welcome to bets on the future where we highlight the various career paths in the electrifying Metals World from the vehicle you ride in to the bridge holding and up metals are everywhere why not in your career too I’m Jennifer BS a medals industry veteran with almost 20 years experience here to highlight these incredible career paths As Told by the women who are living them today we have the incredible honor to have Brandy harlo CEO of South Post Oak recycling center on bets on the future Brandy is an award-winning entrepreneur business owner notable keynote speaker Mentor recycling Champion and World changer she is the CEO and second generation owner of South Post Oak recycling center Houston’s trusted metal recycling company prior to transitioning into the family’s recycling business in 2013 Brandy spent 15 years leading teams within Fortune 100 companies such as Target Northrup gunman and Disney in the areas of organizational development and strategy she’s Blended in Ms and psychology ology an MBA learnings from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business program as well as certificates in managing the family office and Leadership and family transitions to continue rounding out her experience

recognized for her entrepreneurial Excellence with Awards like the 2023 Texas small business person of the year Brandy is also a celebrated keynote speaker on topics ranging from resilience to women empowerment a champion of stem education and sustainability she serves and influential roles on boards like the peer School of Business and The Institute of scrap recycling Industries residing in Houston with her husband Brandy balances her professional achievements with a passion for travel hiking and spending time with loved ones I’m actually in person with Randy Haro um we are at South Coast Oak recycling center here in Houston Texas um I am in the area for awmi event you’re heavily involved in a mind women Recycling and things like that and it only seemed natural I’ve known you for several years now but I’ve never actually gotten to see your company yes so I just wanted to thank you for coming on and taking a few minutes just to chat with me I’m glad you are here and you are absolutely right I think we’ve met in most other cities except for here almost every other city except for here yeah except for here so welcome

welcome welcome to South Post Stoke recycling center this is my family it is my home it is what I work on every day to build a legacy you know I think a lot of people talk just about Metals um and I love them um but this is so much bigger to me you know it is about this industry but um it’s also about impact for me it’s about um growing this business you know making a difference here um but then using if you will the successes and the tentacles and even the profits if you will from this to Parlay that into other things um and it’s not just because you know environmental social and governance is if you will the Hot Topic right now um it’s very in it is very in it is very in but we’ll be celebrating 30 years in business next year and congratulations thank you thank you and I know it’s that’s infantile comparatively but I’ve learned in life to run my own race you know and so we’re going to be proud of of what we’ve done but I just think back to when I joined the company

about 10 years ago when I came in and I was dissecting financials and I spent a lot of time asking my dad why things were a certain way or what was his thought you know not to challenge it and I just remember um giving back to the community quite substantially and nobody knew about it you know except for the people that we gave back to and I said the these are great Endeavors but I think people should know and I think um and then there’s a lot that people shouldn’t know but I I learned right away that that was just the fabric and also a tentacle of doing business so here we are it’s a really incredible story from what I know about your your family starting the business to also you did your own thing yeah for for many years um actually I now live in California and you were you have some ties out there as well you were recently out there at your home and mod as well so it’s can you share a little bit about your journey because you obviously have the Family Ties but it doesn’t seem like

maybe you were always going to come back to the business I I wasn’t I wasn’t Jennifer and so um I guess the abbreviated version would be you know I um my parents started South postto recycling center in 1994 believe it or not I was one of uh the first employees and my job at that time was upgrading materials specifically AC coils and Reapers um um and and moving it to a more profitable form um but no I went to college I went to University of Houston here in Houston um and then I moved to California to go to grad school and the the short of it was I was very focused on pursuing a career in organizational development talent and strategy um and that’s what I did you know I finished grad school there and I had my ey set on what I thought would be a sexy career and so I said I was like I want to work for the Walt Disney Company well that’s not where my career started it actually started at northr Grumman and Aerospace so uh I spent a few years there um working for the division that

built the B2 bombers um yeah so go from Mixie Mickey Mixie Mickey to you know B2 bombers but that is where I cut my teeth I think professionally and um that too was a it was a male dominated industry um it was it aged more mature if you will um but I had great leaders there I had great mentors and so I spent a few years there you know building out talent management pipelines working with Executives on their strategies and loved it um while there I got a call from the Walt Disney Company of course there was networking that was taking place in between you networking yeah exactly go figure it go figure you don’t sit tight you know I’m a big believer in being excellent I am but then also looking at other tentacles as I’m sure you are yes and so yeah got a call with with Disney and went over to the consumer products division um to lead and to work in the organizational development and talent strategy fast forward just like careers work my boss ended up leaving I ended up um taking over my divisions Department of leadership and

talent management and strategy and that was instrumental because what that really consisted of was me working directly with the presidents um in the sea Suite of that division uh as there internal consultant you know as their internal consultant and it wasn’t it wasn’t HR per se this I wasn’t hiring and firing you know my job was to facilitate their strategy sessions and figure out what structure they needed in place in order to align with the growth strategies that they had how do we assess the people Etc and so I always laugh because when people say well do those skills transfer over I’m like that is business business is we all know the business is about the people you know whether you like it or not I hear people who say man I wish I could run a business without the people I I say good luck good exactly no that’s a huge leg up that’s a huge leg up for for anything that you would have wanted to go into to have that experience you know the people piece is huge and and if you talk to folks today it’s one of the biggest

pain points that we have is the attraction the engagement the retention of and I really do think my experience and not that we don’t have our share of challenges for sure but I do think that it gave me a different perspective um and then coupled with that I wasn’t just focusing on that it was very much about business transformation it was about business growth um and so you know backing up to my time when I was at North gr and I remember being and you can appreciate this driving on the 405 freeway about to pull my hair out in Los Angeles traffic but I used that time I talked with my my dad quite often so I would talk to him about business and so forth and I just I remember him saying you know 2008 2010 hey Brandy at some point I’m going to want to sell this at some and and like the person or like the the child that does not think about that you know I said go right ahead you know go right ahead and sell it and um I had no no interest in coming into this industry

really not at all you know I you know some people just have their own you you have your own career true that you have in mind and I’m sure there’s many people who are probably watching they have kids or they know people have set out and they’re like I’m going to do this and this is how I’m going to do it and it has nothing to do with the family business or the recycling industry y um you can probably can very much relate to it I have a finance degree I shouldn’t be here exactly exactly and so you and then you find that path but um I’ll kind of Bring It Together by saying you know often times there’s people in our lives that will water seeds that were planted and and then you just watch it grow so fast forward I’m still working at um Disney I’m I’m leading the organizational development team and one of the executive coaches that we were working with Peter pulled me aside one day after he had an engagement and I’ve I’ve shared this story before and he just said Brandy I think you’re doing a great

job here but I really think that there’s something more for you and I looked at him like I’m at my dream job doing exactly what I want to be doing and he says you know you’ve told me about this family business in Houston and I looked at him and I said the scrap metal business I said you have to be joking anyway it was Peter that painted this picture I mean painted this picture and watered this seed he he essentially said so this would have been in 2010 he said Brandy first of all I think recycling is the way of the future go figure he’s 2023 now he said recycling is the way of the future now we’re having conversations about circularity and the integration of recycling and sustainability he said you know there’s not many people that successfully transition a family business from the first to the second you know or the second to the third yes and then he said if I can be quite Frank he said I don’t see many people who look like you that are in that industry and that are in that space and so he he

just he painted a picture so clear that it made me really take a step back and say you know what what do I want to do next you know and I knew I would never catch up with the years of experience that my dad had you know and for me is 15 15 years in Corporate America so not that degrees are the end all be all but I said you know what I’m going to go back to school and so that’s where pepper Dy comes in I go back to school I get an NBA and I’m going to use That season of life to do my pre-work on the business on the industry and you know I’m sure you know several people whove gone through to get their NBAs and they’re studying companies they have nothing that they’re just interested in Coca-Cola or Walmart or apple you know and for me over those two years going to night school while I work full-time I studied South poast Oak recycling center so from from queuing to our profit and loss statements to our cash flow stat statements to our capex you know

to understand in the supply chain of this industry I was I did that in parallel and so that was my pre-work wow you know coming into the industry um finished up grad school in December of 2012 I put in my letter of resignation uh January of 2013 at the Walt Disney Company wow I did a month sabatical in Europe and add don’t you you have to Italy and France you can’t go wrong no just eat your way through it amaz macarons a little bit here and there um some good pasta and wine that goes a long way yes it definitely goes a long way and then I was here in March of 2013 wow so Jud I Gotta Give Judy Ferraro a shout out because Judy said Brandy you literally went from pixie dust to real D and and I did J and I have not I have honestly not looked back I have not looked back it’s been really wonderful to to see you in this industry I have to give a couple shout outs to to your what you’ve been doing as well um first of all for those listening for

those watching find you online find you on LinkedIn um you were at the White House recently yeah you were you gave a speech at Pepperdine yeah like I mean it’s been a year yes it’s been a it’s been a really good year it’s funny you said that because I woke up this morning and I was already thinking about Thanksgiving because this is that’s right around the point for those of you who are watching this we’re at the end of October yes I don’t know 2023 um but at the end of October and that my brain thinks like future Focus like what’s coming up what do we and so in my head I was already thinking about the things that I’m thankful for and the things that I’m grateful for just kind of mentally reflecting on this year and like I said there has been some extreme highlights you know and I’m a big believer you know accolades they are nice you know but if if we’re quite candid you know it’s it’s really linked to ongoing brand visibility business visibility um and for those things I don’t I don’t they’re nice they’re nice to

have you know but I much prefer to keep growing the business you know growing my team but yeah so the small business administration they have an awards every year and they have multiple awards that they do for every state and one of those Awards is the small business entrepreneur of the year and so um I was nominated by the local sbdc or Small Business Development Center office they put my my name in the Hat I filled out the paperwork that they asked fast forward I get a call from the district’s leader and in Houston and he says Brandy I have some good news and I said what is that Jeff or Tim and he says you have been selected as the Houston you know small business entrepreneur of the year and I said this is great he said well I have some more news and I said what is that he said well what you didn’t know was that your name was also put in the Hat of the seven other Texas district winners um so and he said so this was over a thousand people they reviewed they narrowed down and then you

were selected this year so that was a huge honor right huge honor huge the state of Texas isn’t exactly small small it’s not yeah not at all it takes me 12 hours to drive from Houston to El Paso just FY and we’re not even out of the state no um but I thought that that was a huge honor and so they said you’re gonna be going to Washington DC they’re going to have some awards great we’re on our way to Washington DC we’re landing at um DCA and like all of us I’m checking my email because it’s like you got to keep working while you’re moving and I see this email that says complete your security clearance for the White House and I was like this has to be a joke fast forward it was not a joke it was quite serious and um I tell people I don’t care what your political beliefs are it is quite special to go um um to the White House and even still we thought oh we’ll just meet with the chief of staff but no president Bon vice president kamla Harris were there and they’re fol

and it was an intimate group it was probably about 60 people I I call that intimate I would pretty intimate White House at the were in the Rose Garden and their focus was on the state of business and the power of Entrepreneurship and so it was just quite special and quite surreal that was you know you you I’m sure have your list of things that you want yes yes and we I mean we do that’s why not and that was not on the list I have to tell you and so it’s nice when you have yes it is nice when you have those cherries it is so nice so it it’s just an honor and then you get to be there and you meet the 50 other you know winners from across and that becomes a new network of people so it was awesome and probably pretty inspirational too to what they’ve done as well and like you said from the networking standpoint I imagine it probably motivat you a little bit more it does you know but and I have to tell you I feel like through that throughout this year but it’s

been going like this for a little while I call it juice I even even with the setbacks you know and the Falls you know and the CL you know climbs back there is so much upside and I would there’s a book called Peaks and valleys and the premise of it is enjoy your Peaks while you’re on your Peaks you know don’t get too high if you will but enjoy your Peaks but recognize that there will be valleys and learn how to adapt when you’re in your valleys and so I feel like this year I have had some beautiful Peaks you know and it makes me and then I appreciate my valleys different I look at my valleys quite differently you know if if we didn’t have a month that I anticipated us having I go get some juice you know I’m Juiced up and it’s like okay let’s hey team let’s let’s go get it so you know it’s it’s a blessing I’m going to have to add that to the um I’m going to say the reading list even though we typically listen to audible are you aible I’m take aible yeah I

mean when you’re driving in the car like awesome it it’s fantastic it’s perfect it it really is it you’ve done so many incredible things and and you’re one of the few people I would say in our industry that actually post about it right and I really appreciate that about you and you do it in a way of of sharing what’s going on in your business sharing you know the Peaks as you talked about right I think you do also do a good job of the Val Sharing The Valleys as well it’s both sides and I think that motivates people and encourages people to stay in our industry yeah uh Network within our industry and also join our industry right I can’t imagine out of the other 49 states or 50 were including um DC that a lot of them were in the recycling industry there was nobody in the recycling industry right no there wasn’t there there wasn’t and you know I have to tell you I can’t take this is what we’re doing now I think is is a team effort um Believe it or it is not my comfortable space to come

and say this is what we’re doing on a social platform I might be out at dinner with folks I might be talking to a customer um I would say kind of I I appreciate kind of intimate conversations with people and that might be the platform for that I say this is who we are as an industry these are some of the things that we do you know as a company here’s some value that we can offer you um but for several years now I have been pushed by my network um and even my internal team to say put it out there you know put it out there and um even still you know what I have realized Jennifer is that people do look and people people do say here’s what’s going on or what’s going on I I can’t tell you how many prospective customers that I’ve had or even people in my network who have gotten a better understanding of the industry of our business and even the value that we bring because of social media and we’re not across all platforms you know we have hyper Focus um but that’s been strategic

on our part and I think you’ve done a phenomenal job in that ramping up and ramping up very quickly um but you can speak to it probably um very very intellectually and say it’s I think it can be a game changer it it really can be I mean I I’ve I’ve met you through through I um which is the Institute of scrap recycling Industries see a lot got we’re now like we gotta pause for a second all the industry talk because I hope this reaches people that are not within our industry so very much so um but at that point I mean I wasn’t really on social media like I wouldn’t have probably really met you or come across you up until that point except for like the inperson right right right it really seems like in recent years more businesses are getting online more people are getting online and so now especially with Co yes everything shutting down and not being able to network at conferences changes the game it changed the game and you’re really seeing the reward for all the hard work that you’re putting into the online content showing what

you’re doing I mean I’ve never been to your facility before but it’s an exact representation of what you’ve been putting out on you know especially like LinkedIn on the various platforms so it’s been wonderful to see that in person what you’re putting out there is authentic that’s I think that that’s key I mean I wouldn’t I wouldn’t get on these platforms any other way you know it’s like I said it’s not necessarily the most comfortable because believe it I I’m not necessarily somebody says let’s put me out there and I and I go back and forth with my marketing team honestly and I go back and forth um but they were like brandy it’s you got you got to you know it’s where we are in today’s Marketplace yes um people want to well people have always wanted to do people do business with people they know like and Trust right but what’s interesting is that we’re in a landscape now where people may not personally know you but seeing an authentic you and I always try to present an authentic me um it’s almost like a a precursor to meeting them and you

know I’ll meet people and they’re like like I know you yes it kind of takes a little bit of the leg work out when you first initially meet someone you have to get through the a little bit of the awkwardness the small talk Etc I’ve met people in person recently that it kind of dawned on me that I had never actually met them in person but I felt like I had known them because of what they’ve been putting out on um the various social media platforms and it’s just it it made it easier and quicker to do business with them yeah I can definitely see that I mean it it Bridges um I also think about it from educating about the industry and educating about our business so I think um by putting out content showing people what value is what they get out of something um linking it back to their pain point it also speeds up a cycle of connecting with people you know I’ve gone into corporate doors um of people who follow and they’re like okay I already I get it you know I get it let’s let’s get the

ball rolling and so it’s a tangible benefit it it really is the social media aspect of things um really makes it easier to do business with people or to even find talent to be honest because when you’re thinking about hiring someone um what are they going to do they’re gonna google you they’re GNA go to social media they’re going to see what is your company about what what do you offer yes and when they go through the interview process and then ultimately on boarding is it going to be matching up with what you’re putting out there it is so real it is so real I’ve actually so practically speaking I I’ve had a good couple handful of people who have reached out to me directly um about employment because they either seen or read um about who we are what we’re doing and they literally have said you know Brandy I want to work for a leader like you and so then their job is just to make sure that there’s continuity right like you said and so we’ve hired a couple of people that’s really through those channels and and that was not

M that is just a byproduct you know it’s a byproduct of uh what we’re doing you know what do they call it a tertiary benefit that was not even at the Forefront you know and so you’re spot on yes it’s a lot of benefit and there there really is a lot of benefit when it comes to to I mean that’s why we’re doing the podcast currently right because I’m gonna um have our production team chop it up and put it out onto the various channels because I hope it reaches right other people in our industry because it’s a full supply chain some people at the O have no idea what’s happening on the recycl matal side of things and vice versa and so I do hope things like this help educate help bring in the Next Generation help you know also from a very public policy perspective um let our legislators in on a little bit more what we actually do yeah right no I think it’s positive there so if we can get more voices out there you know I I’m very much on your um Team side if you can get more

Brandy out there um that would be great because then you know it it’s a delicate balance it really is where I I tell to be quite Frank some of it I mean I I never want to tip to the narcissism side you know and so I think the way around that and what we really try to do is even if I’m out there link it back to what really what really matters you know so it’s linking it back to what the team is doing over here link it back to the impact of the recycling industry of what we’re doing in the metal space um just kind of in so I think a lot of things brands have faces if you will yes um and so I I’ve wrapped my head around that and the goal is just to link it back to things that people can learn from they would value they would be educated about and honestly continue to bring visibility to to South post and the industry as a whole it does make the legislative convers ation easier um it makes customer conversations easier it makes Community conversations easier um because people

already have a point of reference yes with something that they connect with like we’ve talked about yes if somebody was looking to get into the industry do you have any recommendation any suggestions anything along those lines before we wrap up yeah you know I think we’ve talked about I think that there are so many different paths into this industry uh and I’ll speak briefly one of the committees that I’m serving on through the Institute of scrap recycling industry um by the way I will tell you from 10 years ago or 10 10 and a half years ago when I came into the industry um one of the the words of wisdom that my dad said was you you got to get involved in our trade Association um that is where you’re going to learn that’s where you’re going to connect with people that you need to and that’s where you’re going to have access to resources so by back to access to resources I co-chair a Workforce Development Committee and it’s it’s still something that I think more members and people can take advantage of but uh what we’re talking about is how

do you recruit people from different I call them different ponds but different Talent pools that you would normally recruit from you mentioned you coming out of Finance I think people who study Finance are not necessarily directed toward the recycling industry you know I come I kind of have a blend of psychology and business and even still I mean I was exposed to it because you know from a young age but um I think a couple of things I think trying to connect with people early on in their careers and exposing them to internships or entrylevel jobs in this industry is a good path um for us is working with a local University and working with different colleges if you will at that University uh whether that be the business school you know whether that be the architect or engineering school and trying to give them glimpses of internships I think that that’s one way to continue to expose people with various backgrounds I think speaking to business groups you know um for example our even my my church has a um a Ministry it’s called faith and business there are people that come that

are transitioning um careers or they want to start a new business organizations like that are great time to introduce people to a new industry heyy you know I’ve talked to someone that had operations experience in the retail space have you ever thought about the recycling industry you know I’ve talked to students that said I’m interested in environmental but never once have they thought about this industry come come come try this I’ve talked to HR students or HR professionals that have thought about just about every profession except for this hey why don’t you come do a project for us so I think that to answer your questions I think that there are many entry points I think as people in the industry we have to get really creative as to where we tap we all have a network you know if you didn’t you can go to the colleges that you went to you can go to the community groups that you work within um I don’t have biological kids I have a bonus son we talk to his kids I mean his friends you know and we say here things here’s what’s going on

in this industry so I think you can approach it many different ways that’s really good advice and I would not have thought about from um some of those non-traditional associations that have access to a lot of really wonderful businesses they really really do and and kind of put a bow on it so if for is remembers one of the benefit is you can log on to the website um there’s a page for talent development and Workforce Development and and we actually have recommendations there on alternative places to recruit Talent how to draft job descriptions if you’re struggling with job description Y how to create 30 60 90day reviews because now you’re like okay I got this person how do I integrate them into the industry so there’s templates on that um they are resources there for people to touch base on to check out it’s really wonderful to know I was not aware of that thank you no problem we’re working on on the marketing of it you can call me um I really really appreciate you taking the time today just a quick pop in wanted to finally get to see you

in action at your your company so it’s a pleasure keep doing you’re doing I think you’re making a difference thank you thank you