BE A BALLER -"Building a lifelong legacy"

Henry Golatt: From HBCU Graduate to Business Development Advocate - Faith, Family, and Building a Legacy in Economic Empowerment

• Coach Tim Brown, Uncommon Life • Season 4 • Episode 5

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Ever wondered how faith and determination can shape a legacy? Meet our inspiring guest, Henry Golatt, an HBCU graduate and passionate small business development advocate, who joins Coach Tim Brown on the Be A Baller podcast. Raised in a faith-centered Southern community as the youngest boy of 13 siblings, Henry shares his profound journey of building a lifelong legacy in business, deeply influenced by his father, a hardworking contractor and farmer. Together, we explore how early life experiences and community support can mold one's professional path and commitment to economic development.

Prepare for an uplifting conversation as we unpack the transformative power of faith and strategic vision in professional and community growth. Henry shares his personal anecdotes, like the foresight-driven creation of a bridge over the Arkansas River and his pivotal role in the Accelerate Columbus Initiative. Through "coffee shop diplomacy," we reveal strategies that democratize business opportunities and emphasize mentorship and empowerment over fleeting accolades. This episode promises insights into crafting a lasting impact that empowers others and nurtures community advancement.

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Speaker 1:

Well, jesus went into Capernaum and the Bible records that he could do no great miracles because of their unbelief. He was the Son of God. He worked and performed miracles everywhere, but he could do no great works because of their unbeliefs. And so what I say to people all the time is that if you are working in an audience or dealing with a person or dealing with a situation and the people you are trying to advance and help, do not have the ability to believe in your ability to help them. The ability that you would have to deliver for them is minimized.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to Be A Baller podcast where we discuss how to build a lifelong legacy. And I'm Coach Tim Brown, your host, and so in the studio today we have with us a proud HBCU graduate of University of Arkansas, pline Buff, and a longtime educator, but, most important, an advocate for small business development. So today we'll be talking about how to build how Henry Gallet has built a lifelong legacy in business. So, henry, thanks for being on the show.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, sir, for having me. I'm so excited to be here with you today. I know we've worked at this for a minute to get it all scheduled, but I'm very excited to be here and looking forward to the conversation.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, this is going to be good. You know I always do my little research on people's little backstories and I know you're born in Eastern Arkansas to a large family. That is correct. Was it 14? Did I get that right? 13. 13. And I understand also that you're the baby boy. I am that. Yes, you're the baby boy. So can you talk about growing up in the South and some of the family values of faith and community? I know that was big in the South.

Speaker 1:

No doubt. Again, thank you very much for having me here today and thank you for what you are doing, not only here in Central Ohio, but what you're doing throughout the United States, in central Ohio, but what you're doing throughout the United States, where your voice is certainly carrying and it's impactful, and so forth. So thank you for having me and appreciate you all that you're doing. In terms of growing up in the South, I tell you what there's nothing that can be compared to a Southern upbringing. One is for me and my family. Of course, you mentioned that I come from a large family, but I will say that my teachers and my network of family were one in the same, you know, the same people that taught me were the same people who I went to church with oftentimes, and same people I would see at the grocery stores, you know. And so, with a very small community see at the grocery stores, you know and so it was a very small community. The community was, you know, probably less than 5,000 people at the time, you know, and maybe even less, most likely even less than that now. And so, like I say, it was very closely knit family, very close community.

Speaker 1:

Come from a family that was very much centered on God in church. We went to church look like every day and sometimes those church services I thought were very unnecessary, almost like punishment, but I never will forget. Each year this time of year in August, we would have revival. You know this would be our revival season and oftentimes my uncle would come and run revival. This would be our revival season and oftentimes my uncle would come and run revival and I got saved under him and confessed my belief in Christ and so forth. But in terms of that we also had a little small ministry group, a quartet group. I grew up singing.

Speaker 1:

You grew up singing, I grew up singing, and we grew up singing and going from church to church, playing and singing, and Dad was big on that, and so we would run all over the region trying to sing and do ministry in that way. I actually played the bass, okay. So yeah, that was kind of my upbringing in terms of church Awesome.

Speaker 2:

Awesome. Yeah, I know your dad had a great impact, even on the work that you do now in economic development. Can you talk about your dad and some of the life lessons that you learned from him?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you know dad was like I say, we had a big family, so that meant he demonstrated to me what it meant to be a man. You know he was a provider and you know you oftentimes hear, as we were talking a little earlier, depicted in the media this stereotype about black males and black men in their families and how they value their families. I have to tell you there was no greater role model for me than my dad. My dad was the. He was the beginning and the end. He would get up in the morning and before he would leave home he would make sure mom had what she needed to be functional that day and didn't have to need for anything like that. You know he could, you know, actually made sure she was cared for before he left. She was a home housewife in that regard, and so he just made sure that happened. He gave us all very good examples to live by.

Speaker 1:

As an entrepreneur in the economic development realm, I tell people my dad was the best entrepreneur I knew. He was entrepreneurial in that regard. He was a contractor by trade and, among other things, a farmer and things of that nature, but basically it was his skill set around painting, carpentry, contracting work. He took pride in what he did. You'd have to see him painting a building or building some building or something. He took pride in that and he taught me to do the same thing. I can't nail a nail, but he taught me how to be very prideful in the work that I do, and so you see that being demonstrated.

Speaker 1:

I'll say this other thing about my dad. Again, I'm not a builder, but you know I wear this title of an architect or, you know, builder of sort around economic development, excellent buildings and help to build buildings and things of that nature. But I do that in honor of my dad. Every time I do work like that, it's always with him in mind and in the goals and things that he had for us as a family and what he had for himself in terms of being a good role model.

Speaker 2:

That's good stuff, family and what he had for himself in terms of being a good role model. That's good stuff. You know you attended an HBCU school, University of Arkansas, applying in the first year family to attend college. We'll get into a minute, but the word on the streets is that you came there with $30 in your pocket, that you showed up with $30 in your pocket and stayed there almost 20 plus years as a student worked at university. Talk about that experience. Oh, your pocket. You stayed there almost 20-plus years as a student, worked at university.

Speaker 1:

Talk about that experience of going to college. Oh, my goodness, you did. You're pulling deep there, yeah, so you know, again being the first to go off to college again, my dad, my family, we worked with our hands. You know we were not. You know we were intellectual in a sense, but we wasn't that college white-collar-bound family. We worked, and so every one of my other siblings took jobs and did things like that, and so I decided that I wanted to do a little bit more and break the mold and go off to college. I went to college.

Speaker 1:

In those days, your family would often say we're going to get you through high school, right, right, and if we can get you through high school, you're on your own and you need to figure out the rest of it. And so that was my case, and I wasn't very good with my hands. I had tried to work a factory kind of job over the summer and, you know, earn a few dollars. You know work on the farm, work with my dad hung sheetrock, and I earned a few dollars, worked on the farm, worked with my dad hung sheetrock, and I just knew manual labor was not for me. And so we went off to college.

Speaker 1:

I went off to college and $30 in my pocket to last me indefinitely, Right, right, it wasn't anything else, it wasn't anything to go back home to easily, and so I met my wife there, dr Pamela Golett, and we became partners and then became husband and wife in my sophomore year. But that was part of that work. Going away was important leaving home, leaving the nest, going to a place where there wasn't anyone else in the family at that location, in the family at that location. So I had to learn how to grow up fast and do the work. Needless to say, as you said, I matriculated through campus, earned accolades, graduated with honors my wife and I both and then, upon graduation, turning down corporate jobs and federal jobs, I decided to stay at my alma mater and invest my time, drop my bucket where I was as it was, and I worked there for right at 30 years or so.

Speaker 1:

Well what was it that drove you to stay there? Because I know you had a lot of opportunities. A small school, exactly. Yeah, in terms of my desire to stay, there was something. I came from the farm and coming from the farm, I saw the aspects of what college and what being in that environment could do for a person. It had happened for me. I had matriculated to college, I was exposed to things, my life began to see a greater trajectory towards success, but I also was surrounded by mentors.

Speaker 1:

Going to an HBCU, you find you know. Our slogan at the time was quality education with a personal touch. So every classroom you went to, there was somebody who could relate to you, and so, but in addition to that, the city itself was still suffering from the vestiges of Jim Crow. There were still things that were said across the airways, for that matter that just really kind of pricked me to Rome. It really didn't sit well with me and it made me, it compelled me to say there's something I got to do here and I need to Rome. It really didn't sit well with me and it made me. It compelled me to say there's something I got to do here and I need to do, and I felt, you know, really I felt the call of God to just stay where I was and to be a contributing factor to it, got hired on at the university, started working in the field of economic development, doing projects and things of that nature.

Speaker 1:

I tell people I date myself by saying this, but I do work with small businesses and part of that work consisted of developing an incubator for small businesses and where you nurture those businesses. And I tell people this and again it dates me a little bit, but my first check to do that work from a government source came from Bill Clinton. To do that work from a government source came from Bill Clinton. So $240,000, I never will forget $240,000 to do an incubator program, which wasn't enough even then, but I never will forget that. But that's the kind of work that I saw myself doing and that led to a whole lot of other things that I was able to do in that community and beyond.

Speaker 2:

I know we had talked about your faith earlier. Two things when did God really become real for you, first off, and then secondly, how has your faith walk helped you in your business career?

Speaker 1:

I want to tell you throughout my time as an adult, of course, leaving the nest, you know. When you leave home or while you're at home, I should say you don't think as much about. You know where things are coming from. You're taught these things but you don't. You know dad, it's their mom is somebody is always there to catch the slack. But going to college and, like I say, having to literally find my way socially, economically, academically, all of those things on my own, taught me to rely on God and have to depend on God. And I never forget there's one winter semester there and I didn't have a coat, I didn't have an overcoat, and I remember praying and asking God. I said God, I need a coat and he provided a coat. Someone might say well, you know, that's just part of the program. You know, because it was through ROTC, I mean, they gave you a coat. It was a coat, you know. You didn't say how I was going to get it, but he provided that for me.

Speaker 1:

And there were other things I never will forget. You know, I prayed for a job I prayed for I just was reminded of this just the other day my son just turned 36, I think it is a couple of days ago and my first professional job was an internship with the federal government, the Internal Revenue Service, and I remember praying to God. I had accepted the job over the summer and I was supposed to report to duty, I think, the first week in September. Well, my wife was pregnant and that meant we were going to have to move to another city and I said, lord, if you could have him come early and he'd be healthy, that would be really a blessing. And it happened. So you just see those things like that that God is doing and have done for you, it builds your faith. It's a little bit of God winks at first, but it keeps building your faith to say, hey, if he could do this, he could do something much bigger than this.

Speaker 1:

So that's kind of how my faith has developed and it continues to develop that way, because one thing about me, coach Brown, is that when I commit to something, I bring my whole being to it. And so there's a particular passage I tell people all the time If you want to pray for me, pray that God would supply me with all grace and all sufficiency that I may abound to every good work, every good work. And then I'm reminded often of Jesus when he said that Jesus went about doing good. You know, so I want to be doing good and I want to abound to every good work, and so that faith continues. And then I'll say this last thing the ability to see things that others don't see is a particular skill set and it requires faith. And so I can tell you a project that I've been a part of, that God has allowed me to see the outcome before it manifests in the physical.

Speaker 1:

So I would go around and speaking. I remember one case my wife would be reminded of this as well there was a situation where a new highway was needed, a new bridge, actually over a river, was needed, and I can recall someone pointing out to me and saying, well, right over there is where we're trying to go, but there's not a road there. And I began to speak about that that there needs to be a road right over there. I could take you to that road in that bridge over that Arkansas River. Right now that bridge is there. So being able to see those things and call those things and believe for those things in every aspect of my life, that has been my testimony, amen.

Speaker 2:

Boy, you're going to turn this into a church sentence. Praise the Lord, you know you left Arkansas as you came to Columbus Ohio. You talk about that cold. You know as a new small business coordinator within the Economic Development Division. How did the opportunity come about?

Speaker 1:

It's interesting.

Speaker 1:

I was here, of course, when my wife first moved into Columbus.

Speaker 1:

I was kind of still finishing up my tenure with the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, so I would be here a week and be back home a week and that kind of stuff like that and but she started working on her dissertation and I needed to be physically in the space because it was just too much for her to think about in me being back and forth and plus I was at a good point in my tenure there. But I met the mayor at a charrette in Linden when they were just thinking about kind of like where they are in Eastland, out in that area. Now they were just thinking about what could happen, what might could happen in Linden, and we talked and had a conversation and from that I pursued some work with the city in the economic development division and was brought on to lead that work, revamp that work, revitalize what it meant to do small business development from the city of Columbus, and that's kind of how I started that whole work with the city of Columbus, that's awesome.

Speaker 2:

You know you once said economic development is a contact sport. Can you talk about Accelerate Columbus Initiative and its impact on business opportunities in Columbus?

Speaker 1:

Oh, my goodness, yeah. So part of the first thing. One of the first things I did when I came to the city was to kind of start having these I called it coffee shop diplomacy conversations. It's much like what we're doing here. I would go around the city and meet at various coffee shops, engaging with everyday people, business owners, political leaders and folk like that, to just try to get a lay of the land. I didn't want to assume that I knew what they needed. I kind of had some ideas, but that's what I mean by contact sport.

Speaker 1:

You have to be front and center. You have to meet people where they are. You have to have a listening ear for what they think are solutions to problems and pain points that they are experiencing. Other than that, you're creating programs at your own whim and you're doing it based upon what you think might work. So, even if it's something that you agree with, you have to get buy-in. We call it constituency building. If I'm going to provide this solution to you, is it the right solution? Is it catered to your expectations? Will you support this initiative? Will you be a champion for this? And that's a lot involved in it, more than just creating programs.

Speaker 1:

And for me, what I've sought to do with Accelerate Columbus and other aspects of the work that I was able to accomplish with the city of Columbus, is to build these systems over programs. You know, if you could put a system in place, you can then. I mean, that's what Henry Ford taught us way back when he was building the Model T. You know, if you can devise a system, you're going to continually get the kind of output and the quality of output that you want, versus if I keep creating programs without a system, programs without a system. It's just. You know we got enough of that and so it doesn't lead to the type of outcome that you want. So that was what we've done.

Speaker 1:

Accelerate Columbus. We launched it before we got deeper into some of the other kind of policy work that we wanted to do and some of the other strategy work, but it was an obvious need for that. It also did this for the city of Columbus. It democratized access. So if I create a program and you're already at the table, then you're going to keep getting the best of the fruit. But if I create a process that allows these new ideas to continue to come to fruition, then you as a person that might not have been at the table before have an opportunity to be there, so that's important to me as well. Good stuff.

Speaker 2:

You know, as you think about the, this is a legacy podcast about building legacy. So, as you think about the word legacy, what does that word mean to you first off, and how have you built a strong, lifelong legacy in this economic development space?

Speaker 1:

Legacy is something that lives on after you, and I've often heard it said you're only as strong as the people that support you, and everyone has the responsibility of mentoring somebody else. You're doing it, whether you're doing it intentionally or you're doing it unintentionally. Somebody's watching you and wanting to be like you. Paul said it best. He said those things you see in me, emulate those things in yourself. If it be any virtue, if it be any praise. Think on those things that they might become a part of you. And so we are doing this, even if we don't know we're doing it. And so legacy to me is to make sure that one I uphold my family. There's a saying that goes around on social media I hustle for my last name, not my first. In my case, I hustle for both of them, because I'm actually named after my dad and I share the middle name. He loved baseball, so he named me hank aaron, henry aaron. So I I have to do this work and I have to do it right and so, uh, and so that's part of my legacy that I have to keep up with. In terms of what I've been able to do.

Speaker 1:

The body of work kind of speaks for itself. You know you can Google this and you'll find that my work has been part of dissertations for advanced degrees doctorate in business administration. In this one case business administration in this one case I've been published, peer-reviewed. When we think about academic journals and white papers and things of that nature it's been peer-reviewed. I've co-authored papers with my colleague out at Ohio State that won really it's kind of international best paper in that regard, and so the work is there.

Speaker 1:

I don't lift those up as just accolades because all that I've done has been in the advancement of someone else.

Speaker 1:

It's not in the advancement of Henry, but you have to have a platform and you have to have a body of work. I give you this not to be too preachy here, but I give you this example Jesus went into Capernaum and the Bible records that he could do no great miracles because of their unbelief. He was the Son of God. He worked and performed miracles everywhere, but he could do no great works because of their unbeliefs. And so what I say to people all the time is that if you are working in an audience or dealing with a person or dealing with a situation and the people you are trying to advance and help do not have the ability to believe in your ability to help them. The ability that you would have to deliver for them is minimized, so that's part of it as well. So making sure that you prep people for what is possible and helping them to cast that vision, understand that vision and then become a part of that vision. That's legacy work. That's good.

Speaker 2:

That's legacy work. That's good, that's good work. Good word. You know your professional philosophy, speaking of that, is always seek to empower by adding value. What does that mean to you?

Speaker 1:

Don't ever, you know, give more than you can take. Give more than you take. We see, too many folks are in the extractive nature of a relationship. All I'm looking to do is extract something from you. I teach my entrepreneurial classes around completing the circle. What does that mean? You know, if I keep completing the circle, we're going to keep running across each other. We're going to keep benefiting each other. We're going to keep benefiting each other. We're going to keep adding value to each other. That's different than traveling in linear directions. Linear directions take me either together in the path, down the road, and we might not ever come in contact with each other, or we go in opposite directions. So complete the circle in that regard. But that's what it means Always seek to find. If I can't add value to you, I don't want to take away, I don't want to extract value.

Speaker 1:

This economy as we know it, especially as African-Americans, it's been extractive. It's always been extractive. We were extracted from our homeland, we were extracted from the South and many of us had to relocate in the Great Migration and come up North, and so it's always extracting. And when you think about certain sectors, when you think about oil, oil is extracted from the ground, coal is extracted from the ground, so we can get to a replenishing and a circular economy, to where things are circular in nature versus extractive in nature economy, to where things are circular in nature versus extractive in nature. And that's the whole game around recycle and recyclability and green this and green that. It's just a concept around recyclability and adding value rather than just taking value, because the last scripture I'm going to quote is one of the scriptures talk about you know, he who waters must also he himself be watered. You got to at some point replenish, otherwise you're going to run a drought, and so that's what that means.

Speaker 2:

Wow. Well, you're going to drop some gems. I really appreciate this. As we come around the corner, what advice would you share with the audience about starting a business and also for business owners wanting to grow their business?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, interesting. I'll start with the latter one first, just because it's top of mind. I am a you know I've got many different projects that I strategically engage myself in. One is a project I'm very proud of that's here centered in central Ohio, and it wasn't my vision, it's actually the visionary is my partner in it. Vision is actually the visionary is my partner in it, but it's solely focused on helping women entrepreneurs and women who are in professional ranks to earn and grow their business beyond $250,000 a year.

Speaker 1:

You'd be surprised at the number of business owners who have legitimacy you know a license, they've got their credentials and things of that nature, but they're not making enough money. And for Black businesses we very rarely see businesses that are scalable. You know you might be very good at you know soul food or whatever, but it might not be no more than you and your husband or whoever in the kitchen trying to make that happen. We've got to grow scalable businesses, and so Womenomics it's the name of that venture, and it is intended to help women entrepreneurs to have that basis and that background and that branding and thinking about how to do that to help you move out of the marginal businesses to where you can actually start to grow and scaling and hiring and all of the things that we think about for a productive business. So that's the first part of that In terms of advice for others who are seeking to go into entrepreneurship and be a small business.

Speaker 1:

Everyone has to be entrepreneurially minded. Now, that doesn't mean that you've got to be an entrepreneur. Some people if everybody was entrepreneurs, then we would have people working jobs and we know that's necessary. So everybody's not going to be a small business owner, but everybody can think entrepreneurially. What it means to be entrepreneurial in thinking is to look at a situation and see the opportunity in it. There's an opportunity in every situation and that's what a real entrepreneur does. He looks at that situation. He says, ok, here's the pain point, here's the opportunity. How do I monetize that? How do I put something on the market that the market will accept and pay for? That's all entrepreneurship is.

Speaker 2:

Wow, I had to drop the mic, you know. I want to thank you for your time. Wow, this has been a great episode about business and business development. This brings us to the end of this episode. Thanks to our special guest, henry Gillette, for building a legacy in business development and his commitment to providing opportunities for small business owners. Thank you, henry, for enriching the lives of students and empowering small business owners. I want to thank the audience for joining us for this enlightening and informed discussion on building a legacy in business. Hope this episode was beneficial to you. As always. Thanks for listening to Be A Baller podcast. Thanks, henry, appreciate it, appreciate you. This is great. It's great.

Speaker 3:

If you enjoyed our show, please share this podcast with family and friends. Be A Baller podcast is available on all major podcast stations. Be sure to come back next week as we continue to discuss on how to build a lifelong legacy. Until then, don't forget to be a baller. This podcast was created by Coach Tim Brown and produced and edited by the video production class of Worthington Christian High School.