This is let’s talk business with your host Mark evinger and Heather Bane now here’s Mark welcome to let’s talk business of show the talks entrepreneurship with some of the best businesses in the San Antonio area coming up on the show today we’re going to talk with Corey connly and Andre
Woodard with the San Antonio lumni chapter of Kappa Alpha sa fraternity guys welcome to the show thank you thank you thank you very well dressed I might add uh this is a uh everybody is wearing red is there a story behind the red jacket there is there is can you give it
To me real quick like real short well just colors uh the jacket is just business right me of achievement men of achievement is to normally wear sports coats and the color is Crimson uh for our our official colors crimson and cran all right love it in studio with us
Today is Heather Bame a certified business coach that works with business owners to gain Clarity and achieve their goals Heather welcome to see welcome back to the show always glad to be here and I’m your host Mark imager of kcus Market marketing agency a company that specializes in giving small businesses a
Competitive Edge by hiring lowcost virtual administrative Specialists from outside the United States which that’s really how I built my entire 24 full-time employees for just a little guy like me you know what I mean it’s kind of nice to be able to get that leverage a quick reminder for our
Listeners you can catch video and podcast versions of the show Anytime by visiting our website at sat talkradio.com and if you’re a business owner in the San Antonio era and like to have your company featured on the show visit our website at sat talkradio.com or call our office at 2110 879 8804
That’s 2110 879 8804 all right so um you guys are very active in your community right and so I wanted to kind of open up our the podcast with the discussion about how important it is for business owners to be actively involved in their Community um Heather what are your initial
Thoughts on um like why a business owner should at least consider getting involved uh in some level with their business and the community well I think there’s the obvious reasons giving back and and being able to utilize your business not just for your own personal gain but for your community is huge I
Know people get into business for a lot of different ways but uh even if you’re just looking at it from a business perspective I know San Antonio is a super relational City most people here want to work with businesses that they know like and trust and they want to
Work with people that have been around long enough that they know they’re going to stay so it’s almost requirement in this city to be involved in your community in some way yeah and Andre I don’t know if you can I imagine be okay to name some businesses that you
Guys are working with in the area but when you start partnering with companies in in the community here it’s a special feeling right you guys are coming together working together for a specific purpose um do you have what are your thoughts there as far as like who you
Give me an example of somebody you’re working with and what you guys are working on yeah um of course we’ve worked with with the the the Spurs uh as well um we have a golf tournament or several golf tournaments so Valero has also been a great partner yeah as well
As as far as sponsorship um and you know a number of others so we are always out there seeking corporate sponsorship Partners to um you know just help us get out there and uh serve our community yeah and Corey that feel-good part of it right when you’re kind of elbow to Elbow
With somebody else and you guys are working on the same thing yeah I think that I think that for having the ability to bridge the gap between know the corporate offer Spectre the CBD Central businesses those those individuals that normally uh are in an office space a cubicle right every day
And to be able to come down and say hey look we’re going to rub elbows we’re going to we’re going to work on this Habitat for Humanity project we’re going to work on uh some of the other found Foundation aspects in our area how can we bridge that what you guys do together
Um it’s been very beneficial we again Valero has been a great partnership for us um as far as Aviation program and just hearing kind of what other corporations are doing and how we can uh collaborate with them as far as we grow and I think tying the corporations into
The needs of the community and at least that awareness hey did you even know that we have a homeless problem here or that you know what I mean that there are kids who are struggling with cancer that are are looking for help and their parents don’t have a place to stay when
The kids are going through the treatment at the hospital these types of things that businesses have no idea about that we get the opportunity to kind of tie them in when we’re doing some kind of project together right and again I don’t want to uh Sant has experienced a
Massive amount of growth in the area from corporate relocations and and things of that nature and again you know a lot of these California companies um and and others New York based companies San Francisco U they do not understand uh have it takes a learning curve to get
Acclimated here as far as the policies and procedure then the demographics of the city right um what is best served and what is needed as you stated we have uh historical dry areas uh as far as food uh food deserts in this particular City and so how can we bridge and
Leverage the food bank relationship with either cap or food breaking relationship with with some other corporate sponsor or or HB whomever right HB is local but some of these other companies that have um discretionary funds to to be able to pour out into the community to say hey
Come out welcome to S anono thank you for the you know the job growth but also come out here and and Aid Us in in in some of the things that we need done in the area so I feel like having that pulse you guys are a great connector for
You know these big corporations and where in the community they can be directed to do good but that relationship building between you who have that kind of boots on the ground relationship with the community and the localities to the corporations I feel like a lot of people don’t know or have
The skills to bridge that Gap because it is a skill set what did that look like for you guys coming in as an organization in the city and building influential relationships that allow you to help at a greater scale um I think what what it looks like for
Us is I mean if you think about our fraternity and our chapter so we have about 90 Financial members in our chapter got about 400 or so members of Cs in the city so think about uh the chapter as a platform of individuals with diverse backgrounds uh divers
Experience that are able to come together and be able to um get out there in the community make some connections do some networking but the biggest thing with us is that we’re able to use sort of our manpower to get out there and do that so if a business or a corporation
Really wants to impact the community um then we can be an Avenue for them to partner with us to get out there and do it because we are in the community we know the community and we have um you know just the diversity and the
Background to uh to do that so like if a company has you know more financial resources you guys have more leg you know legs and arms ready to go do the work that need to be done out in the community okay that’s that’s a real good
Way to put that actually I picked up on it yeah good example of that was uh you know I don’t like to say the word the c word but the you know the the time in which we had with with the vaccinations right um we have good health winds which
Is a platform that that allow uh allowed us to reach out to do vaccinations U and so we held uh through the MLK walk uh we had we allowed you know vaccinations and I believe we did over we did somewhere north of 2,000 plus vaccinations in in
The uh as we say black and brown Community right um where the where individuals in the city didn’t quite necessarily know how to reach them right um because of miseducation uh about the vaccinations right but there’s a trusted resource within the city uh within their neighborhood and de Heights is the
Neighborhood if you guys aren’t familiar with us um is the neighborhood and and able to get out there to say hey look we’re going to educate we’re going to lead the charge on what how can we better serve and save our people and that’s giving informed information about
The vaccines that are been given and then giving them a location that’s not out of the war out of the area close to their house a proximity to them we’re bringing it to them to be able to make sure they’re safe cool now I’ve got a question on that you’ve you’re an
Organization of quite a few individuals and it sounds like you guys kind of come together to direct your focus to certain initiatives what does that look like because I’m guessing there’s two parts to it right there’s the getting the money piece and getting the resources piece and then like deciding where to
Allocate those so what does that process look like for you guys well if if we think about um sort of top down so so our national cap alasi um they have several programs that um you know they they have a focus on uh for example um you know of course we’ve got
Guide right we’ve got Kappa League U we’ll talk a little bit more about those uh glad and things like that so once we get that top level Direction the chapters that we have within the fraternity we’re able to come in and say okay we’re going to take that and we’re
Going to do that at a local level so as a chapter we’re going to have people designated to run this program all right and then that person is going to have a committee and they will recruit people within the chapter to run that committee make contacts in the community and just
Run the whole program and try to get the resources to help us do that cool so let’s learn a little bit about the background on your fraternity Andre so you want to give us the uh how did it start what’s to give us a background there okay all right so uh
Capital soci Fraternity Incorporated it was founded in January 5th 1911 um so on this January 5th 2024 we’re going to going to be celebrating 113 years U of CA alphai uh it was founded on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington Indiana and um it was founded by 10
Young men so our cap alaide Founders led by Elder Watson Diggs um so a little bit about the why so during that time in Indiana and on the University of Bloomington it was a difficult time for them they really weren’t a part of the social life of the campus so they had
Common interest uh they had common goals so they came together and decided to establish this Greek letter fraternity and what we wanted to do what they wanted to do differently is they had a vision that it would be uh more than just a social organization so when you think about a fraternity you’re
Thinking Party social things like that one but this is one that was established uh on the principle of achievement so and um so and then of course when they started we had uh several objectives the primary objectives to unite college men of uh culture patriotism and honor and the bond of
Fraternity another one to encourage honorable achievement in every field of human endeavor to promote the spiritual social intellectual and moral welfare of its members to assist the aims and purposes of college and universities and to inspire service in the public interest so what Drew you guys personally to this organization you know
There’s the overall goals but what what resonated with you specifically so I play as an as an undergraduate so I pledged in N uh April of 1987 way back okay uh I pledged at the Epsilon Ada chapter of cap alai and Northeast Missouri State University which State
University so the official answer is um you know they were um they seemed to be I didn’t knew nothing about Greek life when I went to to college um but they seemed to be you know men of achievement uh distinguish and you know all that but what I really liked about this
Particular fraternity and the brothers that were there there is they were just cool I mean they were they were really sharp they were business-minded I just like how they approach everything so that’s what drw me like that so not so much the the party life didn’t draw you in it’s the
Professionalism absolutely it did draw me in was there no partying at all going on lot you know that’s 18 19 years old that’s happen but um the the combination of having that life but taking care of business yeah nothing wrong with that have fun I feel like you have to enjoy
The ride right otherwise you’re always working for something that’s just Out Of Reach and then you don’t really know what to do when you get there it’s like what what now if you focus and fun do a little bit of B what about you Cory uh M
I’m a little different so um I’m I’ve only been in the bond three years and we call it the bond um so uh fall 21 initiative San Antonio alumni chapter under flip not flip under Jimmy Chambers Fork did you join while you’re were in college right no so I’m I’m the alumni
Brother so there’s an undergraduate which would be brother wood and I’m the alumni see I had no idea till you just said that so different Ties on uh no this that’s just a personal preference uh so but I’ve been around men of cap outside my entire life my grandfather Ed
Jones um is a pical part of my life and he was a c man at gamai at Grandma State University um and so taught me how to tie a tie taught me how to walk bought me my first pair of penny loafers you’ll learn about that later that’s very
Important when you have your loafers uh and my first pair of khakis right and so when you think as a young man I grew up wanting to Aspire to be um just half the man my grandfather was um and so I’ve always chased the ability to u to to
Join the organization however at my University um there was no local chapter um so I was not able to do an undergrad um and so in the alumni chapter the standards are a little different um you have to have achieved and continue achievement um in order to be uh voted
In in the process and I was very fortunate uh this go around to be selected so what does achieved look like achievement yeah like to to get into the Alumni Association what type of achievements are you guys looking for um well of course you you have to have a
Degree but we’re looking for you know what have you done in your career um oh yeah what have you done in your career um educational achievements just demonstrating that you are serving the community and that you’ve done something special B but you know there is an interesting Dynamic so
I I I I pledged um as an undergraduate in the chapter and he went in as the alumni chapter but I joined this alumni chapter in 2016 so the progression is we we are looking for um people that join the undergrad chapter to eventually join the alumni chapter whatever city they’re in
Gotta because people move around right lifelong commitment um you know if you decide that you you know you’re stationed if you’re for the military audience here we are in San Antonio um you’re you end up you know pledging at San Antonio alumni but you get stationed
In you know Dubai you know there’s a Dubai chapter Japan there’s a Japan alumni chapter uh we want to be that familiar face in the community um and and and it’s a lifelong commitment um and so it’s from the undergraduate brother again this is 25 years you know
Difference here uh but we’re still here at one point uh by one dream dreamers uh one our founder and his dream to kind of be together and to push this forward and so we’re here yeah let’s talk a little bit about what you guys are doing in the
Community so there’s a program called guide right what is that yeah guite is our youth Initiative Program uh we just very proud sorry my fight my face lights up when hear about that um so we have um we’re under the direction of uh brother son c um is the guy right program and
Again getting back to that question of how things are is a committee it’s it’s purposefully and task F done and to get those resources done it’s it’s essentially we have a student right now in every ISD in San Antonio um in the guy program we have currently about 75 uh guide right
Members and young men are getting all over San Antonio and what we hope to do there is for the business people is create a pipeline right we we want to train them up we want to uh what’s training stand for we want to make sure that that they have the tools necessary
To make a decision whether to go to college not go to college uh to pursue you know that sport that whatever the case may be and then show them the etiquette the tying of the ties to how to eat properly um how to open doors right those things that they may not
Know how to do and some do but just understand that they have a foundation and to be to be that constant interaction as a positive male Ro role model okay so um over 6,000 youth currently enrolled in Kappa League programs correct Nationwide with a graduation rate a high school graduation
Rate of 98% and a College acceptance rate of 88% nice um three Capal Leaguers have been awarded the Bill Gates Millennium Scholarship cor stem stem research stem research all right cool and stem is science science technology engineering and U math okay there’s another one now a Arts it’s
Called they call it steam now or something like that yeah somebody’s trying to change it it’s not me the Arts were like what are you doing you forgot about the Arts someone always has to have their uh their spin on it is 2023 there has to be inclusion on everything
Why just them we think with our left and right side so let’s dig a little bit more into the into the guide right program so tell me give me some examples specifics what you guys so right now uh there’s a few things we have a uh what
We call a career like a career enhancement portion um and and what we do is we take every every one of the indiv young men and we we ask them what their interests are and we’re trying to pair them with while they’re in the organization uh with either a local
Business or a CA Mentor um that can show them and expose them to that very early on so for myself I’m in uh data science um and so we work with young men who are interested in that particular program um but there are some that may be
Interested in drywall um a drywall um barber colleges and so we have a Kappa um who owns a local barber shop um and so trying to get them that kind of exposure we want to make sure that and I guess the point the purpose here is to
We want to make sure that as as mentors that we can align them in the community with whatever their little Minds uh Hearts want want to do and Achieve um because that’s what we’re pushing here and so and then we may fall short in some of those areas but that’s why we’re
Here um is to for that that construction company that that knows how to do drywall and we have someone interested we want to be able to bridge that Gap um to those who may uh be interested in that industry well it’s about an opportunity and I’ve said this before on
Here but I think what’s interesting if you like look at case studies of successful High achieving people usually it comes down to a story of one person they met one person that changed the way they think or they heard a story about one person that gave them a whole new
Thought process to the possibilities in life so how are you finding these students because I feel like for this type of program to be successful they have to be open to it and and ready to kind of take that step into opening their mind to all that you guys have to
Offer so a word of mouth uh and reputation um over the three over the last three years we’ve had a 175% increase of the guide right program um and so we’re we’re trying to be intentional uh to be out in the isds we we meet with the local uh business uh
Brother brother Scott um sets up this meeting with the education uh City and we we speak we go to their meetings and events and things of that nature um to be able to know what’s going on in the district first and foremost seeing what the district is having you know issues
Um and then trying to you know reach out to those segments and say hey look we can we can assist in in certain areas um but in short we want to just being visible the red jacket is is Not By You Know by accident is to stand out right
And so you you there won’t be any distinguish if you don’t remember cap aide you remember those guys with the red jacket taught me something and then you’ll find out what the red jacket means later how are you guys funded so I mean your business you guys said that
Earlier so I think it’s fair that I can ask a question how what is it donations is it how do you guys I’ll yield that to the former uh koe I spent some time as the uh treasurer of the chapter I’m the vice pollark now Vice President uh we’re
Primarily funded by the dues of our members that that is the Baseline funding uh that we have our operation bud but when it’s time to do some of these big events for guide ride and capital Le like college tours and the signing uh day and things like that that
Takes a lot of funds so we have to put on programs events um things of that nature to get the funds to be able to do this and with that we have to rely on sponsorships donations from the uh the chapter itself donation from people that know US Direct donations from the
Corporate sponsors we talked about earlier but just really um just having sponsors to help us do the activities or put on the events that’s where a lot of the funding comes from so if there’s a special program or event that’s going be going on we go out to Big corporate
Sponsors and trying to get funds yeah and then like if we’re going to do a golf tournament say okay we need a we need that corporate sponsor for the golf tournament we need people to sponsor holes things like that so uh in that way you know it’s not just hey give us some
Money and we’ll think of something to do with it right it is focused this is what this is for it’s very focused this is the activity there’s going to be a lot of visibility for that Corporation for that business and um you know we’re just
Going to have a great time doing it now are you guys nonprofit or for-profit non nonprofit nonprofit now we’re not an official 501c3 nonprofit We do have a separate um San Antonio lni CA foundation so the chapter is one entity that’s kind of a nonprofit but the foundation is another so we partner
Together where a corporate sponsor can give to our foundation get the tax deduction um but then earmark those funds for the programs that are run by the chapter so it’s a good partn yeah and you guys are a franchise so you pay in franchise fees right up to the main
Well we all have to pay dues to our national yeah so that’s that’s our franchise let take the chick for Laymon correct correct and if I can like I I understand the altruistic nature i’ I’ve run into you guys at chamber events and heard about all the programs I think
It’s wonderful but I’m guessing there’s some other benefits Beyond just being able to pour into the community do you have any stories or personal experiences of you know you came into this organization and it’s it’s not your probably main income Source how that’s affected your business or your life
Outside of just being able to give to Charities and and Mentor kids well go yeah for for me it sounds like a full-time job it’s more of a part-time job I guess you can say that um but the Brotherhood is is what we what we sell and I think that’s
That’s you know I know it sounds very cliche but that’s really what it what it is um I have call them lying brothers or members who were brought in at the exact same time um I was having a hard time with the with a job I wanted to switch
Um and that person being a corporate communication specialist uh redid my resume um to where I got the job that I have now which is um an associate director assistant director um a predictive analytic and so just having and that brother had known me you know three months right and
It’s it’s just being able to bridge those things together and being to lean on each other um to link up to be together to know that hey look we’re here together and if you need something you know let me make a call if I know someone that’s very very
Important um to us as a as a fraternity and I think that’s why 25 years years later um brother wood is still active today and we have 50-year members we have you know brother Alvin Brown we have brother Kelly Ral Kelly who’ve been in the bond since the 50s you know who
Are still coming around still helping out can’t tell them to sit down because they see the impact in the community and being able to call those individuals a phone call away to be able to say Hey Brother Brown brother Kelly you want to go golfing today you want to think about
That sure I got time uh to be able to get that wisdom is very important and then you can’t put a dollar amount on that at least for me well if somebody wants to be involved with this program so what are the qualifications to be
Involved do you have to be in college do you have to be in a certain I mean what’s the how do you get in into the fraternity uh college degree and then we have a open open application process uh to be involved now we put out any Community Service events that anyone can
Attend a commity service so we just had uh visits and vaccinations at a local church um and then we can put that out if you decide you want to come you can let us know that you’re coming via the chapter’s U Facebook or Instagram or whatever the case may be we’ll give
Contact information later um and we’ll be more than happy to take as many can you know we’re running around so but for the Youth to benefit from this type of program is how are they how are they getting involved what what does that look like from the start
Are they in college is that where it starts or is it high school or so no they start uh very young so we have uh our guide R in Capa League we start them from the ages of 8 to 18 um and so um anywhere from that area they can parent
Mom Dad reaches out um via email to the director we have an enrollment period uh to where they can application process um and then there’s a small fee I think maybe like $125 to pay for their they have a jack jacket as well it’s not red
But it’s they have a jacket as well what color is the jacket uh is the jacket red or cream yeah yeah it’s like a it’s like a darker maroon and it has Capal on there it’s really nice kids and they have their ties we have pictures all over uh
But and then and then from there again just like the the the parent chapter what what what interest does that child have you know uh mom dad do you do you know right and if they don’t know we’ll build that relationship with that child to see what their interests are and then
We’ll kind of tailor it from there and so from from8 to graduation we’re there and then that leads into scholarships U we offer scholarships um for for our graduates as well and that’s where we host a college signing day because most of our children end up going on to to
Colleges and universities and is that when they would say Okay I want to be part of the fraternity if that college has a chapter so exactly um so if they have this experience with us as the youth they go into college knowing so much because of their experience with us
So of course then that’s their opportunity to say well I’m a freshman in college if I’ve got so many credit hours and my grade point is okay they can apply to be a member of C alai while they’re in College uh and then upon graduation from college wherever they land um we’ve
Got you know over 700 chapters across the country International wherever they land they can find an alumni chapter like this one to be a part of right n you start give back yeah right well and I think it like a huge takeaway for me from this is just the community of it
You know in school you’re forced to be in school so you’ve got a forced to create a community in college you’re almost but after college I used to hear it all the time people had a hard time making friends and in a digital world we can just be on our screens remote work
And then after the seword happened right even more so isolating so having a way to get plugged into a community of like-minded individuals that can help you grow as well is huge and I think everyone’s kind of searching for that but there’s a different mindset to
Saying I’m going to apply for it and it’s worth the money I pay into it to be a part of it absolutely anything we missed do you guys want to get on the floor wrap up um if someone is interested um or any corporate sponsor or business that they want to partner uh
They can send us an email at info San anon.org um and we’ll monitor that email we’ll reach out to them and what we’ll try to do is we’ll we’ll we’ll do some Discovery and say okay what are you looking for to impact the community and then we’ll take one of our programs and
Say okay this is how it plugs in and kind of customize something that how do you spell NES n u PES okay yeah so that’s that’s our nickname so we’re we’re Kapp men but we call each other NS yeah I don’t want give you got to know to know okay a term
Of endearment or is it an acronym or uh it’s it’s a term of endearment um just like I’m a marine so I’ll call other Marines hate Devil Dogs and provide things like that with us it’s you know a new and that that comes from um our other Greek letters called f new
P the two of those have that new sound that’s where it comes from all right cool all right so if folks want to get in touch with you guys San Antonio noops info San Antonio nos.org okay and the website San anonio nos.org or Facebook San anonio noops uh on
Facebook as well right I’m really glad I asked you guys how to spell that otherwise we would have NES right NES I love it it’s easy you got it all right guys well great job I appreciate it did you guys say this was the first time podcast first
Time great job all right wrap for the show quick reminder to check out our latest podcast or catch video version of the show any time by visiting our website at sat talkradio.com that’s going to be it for this show thanks everybody great job and we’ll see you on the next one
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