Learn How to Embrace Creativity and Overcome Mental Blocks With Dana Brewer

Melinda Lee: 00:00:02

Hello, Welcome, dear listeners. I'm so glad

Melinda Lee: 00:00:06

you're here today. We have an amazing leader. Her name is Dana

Melinda Lee: 00:00:11

Brewer. She's the founder of computer information station

Melinda Lee: 00:00:16

since 1988. Welcome, Dana. Thank you so much. Melinda. How are

Melinda Lee: 00:00:22

you? I am good. I'm so glad to see you. I love that shirt.

Melinda Lee: 00:00:26

Again. It just brightens up the whole room. Thank you.

Melinda Lee: 00:00:31

Oh, good. Um, you have so much wisdom to share. And that's why

Melinda Lee: 00:00:34

I brought you here because since 1980, you founded your own

Melinda Lee: 00:00:37

company. See I s computer information station supports

Melinda Lee: 00:00:41

other businesses to to scale to grow to optimise their teams.

Melinda Lee: 00:00:47

And that's what you do through manage information, technology,

Melinda Lee: 00:00:51

IT services and also security, right? Absolutely. That's such a

Melinda Lee: 00:00:56

niche, such an amazing niche, especially with a woman as a

Melinda Lee: 00:01:00

woman founder. And so tell me about how you got started with

Melinda Lee: 00:01:04

this, you know, the journey along the way to up to the

Melinda Lee: 00:01:07

successful company that you are today.

Dana Brewer: 00:01:08

Thank you happy to do it. You mentioned about being

Dana Brewer: 00:01:12

a woman, this has been historically a very male

Dana Brewer: 00:01:15

dominated field. And I started when I was really young,

Dana Brewer: 00:01:18

actually, I've always liked solving problems. And I was

Dana Brewer: 00:01:23

working at a local municipality, as a kid really learning a lot

Dana Brewer: 00:01:28

of things related to human resources. And I'll never forget

Dana Brewer: 00:01:31

it was in 1982. It was when personal computers were just

Dana Brewer: 00:01:36

starting to roll out on desktops in offices. And in our office,

Dana Brewer: 00:01:40

nobody actually really knew what the thing was this big, huge

Dana Brewer: 00:01:43

honking box, big huge box that a tonne. Well, through the help

Dana Brewer: 00:01:50

from an amazing personnel analyst. I asked him what is

Dana Brewer: 00:01:53

this thing sitting on this desk. And he said, let me show you

Dana Brewer: 00:01:57

what it can do. And he was super excited to show me a list of

Dana Brewer: 00:02:00

names, along with test scores, we worked in the examination

Dana Brewer: 00:02:04

unit, and that he could sort that list alphabetically by

Dana Brewer: 00:02:08

their last name or by their test score. He was floored. I was

Dana Brewer: 00:02:12

floored because this was work that we did manually. Well, that

Dana Brewer: 00:02:15

sparked something in me. And I thought, There's no way this big

Dana Brewer: 00:02:20

huge box can only do that. So being the bookworm that I am, I

Dana Brewer: 00:02:25

bought a book on that software, and it happened to be Lotus 123.

Dana Brewer: 00:02:28

Yes, I go back that far. So really, from there, Melinda, I

Dana Brewer: 00:02:34

bought a bunch of books on the software applications that were

Dana Brewer: 00:02:37

available at the time, saved my money, and I bought a personal

Dana Brewer: 00:02:41

computer, and back then a desktop computer could run you

Dana Brewer: 00:02:44

about four to $5,000. And as I said, I was a kid, so I had to

Dana Brewer: 00:02:48

save for a while. And I started implementing that software in my

Dana Brewer: 00:02:55

department and trying to learn how we could use it to make our

Dana Brewer: 00:02:58

jobs better. And continue to progress with that. And I

Dana Brewer: 00:03:03

actually for this municipality. Such was my love of all things,

Dana Brewer: 00:03:09

optimization and automation that I implemented. The very first HR

Dana Brewer: 00:03:14

is Human Resources Information System for this large

Dana Brewer: 00:03:17

municipality. And I didn't work in it at all, as a kid. But what

Dana Brewer: 00:03:25

happened is, I think I was too young, maybe wrong gender. And

Dana Brewer: 00:03:30

you know, I loved my opportunities there, but maybe

Dana Brewer: 00:03:32

even the wrong colour. I wanted to move into it. And here came

Dana Brewer: 00:03:38

that ceiling. And I just decided I looked up and I said no, I've

Dana Brewer: 00:03:43

given you all of these improvements. And all I'm asking

Dana Brewer: 00:03:47

for is an opportunity to learn from some that may know more

Dana Brewer: 00:03:50

than me, I want to stay with this company. And I was denied

Dana Brewer: 00:03:54

that opportunity. And the old maybe 19 year old me said no,

Dana Brewer: 00:03:59

we're not going to let anybody stop us. So I tendered my

Dana Brewer: 00:04:02

resignation. And from that CIS was born.

Melinda Lee: 00:04:07

Wow. How painful was that? How heartbreaking was

Melinda Lee: 00:04:11

that experience? You know, try to fight it when you saw it

Melinda Lee: 00:04:15

happening? Well,

Dana Brewer: 00:04:16

there were actually a couple of things that

Dana Brewer: 00:04:17

happened. I actually had prepared a career path with my

Dana Brewer: 00:04:21

supervisor at the time. They created a position for me in the

Dana Brewer: 00:04:26

company, a paraprofessional position that would allow me to

Dana Brewer: 00:04:30

take over for someone who had had his job for the previous 30

Dana Brewer: 00:04:35

years doing some personnel analysis. And that if I stayed

Dana Brewer: 00:04:39

in that position for 18 months, I would be able to progress

Dana Brewer: 00:04:43

basically up the ladder. And a new supervisor came in changed

Dana Brewer: 00:04:47

all of that and decided no, we're not going to honour that

Dana Brewer: 00:04:50

and I was about 12 months in on this 18 month programme. So the

Dana Brewer: 00:04:54

reality is the hurt was not just from the denial of being able to

Dana Brewer: 00:04:58

move into information techniques. Knology but also the

Dana Brewer: 00:05:00

fact that the organisation didn't recognise my value, and

Dana Brewer: 00:05:07

was basically saying, you know, no, we appreciate what you're

Dana Brewer: 00:05:10

doing for us. You've done amazing work. But we're going to

Dana Brewer: 00:05:14

keep you right here, and we're not going to allow you to

Dana Brewer: 00:05:16

progress. So probably the pain that was the pain, I've given

Dana Brewer: 00:05:20

them seven years of my life. Good years, I was young, I was

Dana Brewer: 00:05:25

energetic. I did everything they asked me to do. And I just

Dana Brewer: 00:05:28

turned that into a positive. I didn't let it keep me down. I

Dana Brewer: 00:05:31

decided, because I started doing a little consulting on the side

Dana Brewer: 00:05:35

as well. And I just decided, no, this is what I want to do. So it

Dana Brewer: 00:05:39

was actually a happy moment for me was a little scary. Yeah. But

Dana Brewer: 00:05:43

I'll tell you the day that I tendered my resignation, yep.

Dana Brewer: 00:05:47

prayed about it. Before I took the steps. My desk phone rang.

Dana Brewer: 00:05:51

And it was my aunt saying we heard about what you've been

Dana Brewer: 00:05:54

doing at East Bay Mud. Yeah. We've also, we also know that

Dana Brewer: 00:05:59

you've been consulting to some folks on the side, would you

Dana Brewer: 00:06:02

come to work for us, we'll pay you whatever they're paying you.

Dana Brewer: 00:06:07

And what you get are it in order? Oh, my gosh, there was no

Dana Brewer: 00:06:11

way for me to be sad.

Melinda Lee: 00:06:13

I got the chills, chills, because I think that a

Melinda Lee: 00:06:16

lot of people in corporate, sometimes they don't, they're

Melinda Lee: 00:06:19

not happy. Maybe there's a glass ceiling. Maybe they've done

Melinda Lee: 00:06:22

whatever they could to really to showcase their value. And it's

Melinda Lee: 00:06:25

just not seen. I'm not saying you have to leave your job like

Melinda Lee: 00:06:28

Dana, but at least pray about it. Consider it, maybe there are

Melinda Lee: 00:06:33

other possibilities. You don't have to get stuck in this

Melinda Lee: 00:06:35

environment does not serve you. Right. And then so as soon as

Melinda Lee: 00:06:38

you prayed it, and you knew it, and you clarified it, the

Melinda Lee: 00:06:42

opportunity came.

Dana Brewer: 00:06:44

It was amazing. I was amazed. I liked what you

Dana Brewer: 00:06:46

just said about, you know, not feeling stuck. Yeah, when you're

Dana Brewer: 00:06:50

stuck, you're stifled. And then your creativity, you lose all of

Dana Brewer: 00:06:54

that. And so you've got to continue to grow while you still

Dana Brewer: 00:06:57

have that fire inside. And while you can still do something about

Dana Brewer: 00:07:00

it, yes.

Melinda Lee: 00:07:01

Because we need leaders with fire. We need

Melinda Lee: 00:07:03

leaders who are, you know, utilising all their strengths

Melinda Lee: 00:07:06

being seen being valued. And if you need to go to another

Melinda Lee: 00:07:10

environment, then do it? Absolutely. If you fought long

Melinda Lee: 00:07:14

and hard enough, and it's not supporting you. And so then

Melinda Lee: 00:07:18

therefore, CIS was birthed. And that doesn't mean that there are

Melinda Lee: 00:07:23

no obstacles, or more often female in a male dominated

Melinda Lee: 00:07:28

industry. What was that like growing, growing and scaling

Melinda Lee: 00:07:32

your business?

Dana Brewer: 00:07:33

So you know, not just female in a male dominated

Dana Brewer: 00:07:36

industry, but also being an African American? African

Dana Brewer: 00:07:38

American? Yeah, I would go to a lot of mixers and things. And

Dana Brewer: 00:07:43

you know, when you walk into those, yeah, you look around,

Dana Brewer: 00:07:46

you look for that familiar face, that it wasn't there. For me

Dana Brewer: 00:07:49

most of the time, there were a few times where I might find an

Dana Brewer: 00:07:52

African American male, and of course, I gravitate to them.

Dana Brewer: 00:07:55

Because, hey, we're in this industry together. You know,

Dana Brewer: 00:07:57

what can we do together? And I love people. I like talking to

Dana Brewer: 00:08:01

people, I enjoy learning about them what it is that makes them

Dana Brewer: 00:08:05

tick. Yeah. But because I had overcome the first hurdle,

Dana Brewer: 00:08:10

really, of leaving a job that I enjoyed being there, I love the

Dana Brewer: 00:08:13

people. I love the environment. I think that helped me to face

Dana Brewer: 00:08:19

that next obstacle of now, how do I really break in? How do I

Dana Brewer: 00:08:24

get involved. And I really want to credit, my aunt for giving me

Dana Brewer: 00:08:30

an opportunity to grow, and also for becoming my first corporate

Dana Brewer: 00:08:35

client. And that was kind of our deal. I said, Hey, if I come and

Dana Brewer: 00:08:38

work for you for a little bit, will you then become my client?

Dana Brewer: 00:08:41

So we had that arrangement for about seven months, that gave me

Dana Brewer: 00:08:44

even more confidence. And really Melinda from there, it was just

Dana Brewer: 00:08:48

not being afraid to fail. Hmm. And I'll give you an analogy. I

Dana Brewer: 00:08:55

like to roller skate. But when people ask me, you know, do you

Dana Brewer: 00:08:59

what are your hobbies? I don't say I like to roller skate. I am

Dana Brewer: 00:09:02

a roller skater. Okay, that's my thing. I love it. So in order to

Dana Brewer: 00:09:07

succeed, and to gain the balance that I've gained through the

Dana Brewer: 00:09:11

years, you got to hit the ground, you're gonna hit it

Dana Brewer: 00:09:14

several times. You just get up each time.

Melinda Lee: 00:09:18

And I want you to also I want to when you say I

Melinda Lee: 00:09:21

am, right, and that's the power of our voice. Tell me a little

Melinda Lee: 00:09:25

bit more about that. Versus I'm gonna fall. I'm gonna hit the

Melinda Lee: 00:09:28

ground. I'm gonna I'm not a roller skater. I'm horrible at

Melinda Lee: 00:09:31

it. versus what you did was I am a roller skater. Absolutely. I

Melinda Lee: 00:09:35

am. Right and that. Tell me more about how you learned how to do

Melinda Lee: 00:09:39

that like,

Dana Brewer: 00:09:40

Well, yeah, the thing is, if you if that voice

Dana Brewer: 00:09:43

is in your head, yes. It's very difficult to quiet that voice

Dana Brewer: 00:09:48

because you allowed it to occupy the majority of this space. You

Dana Brewer: 00:09:51

quiet it with action. Take the step that scares you the most.

Dana Brewer: 00:09:57

Take it you might find All, but just get up, you know, destinies

Dana Brewer: 00:10:02

off dust your elbows off, it might hurt a little bit. But

Dana Brewer: 00:10:05

what comes after that is going to make you stronger for the

Dana Brewer: 00:10:08

next challenge. And so I think for me learning from a few

Dana Brewer: 00:10:12

mistakes here and there that hurt, but seeking out the advice

Dana Brewer: 00:10:15

of others who had been in business, staying tight with my

Dana Brewer: 00:10:20

community, sharing with them what I was doing, and getting

Dana Brewer: 00:10:23

those sorts of kudos from the people that know you and that

Dana Brewer: 00:10:26

love you, and that will cheer you on. You need to make those

Dana Brewer: 00:10:29

voices louder than that voice in your head. That's sowing doubt.

Dana Brewer: 00:10:33

I'm able to do that by really relying on my community and my

Dana Brewer: 00:10:37

family and my faith.

Melinda Lee: 00:10:39

Right and choosing the faith, the voice of faith,

Melinda Lee: 00:10:42

the voice of the community, the people that support you and see

Melinda Lee: 00:10:46

you for who you really are. Yes. Versus that doubt? Yes. And

Melinda Lee: 00:10:50

that's why CIS is so successful. So tell me a little bit more

Melinda Lee: 00:10:54

about what you do for companies. And what do you see are the

Melinda Lee: 00:10:57

challenges? What I took from your story earlier? You're so

Melinda Lee: 00:11:01

passionate and good about seeing how to optimise like, even from

Melinda Lee: 00:11:06

when at the municipality, right, you saw that, and then you took

Melinda Lee: 00:11:09

it, you learned it, and then you brought it into the department.

Melinda Lee: 00:11:13

And so that's, that's why I think you're so I mean, that's

Melinda Lee: 00:11:15

part of the reason why you're really good with your craft. And

Melinda Lee: 00:11:17

you do that same thing with companies today. And so tell me

Melinda Lee: 00:11:21

more about that. And tell me about more about the challenges

Melinda Lee: 00:11:24

that are in horizon? Because you know, as you know, AI is here,

Melinda Lee: 00:11:27

technology's here. Absolutely. How do companies balance this

Melinda Lee: 00:11:31

all?

Dana Brewer: 00:11:32

I think it's a great question. And I'd actually

Dana Brewer: 00:11:34

like to start answering it from the viewpoint of AI, I just want

Dana Brewer: 00:11:38

to put this out there so that folks are not afraid of it and

Dana Brewer: 00:11:42

don't think, Oh, my God, AI is going to take over the world,

Dana Brewer: 00:11:44

right? Because the bottom line is, AI is a computer and a

Dana Brewer: 00:11:48

computer can only spit out what has been put into it. And

Dana Brewer: 00:11:52

everything that has been put into it is from human knowledge,

Dana Brewer: 00:11:56

human effort, etc. Right? So we got

Melinda Lee: 00:11:59

our flawed humans are our ego fear driven, and

Melinda Lee: 00:12:04

then so that's exactly

Dana Brewer: 00:12:05

floating in there. Exactly. But it does have

Dana Brewer: 00:12:08

benefits. And so part of the challenge part of what we do is

Dana Brewer: 00:12:13

we really partner with our companies, our clients, we're

Dana Brewer: 00:12:17

not just all those IT folks over there, you know, when we have a

Dana Brewer: 00:12:22

problem we call their help desk, we're so much more than that.

Dana Brewer: 00:12:25

We're a partner with our clients for their success. First of all,

Dana Brewer: 00:12:31

I get up in the morning, because I'm looking for a problem to

Dana Brewer: 00:12:34

solve. And that's the same with our team. So we get in, we roll

Dana Brewer: 00:12:38

up our sleeves with you, we ask a lot of questions. We're

Dana Brewer: 00:12:40

looking over your shoulder, what is it that you do every day?

Dana Brewer: 00:12:43

show me show me your work? Wow, did you know that by doing X, Y,

Dana Brewer: 00:12:48

Z, you could instead of the 30 minutes that it's taking you to

Dana Brewer: 00:12:51

do that now you could reduce that to five minutes. Z is

Dana Brewer: 00:12:55

passion. Let us help you automate that. Oh, wow, you're

Dana Brewer: 00:12:58

looking to launch a new product or a new service? Excellent.

Dana Brewer: 00:13:02

What are your systems? Do you have your process maps in place?

Dana Brewer: 00:13:06

The IRS can help with that. Right. So the the idea is that

Dana Brewer: 00:13:11

we take care of all the technology side, but we really

Dana Brewer: 00:13:14

want to understand the business. And as things come on the

Dana Brewer: 00:13:18

horizon AI, we look at that we analyse that with you, we don't

Dana Brewer: 00:13:22

make the decisions for you, we look at it with you. And we let

Dana Brewer: 00:13:25

you know, is this something your business can benefit from? Or

Dana Brewer: 00:13:28

don't spend any time on this? Here's another direction that

Dana Brewer: 00:13:31

you may want to go. Right. And so not only just optimising

Dana Brewer: 00:13:36

team's communication, how to serve clients better, but also

Dana Brewer: 00:13:40

what's happening on the horizon that can help a business to grow

Dana Brewer: 00:13:43

and to scale?

Melinda Lee: 00:13:45

Yes, because you know, all those solutions are

Melinda Lee: 00:13:47

and so I what I hear you saying, as being as a partner, and this

Melinda Lee: 00:13:51

is great for people, even corporate, when you're working

Melinda Lee: 00:13:54

with a manager or an executive, really seeing them as a partner,

Melinda Lee: 00:13:59

and really listening because what I hear you doing is

Melinda Lee: 00:14:01

listening to the needs, really asking the right questions, what

Melinda Lee: 00:14:04

are the needs that you need? What are the desires, and

Melinda Lee: 00:14:08

knowing you have a whole plethora of tools, solutions,

Melinda Lee: 00:14:12

and applying the correct one for the company, and in some cases

Melinda Lee: 00:14:18

for our audience if they're incorporate applying the right

Melinda Lee: 00:14:21

solution, but that's only after you really need to ascend?

Melinda Lee: 00:14:24

Absolutely. Using some of these communication skills such as

Melinda Lee: 00:14:28

questioning, listening, empathy, didn't hurt I love that you have

Melinda Lee: 00:14:34

been able to balance the technology complex things with

Melinda Lee: 00:14:38

also your communication and approachability. You've always

Melinda Lee: 00:14:42

strike me with that wonderful balance that I think a lot of

Melinda Lee: 00:14:45

people struggle with when they're so smart. Sometimes it's

Melinda Lee: 00:14:49

really hard to communicate complex ideas in a way that

Melinda Lee: 00:14:53

sense for people and also understood like we can you

Melinda Lee: 00:14:56

share. What does that natural for you or did you have to work

Melinda Lee: 00:15:00

on that?

Dana Brewer: 00:15:01

Well, I will say I love people. And I think at a

Dana Brewer: 00:15:05

very young age, I realised that I had a gift. But I never wanted

Dana Brewer: 00:15:11

that gift to be a rift. I never wanted my ability to grasp

Dana Brewer: 00:15:18

things very quickly to separate me from people. I have five

Dana Brewer: 00:15:22

brothers, and I'm the only daughter. And so probably born

Dana Brewer: 00:15:27

out of a need to belong, you know, because my brothers love

Dana Brewer: 00:15:30

me and I love them. But at a certain age, you know, brothers

Dana Brewer: 00:15:34

don't want their little sister tagging along. Right. And so I

Dana Brewer: 00:15:37

think I developed that not people pleasing, that's not my

Dana Brewer: 00:15:41

personality. I just love helping people. And from a young age, I

Dana Brewer: 00:15:48

could see that, you know, hey, this scholastic thing, you know,

Dana Brewer: 00:15:50

math, or Wow, this comes easy for me, I love this stuff. And

Dana Brewer: 00:15:54

then I see someone struggling, let me help them. And I sort of

Dana Brewer: 00:15:59

rolled that into my business, I'm always seeking to help. But

Dana Brewer: 00:16:04

I think also, again, I'm going to refer to community because I

Dana Brewer: 00:16:07

think community is so important in forming who we are, that we

Dana Brewer: 00:16:12

can learn different ways of communicating. We are extremely

Dana Brewer: 00:16:16

intelligent, communicate on that high level with others who can

Dana Brewer: 00:16:19

connect with you there. Yeah, don't be aloof and don't stay at

Dana Brewer: 00:16:24

that high level, when there's someone who needs to communicate

Dana Brewer: 00:16:27

with you differently.

Melinda Lee: 00:16:28

Mm hmm. And I think we should do that. So like,

Melinda Lee: 00:16:30

first of all, notice if there's a connection, if there's a

Melinda Lee: 00:16:33

disconnect, and you see that, then at least notice that and be

Melinda Lee: 00:16:38

aware enough to want to notice it. You're like what you did

Melinda Lee: 00:16:41

your desire to help them so much your desire of wanting to help,

Melinda Lee: 00:16:46

then spark the willingness to want to know, and then also the

Melinda Lee: 00:16:50

willingness to how much how can I connect?

Dana Brewer: 00:16:53

Exactly. I think that's important. And I think it

Dana Brewer: 00:16:56

comes from listening. Yeah, yeah, if and I'll just use this

Dana Brewer: 00:17:00

analogy, if someone, let's say, comes from the southern states,

Dana Brewer: 00:17:03

my parents are from the south. And the first time I visited the

Dana Brewer: 00:17:06

South, I'm coming there with that California accent. And what

Dana Brewer: 00:17:09

happens is, you know, there's an opinion that, you know,

Dana Brewer: 00:17:12

California folks are stuck up. So I realised that I have to

Dana Brewer: 00:17:17

listen, and maybe even model or pattern a little bit, their

Dana Brewer: 00:17:21

patterns of their way of communicating. And that is,

Dana Brewer: 00:17:26

knowing who you are. But also respecting the other person,

Dana Brewer: 00:17:31

their needs, their wants their way to communicate. And so you

Dana Brewer: 00:17:34

have to be a little selfless in it. And you can't be all about,

Dana Brewer: 00:17:37

this is my goal, I'm going in, focused, I want to be

Dana Brewer: 00:17:41

successful, they want and need to win as well. So make it be

Dana Brewer: 00:17:45

about the two people or the few people who are in this

Dana Brewer: 00:17:49

conversation and be in that moment. And don't be thinking to

Dana Brewer: 00:17:52

the next steps ahead. And that's helped me.

Melinda Lee: 00:17:54

Right. I love that. I love that. So just really

Melinda Lee: 00:17:57

going in with respecting where they're at and collaborating and

Melinda Lee: 00:18:01

listening and going in with that desire and vision. Yes. How when

Melinda Lee: 00:18:05

you do need to complicate like for your clients, sometimes you

Melinda Lee: 00:18:08

have to communicate a complex idea. How do you do that? Any

Melinda Lee: 00:18:11

tips on how to communicate complex ideas?

Dana Brewer: 00:18:15

Absolutely. The first thing I do really is I

Dana Brewer: 00:18:18

close my eyes sometime, really, and sometimes figuratively. And

Dana Brewer: 00:18:23

I imagine I see the picture. And once I can see the picture, then

Dana Brewer: 00:18:30

I think about a five year old, huh, how would I help this five

Dana Brewer: 00:18:35

year old understand this thing? And when I do that, well, the

Dana Brewer: 00:18:42

other party can understand. So that's that's a kind of come

Dana Brewer: 00:18:45

from a five year old angle, not oversimplifying it. But making

Dana Brewer: 00:18:49

it so that this idea is palatable to the person I'm

Dana Brewer: 00:18:53

communicating with. Right,

Melinda Lee: 00:18:54

right and breaking it down to So the five year old,

Melinda Lee: 00:18:57

even a five year old can understand Absolutely. I love

Melinda Lee: 00:19:00

that you have a picture in mind, even if it's a word, what if

Melinda Lee: 00:19:02

it's just a word, you could still visually get close your

Melinda Lee: 00:19:06

eyes and a picture starts to come out. Absolutely. Awesome.

Melinda Lee: 00:19:11

That's great. Great. And then because when you see the

Melinda Lee: 00:19:14

picture, and when you can describe that picture, because

Melinda Lee: 00:19:16

people see in visuals. Yes. Yes. can also understand that more

Melinda Lee: 00:19:21

they see they, they can hear visuals and see visuals more

Melinda Lee: 00:19:25

clearly than if it's just a word. Exactly. Yeah. I love

Melinda Lee: 00:19:29

that. Oh, my man, your clients are so lucky to have you. All

Melinda Lee: 00:19:34

the expertise and also the connection. And that's why it's

Melinda Lee: 00:19:38

been successful since 1998 1988. And still growing and still

Melinda Lee: 00:19:44

scaling. And so what is exciting for you in the next year or so

Melinda Lee: 00:19:49

with CIS?

Dana Brewer: 00:19:50

Well, what's really exciting for me is working to do

Dana Brewer: 00:19:56

something similar to what you're doing. I'll have to of course

Dana Brewer: 00:19:58

we'll have to edit that But I want to reach out more to the

Dana Brewer: 00:20:02

business community. It's really how I started, I wanted to start

Dana Brewer: 00:20:06

by helping small businesses grow. That was really the goal.

Dana Brewer: 00:20:10

And I find that now I have a greater platform, I'm reaching

Dana Brewer: 00:20:14

more and more small businesses. And we've actually started an

Dana Brewer: 00:20:18

emerging business bootcamp. Oh, awesome. Well, we programme that

Dana Brewer: 00:20:24

we are with those with fire that have an idea, and they want to

Dana Brewer: 00:20:28

start a business, we're taking them through a 12 week programme

Dana Brewer: 00:20:32

that's going to take them from an idea to an established

Dana Brewer: 00:20:36

business. And it includes things like marketing for small

Dana Brewer: 00:20:39

business, of course, having their it in order, but the

Dana Brewer: 00:20:43

customer experience and all of those kinds of things on a small

Dana Brewer: 00:20:46

scale, we're really an IT company. But we are a business

Dana Brewer: 00:20:49

process company. And we use it to help companies to grow. And

Dana Brewer: 00:20:54

so I will be announcing that very, very soon. So I'm very

Dana Brewer: 00:20:57

excited about that.

Melinda Lee: 00:20:59

That is amazing. It's such a true leader, you

Melinda Lee: 00:21:02

give that you you've succeeded, and now you're giving back to

Melinda Lee: 00:21:06

the community.

Dana Brewer: 00:21:08

It's what helped me to grow and helped me to be the

Dana Brewer: 00:21:11

established business that I am. So I think it's only right to

Dana Brewer: 00:21:14

give back to the community. And that circle

Melinda Lee: 00:21:17

continues to school, and I believe that you

Melinda Lee: 00:21:20

will, it's all going to return back to you 10 times million

Melinda Lee: 00:21:23

times holds.

Dana Brewer: 00:21:24

Thank you, Melinda. Yeah, so

Melinda Lee: 00:21:26

how the listeners that are out there and really

Melinda Lee: 00:21:29

interested in working with Dana, or at least talking to her

Melinda Lee: 00:21:32

getting more information from her. If you have a business or

Melinda Lee: 00:21:35

you're curious about launching your own business? How would you

Melinda Lee: 00:21:39

suggest getting a hold of you?

Dana Brewer: 00:21:40

Oh, thank you so much for that we are easily

Dana Brewer: 00:21:43

accessible on the web. Our website is C I S networks.net.

Dana Brewer: 00:21:50

And also folks can reach us by phone 510-255-2950. And you can

Dana Brewer: 00:21:57

look me up on LinkedIn, Dana brewers, my name. And for your

Dana Brewer: 00:22:01

listeners, Melinda, we have a special offer. And so if someone

Dana Brewer: 00:22:06

reaches out to us, and they mentioned your podcast, we're

Dana Brewer: 00:22:09

gonna give them a special offer if they decide to use the iOS

Dana Brewer: 00:22:13

services.

Melinda Lee: 00:22:14

Excellent. Thank you so much for that gift to our

Melinda Lee: 00:22:17

listeners. Thank you. We really appreciate the time the insight

Melinda Lee: 00:22:23

I learned so much today. Just a How about you know, just to be

Melinda Lee: 00:22:27

connected to the audience go with that passion to to see the

Melinda Lee: 00:22:32

bit when you when there's challenges and obstacles? How do

Melinda Lee: 00:22:35

I problem solve, and bringing to the forefront to help the people

Melinda Lee: 00:22:39

that are around me with that passion and desire and

Melinda Lee: 00:22:42

communicate in a way that resonates with people and

Melinda Lee: 00:22:46

constantly be in in alignment with your passion? Just go and

Melinda Lee: 00:22:51

don't give up use the right words, use the right language.

Melinda Lee: 00:22:54

And I'm sure there's a lot more takeaways depending on who the

Melinda Lee: 00:22:57

audience is. But there was a lot of information and valuable, you

Melinda Lee: 00:23:02

know, insight from your experiences. So thank you so

Melinda Lee: 00:23:04

much.

Dana Brewer: 00:23:05

Thanks so much for having me.

Melinda Lee: 00:23:06

Yeah. Great to have you and I hope you take care and

Melinda Lee: 00:23:10

more success to cis and to the new boot camp that's coming up

Melinda Lee: 00:23:14

for entrepreneurs.

Dana Brewer: 00:23:15

Thank you, Melinda and I have to plug you as well.

Dana Brewer: 00:23:18

Those of Melinda's listeners out there, you know, Melinda is

Dana Brewer: 00:23:22

amazing, she's fantastic. We work together she's helped me as

Dana Brewer: 00:23:26

well. So please look up speaking flow dog shy.

Melinda Lee: 00:23:30

Beside Don't be shy. We don't bite. We're very

Melinda Lee: 00:23:33

nice. But we will still hold your feet to the fire when we

Melinda Lee: 00:23:36

need to to get results. Absolutely. All right. Thank you