We were lucky to catch up with Rikki Smith recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Rikki, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I had been in corporate work environments for a number of years. I was in the Military and after that I worked in the Hospitality industry, Customs and Border protection, home healthcare, and health care insurance. In each area of work, training was a major part, and mandatory training was the buzz word.

What I noticed about training was that it was so boring, and the information, takeaways, and best practices were lost in the desire to “get outta there”. It was as if the companies found the most monotoned individuals, who were probably morticians in their first life, to conduct a 4-hour, mandatory training. The trainings were such a waste of time, a whole day of work was lost, and nothing came out of it, besides breakfast, and time away from my desk. There had to be a better way.

I found out through study and research, that people learn more and are more engaged when they are laughing, playing, and interacting with others. Children learn thru play. Why did adults stop learning this way? Well, they didn’t we just stopped training that way. So, I “built a better mouse trap”.

I worked to learn training techniques, did some research, and started training using interactive technology that included a lot of hands-on activities. This allowed adults to learn while laughing, playing, and interacting with each other.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I was raised in a military family; both of my parents were in the Air Force. Moving around the country, and the world was part of life. Meeting people, making friends, and experiencing different cultures gave me a love for adventure, travel, food, and connection. As a military spouse, my spouse is a retired Army veteran, I had to get a new job with each new duty station. That meant training, and a lot of it.

Training is a key element to any business, personal and professional development. It can be difficult to keep training topics fun and fresh. We offer expert trainers, a proven method of learning and offer takeaways that can be implemented immediately.
We take the guess work out of and bridge the gap between what to train, how to train, and how to engage the team.

My company provides fully customizable soft-skills training in public speaking, leadership, customer relations, personal branding, and communications for leaders. We offer group, and individual training with a post training coaching options.

I am so proud of being one of the few soft-skills training companies in our area. I am proud of my phenomenal team that makes what we do smooth, and fun. I am thrilled with our ever-growing client list and knowing that what we offer is an excellent product and service.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I started the company just before the pandemic. I went from a full schedule to nothing in about 2 weeks. I was stunned, upset, and scared. I had put so much into getting things off the ground, and now nothing was moving. After a few weeks of crying, pouting, and rethinking my life choices. I started to see some holes in my business plan. I began working on getting those holes filed in. Prior to the pandemic. I had no contingency plan. during the 18 month “down time” I learned what “pivot” meant. I started putting together ideas, packets, and plans. I revamped my team and their roles. I did some downsizing, created a money management system, and started looking for and acquiring online training opportunities and contracts. When the world ‘opened up” again, I was really ready this time.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

For me, social media was a huge black hole that people fell in and were never found again. I had no idea what any of it was all about. Oh sure, I had a FB page and I liked YouTube, but as a business tool, I didn’t get it. My business coach at the time, told me to “get out there” that meant social media. After a few weeks of fighting tooth and nail the idea, I finally dove in. I started with putting out short videos on my personal FB page. that seemed to be going ok (that is another story). Then I moved the FB videos to a YouTube channel that I had just learned to create. To date the Channel has been running for 7 years. From the channel came my 1st book, my business page on FB and IG. Now I schedule posts that appear weekly on YT, FB, IG, and LinkedIn.

Social media can be a chore, but when done right it has great benefits for exposure and giving your potential clients and customers a way to find you and connect.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://stratustrains.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stratustrainingllc/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stratustrains
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rikkismith10/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaIns3gor1xkuyIiCKWHfKQ

Image Credits
Head shot: Tina Dwyer photography El Paso, TX