Megan: Welcome to SheBoss. To say I am over the moon excited about this interview is an understatement. I have been wanting Toni Everhart to join SheBoss for quite some time for a variety of different reasons, and we’ve talked about it for a very long time. But I’m so glad that it is finally happening.
Toni: So, thank you. I’m to be here and nervous to be interviewed by a. Friend. I don’t know what that’s about. It’s just different. I
Megan: And we’ll make sure we stay on time because you’ve got a very, something you’ve got to get to right after this. So, a lot of people in our in North Alabama community know you very well through a variety of different reasons, whether it be through. Nonprofit work or helping, our startup and entrepreneurial community through things like Urban Engine and stuff like that.
I know you obviously for many reasons, but give us a little bit of a background on where you’re [00:01:00 from and what brought you to Huntsville, and then we’ll dive into what keeps you busy today.
Toni: Sure. I moved to Huntsville in 2012 to follow my now husband, Chad. He was at UAH for grad school.
He got a master’s and a PhD there. We grew up in the same small-ish town in Pennsylvania, and once he was in grad school, we started dating and I followed him down here from Philadelphia, where I was studying undergrad at Drexel University and started to work at the Army recruiting brigade on the arsenal.
And that’s where we met. Yay. Shout out to all our old Army friends. And within a couple years. I transitioned into working in the commercial technology and startup space. That’s again, where our paths crossed. And then got passionate about community building and trying to help entrepreneurs and startups in our community find a way to succeed through [00:02:00] connection to community, but also programs and resources that were needed.
And now I am back in the government world working at Booz Allen. It’s a never say, never scenario. During the time that I was running Urban Engine, I was really an advocate for not everybody wants to work as a government contractor.
Yeah. And never say never, because here I am. But I will say I find fulfillment and purpose and passion in the work that I do I’m very grateful to be where I
Megan: am right now. Yeah. And Booz Allen has such a great reputation and is so well known for a variety of different things, but what is your sort of day-to-day role with booze today?
Toni: I provide. Management and consulting support for clients in our aerospace market. I also manage a small team of rockstar women and that really gets me excited every day to go and make sure that they’re mentored and that they have someone developing their career for them, advocating for them.
And I [00:03:00] also get to spend a little bit of time in the community representing Booz Allen talking about our technology solutions. But mostly I’m spending my time serving our clients.
Megan: So, a lot of what you’ve become known for and a passion of yours has been that startup world and entrepreneur community and making sure that people have the resources that they need.
So, I’d be curious to hear where you got bit by that bug. When you were, we met at the recruiting brigade, you were. Very specific on kind of public, public affairs and following that track. And life had different plans for you at that time. So, what sort of got you into that field?
Toni: That’s an easy question to answer and a hard question to answer. Cause I ask myself that, why am I so passionate about helping entrepreneurs? cause it’s a thing I can’t turn off at this point. I do tell people that throughout my career, the common thread has been strategic communications, messaging, branding and helping individuals or businesses grow. [00:04:00]
Most of my career, even since like I just graduated from college, that’s what I’ve been doing with consistency. The harder part of that to answer is that. I’ve always been this way. Even whenever I was in college, I was routinely finding myself in addition to the jobs that I worked to be able to support myself, pay for my apartment, pay for my life that I had outside of school.
Living in Philadelphia, I find myself routinely looking for ways that I could help small businesses with their strategies. I took a bunch of unpaid internships just to have exposure into how are you trying to grow and how can I help you? Because I realized that’s the kind of experience that was going to help me grow as a professional rather than show up and get administrative exposure to how businesses use their employees from day to day.
Megan: Can I ask, did you have someone in your life that kind of nudged you to take that, those unpaid internships and be open-minded to those experiences? Because I don’t think that’s something that a [00:05:00] lot of people have that natural inclination to do.
Toni: My dad was a hard worker. He had a strong work ethic and always encouraged me to put myself out there. Drexel’s program is a co-op program, so you’re encouraged to work and have new opportunities and experiences all the time. But again, like I don’t know why I am this way.
I just am. And a revelation I had within the last two to three years was reading me. Mom’s dad’s obituary. My mom didn’t know her dad. So, this got sent to me from a relative that I don’t see very often just to say, “Hey, this person that you are biologically related to has passed away. Here’s his obituary.” And I read it and learned that he was someone who. Helped entrepreneurs and was an innovator and was known for throughout his career doing these things and helping [00:06:00] innovative programs. And I sat there, and I went, so it’s in my DNA.
Megan: Yeah.
Toni: But I had no idea until, my mom has passed away.
I never knew him. My grandmother has passed away. So, it was a strange moment where I realized. You can’t turn this off. Because it is a part of who you are, and it was a part of who you were going to be.
Megan: Was there anything, any companies or industries that he kind of specialized in or did he have like a state?
No, I mean he,
Toni: he was my grandfather. He had served for a time, everyone had to. it didn’t have any details about where or how that I can recall right now to share. But it was a part of who he was described as.
That’s amazing.
Megan: Yeah. That’s fascinating.
Toni: I’m like,
Megan: Talk a little bit about that, that kind of gumption, I winna stay there on the unpaid internship component only because, and just the experience in that capacity, because.
There’s a, fortunately with this, there’s a lot of young students and younger people in their career that we talk to as well, right? And we go and we’re heavily involved with UAH and do a lot of things with them and [00:07:00] super pumped to be part of their advisory board that they just launched their inaugural marketing board.
So, there’s a lot of cool things happening over there, and they’re recognizing the need to just really push. A different type of approach to students to really get some of that exposure. So, talk a little bit about that aspect of things, because I think there’s a lot of, hey, I need to do an internship in a field that I know I’m passionate about versus maybe trying something I don’t have a lot of experience in where maybe I can learn something new, right?
And then paid versus unpaid, right? Would love any perspective you have on that just from, maybe from an employer perspective too, right? And what you, I mean you’ve worked at Mazda, Toyota, you’ve worked at a lot of these big companies. What are your thoughts on that?
Toni: Today, Toni does not love the idea of an unpaid internship.
Okay. My advice and what I would recommend to employers who are looking for motivated, curious, hardworking people is they should be rewarded whether they’re willing to do the work unpaid or not.
I knew that there was a [00:08:00] relationship between laboring and earning something, and I also knew that I had responsibilities that I needed to be accountable for. I had a lifestyle that I wanted to live. That my parents were not willing to pay for, honestly. it. Wasn’t for any other reason than they had already given me the gift of being able to go to school and helping me along the way so that I could go to a great school.
So, anything beyond that, if I wanted to go out and party and wear cute clothes and buy fancy makeup and have a nicer apartment, okay. It might surprise some people to know that most of the jobs where you can earn money as a college student are like in restaurants.
Okay. So, I did, at times I worked multiple jobs during college. I would go to. My classes, of course, had to make good grades, but I would have one or two jobs, maybe working one like [00:09:00] student worker job for the school, and then also being a hostess or a barista at a coffee shop. But that’s not what I wanted to do when I grew up, so I wanted to, at the same time, at least get some exposure early on to.
What I was learning about in class. So, I would seek out, and this is back when Craigslist was like big, I would go on Craigslist and I would look up unpaid internships where they would say something like, yeah, we need a brand, right? And I’m like, I know what a brand is because I learned about it last week.
And then I would go want to build a brand for someone. But the reality is small businesses, a lot of times, even if they’re in Philadelphia, where you think metropolitan area, small business owner, all the resources in the world, right? These people are just bored, not the case. Yeah. And in some instances, when they’re asking for something, they may not even know what they really need.
So, there is one internship I can remember. It was a wine accessories shop n pa [00:10:00] and I helped with their branding and marketing strategy as they were opening their doors, and they wanted to be the go-to place for luxury wine drinking accessories.
It was cool. It got to be a part of their events that they would do for the community and just. Had some exposure to how that all worked together. after graduation, I was working for the federal government as a civil servant at the Social Security Administration.
They were paying everybody good overtime. I was driving 6 95 for 45 minutes each way. Through 6 95 traffic from like 6:00 AM to 4:00 PM every single day, five days a week. And I would come home, and I would clock in on that unpaid internship to help them build their digital presence for a technology company.
And I didn’t know it was a startup at the time. I just knew that I wanted to be a part of what they were trying to do to disrupt. The market that they were in. And those experiences really gave me a foot in the door for later to be able to [00:11:00] speak to, not only am I someone who’s willing to work hard, but I’m also someone who has at least some experience, something I can show for how what I’m able to do is relevant to what you need.
Megan: Yeah.
Toni: you
Megan: you got hooked to that.
Toni: You run a marketing agency helping someone like click Where they want to go and what they need to say to get there.
Megan: You’re bringing a voice to something that they’ve probably struggled with for so long.
That’s right. Yeah. And with an unbiased perspective. You can just bring so much value to that, and that passion, I’m sure followed you throughout your career of helping other businesses grow and thrive so let’s switch gears a little bit. Talk a little bit about the ecosystem here in Huntsville.
a common thread on these interviews has been how amazing this community is in so many ways I don’t ever want to move to another place because I feel like we’ve gotten spoiled. Where would you go? Where would you go and why? Except for avoiding tornadoes.
But we’d love to just hear a little bit about that and, you’ve done so much in this community, and I do want to talk about Urban Engine because I think urban Engine still to this day holds such a special place in this [00:12:00] community. And I was fortunate enough to be. Right next to you were the person helping me say what I needed to say and that was, I love that.
I love that for us. Yeah. cause I love that we’ve been able to share in that personal experience and professional experience too, where we can look back and say, oh gosh, what was, yeah. But just talk a little bit about the ecosystem here and what you’ve seen and what’s available out there.
And there’s a lot of organizations and individuals who retire here outs the military and get in consulting and then they start a commercial business So what sort of resources are there? What’s going on? What do you see?
Toni: Oh, my, I would say it’s better than it ever has been before, at least in the, I can always remember how long I’ve been professionally.
Engaged in the entrepreneurial ecosystem by how old Claire is? Claire is eight. She will be nine this year. So, in the almost 10 years that I’ve been doing this, it has never been better.
There has never, in my opinion, been a better time to be an entrepreneur or a startup in Huntsville, a [00:13:00] startup in Alabama. And I would attribute that. To a couple things. The first is we have amazing leaders in institutional roles that are collaborative, open-minded, and just like very good people. It’s not to say that hasn’t always been the case, but there’s renewed energy because there has been some turnover in some of those roles and the willingness to be open-minded and collaborate with others and think big picture yet also. Roll the sleeves up and get to work together or to use another analogy, everybody’s in the same boat, rowing in the same direction at the same time.
We’re going faster, we’re doing more together than we ever have. It’s so rewarding to see, and it’s been amazing to see how much we’ve been able to do in a few short years because of that change. And then the other big thing that has been introduced to Alabama is innovate Alabama. When I was.
Working on Urban Engine [00:14:00] full-time, the landscape for support and resources for organizations that were doing the work that Urban Engine was doing really didn’t exist. At least not in the same capacity that Innovate Alabama has introduced. The state of Alabama is seeing value. They’re investing through that public private partnership and what I’ve described is happening in North Alabama.
We’re seeing happen. Throughout the state and it’s so exciting. We’re seeing more investment in companies than we ever have before, and it’s, I would just say it’s so rewarding as somebody who cares about the viability for innovators and startups to really have that material support in place in a sustainable way.
It gives me the confidence to say, yeah, if you come here, you can do it.
Megan: What are some of those pathways look like? Is it through mentorship? Is it through funding?
Toni: that there’s nothing [00:15:00] we could do.
I’m not, what am I trying to, I won’t say that it’s perfect or that there aren’t still areas for opportunity to grow, but I think what you need, you can find it here. If you need a mentor, there’s probably someone here that you can connect to and there’s a mechanism, an organization that can get you to them, whether that’s EDPA, launchpad, it’s the catalyst, it’s the chamber.
but I would just say if you needed mentorship, if you need coaching, if you need investors, if you need to go through an accelerator, it’s all here. And the people that are involved are great, and they care and they’re collaborative.
So, whatever that next challenge is that you’re going to encounter. There’s going to be a handoff there to get you to where you need to go. In terms of things we can work on, it’s not a secret that we still need investors, we still need capital. We’re working on that as a state, as a community. I think we’ll see things change, [00:16:00] hopefully sooner rather than later, but it is something that needs to be addressed because the better we can be at infusing the right kind of capital at the right time for startups in our community, the more likely we will see.
That ecosystem flourish.
Megan: I want to ask you, let me ask another question. All right. So, to continue that I’m curious, where, what do you see as the most opportunity for what, which types of startups do you think have the most opportunity here?
I think there’s, not a cloud in a negative way, but obviously we have a huge influence here from the military. And Redstone Arsenal and the Department of Defense, there’s a big biotech, focus here as well. And there’s a lot of other pockets of these things that are just growing like crazy.
What are you seeing, as far as maybe some of those hot pockets that are either growing, have potential to thrive based on city resources and whatnot?
Toni: Hudson Alpha. Is like a 500-pound gorilla, right? Like you can’t forget that it’s there, but it’s easy once you’ve seen it enough times just [00:17:00] to walk past it. And so, advocating for more biotech here and really fostering that. Sub ecosystem within the landscape. I think we’ve only scratched the surface of what we’re going to see Hudson Alpha do. For biotech in Alabama, in North Alabama. So, I think that’s going to continue to grow. The other one. That I’m really excited about is the defense tech accelerator. Like you said, we’ve got a lot of military folks. We have a huge defense industry, government industry here, It’s less sexy, but it, there’s huge opportunity there. And we’re finally putting programs and resources in place for people who have an idea to get going.
Megan: Which is you see that. Everywhere here. Yeah. Because you’ve got a lot of these bigger defense companies or they grow, right?
And then they sell and someone steps away and they’ve got an idea and they [00:18:00] start, they don’t know how to commercialize it, or they don’t, there’s, it seems like that happens often, right?
Toni: Yes. And Huntsville has a little bit of a reputation for already succeeding in this area. But I think what the defense Tech accelerator is positioned to do is help the generation of products and technical solutions go to market and then be commercialized in different ways.
Yeah. And what we can see come out of that is wealth generation, higher paying jobs, it’s going to look a little bit different than a government services engineering firm. But there’s a nuance there that I think the defense Tech accelerator can really. Help build and grow and I’m real excited about it.
Megan: Yeah. That’s very exciting. Was that the one that Toni was part of too? Toni? Yes. Gotta gives a shout out to Toni Hodgson.
Toni: cool stuff over there.
Megan: are doing cool stuff over there and he’s still heavily involved in the museum. See, their technology is live in the museum. That’s awesome. Yep. Yeah. Very cool. [00:19:00] Very cool. So, shout out to Toni Hodgson and Ether. They’re doing some awesome things. I used to, his nickname for me at Synapse was Ray.
Toni: Ray because he just always felt he was like a ray of sunshine. He always had that big smile on his face. And so, every time I see him like. Ray. Oh, that’s amazing. I’m adopting
Megan: Okay, so let’s switch gears just a little bit. So, I think you are no stranger to sharing your life. On social media and all of us get to just live vicariously through your three beautiful children and your rocket scientist husband. You’re like, your family is like the epitome of Huntsville, which I just love so much.
Vincent, Francis and Claire will rule the world in some capacity doubt. one day. She is this fitting image of you and just such a firehouse, which I just love so much. But what’s it like doing the thing and having three kids who are little and all under the age of 10, right?
Yeah. So, Francis, he’s 10. Yeah. Yeah. Whew. Yeah, I got him like him and Jack. So how do you do it? so just what has it been like being a, a working mom and, it’s hard,
Toni: I have three kids. They’re the [00:20:00] loves of my life, and I am so grateful that they are my priority right now. I’m passionate about my career and I’ve always been ambitious.
I’ve always wanted to excel the things that were important to me, but they’re the most important thing to me and excelling as their mom. Is it’s something that I strive to do every single day. I try to get a little bit better about every single day and now I really see my career and my growth as a person, as more of a service to who they can be, especially while they’re this young.
And doing life with Chad too has been super rewarding because I think he thinks the same way and. Marriage is also hard, but we’re partners, and we both feel the same way about that. I’m just fighting for my life every day trying to make sure I do a good job. I would tell a friend; you’re doing a great job because you care.
Yeah. It’s if you don’t care, is whenever you start to backslide there. But I care [00:21:00] so much about every little thing, so we’ll see how it works out.
Megan: What are some of your mom hacks
Toni: that have really helped you? Okay. I’m not saying everybody has all the money in the world to do.
Everything that they would like to have done for them. But if you have enough money to pay someone to clean your house Oh yes. Yeah. Pay someone to clean your house. Yeah. Like you do not need to have a full-time job, have three little kids and have the job of cleaning your house. And have Carl
Megan: He’s a Carl Winslow. He’s a mess.
Toni: Yeah. So, I would say, and if it’s not that, like where else can you find help? Can you order your groceries? Can you. Delegate the task of writing everything down on the calendar to your oldest or to your partner. You don’t have to do every little thing.
Outsource pay for people to do things. Take the easy route for whatever it is. It’s not anything to be ashamed about. You’re freeing up time and capacity. For the things that are important, like spending time with your kids or getting that project at work done that’s going to help you really [00:22:00] shine.
it was like a light bulb went off when I found out I was pregnant with Vincent. I was like, I’m not cleaning anymore.
Megan: That’s just the decision you made.
Toni: a third child and I’m not cleaning anymore.
Megan: Love that. Yeah. That’s just, it is what it’s hit the easy button where you can, yeah.
Yeah. I love that. I’m all about the mom hacks all about it. Okay. So also want to talk to you about something a little bit more personal. You’re going to switch gears just a little bit. And there is no easy time to have this conversation, as we were talking about offline you have become such an influential force in this community to so many people and for so many reasons.
And you recently shared that you discovered that you have breast cancer and that is a heavy thing to hear. And you called me that morning and I think I just like my, the breath came out of my chest. cause I was like; it’s even like feeling that way now. I was I was like, Megan, are you
Toni: sitting
Megan: I know. I was like, that’s never good. and we’ve talked a lot about, this personal health, here at Flourish and we’ve tried to use our company as a vehicle to promote awareness around these things You are extremely proactive about your health. And I think you and I had a [00:23:00] conversation in this very office probably two years ago and you shared with me some things that you were going through.
And you’re younger than I am and it kicked my butt into gear a little bit. And I honestly, I think that might have been what kind of prompted me to go. So, you inspired me in a variety of ways, but talk about that and your recent diagnosis and what that means for you
But what has that experience been like for you over the past couple of months?
Toni: First, I just will acknowledge what you said about like people. Admiring or respecting whatever, I think, thank you for saying that. It’s kind and just for me I always just want to help people that’s really, if people respect me or admire me for that, like it’s something that fill my cup up.
It’s an honor to be able to help where I can. So that’s nice. Thank you. But that’s I really do it because I care. Like the breast cancer thing it’s a crazy story. I was sitting on the couch with Chad, which is already like weird. Because we’re always [00:24:00] like exhausted by the, at the end of the day, it’s if we have time to sit on the couch together it’s a really great day.
Yeah. But we’re sitting on the couch together and I had my hand in my armpit. I know that’s weird. Okay. But I did, and I’m like, I have a little like ball in my armpit and I made him come over and touch it. you’ll get there soon. if you have a partner,
Megan: on my foot.
Toni: weird, you’re not going through that alone. You’re bringing them with you. Come look at this weird thing and share in the weirdness with me. Yeah, that’s exactly right. That is marriage. And so, his response was not that weird. He didn’t really think much of it and so anyway, it didn’t go away.
But this was in November, and so the holidays had come and gone. It wasn’t until January that I had my check in with my primary care physician, and then I made him look at my weird ball in my armpit too, and he’s did you change deodorant? He’s thinking I had a clogged follicle or something.
And I’m like, no. It was very [00:25:00] superficial. It was not like deep, and I’m not going to show you. The area that was affected is closer to my bicep than it is to my rib cage. So, there was no reason to suspect that it even initially would have been breast tissue.
Interesting. He advised for me to use a warm compress to break it apart and see if that would help, and did some blood work just to make sure that there was nothing that popped on that. I honestly don’t even have time to sit with my husband on the couch, so I did not think I was going to have time to walk around with a warm compress underneath my arm for 20 minutes a day.
That’s completely honest. I was also thinking to myself, it’s not going away in the shower, which is warm. I don’t know if that science is right, but it’s the science I was operating off. So, I went to go see my dermatologist a couple months later. I said, I have this weird, it was superficial enough that it.
May have been something she was thinking was associated with my [00:26:00] skin. Otherwise, she never would have agreed, to take it, mess with it. But because it was superficial enough, she agreed to remove it since it wasn’t going away on its own. And it was bothering me. And anytime they take something out, they send it away just to be sure.
And a couple weeks later she called me, and we were both shocked and horrified to learn that it came back as. Breast cancer, and then I went and saw what feels like every doctor in Huntsville. But I will say that’s not true. I called a friend that I know through the kids’ school. And I didn’t know.
her very well and I had only heard her say maybe once or twice before she had to call someone that day and let them know they had found breast cancer and that it was her job to schedule appointments for them and take care of that and. I don’t have anybody in my family on either side that has ever had cancer of any kind.
So, I know for some people when they hear something like that, it [00:27:00] can be emotional, it can be a, you are that person, or oh, you do that thing. But for me it was very. In one ear out the other. So why I thought to pick up the phone and call her, but it was literally 10 minutes after I had heard, I called her and I’m like, hey, I’m freaking out right now.
I don’t even know what your job is, but can you help me? And she did. She got me in to see. For imaging that same day where she worked and then an MRI two days later. Wow. And it moved so quickly because of community. And because I knew the right person to call, I feel so privileged and grateful that I even had that thought in my brain, let alone
Had that person in my network to be able to reach to. Absolutely. Yeah. But in Huntsville, I think that’s more common because of the kind of community that we’re in. I’m so grateful for that. And that was in March. And we’re talking right now in the last week of April. So, I’ve gotten surgery. I’ve had a [00:28:00] lumpectomy with a sentinel node biopsy.
Praise God. All the cancer has been removed from my body. So, we’re talking right now. I do not have cancer. Everything that happens next will be treatment and preventative care.
Megan: How has this changed your outlook on things, if at all?
Toni: I’m glad you asked that question. The one thing that has been cemented in me that, look, when somebody tells you have cancer, you go to all the places that, that anyone would go to, right? Am I dying? What if I die? I have three small kids.
How bad is it? What if they find it someplace else? What if they’re wrong? All the places you can think of. And I can just say it was a shorter amount of time that I needed to get the answers that I have and that I needed.
Secure and happy I am in what I have. Like I didn’t have, and it’s not to say that if someone else has these thoughts or would have these thoughts, they’re wrong. But I wasn’t thinking to myself any remorse [00:29:00] of, I wish I would’ve traveled more. It was like.
I want to make sure that not five minutes are taken from me being with these babies. Being where I’m at right now in this physical house in Alabama, of all the places, I never thought that I would grow up and call home. I don’t want anything to change. I love my life so much.
Megan: Yeah.
Toni: And what a blessing to have that it made it scarier to think that any of it could be taken away sooner.
But it has been something that. Has reinforced for me just how lucky I am to feel the way I do about the life I have.
Megan: That’s amazing. And there’s a reason why people look to you as inspiration and influence because of that right there. So, I think that is a perfect note to end on.
So, I appreciate you so much and all that you do for our community, and you’ve got a team of cheerleaders just rallying behind you, you know that. But I love how you look at community being a source of peace for you during this time of need. When you’re going through such personal [00:30:00] things, you can tell what an important part that is of your life, just in general terms,
Which is just beautiful to see. So
Toni: there is someone who reached out to me that I knew while I was in college that I don’t talk too often, he was offering support and letting me know that he was thinking of me and praying for me. it had been years since I’d heard from him, but he reached out.
cause I had shared on Facebook what I was going through I said, I just want you to know that it really does mean so much to me. I feel so supported and cared for. And he said that’s the beautiful part of going through the hard thing.
Megan: Thank you, Toni. Thank you so much for sharing your story and for spending some time with us today. This was a beautiful glimpse at just to behind-the-scenes peek at who you are for those that don’t know. So, we appreciate you and we’ll see you next time.