Small Business Stories - Loretta Love Huff Video

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Small Business Stories - Loretta Love Huff

Ivy Hartman: Welcome to Phoenix Arizona home to the 2008 NAWBO, National Women’s Business Conference. I'm here with Loretta Love Huff of Emerald Harvest Consulting and I'm Ivy Hartman obviously with sbtv.com. Loretta finally nice to sit down and talk with you, she’s been lighting up a room every room we go around this conference. Loretta Love Huff: Thank you. Ivy Hartman: You're welcome. Now you are wearing this signature color of the hats we’ve seen all around the conference. Talk about what the hats mean. Loretta Love Huff: Okay. I started to wear my hat but I thought that people are distracting. So this Phoenix and this has been up until recently cowboy country or cowgirl country. So we wanted something that would distinguish us from all the other attendees here and set us a part as a whole chapter and we thought what better thing than something kind of western thing. So we found these cowboy hats and found them in teal which was perfect so we’re very happy with that. Ivy Hartman: It’s eye catching and very fashionable at the same time. You are definitely making your mark on this year’s conference. Loretta Love Huff: Well good thank you they are hot commodity people are wanting to know how they can get one. Ivy Hartman: I want too. Emerald Harvest Consulting, talk about your business Loretta. Loretta Love Huff: It’s a training and consulting business. So I help people and teams exceed their dreams. We work with small business owners; I specialize in various aspects of communication. So I work with marketing and management with small business owners to help them grow their businesses and manage their small set of employees better. And I work with leaders in organizations to help them get more out of their teams. We find that lot of managers are just not really good at communicating what they are expecting and what they need to get. Ivy Hartman: I would imagine the key is for those managers and those leaders to know that their shortcomings are in those areas so that they can hire you to consult them. Talk about your background and what makes you an expert and why you started Emerald Harvest. Loretta Love Huff: Well I have a degree in psychology. I have an undergraduate degree in psychology. I have a master’s degree in finance. So I kind of travel in two different worlds and I spend a lot of my corporate career, I spend 25 years in companies, large companies and small companies in human resources. So I've spent a lot of time talking to managers about employees they were frustrated with and talking to employees about their frustrations with their bosses. So understand it from a lot of different perspectives that I'm able to share that with the people that I work with. Ivy Hartman: Now you're an award winner from the county, the MC Biz award winner. Talk about what that is and how you received that. Loretta Love Huff: Well the award is called the Top Hat Award. This is the year that they’ve given it and the manager of this program; Andres Gola has watched me in a workshop that I lead for the workforce connections group a couple of years ago. And has just been following me for the last few years and offered me this award along with four other small business owners in the area. And he said that the Top Hat represents the business owners. We wear a lot of different hats but the one that’s the most important is the top hat and so that’s what the award is. Ivy Hartman: He shared that with us. You’ve been involve with NAWBO for how long? Loretta Love Huff: Just a couple of years. I used to live in the Silicon Valley so I was in the chapter in San Jose for a year and then I moved to Phoenix and I got involved with this chapter just about a year ago. Ivy Hartman: Well as president you actually take over just shortly—when they start airing you’ll be president of the elect so we’re okay. Talk about what it means for your chapter to have the national convention here in Phoenix? Loretta Love Huff: Great. Well I think it brought us a lot of visibility. Up until recently Phoenix has been this tiny little town nobody really knew about it. We’ve growing dramatically over the last two years. But I think people just don’t have the understanding or perception of what it is and how we are turning into a large city. So it’s been great visibility for the local economy, for the city, for this wonderful venue that we’re in and for our chapter as well. Ivy Hartman: Let’s talk about the venue. It’s affecting my mood while I'm here. Loretta Love Huff: Is it? I hope that’s positive for you. Ivy Hartman: Oh yes. If I didn’t mention it I'm much more relax. I can't share my opinions too much, talk about—have you attended any other conferences whether they’re NAWBO or otherwise and maybe this one is different for me. I don’t know how you feel about being at the Biltmore. Loretta Love Huff: I don’t stay here because I live in Phoenix. Ivy Hartman: Right that’s true good point. Loretta Love Huff: But it is very peaceful. I've come here for a number of different events during the years that I've lived here and it is very peaceful. So having the mountain in the background and all the greenery around here that’s very different than what most of the landscape is like because we are in a desert but you would know it being here. This is a less tropical spot Ivy Hartman: The building itself has some history in architecture itself that you native Phoenix, do you they appreciate the Biltmore in that sense or is it all of us visitor that’s why I like the place. Its Springfield right that— Loretta Love Huff: It is and you can tell that in some of the designs of the building. His signature styles definitely apparent here. So I think people look to this as one of our signature spots and we are very proud of it. We do come here for events. There are awards, ceremonies and lot of the major organizations meet here. We have some of our events here as well the local chapters so we’re very proud. This is a resort capital. We’re proud with lot of our five-star, four-star hotels and resorts. Ivy Hartman: Oh yeah and I'm so happy to be here in Phoenix Arizona. We hope to see you again in another NAWBO conference and best of luck as your president elect duties. Loretta Love Huff: Thank you I'm looking forward to it. Ivy Hartman: Yes absolutely. Loretta thanks for your expertise also on the communication aspect. If we need more information about the Emerald Harvest Consulting how can we do that? Loretta Love Huff: You can go to my website www.emeraldharvest.com. Ivy Hartman: That’s easy enough said. I'm going to continue my conversation with Loretta, in the meantime why don’t you check out the rest of our coverage here of NAWBO 2008 in Phoenix Arizona.

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Ivy Hartman: Welcome to Phoenix Arizona home to the 2008 NAWBO, National Women’s Business Conference. I'm here with Loretta Love Huff of Emerald Harvest Consulting and I'm Ivy Hartman obviously with sbtv.com. Loretta finally nice to sit down and talk with you, she’s been lighting up a room every room we go around this conference.

Loretta Love Huff: Thank you.

Ivy Hartman: You're welcome. Now you are wearing this signature color of the hats we’ve seen all around the conference. Talk about what the hats mean.

Loretta Love Huff: Okay. I started to wear my hat but I thought that people are distracting. So this Phoenix and this has been up until recently cowboy country or cowgirl country. So we wanted something that would distinguish us from all the other attendees here and set us a part as a whole chapter and we thought what better thing than something kind of western thing. So we found these cowboy hats and found them in teal which was perfect so we’re very happy with that.

Ivy Hartman: It’s eye catching and very fashionable at the same time. You are definitely making your mark on this year’s conference.

Loretta Love Huff: Well good thank you they are hot commodity people are wanting to know how they can get one.

Ivy Hartman: I want too. Emerald Harvest Consulting, talk about your business Loretta.

Loretta Love Huff: It’s a training and consulting business. So I help people and teams exceed their dreams. We work with small business owners; I specialize in various aspects of communication. So I work with marketing and management with small business owners to help them grow their businesses and manage their small set of employees better. And I work with leaders in organizations to help them get more out of their teams. We find that lot of managers are just not really good at communicating what they are expecting and what they need to get.

Ivy Hartman: I would imagine the key is for those managers and those leaders to know that their shortcomings are in those areas so that they can hire you to consult them. Talk about your background and what makes you an expert and why you started Emerald Harvest.

Loretta Love Huff: Well I have a degree in psychology. I have an undergraduate degree in psychology. I have a master’s degree in finance. So I kind of travel in two different worlds and I spend a lot of my corporate career, I spend 25 years in companies, large companies and small companies in human resources. So I've spent a lot of time talking to managers about employees they were frustrated with and talking to employees about their frustrations with their bosses.

So understand it from a lot of different perspectives that I'm able to share that with the people that I work with.

Ivy Hartman: Now you're an award winner from the county, the MC Biz award winner. Talk about what that is and how you received that.

Loretta Love Huff: Well the award is called the Top Hat Award. This is the year that they’ve given it and the manager of this program; Andres Gola has watched me in a workshop that I lead for the workforce connections group a couple of years ago. And has just been following me for the last few years and offered me this award along with four other small business owners in the area. And he said that the Top Hat represents the business owners. We wear a lot of different hats but the one that’s the most important is the top hat and so that’s what the award is.

Ivy Hartman: He shared that with us. You’ve been involve with NAWBO for how long?

Loretta Love Huff: Just a couple of years. I used to live in the Silicon Valley so I was in the chapter in San Jose for a year and then I moved to Phoenix and I got involved with this chapter just about a year ago.

Ivy Hartman: Well as president you actually take over just shortly—when they start airing you’ll be president of the elect so we’re okay. Talk about what it means for your chapter to have the national convention here in Phoenix?

Loretta Love Huff: Great. Well I think it brought us a lot of visibility. Up until recently Phoenix has been this tiny little town nobody really knew about it. We’ve growing dramatically over the last two years. But I think people just don’t have the understanding or perception of what it is and how we are turning into a large city.

So it’s been great visibility for the local economy, for the city, for this wonderful venue that we’re in and for our chapter as well.

Ivy Hartman: Let’s talk about the venue. It’s affecting my mood while I'm here.

Loretta Love Huff: Is it? I hope that’s positive for you.

Ivy Hartman: Oh yes. If I didn’t mention it I'm much more relax. I can't share my opinions too much, talk about—have you attended any other conferences whether they’re NAWBO or otherwise and maybe this one is different for me. I don’t know how you feel about being at the Biltmore.

Loretta Love Huff: I don’t stay here because I live in Phoenix.

Ivy Hartman: Right that’s true good point.

Loretta Love Huff: But it is very peaceful. I've come here for a number of different events during the years that I've lived here and it is very peaceful. So having the mountain in the background and all the greenery around here that’s very different than what most of the landscape is like because we are in a desert but you would know it being here. This is a less tropical spot

Ivy Hartman: The building itself has some history in architecture itself that you native Phoenix, do you they appreciate the Biltmore in that sense or is it all of us visitor that’s why I like the place. Its Springfield right that—

Loretta Love Huff: It is and you can tell that in some of the designs of the building. His signature styles definitely apparent here. So I think people look to this as one of our signature spots and we are very proud of it. We do come here for events. There are awards, ceremonies and lot of the major organizations meet here. We have some of our events here as well the local chapters so we’re very proud. This is a resort capital. We’re proud with lot of our five-star, four-star hotels and resorts.

Ivy Hartman: Oh yeah and I'm so happy to be here in Phoenix Arizona. We hope to see you again in another NAWBO conference and best of luck as your president elect duties.

Loretta Love Huff: Thank you I'm looking forward to it.

Ivy Hartman: Yes absolutely. Loretta thanks for your expertise also on the communication aspect. If we need more information about the Emerald Harvest Consulting how can we do that?

Loretta Love Huff: You can go to my website www.emeraldharvest.com.

Ivy Hartman: That’s easy enough said. I'm going to continue my conversation with Loretta, in the meantime why don’t you check out the rest of our coverage here of NAWBO 2008 in Phoenix Arizona.

Transcription by: Scribe4you Transcription Services