Trust, Leadership & Human Connection | Building Relationships That Last with Gary Prater

In this episode of Diversity Conversations, Eric Ellis and Tommie Lewis sit down with Gary Prater, Director of Business Development at Ingage Partners, for an insightful discussion about leadership, trust, relationships, workplace culture, and the power of human connection.

Gary shares the lessons that shaped him growing up in Forest Park, the influence of his mother, the importance of character, and how those experiences continue to guide his leadership philosophy today.

Together, they explore:

• Why trust is the foundation of lasting business relationships
• The difference between authentic business development and sales
• How great leaders create cultures of accountability and belonging
• The power of feedback as a catalyst for growth
• Building organizations that prioritize people, purpose, and performance
• Why human-centered leadership matters in an AI-driven world
• Mentorship, community impact, and developing future leaders
• The connection between sports, discipline, and leadership excellence

This conversation is a powerful reminder that sustainable success is built through integrity, service, and meaningful relationships.

Whether you're a business leader, entrepreneur, HR professional, manager, or someone passionate about personal growth, this episode offers practical wisdom for leading with purpose and creating impact that lasts.

Connect with Gary Prater on LinkedIn to learn more about his work and leadership philosophy.

leadership, trust, workplace culture, business development, human connection, professional growth, organizational culture, leadership development, people first leadership, employee engagement, relationship building, feedback, mentorship, integrity, company culture, diversity conversations, business leadership, workplace trust, personal development, team building, management, AI and leadership, community leadership, Gary Prater, Ingage Partners

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Diversity Conversations, where we engage in thought-provoking dialogue to identify leadership solutions to today's most challenging conflicts. Stream live each week, Saturday, 9 30 a.m. to 11 a.m., hosted by Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategists and CEOs Eric Ellis and Tommy Lewis. Join us and add your voice to this engaging diversity conversation.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Good morning, Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, the United States, and the world. My name is Eric Ellison. I'm the president and CEO of Integrity Development Corporation. And I'm joined this morning by my good friend and brother, Tommy Lewis, president and CEO of Make It Plane Consulting.

SPEAKER_05 0:47

Good morning, Eric. What's up, T. What's up? What's up, baby? It's a great day again. Saturday morning. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Afternoon and evening across the world. It's great to be with you again, Eve.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Man, it's great to be with you, Tommy. I just uh love the opportunity that we have to come together each week and have meaningful conversations. How was your uh week?

SPEAKER_05 1:08

So I had a very meaningful conversation this week. Okay. Uh with a uh a woman who's an executive and had been an executive for 30 years, easily. I uh I admire her, I respect her. And uh a few years ago when she hired our company to work with her and doing some assessments and training, uh, she gave me some very critical feedback that helped me about a hundred percent in the way I was presenting the findings. Right. And she's a uh tactician, she's an engineer for me. Right, right. And so she gave me some feedback uh openly, there was a large group so that others could hear the feedback she was giving me. Right. And then she asked them to leave, and then she leaned in and really gave it to me. It reminded me of a my uh athletic coaches. This is only to help you, right? And as an athlete, so what did not always help me was right, hey, you need to um you need to try a little bit harder, Louis. You know, you feel you you don't that that didn't help me, right? Right, right. I needed Lewis, right? Come on, son, right? What are you doing? Move your feet, man. You know, that's why I need okay. I I get it, coach. I got it. I got the energy, right? Etc. And so she gave me some energy and and then gave me the tools. So now this past week, I had the opportunity to meet with her in her in her role, which is a very powerful, very influential role. And uh she had outlined an hour for us to meet. My goal was to go in to share uh that we're moving our office to a more central area, and we have expanded and strengthened our services. That was my objective. Right. We go in, uh, you know, she comes out first, she's hey Tommy, she hugs me, and I hug her, I know her, and she's a friend, but we're in her business setting. Right. So uh, you know, I'm treading lightly right, right, right, right home. Right. We go back to all her office for 30 minutes. We're just chopping it up, Eric. We're we're talking about life, we're talking about family. Uh she's she's talking about some things uh that she's experienced in her role, that really things that she doesn't prefer, uh, things that she does, and how she disconnects from things she doesn't like to do. It was phenomenal. Right, right. Okay, I'm learning here. I know this is very open-ended and vague, so I don't want to give a lot of details to mention her name. So uh when we got to the point of me kind of stating my case of exposure, um, she had already knew about 80% of it. Right, like she's keeping up with me to the point I said, you know, wow, you know, you know a lot, you know, you're keeping up with me. She said, Of course I am, right? Right. And then I said, Well, we uh we we we just earned some new business uh through a through you know someone that connected us with another division in your operation. She said, I I know, you know, she said, yeah, yeah what? That was me. Right. I'm the one that connected and so the the the moral of the story here, Eric, is for me for me, Jesus. I am so appreciative of people who see value in what I do and what we do. I am only trying to help people uncover their inherent strengths for sustained growth. That's it. Like you, Eric, you are so passionate about helping people. And when other people, particularly decision makers, see the value, not the cost, the value in what you do, then the cost is you know, it's it costs more not to do it than it is to do it. Right. And so uh again, I'm not sharing her name. I want to give her a shout out. I may ask for her permission later to maybe recognize her next week because I didn't ask for her permission to bring her up. So I don't want to embarrass her because she is a friend and I respect her. Uh I sincerely value you forever.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

So let me let me slow uh the camera down, community. Uh, you know, I'll do this periodically to help to ensure that we don't miss the nuggets in that story for us. Uh Tommy Lewis, what you said, you started with uh appreciating hard, tough feedback as a gift. Community, did you hear me? He literally started with here's what happened. She gave me some feedback, first of all, in front of others. Number one, if you're weak, that'd be a reason to say I can't believe she did that. Uh, and then she had another level to give you, so she excused everybody from the room and just started really leaning in. That's what Tommy said. And Tommy said, like any great athlete, like any great leader, this is what we try to tell leaders, but you had the opportunity to do it, did not tell somebody else to do it. You did it, you received it as a gift, and and what that did, in other words, she thought he was so worthy of her taking the time and even the risk to be honest with you, with some genuine feedback. Uh, but then all of a sudden, and and you didn't even know where that went. So you weren't looking at I'm I'm posing, I'm posturing for something later. You said, no, you're giving me something real and good, useful. I'm gonna take it for what it is. But then she went on. Now she's quietly recommending him to other places. Why? Because she saw tremendous value in who he was, and then when she sought to even tweak and take the good to great, he wasn't offended. Yes, sir, as a result of not being offended. So I'm telling you, community, when you receive feedback, don't always sit around and think, why are they telling me I'm not great? Yeah, yeah. They might see you as great, but they see you as having an ability to go to another level. And if you and that's an interview, your your willingness and your openness to receive that is another interview, and you pass the interview and increase business.

SPEAKER_05 8:28

Yeah, Eric, man, this is great. I didn't even anticipate this. That uh it was I was in a position to say, you know, with her, help me. Yeah, right, help me, right, and she says, Here is how I'm going to help you, right? Right with data, this is how you present it. Yeah, how you create the business case where data speaks to a narrative that other folks can hear. Because sometimes people don't understand data, right? Numbers, right? Right, and I was asking, how do I get these numbers to talk? Because my skill set, my strength is to talk to numbers, right? Right, right, and and again, I pivoted, I just she said adjust, right? Adjust right, right. I adjusted, right, and and it it catapulted my my thinking, uh, it catapulted my how do I help others, right? Because before I thought I was, and I was helping others, but she says, You're yeah, Tommy, you are good to your point. Here's how you become great. I'm not saying I'm great, right? Right, right, right. She saw greatness leak, and now what I do here is as I'm getting my words, as I'm getting gooder and gooder. I like that to regret always continuous improvement. Right. So I reach out to folks. Hey, how can I how can I have done that better? I work with my staff. What could I do better? What could I do differently? Right. Sometimes they say you need to calm down, too intense, too serious, lighten up, right? It'll be okay, right? And at that time I need to adjust, like it will, it will be okay. Maybe I don't need to keep, come on now, let's keep spreadsheets and deadlines. You know, just calm down, right? So lessons learned from folks who I would say love you, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

And that's just such a blessing. And and I would say that uh this week for me, Tommy, has been a phenomenal week as well. Uh, a lot of learning going on in my household. Uh, my son came to uh the house uh a few days ago and uh he knocked on my door and he was huffing and puffing. I mean, when you see somebody who's 6'5, 250 huffing and puffing, like, where's my cousin? I was like, uh-oh, come on in, son, and uh bring that down. And uh he was really, you know, cousin says something about me. I need fronting one. I said, first of all, uh, you know he's free to say whatever he wants in the world. Literally, people have the first amendment right to say whatever they want. And I said, you have the right to live your life. I said, and you don't have to jump on somebody else because of their ability to freely express whatever they want. I said, now let me tell you what I how I handle that, because things are happening right now where I'm being talked about. I said, and I don't believe in any way that I have the right to go tell them what they can do or say. What I have the freedom to do is keep living my life. And what I do is just live my life according to my character, yes, and the world will either see me or not. If they happen to believe them, well, that's just what happens. But what I'm gonna do is double down on living who I am, and by the time, man, he just calmed all the way down. Now, I gave uh his cousin a call on my own and set a different standard.

SPEAKER_05 12:13

Yes, indeed.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

I said, Now let me tell you how this works. We don't talk about that. Yeah, you don't say nothing to some knucklehead somebody else about your family. Your father's gone, he's up in heaven looking down on me right now. He wants me to get this lesson to you.

unknown 12:30

Yes, indeed.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

Do you understand what I'm saying, nephew? You understand the assignment. Yes, sir. Okay, just want to make sure I'm clear. And so I am uh I'm I'm I feel tired, Tommy at times, man. I'm like, God, why am I still in teaching and training? Didn't I graduate? I was glad to be in the house all by my little lonesome, nobody knocking on my door, hovering a puppet, no little nephew that I gotta say something to him that he don't want to hear. Come on now. And God is saying, bruh, you ain't done until it's all over. And so I was grateful for the opportunity to help people land in the right places. And then my son said to me, He said, I just want to tell you, Dad, how proud I am of you and mom, the way you all are going through things. Uh, and the other thing that I'm seeing, Tommy, this week that I just opened the door and talked to you about was that God told me, he said, Eric, your answers aren't in Washington with Republicans or Democrats. It's in your network, tap your network, community, my network is beginning to respond. And when God is involved in something, it's funny how sometimes we think we got to sweat it all out. I'm here to tell you that I planted three or four seeds. All of them are coming up in amazing ways, miraculous ways. I'll tell you more about it later. But one of the things that I'm seeing is that when God helps you do something, then uh doors start opening that have nothing to do with you. And all we have to do, I feel like I'm in God's masterclass, is get the lesson, you know. Uh, and so we'll talk more about those things. We've got a guest uh that's joining us this week, uh Gary Prater, and we're gonna bring him to the stage. This is uh a longtime friend. We grew up in the same neighborhood, he was a phenomenal stellar athlete. Everybody in the country knew the name Gary Prater, and had to count him as a friend, a business associate, and now a guest on Diversity Conversation. Welcome, Gary. How are you this morning?

SPEAKER_02 14:34

I'm doing fantastic, Eric. I gotta thank you for the intro, man. Um, you put me on the on a nice pedestal right there.

SPEAKER_04 14:40

Hell yeah, man.

SPEAKER_02 14:42

And I can't even lie to you. Yeah, I can't even lie to you. A lot of it's true. So yeah, you know, yeah. So thank you very much. I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

So, what I want to do is Gary, I want to have the opportunity for our community who is weighing in already to get a chance to know more about you. We're gonna talk about your business and what you do and that kind of thing, but I'd like you to start by uh sharing just a little bit with our community about who you are, uh, how you grew up, and who are the people and the experiences in your life that have brought you to who you are today.

SPEAKER_02 15:18

Well, I grew up in Forest Park, like you like we talked about, but I will go ahead and get a little deep so everybody does get to know who I am and uh who I became to be. Um, my mom, uh single parent mom, uh, raised me and Rodney, my little brother, out in Forest Park. Um and it was it was difficult. It wasn't always, you know, uh sunny days. It was it was a difficult time for us. Uh, she ran through and had a couple different problems when we were younger, and it dawned on me that suddenly that I was going to be the man of the house. Um, and that was at a young age. And one of the things that my mom did for me was uh, you know, you you have a chance where you can either go on the right path or you can go on a different path. And I was kind of testing out both of them. And one day she she I came in and I was starting to get taller, stronger, and bigger, and she uh and she let me know I'm still in charge. And um she sat me down and she was like, Gary, this is the electric bill, this is the mortgage, this is the water, this is why I'm working so hard, so I can take care of you and your and your little brother, and I don't have any help. Um, so I need you to step up and I need you to help me, and I need you to help me take care of the house. Uh, and she told me, she was like, You have to be that much more as an African-American young man in this world. You have to be early, you have to dress better, you have to speak and articulate yourself, you have to pay attention in the classroom. And yes, I think that you can be a good athlete. So I'm gonna make sure that you continue to play play sports and be uh and contribute to society. Um, so that's kind of gave me my foundation from a young age out there in Forest Park. Now, don't get me wrong, it was beautiful, Eric and Tommy. We grew up in a neighborhood that was diverse. Uh, Mr. Rigaud, Mr. Pecarero, Mr. all of these wonderful people that we played soccer, baseball, football, everything with that were influential to me. They were like uh father figures and uh gave me a lot of different direction. Um right now, uh I am a proud father uh and uh and a husband. I've been I met Lori back in 1984, and uh and uh we have two boys, uh Garen and Evan. And because I didn't have a father, one of my life purposes was is to be the best husband and the father that I could possibly be. And so everything in my life right now and everything moving forward, I'm really striving to be that for them, uh, and be that pillar of support and uh and love and uh and all that good stuff.

SPEAKER_05 18:27

So that's a powerful thing, yes, powerful, and thanks for unpacking that story. And I it question I have is as you were thinking and continue to think about being the best husband and best father that you can, particularly with uh your children, um do you do you see uh your standard of being a father through your lens, or are you seeing that standard through their lens and what they need from a father?

SPEAKER_02 19:02

So that's a very, very good question, Tommy. Uh, because I always still, even at this age, and at their age, I wonder, am I doing a good job? Right? Because I didn't have that, right? So I didn't have somebody I was looking up to who was setting a standard of excellence, so I had to kind of build that whole thing on my own. And now that they are older, now I get to see it through their eyes, and I get to help and understand and listen and guide. But before it was, this is what you will do, this is how you're going to do it, and then I was setting the standard that way. Now that they're older, I get to relax a little bit. Like Eric, you were just telling a story about your son, right? And you think like you're done, but you're never done. You're never done. So it's a beautiful thing. Great question. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

Tell us a little bit about your athletic background, too. Talk about yourself, talk about your your own boys, just so that the audience gets a chance to hear a little bit more about that as well.

SPEAKER_02 20:10

Well, uh, as you know, I played basketball and uh football at uh Forest Park now, Whiton Woods High School, uh, back in the day. Uh lucky to be in the Hall of Fame there. Um, and then I went and played tight end down at the University of South Carolina. And uh and then I also transferred and went to the University of Tennessee and played football there as well. I have two boys that I'm very, very proud of. Uh, the oldest one is Garen Prater, uh, and he played basketball and football. I was able to coach them since they were little babies, all the way up until they got into middle school. Uh and uh he ended up getting a preferred walk-on to Ohio State to play for Urban Meyer and the Buckeyes, and he played wide receiver up there. My youngest son is Evan Prater, which a lot of people around town uh know. Um, and every meeting that I go into, a lot of folks go, Are you who I think you are? And I yes, I'm Evan's dad. Uh so uh he uh he won a uh state championship with uh Wyoming High School in football. And then he also won Ohio Mr. Football, and then he was the highest recruit in UC history, and he played uh quarterback behind Des Ritter. So I we're very, very proud of them. They earned their degrees, and it's been a fun, it's been a fun ride, very expensive, but fun ride.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

Right, right, right. That's an awesome thing. Well, tell people a little bit about what you do in your role, and uh what's the uh the most important message that you want to start uh by trying to deliver to our community? What can you introduce them uh to that? Is of greatest value and meaning to you?

SPEAKER_02 22:03

Well, I work for uh an organization uh by the name of Engaged Partners, and um and they're a business and IT consulting firm right here in Cincinnati, Ohio. Um been in business since 2011. So we just uh celebrated our 15th year anniversary this year. Uh the organization is a B Corp, which means that we operate on a triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit. And some of the things that really it's a very, very, very much culture-driven organization. It's 100% employee-owned. So we all have stake in the game because we all own parts of the company. But you know, some of our mission core values are like amaze our clients, be the change that you want to see in the world, uh, speak through action, uh, be authentic and always lead with integrity. And it kind of it not kind of, but it is who I am as a person, right? I love giving back to the community. I always told my kids at a young age, always treat people with class, dignity, and respect, no matter who they are, whether it's a janitor or a bum on the street, all the way up to a CEO or whatever. Always treat people with CDR and then always be working towards trust, care, and commitment. Make sure that people can trust you. Make sure that they know that you care about them and that you're committed to their success, not just yours, but their success as well. So a lot of the mission, vision, and values of engage really are some of the core values that I raise my family on and things of that nature, and that are ingrained in me.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

I was telling my uh nephew uh uh while we were talking, and one of the first things he said to me when he uh came to stay with me was, Unc, we all have the gift of Gab. I said, Whoa, I don't really believe in the gift of Gab. I said, I see Gab as sort of hollow conversation, just somebody talking about nothing, try to glad hand people and slick. And then I it it it it pushed me, you know. My mind is weird. So my mind started thinking, well, let me go see what that really means, gift of gab. And I found a definition that was closer to what he was saying, but not close to what I was saying. So I used Gab as an acronym and I said, uh, nephew, Gab to me means good at appearing believable. I said, and that's not what we're trying to do, but that is what he does. It's a hustle, everything's a hustle. I'm good at appearing believable to people that can't see, bruh. We see well. And uh what I saw is although he's working uh two jobs, he's not really understanding the value of work, he's after the money and then complaining the whole way about the job and cutting every corner he can cut. I said, Look, if you don't really work today at the little job, then nobody is really gonna uh depend on you or have confidence that you can do a bigger job. I said, You always gonna be a slave if you're operating in ways that don't have integrity underneath them. And so I've had the opportunity to really dish out some lessons. Uh, my brother had three uh boys, two of them within his marriage. This third one was outside of his marriage. So, in many ways, the young man has raised himself, you know, and so I see some of the gaps, but I'm just so grateful that God landed him in because he's beautiful, a beautiful soul, uh precious, looks just like my brother. And uh I'm just uh grateful to have this opportunity. And the lessons don't just come hard, a lot of love, a lot of laughter, uh, a lot of fun, shooting baskets outside, too. Uh just all those things to make sure that uh, and and I think that it's it's uh one of the things that I've uh done differently as I got older as a parent is I went from anything ever being really all hard. And I pivot quickly. I lesson, pivot. Dish out to lesson. Now we can laugh again. There has to be no delay, no wait time, all like that. I still love you, and I never want you to think that that's not on the table. Uh, but uh, you know, trying to get these things right, and I see you as you talk about these values, that that's because you're in the same community of us that speak for a living, that sometimes are trying to sell things. And uh what you're saying is that this lines up with my value structure, and I think that's important.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

Exactly. And you know what I always tell people, I tell my customers and I tell people I'm in it for the long run. I'm not in it just here today. Like I'm doing business with organizations that I've had built relationships with for 20 years, and and we just keep working with each other because if I go somewhere, they know that they can trust me, they know that I give a darn about them and their success, and I'm gonna try to help them achieve their goals. Somebody told me a long time ago, you're only as good as you help others to be. So you the more that you give and you give that love, I believe the more that you will be rewarded for that. So that's how I go about business, that's how I go about life, and that's just who I am. And I will go back and give that credit to my mom. My mom loved people, she was it was back in the 60s and 70s in Forest Park, and she was diverse, she didn't care who you were black, white, Puerto Rican, didn't care, whatever. She she loved people, and she would, and we we had a house full of people at sometimes because she just loved to have people around her, and I believe that's where I got a lot of that from, and being able to be adaptable and flexible in different scenarios and situations. Walking into a room of an audience of uh uh all you know, CIOs, CFOs, IT directors, whatever, and there's only two or three, you know, black guys in the room, but I'm walking in confidently and I'm not gonna stand in the corner and not say hello to you, uh, or whatever. You know what I mean? So I'm intentionally building relationships along the way, no matter what the situation is.

SPEAKER_05 28:42

Right. So I want to pick your brand here, Gary, a little bit, based on your role, experience, expertise in the space of business development. Uh, some folks may see business development as solely sales. What you just articulated was I I interpret it as relationship management, relationship development that ultimately can lead to business development. Can you talk about you know, kind of uh a few things that uh companies might do well, uh, that they need business development, and then things that they don't do well, and I'm speaking kind of selfishly, right? As I'm looking at you know, growing my business, and I find myself kind of in my own thinking, right? Which I get the same outcome, right? Right, right, and then there's the problem. I throw the same thinking, same outcome, and then I get frustrated, like, you know, we're not growing, right? Or we're not expanding. And someone like you may say, you know, have you thought about this? So I'm I'm asking again, if there's you know, one or two or three things that companies do well with regards to uh developing their business, and then some things that uh, you know, areas of opportunity.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

So throughout my career, um, I've been in good environments and I've been in bad environments. I've had good leaders and I've had bad leaders. Um, and so you learn to take away things from both. I've been in an environment in a business in a sales capacity where you know, I'm an old athlete, so it's highly, highly, I'm highly competitive, right? But the the the dynamics could be really where they're pitting other sales folks against each other, right? And there's no camaraderie, there's no, hey, I'll pick you up when you're down. There's no teamwork aspect of it, right? The situation that I'm in right now is totally different from that. It's a we not me type of an attitude all across the board. Everybody is in it to win it together, and so they built that culture, it's a grit type of a culture. They do want you to be tough, they do want you to have perseverance and be professional and all that kind of stuff, but it's for everybody within the organization and with the community. For example, they give paid volunteer time off to the employees, to me. So I volunteer at the Boys and Girls Club in Avondale, and they pay me for that. And I also volunteer at the Academy of Global Studies at Whiton Woods High School on Friday morning at 7 a.m. from nine from 7 a.m. to eight. I do it. We were doing it all until school went out. So these are the type of things that are ingrained in the company culture that makes it more relationship-driven internally and externally. Speak through action, be the change, get out there and get things done. Don't sit around and wait, go do it, go get it done, is the type of attitude that this organization has. And again, me being a former athlete, that's the way I like to roll. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_05 32:14

Yeah, that was that was helpful for me because as you were speaking, I was thinking of my own organization and our own employees. And uh, we work very hard, uh, the entire team. Folks have different skill sets, expertise, and interests. And when I think about interests, I don't know if their job is their interest. Their job may be what they do that they're good at. And so if we were to provide them uh an opportunity to pursue their interest, their passion through volunteering, like you said, boys and girls club, and we will take care of that. I think that increases morale. Thank you, company, for investing and supporting what I like to do. And then I'll come back and maybe give you another four or six or eight hours over because I like you. Keep doing that, and that builds now. I'm I'm I am as a company, I'm paying for you to really get uh a uh a booster shot, if you will, just a jump start. Like do what you want to do and then come back and we'll get back at it. That's great. And I'm thinking also of our clients who very very seldom do I see small and medium-sized businesses invest in their employees like this. The larger companies may have the resources and they call it kind of a volunteer day where everyone is just kind of office closed and everyone goes out, but then there are employees that say, I didn't really want to build a home for half a day. Right. I had to go to the board club. Right. I'm working in my volunteer time, and you know, it's not good. This is good for business development, relationship development, and morale.

SPEAKER_01 34:07

Uh Gary, we've got some people weighing in. Uh Ty Austin, thank you. Uh, you know, great day from Alabama. We're so glad to have you with us. Said uh, let's see, my cousin coached at UT, uh Kelvin Ramsey. I don't know if you know the name.

SPEAKER_02 34:22

I uh that was 40 years ago back in 1990. I'll remember all of them, but I did play for Coach Johnny Majors, uh and then uh the Cutcliffs, and I played with uh who was who was one of the best players down there? Oh uh Tim McGee. Uh yeah, so yeah, yeah. I was I was on the field with some dogs down there, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 34:48

Well, talk about this, sort of give people the ABCs, bring it down uh to an understandable level of what your company actually does. Uh we love that they're building relationships and that kind of thing. But what's the nature of the business? And can you give us an example of what that looked like in a company that you all were very instrumental in solving a problem or helping them with a solution?

SPEAKER_02 35:12

Well, the first thing that comes to mind right now, well, first of all, uh Engage is a product and software development organization. So we build software solutions, we can enhance an application, we can do all that kind of stuff like that. We have about 70 consultants full-time on our staff.

SPEAKER_01 35:34

Give an example of that. You got to still drill down a little bit. It's software solution. What does that look like?

SPEAKER_02 35:40

So, so, like uh basically, I will give you an example of something that we just recently completed. Uh, there was an organization that had uh an application that we had built for them years ago, but it was starting to get a little outdated, and they wanted to do some enhancements on it. And the business problem that they were having was they had field techs out in the field. It's a fleet management organization. So they had field techs out in the field, and then they had customer service reps, and everything was being done manually. Like when, like if you're out in the field and you're a service tech and you're fixing a truck or changing whatever, you had to write everything down and then send it back to the CSR. Then the CSR had to check your work and then you had to put everything in. Well, we automated that whole process, and we did it with AI augmentation as well, and we did it within 30 days. It was a 30-day proof of concept. They have bought these tablets that they wanted to be able to utilize and have the field techs take out and be able to track everything. And our guys, it was it was uh three guys on a team, and they built this mobile app and they built this whole thing, and it was a 30-day proof of concept, and now we're still working on building out the whole application for that particular organization. Um, we also uh recently, and I'm working on right now, we're doing a whole business and digital transformation type of a project into in for a government agency. Um, they are basically technologies outdated, processes are streamlined, so on and so forth. So we're going in, we're doing got a strategic advisor working directly with their results management office leader. And then we also have another project manager and product owner going in to take a look at their environment and figure out how to better utilize that. And then also just again, process business process improvement, things of that nature. So very much AI, AI oriented. Our developers love using it. Um, we do secure API integrations, meaning that we can connect disparate systems and make sure that they're secure. Um, and then we also have a user experience design practice as well, where we interview, we have a guy who is now interviewing uh uh basically a a pharma type of organization, kind of interviewing uh uh all of the different stakeholders and leaders, gathering the information, synthesizing it, and then give them giving them back the report so they can take a look at their their environment and figure out where they can automate things and where they don't need to automate things. So just a just a myriad of different solutions.

SPEAKER_01 38:30

Uh yeah, let me throw one other thing at you uh and see if you all deal with this at all. Automation is huge. And uh my my view though is that in many ways, companies, if they're not careful, they are uh outsourcing their customer service to AI. And so uh, I mean, it's horrible when you really call a company because you have a problem, and now they've connected you with AI, and you're telling the AI bot, I want to talk to a real person. No, I can help. Just let me know. Right, and you feel like you're wasting all of this time to an AI solution that's talking sweet, but it's not a person, and so you went from a little bit upset to angry. How are you all helping companies who think that they're solving problems and saving money? And I'm not to suggest that it doesn't have a place, but what are you seeing in that conversation? Are you all doing any uh testing around that and and sort of customer analysis around their reaction to uh uh to AI and customer service?

SPEAKER_02 39:43

Uh well, you know what? We haven't built uh we haven't built any bots like that just yet. And I agree with you, Eric. I can't stand that, man. I don't like it at all. I'd much rather talk to a human being to be able to solve, help me solve my problem. So one of the big challenges right now with the all it's the this hype cycle of AI, right? But you have to do it responsibly and you have to make sure that it's human-centered, the human in the loop is the term that everybody uses, right? We we human intelligence is better than artificial intelligence. Humans created AI, right? Right, but all you're doing when you're talking to AI is you're talking to something that was built by us, and you have to correct it because it's just gonna try to be nice to you and tell you what you want to hear. That's right, and it and then it also hallucinates and it goes out and it does some other stuff, so you have to be very, very, very careful. A lot of organizations in the banking industry, banking as a service, all kinds of stuff like that, and fintech, it's very highly regulated, so they're slowly getting into it, right? And they're figuring out different use cases on where it actually makes sense. A lot of organizations are now just really trying to identify what's the problem and how we could potentially use AI to help us fix that problem or automate that particular solution. So you have to be very careful. And another thing you you need to do is you have to level set your organization and let them know we want you to utilize these tools, and we want you to save time and increase your production. That way, you can go out and, Gary, you can be out and doing more customer facing instead of writing this report or this statement of work. So it's all about making sure that you train the organization up, that you have a plan, that you're careful, that you have guardrails on the information that is secure and all that kind of stuff, and that everybody in the organization is marching in the in the in the same direction. I'm gonna answer just one more question.

SPEAKER_01 42:00

Yeah, I ask one more question. I know you're not an AI expert, but uh I certainly am one who loves AI. I mean, I really do love utilizing chat all the time. I ask it questions about everything from my diet to just anything, and I value that. Uh, and uh AI does need to be checked, it needs to be supervised and everything because it gives you answers. Sometimes, if you don't know, those answers came out of nowhere. They just created it, made it up, you know. And so, but the other fear that exists out there is that somehow, somewhere, somebody's collecting our information. Uh, we have this sense that as we're using this, it's supposed to be protected, and we expect somebody out there has protected us and that our data belongs to us and doesn't belong to others. What can you say to us around, you know, data? How available is it? The more we hear about political types owning big AI systems and structures, the more nervous we get about if somebody got a chance to understand all of the questions that I asked and all of the thinking and all of that, man, what how how might they be able to control us, manipulate us? What are you seeing in that space around protections? Because it seems like the government's moving slowly on regulation. They're oftentimes not intelligent enough to even know what regulations to put in place. What are you seeing? What are you saying to customers? I know some companies, many have policies around AI, what you can, what systems you can use within the company, uh, which uh still people are using their own personal devices and asking about company business. What are you seeing in that space around security?

SPEAKER_02 43:55

Well, um, me being in this industry uh and being in it for a while. one of the one of the main one of the hottest hottest uh markets out there jobs for jobs is cybersecurity um every organization is looking very very strongly uh for young cybersecurity professionals and i met a lot of them at the UC career fair that I went to a few months ago um because you do have to you have to make sure that you're protecting that data and that and you have guardrails on your PII information right you know all of that stuff uh there has to be guards uh personal identification personal information identification stuff like that yeah yeah so um yeah so just protecting your own data you know you can't like when I'm using chat I can't I don't put in people's names or anything like that even though we have our guardrails on and we have secure and our data is it's just working off our data and and and what we are using in in Azure and all kinds of stuff like that. But yeah man it's it's uh it's cybersecurity and I agree with you the I know that the banking industry insurance industry industries are highly regulated um but I really you know as far as protecting all of the data I just know that cybersecurity is is one of the I'm gonna throw it to Tommy I'm gonna throw one more so let me ask you this is it just a matter of time before everybody gets scammed because right now it feels like to me that we all are ready to be a victim. I've been a victim I don't know if it's because I'm old now you know I got older but man it people are calling you up they sound and they're saying that they're representative of ATT or whoever and they literally it's hard to tell the truth from a lie are there any practices that you have uh employed that helps you to avoid and even if we caught 98% of the scam attempts uh the 2% that get through can be quite costly are there any standards that you've put in place around uh uh you know the internet uh social media that enable you to protect yourself from being scammed well number one i um i i really haven't thought that deeply about that to be perfectly honest with you uh because if i get something on my phone and i don't recognize that number or anything like that yeah i'm not picking it up it's delete and report report to junk um and then if you know socials you know i'm i may go on faceboy every once in a while i'll go check out a couple different people here and there see what's happening in the hood like you said so on and so forth but am i posting a whole bunch of stuff out there right right nope right eric i'm old too man so i'm i'm you know i'm i'm trying to i'm trying to protect myself protect stay in my lane basically right right so i don't i don't i don't like to be out there too too much uh so that's that's some of the stuff that i do personal yeah but companies are accessible too and it seems like on a regular basis their data uh systems are being compromised true we're getting uh emails that say uh you're part of a class action suit because so and so's uh data got exposed corrupted it's hard to believe that there are people around the world that are spending 24 hours a day every day trying to figure out how to get our information so so in many ways Tommy and I are people of faith and at the end of the day you realize that you can't cover all of your flanks that you ultimately are going to have some faith that there's a higher power uh that can look out for you because this thing's it got has gotten crazy it is crazy and yeah you know you hear about these breaches and ransomware and all that kind of stuff the hospital that just got hit up in Dayton all kinds of stuff like that you hear about it all the time but these folks around the world you know you have folks in China Russia everybody's attacking the US uh and they want to get the data and they want to figure out the the thing that I get worried about to be perfectly honest with you because uh there's a guy uh in trust it his name is Dave Hatter he's on the radio on WLW every once in a while but they talk about how people are really wanting to try to attack the grid basically uh you know utility duke absolutely yeah so that that's just America's so soft if you if you bring down the power grid in any of our cities man we are in trouble lights went out oh my goodness we're gonna die let me ask you i i want to move just a bit as we come down home stretch to sports and just want to ask you first of all I want to start with the NBA have you been following the NBA finals at all bruh are you kidding me right now I thought you knew who you were talking to right what are you thinking right now man this is crazy isn't it uh I was sitting there watching the game last night Eric and I'm like okay so I really like this series okay so I like I like I like the Knicks and I like that they were grinding and they kind of had to come up through and beat Boston you know and all kinds you know and then I like this young team here the Spurs with with 7-5 Victor with with Wimby and right these young players Vassell Cassell and and young uh Dylan Harper who uh I so I I I love all of that right right right but I I mean I cannot believe that the Knicks are up 2-0 right now I can't believe it right I'm like you gotta be kidding me and I didn't have a whole lot of respect I don't really like Jalen Brunson I'm just gonna be honest I don't like him but I love him as a competitor.

SPEAKER_01 50:20

I mean he's a competitive beast but he doesn't have a personality and I've never followed him a closely enough to see how lethal he is the guy is deadly uh even though he hasn't been the best on their team right now their team has shown up in a way that I didn't anticipate as well uh because I watched I was pulling for OKC up against the Spurs right and then I saw Stefan Castle just turn into an athletic monster and the kind of defense he was putting on SGA was sick but the reason why he could put that defense on him is Wimby was standing behind him guarding the buttons and I described Wimby like us standing in front of a trash can that's about the truth man good I mean when he's standing on flat footed holding the net midway he didn't got a dump none so some of the little stuff he's doing he's doing on his tippy toes come on Wimby and the thing is but I tell you so I'm on the crew that thinks that he's going to be one of history's greatest players he has not yet arrived at that and I'll tell you what we learned from uh town and uh I like that what you're saying right there and I'm gonna get you let you jump right back in but town has girth he's got a big body and he's athletic and fast and so he's given Wimby all Wimby can have for he's saying look Wimby you got a you'll whisper right now Wimby the whisper and he's just knocking around blowing him blowing him around and so it's kind of been and I've heard people say uh the Spurs they're young uh the time hadn't come so they didn't think they beat OKC but beat him without his boys so Jay you know Jason he didn't have his boys you're not gonna beat them without them uh but I'll tell you what we see that youth now in some of the mistakes they made yesterday that actually cost them that game true so I don't know is it a sweep or are they gonna come back uh when they go to New York what do you think you know Eric I think and I I think that they'll win one I don't think they'll get swept okay I don't think they'll get swept I'm hoping that it goes seven because I love being some who and it takes me back to so I I've known you like all my life but I didn't know about your your career.

SPEAKER_02 52:48

Right. So I didn't know about that.

SPEAKER_01 52:50

So man I'm like okay like that's pretty darn cool man I was you know that's what I'm saying I was like I'm it felt like I was walking through the hood with you you know what I mean like boom right I learned some things you know I tell people in the book that I got cut as a senior uh in high school from the basketball team and years later I understood that as I got older uh but one of the things that I did was when I was a senior and I got cut uh I went to the ABA league and that was one of the best things that ever happened to me in my life because I was better at football most of my life than basketball. And so I'd never played on a basketball court formal basketball enough to really be in the game. And so I went to the ABA league was the MVP there but I put on a benefit game between the ABA all-stars and the school team Reggie and Charles and all of them okay because I was senior class president and so the school administration came to me and said Eric can you call off the game I said call off the game it's a senior class fundraiser I can't call that off and literally we played them and everybody came to watch and we were beating them in half we lost the uh game but I had 35 points and proved my point that I could play and so walk on at Anderson College and then left Anderson to walk on at right state and literally at right state I put my coach my high school coach was the coach I had at uh in the ABA league uh Mr.

SPEAKER_02 54:18

Dunn the Dunn family yeah yeah I put him down on my college uh instead of any high school coach that is awesome but love sports love I don't know if you remember watching the basketball court be built outside of Forest Park I was there when they were pouring it I was there when they put the lights out I was there I mean you know I was there we were laughing last night about they shut off the lights of the basketball court but left them on for the tennis court early expensive come on now you're gonna cut off the basketball fight okay coming from all over the city they wouldn't fight down on the tennis court yeah yeah we're gonna fight down there stuff they cut our lights off let them come with the ball and he was curts and stuff but last question and then I'm gonna let Tommy jump in here what about the Bengals this year man everybody it scares me when people start really pulling for them they have been I think they've been the most lethal team in the league the last two weeks of the last three seasons and we can't get in a any postseason play i i i yeah I think it's a lot it's way early I think it's overhype it was like the Reds at the beginning of the season like everybody's like oh the Reds this is our year and they started out really good and then yeah you know ish happens things happen right injuries whatever all that kind of stuff so you know I I do what I do like about the what I'm seeing right now is that everybody's in camp and everybody's been there early and that to me is a good sign right um you know even your superstars are there so when you when you have that rolling in early and you're getting that work in early I think that you're headed in the right direction.

SPEAKER_05 56:09

That's good I went I went to one game last year against the Jets and here's what I recall from the game we were out there cheering when we would score and Gary before our hands came down the jets scored I was like what I mean we didn't even get our hands down good paid down when I left the game and that was the game the Jets hadn't won anything the whole season yeah they Cincinnati and beat us and the fans were so mad I remember a fan wouldn't let me uh get in uh driving away wouldn't let me get in and I broke down the window like what he said I said I'm a fan too I'm an ad too many sports is crazy they go cuss you out when they lose when we were winning back at the Super Bowl when we went to the Super Bowl they were kissing the homeless I saw some people grab some homeless and lip kiss them just grab him right there oh you got to be good crazy over sports man and these New York folks well I was in a uh a restaurant bar yesterday and New York fans some brothers was from New York in this nice sweet restaurant they just start yelling cussing you do south with me you do south you do south and then the people at the restaurant was looking at me like should we call the police leave me out of that he was calling a bar ordering a round of drinks paying them with cash out from Cincinnati in New York so people crazy over another thing that I will tell you about the Bengals is that I don't know who the who the who the DV was who uh uh what do they call it street takeovers of drag racing car and then I think he like flipped his car over in Covington or something like that and then blah blah blah blah so like I think and I'm hoping that this team is made up of of individuals like bringing in big big sexy dexter lawrence and all that that they're really really focused on the character and the the type of players of the team basically like you represent Cincinnati you represent the fan base you represent blah blah like we need that we need those character those good character guys that are great athletes but we need you to be even better people off the field and have that type of leave that type of mark on on our on our city right I agree we we've had a bad mark on that character barometer for a little while right and uh and in some seasons you know it seemed like it was contagious just bad actors contagious yeah so after a while if it's one person you know that you know you know goes left a little bit once twice the third time the fourth time then it's like what are you doing what are you doing right and then you have others following suit and so the thing is it's it's always you know at this level a bit of a dilemma challenge etc you have young people right first start there the young so from a mindset perspective they are living their absolute highest dream right to make it right to the professional level of their respective that's right that's right so sure I'm 1920 21 22 23 we all know that when we were that age we thought we had a ride right now we look back at it it's like oh that's that's so young yes glad I survived then you add not a few thousand dollars or tens of thousands of dollars you add millions of dollars I pass the uh football stadium almost every day and it's in the morning around seven o'clock in the morning when I pass and then it's like 430 and there are I probably see close to 15 or 20 2500 cars right yeah yeah yeah right I see the Rolls Royce Phantom right see the Lamborghinis see the Ash Martins right and and uh and and they they're decked out right right so if I'm 22 years old and I make three million dollars a month I live in an apartment and I am the star simply because people want to be near me right ego is a dangerous right how do you reign that you need some guardrails where we have folks like Gary uh uh and yourself myself strong men who are parents right that will really put those guardrails on our exceptional children right right you're doing great but pay attention to this pay attention to this um yeah dad I got it I got it right okay you do but right and we stay we have to stay with it and so I like that development is not only business it's personal right it's spiritual right it's psychological it's a continuous improvement that we have to in other words engage our partner that's why we have Gary Prater here today excellent excellent Gary well we thank you man for joining us today and uh bringing your beautiful spirit uh your values uh to our community uh we're gonna give you the last word and how can people reach you if they're interested in doing business with you or just getting to know you better well uh reach out to me on LinkedIn um I'm out there quite often again I'm always trying to intentionally build my network and try to help others but man Eric I got to tell you man um and Tommy man this has been so enjoyable um and and a lot of laughter a lot of serious topics and all that kind of stuff man and I just want to say thank you very very much absolutely for being a good friend and being a good mentor being a brother uh and all that good stuff over all of these years man I'm so proud of you proud of you Tommy as well and I'm glad to be in your circle to be perfectly honest with you absolutely and we're glad to have you in our circle Tommy won't you close us out man again we like to thank our community for joining us each Saturday morning here same time same back channel we want to invite you and for you to invite others to come back and join us on another episode of Diversity Conversations take care now let's go