Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to S.E. Puett. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi S.E., thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about serving the underserved.

Along with serving as a global digital and workforce transformation consultant, I lead a non-profit group of community partners to provide founders and small business owners the information, skills, and tools necessary to establish business acumen, build customer relationship literacy, and be an impactful contributor to their local economies. Our work begins with passionately serving an underserved community of aspiring founders and small business owners who, against the backdrop of their ambitious dreams, face significant barriers to entry and scalability in the business world. These barriers range from a lack of accessible grant funding, and practical business education to limited opportunities for mentorship and support in developing effective customer relationship strategies. This gap not only stifles individual potential but also inhibits the broader economic development within these communities, where small businesses could be a driving force for innovation and local employment. Recognizing the profound need for targeted support, our non-profit group initiated a comprehensive program designed specifically for entrepreneurs. Through our program, entrepreneurs learn to refine their business model, implement effective marketing strategies, and develop a customer service approach that turns first-time experiences into regular patronage. We help them find their voice in the area(s) they excel in, raise that voice, and get them connected with opportunities where their voice will resonate. Our brand’s dedication to serving this community goes beyond mere business support; it’s about nurturing an ecosystem where dreamers become doers and flourish, thereby enriching the local economy and fostering a culture of self-sufficiency and empowerment. By investing in the potential of these aspiring business owners, we celebrate both catalyzing individual success stories and contributing to the broader economic and social upliftment of underserved communities.

S.E., love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a Native Oklahoman on a 2-decades-long journey of passionately serving others and solutioning with some of the most competitive, brilliant minds of today in workforce and digital transformations that started in high school as a United Way basketball coach and an intern for the Main Street Oklahoma grant initiative in my hometown, where my interests in economic development was born. I grew my public service career in a variety of roles spanning coaching basketball, healthcare, communications, technology, information systems, workforce development, operations, incident command systems, and economic development. Being a lifelong learner, I immersed myself in a discipline that allowed me to learn the connections, dependencies, and potential of each moving part of an organization and its community or industry partners. Each subsequent role I competed for was born organically from opportunities to grow in the previous one. I started a non-profit organization as a survivor of domestic violence, poverty, and homelessness to address the gaps in services I experienced. I heard countless stories from individuals who were left behind in society, lacking skill sets, information, and accessibility to opportunities that others were afforded by their respective privileges. Identifying my own privileges amid my struggle was powerful in teaching me strategy, inclusive behaviors, and creating equity where it is absent. Over time, I became obsessed with sustainability and succession planning – in a term – risk mitigation. As a result, I used every piece of my learning to be a bringer of useful information and teaching people how to optimize that information in their own efforts. This grew into providing consultative services for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and non-profits who were seeking a pathway to security and sustainability. In addition, I incorporated my love of basketball and experience as an athlete to pour into my daughter and other young players as a non-profit coach. This passion work has birthed opportunities to coach AAU, showcase, and OSSAA teams across Oklahoma where I was recognized with the People’s Choice Award for Favorite Youth Sports Coach. I am so proud to share that because the votes came directly from the players, their families, and my colleagues on the court. That recognition truly made my passion for people felt, seen, and valued. As innovation continued to grow in necessity for the state’s aging infrastructure and archaic business practices, I fell in love with tech and leading teams through modernization efforts from team to enterprise-level initiatives. I learned to write code, administer enterprise platforms, and architect solutions for the state’s massive IT asset management landscape. I am very proud to say that I built and implemented the first continuous improvement incubator, DEI platform, and multi-cast platform in the State of Oklahoma’s Office of Management and Enterprise Services. Working with state boards, commissions and agencies in a consultative capacity widened my lens and prepared me for my role with a global Big4 consulting firm. Years of credentialing, field experiences, case studies, and lessons learned helped me grow as an expert in organizational and business development. In my career, I have learned that happiness for me is in creating opportunities for others and forging new partnerships to work more brilliantly together. Today, my teams make partners out of customers. This is how FBO Partners came to be. This difference isn’t just a matter of strategy. It’s a reflection of our commitment to leave people, places, and things better than when we found them.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Even into adulthood, I carried with me this belief that if I stayed focused, worked my a** off, and kept tirelessly showing up and delivering for others, I would one day be “seen” and rewarded for the results I continued to deliver. I was in a full-blown hustle-for-you-worth mentality. It was unhealthy and insidious. Watching others around me being selected for roles they did not compete nor qualify for, always being needed to build the monolith or save the org from the fire but never being wanted, and enduring regular but unregulated bullying left me depleted and questioning my own self-worth. It wasn’t until I hit my own proverbial wall feeling stuck in a gap of empty space between monotony and possibility. I unlearned my inefficacy-laden belief and learned to show up for myself. On flights, the attendants always teach you to put on your own oxygen mask first before tending to those around them. I realized I can’t possibly show up for myself with the same energy, confidence, execution and certainty if I’m constantly giving it all away in the hopes that it would be reciprocated. It was such an uncomfortable, but necessary awakening that changed the trajectory of my career mobility. During a professional development opportunity, I was asked to write down things that I would want to be remembered for. I wrote down that I wanted people to feel safe knowing that I was on their team because I treasure those who made me feel safe during my time of struggle. I wanted to be remembered for creating opportunities for others because I remember every single person who put me onto an opportunity and gave me a chance to compete and perform. The following week I was discussing this activity and my answers with my circle and was immediately asked, “So what are you doing to make yourself feel safe? What are you doing to create opportunities for you?” Another strike of accountability. These moments of conviction were hard to adopt when you are taught from a young age to be grateful for what you have, don’t ask for more, keep your head down, and stay humble. Over time, I signed up for professional development events that teach you how to present yourself for opportunities, how to celebrate your wins, and reflect unapologetically on that accomplishment as much as you do on what it cost you to accomplish it. It changed the way I presented myself in rooms – both physical and virtual. I began battling my own introversion by reaching out to people who emulated the qualities and nature of work I wanted to achieve. I began signing up and reaching out to participate “however I can be a resource.” Sometimes I was the one cleaning up after everybody just to be in the room and learn. Sometimes I was signing people into the opportunity. But sometimes I was the Keynote Speaker and other times I became the lead. In consulting, I reached out blindly to Managing Directors and Partners with a summary of who I was, what my aspirations are, and what I have accomplished to materialize those aspirations asking for 15 minutes of their time. Sometimes I was ghosted. Sometimes I was gaslit to be happy with what I had and where I was. But sometimes it led to new projects and mentorships where I grew in my capabilities and acumen. Opportunities don’t always come gift-wrapped but they always come with the potential for holistic growth.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

As of this interview, our non-profit has never had to rely on a website presence or advertising to bring in clientele. I couldn’t have afforded it if I wanted to for the first several years. Yet, 100% of our traffic has been grassroots and word-of-mouth. I made a decision more than a decade ago that we would invest in a website when our team can no longer manage the flow of outreach from the community with timely, quality responses and action. I was excluded from opportunities to talk about our organization because of a lack of funds in pay-to-play models and information exchange platform coordinators who assessed the lack of a website as not serious or legitimate. I stayed true to the notion that a drop in the bucket was more water than we had without the bucket. So we were going to keep holding space and time for those who needed it and pour into them every step of the way. Where I was excluded from opportunities to showcase in dedicated rooms of 100, I was asked to lead state, national, and global platforms with rooms of thousands in my reinvest work. I began to be recognized by my peers and leadership as a “Changemaker”, “Care Champion”, and “Mountain Mover”. That was confirmation that my passion and efforts were seen and this was worth more than any photo op on a stage or social event with the executives. It let me know my work was working. After building countless sites, platforms, and automations for our clientele, as of this year, demand has grown to the point where we are ready to entertain a virtual platform of our own that can help provide an autonomous, seamless experience to resourcing the information, community, and solutions needed to help them achieve growth in their own organizations. Our brand is accessible opportunities through intentional works and sustainable strategy. Our clients respond well to that and experience tangible growth as a result. Hard work sells itself when coupled with awareness of and accessibility to the rendering of that work.