Lessons on Trust, Team, and Reinventing at Any Age with Susan Jacobson

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0:35Founders Forum is a radio show and podcast where entrepreneurs share their journeys, reveal the stories behind their successes, and the lessons they've learned. Join Mark and his guests for a mix of inspiration, valuable insights, and a bit of fun. Now, let's dive in. Good morning, Philadelphia. Good morning, America. Happy semi-quincentennial. I did that first try. It came out the right way. It's a beautiful day. It makes me feel like it's springtime again. It's a spring day. And I have Susan or Sue, I'll be calling her both alternately probably, on the show. And I'll formally introduce who she is.

1:16She's got a very interesting background. But before we do that, I'd just like to say she's had a very successful career as a woman going back quite a while in this town in the communications business. And I've been thinking about this. We're actually doing two shows today, and the second show is also with another kind of pioneering woman in Philadelphia. And I'm curious about your experience as a woman business leader early on in the city and what that was like for you, Sue. Well, first of all, Mark, thank you so much for having me on. And I have been a big fan and follower of yours. And I was lucky enough, as you know, to sit next to you at the Sattel Institute.

2:01I think it was their retreat. So we got to chat. It was the semi-quincentennial conference. But I've known about you for a long time. Is that right? I didn't even know about that. So thank you. My pleasure. You know, as a woman, it's, you know, I don't really look at it that way. but I am aware of it, that it might be a little bit tougher, but I don't care. You know, I think back to, well, when you have a father who tells you you can do anything, and you don't necessarily have to have a father who does that, who believes in you, that's kind of huge. And so it sets your mindset and allowed me actually to take more risks.

2:45Were you other siblings? Do you have other siblings? I do have three younger sisters who say I'm very pushy. Oh, so all girls, though? All girls. And you're the oldest. Yes, my father insisted on a male dog because he said he was outnumbered. Gotcha, gotcha. So he sent the message to all the girls, I imagine. He did. He did. And we're all very different. But there was definitely, it's interesting now that you asked that question, there definitely was an empowerment piece to it. And we knew he believed it. So that's what was so great about it. Well, we're going to tell your entrepreneurial story in a minute.

3:20And I know your father and also your grandfather were actually influential in regard to that. Yeah. But before we do that, why don't I officially introduce you? So Susan Jacobson is CEO of Praxtera AI Institute and CEO, what she's really known for around Philadelphia, although she's becoming known for Praxtera, is Jacobson Strategic Communications. and she delivers live two-hour AI fluency training sessions on Zoom. This is the future. Co-led by Wharton-trained AI specialist and a senior communication strategist. The company recently won the National Platinum Pinnacle Award for AI training. Very impressive.

4:03She's a Wharton MBA recently, which is really cool, and former chair of the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia, which is a big deal. And Sue is on a mission to make AI fluency accessible and practical for everyone, not just tech insiders. Admirable vision. I love that. Thank you. So let's start out with your entrepreneurial journey, as I promised, since this is a show about entrepreneurs and lots of people listen to, including many entrepreneurs. And I think there's a lot of lessons here. But you started out not as an entrepreneur, although you're, I think, in the back of your mind because of your father, your grandfather, you had entrepreneurial instincts.

4:49Is that a fair way to put it? It's a fair way to put it. My grandfather came here with his family. They got a cow and started a butcher shop and basically turned it into a Fortune 500 company. So, yes, perhaps the entrepreneurial part is in my blood. And he built it with, you know, personality, grit. Like it was A &P, if anybody remembers, the food stores that gave him his big break. And then he ended up doing trade with Australia through the Kennedy administration. Very charming, charismatic guy. And my dad built that business and then ran it. and so yes it was very successful so yes it was in my blood I actually went into campaigns I ran a presidential campaign I was one of only two women at that time I'm in Washington state I won my state but no one remembers or cares except for my husband and my father but I was one of 10 states that won that presidential race wow by two points and so there I kind of learned and which Which race was that?

6:01That was Dukakis Bush. Oh, nice. Okay, gotcha. Yeah. And so I was very proud of that in Washington State, but learned a lot. So, you know, back to your entrepreneurial piece, yes, it's in my blood, but I love building things from nothing. And, you know, as we talked about, like empowering others, that's like my favorite thing. So you're working in the PR communications industry. Not yet. Oh, not yet. Not yet then. Okay. Not till I got to Philly. So I did campaigns. I was chief of staff to Katie Dukakis in the governor's office in Massachusetts. Wow. Went out with my husband who was a vascular surgeon.

6:45He's like, I got to do the best research in the country. That's in Washington state. I'm like, okay. And a lot of women do that. I adore my husband. So I was like, let's go. And Dukakis said, go run my campaign in Washington state. I'll surround you with people. I'll teach you. Go do it. That's how you got to Washington. And that's why I was one of two women at that point. I was 28. Wow. And so what brought you to Philly? Because that's when things changed. My husband. His job also. He basically became a vascular. He was a vascular surgeon at Penn. Was offered a job. I came here and I'm like, and I remember talking to my campaign friends who said, national campaign friends who said, no, no, coming to Philadelphia, is a gift.

7:31You are going to learn so much about dealing with people and politics. And so I actually got very politically involved as well there. So again, you could, I guess you could say that's entrepreneurial. Um, and then, so then David Cohen and Ed Rendell asked me to be deputy chief of staff. Um, and there I really ran a lot of the legislative piece for them. And there I remember You worked closely with Tom Knox, I imagine, too, who was also on the show. Wonderful guy. And, yeah, no, I remember my first day going into a meeting with David Cohen, and I was supposed to run Legislative Affairs, and I was like, I walked out and said, I think everyone just spoke a different language because I have no idea what's going on.

8:16So I had to learn really quickly how to deal with it. And that was tough. There were a lot of men in politics who were like, okay, you're the first woman on the second floor of the mayor's office. So you came to Philadelphia in politics. Yes. And then what happened? Then Rendell ended his term, and I thought, what do I want to do? And so I thought, you know what? I love communications. Why don't I go into that? And so that's what I did. How long did you work for two terms for Rendell? One term, four years. Gotcha. And so I went over to a large PR firm and became an EVP and worked there for 10 years.

9:00Wow. A long time. Yep. I did some presidential campaigns in the state along the way, was field of political director and, you know, was involved that way. But yes, 10 years. 10 years. So what? Too long. Too long, right. No, right. I understand. Well, partly because of your entrepreneurial instincts. You're working for somebody else now for 10 years. Right. It was not a great fit. I mean, don't get me wrong. I learned a lot. But, you know, for me, you're right. I mean, the entrepreneur piece, and you know this, is what charged me up. And also I felt I could make more of an impact because impact for me is like super important.

9:41Like I don't just want to do things and push papers. I want to create things that brought people along with me on whatever crazy ride it was on. Well, you and I have some parallels. I started out in my business as an entrepreneur, became a partner in a regional firm for 25 years. It was 15 years too long in my case. So 10 years was about the right time before I did it again. I'll never forget a friend of mine saying to me who has her own business, successful business at Boston. And she's like, there's nothing like being your own boss. Right. And I was like, oh, what are you talking about? And I was like, okay, Susan, you were right.

10:21Right. So how did that come about? Well, what happened was, you know, I was an executive vice president of a large firm, sort of just doing my thing. The firm was not doing well. and I went to them and said, look, I'd like to help you turn this around. I'd like to be president and you could be CEO and I'll help you. And they came back and said, well, would you be our, it was like EVP of whatever, chief operating officer. And I said, you know, no, thank you, knowing that I would be pushed out. And so several months later, they said, it's not working out. And again, I was 10 years in. And I called my best friend Susie Welch, her husband, you may know Jack Welch.

11:20Yes. And basically they said, get up to Nantucket and it's time now for you to start your own business. So I got in the car, drove from Philly up to Nantucket, got in the ferry. and Jack Welch, you know, the former, as I said, head of GE, pulled out an envelope and said, here's your business plan and wrote it on the back of an envelope. Oh, an envelope. I thought it was a napkin. Yeah, I still have it. It's great. I still have it. So he wrote out your business plan on the back of an envelope. And he and Susie were fantastic. I mean, you know, they're two. I miss Jack, but Susie is great. Susie's like your best friend, right?

11:58She's my best friend and great strategic mind. And by the way, Susie has a podcast, a little plug for her podcast. Yes. Because I listened to the last time you appeared on her podcast. It was a great show. It was about friends communicating and strategies for doing that. Yes, and mattering. Yes, and mattering. There's a famous professor. She has me teach in some of her classes about mattering and telling people not just, Mark, you matter, but here's why you matter. Yeah, I know. I love that. And I've actually used it since. I know. It was really, really cool. Because it's authentic. Yeah, it's, you use it, make it sound like it's, you're not using anything, you're just being yourself and being authentic.

12:36Exactly. It's great. So you started the firm. We only have about 20 seconds before our break. But how did you get started? I basically called the president of Penn and the president of the art museum, both women, and said, could you help me out? I think the president of Penn gave me$1 ,000 a month. The art museum gave me a$5 ,000 project. And I could say I had penned the Philadelphia Museum of Art. All true. And that's how I started. You had business from the get-go and you had names behind you and you got going. It wasn't easy. I'm sure. It's a great story. Well, we're going to take a quick commercial break and we'll be right back on Founders Forum.

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13:58Get the confidence and protection your team needs every day. Book your free consultation now at AffinityMSP.com. That's A-F-F-I-N-I-T-M-S-P.com. Start a better relationship with your IT today. We are back with my guest today, Susan Jacobson of Jacobson Communications and Strategic Communications and also of Praxtera, which we're going to talk about in a minute. You know, the joke on the show is that, you know, so you had business, you came right out of the gate and you were immediately successful. Smooth ride from then on, right? Not really. I know. I could pretend. How did I know that? We didn't talk about that, but how did I know?

14:46So what kind of challenges did you experience? Give some examples because I'd like to hear what you learned from those challenges. Well, you know, when you start a business, people are like, are you for real? So, you know, and so part of it was credibility. Credibility. Also, like you got to hit it out of the park and continue to hit it out of the park. In the PR world, there's usually you lose about 35 % of business. I think that's higher now. I've been knock on wood. I mean, we don't come even, we like, you know, lose almost nothing. We're very, very high retention. Very high retention. But that's the reality.

15:25And so, and I always joke that in the communications PR world, we're in a what have you done for me lately business. So every week we got to deliver. I like to also, I'm serious about it. I like to say we pay for ourselves 10 times over and we do. and by delivering whatever that client needs, whether it's thought leadership, whether it's crisis communication, whether it's community outreach, basic PR, press, whatever a client needs. And your clients are like a who's who of Philadelphia and the region. Anybody you can mention? Can you mention a couple that are comfortable talking? Probably not, Mark.

16:06Okay. All right, no problem. But I can tell you what I know. household names.

16:15So the challenges were credibility, getting your reputation up there, retaining clients through constantly delivering more than promised. How did you build an organization that was able to do that? What did you learn to do that? Well, it's a great question. It's all about the people. And so I did something different than other, that no one had done this. This was pre-COVID. I actually figured there are all these amazing people who worked in big giant PR firms in New York who are down in Philly, don't want to go to New York, don't want that rat race. What if I let them stay at home? And what if I built three to four people?

16:59This is way before people were doing that. Way before. No, everybody's like, you're doing what? I was like, what if I took these three to four gifted people who I knew would be friends, who would have each other's backs? So if Maureen wanted to go to her son's football game or Allison wanted to take someone, her son, to whatever, a show or to the doctor, they all had their backs. So what if I put three to four people, senior people on every account with all different skill sets working together and give them – and I would say to clients, I still do. If you are upset with a dog barking in the background or whatever, a baby crying, we're not – Don't fire us.

17:43And it worked because I got this amazing skill set. Wow. And the people who work are like this family and team who work together. So it was very unusual. You really were a visionary in that respect because now you see Zoom calls with dogs barking and kids crying all the time, right? So it's commonplace. Yes. It's really interesting. So, again, I'm going to try to sum it up. So it's about the people. So you've got people with unique abilities. I call it put them together. They weren't necessarily the same, but they were able to cover for each other. And check off different boxes. So for our client, it's like, whoa, you know the national, you can pitch to national.

18:23Oh, you've done like tons of crisis. Oh, wow. You can do thought leadership for our new CEO. I mean, those are very different. You can't just pick someone up off the street for that. But also if somebody needs to take off, they can, somebody else can cover for them. They've got their back. And they, so. And I was like, no games. They're almost like entrepreneurs, like intrapreneurs. They're almost like running their own little fiefdoms in your company. Yes, I trusted them. I actually wrote a piece for Forbes called The Business Based on Trust, where I trust them. And in return, they've been wonderful friends and partners.

19:04And your longevity, your retention of employees must be great, right? Oh, yeah. How many employees do you have? It's a small group now. No, it's right around a dozen. And that's on purpose, to be honest, because I've got Praxtera. Yes. So, and, you know, as I probably shouldn't joke about this, but it's kind of true at this point we're turning down business on the communication side, and I'm keeping our wonderful clients. So that's, yeah, we're very fortunate. And great transition. Let's talk about Praxtera and how that came about. So a couple of years ago, my husband and I, I opened the front page of the Inquirer.

19:44And like there's this article about a global executive MBA at Wharton where it's virtual. And so I know Erica James because when I was, you had mentioned I was chair of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce Board. I talked to her about how do you lead as a woman, you know, with a lot of very successful CEOs from major corporations who are going to be around the table. And of course, that was when COVID started. So it was even more important. And so we became friendly. And I said to her, Erica, is this something that like my husband Michael and I could do? And she wrote, yes. And she said to me, but you've got to pass the test like everybody else.

20:22I was like, Michael, you have to tutor me all summer long. And I passed and we got him. And Michael's still practicing medicine? Michael had just left as he was chief of vascular surgery at Penn Presbyterian and at the VA. So it was a perfect transition. And we went to Wharton. It was fantastic. The first day, our colleagues, students did come up to us and say, are you the teachers? Because they were all half our age. Right. But they became wonderful friends. This was in person or virtual? Virtual, but you have to do a certain amount of trips, and the first two weeks, you're in person. Gotcha.

21:01And it was, you know, it's Wharton, so it was extraordinary. It was really hard to do that. It's a wonderful program. I've heard a lot about it. The professors and those students. Oh, my God. From all over the world, you are best in class. Mark, you would be blown away. You'd be impressed. I thought about doing that. Oh, do it. I may. Do it. I may. It's pretty interesting. It's really fun. But that's where PrexDarra came from. I was pitching ideas. We were in South Korea with a very famous professor who does startups. And we each had a picture startup. And I said, what about an AI boot camp for people who don't know AI?

21:43And everybody's like, well, I'm not sure. But I went to him afterwards and I said, do you think I'm on to something here? Like could we do this for major corporations? Teach the people who are the assistants and people who don't know AI. This is like five years ago, right? Just a couple of years ago. Yeah, because Praxdair is a year old. And so it's a couple of years ago. And he said, you know what? You're on to something. And then I started talking to all of our professors who were leading in AI, and they all said we're on to something. And that's how Prextera started. Very interesting. So you started just with an idea.

22:18You're in the MBA program. And how did you get going? Did you start hiring people? No. So what I did was, so we named it Prextera with a professor, practice and era, Prextera, next era. And then what we did was we basically figured out what if we did what I did at Warton. What if we did it on Zoom up to 50 people at a major corporation? And what if we had our co-teachers, a communications people, someone like someone from Jacobson, co-teach with one of our AI colleagues who is leading AI at Apple or Google or another AI major corporation? So Cy and Michelle, for example. Right. Cy leads Apple Music for AI.

23:09Wow. And he co-teaches Michelle, who does communications. And the combination is elective. It's all interactive. And in a year, you mentioned this, we've won a national award. We were just published in Forbes called the AI Mirage. I've got a piece coming up about how people use AI as a hobby, but how do they translate it into work? And people love it. And it's all on Zoom, all interactive. People go to breakout groups. They learn how to use it. It takes down all the barriers. It's awesome. Can you tell I'm excited about it? I was going to say you're very fired up. I'm so excited about it. You're very excited about it.

23:49I love it. Well, look, it is the future. I mean, I'm thinking I've got 100 questions about that in my mind about it. I would love to do it. I know I'm not part of a big corporation to do that. We'll figure it out. Figure it out. I would love to take the training myself and experience it. And that might inspire me to go to Wharton afterwards. So that's interesting. So I'm inspired by you. This is what's happening here. So the more that I hear your story, the more I hear excitement. And you're not, you know, we're more or less the same vintage. You know, we've been around a while and you're excited about the future.

24:24Did you read the, there was an article I just read actually in the Inquirer about rewirement. I am so far away from any, I will never retire. I mean, I love Jacobson. I love building Praxtera. How about you? Yeah. Well, my book that I wrote that you're going to get because we send it to all guests, it's called The Fiscal Therapy Solution. And it talks about retirement and that most entrepreneurs in my mind aren't suited for retirement. And I use the word rewire, refire, aspire, all those things. Well, I think she clearly took that from you. So I think you should give her a phone call. I don't know.

25:04I think I use rewire. I know refire's in there. I know aspire's in there. Anyway, but absolutely, that's where I am. And I have a lot of friends. You know, I play golf. You guys are retiring. And I'm like, I got to find new friends. I'm happy to be your friend, Mark. we're friends now. I love that. So Susie, speaking about the future. So if this were, so today is July, what is today? The 29th of 2026. You may be listening to this. Who knows when you're listening to this show. But if it's three years from now and you and I, July 29th of 2029, and we're talking, what would have to happen for that to be a good progression in your life?

25:49And I'm sure Prextera has a lot to do with that. Yeah, it's a great question. You know, I'm all about for real, as you can hear by the things I've done, like whatever, running the chamber, whatever, I'm all about giving back. And so that's my central theme. So keeping Jacobson going, helping good companies, good people get the kind of credibility they want and leading by example for others. I love that. So keeping Jacobson right where it is, that's not going anywhere. By the way, I just have to say, I know your work shines through there because a lot of the companies are community leaders because I know their work.

26:30And I know I've got some great examples of it, which I can't talk about now. But your work shines through on that. Thank you. And very, very, very proud of that. And my colleagues, because as you heard, I can't do it without them. I always say they're better than I am. Well, that's the key to a good entrepreneur, hire people smarter and better. Yes, and letting them make mistakes, but that's a whole different avenue. It's like, who cares if you make a mistake? I've made a ton of them. Susie, we are out of time. So much, thank you for being here. Thank you for listening to Founders Forum, and we'll see you all next week, and it's been a great pleasure to have you.

27:09I hope you enjoyed your time with Founders Forum today, and you found value to take with you throughout your day. Join us again next week for another episode of Founders Forum, on WWDB Talk Radio and always at the Founders Forum show page at www.dbam.com. Founders Forum was brought to you in part by March Forward LLC. We partner with entrepreneurs like you to assist in accomplishing your future vision, your life, your business, your legacy. Comprehensive wealth planning that starts with you, not a product. We hope you enjoyed your time with Founders Forum and that you found something of value to take with you throughout your day.

27:47Join us again next week for another episode of Founders Forum on WWDB 860 AM Philadelphia or on your favorite podcast streaming service. Securities offered through DFBG Investments, LLC, DFBG. Investment advisory services offered through Diversify Advisory Services, LLC, Diversify. DAS and DFBG are affiliated entities. March is unaffiliated with DAS and DFBG. members FINRA slash SIPC. The information provided in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be interpreted as investment advice. The views expressed are those of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of Diversify or DFPG.