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

Alright, Robin thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Parents play a huge role in our development as youngsters and sometimes that impact follows us into adulthood and into our lives and careers. Looking back, what’s something you think you parents did right?
I come from a family that has 5 kids so my parents couldn’t always provide the materials things we as children wanted, but of course that didn’t stop us from wanting them. But instead of telling us we couldn’t have something or they couldn’t afford something, when I told my parents that I wanted something they would get excited for me having that item and would ask “That sounds amazing, How are you going to get it”. That instilled in me the belief that I could have the things I wanted if I developed and executed a strategy to get them. I’ve continued to ask myself that same question “How am I going to get it” when I want something in my personal or professional life. What this does is activate problem solving part of my brain, rather that instilling a mindset of “lack”.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Robin is the co-founder and Principal with EmFluent, an Executive Performance Consulting company that focuses on Strategy, Execution and Talent Optimization. Robin is also President and CEO of the Black Chamber of Arizona, Recognized as a professional speaker, Robin has spoken nationally and internationally on the topics of business development, strategy execution, talent optimization, sales mergers and acquisition and DEI. Originally from Northern California, Robin currently lives in Phoenix, Arizona with his wife and is an avid golfer who enjoys getting out on the course 3-4 times per week.

Robin holds several board seats including.
Phoenix College President’s Advisory Board: Co-Chair since 2018
Treasure House: Board Member since 2019
Valley of the Sun United Way: Board Member Since 2020
Arizona State University, Knowledge Exchange for Resilience (KER), Council of Resilience Leaders
ASU W.P. Carey School of Business, AZNext – Steering Committee
Arizona Tech Council
Global Ties Arizona

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
After building a successful career as a partner in a mortgage firm, we had the rug pulled out from under us in the “mortgage meltdown” of 2008. Because I specialized in multi-million dollar spec home loans, that market was impacted first and most severely with many lenders in that space going under. Realizing the market wasn’t going to rebound quickly, I immediately shifted my business to “mortgage consulting” and began working with both new and existing clients to focus on creating long-term objectives regarding real estate investing and helping them mitigate risk with their current holdings. By making this shift, I was able to help clients save 10’s of millions of dollars by realigning their real estate portfolios and position them for the eventual market rebound that happened years later.

How’d you meet your business partner?
My co-founder and business partner happens to be my wife. She’d built a 20+ year career as a VP of strategy for many of the countries largest benefits consulting firms. When an opportunity presented itself to take an early exit from a company for which she worked, we quickly had her take over one of the divisions of our company which we determined would benefit from her unique skills and experience. Although she is a first-time entrepreneur, by leveraging those skills at which she excelled and enjoyed, our company saw immediate benefit.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.emfluent.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robinsreed/