Monica London is a financial strategist and economics graduate of UT Tyler. She talks about her educational experience and how it helped her found her own business.
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Mike Landess: For UT Tyler Radio, 99.7 K V U T. I’m Mike Landess. The University of Texas at Tyler is proud of the success stories of its graduates, and our guest today is one of those success stories. Monica London is a 2006 graduate of UT Tyler with a BS in Economics, and she’s used that learning to become a profit strategist.
She’s the founder and CEO of London Power Innovations in Tyler, and we welcome Monica London. Thank you.
Monica London: Thank you for having me.
Mike Landess: What made you want to major in Economics?
Monica London: I was kind of challenged in a way. I started out as an accounting student. Then, someone told me that I wasn’t smart enough to graduate with a degree in Economics because it was a struggle for me. I had been outta school for at least 10 years at this point, and the last time that I was in the economics class was my senior year in high school.
The next day I changed my major.
Mike Landess: Don’t tell me what I can’t do. Because if you do, that’s exactly what I’m gonna do.
Monica London: Exactly. And so I rolled up my sleeves. I studied, I mean, morning, noon and night. To the point that I don’t think I even got any sleep for the rest of the time I was in school. But I had some fantastic professors. One of my biggest inspirations here was Professor Tim Kane. He challenged me in the right way, you know, to stay focused, to not give up when I wanted to give up. But I did it.
And so when I took what I had learned from that foundation into the workplace, into corporate America, I was ahead of the game. Now we are going through recession after recession, and guess who these companies need?
Mike Landess: Somebody who can see the forest for the trees.
Monica London: Yes. And so I take it as a blessing in disguise because not only do I know debit and credits, but I know how to analyze and use scarce resources as well.
Mike Landess: Now, when you wore your cap and gown and you accepted your diploma here at UT Tyler, back then, did you have any sense at all of what your journey would be? Coming full circle back to Tyler.
Monica London: No, I had no clue. I was just glad to get graduated.
Mike Landess: I think a lot of graduates feel that way.
Monica London: Yes, that was a long journey, but a well deserved journey.
Mike Landess: Tell me about your journey from that time. Where’d you go?
Monica London: Well, after graduation I moved to the Houston area where I worked in oil and gas, and I then went into manufacturing, moving into the Dallas area. I was there for quite a bit of time. And in that time, this is where my career started to cultivate, and I started learning what I’m offering our community today.
Mike Landess: In reading your website, I came across this paragraph: “Monica excels in corporate and manufacturing, economics and finance. She looks at business ideas and works with the executive management and production management. She works with those teams to solve hard operational problems and improve customer relationships. Staff supervision, quality, cost controls and report writing. Now that sounds a bit like a business whisperer, somebody who can identify wrinkles in a business and help iron them out.
Monica London: Yes, exactly. It is to help improve upon the processes that they have in place so they can have a more clear idea on how to make more money. You know, so the ultimate goal in business is to make money be as profitable and successful as possible. And so, it makes it easier for not just the entrepreneur, you know, the executive teams, but for the associates, the employees there as well. And so when you have a conducive working environment to be successful, you know, things tend to work a whole lot better and a whole lot smoother. And the workplace is a whole lot happier.
Mike Landess: I’m sure that’s true. Share with us a success story-a group or an individual you worked with and were able to turn around whatever problems that they were dealing with at the time.
Monica London: Sure. One that comes to mind is a client that I’m working with right now. It’s a plumbing company. And what their biggest issues are right now are logistics and inventory controls. I have been working diligently with them in streamlining their processes, their workflows, as well as, discovering a system to help automate how they track their inventory and related costs into their accounting systems. And also where their businesses can scale, for future economic growth.
Mike Landess: It is interesting that there are businesses in which someone happens to be a terrific plumber. They may not be a terrific business owner. They don’t have those skills and need the outside help.
Monica London: Yes, exactly. And with small- and medium-scale enterprises and the entrepreneurs of these companies, a lot of time it has been my experience in working with them that they know they can do it. This idea has come into mind, but they do not have the business background to support themselves, be sustainable in their local economy.
Mike Landess: Our guest has been Monica London, founder and CEO of London Power Innovations in Tyler.