In this episode of Hello Chaos, host Jennifer "JJ" Sutton speaks with Heather Eason, CEO and founder of Select Power Systems. They discuss Heather's entrepreneurial journey, the challenges and rewards of running a business, and the importance of community and support for women in business. Heather shares her experiences with obstacles, her book 'The Art of Revenge', and her aspirations for her new venture, Sustainable Fuel Tech. The conversation emphasizes the need for women to empower each other and advocate for future generations.
1. Embrace Obstacles as Opportunities
Heather's entrepreneurial journey has been filled with challenges, from becoming a first-generation college graduate to bootstrapping her own engineering firm. She emphasizes that obstacles are not just roadblocks; they are opportunities for growth and resilience. As founders, we must adopt a mindset that views challenges as stepping stones to success. Heather's grit and determination remind us that perseverance is key in the face of adversity.
2. The Importance of Flexibility in Work Culture
One of the most rewarding aspects of Heather's company is the positive impact it has on her employees' lives. By offering remote work options and flexibility, she enables her team to maintain a healthy work-life balance. This approach not only fosters loyalty but also enhances productivity. In a world where traditional office environments are the norm, Heather's commitment to a more adaptable work culture is a powerful reminder of the benefits of prioritizing employee well-being.
3. Navigating the Complexities of Business Relationships
Heather candidly shares her experiences with the challenges of working with larger firms and the importance of establishing trust in business relationships. She highlights the need for accountability and transparency, especially when it comes to subcontracting opportunities. As entrepreneurs, we must be vigilant and proactive in advocating for ourselves and our businesses. Heather's story serves as a call to action for all of us to stand firm in our value and to seek partnerships that align with our principles.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (00:01.733)
Welcome to Hello Chaos, a weekly podcast exploring the messy and chaotic minds and lives of founders, entrepreneurs, and innovators. Every week we talk to founders from different industries at various stages of all shapes and sizes. We get to hear the real, the raw, the unbiased founder stories. And it's why our mantra is where aha meets shit. We drop new episodes every Sunday. Founders tune in to us for tips and insights.
strategies on growing their business, or ways to be better owners and better business leaders. We find that they enjoy being a part of a community of like -minded, like -missioned founders, and they no longer feel alone because they sense the camaraderie. Hello Chaos is one of the many resources brought to you by Orange WIP. That is Orange WIP WIP for Work in Progress.
Orange WIP is a multimedia company dedicated to serving founders and entrepreneurs in affiliate cities. We've designed hyper local media platforms to inform, inspire, and be the independent connective tissue between founders and the local entrepreneurial ecosystem. That's a mouthful. Our innovative digital zines are an all -in -one content hub with fresh and engaging stories.
curated local calendars and local dynamic roadmaps to help founders navigate that local ecosystem with ease. We've done the hard work for founders, so they will need to go to one trusted place to find the local information they need. My name is Jennifer Sutton. My friends and family call me JJ. I'm the founder of Orange WIP and Bright Marketing, and I'm your host today.
And so excited we have Heather Eason. She's the CEO and founder of Select Power Systems and many divisions of Select Power Systems. She's an author, she's a YouTuber, and I'm excited for her to be on this episode. Welcome to Hello Chaos, Heather.
Heather Eason (02:09.112)
Well, thank you so much. I'm glad to be here.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (02:12.059)
Been looking forward to talking to you all week. Why don't you just start us out? Because you do have such a rich history and rich experience within the power and energy industry. And you again, you're an author of the book of The Art of Revenge and several YouTube channels. So just how did you get into this? How did you start your entrepreneurial and your founder journey?
Heather Eason (02:39.502)
So it's kind of interesting. There was a rumor that went around that I was starting my own firm several years ago and I absolutely was not at the time. It was not something I was thinking about and I started getting all these phone calls from my friends. They're like, hey, we hear you're starting your own firm. No, I don't know where you heard that from. No. Well, we heard that and we think you should. You think we think you should do it. And so it kind of planted a seed. And then several years after that actually did take the jump and start my own company.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (03:09.617)
Whoa, and how long ago was that? Was that 2017 or? Okay. And I'm assuming that was in the industry you played in was in power, like energy power utility. So what was the premise of the company just to be an outsourced solution to the role you were playing within the utility?
Heather Eason (03:13.262)
2017.
Heather Eason (03:36.576)
Yeah, so I've been in electric utilities for over 20 years. And when I had the opportunity to start my own company, I wanted to stay within my expertise. And so I'm like, okay, I'm going to start an engineering firm that helps electric utilities with engineering design and project management, because that was my wheelhouse.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (03:56.037)
Yeah, yeah. And then, okay, so as part of this journey, what have you discovered about yourself?
Heather Eason (04:07.778)
That's a great question. Probably the biggest thing that I've discovered is I am hard -headed. I just don't give up. I actually enjoy a challenge. You know, if you want me to make sure I get something done, you tell me I can't do it. And then I'm gonna move heaven and earth to get it done. So I'm just hard -headed.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (04:31.227)
Yeah, it's that grit and gumption that I think that makes up a lot of founders kind of, we have that spirit within us. I think that's what makes us a little bit unique in the business world. Okay, so this is the question I was gonna ask you. If you had to sum up your full entrepreneurial journey in one word, what would it be?
Heather Eason (04:54.926)
obstacles. So I am a first -generation college graduate. I got pregnant at 16, not my choice, but I believe in life and I had my son at 17 and I had to first figure out how to graduate high school and then I had to get an engineering degree, get in the industry, learn the technical skills. You know, and then when I decided to start my company, I bootstrapped it. I self -funded.
I didn't have any backers, didn't have any loans, didn't have any money. It was just me. And so, I've just had to overcome a lot. There've been a lot of obstacles.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (05:34.255)
Yeah, that's such a great, again it goes back to that grit, that gumption, that perseverance of anything comes in your way, you're gonna just tackle it.
Heather Eason (05:47.157)
Absolutely.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (05:48.411)
Well, what's been the most rewarding part of starting your own company? I mean, and not only just you start, but you've started other divisions and, and it's like, when you hit to become an entrepreneur, you went full out. What's been the most rewarding part of that?
Heather Eason (06:08.494)
The most rewarding part is that I get to make a positive impact in other people's lives. So we've been remote since the beginning in 2017. So when COVID happened, we didn't skip a beat. We just kept doing what we were doing. you know, just recently, one of my engineers, he and his girlfriend had a child together and he called me and he said, I just want to thank you. He said, I didn't realize
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (06:22.854)
Yeah.
Heather Eason (06:35.906)
how much work it would be to have a child added. And she had had a tough time with the pregnancy, so she wasn't able to do a lot around the house. But because he worked remote from home, and I gave him the flexibility, he was able to help take care of his girlfriend and his child. And he wouldn't have been able to do that with a standard nine to five drive to the office everyday job, which is traditional in our industry.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (06:42.918)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (06:56.923)
Right.
Right, right. Because, we work with several utilities on the marketing side. And yeah, they are an in -office, very traditional work environment. So you probably do offer that rewarding aspect of it, of the nimbleness, the agility, a better work -life balance to your folks.
What do you think has been the most challenging? Like you talk about, you see obstacles and you run over them. What's been the biggest challenge?
Heather Eason (07:39.054)
biggest challenge and the thing that I didn't realize was payroll comes every two weeks and sometimes clients don't pay. I had one client that got $295 ,000 in arrears and I had payroll and I was like, what am I going to do? You know, I've got people who depend on me to be able to pay their mortgage, put food on their table, take care of their families and I've got to figure out a way to make it happen. And
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (07:56.497)
Right.
Heather Eason (08:07.63)
actually had to hire a lawyer and have him send a letter to get them to pay me so that I could make payroll. And that was, I'll be honest with you, that is terrifying. Carrying the weight of someone else's paycheck on your shoulders, that is a burden, it really is.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (08:14.08)
wow.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (08:21.057)
it is. And I think that's what separates, you we talk about entrepreneurialism as a whole. You know, what we call kind of the founder, you know, business owner is a very different world and a different circle and different pressures than just people that are more innovators and solopreneurs. It really, because there's no risk there other than you might not
pay your own bills, but you're worried. I mean, that was an aha moment for me too, when I started, you know, Bright in 2013, you take that responsibility on. you know, you're out there doing a risk. You've got to learn cash flow and yeah, the bigger companies that you work with, the lot like they're at 90 day, 120 day, and it's no fun. It is trying to balance that.
And a lot of banks and finance don't want to talk to you until you've been three years in the business or five years to be able to get kind of the financial support. So I commend you for it. It's hard to scale and you've scaled to, you have some scalability on your company. mean, yeah.
Heather Eason (09:47.566)
So I went from being an owner operator to having 50 plus employees. And it's a difference when you're an owner operator than when you're trying, you know, and two, mean, you know, as an engineer, I'm kind of a control freak just by nature. I like to do things myself, cause I know I can do it. I know I can do it fast. But when you have to step back and you have to delegate and give employees the opportunity to learn,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (09:52.332)
is.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (09:57.606)
Yeah, sorry.
Heather Eason (10:17.334)
so that they can do it themselves, that was a very difficult, challenging thing for me to do, to hand it over to other people and trust that it got done. And not to micromanage, but to literally hand it off and say, I'm here for support. I'm not gonna contact you unless you need something and then you contact me and I'm here, but I'm not gonna micromanage. I'm not gonna be in the weeds. And that was a difficult transition.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (10:27.729)
Bye.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (10:43.142)
Right?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (10:46.609)
Yeah, it's like I said, we go through these little stages of we learn about ourselves as a leader and a manager. Yeah, it's those were some of my aha moments too. What are some other, what's like your biggest aha besides like the payroll thing of like, holy crap, I have to deal with payroll and I got to deal with people paying me, you know.
I know that you said that was like a big, what was the, what was another big aha for you?
Heather Eason (11:21.848)
big aha for me was that I had a good reputation and I had a lot of friends in the industry but when I started my company, regardless of how much they wanted to utilize me as a subcontractor, they couldn't because I was considered too high risk by their procurement department. So I had to meet several milestones or gates. You know, I had to be in business for three years. I had to hit that million dollars in revenue.
You know, I had to hit these milestones before the larger companies would even talk to me or consider me for a subcontractor. And that was something I didn't realize. I thought, hey, if a friend of mine wants to utilize me or one of my employees for engineering design, should be easy peasy. But no, you had to have three years of financials. You had to have revenue. You had to have positive cash flow. You had to have risk programs in place.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (12:16.955)
Right.
Heather Eason (12:17.354)
And so I had to go out and hire a consultant to develop these risk programs for me that we have to follow. Cybersecurity, even today, cybersecurity is something that is, I'll be honest with you. I don't do federal government work or if I do, I do it as a subcontractor and I piggyback on the prime because the level that you need for security, the CMMC structure, it's almost cost prohibitive for a small company to be able to meet all those expectations.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (12:30.288)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (12:42.459)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (12:46.949)
That's right. You have to be a, you've got to be a subcontractor to those bigger, you know, tier one, tier one vendors, because yeah, we've, we've dealt with that or, you know, when we do things on the marketing side for like larger companies to get through their tests for, cause like we'll do studies. And we're like, we're not, we're not hosting data. We're not gathering, you know, personal information.
But to go through those kind of tests, it was like 150 questionnaire. That was like Blue Book, like the old like essay test. It wasn't multiple choice. I spent over a week, hours each day, just I felt like if I can get through these 10 questions, next day I'll do like another 20 questions, but it was, Yeah, that's, I don't.
I don't
Heather Eason (13:48.366)
them and say I had the pre -COVID experience where somebody actually came to my house and interviewed me in person. They had a tape recorder and they would ask me the question and then I would have to answer and then they would take notes and she was stoic. I didn't know until at the very end if I failed or passed and thank God I passed but it was nerve -racking.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (14:10.321)
But you're like, and then that's just the point of like, it's very difficult to, I it just shows also the milestones that you've hit in such a short timeframe, but just showing the barriers of scalability and growth for smaller businesses to work with larger companies. There's still a lot of challenge. don't think, you know, we talked to larger businesses, they're like, we want to support the small business.
Well then, you can't treat engineering, design, marketing from some of this consultation like you're buying widgets for. It's not the same. And they don't realize a lot of that. A lot of the purchasing agreements are based on materials and not
and not expertise. And it's like, we're...
Heather Eason (15:13.954)
Right, you look at some of the contracts, I just had one last week that came in, and it's like, wait a minute, we are selling our knowledge base, we're selling our expertise, our skill set to you, we're not selling widgets, we don't do construction.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (15:29.647)
Right? It's like our utility contracts that we've gotten, we've just had to go, no, no, I think you guys need to take our service agreement with the language because you literally sent us what, like you would send a construction company of half these clauses don't apply, right? And they're like, what? What? It's just funny how.
that there is, they don't, they kind of put us all as one. Why I'm buying services, it's like, you are, but use our operating agreement.
Heather Eason (16:11.438)
Unfortunately, a lot of times, you know, these large primes and these utilities, they are so, you know, I say that they're Titanic. They see the iceberg, they cannot turn if they want to or not. They're gonna hit it because they can't be flexible like we can. And they're like, this is the contract. These are the terms either you accept it or don't work with us. And it's like, okay, they don't apply at all. So sure.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (16:24.73)
I'm sorry.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (16:29.233)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (16:34.918)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (16:38.917)
Yeah, yeah. What's been your biggest like, shit, like, my God, how what, like if you've hit a wall or some kind of barrier and how did you overcome that? Do you have any good shit stories?
Heather Eason (16:56.94)
Yeah, definitely. You can't be in this industry and not have all shit stories. You know, it's everything from, you know, I had a good friend who was out of utility and wanted to use our firm, but we wouldn't qualify because at the time we hadn't been in business long enough and we didn't have the financials. And so I was told, well, you need to go partner with this prime. Okay, well, so I contacted the prime and I...
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (17:00.706)
next.
Heather Eason (17:26.392)
Contacts there. I know a lot of people in the industry. So I just called up a friend and said hey this utility wants to work with me But I need you as a prime. Let me share the workload. Let me share the project scope with you and We'll go together Well, okay great. Well We put you know, NDAs we put partnering agreements in place. We get everything set up structured We go through the interview process we get approved
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (17:33.446)
Right.
Heather Eason (17:55.404)
We actually received the bid, but the bid document, somebody made a mistake and forgot to include my company on page seven. So the prime called me and said, I am so sorry, we're not gonna use you. I was like, what are you talking about? I brought you into this. You're only part of this because of me. Well, page seven didn't list you and so we don't have to use you contractually. So we're not gonna use you.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (18:21.425)
That sounds like that was done on purpose.
Heather Eason (18:25.738)
It did. you know, when you run into things like that, it's not just disappointment with the business side of it. It's the emotional part of a friend that did you wrong. And you know, so you have to process that emotion of, well, you can't really trust this person that you've known for a long time and considered a friend.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (18:38.971)
Thanks
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (18:45.745)
You learn more about people, truly how people show up. And that literally had happened to me too. Not necessarily as a company, but I got brought in, our company got brought in to work with a developer out of Florida. It was somebody I had known for 15 years, thought we were friends.
And this company then decided they didn't, you they paid the first half of the bill and then ordered a bunch of other stuff. And so we were, you know, double, triple kind of in the whole, and they just were like, I don't think we need to pay you anymore. And to hear literal lies coming out of somebody's mouth that you thought you knew, and you just, you,
you feel the backstab more than, because then it's like, it's not just me, but you backstabbed all these other people and not, know, it's like, I have to go face a team. I've got to go now to the back. I to get a lawyer involved. I had to go and sue you, you you and your company. I mean, it is a lot more emotion than I think people recognize.
And unfortunately, I think it happens as our lawyer kind of told us, were like, there are people that prey on smaller female owned businesses. And that's kind of like, they won't sue or they won't do anything about it. They're going to be more forgiving. And it's unfortunate that we get taken advantage of.
Heather Eason (20:44.59)
And that's a good segue to why I wrote my book, The Art of Redemption.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (20:47.471)
I was going to say, I'm like, is that what started the art of revenge? Because I'm reading that synopsis to our team earlier. just to go through the lesson, and we were like, yep, dealt with that. We know. We have had all of like, shitty experience with employees. Yep. Had vendors and clients. Yep.
Yep, yep. But talk to me about the, so what started the Art of Revenge? Was that contract or the demise of that contract?
Heather Eason (21:29.806)
wasn't that particular contract, it was more the, what I call the abusive boyfriend 800 pound gorilla that is a lot of the prime engineering firms. I haven't had any of the utilities do this, but a lot of the prime firms, like you say, they take advantage of the fact that you're a small woman in business. They think because you're a woman, you're more empathetic, sympathetic, and you're easier to beat up and bully. And so I just got tired of being bullied.
And I was like, I've got to be able to do something to defend my and protect my company. So then I started researching it. And as I was researching it and going through this journey, I was like, you know, if I need this, somebody else could use this information. And I was like, I need to write this down. So I started taking notes and then the notes became the book. And then I published the book and you know, I don't know if you've gotten to the end, but the very last part of the book.
is my favorite quote and I actually have this quote on a poster board that's up in my living room. So I look at it every day. So the quote is, the best revenge is massive success. And it's by Frank Sinatra. And so that's what, know, a friend of mine told me a long time, you need good lawyers and you need to always, you know, have your T's crossed, your I's dotted.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (22:37.627)
What is that?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (22:42.117)
Yep. That's right.
Heather Eason (22:57.494)
And you always have your integrity and ethics in place because at some point you're going to have to call the lawyer up and you're going to have to say, I need your help at this point.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (23:06.353)
That's right, that's right. And don't be afraid. There are people and there are businesses that do take advantage and don't be afraid to fight for what you're owed and your position in the category and the market that you serve. Yeah, what advice would you give? we just had a conversation not that long ago with another founder that
that operates a very successful, it's a electrical contractor. She works with a lot of prime developers and contractors. She's woman owned in the state of South Carolina and is one of the only minority owned businesses in the state of South Carolina in that particular field. And she's been flabbergasted some of her ahas of recent.
She commented that she was like, I don't know what to do because she was like, I'm helping these folks get into the door winning contracts. They're using my numbers, my research, all of my effort of the designs, all the specs, like all the details of it. I'm being told, hey, we submitted you. We've put you on as the minority.
minority -owned subcontractor. And then she goes, and then they win the contract and they're like, well, we're gonna re -bid this. Because there's no accountability to the project owner that to win it, they needed to show a minority, a woman -owned or a minority -owned business as part of the contract. But there's no accountability. They actually are using the people that were in.
And she was like, I don't know what to do with this. Do I go, like how aggressive do I need to be? Do I, know, other than calling them out, but I don't want to burn a bridge for the next project. So like your story just conjured up that whole conversation that we had of what advice would you give?
Heather Eason (25:27.63)
Unfortunately, it's all too common in this industry. It does happen a lot. And what I found is I call up my friend at the company, the final company, the end client. I call up a friend at the end client and I say, hey, by the way, I am the diversity subcontractor on this bid. And so they look for me and if I'm not on it because I'm friends with these people, they will call and they'll say, hey,
Where's Heather's company? You said you were gonna use her, you're not using her. And so they'll question it. Now, I will say that I have found a lot of times all they have to do is write a letter and say, well, we tried to use a small woman owned business. We tried, but we couldn't. And because we tried, everything's okay. And so there's really no accountability. The diversity spin numbers.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (25:59.675)
Yeah.
Heather Eason (26:24.75)
aren't recorded, aren't, you know, released. Even you're in South Carolina, I'm in South Carolina. Let's talk about South Carolina law. South Carolina law says if you're a South Carolina company or industry, you're supposed to have 10 % small business and or diversity spend. Clemson University, they meet it. They put it on their website. You know, all the other state schools meet it, put it on their website.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (26:54.822)
Right.
Heather Eason (26:54.944)
Santee Cooper the South Carolina state -owned electric authority. They don't meet it. They don't even record it They don't care and I know these people because I used to work there, you know So I've called them up personally and said hey You've got a law that says you have to do XYZ and they're like, yeah We really don't care what South Carolina tells us we have to do I'm like well, technically you're owned by the citizens of South Carolina This is the law. Don't you even want to?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (27:22.406)
Yeah.
Heather Eason (27:24.768)
attempt to meet the requirement and they're like, no, this isn't one of our goals. This isn't a KPI. We don't track it. We don't record it. We don't go after it.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (27:27.429)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (27:34.641)
Wow, the fact that they're being that transparent too of like, we don't care. Yeah, but that's where things like, you sit on, I think the small business, is it the small business chamber? I you're pretty active. I sit on a committee for a voice out of the 10 ,000 small businesses for trying to change the SBA rules.
Heather Eason (27:39.694)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (28:03.601)
and advocate there because those haven't been changed since like 88. But yeah, to put those pressures on, and that's where I wish like chambers would do better at as an organization instead of chasing sponsorship dollars, which I know is important for some member, but to also put those accountability of you say your first small business, what are you like?
What are we doing? Because we're hearing the opposite or we're seeing the opposite because we can't say it or we can, but we're just kind of brushed aside.
Heather Eason (28:44.75)
So I'm on the South Carolina Business Chamber of Commerce in the environmental subcommittee. And I'm a board member of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce. And so I'm active with both. And it's interesting because you're right. Membership dues are not enough money to cover what they need. So they have to go after this money. But then you look at, okay, what are you doing? You know, what are you advocating for? And it's amazing what...
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (28:50.681)
Okay.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (29:12.015)
Right.
Heather Eason (29:15.606)
Where a lot of the money comes from, know, it's the same old story of politics, right? It's wherever the money comes from, that's the voice that's heard. And it's unfortunate. I can say that the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce, I know Frank, I call him up personally and I'm like, hey, Frank, we need to look at this. We need to advocate for this. We need to do this. We need to do that. And Frank is very good.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (29:25.958)
That's right.
Heather Eason (29:42.654)
He's very supportive of small business in South Carolina. So I'm really impressed with what he tries to do. Not that we're successful all the time, because we're not. I mean, we go after things that we're unsuccessful on, but at least we try to give a voice to small business.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (29:45.903)
Good.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (29:58.321)
Right, but also I think it's good to desensitize some of these conversations and these topics because you do have a lot of women -owned, minority -owned companies who are just like pulling their hair out going, don't understand. it's, you know, or they feel like they're being singled out and it's more of like, no, I think this is happening on a much wider scale than I think people maybe not realize. And maybe...
we need to show those voices in more volume and more numbers to the organizations that are put in place to help support us and not be afraid to go. Because I think that's what happens. It's like, well, damn, know, I lost that bit again and I was told they used my numbers and I don't know what. And we feel that too of like, well, Jennifer, we couldn't get it to work. And I'm going, well.
Who did you use? we just ended up using the same, you know, three vendors they've always used. And it's like, so you're really not diversifying. You're not really trying to widen your supplier.
Heather Eason (31:02.744)
and I'll
Heather Eason (31:06.998)
Exactly, and unfortunately a lot of times, let's be honest, you see it all the time, the three main companies that they subcontract with, there's some sort of inappropriate relationship where there's kickbacks.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (31:19.515)
That's, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Heather Eason (31:21.474)
You know, there was one recently that the prime firm, one of the VPs was a small owner of the subcontractor. I got kicked off, the other subcontractor got put on and it's like, well, hey, wait a minute, he's part owner. How is this not wrong? It's a total conflict of interest and nobody cares. Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (31:40.621)
It's a conflict of interest.
They're double dipping. So yeah, the Art of Revenge, out on Amazon. for this, it looks like it's a really good read and I think we can all relate to it. Heather, was wondering, you were also involved with We Bank and I was telling you before we started that we've been a member since 2018. in the process of renewing our annual renewal.
And you're on, I think, a couple of subcommittees. What have you found to be the most benefit of being a part of an organization like We Bank as a woman -owned business? Have you found that there's an advantage there?
Heather Eason (32:34.99)
We Bank, one of the advantages with it being a national accreditation, if you want to get other accreditations, a lot of times you can send your We Bank certificate and they will accept that. it's a proxy for, okay, well, if you've got We Bank and they're national and we know all their checklists, so if you're We Bank, then we'll give you women -owned business here too. Because you've got the national with We Bank and then it seems like some states have their own.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (32:54.257)
Yeah.
Heather Eason (33:04.406)
certification, even down to some cities. City of Seattle has their own women business enterprise certification and they don't expect
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (33:11.707)
Yeah. So does Charleston, think, has that just even in our own state, like we found, I was like, wait a minute, we're, we're, we've done that with the state, but I have to go and register as a minority in business and Charleston, North Charleston, Columbia, Myrtle beach. I was like, but yeah, we, we ended up sending our, our we bank certificate. So, but that wasn't, that was an aha for me. I learned that, what was it? Two years ago, I thought,
we bank or we're registered in South Carolina, that that would get me into all the agencies. And I didn't realize just in the state of South Carolina, there are for the, for government related or anybody that's kind of owned by the public, there are 200 agencies that have budgets that you would have to submit or, you know, they need to be aware of you. That blew my mind.
Heather Eason (34:09.55)
Yeah, there's not one database. Now, the state of California has the CPUC and they maintain an online database. So if anybody needs to search for a woman owned business or a minority business, they go into CPUC to their clearing house and they just do a search and it pops up and it populates for whatever industry they're looking for.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (34:12.07)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (34:33.66)
Every state needs that.
Heather Eason (34:35.758)
think so. It is very beneficial. know, and it makes things a lot easier, especially for people who are in procurement. You know, they're not getting bombarded by 50 ,000 of us sending them things. They already have one database they can go, they can put their search criteria in and they can get a list with the contact information and then they can contact those people on that list and they know that they're already vetted.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (34:45.488)
Yeah.
Heather Eason (35:03.746)
They know they're already legitimate businesses that are successful in their industry. So I think that'd be great for South Carolina.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (35:10.129)
I do too, or shoot, SBA could own that and do that on a national scale. That would be, okay, that's an aha moment. need to note, that in. Heather, is there a moment from your past? I mean, you've talked a lot like, know, having a child at 17, you know, starting a company in 2017 after...
decades of being in utilities. But is there a moment from your past that really shaped who you are today? Like truly like, you know, when people look at you, like, I, I note this is who I am, who I am because of this.
Heather Eason (35:58.808)
You know, it's a great question because my brother and I were just chatting a couple of nights ago and he and I both are first generation college educated. You know, and he and I are both entrepreneurs. We're different. I have an engineering firm. He does rental properties, but we're very similar in that aspect. And we were like, why are we who we are? You know, why, why are we so driven? And we came to the conclusion it's our dad.
because he taught us algebra in second grade. Now don't know many dads that are sitting down their kids when they're in second grade and teaching them how to do algebra. But that's my dad, know. He always told me he raised a daughter not invalid, so being a girl was no excuse.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (36:37.53)
No.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (36:45.617)
That's right. Yeah. I was telling somebody, someone was asking to like a home art. My mom was, you I had a great role models, both my mom and dad, but I remember my mom kind of a similar story. In high school, she would not allow me to sign up for like home ec or for, you know, the old class, like I'm going to date myself Chandler, cause I'm sure they don't even have these classes anymore. But
Remember Steno, like note taking, the Steno classes? My mom was like, and type writing. My mom was like, you are not taking any of those classes. was like, but everyone's like, I need to, it's foundation type writing. She was like, one, you can learn yourself, and two, I don't want you to have any classes that represent that you're administrator, like you're a support to anybody. And so she was like, you need to be taking the advanced physics.
the advanced chemistry, like the advanced mathematics or advanced English. She was like, that's where you need to be. You will not take anything because I don't want you to even have that as a backup. Like, well, I can go and be a note taker or a stenographer. She's like, nope, not going to happen. yeah, my friends were like, but those are the easy classes. I'm like, I got to take advanced chemistry.
Heather Eason (38:14.434)
You know, it was opposite for me. My mom wanted me to learn how to be a homemaker and how to be a good wife. That was a common thing. You need to learn to be a good wife. And so there was, I think it was eighth or ninth grade. I didn't want to take home ec. I wanted to take algebra and geometry at the same time. And she's like, no, absolutely not. You need to learn how to be a good wife. And I'm like, I'm not going to be a good wife. I'm just here to tell you. I don't care.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (38:20.825)
I don't You know.
Heather Eason (38:42.71)
I have zero desire to be a good wife. I'm gonna make enough money, I'm gonna hire somebody to clean my house, I'm gonna hire somebody to cut my grass, I'm gonna hire somebody to make my food, I'm gonna hire help because that's not me, I have zero desire. I am not domestic at all and never have been.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (38:45.19)
That's right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (38:58.033)
That's right. And it was like, my mom was like, you don't need to, because my mom was one of those like very, she's very controlling anal when it came to cleaning and food making and all that. My mom worked her whole career, 50 years as a nurse. But she was like, nobody's going to teach you how to clean a bathroom like me. Like, you're just not going be like, I will teach you how to clean a bedroom like it's in a hospital. Like you're going to.
but yeah, we grew up with like, my parents were hippies just to give you some, you know, and listeners might think that's the first time I've even mentioned that before. My parent, I grew up in a very hippie granola household. mom made her own granola. My mom like baked, there was no packaged goods in our pantry. people hated coming to our house, at first to like spend the night. Cause it's like, let's have cereal. And there's like homemade granolas. And then.
it would be a bag of like puffed wheat in bulk at the bottom of their pantry. my parent, my mom made homemade sticky buns. It was always pancakes and stuff. it was both my parents cook. lived off, you know, we had huge gardens. you know, made everything, worked with, you know, had relationships with the farmers around us. So was like all in like barter trade and stuff, for food and
And so was, so I, now it's kind of like the thing, right? Homestead, urban, well, that was my, that was how I was brought up. So mom was like, you're not gonna, they're not gonna teach you that kind of, I'll teach you better, you know, how to run a house. But you're, you're also like, I wasn't domestic from a taught to be a good wife, right? It was more of like,
how to do things, how to organize, how to cook, how to clean. She could teach that. Go take the advanced classes. Because she's like, you're going to take over the world. I was like, maybe. We'll get there. So what is something that you like about yourself?
Heather Eason (41:12.962)
You'll get there. You'll get there.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (41:24.603)
that you wish other people would recognize you more. Maybe it's your own team, like do people on your team, now that you've grown and scaled your business, you're like, people have this persona about me, but they really, you this is who I am. Do you have any of that or is there anything you're like, I wish people knew more about this side of me.
Heather Eason (41:43.992)
You know, it's interesting. I recently talked to a friend of mine, Katie, and I told her, said, I have had to play so many different personas of myself throughout my career. I don't even know who I am anymore. You know, I said, I need to figure out who I am as a person so that I can try to project that to the world because I've had to play the game for so long and be, you know, tried to fit the widget for whatever.
company in whatever position I was in and the particular manager I worked for and I played the game for so long, I've kind of lost who I am. So I don't know who I would want people to see because I need to figure that out for myself.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (42:22.769)
that's such a great little, aha, Heather. It's so, you know, we talk about this in some of our female founder circles that I do think that we sometimes get lost. It is a journey that I actually went on in the last couple of years of self discovery, self awareness. You know, I just got a note from Entrepreneurial Magazine who sent me like a little thing that was like, what would you tell your 10 year old self?
you if you could go back, what would you? And I said, you know what? I think I would tell my 10 year old self of like, embrace your weird, like embrace your uniqueness. Don't be afraid of it and don't conform just because, because I think that's, we're probably, it looks like you might be a little bit younger than me, but probably in the, least in the same generation. But we, you know, we were always taught like, ooh.
That's, you're not like everybody else. You need to really conform to these, especially women in business, you know, as you're kind of climbing up the corporate ladder. It's now, like I love the newer generations of like, they are so confident of who they are. They are not afraid to show their uniqueness or their voice. And I go back and go, man, I wish I would have had more confidence.
to embrace my weirdness.
Heather Eason (43:56.398)
That's well said because I think all of us are unique. All of us are special and different in different ways. And we are taught, especially as women, to be conformist, to fit whatever the man in the authority role expects us to be. And so we lose a lot of who we are over the years as we continue to conform and mold and, you know, just, I don't know, you become like a corporate robot at some point.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (44:25.573)
Right. Well, then you're right. And I was telling another client who's a CEO of a tech startup, you know, he's getting pressure from his board of advisors to go, you need to look more like the, know, you need to be worse. He very much is very casual. You know, he's a, you know, comes, he's a software engineer. He looks like a Jimmy Buffett kind of, you know, he's a baseball cap kind of a.
Heather Eason (44:26.444)
And then it's like, who am I?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (44:53.155)
linen shirt, shorts, flip -flops. mean, he's super cat. And I said, but that's who you are. And I said, that's, I was like, I've seen you speak, wear suits, you're appropriately dressed when you need to. But if people are gonna work for you and as you grow and scale, they're coming to work for, yes, the brand, but you, you've built that company. Don't shy away from you, lean into it. Like.
But yeah, he's getting advice to go, need to, and he was like, am I crazy for thinking that? I was like, that's wrong? And I'm like, that's not, it's not crazy to think that it's wrong, because it is wrong.
Heather Eason (45:35.628)
I agree and with women, know, I've heard the whole, have you heard a DLP one? Have you thought about taking it? You're too cherub shaped. I'm like, cherub shaped, is that a nice way of saying I'm fat? Okay. And you know.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (45:47.651)
I've never heard Cherub shape, but I'm gonna use that for him, because that's so much better than your shape like an apple.
Heather Eason (45:57.484)
Yeah, the whole, you know, dye your hair. I don't dye my hair. I'm going gray naturally. I raised four kids. You know, I've been through the wringer. These gray hairs are proof that I've been there, done that. And so don't dye my hair. I'm not wearing makeup. I never wear makeup. You know, my skin is sensitive. If I put makeup on, I break out and then I look worse. I'm told...
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (45:57.777)
which is what I do.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (46:11.387)
That's right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (46:16.87)
Yeah.
Heather Eason (46:24.736)
societally, you know, and by like marketing people, you need to wear makeup, you need to project the typical female image of a CEO. And I'm like, what is that? What is a typical female CEO? What does that mean?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (46:36.401)
Great.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (46:40.091)
There isn't one, yeah. To me, I was like, and I think that's another one of we need to stop normalizing what we see on social media of the, because like I'm also one that I'm not a selfie person, like it, and I've been told you need to do more selfies every day and talk to the camera and do your makeup and hair. I was like, people do not need to see that. I literally put my hair typically in a bun almost every day.
and I wear very little makeup, it would be the most boring makeup tutorial anyone has ever seen.
I wear flip -flops almost every day into the office. Unless I have a client meeting, I wear whatever is appropriate for that client.
Heather Eason (47:25.602)
Your flip flops are dressed up for me because I usually don't have shoes on. I've worked from home for seven years. I just don't put shoes on unless I go outside.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (47:29.104)
Bye.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (47:33.809)
That's right. Tamar's like, John, you don't wear shoes a lot in the office.
Heather Eason (47:40.686)
You
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (47:42.993)
So, okay, so I know you do these gardening like YouTube. is that, I always say that, if you could tell something, you know, something about yourself that is not on your LinkedIn or is not on your bio, what's something that our listeners would be surprised to learn about you?
Heather Eason (48:06.242)
love to garden. It is my therapy. It's how I stay sane. You know, my husband and I work together. We share an office. And sometimes he'll look at me and he'll say, honey, go garden for an hour. I'll cover your calendar. Cause he knows when I get to that point that, okay, I just need to disconnect and I need to put my hands in the ground. I need to ground myself physically by, you know, just planning something, get, you know, just getting out in the dirt and growing something.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (48:28.133)
Yeah. Feeling the dirt.
Heather Eason (48:35.65)
And I love it. I didn't grow up this way, but now I've got a garden in the backyard and I love shopping my garden. love going out, seeing what's grown that night and what I can pick and bring in for dinner. Now I make my husband cook it a lot of times because I can't cook. But I can grow it and harvest it and bring it in.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (48:55.301)
You found your perfect match.
Heather Eason (48:59.438)
I do, I got lucky. My husband and I have been married for 26 years and I don't see us ever being apart. Thank you.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (49:03.589)
Congratulations. Yeah. Congratulations. And you said you had four kids. What are the age span of your kids?
Heather Eason (49:11.534)
So my son Kevin, so he is 30. And then I've got stepchildren that came with my husband with his first wife. So we go up to 36, almost 37.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (49:27.557)
So do you have grandchildren now?
Heather Eason (49:29.548)
We do. We have two granddaughters.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (49:31.837)
very good. Now, have you embraced your grandmommy, the sense of, over, I'll bake you cookies. I'll spoil you because your mom and dad won't.
Heather Eason (49:48.018)
not been able to be what I call the crazy grandma and I really really want to be a crazy grandma. Well they live in Ohio they're not close we don't get to see them so you know I have threatened to move to Ohio just to be close to them. My husband's like we're not moving.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (49:54.107)
Do it!
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (50:03.429)
Yeah, I bet they watch your YouTube channel and you don't even know it.
Heather Eason (50:09.582)
Probably.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (50:11.707)
That's the way you can connect. Okay, so if you, if you, if we were sitting down a year from now and we got together over, I don't know, something in your garden or maybe cocktails, if you, if you like, what would we be celebrating?
Heather Eason (50:30.03)
So a year from now, so my next goal is to become the trashy lady. So my third company that I started just December of 2023 is Sustainable Fuel Tech. Yeah, so Sustainable Fuel Tech. So I have the intellectual property contract to use the patent of what I think is the best technology out there to take trash and turn it into green biodiesel.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (50:42.479)
I saw that, okay?
Heather Eason (50:59.596)
Yeah, so can you imagine closing landfills and creating green biodiesel to help out that economy? I mean, to me, I'm excited and I'm like, yeah, let me be the trash lady, let me do it. And it just hadn't happened yet. I've got all the paperwork in line, I've got the patent stuff. I can't get anybody to invest. know, nobody wants to invest in a female. I don't know why.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (51:07.29)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (51:13.456)
Yes.
Heather Eason (51:27.246)
I will tell you this and if this will really make you angry because it did me I Had an investor lined up we had been talking for months and months and months and months He was gonna invest 15 million and we were gonna be able to really get rocking and rolling with this company Friday before we were supposed to fly on Monday to meet to sign the paperwork
The meeting was canceled because my CFO resigned. And I got an email that said, we're canceling the meeting because you don't have a man to come represent you. Man, now I've set many office rooms, I've set in board rooms. I know how to read a contract. I know how to get stuff done. And I was told after months and months and months.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (52:17.083)
Right.
Heather Eason (52:20.024)
that they were not going to invest in my company because my CFO resigned and I didn't have a man to sit at the table with me.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (52:26.482)
Ugh, we need to get you in front of other investors.
Heather Eason (52:30.254)
I need to, I'm working on it, I'm trying. It's hard because I'm running select power systems, I'm running select renewables, and then I'm trying to get investors for sustainable fuel tech. I've got only so many minutes out of a day. And so I'm really trying, but it's hard to find the time to do it too.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (52:33.029)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (52:37.2)
now.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (52:45.967)
That's right.
Yeah, it's, you know, and it's hard. like this, and the stats are just terrible when it comes to like female founders and investors. Like we get less than 2 % of all funding, VC, private equity, you name it. Like only 2 % goes to female founders. But yet, but yet the ones that do get funding outperform men run.
businesses, startups, like 40 % outperformed. So there's, it's like we're proven, but we just don't, we're not in those circles. We had another startup that we work with in South Carolina and they were told after their initial kind of like pitch to the board of advisors, to, know, of the private equity.
that they needed to, and it was a woman that delivered this information to them, that they need to revise their deck, that they provided a better pitch, proven of their performance, but they'd like to see different numbers, and if they could redo and come back and be less,
less, what was it, woman? Like, what did they say? It was like downplay that you're women. Like, your femininity. Not that you're women owned, but just you come across as very strong women and it's off -putting.
Heather Eason (54:36.948)
my gosh, I think strong women are, that's an advocacy for why you should invest in us. mean.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (54:42.767)
Right. Right. And so they were like, that what? Like not be as female forward. And then like the numbers are like, well, these are these numbers that are high. We'll just put these type of numbers, but those numbers, because this is what they're used to from the other male startups that they see. And they're like, well, are those numbers accurate? No, they're made up. But that's what our board likes to see.
of who they invest in. mean, isn't that like crazy feedback that we get? I mean, and I hear stories like that from doing interviews like this and it just, it now validates of why we're only getting 2 % of the funding. Or we see that some female like, I'm just gonna try to bootstrap it or do kind of crowdsourcing because they're hearing.
I call it horror stories of female founders that they know get the funding and then it scales to a point and then they get replaced.
Heather Eason (55:51.47)
I've heard that too.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (55:52.345)
within two or three years because they're like, well, we're going to remove you from your, as owner or founder. And they'll put a manager. So there's some of that, that some women are just like, I don't want to go that path because I'm afraid they're going to take my baby away.
Heather Eason (56:11.128)
Exactly and and that's kind of what it is. You know you have your emotional support Where you do feel like this is a child that you've birthed that you've you know Nourished and taken care of and grown and and you're proud of that. You're proud of something that you created and To have somebody come in and just say hey We're gonna take it from me and put a man in your place because we think he's gonna be better Because he's got the right genitalia. That's insane. It's ridiculous
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (56:20.401)
Great.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (56:37.829)
Right. It is insane. that this is what we've always seen from them. Well, have they ever performed that? no. It's just, it's just baffling. The playing field is not even. So.
Heather Eason (56:56.942)
It's not, but how do we advocate? know, cause I, I, I've gotten to the point in my life now where it's like, okay, there's not a lot I can do to change my path and the challenges that I have, but I've got granddaughters. I want to make it better for them. How, how do I become an advocate? How do I advocate for other women and make a difference?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (57:12.251)
That's right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (57:16.847)
I think starting like here, raising our voices, because that's the thing, you when I share these stories with people, you start sharing the stats with wider groups. One, think it's we business leaders, I think, go, I didn't I didn't even realize this was a thing or aren't those like one offs? And it's like, no, we need to normalize like having these conversations.
and not be so worried of serving these things up. people are trying to either, I call it, blow out our candle or dim our light. And they're doing it sometimes very blatantly, or they're doing it, they don't even realize they're doing it. And sometimes it starts with women need to stick together and empower each other.
of, you know, elevate each other. Because it's not just men on the side of the fence that we're trying to advocate for or those decision makers to make decisions differently. Sometimes it's other women sitting across that table that is even more judgmental and even more critical of other women. And we need to stop that.
Heather Eason (58:17.58)
Yeah, well, you know, it's...
Heather Eason (58:44.078)
And you know, I hear so many people tell me that I should not promote The Art of Revenge, my book. That that's something that I should be ashamed of and embarrassed of. And I'm like, look, I'm not a poet. I'm an engineer. I'm a numbers person. I love numbers. Words don't come easy for me. But I took the time to sit down and write this because I think it might be beneficial. Is it perfectly written? No, it's not. I'm sure there's mistakes in it.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (59:08.837)
Right.
Heather Eason (59:14.69)
But it was important to me and I think it's important to others and I'm told, don't market it, you should be ashamed of that. I can't believe you actually have that still up. Why don't you take that down? And it's like, that's...
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (59:26.171)
Yeah, they're blowing out your candle, Heather, stop it.
Don't let him blow out your candle.
Heather Eason (59:33.358)
Well, and a lot of times it is men, yes, but it's also women. Don't have a voice, don't be critical. That's what you hear. And it's like, why? If I don't, who will for us? Who is gonna step up and say, hey, this is wrong. We need to do better as a society if I don't.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (59:37.915)
That's right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (59:44.815)
Right.
Nice work.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (59:53.361)
Right. And elevate these, this is what's happening. It's not, and sometimes it's like I said, it's not an isolation. I was in a comr - with a younger, she's in her early 30 and she's like, we had a conversation, I was kind of listing out all of these examples that I hear from.
Women in business female founders of these barriers that they're coming like very misogynistic, you know You know lack of like the fundings the chain, know, not don't be as as a female Don't be so female in your presentation and And she's like that but you've been in court, you know, you've been in the corporate business for like 30 years
This stuff you're talking about, those are examples from like 20 years ago. And I was like, no, no, no. The five examples I gave you all happened within the last five days. Like, this is not something that was years ago. This is in the last week. And she was floored. She was like, whoa, I just can't, I just thought that that stuff doesn't happen anymore. And I said, it happens. And so her thing was we need to,
Heather Eason (01:00:57.645)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:01:17.083)
She's like, we gotta stop being so sensitive and let people know that you're not alone, right? Cause a lot of times we just think, God, that's kind of weird. That probably just happened to me because they're judging and they're critical of just me. And I think we need to start going, it's not because of the color of our hair for what we wear. It's because mostly it's because of our gender.
Heather Eason (01:01:46.124)
you know the word bossy. I actually had a manager during an annual review say you need to be less passionate. You need to not be bossy. You you need to realize that some of the men that work for you have overbearing wives and they don't want a woman that tells them what to do at work. Okay but I'm their boss. How am I supposed to tell them what to do when I'm their boss without telling them what to do? How am I supposed to not be bossy when I am literally their direct manager?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:02:15.686)
Right.
Heather Eason (01:02:16.828)
No answer. It was, well, you just gotta figure it out. You just have to change. You need to stop being you. What do you do with that? I mean, that's ridiculous feedback.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:02:23.611)
Yeah.
Yeah. You voice back up to like, you know, hey, how about we embrace empathy on all sides?
and come together.
Heather Eason (01:02:38.998)
Right, exactly. you know, it's something that, and that's why I started my YouTube channel, Women for Wealth, is because it's like, okay, there are women now who are making good money. I mean, I've always been the breadwinner in my family, but there are a lot of women now that are making good money. We, I was never taught, and I think there are a lot of women out there that were never taught, okay, you've got some money, how do you build wealth? And so,
I've kind of taken the advocacy standpoint of, know, if women need something and I can learn it, I should teach it, I should support, I should be in that, you know, role of not just paving a path for the next generation, but making it easier and better for them because I share my experiences.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:03:26.405)
Right. that's so fantastic. Heather, you are like an unstoppable force in this world. You really are making a mark and advocating for not just in your industry, but for women in general. So you're definitely a gift.
Heather Eason (01:03:47.79)
Well, thank you, I do try.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:03:49.457)
Well, before we leave, how do you want people to connect with you, find you, find all the information and all the things all about Heather?
Heather Eason (01:04:03.31)
So probably the easiest way is LinkedIn. I connect with everyone and I put my personal cell phone number and my email address and my contact information on LinkedIn. I know. Right. And another thing I do is I block off two hours each week to provide free coaching. So if you know anybody has a question or they're struggling or if they just want to vent.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:04:13.337)
Wow, you are so trusting.
Heather Eason (01:04:30.968)
You know, I'll give you an hour of my time for free just to sit there and listen and, you know, just be an advocate, be a support and say, you know what? I understand. hear you. You're validated because you're important.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:04:43.761)
Right, you're not alone. You are not alone, yep. my goodness. Well, we'll definitely put the link on LinkedIn and make sure that we highlight that you offer that, because that's fantastic. I'm always amazed at how fast these things go. I've enjoyed our conversation, Heather.
Heather Eason (01:04:45.534)
Exactly.
Heather Eason (01:05:02.694)
I've loved meeting you and getting to know you more. I think you're a wonderful person and as soon as I heard about this I was like I've got to be a part of this because this is really cool and amazing and I listened to a couple of them and I think you do a great job and if there's anything I can do to support and help you please let me know.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:05:19.099)
thank you, Heather. I think we're gonna become really good friends. Definitely, our paths will cross multiple times. And for our list, do you want me to do the, okay. I know, he's like, John, you should just keep going. For all of our listeners out there, thank you for hanging out with us. And I hope you.
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