there is by and large educational. You know, a common misstep with social media is using it as a sales effort. You know, people forget that when you are following brands or individuals on social media, you're not doing so because you want to opt in to receive advertising all the time. You want, you want to be part of what they're doing, get some behind the scenes information, feel a personal connection with that brand, whether it's a personal brand or a corporate brand.
So being mindful of that and going back to what I said earlier about all of this really being filtered through the lens of building relationships is the content I'm putting out there furthering the relationship that I'm trying to build. So, you know, social media in general is a great way to demonstrate expertise so you can build your authority and your perceived authority in that way.
The nice part about social media is that most of it includes or supports video.
[00:20:48] Speaker E: Video.
[00:20:49] Speaker C: So being able to see clips of people, watch the little micro movements in their face, watch them smile, you can build a relationship with someone even though you've never met them. And something like social media really empowers everyone to be able to do that. So, you know, like anything in marketing, the key is to do it strategically. Not just do it because it's something fun to do, but when you do it strategically, it can be incredibly powerful.
[00:21:11] Speaker B: So don't sell, you're saying don't overtly sell. That makes a lot of sense, right? And it's about developing that relationship. What are some of the trends that you're seeing right now, Elliot, in branding in particular?
[00:21:23] Speaker C: Well, in general, when we utilize social media in this way, it kind of falls into the bucket of content marketing. And content marketing is a fantastic way to get information out there through the format of education.
So, you know, if you have a prospect that is pretty astute, it makes it an easier sale. They could appreciate what you do and what, how you do it differently. They could appreciate in some cases why you charge what you charge, you know, so being able to use that platform in a way where you're getting that information out there, I think that's a very popular trend right now.
Some of the stuff, obviously most of the marketing we do, all the marketing we do is for other companies. So individuals that are just trying to build their social celebrity might follow some different tactics. They're just trying to build themselves up. But when you're doing on behalf of the company, you know, you need to be mindful of your branding, what your mission is both visually and conceptually, and make sure that what you're putting out there follows that, that logic. So when people see this content, especially since it's on platforms that aren't your website or your email list, things that are disconnected from where your hub is, that they can still connect that with your brand, that it is you speaking.
[00:22:36] Speaker B: So, you know, it's interesting because with our members, I see a lot of our small business members have said to us, we don't have the money to market, really don't have the money to brand. Tends to be a little easier, right? When you have a larger budget, obviously. But what do you say to those small businesses and what type of approach should they be taking you Think.
[00:22:57] Speaker C: You know, one thing I'm seeing a lot is overwhelm. You know, when companies, especially those that don't have that operational maturity level where they proactively budget for marketing, it's more of a reactive approach than a proactive approach.
They're often drawn to marketing or feeling compelled to do marketing because some new thing came out. And that sounds cool. That sounds like something that's popular. We should be on TikTok, because my daughter's on TikTok and okay, but is your audience on TikTok? You start to answer those questions and you realize, well, maybe I shouldn't be on TikTok. Maybe that new shiny thing is not for me.
I.
At the end of the day, you can't do everything. Even the biggest companies with the biggest budgets. In my experience, no one ever says, here's an open checkbook, go wild, right? So you always have to be responsible with the spend. And in the process of being responsible, you need to triage what is going to move the needle the most versus what isn't and kind of approach it in that way. So it's very easy for me to say you can't afford not to market, but the reality is you can do so affordably as long as you do it strategically and you work on what's going to have the potential to give you the most bang for your buck and pick something that you can stick with consistently because consistency is key. Again, going back to relationships, we don't build relationships overnight. It takes time. And depending on certain industries, the sales cycles can be a lot longer than other industries. The key is to be there and continue to be there and to be seen.
[00:24:26] Speaker B: Great. And you know, that's a good lesson for all our businesses. Right. It's about whether it's face to face or via social media, whatever it is, developing relationships is really the key. Right. Making other people feel comfortable. So thank you.
So let's.
It's almost 2:30, believe it or not. So let's. I know. So let's. I want to leave you with one final question because a lot of what this business distinction initiative for us is, is really helping other organizations. Not only highlighting what you're doing, but helping other organizations understand that they can get there, they can thrive. Right. So what's one leadership lesson that you might have, might have learned that kind of stuck with you and has molded your leadership style right now? And you know what? I'll begin real quick. So many, many years ago, my past life at Dale Carnegie training, we gave out awards to very Large organizations. We walked into a very, very large energy organization and the CEO who was extremely prominent, we get there and we literally forget the award. Someone forgets it at the office and we have nothing to hand him and everyone is beside themselves. And he reached over and he said to me, you know what?
No big deal. It's really no big deal. Somebody made a minor mistake. We're just going to make a joke out of it and we're going to say, I don't even remember what he said. It was so many years ago. But my point in telling you the story is what stuck with me at a very, very, very young age is that, you know, leaders set the tone, right? He could have really gotten angry about that. We were in front of at least 600 people, many of his clients, many of his employees and things like that. But he was just, no, we're going to go with the flow. Just even keeled that we set the tone on a minute by minute basis.
So it was a life lesson for me. So anyone else, A life lesson that you might have learned.
[00:26:33] Speaker E: So one of the things that was most difficult for me, I came into the company as a 24 year old and I remember thinking at 24 years old I could run this place. And you find out over time that you don't know what you don't know. But I think the most important thing I learned over time is that I wasn't the boss. I'm not the boss today. I work for all the people in this organization to help make them successful. Because if I can support them properly and make them successful, then the company will be successful.
And that takes time at least took me time learn, but it's something that I really internalized. And so, you know, you reminding me of that when you were telling me the story. People make mistakes all day long and typically I tell them I've made far many more mistakes than that.
Let's just move on and let me see how I can support you to get this right and move it. That's far more productive than blowing your top or being demeaning or correcting somebody in a demeaning way. Because that just, you know, destroys the organization, destroys the person. So it's really about being there. I work for 300 people as their support.
[00:27:48] Speaker B: Great leadership lesson. Thank you, David.
[00:27:51] Speaker D: Terry, I would add really quick. I think culture is king and you have to say what you want. I think as a leader you have to define the culture that you want. You have to name it, you have to say it over and over again. And then you've got to weed the garden if it's not all flowers. Right.
So you have to ask for what you need. You have to tell people what you need and you can lead them there. And I think just because a great culture is a great company. Right. So.
[00:28:14] Speaker B: And you have to walk the walk and talk the talk, Right? Sure do.
[00:28:17] Speaker D: You sure do.
[00:28:18] Speaker B: How about you, Elliot? A leadership lesson that, you know, I've
[00:28:23] Speaker C: enjoyed when the opportunities arise to help raise the celebrity of the people that I work with, for them to be known out in the world, not only so I'm not the only face of the company, but that they could feel more part of what we're doing. You know, the, the team I have really takes everything seriously. They really treat the client work as if it's their own business. And I think a lot of that is because they're out and about with me meeting these folks and they're hearing the challenges firsthand. It's not just I sold this project. Here's the outline. Let's go do it. They heard it, they saw in the person's face the struggle that they're trying to overcome. And I think it just gives them more personal buy in on it. So that seems to be working.
[00:29:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
And you know, some people feel it's such a mystery, right? Employee engagement. It's really not. It's really not. It's getting them involved and helping them own it and. Absolutely. So can't tell you how much I've enjoyed this conversation with all of you.
For everybody watching, please, please join us. Tuesday, September 29th. You will hear from these leaders again. And I will tell you that inevitably, every single year that we do this and we have the privilege of giving these honors out very different companies, they have several things in common. They're optimistic about the future. They have good people in place and they talk about those good people and they celebrate those good people. So they join us again September 29th. You can log on to hiali.org or you can give us a call the old fashioned way. 631-543-5355. See you all next Tuesday and thank you so much again.
[00:30:07] Speaker D: See you then. Thank you.
[00:30:09] Speaker C: Take care.
[00:30:12] Speaker A: Business Steps up is a production of Hiali, one of the recognition voices for business on Long island and a powerful voice and economic engine for regional development. Check back for more interesting thought provoking episodes with some of Long Island's most influential business leaders. For more information, call us at 631-543-5355 or log on to hia-li.org.
