Cal Burlock With STEMReps

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio brought to you by onpay Atlanta’s new standard in payroll. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:24] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor on pay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories today on the Atlanta Business Radio. We have Cal Burlock with STEMreps. Welcome, Cal.

Cal Burlock: [00:00:42] Thank you so much, Lee, for having us. We’re excited to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about stem ropes. How you serving folks?

Cal Burlock: [00:00:50] Absolutely. Well, STEM Ropes is a platform that connects innovative manufacturers with their end users. We represent science, technology, engineering, mathematics. And we use a highly trained technical sales and marketing force to go out and bring impactful science to human use. So in order to explain this appropriately, I have to kind of go from general to specific. If you’ve ever wondered how Marta or Delta or any hospital or university, for that matter, gains its actual technology, they usually leverage a highly trained, credible employee of the manufacturer who’s known as an executive account manager or an account executive, to come out and speaks about speak about the solutions and benefits of their technology, and then they guide the institution. Be it Marta Delta or any one of those, the repurchasing process, what we’ve done is privatize that, taking that out of the employer’s hands and created an outsource that does those exact things. So that’s a very general explanation of what we do in that we serve three groups. We serve the manufacturers, we serve the end users who need the technology, and then we serve this middle group to take the technology out to the end users. And we have technology ranging from robotics and automation and chemical reagents used in the university down to sanitizer, soaps and wipes that are fighting the pandemic that we’re in right now. So quite a spread of technology and knowledge base.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:19] So what was the genesis of the idea? How did it come about?

Cal Burlock: [00:02:23] Sure. Well, I had for years been myself an account executive working for companies like Roche, one of the largest companies, pharmaceutical companies in the world, working for like a biosystems perkinelmer, several multinational large technology producers. I mean, well known, top of the line, you know, technology coming out of these companies. And prior to going to that, I had been a teacher. I taught at Marist, I taught at South Cobb and a couple other places around Atlanta. So STEM reps was really the amalgamation of my experience in the world as a scientist. It has a provider of technology, my ability to teach right, and the desire to get economic development going. So I finished Morehouse here in Atlanta and graduated in history, in education. And my entire life had always been about trying to kind of figure out what is going on in America, right. With the economy and with the different, you know, melting pot expressions that we have here in the country. And I felt that for African-Americans many times, the holy grail that’s been missing is economic development. There have been attempts the entire time throughout the history of the country, but they were thwarted or either successful locally. But we need a lot more of that. And so I thought I saw STEM science, technology, engineering, mathematics as the best vehicle and the broadest spectrum vehicle to drive economic development, not only for African-Americans, but for everyone. So I built this structure to say, you know, I really can create this same amazing job and this amazing, amazing life outside of an employer. So we’re an alternative pathway. We take people from soup to nuts and they’re prepared to walk into the boardroom and negotiate and construct deals.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:13] So how does STEM reps impact like those people in K through 12 or in, you know, college or how do you serve that constituent?

Cal Burlock: [00:04:25] Sure. Great question. Most STEM programs and we have been around for about five and a half years. So when we first started using the moniker STEM, people were like, Huh, what’s that? Stem cells, right? But most STEM programs, STEM Nights, they’re all related to K through 12 education. And I wanted to do something that was post K through 12, something where the adult, the young adult could pick up stem and continue their education and not only their education but their employment into STEM. So I purposely did not go into K 12. We target college students, forward adult learners, folks who might want second jobs, folks who might be looking to start their own businesses. And we search out those folks so that you have a adult STEM education and an adult STEM applications. In many ways, STEM is still very foreign to adult learners. They’re still like, Hey, man, I’m trying to get a little bit of it. I bought a new computer and I’m a little dangerous there, but stem in general is something. That’s missing us. We need no further example, no better example than how our country has dealt with this pandemic these last couple of years. My specialty has been biotech and health care tech. So when this came along, this literally fell into our wheelhouse.

Cal Burlock: [00:05:38] I mean, I’ve been doing immunology and microbiology and lab science for 15 years. So none of this, none of the stuff, be it related to the vaccine or to the virus, is foreign to me. So it afforded us an opportunity to speak to adults. To adults. We have a media channel that we teach and try to put to bed a lot of misinformation. We have a situation where blacks are dying at nearly three times the rate. Still, even though there’s been a you know, we’re in a middle of a low, lower part of the surge and out of the surge into a low point, numbers in the black community are still fairly high. And our the deaths are still nearly three times the rate of others. And a good part of that has to do with vaccine hesitancy, a lot of misinformation that’s being passed about. So we saw this as an opportunity to leverage that side of our profession. The education piece, our motto is Learn, earn, gross off, and we do all four of those things. So of course, you can learn with us. You can certainly represent our solutions and earn with us. We’re going to grow your network, grow your resume, and we’re going to solve some of the toughest human challenges.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:45] So let’s talk about each one of those. We talked a little bit already about the learning where you’re trying to educate folks about what’s what out out there and the benefits. I would think of leaning into a STEM related career because there’s so much opportunity here and employers are just, you know, desperate for people with the skills necessary to help them them grow. So I could see tremendous educational opportunities. How does the earning opportunities come into play? How do you help folks earn, you know, maybe either a full time or secondary income?

Cal Burlock: [00:07:22] Absolutely. So we will recruit people to to come into our learning, to take up our our technical training and then place them as account executives to the field. So we have teams that serve universities. So like Georgia Tech, we provided them a 3D bio printer for their bioengineering department, very cutting edge stuff. We only touch the most cutting edge, the literal bleeding edge. It’s actually part of our religion and our our badge of honor. We call the premise promise we won’t touch anything unless it’s very disruptive. And so we send people forth. They go out to the universities, they go out to doctor’s offices, clinical environments, daycares, and provide our technology again, from general to specific, even though we provide robotics and automation and all that kind of high level stuff for for research laboratories, we also provide to daycare schools. We provide a technology in antimicrobial that actually lasts much longer on the surfaces and much longer on your hands. So right as the pandemic came prior to that, we were actually already in antimicrobials. We were already representing non leaching technology. So we have people who take this out and they make commissions off of sales and off of the relationships that they build. If they’re really good, we will promote them. On to the more technical team where they’ll actually be talking to cancer labs and protein and genetics labs and so forth. So we’ve got something for for just about every technical skill level. We do qualify you and test you and make sure that you’re ready to represent us correctly and send you out and you make commissions on those sales.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:58] So is that a difficult conversation to have with folks? I’m sure people are attracted to the idea of, hey, there’s money to be made doing this kind of work and people need this kind of work. But this isn’t like you have to be educated and this kind of learning. Some people struggle with this kind of science based learning.

Cal Burlock: [00:09:18] Bleh or so, right? I mean, that’s, that’s been a little bit for me because I’ve always been certified nerd, right? So I knew when I started this, I said, Well, we’re not like a multi-level marketing organization. We’re not just open to everybody. We’re very specific on the kind of talent base that we’re looking for. You know, this is science and tech, so you need to be polished when you actually walk into an environment or you reach out to them. So we do a good job at qualifying the right kind of people and it’s not for everyone. We want to get those folks who are on the fence who don’t think they can learn tech, but they just need the right kind of teacher. And for me, in my experience, I’ve our program, what we’ve set up has been the right kind of teaching to really reach out to people. So not for everybody, but I think for a lot of folks, especially for those are coming out of K through 12 who’ve had STEM education for these last 15 years or so. And they are at least in the conversation. Well, we want to take that forward and show them how to earn money with it.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:23] So now how did you get involved with that Staples program where you won $5,000?

Cal Burlock: [00:10:28] Sure thing. We are always looking for resources. We’re always looking to collaborate and partner. My mantra this year has been collaboration is the new tech. So so we were, I think, cruising on social media, probably on Facebook. And I saw the application and I was like, this is for me. And I dove right into filling things out. You know, when you’re in our situation where we have been relying on our organic growth and organic sales, we’ve not taken on any investment. When you’re in that situation and kind of bootstrapping along, every partner that comes to the table is really helpful. And so to be able to get, you know, $5,000, which will go to our equipment, go to making us not look so amateurish on our TV channel. I’ve never been a TV channel producer, and yet here I have a channel that goes to 200 million homes and 200, 200 countries. And so I and I’ve had that now for about four months, and we’re trying to do as best as we can to produce TV level quality. So we were able to buy some communication tools, new computers, software, business software. All of that is extremely helpful. So now I feel very outfitted. Even though we’re not done making our purchases, I feel very outfitted to approaching the market better and serving our constituencies much better.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:50] And then, so what is next for STEM reps now that you have kind of some funding in place, you’ve got a little bit of momentum now and you’re got these new channels that you’re able to kind of get the word out on. What’s next for you and your team?

Cal Burlock: [00:12:07] Hey, the sky and all of space, man. Stem is an explosive metaverse. There really is no end to it. I always say, you know, my strong suit has been biotech, health care, tech, but there’s stem in everything from food science to audio engineering to oil in petroleum to materials engineering. So we’re as long as we bring on the expertize and a corresponding cutting edge product set, there is no limit to where we’re going, where we are right now. As far as the very next step is to pour gasoline on our model, we’re looking for new partners, new collaborations. You know, we may entertain some investment, looking for more customers, looking to serve our community. I will say I know I’ve said a lot here on this interview, but one of our I would say the tip of our spear right now is biosafety, is giving our community the tools that they need to fight the pandemic. So we do regular education on that, just broadly to the public. Right. Do a clubhouse a couple of nights a week. We try to on our television channel. I’ve got an episode there. I call What to Tell Your Kids about COVID, where it’s a non-threatening way for really the adults. It’s really written for the parents, but it’s got kids in the title, so hopefully people will watch it and go, Oh yeah, let me see what to tell my kid and actually get educated themselves.

Cal Burlock: [00:13:22] So that’s on the channel. We just want to pour gasoline on our model. We want to reach more customers, protect more environments. The kinds of testimonies that I get coming out of some of the environments that we’ve impacted are just phenomenal. We’ve got daycares, churches, schools who’ve been very, you know, been pretty much without COVID or have not been able to have the infection spread that they usually would have. I mean, like longtime daycare owners, you’ve only daycare for 15 years. And you know that hand, foot, mouth disease, thyroid disease, norovirus, flu, these are things that are common in a daycare. Well, when we come in and coat those environments, we put down a 90 day germ killer. It’s a barrier that goes on all the surfaces, the floors, the door pulls, the switches right, and kills microbes that land there. And all of a sudden your absenteeism goes down, your employee absenteeism goes down. Right. And you’re not losing kids who are getting sick, you know, and your daycare operators are not sick every day. And it just it’s a real it’s a real impact. So that’s what we’re in it for, to make a real impact. And we want to do that in more places. Our message is that everyone needs to upgrade their kind of their disinfectant technology right now.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:29] So now what’s what’s an actionable piece of advice you can share with other founders when you’re launching, especially one of these mission based organizations where your work not only, you know, can generate revenue, but it also can really make an impact in a community.

Cal Burlock: [00:14:49] Sure. Your job is our job is to serve. If I’m not serving anyone today, I’m failing. And that’s the way I see it. I you know, obviously, I told you the heart of this is economic development, but we believe that economic development comes when you serve others, when you provide value to your community. So I would say don’t give up and don’t lose the focus of providing a service and being of service to your community. I think it starts there and collaborate, collaborate, collaborate, collaborate is the new tech. So there are people who are more attuned to doing some maybe some facets of your business, perhaps, you know, collaborate, find those folks and build build a consensus and a team approach and whatever vehicle you guys choose. But yep.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:38] Well, Kyle, if somebody wants to learn more about STEM reps, whether they want to learn, they want to earn, they want to grow. What is the website.

Cal Burlock: [00:15:47] Sure. We’re at WW stem reps dot com just like it sounds stem reps. We’re on all social media at STEM reps and definitely reach out to us at any of those sites. We have contact forms on every page of our website so you can drop in a note, say, Hey, I’d like to join the group, I’d like to learn Earn GROSS off with you, I want to partner with you. And in some way we’re completely open for that. So we’re just we’re just just growing now, man. It’s really just growing and scaling.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:20] Well, thank you again for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Cal Burlock: [00:16:25] All right. Well, I appreciate the ability to get on your platform and tell people about it. So thank you so much.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:31] All right. This Lee Kantor will show next time on Atlanta Business Radio.