We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful LaDray Gilbert. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with LaDray below.

LaDray , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

LaDray , 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?

As an attorney, I ran a law practice that was largely successful. For more than a decade, I was able to make history in my hometown and change the lives of many people. Despite that not ending how I would have desired, I still look back on that time as one of the most beautiful times of my life that has helped shape me into the person I am, today.

Now, I’m fully invested in growing and developing nonprofits and small businesses. I use all of the things I learned in the last chapter of my life to forge ahead in this next stage. I work with organizations to figure out in which direction they want to head. Once we get a sense of what the goals are, we develop plans to achieve those goals by identifying resources, developing strategic partnerships, and creating tangible results to gauge progress. Whether it’s a mom and pop coffee shop or a nationally renowned service organization, I have worked with a myriad of companies to help them develop and achieve success.

While I, originally, tried an approach more tied to the legal aspects of business, I have settled in the lane of assisting organizations by developing systems and programs to aid in their marketing and build their client base. We have worked with law firms and helped them increase their client intake by 200% in just under two months. We have built mentoring programs from scratch into award winning entities in a year or less. We have a specific knack for being able to identify growth opportunities for organizations based on their programs desires and values.

In this space, I have the ability to thrive just as much as LeBron James is successful on a basketball court. Because of my background and my upbringing, helping others is a burning passion of mine. I think that the people that I’ve worked with have been able to identify that early and it has worked out well for all parties involved.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I have been able to build my reputation in my market by thinking outside of the box in the way I create and leverage relationships. To me, it’s imperative that every move I make is strategic and will allow me to gain the maximum output with each transaction. Employing this technique has little to nothing to do with what I am receiving and more about what I have to offer. I am a firm believer that a person will gain more by focusing on what they can offer as opposed to what they want for themselves. When I approach a situation, I’m thinking about how me or my actions can provide value to the situation. I trust, that if I am effective, I will gain much more in the future from showing up and cementing a partnership, initially.

Once I establish that I am able to add value and resources to a project, I can now start to think about how to use this new relationship for maximum benefit for both parties in the future. Being able to adapt my ideas to what people need and thinking several moves ahead has helped me build my reputation with in my market. People know that if I’m calling or emailing about a project, it is advantageous for them to join and participate. We have been so successful that, even if they aren’t able to participate in an event, they want to make sure I keep them in the loop for the next one.

A vital key to any business is having the proper network to substantiate the endeavor. I have a knack for building meaningful, impactful relationships and utilizing those connections to the benefit of all parties involved. A wise man once told me that, in business, ‘Nothing is about, today. Everything is about tomorrow!’ It’s with that mentality that I’ve been able to survive some major hits and pitfalls in my professional career. The people that really know me and have worked closely with me know what I’m capable of and that I will always underpromise and over deliver in a way that is sure to be memorable.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

When I moved to Atlanta, I was starting over from Ground Zero. Everything that I had amassed and built in my former career and been left as ash in the aftermath of the scorched Earth events that had been the closing of the last chapter. Knowing that I was moving to a new environment, I fully understood that I had to start at the bottom again and climb up.

Only this time, the 10,000 lb weight of past mishaps mirrored my every step. I had no doubt in myself that I would, eventually , bounce back, but I was very slow about putting myself out there again. This was, especially, unique for me because my marketing and branding efforts had taken me from the farms of North Florida to speaking engagements at places like Harvard and visits to The White House.
Armed with nothing but my pure determination, I built several businesses from the ground up, again. Though they were largely successful in pulling down some lucrative contracts, I realized that I was still not performing at an optimal level. Thus, my biggest risk became betting on myself again and putting myself back out there.

Once I decided that I was going to be the sum of my existence rather than a specific point, I regained the confidence and was able to get back into the ‘Winner’s Circle’, again. I got back to leading organizations. I started speaking in public once more. Also, I accepted honors from those that had witnessed the work I was doing and wanted to highlight my achievements. This was a very bold move, even for me, because I had no idea which way it would go. However, I kept the faith and things are looking up once again.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @old_united_log_llc
• Other: IG: @mirror100_southmetro100