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Welcome to The Trailblazers Podcast hosted by Pave Talent. Step into the world of groundbreaking leaders, inventive pioneers, and expert entrepreneurs as we explore groundbreaking stories and priceless advice from the foremost experts in the industry.
Today we're honored to have Amy Power on the show.
Amy is the founder and CEO of the Power Group, a public relations and strategic
communications firm with a mission to create business women.
Over her 25 year career, Amy has successfully navigated the challenges of the industry,
achieving remarkable growth and maintaining impressive employee retention while making a
significant impact in her community.
She is deeply involved in the entrepreneur organization, serving as the past president of
the Dallas chapter.
Some of her notable achievements that stood out to me was that she's recently celebrating
25 years of the power group, which was founded on the same day as her son's birth.
She acquired the power group, her, the power group's own commercial property, fulfilling a
major personal goal of hers.
And she established a strong company culture with core values centered on doing the right
thing, creating happiness and fun and winning together.
Amy, it's great to have you on the show.
Thank you so much, Jeff.
It's a pleasure.
Well, I was really inspired by, you know, your early journey.
So can you share the remarkable story of how the power group and your son share the same
birthday and how that kind of coincidence shaped your entrepreneurial journey?
Sure.
It's, you know, it is an incredible story.
And sometimes I reflect on that moment and think either I was half crazy at the time or
maybe just doing what I needed to do, which many entrepreneurs find themselves in.
You you're just in the firefight, so to speak, and you just, you know, take a step
forward.
I had worked for, you know, larger marketing companies.
for many years, but always had a desire to strike out on my own and create freedom for
myself.
And I never wanted to be a stay-at-home mom, to be very blunt.
But I wanted to be available to my children.
I wanted to be nearby.
I didn't want to put them in the nine to five daycare type of setting that I had seen
other working moms do.
So at any rate,
You fast forward and I am going through the normal labor pains and heading to the hospital
and I get there and I thought, gosh, I'm going to have this baby any minute.
And the nurse just laughed at me when I was in the labor and delivery room and she said,
honey, you're going to be here for a while.
This is just getting started.
And so I thought, well, if this is any indication of what the pain is going to be like, I
will definitely take the epidural.
So upon receiving that, there's quite a bit of time between that moment and the time when
you're due to have the actual baby.
And so you've got to remember this moment is 1999 and it is pre-iPhone.
So for the most part, my husband called home, my husband at the time called home to check
messages and he said, hey, this gentleman called.
And I just knew at that moment that
It was the moment.
It was a door I needed to walk through.
And so I said, let me hear the message.
And I called the gentleman back because basically I was just sitting in the labor and
delivery room and waiting for my son to be born.
And so I called him back and said, hey, believe it or not, I'm actually in the hospital.
I'm getting ready to have my first baby.
And he said, that's great timing.
He said, I'm actually partnering with another gentleman here in Dallas and we're going to
launch our own
automotive dealer group.
And you know, the next thing you know, I've got myself a meeting six weeks later set up.
And, so truly my company was born on that day and my son was born on that day.
And that's how they have come to share the same birthday, which is October 4th, 1999.
That's when my son was born.
And when the company truly got off the ground with a client that that's now called or
branded as Boardwalk Auto Group.
And at the time, you know, it was just a concept.
was something that was just getting off the ground and like my, you know, newfound
parenthood.
So that's the story.
Yeah, that's amazing.
Well, and also congratulations on 25 years that just passed as well.
Yes, thank you.
And I just took my son out to dinner and we had a great time.
this later this year, we're, you know, we've already had an employee dinner as well.
And we're going to be Mark marking 25 years in the spring with a big, a big party.
So we're looking forward to it.
That's awesome.
Well, tell me about some of the pivotal moves or strategies that have contributed to the
success and longevity of the power group over these past 25 years.
You know, I think there's several things I can point to, but I think getting really clear
about my core values.
You know, I always, as I would tell people all the time, I want to go home at night, put
my head on the pillow and be able to rest and know that I didn't hurt anybody.
I didn't cause any pain.
I did the right thing, in other words.
And so that personal value
you know, has parlayed into do the right thing, which is our leading value, I would say,
at the power group.
So we have three core values.
They're very simple, but they're very clear and they drive the behavior and choices of the
organization.
And those values are do the right thing, create happiness and fun and win together.
And when I say win together, it means not just winning, you know, with your colleague, but
it also means winning with our clients.
So I think, you know, when your values are clear,
it makes the choices really easy as the expression goes.
And that's, that was something that I think I, you know, was very decisive about early on.
And I would encourage any business, whether they're large or small or young or old or
regardless of where they are, but if they're not clear about their core values, they're,
setting themselves up for trouble.
Yeah, definitely.
And I know you mentioned that employee retention has been pretty remarkable and I know it
can be really challenging in your industry.
What specific measures have you taken to maintain high retention rates at your company?
Yeah, again, like any firm, we suffered from turnover as well earlier on in our journey.
And it was something that we were intentional about focusing on tenure.
Like, how do we create an environment where people want to remain?
And I even asked this question of my second in command.
She's our vice president of operations.
And I said, why have you, I said, I don't think I've ever asked you, but why have you
remained in this company for eight years?
And she's remarkable and is an example of my journey of, or in my passion for creating
business women, because she started off as our intern and eight years later, she's our
vice president of operations.
And her one word was flexibility.
And so,
You know, that is a key component of our culture.
We give people the room to grow and innovate from within, to create things, to create
their own journey here, but obviously with structure around it.
You know, I was very intentional from the very get-go about company culture, and I wanted
to create an environment where I felt happy and where I felt rewarded.
And if I create that for myself, then...
it's going to attract and retain other people because they're going to have the same
experience.
We have little tolerance for toxic behaviors.
And I think the other thing that we've done really well here is create an environment
where it's a true coaching environment.
We try to coach in the moment, we try to get feedback in the moment, and we do so in a
very respectful way.
We're not perfect, but I think that those things have created the tenure.
that we have and especially in the agency business where it's known for lot of churn and
burn.
Yeah, definitely.
And I know you mentioned, you another big milestone of yours was, you know, owning your
own commercial property.
Tell me a little bit about how that has impacted your business operations, maybe team
morale and what that impact has been.
Yeah, and this is funny.
when I early, early on, when I was, you know, thinking about entrepreneurship and wanting
to have my own business and expressing that desire to others, my goal was to create at the
time, you got to remember this is going back to like 1998, 99.
And I had expressed a desire to have a completely virtual agency.
Now you fast forward 25 years later.
And I sort of have that.
I mean, I have this hybrid environment.
But the funny part about the real estate piece is that, you know, I dreamed of having this
completely virtual environment, you know, with no strings attached, no physical
requirements.
used to tell people, I don't care how you get it done, as long as you get it done on time,
you can be working on the top of Mount Everest for all I care.
Just, you know, let's make the client happy.
And so
About five or so years into the business, I polled the employees that were working for me
at the time and I said, hey, do you like this virtual environment?
Or would you like to have an office?
And they unanimously said, we want office space.
And I thought, no, what have I done by asking that question?
And so we started subleasing from other agencies.
We moved around quite a bit and I...
always had just a desire to own commercial real estate.
I was just fascinated by it, but it also seemed sort of like a man's game.
It did not seem like something I could really attain.
so around 2015, I joined Entrepreneurs' Organization.
And being exposed to that organization full of other owners and other real estate
investors and other people, I...
I saw, wow, this is possible for me.
I can do this.
And so we were leasing truly down the street from where we currently office.
And in 2021, there was a property that was getting ready to go on the market.
was basically a mirror image of what we were already operating in.
And when I looked at the numbers, I thought, this is a no brainer.
And so we bought the building in June, 2021.
And we moved in recently and we're
now in phase two of our interior design and putting all of the furnishings in that we
want.
But it's created a really happy space for us.
Yeah, that's incredible.
Well, let's dive a little bit into what you just mentioned.
EO, I'd love to talk a little bit about entrepreneur organization.
I know you're a past president of the Dallas chapter.
Tell me a little bit about the impact that serving as the president of the Dallas chapter
and just as a whole, you know how EO has impacted you personally and your business.
Yes, it has been a 360 degree type of impact.
When I joined in 2015, I quickly realized that I was in a...
I was with people who understood me, understood my journey.
And I also realized, wow, these people have, like me, have a lot of questions.
They have a lot of experiences.
I realized I wasn't alone.
had finally found my tribe, so to speak.
And it was just really empowering.
I mean, the first few years, I was just consuming as much information and going to as many
events and learning experiences as possible.
And if you want to back up a little bit, even prior to joining EO, I was an accelerator.
So that's a group of individuals that are
you know, their revenue is between 250,000 and a million.
And they're trying to, you know, they're at a completely different stage of
entrepreneurship, right?
So having been an accelerator and then an EO member and then shifting into the presidency
has just, it's been transformational.
It's one thing to lead your team.
It's a whole nother area of growth and development to lead other leaders.
And it,
It was really intimidating, I'll be honest, when they tapped me on the shoulder and said,
hey, we'd like for you to take this role.
But I did it and I knew it would be just an amazing experience and it flew by and now I'm
enjoying being past president.
But I cannot say enough great things about Entrepreneurs' Organization.
It made me a better mother, a better leader, a better friend to others.
I feel like I have just...
truly been transformed by everything that I've been exposed to in that group.
Yeah, definitely.
And it says a lot about you as a leader as well to be able to, you know, step back from
your business and serve your community and serve EO as a president.
I know it takes quite a bit of time being on the board of the San Diego chapter myself at
the moment.
Tell me a little bit about kind of what you learned on that journey in terms of, you know,
just the time commitment that EO started taking up as you started to serve and.
I think we mentioned earlier about getting out of your people's way and letting them excel
in their area.
So tell me a little bit about that impact.
Yeah, almost, it's a real test of your business and your ability to scale because you do
have to step out of your business.
And, you know, when you're an EO member, not only are you gone for half a day out of every
month for your forum meetings, you know, with, you know, seven or eight peers to work on
your business.
It leaves space for the employees to
step in and grow.
And I think that's another reason when I go back to tenure, I think another key reason why
we do have tenure is because people do see space for themselves.
They see the ability here to, you know, create a path, you know, chart a course that they
want to, if they want to try something new or to just move their way into leadership.
And so I
I think that being in an organization like EO or even something, you know, a competitive
organization like Vistage, when you're able to step out and work on the business, others
that work with you can step in and execute and grow.
That's what I think the benefit is.
Yeah, definitely.
No, I started my business in 2018 and joined the accelerator program of entrepreneur
organization.
And then for the last three years, I've been an EO and it's definitely been the probably
the greatest impact on my business as well.
Mm-hmm.
We also talked about implementing the entrepreneurial operating system EOS and really kind
of how that's transformed your business.
Can you elaborate on the impact that that has had on your kind of accountability and team
processes within your company?
Yes, it has done those two things.
It has created accountability or allowed us to create accountability, real accountability.
It has also given us the fortitude as a team to stop and work on the business together.
So one of the first action items out of our initial meeting with an EOS facilitator was
to...
spend a few days documenting all of our processes.
And I find that we're able to scale and, and, you know, go through tougher times in the
business because we've done all of that hard work upfront.
People always think, I don't have time, you know, to, to spend time documenting processes
or create job descriptions or create an organizational chart or
work on somebody's path of leadership.
There's just, quote, no time.
if you don't make the time, you're going to run into problems down the road.
And a great example of this is, going back to my EO presidency, I was able to take time
off to attend some conferences in South Africa and also travel to Dubai and Paris and be
gone from the business knowing that my team
had everything under control.
And that really, when you can leave your business for a week or two weeks and you come
back and everything's functioning as it should, you know you've accomplished something
significant.
Yeah, definitely.
And I'm curious, know, kind of diving into the PR side of it and, your extensive
experience in public relations.
I'm curious, you know, how AI is currently impacting the industry, the company, maybe how
you foresee that impact, you know, as we kind of navigate this AI competitive landscape.
Yeah, it, I've always given my team permission to experiment.
so AI is not something that I'm afraid of or, you know, I see it as something to explore.
It's a new playground for us to play on.
And I don't see it necessarily replacing, you know, an account executive's job, right?
But it can definitely enhance performance.
It can speed up processes.
I think for creative people and for creative teams and creative businesses like the agency
world in which we live, it can take some of the menial task and it can speed up work.
So I don't think that's any surprise to anybody else.
You know, I have the luxury of being able to look back on 25 years and, you know, watch
how people responded to the launch of Facebook and Twitter and, you know, using air quotes
here, the demise of, you know, the media industry and, and also to, to see other new
platforms, you know, come and go, whether it be, you know,
Pinterest or now TikTok.
it's just another tool in the toolbox.
interestingly, I saw a study and I wish I could provide the source, but it was reputable.
But it talked a lot about how corporate America is not adopting AI at the rate at which
everybody feared it would.
And so I think everybody's trying to figure it out.
We're trying to...
figure out how to best leverage it.
But at the end of the day, humans were built for, you know, one-to-one conversations.
They were built to work together in person.
And you can't toss away, you know, thousands and thousands and thousands of years of the
way we were built just because suddenly AI is on the scene.
Yeah.
Yep.
that's how humans connect.
It's through storytelling.
And I think also that's why PR is really having its moment.
I think PR firms especially have a much larger seat at the table, a much larger voice.
And it's a great time to be the owner of a PR firm.
Yeah, definitely.
what are I guess in terms of just PR as a whole in general right now, I guess what
strategies and I guess what things are really, I guess, popular in the space right now and
being talked about.
Hmm.
Well, certainly, you know, AI is one, you know, every client wants to figure out how to
work with influencers.
Every client wants to figure out, you know, a great TikTok strategy.
And I think people, it's still the same thing.
People are trying to figure out like how to tell their story and how to tell it where, how
to tell it well.
And then where do you tell it?
You know, when I, I recently gave a talk,
to an association about building authority.
And there was so much fear many years ago with respect to news media and the fact that it
was diminishing, right?
But certain pieces may have gotten smaller and newsrooms may have shrunk a little bit, but
now there's so many more places to tell your story.
there's really a lot to choose from.
It's just, I think the hard part is like,
for our clients, it's where do I go?
What's going to give me the most impact?
So I think those are some of the discussions that we're having in terms of strategies and
conversations with our clients.
Yeah, definitely.
And I know, you know, in our earlier conversation, you talked a lot about your mission to
create businesswoman.
Tell me a little bit more about, you know, that focus on your company culture and really
kind of how that shows up in your day to day life.
Yeah, well, I, when I go back to one of my first EO experiences, I had the pleasure of
hearing Simon Sinek in person in a very small venue.
And obviously he's just tremendously popular now and a lot of people, a lot more people
know about him, but his talk had a huge impact on me and...
I was trying to figure out for very long time, why do I do what I do?
And I love helping people with their journeys.
If you took away my business, I would still do that.
I would still figure out a way to help people move forward in life.
And the agency is the channel through which I do that.
And I love empowering women and I love teaching
these 25, 26, 27, 28 year olds, you know, that they can be a business woman, that they can
be taken seriously, that they can sit with a CEO and talk intelligently about operations
or supply chain or AI or TikTok or whatever the conversation needs to be.
So I just have always, you know, put my people in situations where I think others have
been
fearful to do so.
And I think part of that comes from the way that my generation, the late Gen X, early
boomer grew up in business, if you will, which was very command and control.
And that doesn't work anymore.
So I have always, I guess, experimented with my business and with the people that work
with me, allowing them to step into situations where
You know, I want to try it.
want to, you know, I want to give them a shot.
And I, they're doing things at their age that I either was not permitted to do or wasn't
invited to do.
And frankly, might not, might not have even had the confidence to do at 26, 27, 28.
But I love, love, love seeing, you know, my people at the table advising clients and
and doing it with such confidence.
And, you know, something that really intrigued me before as well was, you you mentioned
that being more authentic with your team was a big turning point in your leadership.
Tell me a little bit more about how that impacted your relationship with your team and
your company's success.
Yeah, I made an intentional shift to move away from a command and control type of
leadership.
And again, this all coincides with having a business coach joining EO.
So many things can, you know, so many lanes I was traveling down, if you will, which all
converge, but, also millennials coming into the workforce.
So I just decided, you know,
I don't have to be this way.
I can meet them in the middle.
I can set expectations for the way I want the agency to run, but I can also meet them in
the middle.
And so I think the moment I decided to really let them see Amy, somebody that was
vulnerable, somebody that was a mom, somebody that was just another woman.
another human being, another person with the same struggles, and allowed them to see my
kind of silly, dorky side as well.
You know, laugh with me, joke with me.
I found that the culture changed.
It wasn't really just one thing, but it happened over time.
And I think that they respect me for that.
I think a leader can be vulnerable with their team.
You're just going to have a much better culture.
I would not want them to fear me.
I would not want them to think that I'm going to come in and bang my fist on the table.
That's not leadership.
Definitely.
And no, and I remember going into the workforce, that was very common.
That's how many companies were run, you know, and it's just really not like that anymore
as we've evolved.
Yeah, yeah, fear and fear and intimidation is just not leadership.
definitely.
Well, another thing I was impressed on is, your company's community involvement.
And I know that you, I guess, tell me a little bit about how you are involved with local
schools, community events.
think we talked about the Easter egg hunts before supporting teachers.
Tell me a little bit about how your company is involved in the local community.
Well, you know, we started working with one school and it has been a really rewarding
experience.
We even bought a bunny suit, if you will, like an Easter bunny suit.
And one of our employees begrudgingly dressed up as the Easter bunny.
We did a Easter egg hunt.
So it's become sort of, it's become an annual thing with a couple of schools around here.
We've donated, you know,
turkeys and helped out families during those times, during COVID, the same school, which
is part of the DISD, they needed computers.
And so we happened to have a client that was in the IT space and they were able to provide
us with, gosh, I to say 20 or 30 laptops, which we were able to donate.
And that was when everybody was, you know, trying to figure out how to work from home.
right?
And it was a real scramble.
So we were able just to help that one particular school with a very specific need.
so, you know, anytime we can give back or rest or something, you know, we find a way to
deliver.
We also give our employees a day to volunteer and, you know, just it's paid.
It's like if you want to go
do something special and do something on your own, we're all for it.
A lot of my personal get back time is through EO and that's where I place a lot of my
extra resources and time because now having been an accelerator, many, many, many years
ago, I now mentor accelerators and that's extremely exciting.
So I do that one Friday a month.
Well, before we close out here, my last question for you is if you can go back 25 years
and walk into that delivery room and really kind of give yourself some advice, what advice
would you give yourself looking back on this 25 year journey?
wow, that is a great question.
I think I, hmm, there's so many things I would have done differently.
I think I would have been quicker to relinquish control.
You know, there's that expression especially used throughout EOS, the Entrepreneurs'
Operating System, which is delegate to elevate.
And the sooner you get out of the way and you either give it to an expert, such as your
accounting, or you...
trusted employee to take on, a piece of the business and, and, know, after they're
trained, obviously, but founders, owners, you don't have to be in everything.
The sooner you get out of the way, it really is true.
The sooner you get out of the way and empower others, the better your company is.
Definitely.
Now that's amazing.
Well, Amy, your journey is truly inspiring from taking that bold first business call in
the delivery room to leading the power group for 25 remarkable years, empowering
businesswoman and fostering a vibrant company culture along the way.
I really appreciate you sharing your experiences and insights with all of us.