#142: Gerald Hetrick Part II (Docket (formerly Bezlio) & EOS)

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:00:00]:

We do believe that there's a much bigger opportunity to impact the productivity level of manufacturing shop floors. We think that really the people that are super inspired by what they're doing because they believe they've done a great job, because they've done the things the the things they're supposed to do next, they've done those right. Those people will build great products the people who build great products will be great manufacturers and manufacturing is a backbone of the economy. And so, we've got this pretty big vision that we can, you you know, we can drive workforce productivity, workforce happiness, and outputs at the manufacturing level by delivering, like, really simple, you know, user centric interfaces that that that walk people through what they're supposed to do the right way and right at the right time.

Jeffrey Stern [00:00:39]:

Let's discover what people are building in the Greater Cleveland community. We are telling the stories of Northeast Ohio's entrepreneurs, builders,

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:00:47]:

And

Jeffrey Stern [00:00:47]:

those supporting them. Welcome to the Lay of the Land podcast where we are exploring what people are building in Cleveland and throughout Northeast Ohio. I am your host, Jeffrey Stern, and today, I had the absolute pleasure of speaking with Jerrold Hetrick. I've actually had Gerald on the show once before. Those of you who have been with Lay of the Land from the beginning may recall Gerald as one of the 1st entrepreneurs to make an appearance back on episode 6, which I would encourage anyone interested in learning Gerald's personal and entrepreneurial journey, cofounding and leading 2 companies from inception into Exit, spanning his time building MCPC, VoxMobil, and Abel to take a listen to that episode. Gerald is an incredible storyteller and sets A great stage there for our conversation here, where we pick up on where we left off and cover what has transpired in the year since. It is pretty incredible how much has changed in this interim period and how impactful Gerald has been in driving that change. As CEO of Abel, Gerald led the organization through 5 years of 100% year over year growth, a $7,000,000 series b fundraise, And ultimately, a successful exit in early 2022 to Bullhorn, a leading software platform for the staffing and recruiting industry.

Jeffrey Stern [00:02:07]:

With the time and the space to reflect post acquisition, Gerald resolved to be retrospective and learn from the lessons of his failures and successes Over his 25 years of entrepreneurial experience. And in this time, he came to the conclusion that he loves building great companies, And that so many of the issues he encountered and struggled with in the process of building great companies were self inflicted. Recognizing how much more impactful He could have been had he prioritized running on a consistent business operating system like EOS. And ultimately, these operating systems provide leverage and not overhead. Collectively, these realizations amounted to Gerald becoming CEO of another Cleveland growth oriented technology startup called Bezlio. In addition to starting his own EOS implementation practice, coaching other growth minded leaders willing to invest in making their visions reality and their teams as healthy as possible. At Bezleo, Gerald is focused on ensuring manufacturing shop floor employees know what to do next and how to do it right. Believing deeply in Bezleo's opportunity to significantly drive middle market manufacturing growth and prosperity writ large.

Jeffrey Stern [00:03:14]:

To that end, Bezleo recently closed on a $4,500,000 seed round to invest in massive product improvements To its cloud based enterprise resource planning platform, and their overall go to market strategy and customer relationships. This was a really fun and candid conversation. Understanding how Gerald has evolved as a leader, closing out Abel's chapter, starting Bezleo's chapter anew, And building his coaching practice in service of other founders trying to build great organizations, his approach to dreaming big and operating practically, And many other reflections along the way. So please enjoy my conversation with Gerald Hetrick after a brief message from our sponsor. Lay of the Land is brought to by Burden D. Morgan mentoring at Jumpstart. It is impossible to tell the stories of entrepreneurs building in Cleveland and across Northeast Ohio without acknowledging the impact of Our collective mentoring community. Over the past decade, Bert and D.

Jeffrey Stern [00:04:10]:

Morgan mentoring at Jumpstart has helped hundreds of mentees, some of whom we have heard from as guests On this very podcast realize their innovative visions. Our guest today, Gerald Hetrick, serves as a alongside many other local founders and subject matter experts. These volunteers are passionate about sharing their time, talent, and lessons learned To grow and accelerate the next generation of entrepreneurial students and start up leaders. To learn more about Bert and D. Morgan mentoring and other free services Available to Northeast Ohio entrepreneurs, please go to jumpstart.org/startups. Bert and D. Morgan mentoring is made possible with funds from the Bert and D. Morgan Foundation.

Jeffrey Stern [00:04:55]:

You are now officially the 1st person to make a 2nd appearance on the podcast as a guest, which is which is really exciting to me, I think, when you think more holistically about the overstory of of entrepreneurship and and and things going on here. So so thank you for joining us.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:05:11]:

Yeah. No worries. Super honored, and I guess, Congratulations. Because when we did the 1st episode was that the 1st episode? 6. I was number 6. So it was very early and, did it, know, sitting in a chair in my bedroom locked down because of COVID. And I remember thinking, another podcast. Like, can you really put together, like, a long, like, stay sustainable podcast series about entrepreneurship in Cleveland, and, I'm super impressed.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:05:35]:

It's been how many episodes now? Like

Jeffrey Stern [00:05:37]:

130 plus,

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:05:38]:

a 150 in the bank. 100 150. So, yeah, I'm, at this point, it's not a it's it's not your privilege for me to be here. It's my privilege to be here. So, so thanks for having me again.

Jeffrey Stern [00:05:49]:

Well, I I am very appreciative of of you being here as well, and I'm excited to to chat more about, you know, what what's transpired since. You know, I don't think we need to to go back through the origin story, if you will. When I thought about, like, what I wanted to focus on today, I'd really love to unpack, in earnest, your approach to the conclusion of the chapter to Abel, and subsequently, Your mentality, mindset, thinking around how to figure out what to do next. Sure. And then, obviously, you know, we'll talk about Bezleo and the work you're doing now, but, kinda that that liminal space between the the two things.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:06:25]:

I mean, when we, I I guess at a high level, I'll just I'll riff a bit and then Yeah.

Jeffrey Stern [00:06:29]:

So the that that Our last conversation, just to to rewind the clock, I checked before we we we came here. We're we're going back to to January 2021.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:06:40]:

Okay.

Jeffrey Stern [00:06:41]:

So you guys had just closed the

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:06:42]:

Oh, the deal had just closed.

Jeffrey Stern [00:06:44]:

Yeah. Yeah.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:06:44]:

Sure. Wow. I I I don't remember. Like, I can't remember anything I said in my podcast. But I

Jeffrey Stern [00:06:50]:

have some bits of wisdom, also.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:06:51]:

Sure. Okay. When we signed the LOI to sell Able, you know, call it 4 or 5 months before that, you know, I was single track. Like, we're gonna get this deal done. I was, you know, passionate and, steadfast. It was a right decision for the company, for the employees, for shareholders, for myself. And so I I frankly did not spend a lot of time at all on what was next. About a week or two before the close, I had some conversations with the, leadership team at at at Bullhorn who was our acquirer, and and they were fantastic, and they we we went through some of the different options I had if I was gonna remain.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:07:26]:

You know, I was and I don't even wanna say I was being selfless. I just wasn't thinking, and, you know, my own personal, you know, next step wasn't really in my mind. Again, not out of selflessness, just out of, like, need to focus on the close. Right? I mean, like, for sure. Because the funny thing about selling a business, particularly when there's bankers involved and a large private equity group involved, is that there it's all business until the the the deal closes. And and you're reminded constantly this could fall apart at any second. This there's just no guarantees, and so I just lived in this moment of getting it done. And then when the deal closed, I, you know, I took a day or two, you know, maybe recovered from our celebration, you know, had a little bit of fun, and then it was back to work.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:08:04]:

And I did have a job. I had a role, and I I think, you know, I'd at our last conversation, I was probably just starting to absorb what that role was. I'll say I remember Dave Lohman told me, you know, you're gonna hate the the 6 months after close. And, you know, Dave was our CFO at, at Able and, you know, a great friend and, you know, had kind of a great business coach for me along that journey. And because he'd had some exits, he's like, you're gonna hate this. I'm like, Dave, how can that how can that be? You know, it's, you know, it's it's this great wind this winding up of this chapter. We we had a very intentional process. We did what we said we were gonna do.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:08:36]:

Everyone benefits greatly. How can I how can I hate the next period? He's like, well, you're gonna feel lost. You're gonna miss the you're gonna miss you know, you you were the problem solver, and then now there's no problems to solve. I thought he was wrong. Of course, I thought the role that I was taking, on Bullhorn was at Bullhorn was great. And then I just learned lots of hard lessons that He he was right, but, you know, from a number of different angles. And so Yep. I probably floated in the ether of any clarity of what I wanna do for quite a while after that.

Jeffrey Stern [00:09:04]:

Yeah. What what were were some of those lessons learned?

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:09:07]:

Well, you know, I was sure that I can make rapid decisions about what to do next and not need to put a lot of thought into. Like, I was like, I'm such a Whole person, I'm, you know, I'm I'm I'm I'm so, it's a high emotional IQ, and I've got it all put together, and I'm all that I I don't need to, like, take any time for myself. I don't need to, like, you know, go kinda find who I am again. I I can I can just make a rapid decision, an offer comes up, here I go, and away I go? And so, you know, I made a couple false starts. I made a few, jumped in, you know, half in with the bullhorn role, and and and and with a couple other things. And it took me kind of a while to sort out what I really wanna do next. And, frankly, that's still a work in progress. Like, it's still I'm still in the pursuit of what does, you know, the next 5 years look like.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:09:51]:

Yeah.

Jeffrey Stern [00:09:51]:

Yeah.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:09:51]:

I've had 2 back to back founding to leaving journeys that have have taken 15, 16 years combined with no time in between. And so now I'm, you know, in my kinda 3rd chapter of, like, what do I do next? And I think I've got it sorted out, but it's not it's not easy as that. I guess the lesson learned is that it isn't gonna be super apparent, and it it you know, what you did before has nothing to do with what you're gonna do next type thing.

Jeffrey Stern [00:10:13]:

Yeah. And we'll and we'll definitely Go deeper in into that that whole world. But the the the last time we we spoke, you had mentioned how much you had learned from your journey at MCPC, at Vox About leadership, culture, strategy, you know, the whole startup process. Mhmm. If you now take Your experience at Able and kinda layer it on top of that that stack of experience. What what do you feel are the The earned lessons and and wisdom that you're you're taking with you from Abel that you didn't have before.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:10:47]:

So great question. And and at my new gig, at Bezleo, you you know, we've we're making some decisions to do things and a lot of to to to operate our business and build our culture a certain way and and and some of that is purposeful based on me spending time in retrospect of what went well or didn't go right didn't go well at Able. Able wasn't all rainbows and unicorns. It was, of course, a grind and, you know, a a journey of ups and downs. You know, I'd say that I operated by instinct quite a bit at MCPC and at VoxMobil. And then I got I kind of fell in love with my instincts and, you know, developed a bit of an ego. I remember we had an early meeting at Vox mobile around and, in which Chris Snyder was encouraging us to be vulnerable and talk about, you know, what what parts of ourselves we wanted to we wanted to, like, better during the journey. And at at that moment, I had pretty low self esteem.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:11:36]:

I didn't really feel like I fit in the room of leaders I was around. I I quickly be moved beyond that and started to buy into myself a little bit too much. And when I got to Abel, I I kinda knew that I needed to not just operate on instinct and needed to put some some frameworks in place, but But, ultimately, we we move really fast, and I I made some good decisions and, you know, we we had a successful outcome. Still, there were there were things there were there were there were awards and scars and cracks and crevices that we had in that business that I was aware of along the way, and I kinda deprioritized needing to, needing to impact. Looking back at that, it's like, okay. I I can see now how that affected our outcome. I can see why, you know, maybe being a you know, maybe maybe not driving alignment and accountability as strong as I could have. And I thought I did a pretty good job, but mostly based on my own voice, not based on any kind of framework or methods.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:12:26]:

And so Looking back now, it's like, okay. Well, I'm gonna start another business. I can you know, I wanna I wanna start from the beginning, you know, making you know, billing putting a putting a process in place such that we have a strong foundation for alignment and accountability. Product is another one. So, you know, honestly, at able I don't wanna say I had a healthy disrespect for product. I didn't understand product. I I really didn't get the difference between you know, particularly the early years, the difference between, you know, observing needs and creating solutions to problems and then, you know, manifesting those into, like, actual priorities for engineers, I didn't get the the difference between that and just, like, putting a bunch of smart people in rooms saying go build me something that's cool. Yeah.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:13:03]:

And it wasn't until, like, the second half of the journey that I realized the mistakes we'd made that holy you know, frankly, holy shit. Like, we we've got this thing lots of people are using, but we're kind of stuck in the mud as it relates to progress here. Like, we can't really move it forward at the velocity we'd want to because we don't have a strong product process. So we brought in a, you know, a a chief product officers, Dustin Brewer, who you know, who who was revolutionary for us along with, you know, our CTO, Dominic O'Connor, who was also, you know, second half of that journey person. But we'd already made some mistakes, and and we already had the, you know, the the the cart was already out of the barn or whatever that that that that analogy is, and we couldn't, like, go turn the table. So looking back now at Bezio, we're building a whole new version of a product and taking it to market, and we're doing that, like, with a in a with with product at the forefront. We're, like, trying to be really good about how we think about product and and not just, you know, build cool stuff because we think it's cool.

Jeffrey Stern [00:13:51]:

Right. Right.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:13:52]:

So I think being better about product, which is the more more specific thing, and then and then, you know, being even more stringent about forcing, you know, alignment and accountability.

Jeffrey Stern [00:14:03]:

Yeah. I I think those are those are really interesting reflections. Particularly, the idea of, like, how difficult it can be to Address, you know, foundational things that that weren't set up in the way that you now believe they should be Yeah. Versus, like, how much easier that that is to From a blank slate, kinda set it up the way that that you would like it.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:14:22]:

When we I mean, when we raised our series a at Able, I went out and built a team. You know, I I felt felt all powerful for a moment there. I felt like, listen. I've I've I'm doing this and we're growing month over month. The growth is happening, you know, where we're fighting through the hard challenges. We're addressing problems. We're or or surfacing issues and solving those. I felt really good about that.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:14:39]:

And then, you know, in kind of, you know, post close conversations with people I become great friends with or along the journey. Like, I learned, like, it wasn't all that great for them all the time. Like and sometimes, like, it was just me trying to speak from a pulpit around this is how we're gonna do it and rah rah and get everyone together, and I just that that all worked. And, you know, in retrospect, I'm trying to be vulnerable, but it didn't always all work. And so it can't just be me or some other leader just saying how it is. You have you have to drive this notion of buy in. And I always preach this the the concept of buy in. I'd you know? Yeah.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:15:09]:

Yeah. May maybe so I guess, not saying, You know? I guess I'm not willing to step out of my ego enough to say it was bad, but I think there's certainly opportunities to improve, and I and I'd I'd be, I'd be foolish if we didn't, like, try to, like, learn from that a bit.

Jeffrey Stern [00:15:23]:

Yep. Can you kinda take us through the whole Bullhorn acquisition? Like, how how much of that, You know, was was planned in advance? Where did it kinda come from strategically? You know, was that the direction you're ultimately trying to go? Just kinda piece together the the end of that Chapter.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:15:37]:

Yeah. I mean, now that the deal's, you know, done and sunk in and we're we're a couple years down the road almost here, I mean, the more detail is easier to share. I mean, the the truth is and There was a pitch meeting in early 2017. I had just agreed, I guess, to build and lead employee stream as it was called then with, Aaron Grossman and Rob Sable, who are, you know, the CEO and CIO of, of the Talent Launch staffing agency, and they built this product inside the organization, and they needed, you know, capital and leadership to kinda take it out and commercialize it and and drive it. And so Yep. You know, so I just agreed to do that, and I decided that I wanted to build a business in Cleveland. I wanted to become part of and then become a presence inside of the tech startup ecosystem in Cleveland, and I intentionally wanted to raise money here in Cleveland. Those were those were things I said.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:16:25]:

And and so the 1st version of the pitch deck we built, we went to jump start. We had a relationship with with with some folks at Jumpstart because they are investors in Vox Mobile. And I made a call to Jumpstart and, you know, got invited in, and and and Aaron and Rob had our had also had some early conversations with those folks. And the very 1st pitch deck I had had an exit slide on there, and it said one of the opportunities to soft land the business was an exit to Bullhorn in 3 to 5 years. And they had numbers on there that were shockingly close to what we did. So I'm not, yeah, I'm not gonna go as far as say we planned that from the beginning, but, like, we knew that this ecosystem we were in, I was able identify the ecosystem we are in, only had a few acquirers. There's only a few people that were gonna buy growth oriented, you know, SaaS businesses in in the in the in the in the market and then and thus the multiples that are being panned. There's only a couple business that we're gonna buy.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:17:10]:

So all along, I think we kinda knew there was a possibility. I'll say though the majority the vast majority of the journey, the next four and a half of the of the of the 5 years were spent, you know, thinking that we we were competitive to Bullhorn. You know, We were certainly a partner of theirs, and they were gracious partners, and they were wonderful you know, they did they did wonderful things in the space. You know? But we thought we had a superior product, and then we thought we were ahead of the ahead of the market in the things that we did, we thought we were, you know, tip of the spear as related to, you know, candidate experience, which became such an important thing.

Jeffrey Stern [00:17:37]:

Yeah.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:17:37]:

And so we were we were out to win, frankly. The clarity we had, though, was that we were in a smaller market. You know? Staffing while it's you know, there's 10,000 plus traditional staffing agencies and, you know, a big bulk of the economy, our contingent labor that goes through staffing agencies. The the technology space there is is relatively small. And so we had a, you know, couple different capital strategies. 1 is one of in which we would raise an appropriate amount of capital, be super capital efficient, and exit inside of staffing or one in which we would pivot to a larger the larger commercial space, and we would compete in in in HR tech, which is extremely crowded.

Jeffrey Stern [00:18:15]:

Yep.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:18:16]:

We would raise much larger rounds, and we would go we would go, you know, try to get go go for a, you know, a vastly larger exit. And and and our exit was great. So those those two strategies were kinda always in my mind. I had wonderful partners and the local investors here with North Coast and Jumpstart and, you know, M25 out of Chicago and ultimately Plymouth out of Ann Arbor who led our led our series a. We had wonderful partners, and they were very encouraging of, you know, me doing what I thought was right. And so as we as as as 20 20 was happening. It became super clear that the market we had built, and frankly, I do believe we built the market Yeah. Had had now become a thing.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:18:51]:

The larger players had decided they were they were gonna dominate the market, and so we had to compete or die. And so I started, you know, running some, you know, informal processes around and having some conversations around, you know, should we should we be be acquired by by a couple folks? There's only a couple people out there. We we had some conversations. We had some good relationships at Bullhorn, and so, you know, I met I, I I had I had a on the floor on a trade show floor conversation at at one of the trade shows, that that materialized quickly the way we went.

Jeffrey Stern [00:19:19]:

Yeah. It's fun. I always find the, like, the strategic dynamic of playing nice in the sandbox with the person who is gonna make that Build by partner decision. You know? The frenemy kinda

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:19:32]:

I mean, the the

Jeffrey Stern [00:19:33]:

walking the line.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:19:33]:

One of the fun stories we have is we were, the best Show we ever had. We had a lot of leads from trade shows. One of the best trade shows we ever had was, they called their BORN Engage. It's their user conference. And I forget the the year. It might have been 18. You know, we went there. We got we got a 100 leads.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:19:48]:

We probably converted 20 or 30 of those within 3 or 4 months. It was amazing. And and then we were uninvited back the next year. We were a partner, but, I mean, we kinda dominated the room, and and they they had a competing product because they they had acquired a a competing product. And so, I mean, they made the right decision, but were uninvited from the show floor. We had a room like this you know, the 2nd or 3rd floor back in a hallway, and it was a it was a terrible event for us. And I remember feeling like, you know what? But that's it. We're gonna go win.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:20:12]:

So the only other I guess, there's lots of great moments of decision points in that story, but I did I did do a pitch day, at Sierra Ventures out on the on the on the peninsula. I went out there. There's a couple other folks. Chris Beck from, Performance was with with with was with me. And we packaged to 21 VCs. These are all larger funds, all invest in, you know, unicorn or bus type companies. Yep. And the responses from my pitch were awesome.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:20:36]:

Like, people like that was incredible, really well spoken, great pitch, super succinct. The responses to me, I felt were really strong. Like, 2 or 3 of them, like, hey. If we were to invest, would you move this business to, you know, to San Jose? Sure. The responses to the opportunity give given the market we were in were were were just ho They were like, listen. You know, you we would need, a lot we we will you would need to commit to bringing a lot of capital and an immediate pivot outside of staffing to a different place. And we just, as partners, sat around the table and, you know, that that was a path, but we just didn't think it was for us right at that moment.

Jeffrey Stern [00:21:08]:

Yeah. So you Able is acquired by Bullhorn. You take some time to well, I guess you thought maybe you didn't need the time to think about,

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:21:16]:

you know, what you're doing. Take time. I started I 3 days later, I joined the the marketing leadership team meeting at Bullhorn as a as a as a new employee. 3 like, 3 days later, it was it was incredible.

Jeffrey Stern [00:21:25]:

So, you know, as as you made your way through the the post acquisition process, You know, at what point do you begin to think that you actually do need the time to think? And, like, to bula rasa, clean slate, really intentionally figure out, you know, why it is you wanna get back into the arena and where you wanna to focus your efforts, and and how do you just approach the the whole process of, And given your your track record and and and success that you've had in earnest, you you could do anything that you want. Sure. So, like, how do you begin to think about what it is that actually wanna do next.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:21:57]:

Well, I probably had 3 moments, 60 ish days after being at Bullhorn. I realized I was taking someone else's job, that I wasn't passionate about the role they had me in, that they were super gracious, and I had a great great leader. And, this gentleman John Bedard, who led who led the product product marketing at Bullhorn, I just realized this was someone else's role. They they had the right role. They had the right seat, I guess, using an US term. They didn't or or even a connoisseur. They they just didn't have the right person. I was not I was not a fit for it.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:22:22]:

And, and they're paying me well and frankly, the future success of the product we had sold to Born was required that role to be really good, and I wasn't being really good. So That moment, I knew I needed to take a step back. I was very scared. I didn't want to take any time off. I didn't financially, I could have done it. Family would have been super supportive. In fact, my wife probably begged me to do it. I just didn't want to.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:22:42]:

I didn't want I didn't wanna, like, not have a job. I didn't wanna feel like I was floating and then get used to that and then, you know, be forgotten, frankly. I wanted to, like, I wanted to be still be in the game. I I was so, so I I guess I, you know, left that role, took a a job that ended up being a short turn a short stint. And then 90 ish days later from that so I think maybe late summer of last year, I was like, wow. I had like, I have to I really have to step back. I did the math. I mean, I didn't spend time in college.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:23:13]:

I went right from you know, I had a couple semesters at John Carroll, but I I I didn't I went right from, like, high school to full time work and never looked back.

Jeffrey Stern [00:23:22]:

Yeah.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:23:22]:

And that's I'm 4 I'll be 44 next month. I mean, that's a long time of just go go go, and not saying that I deserve a break, whereas the majority of the American economy doesn't get that. But, like, I I felt, hey. I've I've earned this little bit of time, so I need to I literally just need to take a step back. So I I don't remember the exact time, but I do remember thinking, I don't know exactly what's next. I'm gonna go join Impact Architects with, with Chris Snyder who had built this great framework of a business for solar I think he calls them solopreneurs or solo entrepreneurs to, like, do exactly what I wanna do, which is take a little bit of a break, do some coaching, and maybe do some consulting, and then, like, just ease my way into it. So that's what I did. I sold so late summer and I felt terrified, but also a little bit relieved that, you know, a couple weeks into that, I'm like, okay.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:24:06]:

I can I can recharge a bit here? I can figure out where I can go be a good version of myself if not a great version of myself. And So probably, you know, late q 2 late q 3 or early q 4 last year. Yeah.

Jeffrey Stern [00:24:17]:

Yeah. So I definitely wanna pull on the The coaching thread Yeah. And we'll get the Bezleo Sure. In there. But just kinda higher level question. At that point, in your reflections, What is that best version of yourself look like? You know? What what is it that that keeps you motivated? How are you thinking about, like, what it is to be successful at that point?

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:24:35]:

You know, I have a wonderful wife and 4 incredible children, and I had through my journey of trying to build businesses, I went from a single guy living in Lakewood, you know, jumping on planes whenever I wanted to go around the world to to having our 3rd family home and having children in school. And I never really evolved myself in the context of being that person. I just evolved myself in the context of being better at building businesses. And so, like, my wife and my family kinda just went along that journey with me, and I just drug them through whatever state. So I and I didn't realize the degree to which I could be moody or that I was, you know, you know, living, you know, unhealthy as related to just, like, physical health or that I I needed to provide more than just, like, you know, the money for people to have a great life. And I and frankly, I didn't even really figure that out in that moment to the to the degree at which I should have, but I I just I needed to think about my life as more than just, like, Gerald being successful at work. And, I don't know. Like, there's there's probably a therapy session or 2 I should do at one point to kinda dig into that, but, like, I needed to be okay with not exactly with not, like, succeeding or not, like, being in a room where people were impressed with me or doing something that worked or, like, making an employee be but I needed to be okay with not doing that and just, like, living a good life otherwise.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:25:48]:

And, like and so It was tough, and I I guess I'm still probably probably searching for that perfect version of of of myself to some degree. I need I just I needed to, like, be more than just that, I guess. And I I didn't realize I needed that that until I was in the moment.

Jeffrey Stern [00:26:03]:

Yeah. Yeah. Well, tell us a little bit about the the the coaching experience. You know, what what what does that look like practically, and and and what have you taken from it?

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:26:12]:

Yeah. So Chris Snyder, who you know, obviously, Impact Architects, and I cofounded Vox Mobile. And in truth, you know, he was he was way more the founder than I was. Although I was there from the very beginning, he took the bigger risks, because he had he he he had more than I had at that point. He already had a family, and so it was easier for me. You know, when he left Vox, he went through a very similar journey of trying to figure out what is best for himself, both, you know, serving his, you know, his needs and his family's needs, and he landed in on doing coaching, specifically EOS. And, I observed that from afar because we're great friends, and I was always, you know, both, like, a little hesitant or suspect of that you could be fulfilled doing that, but also a little bit jealous at how free and easy and happy he always was. And so, I also just didn't I just felt like, man, like, just being in a room with a with a with a company for one day and, like, and, like, leading them through some some session, and then I'm paying for you.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:27:02]:

That can't be enough value. Are you really delivering enough value in that moment? And so, I would always tell Chris, like, I just feel like I'm taking money. And so He encouraged me to explore it a bit and, you know, I've always he's he's he's been a good mentor of mine. And so, my entree into coaching late last year was, you know, doing that, like, you know, not doing, you know, pure EOS or or or anything, but, like, picking topics and spending a day facilitating off sites, whether it be on go to market or product market fit, or, or any number of topics or organizational setup and, like and not, like, making decisions for businesses, but helping them get to the right decision.

Jeffrey Stern [00:27:36]:

Yeah. I

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:27:39]:

Just I I just I would leave those sessions feeling so freaking energized. Like, holy cow. That was fun. And I can, like, move on and not think about that specific thing anymore because I can go to the next one. Like so I kinda realized that no matter what I do for the next chapter or 2 of my my story, you know, I will, I to the extent, I have board investors and employees and coworkers and partners that are okay with it. I wanna do some coaching on on the side. Like, I, like, I want to go I wanna stick my nose in a couple other businesses, in in a way that allows me to, you know, add value in little rapid bursts, and then let leave them to do their thing and come back. And so I'm still exploring, you know, how that'll work out.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:28:16]:

I've I've I'm actually next week, I'm going to Detroit to, do the EOS boot camp, and Yeah. Pretty excited to be a professional EOS implementer and get 6 or 7 clients that I can I can help in that way? But I I just I I I really kinda converted from being a bit skeptical that that could be great into, like, feeling the exhilaration of seeing wow moments inside these rooms that I I I didn't have to be a participant in from a an execution, but I could be contextually aware enough to help help facilitate them to those moments. And that that was though that's been fun for me

Jeffrey Stern [00:28:47]:

a lot.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:28:48]:

Yeah.

Jeffrey Stern [00:28:48]:

That's amazing. Well, I'll ask the the what maybe the initial Inclination of skepticism was, like, what what is the impact of coaching? What what have you seen those those wow moments be like, and How should people think about coaching?

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:29:02]:

Yeah. So I great question. And, and, also, maybe start a little bit farther down the the process. So we're we're getting ready to do, to implement EOS at, Bezleo. Yeah. We may we might be a bit small for it, but that's okay because I love the the I love the principles that or the, you know, the the outcomes we can have. Right.

Jeffrey Stern [00:29:20]:

Well, you talked about getting the right foundation in place.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:29:22]:

I'm not gonna be I'm not gonna implement. We're not gonna self implement, and I'm not gonna implement. And John Carpenter, who's done EOS coaching is is who runs ops for us. He's not gonna implement it because we have to be I think I think we really need to be vulnerable participants in the process, to get the best benefit from it. So looking at it from that lens, I I think the the opportunity as a coach to frankly not have the biases and jade jadedness or the the the politics that exists inside business and not be part of that, but to help people, like, really try to get vulnerable and, like, help them, a, understand what they really what they want from the business and then agree or buy into the things they need to do to get there and and and and and do that, like, really trying to drive vulnerability and open mindedness, that's just been fascinating. And what I've learned and I frankly, I existed in this ego ego in my head for years thinking, I'm really good in rooms of people. I can drive. I've always been able to build teams, and so why can't I just do I I can do that.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:30:18]:

I don't need someone else standing in front of the room coaching us how to be a great business. I can do that. And I've learned, like, I that's, you know, maybe in spite of, you know, in spite of some of those, you know, those those those flaws we've been successful, but there's there's so much more beyond that. If you just if you open up a little bit, you know, allow someone else to take you through the take you through the the journey. So, you know, I was never the most coachable kid in sports. I was never the most, coachable person in school, which is probably why I I didn't survive very long in college. But I've, like I'm eager to kinda break through that ceiling, take my, my lessons, that I've learned and be very coachable in the in the process as a participant, and I and I think that that just enables me further to be a good coach to other folks.

Jeffrey Stern [00:31:03]:

Yeah. What do most businesses And leaders of those businesses not understand about go to market and product that that, you know, you're you're trying to to manifest and bring to the table.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:31:16]:

Oh, I mean, product is I mean, go to market is the is the hardest one. So the the reality behind the business is so I've I'm I'm intentionally involved in early stage startups. I I just I I just wanna work in people that have, like, such an urgent desire and urgent need because they're taking capital to grow. Like, I growth is I I just I'm I'm I'm so addicted to the notion of growth. I think, the biggest thing I see on go to market and by the way, I've I've gotten this wrong a lot. So the biggest thing I see on go to market is, people sometimes take FAST as the answer, and there's, you know, skipping of steps. There's there's easy there there's there's needed things like figuring out who your real customers are and, like, can you really succinctly say what the problem you're solving, and are you actually solving a problem? Like, there's just things like that, you know, that are important to figure out. We have limited resources in these early stage start ups and, you know, finding you know, doing all the activity to get enough experimentation in place, identifying what leverage you have, whether it's like, I can find leverage in direct sales or in channel sales or in, you know, what whatever.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:32:16]:

And then, like, investing in that leverage is, I think, the secret us. And then, like, get helping founders figure out if they're like, are they go to market founders? Are they technology founders? I think that's that's kind of a a fun thing. And and then, you know, being willing to be open minded and vulnerable to to to make changes on the fly, I think is a is a is a is a real thing. So anyway, I've my my go to market coaching has mostly been very framework oriented. Like, listen. You know? We don't have to reinvent any wheel here. We're here.

Jeffrey Stern [00:32:41]:

Yeah.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:32:41]:

We are we are in a a a you know, the history books will be written about about the last 30 years in our country, and it'll be like there's this massive boom in technology. And, like, most of the successful b to b SaaS companies operated the same way. Totally. It's already all been figured out. And so let's don't try we don't need to be smarter than anyone. So that's on the good market side. On product side, I'm I can preach what you should do in product. I'm not really great knowing the the the framework of that, I'm learn I'm learning along at the same time.

Jeffrey Stern [00:33:04]:

Yeah. I mean, that it all resonates very much. If there if there is any selfish part of this podcast for me, it is that It's all been about trying to figure out the best of what other people have already figured out. Yeah. And you just you don't need to reinvent the wheel.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:33:17]:

No. I mean, like like like, I I'm I am the world's least creative startup guy ever. I have, like everyone asked me all the time, how come you just figure out your own idea and go start them? Because I don't have any new ideas. Like, I'm just really good at, at, you know, things have already worked in for other folks, and let's just let's let's use those and let's but let's be willing to execute them.

Jeffrey Stern [00:33:36]:

So so with that in mind, Tell tell us about Bezleo.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:33:38]:

Yeah. So Bezleo, I couldn't be more excited about Bezleo. So Bezleo is a company that was founded by 2 sets of brothers, the Adam and Brian Ellis and Seth and Eli Remington. And they they all actually had a a manufacturing technology consulting company called SabreLogic for many years. Very successful. They did great work. And and like a lot of folks, I think they got excited about the notion of building a SaaS business and and changing their revenue model. And so at about the same time, Abel was being formed and call it 2017, 2018 time frame Bezleo was.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:34:12]:

So we were in the same circles. We had, like, the same investors. We had the same fractional CFO. I mean, we we were frankly a very similar businesses, 1 in Akron, 1 in Cleveland. Their whole, notion was that manufacturing companies needed technology to allow, Shopfloor employees to interact with the data inside the ERP. And they would they they built a platform in which manufacturing companies could develop their own interfaces to go do that.

Jeffrey Stern [00:34:39]:

Yep.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:34:39]:

I think it was a really good idea, not particularly market tested, and that, they learned along the way that shop for that manufacturing companies didn't actually have, engineering departments that even if it was low code or no code that they weren't actually really here to go build those solutions themselves. And so they raised some money, and they they made a good run at it, and they got a little bit of traction. And, you know, then, you know, like like product market fit off often does to a lot of us. It kinda it's kinda stalled, and and they didn't they didn't quite get to that next level. And so, because I was closely connected to the investors and to the folks around them, and and even to Adam and Brian. Yeah. I stayed, you know, relatively relatively close to what they were doing. When we exited Abel, a number of folks picked up the phone and called me and said, hey.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:35:21]:

Are you interested in kinda helping out with Bezleo? And to be honest, I I just I wasn't in a place yet where I, like, I could go burden some small small startup with, like, all the things we just talked about before, like, where I wanted to land. And so I, I wasn't prepared to do that. But last year, when I did my when I decided to kinda stopped working full time, and I and I was gonna join Impact Architects and do coaching and advisory services. They were the, the 1st kinda real customer I had. So, you know, powered by Jumpstart's grit and determination to make the business something. And by Brian Ellis', you know, unwavering belief that he was gonna build a business, they had survived, and, they asked me to kinda help out. And, basically, I joined as, like, a fractional CEO. That sounds absurd.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:36:03]:

But, you know, a fractional CEO spending a couple days a week, like, helping figure out what we had was very, very clear you know, I was very clear that, you know, I'm We're gonna land those like, we don't have anything and we should unwind this or there's really something here and we should go spend great time on it. And I'll obviously landed at the the ladder, realized that Desio had 60 or 70 phenomenal customers that were extremely happy. They had a product that people were enjoying, they had, you know, again, industry expert in Brian Ellis that, you know, you could build a business around, like, and be excited about it. And then we it was just a go to market kinda challenge. Which it was just a, you know, ultimately, we needed to do a few things on the business side, but, you know, we had everything we needed to to really go at. So I fell in love with the opportunity. I asked the investors, hey. Like like, would you be willing for me to join this full time and to kinda lead this business? And everyone said yes, and We raised, we we'd raised about 4 and a half $1,000,000.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:37:01]:

You know, we're calling it we're unapologetically calling it a relaunch of the business, but, I mean, you know, frankly, we're investing a lot of that in, you know, in in in product and marketing going forward, and we're really excited about the about the next phase.

Jeffrey Stern [00:37:11]:

Yeah. Well, congratulations. Yeah. It's very exciting. So what what is the the vision for the future? Where where are you gonna take this business?

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:37:18]:

You know, Bezleo's whole the the the solution we provide, again, was about the shop floor at manufacturing companies having access, and people who work on the shop floor having access, to the to data that lives in the ERP. So basically, answering in what they're doing, and consuming data. It was it was all about trying to make the data more accurate and, you know, there's down channel benefits, you know, inventory levels being more accurate or shipping those to be more accurate. All all basically, all the activities. And so but but Brian's had this really great vision, and I'll I'll be a bit coy about this because we're we're we are launching a completely new generation of the product. Yeah. Yeah. Honestly, we're rebranding the whole business.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:37:52]:

There's gonna be a whole new launch, and so we'll we'll come out. And so so little bit little bit this is on the, I guess, on the down low if you will, but, do believe that there's a much bigger opportunity to impact the productivity level of manufacturing shop floors. We think that really the people that are super inspired by what they're doing because they believe they've done a great job, because they've done the things the the things they're supposed to do next, they've done those right, who those people will build great products and the people who build great products will be great manufacturers and manufacturing is a backbone in the economy. And so, we've got this pretty big vision that we can, you you know, we can drive workforce productivity, workforce happiness, and outputs at the manufacturing level by delivering, like, really simple, you know, user centric interfaces that that that that walk people through what they're supposed to do the right way in the right at the right time. And so we're kinda taking this the early vision of of of giving access to data and and taking it a couple steps forward to, to driving activities, the right activities, you know, in a workflow way. So our vision is to, you know, to to launch that. We've got 4 signed beta customers of, you know, larger signed beta customers. We've got an MVP customer that's been fantastic that we're building that with, and we are super excited about the early results of what we're seeing.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:39:02]:

So like all really super creative people like myself who come up with great code names. We're calling the new product gen 2, which doesn't mean we won't continue selling gen 1. We've we're we're we're we're, you know, we've just kind of reentered customer acquisition mode and starting to generate leads on 1st version, but but we're very excited. And I and I'm just excited because it's a it's a big market. It's so fun to do these tours of shop floors and see stuff being made, like, it's, like, tangible outcomes. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I mean, we've got customers who make chairs.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:39:31]:

We've got customers who make burritos. We've got customers who make heating elements for semiconductor containers to carry to to to carry around ships. It's It's we've got we've got customers who make, who make, components for for defense systems. It's it's been wild to see some of these these shop floors and to see actual stuff happening, and feel like you can be part of that is is, it's pretty easy to to connect passion to that. And so, you know, I've I've started to put together a team. We brought in a, you know, a wonderful gentleman named Greg Gortz to run go to market for us from Loom. We just added a a director of products. He's got a PhD in learning, and he joins next week.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:40:06]:

Brought John Carpenter, who was with me at Able and at at Vox to, you know, to run ops. You know, Brian Brian's Brian's, you know, super happy kind of evolving into a very customer oriented role.

Jeffrey Stern [00:40:15]:

So Yeah.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:40:15]:

Yeah. I'm really, really excited about it. Yeah.

Jeffrey Stern [00:40:17]:

It's amazing. I mean, it's also, I think, Just from from my perspective, pretty exciting because it it feels like one of those classically historically underserved markets. And you talked about the happy customers. Like, I I'm sure that

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:40:29]:

I mean

Jeffrey Stern [00:40:29]:

I don't know, like, how many people have really honed in on trying to improve this whole process?

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:40:34]:

Well, I mean, status so markets can be served by status quo. So if you go look at the amount of money that's, you know, investment capital's poured into manufacturing technology, it's staggering. When you look at the available solutions, and there are there are some very large companies and there's some really there's some ERP solutions that, you know, tens of thousands of people are using, but I I don't think that tech has been a hasn't really evolved significantly in a while. And so, like, status quo was the notion that we've been serving the markets with status quo type software. And so, Yeah. I mean, we're we're we're taking a I mean, we're building some, you know, modern product to solve what we think is a is a is a legacy problem to to try and help organizations be more modern in how they how they compete. I mean, we can use all the buzzwords in the world. Compete against China or, you know, Keep jobs here.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:41:16]:

Whatever whatever it is. Dynamism. Yeah. Right. Exactly. But, I mean, but manufacturing in in in America is, like, the 8th largest economy in the world. So there is a lot of opportunity to improve that. And and from what I've seen, you know, walking around in these plants, people are working really, really, really hard, and there's a tremendous opportunity to give them tooling to to do their jobs better and be happier how they do it.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:41:38]:

Yeah.

Jeffrey Stern [00:41:39]:

No. It's it's very compelling. And do you still have this Build It in Cleveland ship on your shoulder?

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:41:44]:

Yeah. Without without without a question. Like, we're we're doing it here. I mean, I I, it would, I mean, it would take a familial event or, you know, an earth shattering, type of opportunity to move to to try and move this business outside of Cleveland. I mean, ultimately, to be frank, you know, while Akron is part of, I guess, partly depending on how you look at it, we we we moved the HQ up from Akron here here at we're in Midtown Cleveland. Are cohabitating with Felix, which is another wonderful start up right around the corner from Jumpstart. I told all the investors, you know, I to the extent Until they can't give me any more money, I wanna take Cleveland money. We wanna hire, you know, folks here, and we really wanna build it.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:42:18]:

I'd love to I'd love to have a a great another great story here in Cleveland.

Jeffrey Stern [00:42:22]:

Yep. I mean, you've you've already given us a few already, so I'm I'm hopeful as well. As you, you know, reflect on on all of it so far, How is your thinking, mentality, optimism around Cleveland as an ecosystem? How's that evolve?

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:42:38]:

If everyone just if maybe I said this before, but I do believe this way. Like, if it's easy to not do it here. Right? It's easy to say, let's take the business to Austin or let's go to the post or let's go to St. Louis or Chicago or let's go to Columbus. It's easy to make those decisions. And frankly, some of them might give us a earlier head start. I do believe a bunch of us have to decide to not do that and to stay here Yeah. To create a generation of technology innovation that's we may we might not even be able to participate in.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:43:07]:

And I and I feel more so than I did last year and certainly more so than I did 5 years ago that that is happening. I feel like there are, You know? There are some return founders. There's there's other folks who have exited business that have decided to build businesses here in Cleveland. You know? We've got a rising tied of activity happening in in the tertiary markets connected to, you know, can and tertiary opportunities connected to start ups, and we're sitting here in, know, VividFront's podcast studio right now, and, you know, they're serving a bunch of startups here in Cleveland. I just I feel like there's more things happening. I I I think I don't think the hard work has even really started yet. Like, I think we've got a bunch of things still to do, and I think a lot of people need to be accountable to, you know, driving the city forward, but but I I'm I'm all in. Like, there's I'm here.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:43:53]:

I'm ready I'm ready to do it. Yeah.

Jeffrey Stern [00:43:54]:

That that's awesome. Is there anything that you've You've changed your mind about recently from from, like, you know, prior held beliefs about business, startups, Ecosystem that that you no longer believe.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:44:09]:

No. As part of my journey to becoming a professional EOS coach, you have to come up with your story, and this is like a 1 minute presentation of yourself. And some of this, like, I, of course, have to suspend some of my own, like, disbelief. Way it's like, I'm I've been doing this for 25 years. I don't need you to tell me how to build my story, but, I mean, I'm I'm willing to go through their process. And, you know, honestly, I think the biggest one we've already touched on is, like, I I didn't really believe 3 years ago that you needed, like, a like a like a written down framework for how you operate your business. I frankly just didn't. I thought you could you could do it without that, and I thought some of that was just overhead and burden.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:44:44]:

But But I but I've been looking back trying to trying to look back at myself as I'm building my story and and thinking, okay. My my father was actually not is was an entrepreneur his entire life. Like, he started started so many businesses, and frankly, there most of them were failures. He there was a lot of, like, grow for a couple months and then crash and burn. And My father was a dreamer. I mean, still is. Lives in Tampa. Maybe he'll hear this and maybe not.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:45:04]:

I don't know. Maybe he'll be mad about me talking about it or not. I I don't know. But, like, he was a dreamer. He always dreamed wealth and big opportunity. We're just around the corner from him, whether it was, like, gonna play the right lottery numbers or gonna start the Avon business, or going to build the next great electrical company, or it there was there was an any number of of of endeavors. And I just thought the impracticality of it was so clear. Like, this is just ridiculous.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:45:28]:

Like, get a job, go to work, feed your family. That's the American dream. Like, what are we doing here? And so I've I spent a bunch of my, like, early, late teenage years, like, thinking never thinking entrepreneurship was my way. I was gonna be the best IT guy. I was gonna end up being the CIO of some university one day, and away I went, and, you know, no big deal. Yeah. I stumbled either accidentally or or by some, you know, on subconscious calling into entrepreneurship, And I just operated because I've I've really fairly good instincts, good decision making. And so along the way, I realized I was right about both those things.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:45:58]:

Like, in the past particularly the past, like, 12 or 24 months realizing, like, entrepreneurship is somewhat impractical, but you can add a pragmatic lens to that. And and and and and system like EOS or system or or or other sort of business operating system gives you the framework to kinda, like, thrash against it as an entrepreneur with with dreams, but, like, operate super pragmatically and super practically. So while I was always kinda like those things were kinda competing in my head and I just felt like I could do it without something, I have definitely changed my mind over the past, little while that, like, you need a system. And I guess so much so that I did not put a system like EOS inside of Able intentionally. Frankly, had had the starts of it and pulled back and said no, so we don't need it. And now we're, you know, we're we're we're certainly doing it differently, at Besler because I think we can be even that much better. I know that's a little bit of a I kinda cheated on that answer because we've already talked about it, but it's it's the best it's the best I have. Right?

Jeffrey Stern [00:46:46]:

No. Thank you for for sharing that. And something that that Chris Snyder has mentioned that's always stuck with me is, you know, basically, every business has an operating system, but it's either, And a framework, but it's either intentional or or

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:46:58]:

it's not. Unintentional. Yeah. Yeah.

Jeffrey Stern [00:47:00]:

Yeah. So it is helpful to be intentional about it.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:47:02]:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I guess that that's that is the I guess I now don't believe that, like, me me me trying to be super smart is the is the best thing. Like, you know, we we need an intentional approach to it.

Jeffrey Stern [00:47:12]:

Yeah. Is Is there anything we we haven't covered here that you think is particularly important to to share about your journey, the work to be done at Bezleo?

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:47:20]:

I think I share with you right here saying that my grandmother died, this past week, passed away. She was 86, and I'm going to Louisiana. It's right when we're done here to to to back to my hometown to, or I guess my my where I was raised. Cleveland's my hometown. Now where I was raised, to see family and to to celebrate my grandmother. I'm I'm gonna give a eulogy, and as I'm as I'm writing the eulogy, I literally have a section there. I'm like, man, it's so dangerous giving a eulogy because you, like, you you know, you're gonna say you're gonna forget some story. You're gonna forget some favorite ants that you should bring up in the process.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:47:48]:

And I guess that to to to, you know, create apparel, it's a little bit dangerous doing this as well because, you know, some people will listen to this, and I'll get a text like, hey. You forgot to mention that or, like, come you didn't say so and so's name? So I guess the only thing I wanna mention is that this is you know, the success of Abel or, you know, my own personal successes are are are literally you know, my portion of that is is luck. The, you know, the, you know, the the the the that was all done on the back of, like, an incredible group of people that maximized opportunity. You know, I I think I can't thank enough, you know, the investors, the local investors here, you know, the jump starts and and North Coast and, and, frankly, a a tremendously a tremendously active group of angel investors that supported support all sorts of endeavors. I think we've we've got a great a great eco an emerging, but great ecosystem there. You know, I can't think enough of the, you know, the people that have been on this journey multiple times with me or that I get to on the journey multiple times with them, and that's amazing. And then, you know, obviously, all of our, you know, all of our families who get to support us through this whole pro these processes, I you know, they're they're all the real heroes in this, and we're just kinda, like, you know, maximizing the lucky opportunities that jump in front of us.

Jeffrey Stern [00:48:55]:

Yeah. You you know, you talked about your your inflated ego. That's That's some sincere humility right there.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:49:00]:

So Appreciate that. Yeah.

Jeffrey Stern [00:49:02]:

And gratitude. Well, I'll I'll ask you our our traditional closing question. And I I did revisit the tapes here, so you have to come up with something new. But it's it's for the hidden gems in Cleveland, and you you spoke about, Lake Erie Islands and Kelly's Island specifically. So, you know, you can reflect on that one, but, you know, any anything else about Cleveland and Northeast Ohio that people should know about it.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:49:23]:

I mean, I can't I'm so mad that I said that before because since then, our evolution, but we we my family is actually we've we've, we've acquired a little place, in Catawba, and and we've been spending even more time there. And we just the the last 3 weekends, we were both at Kelly's in Put in Bay with friends and family and had a wonderful time there. I'm I'm mad I said that. I guess I'll go to the metro parks. So I moved last time we talked, I just moved into my new house. We moved out of so we live in Hinkley, a southern suburb, and Hinkley was, you know, right kind of in the midst of the of of large metro parks. And now I live in Avon, in a in a in a western suburb and learning more about the Lorain County parks out there. I I don't think people understand the green space opportunity we have here.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:50:01]:

I mean, it's Oh, yeah. It is even if you when you fly in, if you if you're on a if on a a northern approach into Cleveland and you get a chance to to fly over, like, the Rocky River Reservation and fly over the river, I mean, there is an we have incredible outdoor green space opportunity, and a lot of, like, great topography in this area. And my wife is a just a lover of, of hiking and that and what whatnot. So I think, you know, hidden hidden gem would be, like, spend time in those areas. Like, you don't have to travel 3 hours away to find beautiful outdoor outdoor opportunities here. So

Jeffrey Stern [00:50:34]:

Yeah. It's it's all right here. Yep. Cool. Well, Gerald, I just wanna thank you for being the 1st time 2nd guest And, coming back on the podcast.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:50:43]:

Super honored, man. Thanks for having me. Absolutely.

Jeffrey Stern [00:50:45]:

If people had anything they wanted to follow-up with you about, your coaching, Bezleo, What's the the best way for them to do so?

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:50:53]:

Well, I mean, I'm super I'm very active on LinkedIn. You can find me. Hit me up on LinkedIn. You can email me at, Gerald at Impact Architects dot io. I'm also at Gerald atbezel.io. And, I mean, it's that hard to find me around around town. You know, a lot of people know me. Easy to get in contact with me.

Jeffrey Stern [00:51:08]:

Bezel.io is good. Is it Bezelio?

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:51:09]:

That that's how it came about. Good. I don't listen. I I mean, we're we we are changing the name of the business to kinda refresh things, so don't fall in love with it too Got it. Got it. Glad to

Jeffrey Stern [00:51:18]:

know. Cool.

Gerald Hetrick (Bezlio) [00:51:19]:

Awesome. Thanks, Gerald. Thank you.

Jeffrey Stern [00:51:22]:

That's all for this week. Thank you for listening. We'd love to hear your thoughts on today's show. So if you have any feedback, please send over an email to jeffrey@layoftheland.f or find us on Twitter at podlay of the land or at sternfa, j e f e. If you or someone you know would make a good guest for our show, please reach out as well and let Snow. And if you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe and leave a review on iTunes or on your preferred podcast player. Your support goes a long way to help us Spread the word and continue to bring the Cleveland founders and builders we love having on the show. We'll be back here next week at the same time to map more of the land.

Jeffrey Stern [00:51:59]:

The Lay The Land podcast was developed in collaboration with the Up Company LLC. At the time of this recording, unless otherwise indicated, we do not own Equity or other financial interests in the company which appear on the show. All opinions expressed by podcast participants are solely their own and do not reflect the of any entity which employs us. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for decisions. Thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next week.