Good Neighbor Podcast: Auburn and Opelika

Ep.#93: She Smith Consulting, How A Project Manager Transforms Local Business

• Susannah Hodges at Village Centre Press

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We sit down with Shenice Smith of She Smith Consulting to explore how disciplined project management and process improvement drive smarter growth. From utilities to nonprofits to local services, we unpack how fresh eyes and added capacity turn big ideas into real results.

• What She Smith Consulting does for change and major initiatives
• Utility billing system overhaul and phased adoption
• City and nonprofit grant projects with data and privacy frameworks
• Multi-location expansion planning for service businesses
• Why leadership bandwidth and outside perspective matter
• Continuous improvement as a safeguard against stagnation
• Common misconceptions about consultants and capacity
• Personal notes on parenting, fall adventures, and balance
• How to start with a free consultation and next steps

www.shenicesmith.com


SPEAKER_01:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your home.

SPEAKER_02:

Welcome. And with me is Shanice Smith. She is the owner of She Smith Consulting. Welcome, Shanice.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you so much, Susanna. I'm excited to be here.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I'm excited to have you and learn more about your consulting business. Tell us about She Smith Consulting.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, so like you said, I'm She Smith, the CEO of She Smith Consulting, and I'm a certified project manager in a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, which is just the fancy way of saying I improve processes. And we provide project management services for change management projects and basically major initiatives. So for our goal, our primary goal for businesses is to help them grow smarter, operate more efficiently, and achieve sustainable success. So the best way for me to describe what I do is basically this to provide you with some examples. So I'll share about three. So let's start off by saying a business whose customer base is increased by 30% and they're processing way more transactions. They need to find ways to streamline their processes and maybe even synergize some of the systems that they currently use so they can communicate with their customers better. Well, I currently have a utility client that has gone through this similar type of transition, and they wanted to incorporate a more efficient and effective billing system for thousands of their residential and commercial clients. So my job was to come in with a fresh perspective on their processes and help them manage that transition. So that includes project plans, staff training, marketing efforts, and hard and soft rollouts until essentially they roll out with the new software, and maybe even 80 to 90% of their customers are now using this new billing system. Another example is take a nonprofit or a city municipality that has like a major initiative to implement. And maybe it's even tied to grant dollars, maybe at the state or federal level. As a project manager, I may come in with my team and we'll take the vision of that initiative and determine the best way to implement it. So let's use an example. Let's take the city of Opalika, totally hypothetical, receives a grant to partner with four family resource centers, and they're going to provide free medical exams for kids returning to school in the fall. So taking on a project like this, this would include creating contracts, MOUs with the four resource centers, creating a framework for collecting and reporting all of that data, finding a system to manage all of the people served and keeping their information confidential, partnering with all the partners to help promote the services, manage challenges, and essentially serve the public the way that they should through this strategic initiative. And that's where Sheaf Smith Consulting comes in. And my last and I'll share a last example. Say, for instance, a business is expanding, and I'll use an example of hydration therapy because they're coming becoming super popular.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. They are, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And let's create one called Tiger IV. Okay. And they currently have two locations and they're expanding to another market. So I will come in as a lead project manager, maybe bring a coordinator or two along with me, and we'll help them consider that new market, do some market research, provide support for them selecting a location, whether that be building, renting, or purchasing a building, determining their hiring needs up front, ensuring company policies and processes match that new market, and all of the other milestones it takes, leaving them up to the grant opening of the new Tiger IV. And that's basically what I do in a nutshell. And what makes this work so transformative is number one, my industry experience is broad, and we'll probably talk about that. But my perspective is really solution-oriented. And most of the time, I have a lot more capacity than the current leadership team that the organization or the business already has. Because take the perspective, they're managing people, they're leading the organization, they're putting out fires every single day. And most companies want these same leadership teams and executives to take on major projects or initiatives or grow the company. Well, the reality of the situation is they don't have capacity to do all those things well.

SPEAKER_02:

None of it's time consuming to do anything new. It's it's a learning curve there.

SPEAKER_00:

It's an extreme learning curve, in addition to the job that they have to do every day. So that's where She Smith Consulting comes in.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay. Well, that sounds amazing, Shanice. I didn't even know, you know, someone like you existed to help companies in that way. Tell me a little bit about how you got into this, I guess, into this consulting type of business that you're in. What was your career path and your journey to where you could open this type of business?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so, and it was an interesting one. So my my background is corporate human resources. And what's so funny is, and I have over a decade of experience in corporate human resources, but also doing a lot of nonprofit work where I have directed strategic initiatives and created new relationships to take organizations forward. Um, but early on in my career, one of my first jobs was at the Art Institute of Chicago, the museum in the school. Not sure if you're familiar with the Big Lion.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, awesome organization. And I came in, I was just an HR assistant at the time. And um, I was looking at our hiring process, and our way of like managing new positions and hiring people was just so outdated and con diluted. Like the system that we were using, we weren't even using maybe 60% of the capabilities that it had. We were only communicating with our hiring managers through phone and email. We had paper requisition files, we had thousands of them stored everywhere. That on average probably had like 60 to 80 pieces of paper. We printed everything. And even being early on in my career, I'm like, there has got to be a better way to do it. And I said, okay, I know I'm young and I know I'm early in my career, but guys, I have a perspective here and I know that we can make this hiring process for our managers easier for them and for us. And luckily, I had the leadership team that really listened to me, and that was one of my first major projects. And throughout my career, I've worked at Regents Bank, the headquarters in uh Birmingham, Alabama. I've worked with uh CentOS, the business-to-business supplier of um like business services and uniforms and mats and things of that nature. I worked in nonprofit. So I've had a large variety of experience in industries, and every single one of my positions, even though I was in HR, I always worked on major projects, such as uh uh changing the workforce. When I was at Regents, that's when they actually went through one of their largest severances. Um, and I was at the forefront of that. So we severed hundreds of people, we promoted people, we changed supervisors to managers. There were a lot of different workforce changes. Also, that's when FLSA changed when Obamacare was first introduced, and what uh the definition of a full-time employee had changed. And the requirements changed. So I was at the forefront of the compensation team fully assessing like all of our teams and making sure that they met the new requirements for the purposes of Obamacare and the way that we needed to treat employees. And then even at CentOS, we had a lot of changes around diversity and in our um our plants, the the workforce was changing. So I created some new ways and new approaches for developing and attracting talent to make sure that we were able to keep our um our plants fully staffed. So just throughout my career, I always ended up taking on some type of special project or major initiative, and it all rolled into making the organization more effective. And I always had the confidence to be in the same room as leaders and say, hey, I think there's a better way that we can do this, or have we fully looked at this process because we got some bottlenecks here and we need to smooth it out. And luckily, I've been in spaces where they have supported that, and now um this is a dream come true being able to branch off and kind of do my own thing. With my I had my son in 2020 during COVID. I decided that I wasn't going to go back to corporate and I want to stay at home for some time with my sweet son. And um, and it was a blessing to be able to do that. But I also end up morphing She Smith consulting out of that and doing project management full time. And now here we are, uh, five years later, and this is the type of support that I can provide organizations of all sizes.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, that is very interesting. Um, just the thought that this type of consulting is available. And I guess you work with any type of business. Is there any restrictions on who you can work with?

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely not. Like uh maybe a business that is getting started off the ground. Like I got a call one day um from a client where when she was first starting a business, she had um a trucking uh business where she helped drivers get their um their license to be able to drive like 18 to 16 wheelers. And um now she wanted to morph into helping uh CNAs become licensed in the state of Alabama, and she had no idea where to start. So she partnered with me, and we I uh my project was doing some market research, understanding what grants were available to her throughout the state of Alabama and helping her create a project management blueprint to stand up this new business. And she hadn't even started anything yet. She just knew that she had a goal. She did it in another industry, and she wanted to do it in the in the healthcare industry. So it really doesn't matter the state of the business, or um, I've worked with city municipalities, I work with utility companies and nonprofit organizations. Um so the opportunities are essentially endless. It's all about, you know, the project or initiative that the organization is working on and where they are now and where they're trying to get to in the future.

SPEAKER_02:

That is really a much needed uh service you provide there. You've been doing this for a while and you have a lot of experience. What are some of the misconceptions you've come across uh from people, you know, that that maybe they were thinking about they needed something somebody like you, but they had something that they got wrong and they had a misconception there somewhere. What are some of the things you've come across?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, you kind of hit on it a little bit, is that people don't realize that they need consultants or they need project managers and they need that additional help in order to get them to where they're trying to go. So, like I mentioned a little bit earlier, a lot of times this falls on current leadership or it falls on frontline managers. And every company has a strategic plan, right? So maybe the next three years are deciding where they want to go. Well, the only thing that we know for a fact is constant is change, as well as the evolving needs of the clients and the customers or the public that we serve. So any organization always has to be moving the needle forward in order to create a sustainable business. And that's a lot to put on a frontline manager or even an executive team that already has their hand full with the day-to-day. So when you bring in a consultant or you bring in a project manager, number one, we come in with a clear vision and no preconceptions of, you know, why you do what you do. I'm here with fresh eyes and a fresh mindset, asking who, what, when, why, and how. And we come together and we find solutions to a lot of problems or find ways to help the business move forward in ways that maybe just internally those employees could not think of before. So having that outside partner that also has the capacity to take on those major projects and initiatives really helps companies and organizations create an environment of called continuous improvement because it's like the blockbuster thing. You know, you got real comfortable being that prime, you know, provider of uh physical DVDs and tapes and things of that nature, but you didn't have an environment of continuous improvement. How do we take this to the next level? And when they and when they got stagnant or when they fell off, then they end up in a position where now we're either reactive or now we're failing. So having an environment of continuous improvement, always having a fresh set of eyes on what's going on and how do we get to the next level is truly is truly critical when it comes to a sustainable business.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely. And sometimes fresh eyes from outside the company is just very valuable to see things that you can't see because you're in the weeds of it, you know. Well, tell us talk about you for a second. Uh Shanice, what do you do for fun when you're not helping other businesses?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. So right now my life revolves around my five-year-old son. Yes. They can be very bossy. Um, and I feel like their schedules are even more hectic than ours sometimes. Yes. Uh so he just finished up soccer. So being a soccer mom has been enjoyable. Now he's doing karate. Um, so and now that the seasons have changed, I love fall. I'm a fall baby. My birthday is on Monday.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, well, happy birthday!

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you. I love doing all things fall. So last month we did the pumpkin patches. We went to Callaway Gardens and we went to Rocky Top, which was awesome. And then now, um, this month, we're gonna try uh Atlanta Zoo. And then in the evening, they have this new Chinese light festival called uh Illumination at the Zoo. So we're gonna do that this month, and then hopefully there is a holiday train ride in Blue Ridge, Georgia. That's like an hour train ride that they decorate for the kids, and they can do hot cocoa and sing songs, and it's just really festive. And hopefully, we'll be able to make it that way and do that. So just creating memories with my son and being a kid again is uh how I enjoy myself these days.

SPEAKER_02:

I love it. Absolutely wonderful. Our children tend to dictate uh our schedule so much, but it's so enjoyable to watch them be able to uh grow as you know, with sports and with outdoor activities, and and just it's just a wonderful thing. Well, let's talk about your business one more time. What's one thing you wish listeners knew about your business that they may not realize?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh well, first and foremost, I am currently accepting new clients. Um, so I definitely want to put that out there. And usually it just starts with that initial consultation, which is free. Now, what people need to know is that you may not know exactly what you need. In the consulting business, that's actually more common than what companies think. If someone can bring me in and say exactly what they need, I would actually be really shocked. Most of the times, my relationships and clients come from someone saying, you know what, I want to run some things by you. Uh, right now, you know, our our customer orders are off the charts, and I'm thinking about how we can improve this or what are some ways that we can serve our customers better. But they're just talking through it, whether that be a manager of a department, whether that be the CEO that's expanding, you know, a new location. We may be talking through your business, how you've grown, what your goals are, how your customer base is growing. And then morphing out of that conversation, we may find some opportunities that you didn't even think of or that you know for a fact you want to tackle pretty soon on how you want to take your business to the next level. And then I can share insight on how I can further support that organization to get to where they're going. So I definitely want listeners to just reach out to me. A consultation is free. We can go get coffee and we can just talk about your business, where it is now and where you want it to be.

SPEAKER_02:

That sounds great. So, how do they get in touch with you?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. So you can contact me at shanicemith.com. She nicemith.com is the easiest way to remember.

SPEAKER_02:

Spell it, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. Um, and if you see me and you you say she nice, I know that you're talking to me. So it's okay. Um, and then also you can reach me via email at consulting at shenicesmith.com. And those are the two easiest ways to learn more about the project management services or the process improvement services that we provide, and then also to schedule a consultation.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, that sounds wonderful. Thank you so much, Janice, for being with me today. I have really enjoyed learning more about you and this wonderful service uh that you provide through She Smith Consulting. Thank you, Susanna.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Auburn. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to dnpauburn.com. That's gnpauburn.com. Or call 334 429 7440.