Click here for Part I, Part II, Part III & Part IV

Helping entrepreneurs, executives, and organizations grow their businesses by transforming their workplaces from within

Joe Mechlinski is the CEO and co-founder of entreQuest, a business consulting firm based in Baltimore. Since 2001, eQ has driven growth for entrepreneurs and organizations of all sizes, industries, and economic environments. Joe is also the Founder of SHIFT – a localized membership group for entrepreneurs and executives – and the author of Grow Regardless, a New York Times, USA Today, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.com best selling book about organizational change. He has served on the boards of Betamore, Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Chesapeake, Conscious Venture Labs, and others. Joe and eQ have won numerous recognitions and honors, including Baltimore Business Journal’s “Best Places to Work” (for five consecutive years) and The Daily Record’s “Successful by 40” and “Most Admired CEOs” lists.

Q. You grew up in Baltimore. What are your thoughts on the current social and business climate here?

JOE MECHLINSKI: The number one thing Baltimore has to do is build trust in the community with each other. The community is defined by the local government, the police, Baltimore city residents, businesses, kids who are in school—and I think the way in which you build that trust is there has to be opportunities for us to understand what’s it like to walk a day in each other's shoes. The perspective right now is that you’re sitting on the other side of the table, and you’ll never know what it is like to be me. It’s almost like looking at… When I saw my wife, and she was pregnant with our second, and I looked at her and I said, “I understand exactly what you are going through right now.” Because it was our second, and in my mind, I did understand. And anyone listening to this knows that that’s complete BS. I have no idea what it is like to be pregnant—I’m a dude! And so I am also from Baltimore city, and unless you have gone to Patterson High School, you could never imagine what it’s like being there. You can try to imagine, and you can appreciate, but we don’t know what the residents of West Baltimore are going through. We can only imagine, we can only appreciate. I think Baltimore heals itself by us taking a deep breath, us grabbing each other's hands, us literally walking the streets together, us finding ways to try to get an appreciation for what each of us brings to the table, and us building trust in this community in a way that starts with the heart. I know that sounds like an afterschool special, and that’s going to take, you know, sort of a grassroots approach, but I think that's where we need to be to, what Baltimore needs really, is talent. We need to attract and retain top talent to this city like an organization would. That means when people go to college here that we shouldn’t let them leave. We should keep them here. We should find ways to look at, you know, helping to support businesses that allow us to get people from outside this city. Baltimore has got such a unique advantage. We’re less than an hour from D.C., less than two hours in a train to New York City. We’re on the East Coast. We’ve got the port. We’ve got industry. We’ve got crazy research institutions. We’ve got great universities. We’ve got this amazing Inner Harbor. We’ve got the Ravens—yes, we’ve got the Orioles—but there are so many assets here that are completely underutilized, because we’re also a city of 627,000 people. That used to be over a million, and so we’ve got to build that back up, and I think once we do, with that trust peace, with attracting top talent, we will in fact grow regardless.

Q. What do you think we should focus on, moving forward?

A. If the newly elected mayor asked me to head up economic development, the first thing I would do would be to let Under Armour do whatever they want. I think we are really fortunate to have companies like them, and Pandora Jewelry, and others that have decided to put their headquarters in this city. And I think, being pretty serious about it, we need to support them because the more headquarters that come here, the better it will be for the rest of us. When you look at downtown there are still too many vacant buildings. There are still not enough people that have found their way here from a business point of view. We’ve just got to tell the story of Baltimore, which is one of this blue-collar city that just finds a way to do it. The country's national anthem was written here. We’ve got this rich history and tradition of being a city sitting on the Mason-Dixon Line. We’ve got great sports stories. We’ve got great business stories. We’ve got really good people here, and so we’ve got to find a way to rise up above—yes, some of the challenges, we’ve got to acknowledge them, we’ve got to sincerely apologize for them, and we’ve got to make amends—but we also have to move forward.

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ABOUT OFFIT KURMAN

Offit Kurman is one of the fastest-growing, full-service law firms in the Mid-Atlantic region. With over 120 attorneys offering a comprehensive range of services in virtually every legal category, the firm is well positioned to meet the needs of dynamic businesses and the people who own and operate them. Our eight offices serve individual and corporate clients in the Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and Northern Virginia markets, as well as the Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City metropolitan areas. At Offit Kurman, we are our clients’ most trusted legal advisors, professionals who help maximize and protect business value and personal wealth. In every interaction, we consistently maintain our clients’ confidence by remaining focused on furthering their objectives and achieving their goals in an efficient manner. Trust, knowledge, confidence—in a partner, that’s perfect.

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