Jaime Zawmon With Titan CEO

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 fun 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 Land of Business Radio. We have Jaime Zawmon and she’s with Titan CEO. Welcome, Jaime.

Jaime Zawmon: [00:00:42] Thanks so much for having me, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:44] I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about Titans CEO. How are you serving, folks?

Jaime Zawmon: [00:00:50] So Titans CEO is the organization that is putting on the program called the Titan one hundred. And essentially, this program is a platform to recognize one hundred CEOs and C-level executives. One hundred titans of industry. And it is through our open call for nominations that we identify these individuals within the Georgia metropolitan market, and we celebrate them as entrepreneurs, as titans of industry. We recognize them in a very large award scale program. And then we publish a book on these titans to tell their stories and we promote them to the business community as examples and models of how to be a leader, an industry maker in one’s field. And then we create a series of events that connect these incredible titans with each other multiple times over the course of the year. So that’s a little bit of what we do.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:59] Now what are some of the qualities that a titan of industry in a market like Georgia would have? Does that mean they are the kind of the CEO of the largest firms in town? Can they be a small or mid-sized company that are doing interesting things like how does somebody qualify and what are the qualities?

Jaime Zawmon: [00:02:18] So we? That’s a question I get asked often and for us know a titan of industry isn’t necessarily about being the biggest. It’s really about being the best. So it’s doing what you do better than anybody else does it. Oftentimes, we do see titans that make the list that are quite large in their organizations. Yes, there they are, the CEOs running, you know, billion dollar organizations. But we also recognize those CEOs that are running companies that are under a million and everything in between. It really depends on your industry. It depends on your vertical. It depends on who you are and what you do. We look for those that are visionaries. They are leaders. They are preeminent and distinguished in their field. And so those are the basic qualifications in our open call for nominations. We have sort of a four part series questionnaire that we ask, and the nomination form is what we use to write a lot of the editorial content that will appear on our titans. But we want to know what their entrepreneurial story was. We want to know what their journey, their path to accomplish, what they’ve accomplished. We also want to know what their vision looks like because I’ve never met a titan before in my life that didn’t have a strong vision. We want to know what they think makes them the best at what they do. So what is it that makes them that titan of industry? And then we also want to know what their accomplishments are. And for us, accomplishments aren’t just a bunch of accolades. One, they can be things like revenue growth or markets acquired or new products and new products or launches speaking opportunities, books publish. It’s whatever the individual deems as accomplishments. For some, it’s just surviving and growing through COVID.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:10] Right? Sure. Now is it something that I have to wait for someone to nominate me or can I self nominate?

Jaime Zawmon: [00:04:18] So we do allow for self nominations, absolutely as we continue to spread the word. We want to make sure that we’re connecting with everybody. We have a nomination committee that is also helping to nominate individuals, and they visit our website WW w Titan One Hundred Babies to find the Georgia Titan 100 page, and they can click right there to go to the website to fill out the application.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:46] Now what was the genesis of the idea? What got you interested in kind of spotlighting these titans of industry?

Jaime Zawmon: [00:04:55] So I started my career in the publishing world and I was publishing. A magazine back on the East Coast for roughly 15 years, and I saw firsthand the power of community. It’s one of the things that I believe any CEO, any sweet C-suite can possess, and that’s the power of a really strong community. And so when we started this program here in Colorado two years ago, we saw that there was a lack of community that existed around recognizing a titan and these titans and then bringing them together. And so this program has been successfully running here in Colorado for going on three years now, and this community has continued to grow and flourish. It’s something really special about bringing these titans of industry together and allowing them to build the networks with each other. And so we were approached by our headline sponsor with Lee to basically roll the program out across the country to multiple cities. And so St. Louis was our next market. Georgia is our third market. We’re also expanding to Phenix and then in 2020 to here, we’ll also see Philadelphia on the map. So we will be in five cities in twenty twenty two. And this program will essentially recognize five hundred titans of industry across the country.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:33] Now, the value to the Titan isn’t just the recognition. It’s also kind of being plugged into this community of people who kind of think like they do in terms of serving their community, wanting to build kind of strong ties within the community and maybe getting to know folks that they wouldn’t normally get to know in the course of their work in in a specific niche.

Jaime Zawmon: [00:06:56] Absolutely. That is one of the things that most of the Titans will say has been the biggest benefit for them. They will say that they thought that they came for the recognition and they were honored and humbled to be recognized as a titan in their industry. But what surprised them was the caliber, the quality and the opportunity to make some really long lasting relationships with other individuals that are also titans of industry.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:26] Now in your role, do you see it as much as being a community builder and nurture as it is, is just finding and identifying the appropriate titan?

Jaime Zawmon: [00:07:38] I think it’s about a combination of both, right? We want to make sure that we have a strong, diversified list of individuals that represent a multitude of industries that represent a multitude of size and scope of company and then tap into that community. The ability to say, Hey, I need to connect with someone who is in this industry or is in this market, and then also the depth and breadth of the experience that the Titans bring to the group. It’s pretty. It’s pretty powerful. Most successful entrepreneurs, CEOs see tweets that have been successful in their career have been successful in other platforms, multiple businesses that they’ve either run or grown. And so just really the experience and the powerful collective unit of these titans, that’s where the magic lies, and that’s what’s exciting to see and watch, to see them connect with each other and build those relationships. It’s super fun and we have a lot of fun doing it.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:54] And then some of the ways that you do those kind of meet ups, I guess, pre or during the pandemic or virtual. And now you’re kind of going back into real life where there are in-person events or is that on the calendar moving forward at some future point where that not only will they have the recognition, maybe at an award ceremony, but there also might be some roundtables and some private events together?

Jaime Zawmon: [00:09:18] Yes. So in fact, in twenty twenty, when we were in the very beginning stages or the middle of the pandemic, we did actually host a multitude of events. We did virtual as well as in-person, and we stayed within the state guidelines for the quantity of people that anyone could host in a room safely and doing so. And we are planning in twenty twenty one, we planned more events and we had more successful events just because the restrictions were lifted for us. And so in twenty twenty two, we plan to do the same exact thing tapping into both a hybrid if need be of virtual and in-person. We, in addition to the big awards program, which gathers all of the titans of industry under one roof for one night, which is a really powerful event. We create a series of subsequent events that are casual and more fun and atmospheric things like an event we did where we rented out a distillery and we took our titans on private tours through the malting process and the barrel, the opportunity for them to hear firsthand and taste the experiences of the distillery. We also at the same time took a portion of our titans and broke them into groups for roundtable discussions, and it allowed them under a facilitation to connect and learn and hear from our other titans with firsthand questions. And that’s incredibly powerful to not only network, but then have a portion of your evening where you’re learning from other titans and contributing to a powerful conversation. And so it’s those fun atmospheric events that we want to do that will build those deep relationships with those titans and allow them to have a ton of fun doing it.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:14] Now is there any learnings you can share for the listener here who might be there? Not a titan yet, but they aspire to be a titan. There are some things that you see that titans do or don’t do.

Jaime Zawmon: [00:11:27] Absolutely. There are many books, in fact, but you know, we ask a lot of our our titans things like, what’s your greatest leadership lesson? Learn, or how do you inspire the next generation of titans? You know, they will tell you time and time again that being humble is is quite important. Listening is one of the most important traits that a titan of industry can have. Leading from the front in times of challenge and being in the back seat when the when the organization is experiencing the most success so that you can allow your team and your employees to receive that recognition, it takes authentic leadership. It takes showing up for your people day in and day out. Our titans have certainly faced a ton of adversity in the last two years, and we know that the Georgia titans have as well. And so it it’s incredible to see how individuals have grown and persevered. Their mindset that is required to constantly remain that perpetual optimist, those are all characteristics and traits of a titan.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:47] Now for you personally, as you’ve kind of grown in your career, how did you know that this kind of had legs that that you were getting traction with this concept when you first started this?

Jaime Zawmon: [00:13:03] Well, you know, I think that if you believe in something. And you get enough people to see the vision that you have for something they can begin to take. What you have envisioned and and grow it and run with it and aspire to elevate it, and that’s kind of what happened here in Colorado. The program was incredibly successful year one more people wanted to get involved and support it. So it grew further into year two. And it’s not just my doing. There’s a whole community of people that believe in the power of community, and this is a special one. And so they’re the ones that are so focused on continuing to see it evolve and succeed and grow. And we do have a vision to expand it to 10 cities across the country and essentially build the Titan one thousand where we recognize one hundred CEOs and C-level executives in 10 cities across the country every year.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:16] So what do you need most right now? How can we help?

Jaime Zawmon: [00:14:19] Well, if you are a titan of industry, we encourage you to apply to nominate, if you know, a titan of industry. We encourage you to apply and nominate them. Nominations close very soon here for our Georgia market, and once they do, then they’ll go on to our independent selection and judging committee who will score, review and rank our titans so that we are able to publish our inaugural list here in Georgia. And we’re so excited to see the diversity and uniqueness that Georgia will bring as it represents Georgia.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:00] And it’s important for the budding or aspiring titan to not kind of self-select out too soon, right? Just throw your name in the hat and you just don’t know. You might not be too small. You might not be, you know, you could be just the right size. I don’t self-select out before you even start, right?

Jaime Zawmon: [00:15:21] Absolutely. It was Wayne Gretzky who said, you miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:28] So be bold and apply, nominate yourself and that website one more time.

Jaime Zawmon: [00:15:34] W w w tighten one hundred duck biz

Lee Kantor: [00:15:38] And that’s tight. And the number one hundred one zero zero b i z.

Jaime Zawmon: [00:15:45] That’s correct.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:46] Well, Jamie, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Jaime Zawmon: [00:15:51] Thank you so much, Leigh. It’s been my pleasure.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:54] All right, this is Lee Kantor. We’ll see, y’all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.