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Chad Chancellor: Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Next Move Group We Are Jobs podcast. This is Chad Chancellor, co-founder of Next Move Group and Happy New Year to everybody. I’m coming to you today from Destin, Florida. So, if I sound distracted, we're doing executive search down here. It’s one of the things we're going to talk about. It’s a beautiful day with waves crushing. So, if I sound distracted, you just overlook it.
So, today I don't have a guest because I want to talk about really three different things. We’re going to talk about our Mardi Gras event that we do every two years. Many of you over the holidays have asked us when we're doing that. We're also going to talk about the executive searches that we're doing. Our executive search business has really scaled and we're doing a whole lot of them right now.
So, I want to give you an overview of all of those and at the end, we're going to talk about football. If you remember, we did a college football preview before the season knowing that the championship ended up in New Orleans this year. So, we're going to look back at our preview and kind of see who picked the teams right and then talk about the LSU Clemson game.
One, many of you have reached out to us about our Mardi Gras event. So, we do a Mardi Gras event every two years where we do a conference in New Orleans, where we talk about creating economic growth for small to mid-sized companies, communities, and non-profit organizations. We had some great speakers last year and a big turnout and many of you have-- with Mardi Gras around the corner, many of you have reached out to me and said hey, when are we doing that again?
We don't do it till 2021 because we did it last year. So, we do this event every other year in New Orleans. We do it the Thursday before Mardi Gras. That's kind of the last family friendly day in New Orleans before Mardi Gras really gets going. So, this way, if you want to come to our conference, you certainly can and leave before Mardi Gras really gets going or if you want to stay for the whole weekend, you can do that too, but we're not going to have it in 2020.
We do it every two years. This way, I get one year from Mardi Gras to enjoy myself. The next time we do it will be Thursday, February 11, 2021. So, we just wanted you all to know that. I’ve heard from many, many of you especially over the holidays and so, we will certainly do it again, but it will be February 11, 2021; that's the Thursday before Mardi Gras.
We're also today going to talk about some of the jobs we're currently doing. You've probably noticed our economic development executive search business has really scaled over the last year and now we're doing more than a dozen searches at once. So, I want to hit some of those. Many of you are reaching out to me about those. Some of you have said hey, what if I’m interested in more than one, how do I handle that? So, we're going to talk about that on today's episode. I have really no particular order. I just jotted these down really fast so I can work myself through them quickly.
One of the jobs we sent most recently is Tuscaloosa, Alabama. We're doing the search for the Tuscaloosa County Alabama Industrial Development Authority and of course, Tuscaloosa has the flagship university; the University of Alabama there in town and of course, we've all heard about it for the football, but they really have a tremendous-- their student enrollment has grown by just leaps and bounds. They do a lot of research and so it's just a tremendous, tremendous asset that Tuscaloosa has.
Tuscaloosa is also known for having the Mercedes plant that's located in Vance, Alabama, which is in Tuscaloosa County kind of between Tuscaloosa and Birmingham. So, that's Mercedes location for you. It has production and having that-- obviously, there are lots of automotive suppliers around there also some good heavy industries.
Over on the west side of Tuscaloosa where the river is you've got a state dock over there, you've got shingle manufacturing company, you’ve got a coal terminal. So, really, it's an area that has anything an economic developer could want; some really good product and obviously, the flagship university. So, they want to focus on advanced manufacturing, but also knowledge-based jobs to tap into some of that research that the university does.
Also, I told you I’m in Destin today. We're doing a search for Florida’s Great North West, which is a regional job with the Northwest Panhandle of Florida, and it covers everything from Pensacola which has all kind of infrastructure down to Panama City. So, you got the beaches, you have military assets up to even small rural towns with lots of timber. So, it's a very unique job and there's just not anything in the world you can really go after. So, that's one you'll be seeing.
We're also doing Cheyenne, Wyoming. Cheyenne actually closed yesterday since this podcast is going to play on Thursday. So, Cheyenne just recently closed, but hey, I always tell people if you see something you're interested, let us know because you never know when we get in our process, candidates withdraw or this or the other happens.
Cheyenne is a great community. I went up to do this kickoff. Alex and I both did it. Alex Metzger co-owns the company with me. So, usually, only one of us do the kickoff, but we both wanted to go to Cheyenne, and we flew up there. It’s a great community; state capital community, tremendous assets for data centers and fiber and infrastructure, a lot of distribution there.
I had no concept how close Cheyenne was to Denver. Maybe that makes me ignorant, but till we flew up there, I don't know, I guess I pictured Cheyenne being in the middle of Wyoming, but it's very close to Denver. It’s an hour-and-a-half, two hours. We flew into Denver when we went and it was a really easy trip.
We're doing Kershaw County, South Carolina. Talk about a place that's eat up with quality of life. I’ve visited over there. It’s adjacent to Columbia, SC, so it's the county to the north east of Columbia up the interstate. They've got prepared sites. They've got a mega site that’s prepared, spec building. They’ve spent all kind of money on training infrastructure and college infrastructure. A very exciting job, but I couldn't get over the quality of life.
We were driving around and you would pass a Donna Ross country club. Next thing you would see would be a polo field. Then you would see the horse racing and so I said boy, you have a quality of life here. So, it is indeed a fantastic place.
We're doing Tri-Cities Washington, which is the Kennewick, Washington area over on the southeast corner kind of down near Idaho. We're in the late stages of that one so hopefully, we'll be making that hire real soon. It’s actually the french fry capital of the world. You would think of Idaho as french fries, but it's actually this area.
So, a lot of agriculture, but also a Department of Energy National Lab. This was one of the sites that had the nuclear production back in the war days. They've actually turned that into a national lab with all kind of research and this is a very, very good job for someone.
We're finishing up Yoakum, Texas. Yoakum is a small town, but it's close to everything. It’s kind of halfway between San Antonio and Houston and Corpus Christi and Austin and they are just great, great folks. I’ve gotten to know then real well and I’ve really enjoyed my time. I think we'll be making that hire here the next week or so.
So, that one might be closing, but I do always say, if one of these interest you, you reach out to us and let us know because you never know through our process when candidates withdraw or boards change their minds. Also, we're doing a bunch of these all over the country. So, if you have interest in more than one or if you're in a situation where you just really don't like your job now, feel free to call us.
You can just call and talk through your situation and say hey, I don't really know what I’m looking for, but I’m not happy here and then we can try to look for fits for you as we do the searches. We have had very few of these searches that we have done where our person has left within the first couple of years; very few and I think one of the reasons for that is we try to find the right fit. We're doing so many right now. If you call us and just tell us what we're looking for, we might pinpoint you in the right direction for which fit it is that we're after.
Next is West Fargo, North Dakota and this is a community that has really invested in its down town. If you go to our job page which is nextmovegroupsearches.com and you click around there, you can see this is a community that's investing in itself and they're just doing all kind of stuff with their downtown and there's some very good industry there.
We're doing two searches for Bowling Green, Kentucky and one we put on the market, the other one will probably go out in a week or two, but we're going to somehow let people know these are two different ones, not one. Both are for the Bowling Green Chamber. So, one is for VP of partnership services, which is sort of the membership donor relations type position and we're also going to do a VP of economic development. So, we released the partnership one this week. We'll be releasing the VP of economic development here in a week or two.
So, the partnership one geared more toward chamber of commerce type people or anybody that's dealt with donors, philanthropy, or membership type work and what have you and of course, the economic development position will be standard economic development. So, two of those in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Bowling Green is the third largest city in Kentucky behind Louisville and Lexington. It’s right between sort of Nashville and Louisville on I65. They win all the time. They've won all kinds of awards for different things. It is a great community, university there. It really is a great community.
We're doing Jefferson County, Illinois, which is in the Mount Vernon, Illinois area about an hour, hour-and-a-half east of St. Louis and of course, if you listen to us regularly, you know I love St. Louis. So, that's Cardinals’ territory down there. You may hear Illinois and think it's Cubs, but it's Cardinals and I’ll be firing up real soon.
This is where two interstates come together. I’m trying to remember now I believe it's 56-- it's the one that goes from Chicago south to Memphis and then there's one that goes east and west from Indianapolis to St. Louis; they intersect right there at Mount Vernon.
So, there's a huge distribution presence. Walgreens has a big distribution company there. Continental Tires has a huge manufacturing organization there and this is a very pro-business town. As we've gotten to know these leaders, they're very, very, pro-business; probably one of the most pro-business towns in all of Illinois and in a really good location from a competitive standpoint if you look at shipping and transportation cost.
Next is another Jefferson County. So, we've got to make sure people don't get confused on these. Jefferson County, West Virginia. We have not launched this one yet. This one will be coming out here in the next week or two, but we have done our kick-off process and are under contract, but we’ve yet to put it out on the market, so you'll be looking for this one. This is kind of a Washington DC suburb. It’s as far east in West Virginia as you can go in sort of a Washington DC type suburb.
Next is Banks County, Georgia. Talk about a good location. It’s half way between Atlanta and Greenville on I85 and Banks County has won like a deal a year for the last three or four years; very nice industries there wining. Actually, the exit before you get to Banks County is a large battery project. I think this is the biggest capital investment in Georgia history. Additionally, Banks either optioned or just took down 2,000 acres where they're going to be able to sort of make a mega park mega site in Banks County.
So, if somebody wants to go, it's literally half way on 85 between Atlanta and Greenville. So somebody wants to go win some projects, it is a fantastic location. They won the deal of the year from the state a few years ago. They averaged doing about a deal a year, a deal every two years. So, you certainly can win there.
Next is the Business Development Council of West Virginia. This is up near the Pittsburg market in the far northern tip of West Virginia. A lot of brownfield redevelopment. We think we're closing in on our person to hire there. Great location for anything metalworking wise. Organization that knows how to do deals. They've had a history of doing deals. So, if you're looking for a job up in the Pittsburg market, that will be one for you as well.
I think that's all the ones we currently have under contract that we can talk about. We have one or two still under contract that we can't quite talk about yet and we're going to have more coming to you real soon really across the country. So, we urge you to go to nextmovegroupsearches.com. Keep up with us as we continue looking for these and again, if you're in a situation where you don't really know where you want to be, but you know you want a new job, just call us and talk through. We’ve got something for everybody. We're doing these searches from 80,000 a year to over 200,000 a year from Washington State to Florida. So, if you give us a call, tell us your situation, what you're looking for, we'll be happy to talk with you through those.
All right. Now that we've got all those jobs out of the way, now we'll close with a little preview of the Clemson LSU game. As you know, the national championships are in New Orleans and we said back when we did the preview show that we would end our season by looking back a little bit at who we previewed and who kind of got it right and we'll talk about the Clemson LSU game.
So, my team is Mississippi State and while we did beat Ole Miss and win the Egg Bowl in a very dramatic fashion for those of you that watched it, we just made a coaching change. If you remember in the podcast I said I didn't think Joe Moorhead was the answer. I hate to turn on somebody after one year, but I didn't think he was the answer. And we all thought that after he beat Ole Miss that he had saved his job, but getting ready for the Bowl game, our linebacker broke the eye socket of our quarterback and then the quarterback couldn't--
We just had no discipline on the team whatsoever, which is funny. Everybody says Joe Moorhead is a real nice guy. I wonder if he wasn’t too nice in the end. We’re just a player's coach for him to be so nice. After he won the Egg Bowl, he did a press conference where he said he didn't care what the fans thought of him or he said he didn't care what most of them thought of him. We could all go pound sand and kick rocks, this and that and other.
All he cared about was what the players thought of him, which I just thought that's funny for a guy that everybody says is so nice. People criticized Dan Mullen saying he wasn't nice enough and Moorhead is so nice. Well, it sure didn’t sound that way to me. So, as far as I’m concerned, he can get his stuff and go just as quick as he can. I think we made the right decision. I saw no discipline whatsoever and Mississippi State ever since I can remember we play hard even when we’re not talented even Sylvester Croom’s teams which really weren't very good played hard. This team did not play hard and so I’m happy to see him go.
I’m also a New Orleans Saints fan. That was a tough loss and they had a great season; 13 and 3 and I actually said in our podcast if we went 11 and 5 with this schedule I’d very happy. So, I am happy with the season, but we had a tough game Sunday. A lot of injuries. I didn't like the call at the end of the game. To me, if you’re going to have any rule call offensive pass interference then that's what the Vikings got. You might as well not have the rule if you're not going to call that Vikings game.
As I look back to other folks that previewed us, you remember my childhood buddy Kenneth Baggot previewed Florida State where they fired their coach too. So, he and I are in the same bucket. They fired their coach in the middle of the season, hired a guy from Memphis who Kay Brockwell previewed with us. Kay is one of our business partners. Memphis had a fine season, so I’d say keep she came out of this other than Clemson smelling like a rose coming back to the rest of us. She lost a coach, but that was for a good reason.
Daniel Web previewed Tennessee for us and they turned it around after that embarrassing start against Georgia State. They really turned it around, won some games. I’m still not sure they got the right coach for that division. To beat Georgia and Florida and Alabama every year, you got to have a star. I don't know if he's it or not, but he did turn it around a little bit.
Alex Metzger previewed Kentucky with us. Kentucky had a good season if you really think about it. They lost their quarterback about middle way through the season and had to play receiver as a quarterback and they ended up winning seven or eight games. I mean beat Louisville terribly bad and then won their Bowl game and so, I think that guy's doing a really good job. Of course, now it’s basketball season. That's all I really care about. So, they will go to get in the basketball real soon.
Now, for the main event; Clemson and LSU will do battle in the Superdome Monday night in New Orleans. Both undefeated, I don't think anybody could have dreamed of a matchup like this with both of the teams undefeated. LSU nobody-- I didn't see it coming. LSU people probably did, but this Joe Burrow as far as I’m concerned, if he's not the number one pick. People are absolutely crazy this season. That LSU’s head coach, Coach O has really done a great job with what he's done at bringing Joe Brady in there, you know they have the passing game. A lot of people said Coach O may not make it as a head coach. I was one of them, but boy was I wrong. I’ll be the first one to admit was I wrong. He has done a tremendous job.
Somehow, LSU always makes the national tally in New Orleans. I don't know if that's bad for our economy or not, but Alabama beat them down here the last time we had it and the year before that-- the time before that, LSU won the championship in New Orleans. So, here they are again battling the Clemson Tigers who’s flown under the radar for a national champion.
Trevor Lawrence is the one quarterback that I would think is really going to give LSU some problems. It will come down to the end for sure. I’m not sure how much of a home field advantage LSU have in the Superdome because there's going to be a lot of Clemson people there. LSU should have the advantage, but Clemson has won two of the last three national championships played and other semi-finals, so they should have a really good crew there.
John Sisson from our team, he goes to all the big Clemson games. So, he's excited and he thinks they can beat LSU and I’m sure they can if LSU comes out and turns the ball over, but it should be an exciting weekend in the city really from-- there are all kinds of events going on really from Saturday right through Monday. It should be a very exciting time and I don't think anybody predicted before the year Clemson and LSU. I think everybody had Clemson and Alabama, but here we see Clemson and LSU.
So, since I got to predict the Bowl game, I would predict LSU 31 Clemson 28. I think it'll come right down to the end. I do think Clemson will play with them very, very close and probably come down to turn over, but you would think being in the Superdome would help and Joe Burrow there, there's just something about him I trust in the big spot. So, if I had to guess, I think LSU will win the game. It might not cover five point spread, but I think LSU will win the football game.
So, happy new year to all of you. Thank you for joining us today as we went through all our activities and again, we started with Mardi Gras, so I’ll remind you. For those of you who are interested in our Mardi Gras event, we do it every two years. So, we're not doing it this year. We'll do it again February 11, 2021.
If you're interested in any of our executive searches, go to nextmovegroupsearches.com and if you are in a situation-- many people say hey, I think I’m looking, but I don't know if I’m looking, I want to find the right opportunity, just call us. We're doing so many of these. If you call us, we can find the right fit for you. Thank you very much.
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